Fashion Orgasm

I'm a bit behind on this post, but I wanted to share some of the amazing deals I got recently on Bluefly. Two weeks ago I was cleaning up my email inbox and an email from Bluefly caught my eye because the subject line read, "Believe It: EVERYTHING is $29.97 (10-hour private event!)."

Are you freaking kidding me? There has got to be a catch.

So of course I clicked over and I saw that shoes from Prada, Dior, Jimmy Choo, etc. were in other member's carts for $29.97. Yeah, right.

I started looking through what was available in my size and thankfully due to my big feet a few things were left in my size. With the rest of my birthday money I was able to pick up the following beauties.

Um, yes please! I can't wait for the summer sandal season.

Why yes, I did wear these while washing dishes the first night they came. The hubs looked at me, but I just told him, "I have to break them in!"

This blazer fits like butter. It's also made in NY!

This is by far my favorite LBD. It's super structured. The belt is detachable and I plan on wearing it with tons of other outfits. Entire outfit is made in the USA!

Total Retail Cost of four items: $1480

1. Tod's Sandals - $475
2. Pour La Victoire Boots - $310
3. Alex Lane blazer - $365
4. Mark & James by Badgley Mischka dress - $330

Oh wait, did I have a coupon for free shipping? Oh, yes I did!

Total cost to me: $119.88

Yes, I saved 92% off of retail costs.

Point. Set. Match. - GINGER

I even wore my new blazer down in Puerto Rico last week during a work trip.

However, I am officially on shopping lockdown. We're planning some major home renovations and funds are being siphoned off to those projects. BOO!!!

Any other great shopping deals you've scored lately?

Catbird Love

Source

It seems that the longer I live away from where I grew up, the more proud I become to say, "I was born in Jersey, grew up in New York." If someone wants to infer from that statement that I grew up in New York City, then they're gravely mistaken, but that's not the point I'm trying to make at the moment. Please note that Manhattan Island isn't even on the necklace :)

With a bit of extra birthday money in my bank account due to the exceptional generosity of family members I pulled the proverbial trigger and added this beauty from Catbird to my small, but growing, jewelry collection.

Source

I was beyond excited when this necklace showed up in my mailbox last week. I've been wearing it ever since, which means I should probably brush my hair at some point and take a picture of me wearing it!

It's lovely and delicate, which is the exact opposite of the perception of people from NY/NJ.

Oh, the absolute best thing about this necklace? It's made in the good ol' USA in Brooklyn to be exact.

I actually found Catbird through Pinterest and when I pinned the necklace one of my friends from Brooklyn raved about the store. I'm completely addicted and I'm eyeing quite a few things. I may or may not have signed up the hubs on their email list. Although, the guy doesn't need an email list to see that I'm completely smitten. :)

Photo of the week: March 15, 2012

Exposure - 1/320

Aperture - f/5.6

ISO - 400

Earlier this week I was an absolute zombie. I couldn't tell if it was being tired from a hectic weekend or if it was Daylight Savings Time kicking my butt.

All tiredness quickly evaporated when I realized that the time change resulted in more outdoor puppy play time with the pups. Throw in mid-70 degree weather and I think everyone was happy.

Kelly St. Patrick's Day Shamrock 5K

Ladies and gentlemen... the hubs has a 5k PR!

On Sunday, the hubs and I joined 4,998 other Shamrock themed runners to run the Kelly St. Patrick's Day Shamrock 5k in Baltimore. Now, we recognized a vital mistake that we made last year. Traditionally, I don't wear a race shirt at the actual race, but during last year's 5k the hubs and I quickly realized we were in the minority of folks not wearing the green race shirt. However, this year the race shirt was a very nice, albeit bright, neon green, long-sleeve Brook's technical shirt. While I love the shirt, the weather was a nice and unseasonably warm 65 degrees on Sunday. So I bucked the trend and wore last year's short-sleeve shirt and the hubs wore this year's long sleeve edition.

Now, in my mind this particular race is not run for time. The instructions yelled out at the beginning of the race were as follows:

"If you think you are really fast, then stand on the front line. If you're going to be looking for a chair during the race then head to the back of the pack."

Yeah, it's one of my biggest pet peeves about races when people who line up where they shouldn't be. Look, I'm not fast. If I'm going to pass you a quarter of a mile in and you're walking, then perhaps you need to move to the back of the pack.

30 seconds into the race I realize that I wouldn't be running a fast time during the race. There were so many people that the hubs and I started out at an 11 minute mile pace because we were hopping around so many people. It was frustrating. The hubs however, had a chance to run a PR and that's what we went with that goal.

After the race, we met up with friends at Power Plant Live! and enjoyed the post-race festivities. Look, a race in which you're allowed to walk up to the beer line and get handed as many cans of beer as you can carry is an okay race in my book.

The hubs and I were tickled pink to see that one of our friends made it into the Charm City Run photos from the race. He's the guy in the middle area wearing a court jester hat!

Marine Corps Marathon: 2 hours and 41 minutes

HECK NO IS THAT MY TIME!!!!

Wednesday at 3pm ET registration opened for the 37th running of the Marine Corps Marathon which will be held on Sunday, October 28th in parts of our nation's capital.

(Seeing the family around mile 16 during 2010's MCM)

I tried registering promptly at 3:01pm and couldn't access the registration site through Active.com. There were so many people attempting to register that it shut down the website!

Thankfully, at 3:20pm I was able to register! I was nervous because I didn't get my confirmation email for a few more hours.

However, the race sold out in 2 hours and 41 minutes and according to RunningUSA that's the fastest sell out of all U.S. marathons! For reference, Tezata Dengersa, the 2011 Women's Winner of MCM ran the course in 2:39:19. The race sold out in just over two minutes slower than the fastest woman last year ran the race!

It's crazy and inspiring that there are so many people out there in the world that want to run the People's Marathon. I don't know if Marine Corps will go the way of Boston and introduce some type of rolling admission because that seems counter-intuitive to the entire notion of having a "People's Marathon." I just know that in future years I'm going to make sure to have a calendar reminder setup for registration time and register ASAP.

I've already been shut out of one race this year and I wasn't about to let Marine Corps be my second.

I'm really looking forward to running MCM again. I've run the same half marathon three years in a row and it's really nice knowing a course and having a heads up on where the hills and trouble spots are located. It'll be very calming on October 28th that I've survived the course before and I can do it again.

The only downside to 2012's MCM edition is that my bestie isn't running :( She's in the lottery for NYC and I hope to goodness she gets in. Unfortunately, the races are just a week apart so there's no way she could do both. I know I can count on her to cheer for me during MCM and perhaps I need to return the favor and go to to New York to cheer for her as well.

I'm kind of nervous, this will be the first big race I've run without her. She's been at the start line with me and has waited at the finish for me for every half marathon or marathon I've run. This is going to be weird. However, I do remember her cheering for me during the 2010 Cherry Blossom and it was amazing to hear her voice pop up all over the course. Okay, it looks like I definitely need to go to New York and return the favor :)

Anyone else running Marine Corps? Any other fall marathons on your calendar?

Photo of the week: March 6, 2012

Exposure - 1/320

Aperture - f/5.0

ISO - 400

It seems odd to say that spring is coming when we didn't really have a winter this year. Just a few glimpses of snow and it seems the winter season was a bust. Of course there were a few freak snow flurries yesterday, but temperatures are projected to be in the high 60s later this week.

The plus side, is that this is the first spring in our new home. It's going to be interesting to see what pops and blooms in our yard this year. Including the above guy who is popping up in the middle of our backyard!

Wanted: Girl Scout Cookies for Thin Mint Truffles

Confession: I was a girl scout as a child. Oh hell, who am I kidding? I was a girl scout all the way through high school. While my time in the scouts probably didn't teach me everything I know about camping it has taught me to ignore small children trying to sell you things outside of a store.

Been there, done that! I know your bag of tricks!

However, my kryptonite is Thin Mint cookies. I may or may not have a box of Thin Mints and Tagalogs stashed in my desk. Crap, I just outed my stash.

The Thin Mint problem is so large at my house that even the hubs is hiding boxes of green goodness. You should have seen the look on his face when I told him I was going to make Thin Mint Truffles and I was going to use a whole box of green cookies in the process.

Armed with a simple recipe, first seen on Pinterest and located at Confessions of a Cookbook Queen, I assembled my ingredients for truffle making.

Yeah, three whole ingredients: box of Thin Mints, 60z bar of dark chocolate , and 4oz of softened cream cheese. The directions say this will make about 24 truffles. I made 26, which means my truffle measuring skills weren't that far off the mark!

Step 1: Crush Thin Mints. You can either use a food processor or go old school like me and throw your cookies in a large freezer bag (Ziploc is a brand people, not the type of bag!) and crush your cookies with a rolling pin.

Step 2: Add crushed cookies to cream cheese. I tried with a spoon and fork, but quickly realized I was going to have to make this a hands on project.

Step 3: Roll into 1 inch balls and place on wax lined baking pan.

Step 3.5: Clean off a shelf in your fridge so that you can proceed to Step 4. Bonus points for using a pan in Step 3 that will actually fit in your fridge!

Step 4: Stash your truffles in the fridge for 30 minutes.

This is where I had another glass of wine to match the hubs' Jack and Coke consumption. The dude was making chili for dinner and it was fun to cook together.

Step 5: Melt your chocolate. I went with the double broiler technique.

Step 6: Use a toothpick or fork and dip truffles in melted chocolate. Do not feel afraid to move chocolate back to the stove to keep it fluid if you're taking a while to coat your truffles.

Step 7: Decorate your truffles! Add sprinkles, nonpareils, icing, crushed cookies, etc. or leave them in their natural chocolate state.

(Wiggle! Wiggle!)

Step 8: Refrigerate until firm.

Enjoy!