Preppy Girl Meets World

This Time Tomorrow

2012-01-24T09:09:00.001-08:00

I will be here with a pink drink in my hand:

I have been eagerly counting down and the day has finally come!

We have to leave to drive to the airport in 8 hours which gives us enough time to nap, do one last load of laundry, and throw in last minute items into my already overweight suitcase. (Overpack is my middle name.)

I don't have any scheduled posts or guest bloggers, so there will be a short hiatus here. I promise to be back with pictures (from a real camera!).

For now I say, au revoir.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Travel Essentials

2012-01-21T18:36:00.000-08:00

Being that I travel a lot, I have certain must-travel items that make traveling a lot easier and better.

1) Snuggie

mine is pink, obviously

Don't laugh y'all. This thing is incredible for international flights. It is a lot bigger, softer, warmer, and more comfortable than those tiny blankets you get on the airlines. If you get one at all. When I put mine on in JFK, people on my flight looked at me like I was deranged. Then once we boarded our flight and they tried to maneuver their tiny blankets, they were all looking at me with jealousy in their eyes.

To any of my military readers- if you ever fly Space A, bring a Snuggie with you. Unless you're flying on a rotator, the plane is guaranteed to be incredibly hot at one seat, and freezing cold two rows down. And you don't get your own blanket. Layers and planning ahead are crucial here.

2) Bath & Body Works PocketBac

My MIL sends me these periodically and I love them. I have one in every single purse. Perfect for travel because they are tiny and don't take up much in your plastic bag.

3) CamelBak Groove Water Bottle

I saw this on base and decided to get one to try it out. This is pretty ingenious because it comes with a built-in filter so instead of just having to constantly buy bottles on the road, you can carry the one and fill it up whereever. It is great for going through airport security because you can empty it out before you go through and then fill it up in the bathroom. We each have one (mine is pink again, the husband's- not so much) and they have saved us so much money when we fly. Because it has a bite valve, you can drink from it laying down, and this was a huge help for me when I was post-op and could not move for 25 hours. Drinking from that was a lot easier than drinking through a cup!

4) Colgate Wisps

Amazing. I first received some in a goodie bag from a Shecky's Girls' Night Out, and I instantly fell in love. These little things are single use mini brushes on one end and a toothpick on the other. The toothbrush end has a little bead of toothpaste on it. Again, these don't have to go in your ziploc bag, and are great for red-eye flights so you don't have to get off the plane with morning breath.

5) solid perfume

A product I am a huge fan of for several reasons. 1) It's compact, 2) it doesn't need to be put in your ziploc bag in your carryon (notice a theme here?) which makes it great for those trips when you want to avoid paying checked bag fees by just bringing your carryon. The other reason why I'm such a fan of solid perfume is because it's usually a lot cheaper than its liquid counterpart, thereby making it not a big investment in your beauty arsenal.

Mine is Green Tea from L'Occitane. A lovely, light, clean scent. I can't get enough of it.

6) iPad

Love mine. It can do almost anything except display any sites that require Flash. (Darn licensing agreements.) Before we travel anywhere, we like to fill ours up (geeky family- we each have one) with games, and tv shows/movies for the road. The facetime and iMessage features are a huge plus when you live in a different country than the rest of your family. I have the 16GB white iPad2 with this cover from Missoni for Target fiasco:

After getting the iPad, I now usually don't bring my netbook with me any more when I travel.

7) Kindle

The one thing I don't like doing on my iPad is reading. It's too heavy to hold up with one hand and the screen was just not designed for heavy readers.

To be perfectly honest, I used to be incredibly anti e-reader. To me, there is a certain thrill of opening a new book, sniffing it, and yes, ::gasp:: sometimes dog-earing the pages. But if you are a fast reader, like I am, and can read more than a book on a single flight, carrying several paperbacks in your carry-on is not exactly practical. Or easy to do. Right before I went into the hospital for surgery, I made a list on Amazon of the books I wanted to bring with me to read. My husband saw the list, realized he'd have to carry all of them there, and then back home, and promptly went out and bought me a Kindle. I have not regretted it for a day since.

I will leave y'all with a funny story. When I checked in to the hospital, I brought a lot of stuff with me to entertain myself while I would be in there. My iPad for games and videos, my kindle for reading, my iPhone for you know, phone stuff, my portable DVD player to watch Royal Pains on, and my netbook for blogging and just in case any of the other should fail me. And then my husband had his own iPad and his own iPhone. (Have I mentioned we're a geeky family?) All of these things cost significantly more money in Germany than they do in the United States and the nurses could not get over how many electronics we managed to bring with us for a 5 day stay. They thought we were loaded or something.

Anyhoo- those are my travel essentials. What are some of yours?

Not a Fan

2012-01-19T13:11:00.000-08:00

I love Lilly Pulitzer. I mean I really really love Lilly Pulitzer. Most things they do, I love. I say most, not all. There were a few things that left me scratching my head. (Not to mention the fact that Alpha Sigma Alpha doesn't have a print. Not that I'm bitter or anything.)

I saw this makeup bag on their site the other day, and it was one of those things that just made me go "huh?"

I realize many will disagree with me here, but I have to come right out and say I am not a fan.

To me it looks like something I drew myself in elementary school.

Call for Book Suggestions (and giveaway winner announced)

2012-01-18T17:48:00.000-08:00

In exactly 6 days (but who's counting) TLS and I will be driving to the airport to go on our honeymoon! Even though I usually pack at the last possible second (procrastination is my middle name), I started packing for this trip weeks ago. What? It's not like I'm going to need a swimsuit. In January. In Germany.

I should probably go charge that iPhone.

With the exception of things that go in at the last minute- this is actually quite a lengthy list- hair straightener, makeup, meds, ipad, ipad charger, kindle, kindle charger, camera, camera charger, iphone, iphone charger (anyone notice a theme here?), I am pretty much done packing.

This brings me to my next point. I need books. Lots of them. For the 4-5 hour flight each way and to read by the pool while I have a pink drink in one hand and a sangria in the other (no judgements please). I am looking for something light and fun. Chick lit at it's finest. I'm not exactly looking to read War and Peace by the pool, ya know? So my question is the age old read any good books lately? No seriously. Does anyone have any good book recommendations for me? I've already read all of the Shopaholic books and all of the "Something Borrowed" ones, so those are out.

On an unrelated note, I realized I am a few days late in posting the winner of my UPrinting giveaway. So sorry about that. Congratulations to Kimmie Schiffel. Contact me and I will put you in touch with UPrinting to design your stickers.

Tag I'm It! (And so are you!)

2012-01-16T16:36:00.000-08:00

Wendy tagged me in this fun thing.

The Rules:
1) You must post the rules. done
2) Post eleven fun facts about yourself on the blog post. not sure I'm fun enough to warrant eleven facts, but I'll try
3) Answer the questions the tagger set for you in their post, and then create eleven new questions to ask the people you've tagged.
4) Tag eleven people and link them on your post.
5) Let them know you've tagged them.

Here are 11 fun facts about me.
1) I can not stand profanity. If you are in our car, and you curse, I will yell at you.
2) Despite the fact that I have a fear of just about everything under the sun, I have never been scared of flying. It exhilarates me. I love takeoff and landing. To me, that is one of the greatest feelings in the world. Sometimes, when I fly, I will try to book connecting flights just to get to takeoff an extra time.
3) I can't stand mushrooms. They are my biggest fear. I always tell people that I'm allergic to them, but I'm really not.
4) I did not start walking or talking until I was three. I hated baby talk as a baby even more than I do now (I thought it was really insulting to my intelligence) so I just refused to talk until I had built up a big enough vocabulary where I could start straight with complete sentences.
5) I can never remember to take my blood pressure medication, but remember to put on moisturizer two times a day without fail.
6) Growing up, I was blessed with flawless skin. I never got pimples, and if I did, they would go away on their own in less than 30 minutes. I was blessed. My freshman year of college, I got a pimple of the side of my chin during finals week. No big deal, I thought. It didn't go away. By dinner time, it was still there. The next morning, it was still there and had only gotten bigger. All of my friends didn't understand why I was making such a huge deal about one pimple, but I just did not know how to deal with them. I called my mother hysterically crying. Any normal mother would have told me to suck it up and get back to studying. My mother however, works in a hospital and has administrators of just about every single department owing her favors. (More about that in the questions section below.) She told me to take the train down to NYC, and called in a favor from a friend in dermatology. I ended up getting an emergency same-day appointment with the Chief of dermatology. The poor woman was so confused when she looked at her charts and saw that her next appointment was an emergency VIP and then walked in to find me. She asked why I was there and I said (more like hysterically cried, actually) "I have a pimple!" Cue more confusion
7) Living overseas, I really miss commercials.
8) I don't know how to drive.
9) I am the least crafty/creative person I know. The words "oh you can just DIY it" instill fear into me. Coming from me, the words "I made it myself" are never a good thing. My mother's philosophy on life seems to be why do something when you can pay someone to do it for you? and that has definitely rubbed off on me to an extent.
10) I can't iron. I've tried, and somehow, clothes always end up looking worse than they did before I started ironing them. When I lived in New York, I used to send my wrinkled clothes out to the dry cleaners so that they would come back looking all nice (I'm not totally proud of this fact). Once, before a date, I frantically ran to a clothing store near my house and begged the employees to steam out my dress for me. Thankfully, the hot guys working there thought this was funny and did it for me. I always said I was going to learn eventually, then I married a man in the military and thankfully, Uncle Sam considers ironing an important life skill to have. All ironing duties have since been delegated out to him.
11) I hate beer and I keep kosher (style). I totally live in the right country for that one.

Now to answer Wendy's questions:
1) What was your favorite first date?
Pub trivia with a huge crush of mine. Going into the date, I knew we were different enough that there wouldn't be a second date (there wasn't), but I was 1) shocked that he even knew I existed and I love trivia so it was fun to just relax and drink beers and talk without the awkward first date 20 questions routine.
2) If you could have dinner with any famous/historical figure (past or present) who would it be?

Masaharu Morimoto. I would love for him to cook for me and teach me some skills!

3) What is your favorite book and why?
The 101 Most Influential People who Never Lived. I am a chronic list-maker and I love things that are in list format, so this appealed to me. I love the authors' funny sarcastic writing style, and overall, I think it's a great book.
4) What kind of car do you drive?
A black VW Golf (us and every other person living in Germany) named Valerie Volkswagen. Val, for short.
5) What was your first job?
I worked at the systems support center at a hospital in NY. I only got this job because the administrator of the department owed my mother several favors and she decided to cash in on one of them. Along with the glorious job of filing and photocopying, my duty was to change the system-wide password every month. This was the system that every single department in the hospital used to bill their patients. Being 15 years old, I had fun with is. It was always amusing whenever people would call my boss to confirm and she would say that yes, that month's password is "I<3L@nceB@ss". Not bad for $10/hour.
6) What was your major in college?
International Business and Marketing
7) Do you have a favorite style icon, if so, who is it?
Not really.
8) What cosmetic can you not live without?
Perfekt Skin Perfection Gel- it's so light and makes your skin instantly look smoother and airbrushed without globbing on a whole lot of makeup
9) Who is your favorite designer?
Lilly Pulitzer and Diane von Furstenberg
10) Coke or Pepsi
Coke all the way. One of my big restaurant pet peeves is when I order Coke and the waiter brings out Pepsi.
11) How have you cultivated followers for your blog?
I honestly have no clue. I remember the day my blog hit 5 followers, and I didn't actually know one of them, it was like the greatest thing ever. I think that being on other bloggers' blogrolls helps.

Now to ask Eleven questions:
1) What one item of clothing do you have that you absolutely refuse to throw out?
2) What was the greatest gift that anyone ever gave you?
3) Who was your first celebrity crush?
4) What was your worst date ever?
5) What is your one food guilty pleasure?
6) Do you drink? What is your alcoholic drink of choice?
7) What was your favorite vacation?
8) What is one thing that people like that you just don't get the appeal of?
9) What is your favorite tv show?
10) Do you sleep with a stuffed animal?
11) Are there any foods that you won't eat?

Now to tag eleven people:
1) Gracie Beth
2) Little Miss Can't be Wrong
3) Queen of LA
4) Nautical by Nature
5) Beach Bum and Baby
6) Newly Mrs. Cravinho
7) Cole
8) Mrs. Jones
9) OKLauren
10) Pink and Navy Oxford Stripes
11) Kimmie

On Weekends

2012-01-13T09:12:00.000-08:00

I am not a morning person. My mantra in life is "5 more minutes." I can sleep for 14 hours straight (hypothetically, that is), and still be grumpy when my alarm clock wakes up. Growing up was slightly awful in this regard because my parents are chipper morning people. Vacations with my parents were a nightmare. My father would wake me up at o'dark thirty to go get to the beach before anyone else could. This led to arguments. Every. Single. Morning. Non-vacations weren't much better. I wanted to sleep in as late as humanly possible, and my parents wanted me out of bed like 10 minutes ago. Cure more arguing here. For the record, I was never into Saturday morning cartoons. I liked them fine and all, except for that one slight problem of they came on in the morning.

I had a friend whose whole family were late risers. It was rare to make plans with her for a weekend before like 3:30pm. I thought she was the luckiest girl in the world. I swore up and down on my life that when I got older, I would grow up to be just like her. Truth is, she still hasn't changed. She will not get up before noon, 2:00 if she can't help it. I'm still envious. I still believe in 5 more minutes. And my father still likes to get up at 6:30am. When he does not need to be at work until 4:00pm. (My family puts the fun in dysfunction. For this and so many other reasons.)

Remember when weekends were about fun? About going to the park, and shopping, and to the movies with friends, and to the constant stream of birthday parties? (Ok, maybe they weren't that great for our parents. At least when she was at work, my mother didn't have to worry about an 8 year old asking for a pet penguin every 5 minutes.) I miss those days. Lately, it seems like weekends are more stressful than some weekdays. Today, I was talking with some friend about meeting up with her tomorrow to hand some paperwork over to her. I apologized that we'd be on base early and asked if it was ok with her if I met her before 1:30. She thought I was crazy and told me that they have kids. They're always up and dressed by 8:00am on Saturdays. I thought to myself "poor A" and chalked this up to just one more reason for why TLS and I will not have kids- so we can actually enjoy our weekends for fun.

Then I thought about our weekend plans:
*drop off paperwork with A
*do laundry
*mop kitchen floor
*drop off dry cleaning
*run/empty the dishwasher (times 3- German dishwashers are tiny!)
*check mail before the post office closes at 1:00
*buy birthday gift for a friend
*figure out what's for dinner
*buy ingredients for dinner
*cook dinner
*clean the kitchen after cooking dinner
*head to Ikea
*assemble insertnameofflatpackedobjecthere

About that.

At least we can have wine while doing all that, especially assembling the random flat packed furniture that is bound to follow us home.

On second thought, add "buy wine" to my to-do list.

Non-Buyer's Remorse

2012-01-13T05:48:00.000-08:00

Do you ever have a case of non-buyer's remorse? You know, you see something you like, you want it, decide to think about it, and then when you do decide you want it, it is no longer to be found and you're kicking yourself for not getting it when you had the chance to? Yup, me too.

A couple of years ago (I think it was in 2009), I tried on this super adorable dress at the Lilly Pulitzer store. It was not a shift dress, but it still had straps, not a jersey dress, but had a hint of stretch to it, a small pleated ruffle at the bottom, and the print was white with pink flowers. The stems from the flowers spelled out Lilly. Seriously, I loved that dress. Loved I tell you. It looked great on me. Stupidly I put it down in favor of buying some nondescript top. I top I later returned because it sat in my closet unworn for like 4 months and at that point, I no longer needed it. Of course, by this point, the dress was no longer available.

Lately, I find myself thinking about that dress and print a lot (insomnia gives you a lot of time to think). I must have it. Of course, it does not help that I don't know the name of the pattern, or the style of the dress. The best I can come up with is that it's one of the prints in the Patchtastic pattern.

image taken from here

The one in the dead center of this pillow to be exact.

Please somehow help me identify it. Also, if anyone has this dress in anything larger than a size 8 (or anything else in this pattern) and is willing to part with it, please please please let me know!

Also, side note, you can still vote for Alpha Sigma Alpha in the Lilly Pulitzer sorority print contest. (Shameless plug, I had to.)

If You Give a Girl a Camera

2012-01-12T06:00:00.000-08:00

I don't know if anyone remembers, but 1.5 years ago, right when I first moved to Germany (holy heck, have I really lived here that long?) I needed a new camera for all of my travels, so my parents bought me a cute pink thing for my birthday. It's great, I take it with me everywhere and use it all the time. (Although I do have to confess that lately since getting the iPhone, I find myself using the camera on that more than my actual camera. Anyone else do this?) The problem is that I get incredibly lazy, then I lose my camera cord, then I find it, then I get lazy again, then I find it again, lather, rinse repeat. I am horrible about actually uploading the pictures I take. I still have pictures on my camera that are over a year old. Every time we travel someplace, TLS always says "oh you should blog this" (anyone else's significant other do this?) and I take a picture with the full intention of doing just that, but then it never happens.

While I don't normally believe in New Year's Resolutions (they're way too arbitrary for me- if you see something in your life that you want to change, why wait until January 1st to do it?), this year I had a huge scare! After not being able to find my camera in any of my purses, I got terrified that I left it in the States or somewhere else where I wouldn't get it back. I eventually did find it (thank goodness!) but the thought of losing 1.5 years of memories scared me. Since this happened in mid-December, I did make the resolution to upload all of my pictures to my computer and actually blog the things that I said I would. Expect to see pictures from Stuttgart, Zurich, some wine festivals, and some random photo dump posts.

Once I find my camera cord that is.

Preppy Sorority Girl Favor Needed

2012-01-09T12:15:00.000-08:00

First of all- notice anything different? A huge thank you to Kimmie for redoing my blog for me!

Second of all- I'm sure by now you've heard that Lilly Pulitzer every season or so has started making prints for several sororities. So far, the lucky sororities have been Kappa Delta, Delta Delta Delta, Delta Zeta, Delta Gamma, Alpha Delta Pi, Alpha Phi, Kappa Alpha Theta, Kappa Kappa Gamma, and Chi Omega.

Today, voting was opened up to determine which three sororities will next get Lilly prints of their own. The 3 sororities with the most votes will get them.

If you are an Alpha Sigma Alpha, please be sure to like Lilly Pulitzer on facebook then go here to vote for ASA.

You do not have to be an ASA to vote, so anyone, parents, husbands, boyfriends, roommates, etc. can vote. (My mother and husband have already voted.)

Also, if you are reading this and are not Greek, or if your sorority already has a print, could you pretty pretty please vote for ASA?

Let's make this happen!

She Went to Paris

2012-01-08T16:41:00.000-08:00

Looking for answers.

If you've been reading this blog or follow me on twitter for a while, then you know that I have insomnia. That's no secret. I do most of my shopping at night. Lately, I have been getting depressed about my husband's upcoming deployment. I have been trying to keep myself together by planning trips while he's gone so I can focus on the good. On a whim, I decided to go to the Air France website and see what it would cost me to fly to Paris for 2 days. Less than I thought. $115. I am now trying to talk myself out of booking the ticket on the spot and wait until I know more. It's not easy. My mother once booked a two week trip to Hungary and the Czech Republic because she saw a good deal on plane tickets. She called it her impulse purchase. It runs in the family.

I am trying to be good and not book the ticket, but this was what I found to be so funny.

That's right. The actual ticket only costs $1. The rest of the ticket cost is taxes and fees.

ETA: I realized that the screenshot comes out tiny on the post and I can't figure out a way to change that. The picture says that the ticket costs $1 and has $113.60 in taxes and government surcharges on it.

It might be time to replay my favorite YouTube video.

Bonsoir folks.

January sponsors

2012-01-08T12:16:00.000-08:00

This year, I have decided to open my blog up to sponsors. I now present you with the first-ever MMS sponsors posts. Some sponsors do have giveaways or coupon codes for my readers.

1) Kimmie Schiffel, Scentsy Consultant
The lovely Kimmie of Full Circle Adventures has joined the ranks to become a Scentsy consultant.

That is her furbaby Gabby pictured above. Kimmie loves candles but needed a more pet-friendly alternative to them when Gabby's poor little tail kept catching on fire. Since Scentsy warmer systems are flameless, they are safe for pets (and children!).

Currently, for the month of January, you can buy several retired fragranced wax bars that are available during this month only. Look out for the Bring Back My Bar tab. Also, the warmer and scent of the month are 10% off. The January warmer had a big red bow on it and will be mine.

In addition, I am hosting a online catalog party with Kimmie. Any order purchased through the Preppy Girl Meets World party will automatically receive a bar of White Tea and Cactus, one of my favorite scents. You can also follow her on facebook for more promotions and giveaways.

2) My Memories

My Memories is a digital scrapbooking software. I recently did a review of their product here. It is great for making wedding albums, baby books, or gifts for others.

MyMemories is offering PGMW readers $10.00 of their purchase with code STMMMS9327.

3) Cole Creates

Cole Creates is an Etsy Shop run by blogger Cole of All the Small Stuff fame. Currently, her shop carries items that were hand knit by her. How cute is this adorable doggie sweater?

puppy not included with purchase- sadly

Currently, the shop only carries knit items, but she is in the process of expanding her wares to include t shirt gifts (perfect gifts for a college grad or your favorite sorority girl). Starting Monday, until the January, receive free shipping on any item in her shop with code freeship0112.

4) Sweet Tea Paperie
Sweet Tea Paperie is an amazing stationery and gift shop that carries so many fun items.

It really is hard to pick your favorite item from there, but I am partial to this gorgeous Chinoiserie Navy Square Tray from Boatman Geller.

Currently, Sweet Tea Paperie has a promotion on their adorable monogrammed 2012 planners:

Receive free shipping on all planner purchases with code PLANNER2012.

Also, from Monday, January 9th- Sunday, January 15th, all cutting boards will be on sale for 15% off with code CUTTINGBOARD.

I think these would make great bridal shower gifts!

5) Monogrammed Everything
As the name implies, this store is pretty much my idea of heaven! Monogrammed Everything has so many great items that would make great gifts for brides, babies, and everyone in between!
At just $10 each, these monogrammed onesies are a steal and would make a great bridal shower or new baby gift.

The monogrammed clogs are an incredibly popular item and with 18 clog colors, 20 thread colors, and the options to add a high heel or painted heel, the options are pretty much endless and you will be sure that your clogs will be unique!

6) Danielle Stage, Stella & Dot Consultant

Stella & Dot is a fun jewelry company. They have so many gorgeous pieces at great price points. I'm loving these Starfish earrings for $34

this Sofia pearl bib necklace for $118

and these Baby Flower post earrings for only $21.75

For the month of January, Danielle is offering Preppy Girl Meets World readers a special- receive a free pair of Soiree Studs in your choice of gold or hematite (a $24 value) with any purchase.

To receive this special, simply order anything from Danielle's site, and checkout. When you are asked if you are shopping with a trunk show, select Preppy Girl Meets World from the menu. After you check out, Danielle will email you and ask which pair of studs you would prefer.

If you are interested in being a blog sponsor for a future month or would like to know more about it, please email me at whaleflipflops {@} gmail{.}com for more information.

Friday 5- Etsy Love

2012-01-06T16:50:00.000-08:00

I have been spending a lot of time on Etsy lately. A lot. I have mainly been looking for home decor things and anything with a monogram on it. And I do mean anything.

Here are some of my recent favorites:
1) Monogrammed Lime Green Wafffle Weave Bag from KatieClaire

I was feeling sad because all I wanted for Hannukah were monograms and I didn't get a single monogrammed thing, so I decided to buy some for myself. I have been needing a new larger size makeup bag for traveling, and when I saw this, I knew I had to have it. I'm really hoping that it comes before I leave for the Canary Islands.
2) Navy Seersucker Clutch with Monogram from SouthernBeaus

No words. This is just perfect. I hope to make it mine for this summer.
3) Custom State & Location Chevron Print from RedRobe Designs

I seriously love chevron so I love this. You can put a little heart near a specific city/town, so I want two get two of those, one for NYC and one for Omaha and hang them up next to each other in pretty frames.
4) Vintage Telephone Booth in Coral Photo from Swede13

I would love to hang this up in my house when I start thinking about/missing England.
5) Turquoise Blue Ceramic Necklace on a Silver Chain from amaniworks

I actually bought this necklace today after seeing a voucher for the shop on Heartsy. I think it will look great with a navy sweater or top. (Lord knows I have enough of those.) My total cost was $15. If you haven't heard of Heartsy, it's similar to Groupon, but only for Etsy. Every day, they have deals for several shops and once in a while, they have auctions as well. I loved it because I have discovered so many new shops through it.

UPrinting Giveaway

2012-01-04T10:31:00.000-08:00

Recently, I was contacted by UPrinting to do a giveaway for them. I was intrigued because I know several bloggers have used UPrinting in the past and have enjoyed them.

UPrinting is generously offering one Preppy Girl Meets World 250 stickers (2x3.5" 70lb Label Matte, front only printing).

These are great if you own an Etsy shop or a small business and need more stickers for your packaging or promotional materials. It is also great if you are newly married and need new address labels with your new last name on them (totally not speaking from experience here or anything like that, folks), or if you want to replenish your supply of gift labels after the holidays. You can upload your own design, so the possibilities are pretty much endless.

This giveaway is open to U.S. residents ages 18 and over. You are not eligible to win this prize if you have won another giveaway from UPrinting in the past 6 months.

To enter:
1) Like the UPrinting Sticker Printing Page and then leave a comment saying how you would use these stickers if you won. This entry is mandatory.
2) Follow my blog publicly via GFC for a second entry.
3) Like Preppy Girl Meets World on Facebook for a third entry.

This giveaway will run until Saturday, January 14th, at midnight EST.

Disclaimer: This giveaway is sponsored by UPrinting, no monetary compensation was given and I will receive stickers for hosting.

My Memories Giveaway winner

2012-01-03T10:15:00.000-08:00

Thank you to all who entered the my memories giveaway. The winner is comment #3- kmb564.

Please email me and I will put you in touch with My Memories.

If you didn't win but would like a copy of the software, you can use code STMMMS93273 to get $10 off the digital scrapbooking software.

Stay tuned for another fun giveaway tomorrow!

Thank you to My Memories for sponsoring this giveaway.

Lilly Pulitzer Warehouse Sale

2012-01-03T09:55:00.000-08:00

I have to say, I was not a huge fan of this one. I was waiting and had my alarm all set, and then like every single other sale, there were website problems and it didn't go up as scheduled. Some people had better luck than I did, and by the time I got in, the things I had really been hoping for had all sold out. One shirt sold out as I was checking out. Boo.

In the end, I ended up getting just two items- the Wanda Top in White

and the Murfee in Show Me Some Skin.

Everything else just didn't interest me or was sold out in my size.

I've said this before, and I'll say it again- Murfees are one of my absolute favorite Lilly items, but they are one that I almost always refuse to pay full price for*. I just don't think they're worth the $118 price tag, IMO. So I only buy them at the sales. Loved this print and had to snap it up for $29.

I had a gift card to Lilly, so my total came out to just $9 out of pocket. That is a new record for me. Husband was impressed with my shopping and told me he'd let me make weekly Lilly purchases if I could keep them all under $10. About that dear...

What about you? Did you have any better luck at the sale?

ETA: I just noticed that Lilly Pulitzer will be on Rue La La on Thursday. If you didn't have luck at the sale, then I would try there as well.

*the notable exception would be if Lilly ever made an Alpha Sigma Alpha print Murfee. Get on that Lilly. Pretty please.

Things Never to Say to Me

2012-01-02T11:53:00.000-08:00

Living overseas, my tiny kitchen is the very bane of my existence. And I don't mean it's too small to eat in. I mean that both my husband and I physically can't stand in there at the same time. It really annoys me when American friends mention how small their kitchens are. When I bring up mine, they say "oh it can't really be that small." You wanna bet? I now present to you, the Kitchen at Chez MMS.

This is my whole kitchen if I stand directly in the doorway:

And this is all of the usable counter space in said kitchen:

For the record- when I lived in a studio, my counter space was a lot bigger

It gets to be really interesting on the days when I make four course meals in there. Usually the step stool in the top picture, coffee table, dining room table, and on occassion, couch are all covered in trivets and mixing/prep bowls.

So there you have it folks, my entire kitchen. So please, for the love of all things that are holy, unless your kitchen is actually located inside your linen closet, do not complain to me about how small it is.

Happy New Year

2011-12-31T08:39:00.000-08:00

I wanted to do a blog post to wrap up 2011, but it was overwhelming to me, both good and bad, and I just could not put it into words.

The Good:


I married my best friend

The Bad:

I had heart surgery

Don't I look so great post-op? At least I had good friends to keep me company!

The Tasty:

We found a new favorite sushi place

Here's wishing you and your loved ones a fun and happy New Year's Eve and all of the best in 2012.

On Airline Travel

2011-12-28T12:14:00.000-08:00

I will probably fly Space A (on a military aircraft) home this summer, but will need to get a commercial one-way ticket home for the way back. This morning, while I was waiting for my friend to pick me up, I decided to play around on the Delta website. I'm a Silver Medallion and get an extra checked bag, so I do prefer to fly SkyTeam when I can.

Someone please explain to me how a one way, economy class ticket for September from NYC to Frankfurt costs $2,210.80 while a round trip costs 620.02€ (roughly $802).

A Very Merry Christmas

2011-12-24T13:23:00.000-08:00

To all of my dear readers who celebrate it, wishing you, your families, your loved ones, and your pets a Very Merry Christmas. (An extra Christmas shoutout goes out to any and all Alpha Sigma Alphas reading this.)

Somehow, Christmas just isn't as exciting when you are a Jew, but while you all have your holiday traditions, I have mine. Every year, like clockwork, no matter what else, I simply must watch Love Actually on Christmas. Otherwise, it's just not Christmas without it. This year, TLS treated me to the Blu Ray version of it, and thankfully, it arrived just in the nick of time.

Like any good Jew, my other Christmas tradition is Chinese food. Last year, I was worried that no Chinese place would be open in Germany on Christmas so I bought a PF Changs frozen meal to make at home. Not the same. This year, I happily discovered that the sushi and Chinese buffet near our house is open all day on Christmas and made reservations for three for a very Jewish Christmas.

I look forward to reading all of your posts post-Christmas and seeing what Santa/magic elves/the tooth fairy/your parents/etc. brought you.

Listen to your Uncle Billy kids: Don't buy drugs. Become a pop star and they give you them for free!

My Memories Suite Giveaway

2011-12-22T14:15:00.000-08:00

Recently, I got contacted by My Memories to do a review of their scrapbooking suite. I have to be honest here and say that scrapbooking scares me a little. I once attempted to make a scrapbook for my BFF's 21st birthday. It got so expensive so quickly that I eventually just gave up. That whole experience has left me a little vary of scrapbooking in general, but I have been wanting to make TLS an album for before he deploys, so I figured it was worth a shot.

My initial impression of this was that it was SLOW. After 30 minutes, less than 25% of the software had downloaded to my computer. I posted this on facebook and someone responded with "welcome to Germany" so I guess it's more of a Kabel Deutschland thing than a software thing. Being the least patient person on the face of the planet, I wasn't thrilled.

When I downloaded it, I got to work. To create a new album, you are given the choice of making your own from scratch, or going with one of several premade layouts. Since I don't like things that are too cluttered and scrapbooky looking (you know the things that look like the entire contents of a Michael's threw up on them?) and since I am obviously the world's most creative person ever (insert eyeroll here), I decided to make my own.

Big mistake. I cannot for the life of me make a decision so it took me a solid hour to decide fonts, pictures, background pages, etc. The finished result?

That's it- two pictures,with navy borders, a monogram, and our wedding date. Simple but I kind of like it that way. (I did mention that I'm super creative right?)

For round 2, I decided to go with a premade layout instead. So much easier. The wonderful thing about the premade layouts is that the album size is already selected for you, so that's one less thing to try to figure out. This whole process was a lot easier and better for me. Here is a sample page from take 2.

I think it looks pretty awesome if I do say so myself and I am considering using My Memories to make a wedding album for ourselves since we don't yet have one. Apparently wedding albums get to you faster if your mother actually remembers to order them. Who knew?

If you are actually creative, unlike yours truly, you will be happy to know that My Memories offers additional digital scrapbooking kits in addition to what comes with the software.

Want one for yourself?

My Memories is generously offering a Preppy Girl Meets World reader one copy of the software.

To enter:
1) Please visit the My Memories website and post which digital scrapbooking kit is your favorite for one entry. This is mandatory.
2) Follow my blog through GFC for a second entry.
3) Follow myself (@whaleflipflops) and My Memories (@mymemoriessuite) on Twitter and post the giveaway link back at both of us for a third entry.
4) Post about this giveaway for a fourth entry.

This giveaway will run through midnight EST on January 2nd, and I will pick a winner when I wake up finally after my NYE merriment.

If you would like to purchase one for yourself or as a last-minute gift for someone, you can use code STMMMS93273 to receive $10 off your purchase.

Disclaimer: I was not compensated for this review. I received the product for free to try out. All opinions expressed are solely my own.

Trains, Trains, and Automobiles (picture heave post)

2011-12-21T17:19:00.000-08:00

Over the weekend, TLS and I finally got to make it to two Christmas markets. With his schedule this year, we were not able to go to as many as last year and wanted to get some in before the markets close on the 23rd.

TLS found a deal on the Deutsche Bahn website where you can buy a regional ticket for 20€ and up to 5 people can ride all trains/buses/trams in the region for 24 hours. On weekends, the deal is good all weekend long through 3am on Monday. (Interesting thing to note- the fare rules for the ticket say that you can have a dog with you on your ticket, but then the dog counts as one of your passengers.)

When we saw this, we decided to take full advantage and head to Heidelberg, about 1.5 hours from our house, for their Christmas markets. I purposely left my camera on our hallway table to make sure that I did not forget it. We were running late, and I forgot it. We first had lunch with a friend who was on base from England before heading to Heidelberg, so we did not get there until about 5:00pm. Because it was the last Saturday of the Advent, hours for the markets and most stores in town were extended through midnight. Heidelberg has 6 Christmas markets in town, and we walked in between all of them. It was roughly a 2 mile walk. I like to think I earned my gluhwein that day!

I will now present you with a few iPhone pictures from the day:

The first thing we did was get gluhwein to warm up. We kept the red mug.

a bratwurst vendor- the food wasn't good for the Jews but I loved the lights and the windmill

I loved seeing the the streets all decorated for Christmas and loved all of the shooting star lights that they had in the city.

This is a gluhwein vendor in the town square. The top of it is shaped to look like a wooden candle decoration that is traditional in Germany for the holidays. (Smoke from the candles makes the blades turn and spin. Very cool.)

I have got to remember to take my camera with me everywhere.

We ate dinner at a noodle place called Mosch Mosch. The interior was cute and had communal seating and kind of reminded me of Wagamama in England. I wish I could say that the food was good, I really do, but it just wasn't. It wasn't bad, but it definitely was not what we expected. Maybe after eating so many times at Wagamama in London and Republic in New York I had higher standards, but we both left sorely disappointed.

On our way back, we passed by a gummy bear shop that had a display made out of soccer-playing gummy bears which I thought was cute.

Proof that I really will take a picture of just about anything.

The next day, we took advantage of our tickets and took TLS's sweet coworker Marie to Mannheim for her first Christmas market with us. We love Mannheim and had so much fun at last year's market so we were excited to go back!

We snacked a lot from all of the different food stalls. I always have to get roasted chestnuts from the vendors and we got the most delicious creme fraiche, herb, and smoked salmon crepe. It did not live long enough to be photographed.

One of our absolute favorite vendors at the market was a spekuloos vendor. Spekuloos are Dutch cookies that are pretty similar to Biscoff cookies. They are delicious no matter what. This vendor was amazing because he had an oven and made the cookies fresh at his stall.

It was really fun watching him roll the dough into the shape frames and the cookies were delicious! We all bought a bag, and neither one lasted very long. At all.

Here are our purchases from the market:
a pearl ring from TLS- this was so gorgeous and a steal at only 6€!
2 ornaments
2 gluhwein mugs- we cheated because we liked the blue boot one so much that we asked to buy just the mug even though we were all gluhwein'd out
a small bottle of sour cherry liquer- they had samples of this at the stall. TLS thought it was the grossest thing in the world. Marie and I tried it and then reached for more samples. Then we wanted more. Then we just reached for our euros. Delicious. At least I don't have to worry about him drinking my alcohol!
giant lebkuchen heart- after swearing up and down that we were done eating and making any food-related purchases* we walked past a lebkuchen bakery stall that was offering samples of fresh lebkuchen. Not the packaged stuff that we normally buy at the supermarket. It was A.May.Zing. You could even taste the orange peel in it. I was just going to buy a small cookie, but TLS and Marie convinced me that it was a much better value to buy the big one. Oh darn.

To thank us for taking her to her first market, Marie bought us a chocolate train from one of the chocolate stalls. So sweet of her. :)

We ate dinner at Sushi Circle, one of our favorite chains in Germany. It is a conveyor belt sushi place. Delicious. We've eaten once at the Stuttgart location and several times at the Frankfurt one, and the Mannheim one is by far our favorite. The sushi chef gave us a free sample of a spicy shark roll to try. We were intrigued by it, but being that shark is not kosher, we made Marie take one for the team. She said it was chewy but not bad.

*at this point we may have had a bag of roasted chestnuts, 2 grande Starbucks drinks, 2 mugs of gluhwein, the aforementioned crepe, liquer samples, a bag of spekuloos cookies, half a brick oven flatbread with cheese and potato slices on top of it (delicious! by far our favorite food stall at the market). And, you know, a partidge in a pear tree.

Commissary Surprise

2011-12-20T14:07:00.000-08:00

Every year, as a way of saying thank you to our enlisted servicemembers and helping make the holidays a little brighter for them, our spouses' association here does an event called Commissary Surprise.

We have a line item in our budget set aside for this, and during the holiday season, at random, our executive board members will go to the commissary for an hour at a time and will let the cashiers know we're there. When an enlisted member or dependent, rank E5 or below comes to pay for his or her groceries, the cashiers wave us over. We come, introduce ourselves, and let them know that as a way of thanking them for their service, we want to pay for their groceries today.

Seeing the happy, shocked, and sometimes tearful looks in peoples' faces is SO rewarding and it just brightens up your whole day. Today, TLS and I went and did this at our commissary. In less than an hour, we were able to give back over $640! It was such a wonderful feeling. I loved hearing the stories from people of how we had made their day. One airman was sick and was out getting meds and soup, etc. before going back to his dorm to sleep it off and was having a bad day. Another was out shopping with his wife and child who just turned 1 and they had a cart full of baby food and diapers. Another couple was dual military. The husband had just gotten home from deployment and their cart totaled nearly $200 because the wife was cooking a big dinner to thank their neighbors of taking care of her while her husband was gone.

This was just such a mood brightener and exactly what I needed to start off the holiday season on a positive note after having had a rough couple days. I left the commissary feeling lighter than air and with a huge smile on my face!

An Open Letter

2011-12-18T17:25:00.000-08:00

Dear Glee,

Having finally watched the Christmas special today, I know I am a bit late on the bandwagon, but I have to say that I was a little annoyed at the special this year.

As a Member of the Tribe, I understand that we are one of the smallest religions out there. However, the show has several Jewish characters, two of which have thrown being Jewish into every single other episode. (Does anyone else remember Puck complaining that he couldn't get a kosher meal in juvie?) I was surprised last year when there was not a single mention of Hannukah. I thought for sure that Puck or Rachel would have raised a stink about having to sing only Christmas music. I was also a little surprised (and not in a good way) when Rachel Berry gave Finn a Christmas list. Shouldn't it at the very least have been a Hannukah list? I know at the very end of the episode, she did say "Happy Hannukah," but at that point it didn't belong. It's like- you've spent the whole episode talking about Christmas, why bring up Hannukah now with 5 seconds left in it?

Someone please tell me I'm not alone in feeling this way.

giveaway winner

2011-12-18T02:55:00.000-08:00

Congratulations to myfwbs. Please email me at whaleflipflops {@} gmail {.} com with your mailing address ASAP and Caryn will send out the prize to you.

Not Soap, Radio Review

2011-12-16T14:18:00.000-08:00

A little while ago, I got contacted by Not Soap, Radio to do a product review for their lip balm. I am a huge huge fan of Not Soap, Radio products, I even gave two of their products as gifts to my bridesmaids, so I was very excited about this! I am a huge lip product junkie, at any given moment in time, my purse is guaranteed to have at least 7 lip balms/glosses in it, so the fact that I was getting a new lip balm to try was a huge plus in my book.

Well, Not Soap, Radio surprised me by sending me TWO new lip balms to try out. Considering I had been having a not great time, getting their package in the mail seriously was the highlight of my day.

I was sent the Cocoa Nostra Confectionary Black and White Cookie Lip Balm

and the Happy Hannukah Greeting Card Lip Balm.

As a displaced New Yorker, I was in heaven over the Black & White Cookie Lip Balm. And as a Member of the Tribe, the Hannukah lip balm brought a huge smile to my face.

Here are the two lip balms side by side:

I don't know if you can see that, but the Hannukah one is in a plastic pot and is a bit taller. The Black & White Cookie one is in a metal tin.

Here is how they look in the pots. The Happy Hannukah one is on the left again, and the Black & White Cookie is on the right.

Happy Hannukah:
This one is chocolate gelt flavored (OMG, so good!) and tastes just like milk chocolate. It comes on very light and silky smooth. The scent is not overpowering, and over all this is a winner in my book.

Black and White Cookie:
This one has a much stronger scent than the Happy Hannukah lip balm. It is not overpowering but will definitely be too sweet for people who don't like sugary-flavored products. It also goes on smooth and shiny. If you like black and white cookies, you will love this lip balm.

To be honest, I have to say that I found the scent of the Black and White Cookie to be a bit too strong for me, and if this were a lip balm-off, the Happy Hannukah would win. I will gladly use this one every so often, but it is a bit too strong for me to become an everyday staple for me. The Happy Hannukah one is a whole other story. I love it to death, have used up more than I am proud to admit, and wish that I had one in every purse.

If you are new to Not Soap Radio, check out their website. They have a ton of awesome gift ideas for yourself or someone like you.

Yours truly is partial to the 8 Days of Luscious Lips Hannukah Set, $18

I would love to find this under my menorah- especially since that pouch would be perfect to take on flights

the Alpha Sigma Alpha Beauty palette, $5

If you are not Jewish or an Alpha Sigma Alpha, don't worry, they have plenty of products for you to fall in love with. If you check out the Not Soap, Radio facebook page, they have a 20% off coupon code posted on there now.

Disclaimer: I was not compensated for this review. I received the product for free to try out. All opinions expressed are solely my own.

Today I am Grateful For

2011-12-16T10:30:00.000-08:00

Our insanely amazing home phone plan.

It's wonderful knowing that I can spend 45+ minutes on the phone with my BFF in NYC, 30 with a sorority sister in NC, 15 minutes with Andrew Marc customer service (without much success), and entirely too long on the phone with my mother convincing her that no I did not drink too much at last night's holiday party (also very grateful that my mother doesn't have twitter and can't see my face) and know that our phone bill won't be more than like 10€ for the month.

Some days, this calling plan is a godsend. Today is definitely one of those days.

Scentsy give*away

2011-12-13T11:01:00.001-08:00

It's no secret that I love Scentsy. I love all of their scents, the fun warmers, and TLS likes the fact that I can't burn down the house with it. (Leave your hair straightener on and a candle burning all day long in the same day, and suddenly, you're marked for life.)

Just in time for the holidays, my friend Caryn, who is a Scentsy consultant, has generously offered up a giveaway to Preppy Girl Meets World readers. The lucky winner will receive this adorable red and white snowflake warmer


perfect to match your holiday decor

along with two bars. The scents of those will be a fun surprise.

Each warmer is hand-made and beautifully done. I recently got the menorah warmer and cannot wait to finally use it!

1) To enter this giveaway, please visit Caryn's page and leave a comment on this post with your favorite item on here. This will get you one entry. This step is mandatory.
2) Like The City Scents on facebook and leave a comment saying that you are on her page from Preppy Girl Meets World. This will earn you a second entry.
3) Follow my blog publicly through GFC for a third entry.
4) Put my button on your blog for a fourth entry.
5) Blog about this giveaway for a fifth entry.

This giveaway will end on December 17th, and the winner will have 48 hours to contact me before a new winner will be chosen.

Vineyard Vines Tervis- Beuller

2011-12-12T12:51:00.000-08:00

I fell in love with these adorable Tervis Tumblers on the Vineyard Vines site.

As soon as I saw the set, I knew I had to have the pink whale one. I don't want any of the other ones in the set. They don't do anything for me quite like the whale one does. He makes me happy.

I don't want to order the whole set of four. If anyone out there is ordering the set and doesn't mind parting with the whale one, please let me know. I will gladly pay you for it.

Chai Y'all

2011-12-07T13:19:00.000-08:00

About a year and a half ago, I discovered My Flip Flopz through the blogosphere. My apartment at the time needed some sprucing up, so I contacted her about making a sign for it.

This was the finished result:

a reference to one of my favorite Jimmy Buffett songs

When I moved to Germany, it got hung up on the wall of our office. The wall had two nails on it (from a hideous painting that came with the house), and I never for the life of me could figure out what to hang on the other nail.

Then one day, TLS told me how growing up, his Nana had a sign hanging in her house that said

y'all

He didn't know what happened to the sign but wished that he had it now.

A bit of a lesson here: that symbol is the Hebrew word for "life." It is considered to be a very lucky symbol in Judaism. It is pronounced Chai, but with an h sound, so the sign would sound like "hi y'all."

Anyhoo, I thought this was one of the awesomest things ever, and I knew we had to have one. I emailed Susie to see if she could make me another sign to hang next to my Fins Up one. I also linked her to the Wikipedia page for Chai. I was sure she was going to think that I had lost a few a marbles. Then this showed up in our mailbox:

Amazing.

We currently have the two signs hanging next to each other, but hope to move the Chai Y'all one next to our entryway.

Exfoliating Minerals Review

2011-12-04T19:50:00.000-08:00

A couple of weeks ago, I got contacted by Exfoliating Minerals to review their facial cleanser. I am a total beauty product junkie (I can just blink and suddenly I've spent at least $200 in Sephora like that!) so of course I jumped at the chance.

First things first- I have to be honest here- this stuff is not cheap. At all. At $48 for a 4 oz. tube, it is the most expensive face wash I have used. TLS, whose facial product of choice is "whatever's on special at the commissary this week," balked at the price. I had to assure him that I did no in fact pay for this. Twice.

Those of you who like to buy American will be happy to know that this product is made in the USA. Yay Exfoliating Minerals. Also, it is all-natural, eco-friendly, and Exfoliating Minerals does not test on Animals. This helps make the cost seem like a much better value.

With that said, I used the cleanser every day for two weeks, morning and night. I did not use any of my other face washes (that's right- plural- I told y'all I'm a junkie didn't I?) at this time, to truly test it out. I love scrubs for both my face and my body and was expecting something coarse and gritty. What I got was a clear, free-flowing gel in a tube. I was skeptical. No way in heck was this stuff going to work. But nevertheless, I made a commitment to give it a shot, so here went nothing.

What I noticed right away was that it smelled great. Kind of citrus-y with a mix of something I couldn't quite put my finger on. Later, while looking at their ingredient list, I noticed that it's made with lemons, limes, oranges, and grapefruits. Well that would do it. If nothing else, this would definitely be my best-smelling facial cleanser.

I half expected it to get gritty once I put it on my face. It didn't. Seriously, if you're looking for a grainy, coarse, scrub, look elsewhere. It felt completely smooth on my skin, and after just two days, I noticed a difference in how glowy my skin looked. I did notice a difference in some dry patches, so I guess it worked.

Final note- like I said before, the gel is very free-flowing, so when you first use it, be careful to only squirt out a tiny amount. A little bit here does go a long way.

In general, I fell in love with this cleanser and will definitely continue to use it in the future.

Disclaimer: I was not financially compensated for this review. I received a tube of this product to try and keep. All opinions expressed here are my own.

The one with the puffy vest

2011-12-03T06:26:00.000-08:00

Since Hannukah is just 17 days away, it's been time for me to make my wish list and send it of to my mother.

This season, my mother has been on a kick of buying me warm winter gear (flannel pajamas, new duvets, wool socks, etc.). It's just as well considering I pretty much live in an igloo.

What I really wanted for Hannukah was adorable Kate Spade hat.

it has a bow on it- how could I not?

Knowing that my mother is always on me to make sure I wear a hat, and that she cannot resist anything with the words Kate Spade on it (the apple doesn't fall all that far from the tree), I figured it was a pretty safe bet that I'd get it.

Just in case though, I decided to hedge my bets and put on it the other cold-weather item I really wanted, this Patagonia vest.

My mother hates vests. Hates them. Also, she hates anything white. (Technically, this color is called "Pearl," but close enough.) Plus it costs $150.00. I knew that there was no way in heck my mother would spend that on something that didn't have sleeves. The Kate Spade hat costs only $85- a lot for a hat, but about half the cost of the vest, so I figured including the vest on my list would make it look cheaper by comparison.

Last night, as Porky Pig was wildly flapping his arms outside my third story bedroom window, my husband came home with our mail for the day. In it was my Hannukah gift from my mother.

She got me the vest.

Go figure.

It is a lot thinner than I expect, and definitely very slim fitting, but it is a rather super-awesome vest. My usual rule with Hannukah gifts is that regardless of when you give them to me, I won't use or open them until Hannukah actually starts, but I had to break it with this vest. I want to get as much use out of it while I still can, before it gets too cold.

One of the vest's more awesome qualities is the fact that one of its pockets converts into a pouch, and you can take the entire thing, smush it up, and zip it into the pouch and then throw it into your Longchamp or wherever. Thereby avoiding snooty coat-check attendants, long lines, and leaving the house with all of your winter garb on only to discover that 35 minutes later, it's actually 65 degrees and sunny out. (What? Like this hasn't happened to you before?) Brilliant.

Husband and I decided to test this out last night so I rolled it up into the pouch. We then proceeded to spend a solid 20 minutes playing catch with the vest.*

I'm sure my mother would love knowing that she just paid $150+shipping for a volleyball.

*we don't have cable
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Cyber Monday Overload

2011-11-28T13:34:00.000-08:00

Is it just me or has Cyber Monday become an even bigger deal and even more hyped this years than previous years? It's no secret that I love to shop and love to get a great bargain (sale is my favorite four letter word) but it seems like this year, the promotion for it has gotten excessive. I have already gotten three emails from the same exact company about Cyber Monday. Enough already.

I have almost finished up my holiday shopping and wasn't planning on doing much shopping for myself. I saw a cute top I wanted at LOFT and I decided to wait and see if I still wanted it. I decided I did. When I went back to check out, the site was down for maintenance. Go figure.

Happy Thanksgiving

2011-11-23T13:20:00.000-08:00

Wishing you and all of your families and loved ones a very happy Thanksgiving.

TLS and I are headed to Manchester where will eat the very traditional Thanksgiving meal of Pot Pie and Tandoori Sea Bass. We have both been very homesick for England so we are very excited to go back!

I will be back on Sunday, but for now I leave you with this video which may or may not have been playing nonstop over at Casa S.

My favorite line is: "and then picked up the charge for using Visa which was drastic. 'Cuz how the feck are you supposed to pay if not with fecking plastic?"

Ryanair charged us 24€ in credit card fees when our tickets only cost 24€ for the two of us.

6 months ago

2011-11-21T22:00:00.000-08:00

On Starbucks

2011-11-21T09:17:00.001-08:00

On Saturday, husband and I took the train down to Mannheim to do some holiday shopping. There is a Starbucks in Mannheim so obviously I had to go there. Twice. The first time for a Lebkuchen Latte and the second time for a Cranberry White Mocha. It very much warmed my heart to see that Starbucks had red cups. :)

On my second trip in there, the crazy man in front of me paid for his 2,90€ drink in 0,01€ coins, which caused me much aggravation. Seriously. Who does that? I told my husband how annoyed I was, and he said that he was just impressed that the man managed to find a drink in Starbucks that only cost 2,90€.

I don't know what's worse- the fact that German Starbucks charge 4,60€ for a grande mocha, or the fact that I bought two of them.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

where I've been

2011-11-17T07:29:00.000-08:00

I have been one hot, emotional mess lately.

Those of you who follow me on twitter know by now that we found out last week that TLS will be deploying in March. We knew it could happen, but I was still hoping for the best. He will be missing both our birthdays and our anniversary.

I don't do well with change and have been really stressed out lately. If you remember from right before I moved here a year and a half ago (has it really been that long? geez!) that every single little thing, good or bad, made me cry. This time around, it hasn't been much different. I started crying, a lot, when TLS first told me. I stopped, but didn't feel any happier. The tiniest little thing would set me over the edge. I found a moth hole in the sleeve of my favorite Lilly Pulitzer sweater (pink with a navy elephant outline on the side) and I started crying over that. I started crying over not getting my new duvets in time. Over banging my toe and ruining my pedicure. Over running out of hot cocoa. And the list goes on and on and on.

I finally decided to ignore the world today, refuse to get out of bed, and have a pity party with Snoopy and Teddy. My face is all red puffy and I look like a hot mess. I'm sure I will feel better about this later on, but right now I feel emotionally drained. Several of you have sent me emails that I have not responded to. If you are one of them, please don't take it personally. Once I am feeling more like myself, I will respond to my messages. I promise.

All I Want for Hannukah Is

2011-11-13T13:41:00.000-08:00

Kate Spade Bow Ski Hat

The Preppy Ladybug Round Monogrammed Sterling Post Earrings

Blue Nile Pearl Ring

Elegant and very Yurman-esque for a much better price!

BaubleBar Monogrammed pendant in silver

Scout Crown Jewels in Angelina Ballerina

Monogrammed Marley Lilly Scarf

notice a theme here?

Happiness is Peanuts Snow Days

Pandora Bracelet and Charms

Monogrammed Tervis Tumbler

Oh baby!

2011-11-01T15:30:00.000-07:00

No, don't get excited. This post isn't a big announcement or anything.

I have a few friends who are about to become first time mommies. With that, I have spent plenty of time online oohing and aahing over onesies and debating which stroller is best.

every single one of my pregnant friends should expect to get this for Hannukah/Christmas/Winter Solstice

Here's the thing- the last person you should ever be turning to for parenting/baby advice is the girl who doesn't ever want to have a baby. As much as I love my friends- after a while it all starts to look the same. Also, I totally don't know which stroller/carseat is safest. I just know if things are pretty or not.

At the request of my friend Christina, I am turning to all of my mommy friends out there in cyberspace. What "stuff" do you recommend for babies? What helped you out the most as a new mommy? What can you absolutely not live without? While I am sure my friends appreciate seeing my recommendations for $300 baby dresses because they are just too cute for words, I'm sure they appreciate things that are slightly more budget friendly and realistic. Also- what strollers, car seats, etc. do you recommend?

Rabbit Rabbit

2011-11-01T07:53:00.000-07:00

Rabbit Rabbit!

Happy first of the month. Hoping these little bunnies bring you lots of luck. (It just would not be the 1st of the month without an obligatory rabbit pictures post.)

Things I am looking forward to this month:
1) Thanksgiving Day weekend in Manchester- 23 days until my feet are back on British soil. But who's counting? I may have already started packing in my excitement.

2) A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving

Halloween is over. It's time for me to start playing this on repeat.

3) Getting a new watch. I got my current Coach watch as a gift from my parents for my 18th birthday and have worn it almost every day since then. Unfortunately, 28 year old Masha does not have the same wrists as 18 year old Masha and it's time for a change. After lusting over a gorgeous Skagen watch with a Mother of Pearl dial on base, I found out that I'm getting a $100 AAFES gift card as a volunteer appreciation gift this week. It's enough to cover the cost of the watch. Yes please.

4) Holiday cards and shopping. I get dorky around the holidays. I have been searching far and wide for the perfect holiday cards. I love buying presents for my friends. There is a certain thrill that you get when you realize you've found the perfect gift for someone.

5) The start of Christmas markets in Germany. And Gluhwein. The only bearable thing about living in Germany in the dead of winter.

A few other random notes:
1) I am insanely jealous of all of you who get your red Starbucks cups starting today. +2 points to whomever sends me a few of those red cups so I can make coffee in my Keurig and pretend like I'm in Starbucks.
2) After a bunch of bloggers went searching far and wide without any luck whatsoever for my Pumpkin Spice Creamer, husband excitedly emailed me last night staying that they just got it in stock on base yesterday. Thank you to everyone who looked for me. And if you're on Ramstein, it's at the Northside Shoppette. You're welcome.
3) Last year, I got a lot of requests from friends for ornaments from Germany. This year, the shipping deadline for Christmas packages is December 9th. If you'd like an ornament this year, let me know ASAP so I have time to buy them and mail them out.
4) I posted this on Twitter and just in case I have better luck here, I'm posting this here too:

I'm helping to plan TLS's squadron's holiday party and am in charge of getting prizes/gifts. The budget isn't huge so I'm trying to get as many presents as I possibly can donated so that I can get a few of the bigger items. If any retailers read this blog and are willing to donate something, please email me.

randomness from my tiny kitchen

2011-10-30T20:07:00.000-07:00

It's no secret that I have insomnia. If you follow me on twitter, you've probably caught on to the fact that half the time, my tweets are in the 2:00-4:00am range my time. Our crazy new sleep schedule hasn't helped lately. So being the good wife that I am, I'm in the kitchen making my new favorite crock pot recipe for TLS to bring to work tomorrow. You ever have those things that you just want to say so someone else will know but they don't fit in anywhere?

Yea, well here are mine.

1) I have a lot of gripes with my kitchen. A lot. It's smaller than my bathroom. I'm the kind of girl that can easily spend 4+ hours in the kitchen without blinking, so the fact that I can't keep my pots, pans, stand mixer, crock pot, or heck, refrigerator in the kitchen is a huge problem. Well it gets better. There are exactly 5 outlets in my kitchen. A set of two on either side of the sink and stove, and a single one up on the wall by where I keep Fritz, my rooster. (More on him later.) The other day, when I was trying to use my stand mixer, I managed to blow a fuse. No problem. Plugged the transformer into another outlet. Blew that too. Emailed my husband in a panic because we did not have a spec of electricity in our house. He came from work to fix it. (We live 15-20 minutes from base.) As soon as he did, we tried to plug in the mixer again and ka-boom. No seriously, don't worry, Kitty is fine, but let's just say my husband had to take many a trip to the basement to get her to be that way. Since that fateful day, all of the outlets in my kitchen seem to be working again knockonwood but now we have a new problem.

The lights in my kitchen don't work.

Seriously.

Two days before, my husband had just put in all new lightbulbs, but just to be safe, I may have ~~suggested~~ insisted that he switch them out again. No dice.

Now my husband isn't exactly Handy Manny and can't do much more than flicking a switch in the fusebox (remember, I did have a man drive 35 minutes for this so I'm not exactly one to throw stones) and after looking up directions for how to fix our wiring or whatever (yea, not exactly a handy girl myself)- all of which were written for American wiring which we don't have, we realized that we will not get our lights back until we can get an electrician to come take a look at it. That's going to be a while. Germany just fell behind this weekend so it gets dark at like 4:00pm here. This is a huge problem. We went to the BX to buy a standing lamp to use as a temporary solution and of course, they were all sold out of every single one. And won't be in stock for a while. It's a Sunday so the German stores are closed. I've resorted to keeping my iphone set on its maximum brightness and using several strategically placed candles to help me cook. Just call me Laura Ingalls Wilder.

2) We went to the commissary to buy food so I could you know, cook it. (Novel concept, I know.) I needed about 6-8 cloves of garlic and 3 onions. I got to the garlic and onion section and as soon as I set one foot near it, all of these fruit flies just swarmed out of it. So gross. No way in heck was I going to buy that. It's a Sunday so the German stores are closed. Yay.

3) On the days that the German stores are open, they are generally open later than the commissary. Fun fact, just because it says "American Ginger Ale" on the label, does not mean it tastes anything like the Ginger Ale that Americans are used to.

4) Last year, our very own Muffy Martini posted a link to a delicious-sounding pumpkin fudge recipe on her blog. I knew I had to make it. I was at a friend's house having a very grown-up playdate consisting of baking cookies and fudge (her kitchen is so much bigger!) and I made about 3 batches of it. It came out fantastic. So so good. People couldn't get enough of the stuff. So I said I'd make more. I went home, got all the same ingredients and set out to make another batch.

Floppity flop flop, flop flop.

It was a disaster, the fudge just would not harden. I'm not sure if my friend's stove has a better heating element than mine does or if it's because she has stainless steel pans and I have nonstick at home or what, but it was a disaster. This had never happened to me so I was perplexed. Convinced I had omitted a single crucial fudge-making step, I decided to try again. Determined that this would be a good batch. I followed the directions to a t. And you know what?

Floppity flop flop, flop flop.

Seriously. I decided to chalk it up to bad luck and spend all year sulking about it in secret. This year, I decided to revisit the recipe. This morning I raced downstairs, eager to beat the clock so I could still cook while I had daylight outside my window (seriously, wasn't there an episode of Little House on the Prairie that went just like this?) and attempted to make fudge. I'm sure you can guess what happened next, but just in case.

Floppity flop flop, flop flop.

At this point, I will not be making this recipe again. At least not until I get a new stove and a stainless steel pot. In the epic battle of woman vs. dessert food- rounds 2 and 3 went to the fudge.

I'm just wondering if any of you tried making this recipe and had success (or failure) with it? I've made plenty of much more complicated recipes in my life so I just don't get it. I really don't.

The Search for the Great Pumpkin and giveaway

2011-10-24T08:55:00.000-07:00

I love pumpkins. A lot. I love everything about them. Mostly including eating them. This year, I have pretty much been on a "no pumpkin left behind" kick and have been making pumpkin stuff up the wazzoo. I'm pretty sure that if I do make any more pumpkin stuff, my husband will turn orange. I still have quite a lot of pumpkin stuff to make, so we're getting there.

Last year we found out about a pumpkin festival in Germany. Unfortunately, we found out about it after the festival had closed which meant I spent roughly 355 days sulking about it. This year I found out that there was a pumpkin festival right in our town (!!!) and kept on reminding my husband of that fact every half an hour. Of course in between plans we previously had and the fact that I wasn't walking for a while, it took us some time to actually get there. So we finally set aside yesterday to go to the park for the festival. The whole day.

Germans love their festivals and they are usually amazing so we were so excited! We got plenty of cash to try out pumpkin soup and pumpkin wine and went on our merry way.

What a disappointment.

The admission to the park for the two of us was 13€ and once we got in, we realized that all of the pumpkin-specific vendors had already closed up and there were only their usual food kiosks there (which are really good, but not what we wanted).

Every year, the pumpkin festival has a theme and they make dioramas made out of pumpkins. This year's theme was fairy tales. While as a festival itself, it was pretty darn disappointing, we did have fun looking around the different dioramas.


the prize-winning big pumpkins- don't ask me about #1- we didn't see that on display

the Frog Prince

the Pied Piper- love the little ears on the pumpkin mice

Beware of Dragon- Siegfried and the Dragon (this is a German thing)

Mother Goose

Like I said, the pumpkin displays were definitely cool, but it took us roughly 30 minutes to go through the whole thing. Perhaps this would have taken longer or been more exciting had we had a kid with us. I just don't know. In no way was this worth our nearly $20 admission fee. We bought some crepes from the crepe stand (delicious!) and ate those pretending like it was 18€ for just the two of those. The park that the festival was in is called the Dino Park because it has huge sculptures of dinosaurs all around it. There was a hollow dinosaur head in there so that little children could go in and take pictures of themselves in it.

Obviously. We had to.

Now on to the giveaway portion of this post. As most of you know, TLS and I have a huge soft spot in our hearts for a certain cartoon beagle. This month's giveaway will reflect that. I will be giving away one movie of the winner's choice:

I know it's a bit late for this one- but it is adorable and a true classic

The rules:
This giveaway is open to current followers via GFC only. Leave a comment here. That's it. I will draw a winner after it closes at midnight EST on Sunday, October 31st.

Still here

2011-10-17T11:05:00.000-07:00

Never left.

So far, this month has been pretty uneventful and quiet and not much for me to blog about.

*Thankfully, I am almost completely back to normal and am moving around like my old self again.

*We went to the AF Birthday Ball this past weekend (yes, on the anniversary of the Navy birthday, don't ask) and I wore heels for the first time since our wedding. We sat with two of our friends who will be moving in about a month (sniff) so it was great to sit and talk with them. I wore this dress:

with bronze shoes that I can't find a picture of online.

*Have started cooking again. As with every fall, I have once again proven my pumpkin obsession. So far this year, I have made pumpkin pie, pumpkin bread, pumpkin soup, and pumpkin chocolate chip cookies. Dinner tomorrow night will most likely be pumpkin pancakes with homemade cranberry butter.

*Hopefully this weekend we can go to our town's pumpkin festival. Can. Not. Wait.

*We booked our tickets for Thanksgiving Day weekend. We will be going to Manchester, UK. Nothing at all ironic about that. Still have to book a hotel though.

*Bought a 220V Crock Pot yesterday and I love it already. The one that TLS had previously was a 110V (American voltage) one so to use it over here I would have to run it on a transformer. For things like a mixer or a food processor it's not a big deal, but do leave a Crock Pot on a transformer for 6-9 hours would send our electric bill through the roof. TLS keeps asking me to make more Crock Pot dinners and I said I'd only do that if he bought me a 220V one. So he finally did. Ours came with a stoneware pot that can also be used on the stovetop or in the oven as a roaster. I love it.

*Have become addicted to Revenge. I want pretty much every single thing that Emily wears. I am a bit worried about the show's sustainability though. How many people could have possibly wronged Emily/Amanda's father to warrant more than one season?

*Have spent a lot of time (too much time) lately looking for the perfect holiday card. I want to do a photo card this year and have been having a hard time finding a good one. Everything I like is either too expensive, can't be shipped to APO addresses, or says Merry Christmas on it. (We don't celebrate Christmas and prefer to go with cards that say "Happy Holidays" instead.) What are some of your favorite places to get photo cards? Other than the obvious Snapfish, Shutterfly, Vistaprint, etc?

*In the unlikely event that someone reading this is actually able to get her hands on a bottle of this stuff, please, please, please, pretty please with a sugared cherry on top send me a bottle of it. Please.

Rabbit Rabbit

2011-10-01T11:43:00.001-07:00

Happy October y'all!

Yes, I am still alive. I swear. We got back three days ago to the very fun surprise of our wifi pretty much dying on us. So until we can get that fixed, I cam only use my iPhone.

Things I am looking forward to this month:
*Air Force Ball- need to get a necklace still but my dress for that is fantastic!
*going to the pumpkin festival in our town- pumpkin wine, need I say more?
*Halloween with friends
*Breast Cancer Awareness Month- my favorite shopping month for all things pink!
*not much else- taking it easy this month, I need to relax

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Update

2011-09-24T12:01:00.001-07:00

So for the past 3 or 4 days, I have been having chest pains that came and went. We just chalked it up to needing to make an appointment when I got back to Germany.

Last night, we were at the terminal about to head back home and I wasn't feeling good. My chest was hurting and I was dizzy/nauseous. I threw up and the paramedics were called. My BP was high so I was advised not to fly and got taken to the ER.

After running every single possible test on me, the doctor told me that everything came back good except for my EKG which is "abnormal" so I was admitted for the night. It's still not great today, so I will be here for at least one more day. I won't be able to fly until I am cleared by a cardiologist to do so.

Will post more when I know something. Very grateful that this hospital has free wifi.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

all the small things

2011-09-13T07:29:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow, TLS and I are going to try to fly out of there to Baltimore and make our way North to Philadelphia for my cousin's wedding. Right now, I should be packing, but as usual, nothing will actually go into my suitcase until the 11th hour. Of course, it's all in neat little piles ready to go.

While everyone always imagines that you miss the big things (friends, family, etc.) about being back home, sometimes it's really the small, every-day minutae that really make you homesick. Here are the things I'm looking forward to about being back Stateside.

Plastic- credit cards are not as common in Germany as they are in America. As in, everyone has them, but most places don't take them. The processing fees are just too high overseas. We've been to plenty of nice restaurants where you can only pay in cash. Even if your bill is like 100€. Considering I used to routinely charge $0.50 refills at Starbucks and hate having cash on me, this took a lot of getting used to!

Ice- as I learned the hard way over at Homburg Hospital, frozen water is an American delicacy. I kid you not. There was not a single ice cube to be found in the entire building. When you go out to dinner, unless the place really caters to Americans, they will not give you ice in your drink.

Sunday- have I mentioned that the entire country pretty much shuts down on Sunday? I'm really looking forward to just going into a store on a Sunday. I might be really crazy and even pay with a credit card!

Reasonable Drink Prices- for soft drinks here, the prices are insane! The glasses are teeny tiny and a large beer will end up being 0,50-2€ cheaper than a soda. And don't even think about such a crazy thing as free refills.

Delivery- when I lived by myself, I hardly ever cooked. I hate cooking for one. 95+% of the time I did delivery. Since I haven't been doing great and can't stand for long periods lately, cooking has not been an option for me. For the past month, we have lived off takeout and meals that my friends have prepared for us. (Y'all can guess how much weight we've gained from that!) I don't know if it's because we live in a small town as opposed to living in NYC, but there aren't a lot of choices for delivery in the area. (Two pizza places and a Chinese place. But who's counting?) The majority of places do takeaway. And of course, the delivery places don't take credit. Naturally. One day, I'm just looking forward to being able to get sushi delivered to our hotel or my mom's house and pay by credit.

Starbucks- I grew up in Manhattan, the land of one Starbucks directly across the street from another Starbucks. Here, the closest one is about 25 minutes away. For us, it's become a treat rather than a 10x a day occurrence. (Yea, I earned that gold card a little too quickly.) Plus, the drink prices are more number-wise here than they are in the States and the prices are in Euro. (Think $4.50 for an iced tea.) And no such thing as a $0.50 refill. But at least they put ice in your drink!

no VAT- sales tax is essentially 19% here. On everything that isn't food. This adds up fast.

not looking like an idiot in stores and restaurants- I only know "supermarket German"- words I learned by reading labels in the supermarket. It will be nice to converse without having to say sprechen zie Englisch? in a questionable accent.

mani/pedis- the first thing I do when I land, and the last thing I do before I fly out is always to get a mani/pedi in the States. After trying out around 4 or 5 salons, I still cannot find one that does as good a job as an American place. And the prices here are crazy expensive. Around 40-60€ for a basic mani/pedi. I hate the euro.

A Case of the Blahs

2011-09-08T12:55:00.001-07:00

Been feeling incredibly blah'ish and horrible lately. Sometimes you just need a gripe/vent session so here goes.

*I am still very frustrated that I need a cane to get around and it has impaired a lot of things for me. Festival season has started up in Germany and the wine festival that we were looking forward to all year long was this past weekend. It was really hard for me to realize that we could not go this year. The majority of my friends went and it was really hard for me seeing all of their Facebook posts about it. This weekend is another major wine festival and guess who will not be going?
*I ordered a dress about a month ago from Nordstrom to wear to my cousin's wedding hoping that it would fit. The dress is still not here. Nordstrom had to file it as lost and refund me the money. I won't be in NYC before the wedding so I can't have a dress shipped there. This means that as soon as we land in the States, we pretty much have to go shopping.
*Out of all the items I ordered from the Lilly Pulitzer Endless Summer Sale, so far I had only received the tablecloth. I was hoping to bring all the clothes to the States with me. After getting an email from customer service saying that my beautiful Murfee had been returned, I called them. Apparently all of my other items had been showing as delivered. Two weeks ago. To South Carolina. Huh?
*In general, the APO has not been my friend as of late. I'm still waiting on a lot of packages that were ordered/mailed a while ago including a sign from Etsy that we were looking forward to!
*I still can't make it down the stairs without help, so I spend most of my days upstairs in bed. My food choices have been pretty limited to non-perishables and after eating them for so long, I am starting to really resent granola bars. TLS bought me an electric kettle to keep upstairs and I was so thankful to be able to make instant oatmeal for breakfast today!
*My hives have returned with a vengeance. It seems like I am covered in them. Unfortunately, I can't take antihistamines with the meds I'm on for my nerve pain, so I am just one hot itchy mess now.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

giveaway winners

2011-09-04T12:18:00.000-07:00

Congratulations to the three winners of this giveaway. I had my husband draw them and they are:

1. LadybugLyss

3.

Congratulations ladies! Email me at whaleflipflops {@} gmail {.} com with your mailing addresses and the two coozies that you want and I will pass them along to Lauren at Anchored Style.

Rabbit Rabbit

2011-09-01T02:53:00.000-07:00

Happy September y'all!

Aren't these just the cutest things? As always, all rabbit pictures are courtesy of Daily Bunny.

Hope you are all enjoying your first day of September.

Things I am looking forward to this month:
*My younger cousin is getting married this month!
*Heading back to the States! I miss so many things big and small, like my friends and family, and shopping in Target!
*Finally getting to try out a Trenta cup!
*Getting a Pumpkin Spice Latte! (They return today which means that I can get some when I'm in the States.)
*Just being able to go to a Starbucks without it being a big deal. They aren't as big here in Germany and the closest one to us is about a 30 minute drive from us, so going to one is a huge treat!
*Trying out my first Space A flight
*Trader Joe's
*Laduree Macarons- it finally opened in NYC and I cannot wait to go there for some chestnut and caramel macarons! I am a huge fan of one of Laduree's salads, so I'm really hoping that the NYC location does sit down food too and not just teas and pastries.
*Rosh Hashana- I'm already starting to plan my menu!
*Trace Adkins is coming to do a concert on base here on 9/11! You bet we will be there with bells on!

And something I'm NOT looking forward to:
*One of my favorite wine festivals- Bernkastel is this weekend. I have literally been looking forward to it for a whole year. I was so excited about it and we made plans to meet up with a German friend and her boyfriend there. Unfortunately, the festival requires a lot of walking, does not have a lot of seating, and is generally not cane/gimp friendly, and I can't even drink at the moment, so we have to sit this one out this year. I am so incredibly upset about that.

Can you ever have enough polos?

2011-08-31T10:04:00.000-07:00

Is that a rhetorical question? Of course not.

Ok, so I may be a bit biased given that I pretty much live in polo shirts. It seems like between my husband and myself, we are constantly buying more. They are so comfortable, easy to layer, and look a lot more put-together than just throwing on a t shirt.

Anchored Style has some adorable polos for both men and women. I own one of their regular long-sleeve shirts and it is seriously one of the most comfortable things in my wardrobe. I would bet that the polos are even better!

If you're still looking for a cute holiday card idea, you could always get matching his and hers polos, and do a silly photo card.

It gets even better though because for today only, Anchored Style is having a sale on all polos. While they are normally $68, you can use code BOGOpolo to get two polos for the price of one! At $68 for two, it's a great deal! Stock up on basics for yourself for fall or consider starting your holiday shopping early.

Also, if you have not yet done so, you still have until tomorrow at midnight EST to enter my Anchored Style giveaway here.

Midweek randoms

2011-08-31T04:38:00.001-07:00

*Husband surprised me with an iPad last night. It's the white 16GB one. I need to get the pink Smart Cover for it still.
*Have spent the past day playing around with it and setting it up. Do any of you iPad users have any apps that you recommend?
*Am still in a lot of pain. Going up stairs is easier than going down for. For the most part, I still spend most of my days in bed. I need help getting dressed and doing things like that. When we go to the commissary or BX, I use the scooter to get around. Considering I don't even know how to drive, it has been a bit of an adventure. I once crashed into a stockpile of boxes of Crown Royal bottles! Good thing none of them got damaged!
*TLS bought me one of these.

The reacher. When he first got it for me, I thought he was crazy and felt like an old lady. But it has really come in handy and playing with the trigger has been fun!
*For anyone reading this who might be wondering what's going on, I got some nerve damage in my left femoral nerve. Hopefully it's temporary, but that has been the source of a lot of my pain.
*We ordered a lot of different K cups for our Keurig. Despite the fact that I really hate coffee, I really have been looking forward to them finally getting here. I have been craving iced coffee like crazy lately!
*Have spent the past few days watching Royal Pains on DVD. Love that show.
*Our sushi place finally reopened from their summer break. Thank goodness!

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

10 things

2011-08-29T04:07:00.000-07:00

1. When I hear people talking about Buffett, I automatically think Jimmy, not Warren.
2. I am a lip balm fanatic. I have about 5-10 different ones in my purse at any given time. Sometimes more.
3. I cannot wrap gifts for the life of me. It seems that the more effort I put into it, the worse they look. I can wrap a box and it will look like I wrapped a teddy bear because it will come out all lumpy. If I ever give you a beautifully wrapped gift, assume that I paid someone to do it for me.
4. I wish that Gilmore Girls was still on tv.
5. I'm lost without my iphone.
6. I am a chronic listmaker. I make lists for everything- thing to cook, chores to do, cards to write, things to pack, and you know, lists to make.
7. No matter how hard I try, I just cannot get into Sudoku.
8. If I could eat sushi every day, I would. (Secretly hoping TLS gets stationed in Japan for this reason.)
9. I always have a candle or Scentsy bar burning in my house at any given time. But I don't like food-y scents. I love to bake. If I want my house to smell like fresh baked chocolate chip cookies, I'm going to bake chocolate chip cookies, not burn a candle.
10. I never leave the house without pearls. If I'm awake, I'm wearing pearls. That's all there is to it.

Shake Shack Wedding

2011-08-26T11:07:00.000-07:00

If you follow me on Twitter or facebook, then you probably know my ~~love~~ obsession of the Shake Shack. The Shake Shack is a Danny Meyer restaurant that was created to mimic the all-American roadside burger stand. When it first opened, people flocked to it because it was a Danny Meyer property. The Shake Shack also has its own meat blend from Pat La Frieda (the same butcher who provides meat to the top restaurants in the city, including the $26 burger). However, unlike either of their other establishments a burger, fries, and a Coke will set you back about $9! This place gained an instant cult following in NYC and has started expanding to Kuwait, Qatar, and DC.

When yours truly had her first Shack Burger, she was hooked. I have eaten many a meal there and love to pop in for the custard flavor of the day. Right before my shower, I went out with my two bridesmaids in NYC. After a night of drinking, we needed some food. So off to the nearest Shake Shack- the original Madison Square Park location- we went. The two girls behind us in the line were talking about the burgers and one of them said "can we split a burger?" When they were out of earshot, GNB, my MOH said in a mocking voice "can we split our dignity?" Yes. Shake Shack is that important. It is one of the things I miss most about NYC and whenever I come back, getting a burger is one of the first things I do! (Usually, it's also my last meal right before I head to the airport.)

Originally, TLS and I wanted to do our rehearsal dinner at the Shake Shack, but unfortunately, the party room space was a bit too small for us. Instead, we decided to go there after our wedding. At the end of the night, we looked up the times for all of the locations, and raced into a cab to get to the Times Square location before it closed. When we got up to order our burgers, the woman taking our order giggled a bit and gave us her 20% employee discount. While we were looking for seats, everyone in there was looking at us and a lot of people offered us congratulations. We noticed that all of a sudden, everyone else in there started talking about weddings. Imagine that. One of the employees came over and brought us little custard parfait desserts which we immediately devoured. (The custard of the day was Red Velvet. YUM.)

my patented Masha face

Once upon a time, I was young and naive and thought I would actually get to eat the food at my own wedding. Yea, not so much.

While we were talking and eating our yummy burgers, the manager of the store came out. She noticed my wedding dress and immediately got interested. She came over with a mini bottle of Prosecco and two glasses. She then proceeded to make us a goody bag of every single shirt that they sell and a pair of flip flops (which my husband has been using at the gym as shower shoes). She tried to send us home with more burgers and a pint of custard, but we said no thank you. We were on our way to the Ritz.

us with our goody bag

Just so y'all understand how much we love the Shack- the Ritz was about a 3 minute walk from where we got married. We took a cab about 40 blocks up, and then another one 40 blocks down just for some burgers and fries. That's commitment.

The next day, when we got back to my mother's house, we modeled our his and hers Shack shirts for her. We were being silly in her living room and she snapped this picture with my iphone.

notice the post-wedding half updo

Y'all, this is the man I'm spending the rest of my life with.

I'm trying to convince my husband that we need to use one of the two pictures of the two of us as our holiday card picture this year, but he just doesn't want to seem to get on board. Someone please convince him otherwise.

Anchored Style giveaway

2011-08-25T11:19:00.000-07:00

I have a slightly freakish love of coozies. I love them and usually have one in just about any purse or tote of mine at any given time. I have a small collection of them and always seem to be acquiring more from gifts, promotions, or just buying some for myself. I used to have darling pink seersucker one with a green monogram on it that got lost in the move that I need to replace. ::sniff:: Let's all take a moment to weep here folks.

When the lovely Lauren of Anchored Style approached me about doing a coozie giveaway, I was of course intrigued. (It sucks that I can't win my own giveaways though!) Anchored Style is a new company that has cute polos and tshirts for men and women. I fell in love with this Whiskey Flag one and ordered it.

It arrived yesterday and I love it. It is so soft and comfortable and will be perfect to throw on over a polo when it finally cools down here. If I had seen these earlier, I would have probably gotten them as well:

how snazzy are these?

This giveaway will have three winners. Each winner will get two pick two coozies of his or her choice.

Personally, I would pick one of the Whiskey Flag ones, and a Magenta signature coozie, but that's just me.

To enter:
1) Please visit the Anchored Style website and leave a comment with your favorite item other than the coozies. (mandatory)
2) Follow my blog through Google Friend Connect for a second entry.
3) Follow both Anchored Style (@anchoredstyle) and myself (@whaleflipflops) on twitter and post a tweet with both of us in it and the link to this giveaway for a third entry.
4) Post about this giveaway on your blog for a fourth entry.

Please leave all comments in one entry.

This giveaway will run until Thursday, September 1st, at midnight EST.

Special thanks to Anchored Style for sponsoring this giveaway.

Lilly Pulitzer Endless Summer Sale

2011-08-24T00:59:00.000-07:00

sorry y'all couldn't find a picture of the actual Lilly bunnies, I tried

I have been having some pretty crazy dreams lately and had a great one the night before the Lilly sale. (For anyone new reading this post, I should backtrack a bit here and say that I am completely bunny crazy. I would pretty much give anything to be able to have a pet bunny.) Anyhoo, so in this dream of mine, I was shopping the Lilly sale and the GWP promotion for it was that for every pink and green Slinky you bought, you got a free bunny. And I don't mean one of these types of bunnies:

I mean something that looked more along the lines of this:

Now don't ask me what Lilly Pulitzer was doing 1) selling Slinkies, and 2) giving out live bunnies. All I remember was scratching my head and thinking "ok but what am I going to do with a Slinky? my husband only likes the metal ones." Of course, at that point, it didn't really matter. I had already mentally stuck a Lilly print bow on top of her head in between her ears and nicknamed her Molly.

Anyhoo, like every other blogger out there, I was anxiously awaiting the Lilly sale. I had my birthday money set aside for it. When it finally started, I had a bit of a home court advantage, because of the 6 hour time difference and I was refreshing my phone every.2.minutes!

My first impression of the sale was that it was much better organized than last year's. I was glad for the free shipping because it meant you could buy each item individually and avoid things selling out from your cart, and I was impressed that the site did not seem to be crashing.

Here is what I got away with:

Glorie Diamond Stitch Sweater

Katia wrap slub

Mandy V-Neck top

Murfee Scarf- It's Getting Hot in Here

Tablecloth- mine is actually in the blue toile print. One of my favorite purchases!

I was so proud of myself. I bought a lot of great items at a great price, did not get anything I didn't need, and did not go overbudget.

Then. I got the dreaded email. Due to overselling, one or more of my items had been cancelled and I was being given a $25 credit to compensate. Of course the email didn't actually say what those items were. Insert panic. Then I woke up to discover that two of my most favorite purchases had gotten the axe.

Penn Fleece Jacket in Navy

Ironically enough, the day before the sale, my husband and I were talking about how I needed a new black or navy fleece for the fall, so when I saw this on sale in my size for $34, I knew it was a good sign and he told me to get it. It wasn't a good sign apparently.

Adalie Wrap Dress- Bright Navy Painter's Palette

One of my favorite dresses and the only one I had purchased this time around. I love wrap dresses and loved the print on this one. Sadly it was not meant to be. :( TLS and I are still angry over that one.

I'm Baaaaaaaaaaaack

2011-08-22T12:51:00.000-07:00

This post is going to be a mish-mosh of emotions and feelings because there were things that I wanted to say when I was in the hospital but didn't want to blog while I was still high on pain meds and sedatives.

First of all, I want to thank everyone for all of your prayers, good thoughts, tweets, emails, comments, facebook posts, etc. I was not in a good state in the hospital so I did not respond to most of them, but I did read them and appreciated every single one. Secondly, I want to give a shoutout to two sweet friends and thank Little Miss Can't Be Wrong and Jordan for guest blogging for me while I was in the hospital.

Day 1:
This was a piece of cake for me. I was told to get to the hospital one day before for testing. Since I was going to be spending the night in the hospital, I assumed there would be complex things like stress tests and MRIs and Lord knows what else involved. Nope. They just took my vital signs and blood and urine. And that's it. Not really sure why I had to spend the night in the hospital for just that, but ok. We got really lucky and I was given a private room. It had a little table and two chairs in it and we were able to sit there and play games and stuff at the table. I came too late for lunch but was given dinner. Unlike in America, dinner is a very small meal in Germany. The smallest of the day. I had mentioned to the nurses that I don't eat pork so my meal consisted of a pad of butter, 2 slices of bread, 2 slices of cheese, a hard-boiled egg, and a pickle. I also don't eat eggs because they make me vomit. The cheese was pretty gross actually so I just ate the pickle. It was delicious. (You have to appreciate the irony of me going into a hospital for heart disease and being given a pickle as my dinner.) Obviously, this was not enough food, so TLS was tasked with a food run. He brought back McChicken sandwiches and fries. Completely heart healthy. Hey- the nurse saw nothing wrong with it. She came by with a single-blade razor and some shaving cream and told me I needed to shave my bikini area because that's where the catheter would go into. She then asked if I needed help shaving. (Ummm. No thank you.) This meant that my husband also had to run out and find a pharmacy to buy me a real razor. This was also my first time in the hospital. I had a hard time falling asleep because I was in the Pediatrics ward. My room shared a wall with a room that had three cribs in it. Two out of those three cribs were occupied by screaming infants.

Days 2-5: (writing this up as one entry because I lost all sense of date and time when I was in there and can't tell you which day was which)
I was not allowed to eat or drink anything past midnight the night before. (I had some last-minute peanut M&Ms at 11:59pm.) I woke up hungry and cranky. A nurse came by and said that an ambulance was on its way to take me to the surgery building. Insert panic and lots of hugs with my Teddy and Snoopy. The ambulance came and that was NOT an easy ride. I would have much preferred to walk into the ambulance rather than be wheeled in a stretcher. We got to the surgery building. More panic. Some tears. Got wheeled into the OR and was asked to change out of my pajamas and into a white gown. (I guess in German hospitals, the patients can wear whatever they want and the hospitals don't provide gowns for all the patients. Good thing I had brought my own pajamas!) After I changed, the doctors told me that they were going to give me a local anesthetic, put in the catheter, look around, and then when they were ready to put the stent in, they would put me to sleep. I said no. I want to be sedated right away. I did not want to see or have any recollection of the whole process. The last thing I remember is squeezing my husband's hand.

When I woke up, I was in excrutiating pain and babbling incoherently. Something about Hummers and asking who was in the canoe. (Apparently, the very first thing I said to my husband when I woke up was "where is my Teddy bear?" That can't possibly surprise anyone.) While I was in surgery, an infectious patient came in who needed a private room, so I was switched into a room with three beds in it. I woke up in a strange room completely disoriented. Less than 10 minutes after I was brought back into my new room, my husband's CO stopped by with three of his five children. I was still writhing in pain and screaming at this point, so he did not even make it past the door.

(At this point, I should mention that for catheters, they usually go through your right femoral artery. When the doctors made the incision, they noticed that my right femoral artery had started closing up and was too closed to put the catheter in. So the doctors had to stitch that up and go in through my left side. I got double the hematomas and double the pain.)

All I wanted to do was go to the bathroom, but the nurses told me that I was not allowed to move for 25 hours to avoid tearing my stitches. On the one hand, I was in too much pain to move at all. On the other, I am one of those people who cannot sit still for very long, so having to lay down in an uncomfortable bed (with a rubber sheet no less- Pediatrics ward and all!) for that long was pure torture for me. I was finally given some food and attacked my lunch. I swear, those boiled noodles (no salt, no sauce) were pretty much the greatest thing that I have ever eaten in my entire life! Also, after complaining about how cold it was all summer long, the German weather finally decided to "cooperate" and warmed up. Lovely except the hospital (much like the rest of Germany) did not have air conditioning and I was covered in layers of gauze and bandages. I was sweaty and itchy and feeling all around gross. I begged the nurse for some ice chips and found out that there was not a single cube of ice anywhere in the hospital. Seriously. Apparently frozen water is an American specialty???

The next few days were kind of a blur for me. I was so hot and in so much pain that I spent most of the time sleeping hoping that it would make me feel better. I did not eat much because I was just so uncomfortable and in so much pain. After the first day, the pain in my chest went away. The pain in my legs, not so much. When I was finally allowed to stand up, it took two or three nurses to help me and it hurt so bad, I nearly started to cry! Another thing I was not prepared for- how big my bruises would be. It looks like I'm wearing green, blue, purple, and yellow tie-dye boyshorts. Gross. I was freaked out and called the nurse over who told me that that is perfectly normal and I'm going to look like that for the next 3 weeks. Lovely. I ended up having to stay an extra day in the hospital because we live in a three story walk-up and the doctors didn't want me to walk much or do anything physical. (When we told the doctor that we live on the 3rd floor, he said "oh that's ok, just use the lift." We had to explain to him that we don't have one.) Most people post-cath use their good leg to lean on and help them get around. Since I had stitches in both legs, I didn't have that option. I was finally discharged yesterday and the drive home and walk up the stairs was horrible. It hurts to put any kind of my pressure pretty much anywhere below my hips so even sitting up hurts. Since then, I have spent most of my time in bed catching up on blogs and reading my Kindle. And napping. I have to go get my stitches taken out on the 30th and I am already dreading that like the plague. I can't get my stitches wet so I can't shower for 2 more days which again does not make me very happy. (Have I mentioned it's 90 degrees outside and we don't have air conditioning?!) I just want my life to return to normal. A sweet friend brought us over dinner last night which I devoured. Thankfully, I am eating again. Unfortunately, I won't be cooking for a while. TLS went to the commissary and bought me a lot of non-perishable snacks (granola bars, trail mix, nuts, etc.) to keep in our room so I don't have to leave it to get food. Our kitchen is downstairs and there is no way I'm going back down those stairs! Also, as a post-op side effect, I have developed a love of juice boxes. (That was what I was given every day I was in there with my meals.) I have consumed probably 4 or 5 packets of Capri-Sonne within the past few days.

Dedicated to my Pen Pal!

2011-08-18T06:18:00.000-07:00

Hi yall! I’m Jordan from Queen of LA. I was so excited and so flattered when MRM asked me to guest post for her!

I have no idea how I stumbled upon Preppy Girl Meets World out of all the blogs in the whole wide internet, but I’m so glad I did - I think MRM and I are long long sisters! We have so much in common and every day, through the wonders of Facebook, Twitter, blog posts, and Gchat, we keep finding out more ways that we are alike :)

One of those things we have in common? Our love of stationery! So it should come as no surprise that as soon as we discovered this shared bond, we decided to become PEN PALS! That’s right, every couple of weeks we send letters back and forth from Germany to Los Angeles and back again... and trust me, they’re always written on the cutest stationery ever!

I thought I’d post some of my favorites for yall to see here. Maybe you could send one to a pen pal of your own!

I’m a girly girl through and through, so I was immediately drawn to this design with multicolored hearts. These would be perfect for writing thank-you notes!

When I saw these cards on the Furbish website, I knew immediately I had to have them! I guarantee anyone you send them too would laugh out loud upon opening (just as I did when I bought them and they arrived in the mail!)

Continuing on in the leopard theme, these cards are chic and sassy while still simple and elegant. Let’s face it - who doesn’t love leopard print?

The cards above and these below are both from Stationery Studio - one of my favorite places to buy cards, stamps, stickers, etc. Their stuff is adorable - how cute are these navy clover cards?

When Jonathan Adler started making stationery, I was all over it - his designs are always modern and fun. I think these cards are a new addition to the website - love the funky font!

Have I mentioned my INSANE love for the color pink? It’s nearly matched by my love for anything striped, so obviously these are high on my list!

I’ll save the best for last... I have a feeling our very own MRM would absolutely LOVE these whale-printed cards! (I know these babies look like they're for a little boy, but so what? Make it work!) :)

That’s all for me for now. Hope you come visit me at Queen of LA! And MRM, we all miss you and are sending positive thoughts your way!

XOXO,

Jordan

@queenjord

Happiness Is...

2011-08-17T08:36:00.000-07:00

Hello, friends! Little Miss Can't Be Wrong - of "how i met your father" here, to fill in for our lovely Preppy Girl While she is away. Let's all take a minute to lift her up, keep her in our positive thoughts. While she is away I wanted to do a little post about one of the things that make us smile... one of them being the Peanuts gang!

Who doesn't love Charlie Brown? When I was younger I was in the show, "You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown." While it was not theatrical greatness by any means it was definitely a laugh. A favorite moment from the show is singing the song, "Happiness."

The song is sung after Charlie Brown finds out the love of his little life - The Little Redheaded Girl - is a pencil chewer... and therefore not necessarily perfect. What are some things that bring great happiness into your life?

I'm so happy. That little red-headed gril dropped her pencil.

It has teeth marks all over it. She nibbles her pencil.

She's human! It hasn't been such a bad day after all.

Happiness is finding a pencil

via

Pizza with sausage

Telling the time.

Happiness is learning to whistle

Tying your shoe for the very first time

via

Happiness is playing the drum in your own school band.

And happiness is walking hand in hand.

via

Happiness is two kinds of ice cream…

Knowing a secret…

Climbing a tree.

Happiness is five different crayons…

via

Catching a firefly… Setting him free.

Happiness is being alone every now and then.

And happiness is coming home again.

Happiness is morning and evening,

Daytime and nighttime too.

via

For happiness is anyone and anything at all

That's loved by you.

Happiness is having a sister

Sharing a sandwich…

Getting along!

Happiness is singing together when day is through.

And happiness is those who sing with you.

Happiness is morning and evening,

Daytime and nighttime, too,

For happiness is anyone and anything at all

That's loved by you.

--------------------------------

And just because I absolutely love Lucy, I had to share this little comic strip with you:

my bags aren't packed, I'm not ready to go

2011-08-16T14:45:00.000-07:00

Last night in my bed for four nights. Dreading this trip like the plague. I am by nature a very stressy person and tend to overstress about things and get worked up over them, which is not exactly my finest trait. I'm sitting here trying to pack up my bag for the hospital and know that I forgot something, but can't remember what. At least I have a cute new bag for the trip, courtesy of Sloane Ranger. (Review to follow once I am out of the hospital.)

I will try to blog from the hospital, but that will all depend on if there is a wifi connection there and how I'm feeling. (Generally, lots of sedatives and painkillers don't mix too well with a keyboard.) My husband will have my phone while I'm in surgery and will post updates as he can from my account. If you want to know more, your best bet is to follow me on twitter.

iPhone Covergate

2011-08-15T16:30:00.000-07:00

I remember when I first got my iphone 4, the news that Lifeguard Press for Lilly Pulitzer was coming out with iphone 4 cases was like the most exciting thing ever. I pre-ordered the most me-tastic case of them all, the hotty pink bloomers.

It took forever and a day to actually ship out to the retailers, and then I had to wait for the USPS to take its sweet time getting it over here. When it finally came, I was so excited that I ripped the package open with my bare hands wanting to put a new pink cover on my iphone (as opposed to the old one, which was, you know- pink). Of course, I also broke a freshly manicured nail in the process. Go figure.

My excitement did not last long after that. I noticed the edges of my cover fading and turning white. I remembered reading on facebook that there were issues with the covers for the 3GS model peeling that were supposedly fixed with the 4 one, so I just shrugged it off and assumed it was one of the flowers. Then there was more peeling. My case got to be more white than pink. If I had wanted a white silicone case, I would have just bought one for $3 in Chinatown and not gotten a Lilly one. I emailed Lifeguard Press, sent them pictures of my case, and the woman I spoke with was very gracious and offered to replace my cover. One small caveat- they were out of my pink one so I got sent the Do the Wave instead.

I would have preferred my original pink one, but what can you do? This one is still quite cute. It didn't last long before that one, too, started peeling. I got it in June and it is completely white in some parts. Needless to say, I am done buying iphone cases from Lifeguard Press- as cute as they are, needing 3 cases in 5 months is a bit much.

I have been wanting one of the monogrammed iphone cases that have been popping up everywhere but was not sure I could justify the price tag. Then today, I saw a tweet from the Monogram Merchant saying that they're having a sale for 20% off everything on their site (use code HBMM at checkout) and I decided to bite the bullet. However, it's not as simple as that. I cannot make up my mind for the life of me. I was the girl who spent a solid 10 minutes debating between chocolate and vanilla, would decide to get a scoop of both, and would then spend another 5 minutes worrying if I had made the right choice. Needless to say, this life-altering decision of which iphone case to get has not been an easy one.

Lately, I have become very into Chevron patterned stuff, so at this exact moment, this one is my favorite:

Wait 5 minutes and that will probably change. As much as I love that one, I also really love these:

one of these things is not like the other- one of these things just doesn't belong

This is not like ice cream and I cannot just get one of each. I don't have an extra $200 lying around, and if I did, I would spend it on something more exciting than iphone cases so I really have to pick just one. What's a girl to do?

Which do you think I should get?

randoms

2011-08-14T06:36:00.000-07:00

*Have been a combination of highs and lows lately. I've been really stressed out and anxious lately and the hives I keep getting have not made things any easier. Got an increased dose of my blood pressure meds since the lower dose wasn't working. It's completely screwed up my sleeping cycle. I'm scared of what's to come this week but I'll be glad to be able to put it behind me.
*I have started to feel a bit better and on Friday night I even made 6 challahs for our chapel. (Only 5 made it there.) I made all plain and decided to experiment and made on chocolate chip stuffed one that I nicknamed Chippy. There was a clear favorite and I will be making more of those in the future. (To all those who asked, I will be posting my challah recipe later on.)
*My mother made her first Lilly Pulitzer purchase- 2 dresses from the Rue La La sale on Friday. I'm not sure why. She did say that if they don't work for her and she's in a good mood, then they will go to me. Really hoping that they don't work for her!
*Finally read The Help. I'm a fast reader so it only took me a day. I loved the book and am very excited for the movie. The Germany release date for it is November 17, 2011 so I'm really hoping that it comes out at the base theater before then!
*I needed new glasses so a month or so ago, I bought a cute pair from the optical here on base. Then, a few weeks later, Coastal Contacts had a free glasses promotion so I decided to order a pair thinking that it never hurts to have an extra pair for emergencies or in case you misplace one. I decided to get these purple ones because they were a little more bold than what I normally go for and I figured, hey they're free. If I don't like them, not a huge loss.

They came a little while ago and I love them! I've been wearing them all the time lately. Is it bad that I like the glasses I got for free more than the ones I actually paid for?
*My cousin is getting married in Philadelphia next month and I have been spending a lot of time lately looking for the perfect dress to wear. I am picky with dresses- I don't wear black and I want something with straps. I really want this dress from Lilly Pulitzer, but it's in pre-orders right now and looks like it won't be ready to ship until after the wedding, which does nothing to help me.

I think I may end up going with this dress instead. I love the shape and colors of it, but I can't decide which of the two shades I would want to get.

you've got questions, I've got answers

2011-08-10T12:39:00.000-07:00

Have a pounding migraine so I'm taking a break from blogging for the night. Going to take a cue from several others bloggers and do another questions post. If you have anything you'd like to ask me, post your questions here. I will answer them in a future post.

England on my Mind

2011-08-08T17:26:00.000-07:00

TLS and I have been talking a lot about England lately. He was stationed there for 2 years before Germany, and after spending a year in Germany, there really is no comparison to England, both military-wise and life-wise. We are itching to go back and are hoping to get stationed there in 2014! (A girl can dream, right?)

One of the advantages to being at a huge base in Europe is that we have a large NATO population here as well. The major players here are given a building for their support/administrative uses and can have a store/bar/cafe here. (Don't ask me why the Germans have a restaurant on base. From what I hear, it's quite good, but it's not like there's a shortage of places to get bratwurst outside of the base gates.) I think that this is intended to make the NATO folks stationed here feel at home. Because nothing to a Brit says "welcome home" quite like being surrounded by about 50,000 Americans and our SUVs.

Anyhoo, in case you thought I had rambled off on a tangent again, I'm getting to the point of my story. The British have a fabulous cafe here that serves todiefor coronation chicken. Yes, it's that good that it had to be condensed into one word. They also have a tiny one room shop roughly the size of the office in our house that sells alcohol and a few packaged and frozen British products. Today, on our way to cardiologist appointment roughly # 2,0843,0303,034 we stopped by the BritShop to pick up some treats for the long and tedious 10 minute drive to Landstuhl. (Dear tech, you're welcome for eating a bag of Worcester Sauce flavored Crisps roughly 8 minutes before you took my blood pressure.) TLS and I have been talking about England a lot lately and how much we miss it, so our little sodium-fueled drive ended up being devoted to things we miss about England and why we have to go back there.

tapping our Oyster Cards on the Underground

1 Quid cheese sandwiches from the Coop
Those were delicious and the perfect lunch.

Tesco

We went to one in the Czech Republic. It was cool, but nowhere as glorious as the British ones.
Harrods

Where else can you buy a rare fossil, a bottle of beer for your dog, a gold nugget, and then eat a $24 hot dog for lunch? Also, their 4th floor which houses the live animals is the absolute best. (Yes, I have not been there in over a year and could still lead you to the animals blindfolded from any given entrance to the store.) I could literally spend all day oggling the bunnies behind the glass windows there. Sadly, that is about as close as I will ever come to actually owning a bunny.
Sitting on the Left Side of the Car
Really only exciting if you don't drive. Which I don't do.
The fact that no matter where you are, you somehow are never more than 5-10 minutes away from a really cool pub.

The lack of a language barrier. For the most part.
There was that one time when I walked up and down every single aisle of the Coop looking for brown sugar and could not find it anywhere and finally had to ask someone for help, only to discover that it's called Demerara in England and was about 2.5 centimeters away from my nose. Awesome.
The cute mailboxes

A lot prettier than the Deutsche Post ones

The magazines
Whenever I went to England, I would always load up on Cosmo, Glamour, and Marie Claire. Right after we got engaged, I had a carryon bag filled with pretty much every single wedding magazine published in the UK. It made for a very fun plane ride.
Cath Kidston


Got this bag when I discovered the Cath Kidston store in Heathrow after my flight got delayed by 24 hours.

Her fun prints never fail to put a smile on my face. Love.
Roundabouts
They are all over the place in England as a way of controlling speeders. Your GPS directions will actually say things like "at roundabout take 2nd exit to roundabout." Roundabouts became a sort of inside joke with us after that and now I smile whenever the GPS says we have to go through a roundabout. Which happens considerably less than 20 times a day. Disappointing.
Yo! Sushi

The place that introduced us to conveyor belt sushi. Our favorite location was by far the St. Pancras one.

There were about 200 other things on the list but I'm going to do y'all a favor and end it right here before y'all die of boredom. I will proceed to look through our old England pictures and look up plane ticket prices for a weekend in October. Because really, what else would I be doing at 2:46am? (Have I mentioned that insomnia is a side effect of my blood pressure meds? An increased dose apparently means increased insomnia?)

Dear Amazon.com

2011-08-07T12:56:00.000-07:00

I don't get it.

Allow me to backtrack here. As expected, lately I've become obsessed with my new Kindle. As soon as I got it, I spent a day editing my Amazon wishlist and converting all of the books I had asked for into e-books.

I noticed something I was not expecting, a lot of the hard copy books were actually cheaper than their e-book counterparts.

Case in point:
The 101 Most Influential People who Never Lived

one of my absolute favorite books

$5.58 for a paperback
$9.99 for the e-book

Summer at Tiffany

$5.20 for the paperback
$9.99 for the e-book

Last Night at Chateau Marmont

$9.68 for the paperback
$9.99 for the e-book

Heart of the Matter

$8.74 for the paperback
$9.99 for the e-book

Olivia Joules and the Overactive Imagination

$5.60 for the paperback
$11.99 for the e-book

This leads me to make a couple of points:
1) Clearly I am a deeply intellectual reader.
2) It seems that for the most part, $9.99 seems to be the magic price point that publishers and bookstores agree on. What's so magical about this figure? I don't get it?
3) I. Don't. Get. It. Why do the paperbacks cost less? E-books don't have the same materials cost associated with them than paperbacks, so why the higher purchase price?

********************************
On an unrelated note, if you haven't yet entered my Scentsy giveaway, you can enter here until Tuesday. I'm also hosting an online Scentsy party here. Anyone who buys from my party gets two extra entries into the giveaway.

They're Baaaaaaaaaack

2011-08-04T16:37:00.000-07:00

We do not get along with our downstairs neighbors. We generally tend to avoid them at all possible costs. This isn't too much of a problem considering that whole language barrier thing.

Compared to other people, I suppose we have it pretty good in the neighbors department- they don't have wild parties that lead to drunken strangers in our doorway, then don't have a 200 pound dog with a personality disorder, and they have not tried to steal from us. Plus our downstairs neighbor is the one who always shovels our street and sidewalk. Salt is expensive in Germany (around 4,89€ for a bucket that costs us $2.50 on base) so our agreement is that we buy the salt on base at American prices, and the husband downstairs does the shoveling. This is very important in a country where the two seasons are rain and snow. So it could be worse, really. We know that.

However, the are LOUD. It seems like their normal volume of talking is screaming at the top of their lungs. This goes on all.day.long. Have I mentioned that they have two children? And they let their children run around like hellions? Oh I haven't. Well yes. (Let me backtrack for a bit here- we live in a three story apartment building where each floor is its own apartment. To make it easier to rent to Americans, our landlord combined the top two floors into one apartment. Because of this, essentially the staircase and everything north of it is ours.) We have a utility closet on the landing between the first and second floors which is where our washer and dryer are. Because German kitchens are small, we keep our sodas and water bottles on top of the dryer and with the window open, they get cold enough. Yes well the kids are so loud that one time when they were playing downstairs, a full 1.5 litre (yes I realized how I spelled it, I've been overseas for too long) bottle of Volvic fell off the dryer! The dryer wasn't even on. I wish I could say this incident was out of the ordinary for us, but it's not. It's just a regular Tuesday over here. In the summer, we can't really hang out in our living room half the time because the kids are playing outside and our window faces into the yard. Let's just say that when their oldest son gets his first kiss, I'll know as soon as his Nana does. Every single time something happened, we would just turn to each other and say "we have got to move." Finally, we made the determination that come October-December, we are moving.

The family went on vacation to Portugal. For three weeks. That was heaven. Bliss. Quiet. Until 40 minutes ago. I was in our bedroom (which is on the third floor, mind you) and I heard what I though was someone breaking into our apartment. I instinctively ran downstairs barefoot and with the closest thing that I had near me to defend myself with. My iPhone. I'm sure there's an app for that.

It turned out to not be a burglar after all, but rather, the family downstairs coming back from vacation. At 12:55am. I'm not sure what exactly they were doing to open the door that I could hear it two flights up and on the other side of the building. Again folks, this is normal for them. Now 1:36am and I can't sleep because they're unpacking.

We have got to move.

Extreme Couponing

2011-08-04T03:54:00.000-07:00

TLS and I have caught a few episodes of the show on our AppleTV like many, were disturbed by it. I don't really see how the people on the show are any different from Hoarders. I assumed that something like this could not actually happen here. Unlike the stores that participants on the show shop at, the commissary does not double coupons or allow you to use more than one coupon on an item.

Boy was I wrong. The other night TLS and I went to the commissary. I was in the personal care aisle trying to locate a bottle of lens cleaner when my husband gestured to two women a couple of feet away from us. They were taking all of the deodorant off the shelves and putting it in carts. At first I assumed they were commissary workers who were rearranging the aisles. Well you know what happens when you assume. I realized that they were not wearing name tags and had a coupon binder along with a spreadsheet with them indicating what to buy and how much of. After they cleaned out one brand of deodorant, they moved onto the next one. And I mean cleaned out. They did not leave a single one on the shelf. How rude.

I was so stunned that I had to take a sly iphone picture. Yes that first cart is filled with nothing but deodorant. And she was still pulling more off the shelf. Also, please note how there are three shopping carts there for two women!

TLS said he was tempted to go up to them and thank them for the generous donation to the USO or Wounded Warrior Center...

Rabbit Rabbit

2011-08-01T02:20:00.000-07:00

Rabbit Rabbit!

I realize I've fallen a bit behind on the bunny posts, but I am back on the wagon!

All pictures from Daily Bunny.

Usually, here I put a list of things that I'm excited for the upcoming month, but truthfully I have nothing to say here. (Can't really be too excited about getting a catheter shoved in my heart.) In many ways, July was a very hard and exhausting month for me. There was a lot of stress, a lot of drama, and a lot of loneliness. I'm more homesick now than I was when I first moved here. I'm just hoping that the month of August will be a better one for me.

Scentsy give*away

2011-07-29T04:32:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago, I attended a Scentsy party at a friend's house on base, and was instantly hooked! I am a huge candleholic and always have to have a candle burning when I'm at home. Scentsy makes electric warmers and scented wax bars. You put a few wax squares in the warmer, turn on the switch, and voila! The wax melts and fills your home with a delicious scent. Because Scentsy uses a low watt bulb to gently warm the wax rather than a flame, it's a great alternative to candles as you can leave it going day or night, even when you're not home. Several of my friends use warmers in their kids' rooms as nightlights. My husband likes Scentsy because it means I can't set the house on fire. Our first time going to Friday night services here, I realized that I had left a candle burning and my hair straightener on at home. TLS had to make the 15 minute drive home to blow out and unplug and then make the 15 minute drive back to base. He has not let me forget that since.

Scentsy has a lot of different style warmers to fit different decors and personalities. Currently, this is the one I have:

It is so cute and cheerful. I love it.

My other favorites are:

Getting this one next to go with the red and white theme in my kitchen.

My current favorite scent is:

Banana Nut Bread- sadly, only available this month. :(

Scentsy also makes other scented products including Scent circles (perfect for the car), antibacterial gel, and stuffed animals (Scentsy buddies).

A sweet friend of my mine is a Scentsy consultant and is offering a giveaway this week for my readers.
One lucky reader will receive his or her choice of Scentsy buddy and Scent Pak.

Each adorable Scentsy buddy has a zippered pouch where you can put in a Scent Pak (30 scents available) to give it a nice, pleasant scent. ($25 RV)

To enter this giveaway:
1) Please visit Caryn's Scentsy page and leave a comment on here with your favorite item other than the Scentsy buddies. (Mandatory, any entries without this will not count.)
2) "Like" her facebook page and write "Preppy Girl Meets World" on it for a second entry. (This is so we can confirm that entry.
3) Become a follower of my blog through GFC for a third entry.
4) Post about this giveaway on your blog for a fourth enty.
5) I am currently hosting a Scentsy party with Caryn here. If you buy anything from my party, email her at carynwickless@gmail.com with your blog name and she will give you two extra entries for this giveaway.

This giveaway will close on Tuesday, August 9th, at midnight EST.

I had a little Kindle

2011-07-28T05:22:00.000-07:00

Got woken up by a rather nice phone call from my husband today- he bought me a Kindle! He was thinking of getting me one as a going into the hospital gift but was going to hold off on it, until he saw one on sale for 25% off, at which point he immediately grabbed it!

Since that phone call, I have been busy updating my Amazon wishlist to ebooks (on TLS's iPad- isn't technology grand?) and looking at pretty Kindle cases and accessories online.

I love love love this one from Kate Spade, but I can't really justify a cover that costs almost as much as the Kindle itself.

The price on these ones is right and they're just cutesy enough without being overly so (similar concept to the Kate Spade one) but alas they won't be available to ship for 1-3 months. Love them but I just cannot wait that long for a cover. Patience is not a virtue that I possess.

Does this one remind anyone else of Desperately Seeking Seersucker?

This cover is gorgeous and the built in-light is a huge advantage.

My only reservation about it is that the built-in light draws its power from the Kindle itself and reviews have said that this can drain the battery on it. Does anyone have this one? Is it worth the money? How quickly does the battery on the kindle run out when you are using the light on it?

To those of you who own Kindles, which cover do you have? Are there any other nice ones that I should be looking at? I'm picky with a cover- I don't want anything silicone (ick), I don't want a stand, I don't want a neoprene sleeve, I just want something that opens like a book. Is it better to get a cover with a built-in light or to just buy a regular cover and get a small booklight for it separately?

Also, I am looking for book recommendations to add to my fun new toy. Read any good books lately?

Midweek Randoms

2011-07-27T13:06:00.000-07:00

*A sweet friend from HS who lives in Israel now is in Germany this week for a conference. We met up with him last night for dinner and to catch up. We brought him a set of German beer in a pretty wooden crate and he brought us snack foods from Israel.

I fell in love with these when I was there in 2003 and would occasionally get them in the States. Shockingly enough, it's just not that easy to find kosher food in Germany, so getting this was a huge treat for me! There were two supermarket bags full of treats, most of those will not live to see the weekend.

*Have been feeling a bit frustrated today. I go in to the hospital in 3 weeks and called my cardiologist in the military hospital today to see if there was any pre-op stuff that I had to do. Her office told me that they are not authorized to advise me on it because they won't be doing the procedure so I have to call the German hospital where I'm getting it done. (Isn't the procedure the same, regardless of what doctor performs it?) I called the hospital and of course, the doctor's secretary's English is as good as my German (enough to politely order a roll with cheese for breakfast, but not much more than that). She started talking about a mile a minute and the only thing I could make out was the doctor's name before she hung up on me. One of the Sergeants from TLS's squadron is fluent in German and he called the hospital for me. He got told that the doctor's office doesn't give out pre-op instructions and he needs to call the surgery department for that. When he called the surgery department, no one there picked up the phone. It's nice to know that red tape is the same in any language.

*Had my first cheeseburger ever this week. After a lot of fruitless searching, we finally found a good soy cheese. We grilled burgers with the cheese the other night. I don't have anything to compare it to, but I thought it was delicious! My husband who has eaten cheeseburgers in a past life said that it was very good and tasted pretty authentic.

*Don't you just hate it when you see something online that you really really really want and absolutely need to have only to not be able to find it a little while later? A couple of weeks ago, I saw an adorable coffee cup coozie on a preppy gift site. It had an appliqued whale in a seersucker fabric on it. I knew I had to have it, but chose to walk away. I can't stop thinking about that little whale, I must have it. Of course, I cannot for the life of me remember where I originally saw it. All that I do remember is that it was not from an Etsy shop. If anyone spots this little whale anywhere, please please please please please email me to let me know. (Can't you tell I really love that whale?)

*Both TLS and I have become a bit obsessed with Words with Friends. (We are both incredibly competitive people.) Currently, I'm losing to my mother-in-law by 122 points. Ouch!

*Have started breaking out in hives randomly for no apparent reason. Trying to get an appointment to see a doctor, but have not had much luck so far. (Hurry up and wait.) I changed our detergent to a "free" one just in case that was the issue and have thought about switching to organic products for my bath and body/hair care/beauty products. Does anyone use organic products now? What companies do you recommend? The only one I know of is Lush but I'm sure there are plenty of great ones out there.

giveaway winner

2011-07-26T07:42:00.000-07:00

Thank you to all those who entered. The winner of the Preppy Princess giveaway is

mrs.mfc

Please email me at whaleflipflops {@} gmail {.} with your choice of hot pad and personaliztion and I will get that along to the Preppy Princess.

Stayed tuned for another giveaway and more wedding pictures soon!

Professional Wedding Pictures #1

2011-07-22T08:35:00.000-07:00

We got our cd of pictures from our photographer. There are so many good ones. It's going to take forever to go through them all so I will do it in shifts. Here is part 1- still lifes and details.

My late grandpa gave that pin to my mother right after my parents got married.

Happy birthday to me

2011-07-15T06:08:00.000-07:00

Today is yours truly's 28th birthday. I'm still not sure how I feel about that. Tomorrow, I may be 24 again.

I WISH this was my cake.

I requested that this guy make an appearance at my birthday, but the lack of a Carvel in Germany kind of prevents that from happening. (Next year in America?)

The perfect cake- whale, chocolate, ice cream- what's not to love?

Tonight I'm going out for ~~Margaritas~~ Mexican Food with my husband and several of our friends. We have several possible choices for a weekend activity which we will most likely play by ear depending on the weather and what time we actually get up in the morning.

Birthday Month Giveaway #2

2011-07-15T05:52:00.000-07:00

This giveaway is sponsored by one of my favorite stores, the Preppy Princess. The Preppy Princess is my go-to store for Lilly Pulitzer stationery and gifts.

The lucky winner of this giveaway will get to prepify her kitchen and receive a set of personalized hot pads from Lovie and Dodge.

To enter this giveaway:
1) Visit the Preppy Princess website and leave a comment with your favorite item for one entry.
2) Follow my blog through Google Friend Connect for a second entry.
3) Follow both myself (@whaleflipflops) and the Preppy Princess (@preppyprincess) on twitter and tweet about this giveaway with the link in your tweet for a third entry.
4) Post about this giveaway on your blog for a fourth entry.
You will also receive one entry for every person who enters and says that she was referred by you.

This giveaway will end on Saturday, July 23rd, at midnight EST.

Thank you to the Preppy Princess for sponsoring this giveaway.

Midweek Randoms and giveaway winner

2011-07-14T08:27:00.000-07:00

*TLS reenlisted on Monday. I guess the Air Force owns us for 6 more years. (Someone please remind me to upload my pictures from his reenlistment and send them to his mother because I will forget.)
*My birthday is tomorrow. Was thinking of wearing a pretty Lilly dress that I got from the last Rue La La sale, but one tiny little problem with that- the dress is still not here. I ordered it 34 days ago. But who's counting? I hope it's not lost because it's a dress I've been wanting for a while. Le sigh. I hate the APO sometimes.
*For once, our living in Germany has paid off on the movie front- rather than being last to see a movie, Harry Potter was released here yesterday. TLS and I went to see it with a girl from his squadron after work and I absolutely loved it. A lot better than part 1 in my opinion.
*After flip flopping on them for a while, I've decided that I think I do want a Pandora bracelet after all. I have spent quite a bit of time lately on the site playing around with charms and designing a bracelet. It's fun. Does anyone have one? How many charms do you have on it? How often do you get new ones?
*Went to a Scentsy party at a friend's house over the weekend. I won a warmer and a bar. A friend who sells Scentsy gave us a few bars at our wedding and now we are officially converts!
*Was upstairs when I heard a loud crash coming from our office. Ran downstairs to see that our window (which has been closed for months) had been blown wide open by the wind and everything (including our printer) had flown off it onto the floor. It seriously scared me and I'm hoping that now we don't have to buy a new printer.
*Annoying downstairs neighbors were supposed to go on vacation for three weeks (!!!!!!) and asked us to feed their fish. We happily agreed and rather than giving us the keys to their house, they asked us to bring the tank to our apartment. The woman said it was a small tank. I'm not sure what she meant by small- it had a stand, a light, a plug, and the thing weighed a TON. No way was TLS getting that thing up the stairs. He asked if they could leave it in the apartment and I'd come down once a day to water it. The woman said she'd ask her husband and we have not heard from them since then. They were supposed to leave yesterday and this morning I heard shuffling downstairs and their door opening. I really hope they're still taking that vacation.
*Thank you to everyone who entered the Marley Lilly giveaway. The winner is:

Suburban Prep

please email me at whaleflipflops {@} gmail {.} com with your address, choice of hat and color, and monogram and I will pass that along to Marley Lilly.
*If you didn't win this one, stay tuned. I have a few more giveaways to share with you.

Rüdesheim

2011-07-12T03:08:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago, TLS and I went to Rüdesheim for the day. Rüdesheim is a gorgeous town on the Rhine river that is known for its wine there. It is popular among tourists, but has retained a lot of its charm. In typical Masha fashion, I forgot to bring my camera with me, so I only have pictures from my iphone to post here. (Once again, in typical Masha fashion, at the end of the day, on the drive home, I found my camera in my purse. Go figure.)

To get to the town, you had to take a ferry across the Rhine River. I was fascinated by it because it was my first time ever seeing a car ferry!

one of our first views of the town

Once we got there, we walked up to a cable car that went up the mountains, through the vineyards, and left us higher off in the mountains where we walked to the Niederwald monument. We bought a small bottle of wine and two souvenir glasses for 6,00€ and enjoyed it on the trip up. (The next few photos will be blurry because I attempted to take them on an iphone in a moving cable car. Smart.)

view from the cable car

can't wait to drink all that!

This is the Niederwald Monument. Sadly, it was being cleaned when we were there so most of it covered by scaffolding.

It was built to commemorate the establishment of the German Empire. Here is a picture I found of what it looks like when it's not all boarded up.

There was an observation platform there that provided beautiful views of the town across the river.

After we took the cable car back down, we went to a little restaurant for drinks and this amazing cake! We walked around a bit to wine taste and found a square where a jazz band had set up and were playing so we bought two glasses of white wine from a kiosk there and sat and listened to them play.

Then we walked around some more going into all of the little shops that they had there. I got a little stuffed hedgehog (not pictured) named Pieks who now resides on our dashboard. One of the wine shops there had a person there who could etch your wine bottles, so obviously, I had to monogram one.

This bottle goes under the "too pretty to drink" category.

It didn't photograph that well because of the light reflecting off the bottle, but it has a picture of grapes on it and underneath it says

Rudesheim

Germany

2011

MST

Birthday Month Giveaway #1

2011-07-06T04:30:00.000-07:00

I am a bit behind on posting my birthday month giveaways this month, please forgive me. Now that I am all caught up on stuff, it's time to post this.

This giveaway comes to you courtesy of Marley Lilly. Marley Lilly has a lot of fun, monogrammed gifts to choose from. I was lucky enough to win a monogrammed tumbler with straw from Marley Lilly in a giveaway and let me tell you, I am obsessed!

this was my first item with my new monogram on it!

The lucky winner gets to pick any monogrammed hat from Marley Lilly. With 21 choices in all, if you win, you will have a lot of fun just trying to pick your prize!

Here are my favorites:

bows make the world a better place

you can never have too many baseball caps

To enter:
1) Visit the Marley Lilly website and say what your favorite product is other than the hats, for one entry.
2) Follow my blog for a second entry.
3) Like Marley Lilly on facebook for a third entry.
4) Post about this giveaway on your blog for a fourth entry. You will also get one entry for every person who enters and says that (s)he was referred by you!

This giveaway will end on Wednesday, July 13th, at midnight EST.

Midweek Randoms

2011-07-06T03:04:00.000-07:00

Have not had a chance to blog for a bit because I got busy with a project that I was heading, so think of this as my catch-up post.

*Went to Homburg Hospital yesterday for what was supposed to be my initial consult with the heart surgeon. Supposed to be. I was told by both my cardiologist here and Tricare that I didn't need anything for the appointment. Apparently that's not true and I was supposed to bring copies of my MRI and echo to the appointment. Without the test results, the doctor couldn't do anything and we wasted all that time driving there for nothing. I have to go back again. Oh fun.
*A sweet blog reader sent me a lovely care package with some of these in it.

I had never heard of Berry Burst Ice Cream Oreos before but now I am obsessed with them! Thank you Grove Gal K!
*We bought a new grill. Growing up in Manhattan, I was always jealous of friends who got to grill for the summer and have been wanting to buy a grill since moving to Germany. It was something that we always "talked" about, but never actually did. 4th of July morning, I woke up craving some good bbq, and this craving only intensified when a twitter follower sent me the link to a Peach BBQ chicken recipe. I turned to my husband and said "we're buying a grill today." Sure enough, we went to base and came home with a grill. Being a chronic namer, I named her Charlotte Char-Broil. (Our car is Valerie Volkswagen. My mixer is Kitty KitchenAid.) Other than our nice sheets (which we still have yet to receive), she was the only big purchase we bought from our wedding money.

isn't she pretty?

*Since buying the grill, I have become obsessed with getting cute monogrammed melamine plates and things for her.
*It saddens me that according to Angry Birds, summer is half over.
*Right after I posted my previous post, we got the pictures back from the photographer. Go figure. It's going to take me some time to go through them all and post them, but I had to share my favorite one. (If you follow me on twitter, you've probably already seen it.)

Photography question and Sperry giveaway winner

2011-06-28T06:41:00.000-07:00

A quick question for all the former brides out there- how long did it take you to see the proofs of your wedding pictures? At the wedding, our photographer told us that her turnaround time is 4-6 weeks. So far, she has only posted one picture as a "teaser" on her facebook page and I have not seen any others from her. Two friends who got married after us already have their professional pictures posted on facebook. I understand that you need to wait for quality work, and appreciate that, but patience is not a virtue that I possess at all and I just want to see my pictures already!

With that said, I realized that even though I had picked a winner for the Sperry Top-Sider giveaway, I had never posted it on here, which would explain why the winner hadn't contacted me. Whoops. Sorry folks, it was a bit of a drama-filled weekend over in my neck of the woods. Anyways, enough rambling, seriously, congratulations to

Little Miss Can't Be Wrong

Please email me with your mailing address, shoe size, and the pair you would like and I will pass that along.

Many thanks again to Sperry Top-Sider for sponsoring this giveaway.

a few wedding pictures

2011-06-21T14:32:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow marks one month since TLS and I became husband and wife. So happy right now. (Yes, I realize this is still the honeymoon phase of the marriage.) I had promised that I was going to post wedding pictures on the blog ASAP, but was waiting for a bit hoping to see the official ones from the photographer. It looks like it's going to be a little while longer, but I saw some gorgeous ones from one of our guests today and I just had to share them.

Our Reception Space

One of the tables

Close up of our centerpieces- I love limes!

Making our entrance into the reception

please don't drop me!

first dance!

the views from our reception

making a list, checking it twice

2011-06-20T15:04:00.000-07:00

My birthday is now less than a month away. I have decided that I will be turning 24 this year. 24 is a good number. It means I can still say I'm in my "early twenties." I like that. Let's stick with that. As usual, this is around the time of the year when I make my birthday wishlist for myself, my family, and TLS, and they all lovingly ignore it.

What's on my list this year?
1. KitchenAid Artisan Series 5 qt. Stand Mixer in Empire Red

I have only been drooling over this baby for like 4 years now. Maybe it's because I'm married now, but I have managed to finally convince my mother that she really wants to buy this for me. She ordered it today. (Insert high pitched sorority girl shriek here.) I can.not.wait. I've already named her. (Her being the mixer.) Kitty KitchenAid. (I may not leave my kitchen at all for all of July and August.)

2. A Sock Monkey

Don't ask me why because even I don't really know, but for the past few months I have become strangely fixated with the idea of owning one. We have an exorbitant amount of stuffed animals at home that really only seems to get bigger with each passing month. A sock monkey would complete it perfectly. I have been trying to not-so-subtly let my husband know that a sock monkey would make a perfect "going in to the hospital" gift. I am pretty much a big baby and can not for the life of me handle needles or IVs and always need to have a stuffed animal there to squeeze any time a needle gets inserted into me. (Yea, this made that one solid month I spent at the hospital a few years back a real blast.) Sock monkey would be the perfect IV companion.

3. Jonathan Adler Whale Salt and Pepper Shakers

I adore whales. I adore and collect salt and pepper shakers. This cute set just makes sense for my life. But it ultimately falls under the category of "things that you want but would never buy yourself so you hope to get it as a gift."

4. Monogrammed Anything
New last name= have to get new monogrammed EVERYTHING in my world. Working on building up my collection of monograms from scratch again. Would love almost anything monogrammed but partial to notecards- especially these from Horchow

and this baseball cap from Marley Lilly

5. Tiffany & Co. Twist Bow ring and/or Pendant in Silver

Self explanatory.

You Ever Have those Days

2011-06-19T15:08:00.000-07:00

Where it seems like the smallest thing that can go wrong will set you completely over the edge and off balance?

Yea. Well. I do.

Sending an engagement card to a friend now. It's the first one I'm writing since I got a new last name and new address labels. Can not find those address labels for the life of me. My office looks like a tornado just blazed threw it and spewed out monograms. Seriously. Where the heck could they be?

ETA: found them literally 2.5 seconds after I hit post. Blogging really is good for you!

Sperry Top-Sider Giveaway!

2011-06-10T07:33:00.000-07:00

In case you haven't already heard, Sperry Top-Sider is hosting a fabulous Summer Share Sweepstakes! One lucky winner will receive a 1 week summer share in Nantucket for up to 5 friends (if you win- remember, I'm a friend!), 2 first prize winners will receive a Sony Cybershot camera and a pair of Sperry Top-Siders, and 10 second prize winners will receive a Sperry beach bag filled with a beach towel and a pair of Sperry Top-Siders.

Sound amazing, doesn't it?

Well the fabulosity doesn't end there. In order to celebrate, Sperry has generously offered one lucky Preppy Girl Meets World reader a free pair of Top-Siders. Yes. You read that right.

The lucky winner will get to choose a pair from these three pairs:

1) Women's Cloud Logo Authentic Original 2-eye boat shoe in Liberty Ditsy Floral

2) Men's Authentic Original Canvas Boat Shoe in Olive

3) Men's 75th Anniversary CVO in Nantucket Red

To enter:
1) Please visit the Sperry Top-Sider Summer Share Sweepstakes here and enter. (This is mandatory.) After that, please comment on this post saying that you've entered and what pair of Sperrys you would bring with you if you won.
2) Become a follower of my blog through Google Friend Connect.
3) Blog about this giveaway or post it on your sidebar. (Please post a link to your post if you do.)
4) Follow me on twitter (@whaleflipflops) and tweet about this giveaway with the link in your tweet.
5) You will also get one entry for any person who enters and says that you referred him or her.

Please leave all entries in one comment.

This giveaway will run until Thursday, June 23rd and will close at midnight EST. I will post the winner on or around that Friday.

Thank you to Sperry Top-Sider for sponsoring this giveaway.

I will leave you all with pictures of the shoes that I would want to bring with me in case I won the sweepstakes:

The Jellyfish Thong in Navy Red Stripe

Perfect for the Fourth of July!

Women's Bluefish 2-eye Boat Shoe in Navy/Seersucker

My current "lust" pair.

Women's Marin Slip On in Navy Ticking Stripe

How cute would these be with a dress or skirt?

I'm Baaaaaaaaaaaack

2011-05-30T17:03:00.000-07:00

Thank you to everyone for your sweet messages and well-wishes. I am finally back in Germany. I arrived here yesterday and let me tell you that I now know exactly why they say that you're not supposed to fly with a sinus infection. Ouch. Painful. I had to bring back the top layer of our wedding cake with me, and let me just say that I do not remember our cake being that heavy! (Says the girl who didn't lift her cake at all except to eat it. Tasty.) What also didn't help was the fact that my mother bought me a Zabar's cooler bag and 10 (!!!) ice packs. Thanks for that. In all fairness, I have to say that the cake did arrive surprisingly intact. The pretty sugar flowers at the top were no longer pretty and no longer flowers but considering this thing had been ~~dragged~~ lovingly carried through 3 different airports, I thought it looked pretty good. (For anyone who is about to ask, I am working on getting pictures up, and will post some on here eventually.) I can't wait to finally see the professional pictures.

After TLS flew back to Germany, my mother decided to take me to see a Broadway show. She must have missed me saying "I'm only interested in seeing a musical" about a 101 times because she got us tickets to a play. Born Yesterday with Jim Belushi. It got great reviews and was supposedly really funny, but for me it was summarized by my mother repeating the words "I need vodka" all throughout the first act and utter boredom on my part. At least I got Twizzlers during the second act to play with. (Yea, not the greatest theatrical masterpiece of my life.) All I could think was "when are they going to spontaneously break out into song and dance?" Seriously. I'm only interested in seeing musicals.

I'm sure I had more to say here, but I'm a bit medicated and my head feels like it's going to explode so I will sign off here. Just wanted to let y'all know that I am slowly catching up on my reader and haven't forgotten y'all.

Wedding Wednesday- Frazzled

2011-05-23T11:45:00.000-07:00

Today marks the 11 day mark to our wedding. While this is a happy time in TLS's and my lives, blah blah, this is a time filled with lots of stress. Lots.

Here is my list of things NOT to say to a bride a week and a half before her wedding.

2) I want to sit with so and so...
I have been swamped with emails from people offering what they think are helpful tips on where they should sit. Except that they are not so helpful.

Exhibit A:
At my shower, two of my friends hit it off really well. They asked if they could sit together at my wedding. I knew that they had similar personalities and was planning on seating them at the same table. Not a problem whatsoever. Except, one of the girls kept on gchatting me trying to "remind me." When she did it again last week, I flat out told her, "I remembered the last 6 times you told me." She just laughed it off and said that she figured I would have forgotten with all of the wedding stress that I undoubtedly am having. How stressed out do you think I have to be to not remember the names of two of my friends?

Exhibit B:
My cousin emailed me asking if she could sit together with her fiance. Seriously. Where did she think I was going to seat him? With TLS's family?

Exhibit C:
A bit of a backstory here- my father had several close friends in college. They all stayed best friends and had children around the same time so the children are close as well. (One of the friends is my mother's cousin, which is actually how my parents met.)
Anyways, my cousin emailed me asking if she could sit together with her brother and her other parents' friends' children. Again, I was planning on seating them all together so not a problem. Now, here is where it gets interesting.

1) All of the "children" are fully grown. The youngest is 21. One of the children, EKB, is married and had her second child not to long ago. Another girl I was planning on putting at the table, JBK, was one of her bridesmaids. Well EKB was so rude to her re: wedding stuff and in general that now JBK refuses to sit with EKB. EKB wants to sit with her and my cousins.
2) JBK's late father's sister, her husband, their daughter, their daughter's husband, and their 21 year old daughter are coming to the wedding. JBK emailed me asking if she could sit with her aunt, uncle, and family at the wedding. It's not a problem except that she wants to sit with her 21 year old cousin also. Cousin has expressed to me that the last thing she wants to do at age 21 is sit with her parents and grandparents at the wedding. Argh.

3) The Reply By date was May 1st? When do you need to have my RSVP by?
May 1st. A friend who got married in January was complaining about how so many guests replied late and she had to track them down to get their RSVPs. Which is why I only got hers last night...

4) Can I ship my gift to your mother's house?
I'm not sure who this question annoys more- my mother or myself. My parents are fortunate to live in a 2 bedroom pre-war apartment, which means that their apartment is bigger than the average Manhattan apartment today. However, at the end of the day, it is still a two-bedroom apartment. In between all of my stuff for living here for the month, various wedding stuff that has been arriving daily- our ketubah, our guest book, gifts for the bridal party, favors, etc. she is starting to feel like she's running a warehouse. She does not want to store any more stuff. I'm just concerned about schlepping gifts back to Germany. I brought an extra bag with me just in case, and I think TLS will have some room also, but I'm not sure how much.

5) This week I'm on a kosher, gluten-free, vegan, macrobiotic diet.
That's nice.

6) Do you mind if instead of getting a hotel, I just crash at your parents' house the night before the wedding?
Two of my mothers' friends asked this. And I'm not sure how she kept her composure both times. Both friends are tenured professors (one at MIT and one at Tufts) and can afford a hotel for one night. The LAST thing she wants to have to deal with the night before/day of her only child's wedding is hosting guests and preparing brunches.

7) Are you excited for your wedding?
We've already been through this. Why ask the obvious? At my bachelorette party this weekend, we brainstormed snarky responses to this question. My favorite "no. I'm only getting married because my father owes a man a lot of money and this is his way of settling his debts."

Ending this post on a happier note. For all those of you who asked my second pair of wedding shoes for the reception, here they are:

Mopsy and Flopsy

Everyone tells you that you need two pairs of shoes for your wedding- the pretty pair for the ceremony, pictures, and the first dance, and then the comfortable pair for dancing the night away. Few things in this world are more comfortable (or cuter) than Mopsy and Flopsy. I thought my mother was going to have a heart attack when I told her I planned on wearing these under my wedding dress!

It's finally here

2011-05-20T20:20:00.000-07:00

Oh. My. G-d.

In less than 48 hours, I will be Mrs. TLS. Right now, I should be packing up all of our things that we have to bring to the hotel tomorrow. And trust me, there are plenty. (TLS's uniform, our ketubah, bridal party gifts, out of town guest gift bags, guest book, glass for breaking, kiddush cup, and I could go on with this list for another hour or so.)

Instead I am sitting watching Four Weddings on TLC (even though I hate the premise of this show) and eating fruit salad. We had a bit of excitement today over at Casa MRM- my mother was going to get her nails done, as she stepped off the curb, a driver was rounding the corner at full speed, didn't see her, and hit her! In true mommy fashion, she waited until about 2-3 hours in the ER before calling me. Thankfully, Mama M got away with only a lot of bruises and scrapes but no broken bones or head injury. The witnesses who saw it happen said that they thought for sure she was going to go right away at the impact, so someone up there was definitely watching over her today. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for that. She is in a lot of pain and is having some difficulty moving. The doctors said that tomorrow will be the worst pain day for her tomorrow. She did make sure that everyone in the ER knew that her only daughter was getting married on Sunday and she needed the strongest painkillers under the sun to make sure that she could be there. She got 'em. Now, she is upset that she wasn't able to get her nails done and that she can't wear her original shoes that she got for the wedding. Thankfully, this is her biggest worry right now, and not something much, much worse.

Two more wedding related random posts:
1) A sweet friend decided to stop by my mommy's house and surprise me with a pre-wedding card and a fruit salad. Instantly brightened my whole day. Thank you so much Chani. I love you for this and many more reasons.
2) Also, why is it that every single girl who goes on Say Yes to the Dress starts off her monologue with "I'm ______ and I'm here at Kleinfeld to find my perfect wedding dress." You're in a wedding dress shop. What else would you be doing? Ordering the Big Mac special?

Back to packing.

It's finally here

2011-05-05T19:54:00.000-07:00

The day every little girl dreams about.

No, not the day that Santa leaves a miniature Shetland Pony under her tree. (I'm still waiting for that one. ::ahem::)

Even more exciting than that!

Bachelorette Party!!!

(can't you tell that I'm just a wee bit excited?)

Ridiculously early tomorrow morning (at an ungodly hour, really) I will be making my way to Chicago to party it up with my friends. Thank you to Delta for confirming my upgrade for this flight which means that I can start the day off with a Bloody Mary party in 1D.

Also, a shoutout to KMB's boyfriend J who very graciously (really without any choice in the matter) offered (got told) to leave their new apartment for the weekend so that it could be taken over by a bunch of girls and even more shoes. (Between my little and I alone- we're already in the double digits shoe count.)

CAN.NOT.WAIT.

Obligatory Shoe Post

2011-05-03T19:09:00.000-07:00

With only 19 days left on the countdown (ack!) I just ordered a second pair of shoes my wedding! I'm going to change into them after the pictures and first dance for the rest of the evening. I love them so much and could not be more excited about them!

I'm going to make a little game out of it. Post your guess on here and whoever guesses correctly will win a prize. (Don't ask me what because I honestly have not a clue.) In the event that there are several correct guesses- I will use random.org to pick a winner from those names.

Random Musings

2011-04-29T11:06:00.000-07:00

I realize it's been a while since my last blog post. I apologize for that. In between wedding stuff, packing, board member duties (I'm the treasurer for my spouses' association and the audit is coming up!), Passover, and volunteer work, I have been running around like a chicken with its head cut off and have not had much time to blog or catch up on blogs. Today is my first free day and guess what I am doing now. All of the running around did have its benefits- in between not having time to eat and not being able to eat my usual carby foods during Passover, I have managed to lose about 4 or 5 pounds last week. My goal is another 5 pounds this week, right before my big bachelorette weekend in Chicago. I am taking a cue from JGIWC's playbook and am on a no sweets week this week. (It's day 1 and my stomach is already crying for mercy in the form of a cupcake.)

*Arrived in NYC last night. One of the advantages of my fairly regular transatlantic flights is that it gave me Silver Medallion status on Delta. This came in handy yesterday when my Amsterdam-JFK flight was completely packed and as an "elite" I was able to board with the first class passengers. This gave me time to board the plane, stow my carryon Lilly tote, get myself situated, and go to the bathroom all before the mad rush that is general boarding. I always need to travel with a stuffed animal. Always. I will be 90 years old (G-d willing I live that long) and still have a stuffed bear in my suitcase. (My Nana snuggles with the stuffed puppy that I gave her after my grandpa passed every night. It's genetic.) This time around, I had my trusty stuffed Snoopy in my purse. I took him out of my purse and left him and said purse on my seat. (Beagle's gotta breathe.) I came back to my seat from the bathroom to find the crazy lady sitting next to me holding him. She kept on cradling him and playing with him and showing him to all of her friends saying "this is my new best friend." Umm excuse me? He's my best friend. Get your own. It was seriously disturbing and scary. I had to tell her "excuse me, that's mine" and then sit next to her for the next 8 hours. Not cool.

As a side note, she probably would have had better luck attempting to steal my Louis Vuitton than Snoopy.

*First thing my mom said to me when she saw me in the airport- "you look tired. Your undereye circles are huge." Awesome. Living here for a month is going to be a blast.

*I pretty much run on iced green tea and iced passion tea from Starbucks. Seriously. The "we proudly brew Starbucks" coffee shop on base has a punch card- for every 10 drinks you buy, you get one free. I have enough cards for about 6 or 7 free drinks in my wallet now. That's after using at least 4 of them. The people there know me by drink. When I get stressed or nauseous, I need an iced tea to make me feel better. I anticipated a lot of tea drinking during wedding month, so when Starbucks announced that the Trenta was coming for iced teas in May, it seemed like fate. Today, after my awesome workout, I went to Starbucks for the first of what I anticipated would be many trentas, only to have the girl behind the register look at me like I'm crazy and tell me "that's not coming out until July 12th." Oh. My. G-d. I swear all of the color drained from my face and I hadto keep it together and not start bawling in the middle of the Starbucks. (Nope. Not melodramatic at all folks.) I settled for a measly venti. It was half gone by the time I got home. (Starbucks is a whopping two blocks from my parents' house.)

*Am loving the new summer collection on Lilly Pulitzer. Loving. It was like a designer for the company went into my mind and knew exactly what I wanted from a print/dress and delivered. Kudos Lilly. Also, bonus points for having what in my opinion seems to be much better pricing points this collection.

Am obsessed with this dress.

Must.Have.

*The next time someone asks me if I'm excited for my wedding, I'm going to reply with "no. Actually, I'm dreading it like the plague." Why do people always ask this?

*When I got in to JFK yesterday, I asked the immigration officer to stamp a different page than the one she was going to so I could fill it up. I told her it was my goal to fill up all of my pages. Thankfully she thought it was funny and did that rather than say, taking me into a side room for a special "chat."

this brings me to my last point of this very wordy post

*Was originally going to change my last name after the wedding. Then TLS pointed out that when I do that, I will need to get a new passport. Pages 8-15 of my passport are completely filled up. That has taken a lot of mileage to accomplish. I don't want to have to start over from scratch. Am considering waiting until 2013 to change my last name legally (will go by Mrs. S. socially) because that's when my passport expires.

Y'all, I never said I don't have issues. (I like to call them quirks.)

One month

2011-04-22T06:32:00.000-07:00

Oh my G-d. Exactly one month left to go. I am slowly starting to go a little crazy with all that I have left to do:

*Book plane tickets to NYC and to Chicago for my bachelorette party
*Make the deposit for the limo for our getaway car
*Order bridal party and parents' gifts
*Do seating arrangements
*Figure out wording for the programs
*Buy wedding bands
*Order favors
*Order yarmulkes for our male guests
*Have final dress fitting
*Figure out what I'm wearing to the rehearsal dinner
*Break my shoes in
*Buy items for out of town guest gift bags and put those together

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH.

Very much stressed out now.

Insomniacs Anonymous

2011-04-16T17:55:00.000-07:00

For as long as I can remember, I have always, always had a hard time falling asleep. I am incredibly jealous of people who seem to be able to fall asleep in 2.5 seconds, because it usually takes me several hours. (Of course, once I actually do fall asleep, good luck attempting to get me out of bed. It takes nothing less than a full-on drumline combined at once with a volcanic eruption to wake me. Seriously.) Since I have been put on Lisinopril for my heart, it has only made matters worse. One of the side effects is insomnia. Gee thanks. I really needed that. This insomnia is like nothing I've experienced before. It used to be that I would like awake in bed tired and wishing I could fall asleep. Nowadays, I just get a huge burst of energy at night and am too wired to sleep. I've tried taking it first thing in the morning to wear me out, doesn't seem to work.

It is now 2:41am in Germany. So far tonight I've managed to:
*Find 6 more Golden Bananas in Angry Birds Rio.
*Complete the Jungle levels in Angry Birds Rio.
*Ogle Le Creuset on the Bed, Bath, and Beyond website for a solid 20 minutes. Swoon.
*Wash the dishes that were in the sink.
*Sweep the kitchen floor.
*Mop the kitchen floor.
*Run outside to the car to get a shelf we bought at Ikea this morning.
*Rewash the dishes.
*Attempt to assemble said shelf.
*Try again,
*And again.
*Kick things in frustration.
*Take my blood pressure after Ikeagate.
145/100 with a heart rate of 99.
Yea, those heart meds are r-e-a-l-l-y working.
*Order an Easter gift for my niece.
*Update my wedding to-do list.
*Have a glass of water.
*Write this blog post.

Things I have yet to accomplish:
*Sleep

The best thing that came out of this Lisinopril prescription was its brother- the Ambien prescription. I think one's calling my name now. It would be rude not to answer it.

Wedding Wednesday

2011-04-06T13:15:00.000-07:00

Do you ever feel like you get great advice or suggestions only when it's too late? Yea, me too.

Case in point.

The other day, about three or four people suggested that we number the the back of our reply cards so that if someone sends us a blank reply card, we'll still know who it's from. The only suggested that after we got this reply card in the mail.

Yea, thanks for the warning.

A word of advice to all you brides- put a number in pencil on the back of your reply cards and keep a list of who has what number. This way, if you get a reply card like the one above, you won't get stuck trying to figure out who it's from. Information that would have been useful for us to know about a month ago.

Dear Kate Spade

2011-04-04T07:16:00.000-07:00

Why must you do this to me?

AFTER I buy my wedding shoes.

Why?

I love it all.

May get this anyway.

Might make a cute bridesmaid gift.

As usual, I am in love with everything you do, Kate Spade. Nothing has changed since the 8th grade.

Preppy Girl Meets World

This Time Tomorrow

Travel Essentials

Not a Fan

Call for Book Suggestions (and giveaway winner announced)

Tag I'm It! (And so are you!)

On Weekends

Non-Buyer's Remorse

If You Give a Girl a Camera

Preppy Sorority Girl Favor Needed

She Went to Paris

January sponsors

Friday 5- Etsy Love

UPrinting Giveaway

My Memories Giveaway winner

Lilly Pulitzer Warehouse Sale

Things Never to Say to Me

Happy New Year

On Airline Travel

A Very Merry Christmas

My Memories Suite Giveaway

Trains, Trains, and Automobiles (picture heave post)

Commissary Surprise

An Open Letter

giveaway winner

Not Soap, Radio Review

Today I am Grateful For

Scentsy give*away

Vineyard Vines Tervis- Beuller

Chai Y'all

Exfoliating Minerals Review

The one with the puffy vest

Cyber Monday Overload

Happy Thanksgiving

6 months ago

On Starbucks

where I've been

All I Want for Hannukah Is

Oh baby!

Rabbit Rabbit

randomness from my tiny kitchen

The Search for the Great Pumpkin and give*a*way

Still here

Rabbit Rabbit

Update

all the small things

A Case of the Blahs

giveaway winners

Rabbit Rabbit

Can you ever have enough polos?

Midweek randoms

10 things

Shake Shack Wedding

Anchored Style giveaway

Lilly Pulitzer Endless Summer Sale

I'm Baaaaaaaaaaaack

Dedicated to my Pen Pal!

Happiness Is...

my bags aren't packed, I'm not ready to go

iPhone Covergate

randoms

you've got questions, I've got answers

England on my Mind

Dear Amazon.com

They're Baaaaaaaaaack

Extreme Couponing

Rabbit Rabbit

Scentsy give*away

I had a little Kindle

Midweek Randoms

giveaway winner

Professional Wedding Pictures #1

Happy birthday to me

Birthday Month Giveaway #2

Midweek Randoms and giveaway winner

Rüdesheim

Birthday Month Giveaway #1

Midweek Randoms

Photography question and Sperry giveaway winner

a few wedding pictures

The Search for the Great Pumpkin and giveaway