Two Things I Love.....

...A Really Cute Hair Accessory and A Discount Code! If you love rocking a ponytail, make it even more fun by adding one of these precious flower ponytail holders. Don't forget to enter the code (located at the bottom of the image below) for your 25% discount!

Diet Update

I completed my second month of my new diet, and I am happy to report that there is a little less of me to love! I have lost a total of 14 pounds! Yippeee! I am so excited! Thank you for all your kinds words and support during my weight loss journey. I still have a lot of pounds to go, but I am so pleased with my progress! My goals for the upcoming months include increasing my exercise (I have been majorly slacking) and drinking more water (This is such a hard one for me).

Image found here.

Sorry for the short post! I have been a bit under the weather this week. Nothing major-just a little bug. However, I am late for my appointment with my blanket, my couch, and a yummy bowl of soup! Have a wonderful day, and hopefully I will be back in full force tomorrow!!!

Monday Edition: My FavoriteThings

This is one of my favorite times of the year-Free Gift With Purchase Time!!! Clinique is currently offering a free gift with a purchase of $21.50 or more at Macy's. Now I have to admit that I am not usually a Clinique girl. I do enjoy their lip sticks and lip glosses, but I have never ventured much further into the Clinique line. Nothing against Clinique, It’s just normally not what I use.

However when free gift time rolls around, I usually treat myself to a new make-up product or skin care product if my budget allows and if the free gift is super cute! The current free gift from Clinique definitely falls under the super cute category! See for yourself-the picture is below!


You can choose the red or green. I picked the green. As for the what I purchased to get my free gift, I treated myself to the Turnaround Instant Facial. I have used it twice now, and I absolutely love it! You may see a Monday Edition about it soon!!!

$110 vs. $10

Let me take you back in time a little to Dec. 31st, 2008. Michael and I were attending a fabulous New Year's Eve Party! The dress was semi-formal. Most everyone was wearing cocktail attire. As guests were filing in, I noticed one girl in particular. She was young and cute, and I was in love-with her headband! Her headband was magnificent! It was a normal headband with a jeweled fleur de lis attached. I was obsessed with this headband, so I made my way through the crowd to find out where I could purchase such a cute hair accessory. By Jan. 2nd, I was at the store ready to make my purchase!

The store was all out of the headbands, so they proceeded to order one for me. I stupidly did not ask the cost. I mean-It's a headband. How much can a headband really cost? I was thinking at most it would cost $50-$70. That is a little much for my budget, but oh how I loved this headband. She rang me up (you have to pay before they order) and told me my total-$110! $110 for a headband! I don't think so! I had her cancel the order, and I left the store without hope of ever owning a sparkly fleur de lis headband.

Fast forward to earlier this week, I was in Target with my friend and coworker, Heather. We love taking our lunch break browsing Target for shoes, clothes, or whatever we are in the mood for. That day I had accessories on the brain, so Heather and I headed over to look at the earrings when I spotted some really cute headbands. Better yet, I spotted a sparkly headband! I tried it on and fell in love. I was almost afraid to look at the price tag after the last sparkly headband incident, but I was pleasantly surprised to find this headband was only $9.99. I happily gave Target my money and went home with a great headband! I love it, and I can't wait to wear it the next time I need to add a little something to one of my dresses!!!

Here are a few pictures I took of the headband while I was getting dressed the other morning. No, I am not naked. I have on a strapless knit dress that I love to wear when I am getting ready. Sorry for the poor quality and my creepy eye in the first pic. I took these with my phone. What do you think? Thumbs up or thumbs down on the headband?



If you like the headband and want one for your very own, visit your local Target or you can also find it here.

Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend!

I was recently invited to attend an event called Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend. As soon as I saw the title show up in my facebook events I was intrigued! The event was hosted by a new local jewelry store, Tena's, and it benefited the Loran Smith Center for Cancer Support. The Loran Smith Center for Cancer Support is an amazing service in the Athens area that offers support in the form of classes, counseling, workshops, etc... for cancer patients and those caring for loved ones with cancer.

I convinced my friend, Katie, to go with me to this event, and we had a fabulous time. We enjoyed yummy refreshments, they cleaned our jewelry, and they let us try on as many pieces of jewelry as we wanted. We were even entered into a drawing to win a diamond pendant (we didn't win, but the anticipation of winning was still fun). As we left the event, they gave us free jewelry cleaner and a cute tin of custom M&Ms. We enjoyed all of this for a $5 donation! I never knew $5 could be so much!

My favorite part of the evening, other than spending quality time with my precious friend and supporting a great cause, was trying on the jewelry! Katie and I enjoyed trying on a variety of jewelry pieces, but for some reason we kept going back to the diamonds. :) We loved trying on the diamond rings! We even added a few rings to our wish list!

One of my favorite pieces all night had to be the stackable rings! I have never been a fan of stackable bands, but these were different! These rings were unique, fun, and reasonably priced! They are definitely at the top of my wish list!

Here are a few of my favorites!
I couldn't find individual pictures of the 3 rings that I stacked the other night and fell in love with, but the pictures above give you a pretty good idea of just how beautiful the stacked rings can be!

Hostess Gift Found!

Thank you so much for helping me with my hostess gift emergency! All of you had such wonderful ideas that I started a file with all of your suggestions so the next time I have a hostess gift to buy I will be more than prepared!

After reading all of your suggestions, I visited my favorite local gift shop, Plain Jane Designs, to pick up a wine stopper. My plan was to pair it with cute napkins or cute wine charms. However, the beautiful wine stoppers they once had were sold out. I had no idea what to do because I didn't have time to visit another store looking for wine stoppers. I wandered around the store aimlessly not knowing where to turn next when the owner, Jane, stepped in to help. I told her my situation, and she put together the cutest hostess gift for me!

The gift included a small pewter platter, a matching pewter spreader, and a jar of specialty jam. Attached to the gift was a recipe to make with the jam. Here are a few pictures! Sorry for the poor quality. I was snapping pictures of the gift as my husband was dragging me out the door to leave for the party.






The party was so much fun! We drank wine, sampled cheeses, and even made some new friends!

By the way, sorry for missing my Monday post. I got home late Monday night. I had a fun girl's night out! I will tell you all about it tomorrow! It involved trying on expensive jewelry! What a way to spend an evening!!!!

Advice Needed!

Hi all! I am writing this quick post to ask for your help. Michael and I have been invited to a wine and cheese party tonight. I just found out about it last night because Michael forgot to tell me. I don't know the couple very well, but we have been building a friendship with them over the past few weeks. What should I bring as a hostess gift? I would normally take something like a bottle of wine, but since it is a wine and cheese party I wasn't sure if I should bring wine. My other thoughts were flowers or maybe even one of those really cute wine stoppers. What are your ideas? Thanks in advance for your help! Y'all are the best!!!