Retail Therapy, Deals & Steals, and Lovin' Etsy

I don't know about you guys, but for me there is something so incredibly rewarding about bargain shopping! Not only is it retail therapy, but you feel awesome just for having gotten such great deals. :) For example, last night my mom and I met up at the Nordstrom Rack by South Coast Plaza, as I had a few things I've been looking for and mom is (still) trying to find something to wear for my uncle's wedding next month. [Just a note for the ladies - could it be any harder to find something appropriate for a plus-size woman? It's a daytime wedding, but super casual because it's both their second time around and it's a fall wedding. Poor mom. We're open for suggestions!] We even went through the designer racks in the hopes of finding something really cool for her that she could wear again, but no luck. And I consider myself a pretty savvy shopper, but jeez! Nothing to be found - and we went over to Talbots and Chico's too!

However, I did manage to snag a few things for myself at the Rack - a cute black dress from Calvin Klein ($35!) that I can even wear to work, a cozy green & black houndstooth-type coat, a bra and some undies. At full price it all would have cost me about $300, but I only paid $120. Woooo! :)

Ahhh, Artistry

I'm pretty sure I've gushed about this website to some of you, but it's about time I linked y'all up! It's called Etsy, and it's basically a place where people can sell their handmade stuff - whether its paintings, jewelry, dog clothes, handbags, etc. So if you love unique pieces like me but get tired of trolling through vintage/thrift stores, I think you'll love this site as much as I do. :) And the best part? Most items are super affordable, because they're by people that only sell their things part time, or are just starting out. And a lot of them offer to make you custom versions of their items! I'm definitely planning on doing a bunch of my Christmas shopping there! And maybe a few things for me... ;)

For example, here's a few things that are on my faves list right now:

"Vanessa Lace Clutch" by Madison Gre:

"Sexy Brown Pleats Bag" by Daphnenen:

"Captured Pearl Earrings" by Precious Meshes:

And, last but not least, this stunning "Tell Your Story" print by the talented Kelly Rae Roberts:
Isn't that stunning?? I'm going to have to exercise serious self-control when I finally go to make my purchases!

I think that's enough about retail therapy (for the time being, anyways!). In other news, a pretty quiet week, just getting ready for a busy next couple of weeks: first our old family friend Cheryl is coming to visit next weekend, then a 4-day trip to Vegas the first weekend in November, then the weekend after that is my uncle's wedding. And then it's all downhill into the holidays from there!

~Trude

Birthday Wrap-Up

I can't believe I went so long without a single, solitary post! Bad blogger, bad, bad blogger! But I suppose with my birthday last weekend and everything I got a little distracted. :)

I Have the Power of Touch

In deference to a recent post, the first order of business is definitely: I GOT AN IPOD TOUCH FOR MY BIRTHDAY!! Aaaaahhhhhhh!!! :D

Of all people, the guys at work gave it to me! It was such a surprise, I was totally content with nothing at all; a card, maybe. But they took me to lunch and everything. It was so touching. :) (No pun intended!) I guess my boss was actually listening when I wouldn't stop raving about it! And they even had it engraved with my name and number, just in cases. Now I can't stop playing with it! I'm constantly checking for a wi-fi connection everywhere I go...so addicted. It even kept me distracted from the cold last night at the dog park. [I don't know what it is about that place, but with the open area and grass it seems 15 degrees colder than everywhere around it!]

24th Birthday Weekend

Y'know, its funny, I've kinda gotten over birthdays since high school - only one real party since I turned 17. As I see it, the best part about a birthday is that it's a really good excuse to get all my friends and all my family together - doesn't really matter what we do, or if I get gifts or whatever. Although I have to admit I don't mind milking it in order to go eat somewhere we normally wouldn't! (Like the Mission Inn's Sunday brunch last year.) :)

The previous weekend we had gone to dinner with Chris' family in order to celebrate my and Hillary's birthdays, since we were so close together. His grandma made her Texas sheetcake...mmm....and his parents got me a lovely bag and bracelets. :)

So that yummy work lunch last Friday kicked off my birthday weekend (and it didn't hurt my mood that I got off work at 4!). That night "the gang" took me out (meaning Chris, Mindy, Nikki, Katie, Colby, Nancy and Kris) to the Commonwealth Lounge for dinner and drinks. It was all going pretty well (except our terrible waitress), and they had a great 3 piece jazz band that played a set, but after that they changed the music to 70s disco! And beforehand it had been the Rat Pack! Kinda ruined the mood, especially since in downtown Fullerton it's de rigeur to play the music really loud no matter what, so ignoring the background music isn't an option. Thus, we decided to head back to our apartment, and wound up having a really nice time just hanging out with everyone.

Saturday morning we actually got up at a decent hour and Chris and I went to old towne Orange so that I could pick out my gift - a potentially wallet-deadly idea on his part! I'm still kicking myself for not bringing my parents' camera that I was borrowing for the week, as it was gorgeous that day. About 73 degrees, not a cloud in the sky, light breeze...perfect. I dragged Chris through three vintage warehouses (they can't possibly count as stores with that much square footage!) before I finally found just the right thing. Good thing too, because we were starting to go cross-eyed from all the stuff they manage to cram in those stores!

Turns out that a lovely vintage pearl necklace from The Antique Mall was just what I've been looking for! I've been meaning to replace an old fake strand that I wore out, and this one said hello. (See further down for a photo.) The coolest part (I think) is that the pearls have that lovely off-white, aged color to them, and they're natural so they're just slightly misshapen, which I prefer anyways. :) I think they're quite the find, considering what he paid for them. But it was really fun going together - it took out the guesswork for him, let me find exactly what I wanted, and also made us take some alone time away from the apartment and the pup (and we weren't running errands!).

Saturday night we packed ourselves and the pup into the car and headed up to my parents house for dinner. While we were waiting for Eirik to drive over from work (picking up his awesome girlfriend on the way) we had some yummy pink champagne and my aunties called to sing to me, as per usual. Here's me opening their card (click for larger):

Even though I seriously despise the birthday song, I tolerate it from them because it's tradition, especially because Grandma isn't around to sing it anymore. You can see my new necklace in the photo - and this awesome dress from the Gap, of all places, that I couldn't resist getting myself. So cute, and it has pockets! I actually wore it to work today too. :D

Once everyone was present we headed over to the local Mexican place called the Whole Enchilada that I love. Even though they don't take reservations, my mom convinced them to set up a table for us, since we were 7 people and the place isn't all that big. So delicious, and I had a strawberry pina colada too. Yum! Then it was back to the house for my birthday cake that I've been dreaming about for the last two months - mom bakes it for me special. It's a torte with fresh dream mixed with orange liquer in between the layers, with a thick layer of marzipan over the whole thing. SO good!! It's a pretty complicated cake to make, so she usually only does it for my birthday. :)

Then Sunday was a nice lazy day, which I really needed too. All in all a really fantastic weekend!

More Pages

I was incredibly inspired the past couple of weeks, so here's a few of the results (if you want more, check out the gallery links to the right):

"To Me, From Me"
For credits and info, click here.

"Take Along A Friend"
Again, for credits click here.

"Daily Dose of Love"
I know, I know, yet another pup-photo layout, but I can't help myself! The dare was about something you do every day, so don't blame me. ;) Credits can be found here.

"Summer Girls"Aren't my cousin and her friend so cute? Been meaning to work with this photo for long time. Go here for more info.

And last but not least, this one -
Definitely one of my new favorites! Credits are here.

Now we're getting ready for Halloween and the rest of the holidays - just got Jacopo's costume tonight, but I'm not going to tell what it is until I have a photo! :) Hope everyone else is doing well!

~Trude

Quote of the moment (a fun one!): "Those who believe in telekinetics, raise my hand." ~Kurt Vonnegut

Just Say No

I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one who feels this way (Katie the fashion diva for sure agrees with me!), and I just had to randomly vent* - if you have a spare $650 laying around, do NOT, under any circumstances, in the name of all that is holy, spend it on this:
I don't care if it is Mr. Vuitton making it, any and all versions of the fanny pack should not be allowed! Unless you are a street vendor of some kind, then I might be forgiving.

In the event you are tempted and need to be re-directed in your spending, I am available for consultation and advice (at a minimal fee, of course).

~Trude

*I have seen two different individuals wearing one of these eyesores in the past week! So not such a random venting.

Touching iPods & Too Much Scrapbooking

Yet another Friday post...

My New Obsession

So usually I'm not the biggest techno-hoarder (don't get me wrong, me loves the new toys and developments, but I don't need to be the first person to have them), but the new iPod touch has got me shakin' like a junkie who needs a fix! It is just the coolest gadget ever...or at least since the iPhone. :) Do I even need to go into why it's so cool? Just look at it!! I would never bother with the iPhone, especially since I'm locked into my plan and don't want AT&T, but THIS one I do want!! So pay attention friends and family, since my birthday and Christmas are both coming up! :) Now I just need a new car that I can run my iPod through directly....

More and More Pages

Been on a scrappin' kick lately, and participating in online challenges and stuff to get my creativity going has really helped! Plus the photos I've been taking lately were just screaming to be scrapped. :)

So first we have "Still the One", which I framed for my mom's birthday two weeks ago:
Then this one was just for fun, because the photos my dad took were so amazingly expressive I had to use them!

I made this one for the Hodge Podge challenge, which was to "Get Naked". So fun! :D

I also participated in the last two weeks of challenges over at The Digi Dares, which are always so much fun but sometimes I just don't have time. Here's "Somewhere In Their Smiles":

The title is a play off of a Beatles lyric - big hug if you can guess what it is! :) I also did this one too, which really took me out of my usual box/style:

And then today I was rather productive! For some reason, some days it just flows for you, others it doesn't. And today it did, because I'm seriously in love with this new layout:

Gotta love beach photos! And then I did this, because I finally caved and bought this kit I've had my eye on, specifically to use this photo (although it'll come in handy for other pages, I'm sure!):

Phew!! You can view credits for all of them either here or here.

In Other News

My brother's birthday (Eirik) was Wednesday, and tomorrow night everyone is getting together at my parents house - both to celebrate and just because! :) I can't believe he's 22 already...and that means I'll be 24 in less than a month! Holy sh*tballs! But I'm looking forward to seeing everyone - even my uncle and his girlfriend are coming up from SD, and hopefully my cousin Sarah too. Plus Ross and Lidvor are back from their little jaunt to Thor-knows-where, so it'll really be a big get-together. I'm planning on getting photos of everybody and everything with the D40, as part of a brilliant idea I've had for a gigantic time-consuming project Christmas gift for everyone (thanks in part to Simple Scrapbooks). But I can't say yet what it'll be...

Last weekend we took Jacopo to the dog beach in Huntington for the first time, and it was sooo awesome. We all had a blast (albeit at the expense of exhausting ourselves), and Chris and I were super proud parents because Jacopo behaved so well off-leash and was perfectly obedient. My favorite photo from the day is this one (no editing, I swear!):

Then Sunday we went to a BBQ at our friends Angie and Christian's place, which was a blast, especially since we brought the puppy with us and he got to go in a hot tub for the first time. Oh yeah, and the people were cool too. ;-)

Hope everyone else had a great week!

~T

Quote of the moment: "Even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit still." ~Will Rogers

He's Baaack...

...and sporting a hilarious piratey/70s/crazy mustache, no less.

At least he had shaved off the homeless-guy-style beard he had been sporting most of the tour, though! :)

The Lead-Up

As I noted, last week was pretty crazy, but I couldn't resist the Wednesday $2 specials over at My Digital Muse and wound up buying two kits - but they're such a deal!! Haven't had a chance to use them yet, of course, but still sooo cute!

Simplicity by Holly McCaig:

And Tour d' Eiffel by Royanna Fritschmann:I also treated myself to a day off on Friday, so that I could get everything done that I wanted to before Chris got home. It was craziness, I can't believe I managed to squeeze so much in! That night Nikki and I took out our former Team Leader, Nancy, as a belated birthday dinner. Surprise, we wound up at Honda-Ya, the awesome Japanese place near me, and then scooted over to Dave & Buster's in Orange for some chocolate fun-due for dessert. ;-) Big props to Nikki for managing to make me laugh like a lunatic every time I tried to eat a chocolate-dipped marshmallow. But I got her back, so I think we're even...for now...

The Big Day

I don't know how we would have managed on Saturday if the weather hadn't had a sudden downturn in temperature - if it had been the weekend before, they would have had to constantly be carting kids off due to heat exhaustion! But luckily it was nice and cool and cloudy for half the day, and got nice and chilly again once the sun went down.

So the lines were insane to get in, but luckily after waiting in a fairly short line for our VIP wristbands, we (meaning me, our good friend Parris [really Chris, but since there's too many Chriseseses we use last names], his sister Lena, and our friend Derek) were able to just walk on in. But I felt bad for the mile-plus-long line that everyone else had to wait in! It really made me remember why I don't do outdoor festivals like this, ever - that and the fact that there was no seating, and really no shade except in the vendor's tents. It's no wonder it was mostly under-20-somethings in attendance!

Once we made it in, I made a beeline for Chris' stage, which of course was the last one we found (they had about 6 or 7 stages in total so that there's always at least 2 bands playing at any given time during the day). Here's what Chris' looked like (click the photo for larger):
And yes, he really did get that brown. Some places were so hot (can you say the South in July??) he would spend the day shirtless, so he managed to even out the farmer's tan. :) Damn brat never burns. Here's another shot of him hard at "work" (j/k honey, j/k!):
So we basically spent the day either watching Chris work his magic or wandering around the venue catching other bands. The best part had to be Flogging Molly (of course) at the end, but there were several other good up-and-coming bands.

Here's Lena and I being sweet, with the port-a-potties adding a nice touch of sour to balance:
Luckily we had Parris and Derek along with, because for a couple of the bands the crowd was really huge and started really pressing on Chris' tent area. So here they are helping the security guard keep the railing from knocking all the equipment over:All in all a fun day (despite the sunburn) although we were all super exhausted by the time it came down around 8:30 that night or so. It felt like it was midnight or something!! But we managed to drag ourselves to In-N-Out on the way home, since Chris was craving it. :)

Daily Something

Since Chris got home, my Daily Somethings have really been him and I being able to spend some quality time together, and also he and the puppy constantly cuddling. You should have seen how nuts Jacopo went when we picked him up from my parents house on Sunday! I didn't think his tail could move like that! So they've been playing and napping together and being goofballs ever since Sunday. It's almost too much cuteness for me to handle.
I also managed to catch this shot with Jacopo's sleepy face clearly evident (finally!):Cute, que no?

In Other News

The house hunt is still on, I'm just getting sick and tired of spam postings and people not returning my calls. If the place is already taken, just let me know so I can cross it off!! Geez.

Our old friends from Norway, Ross and Lidvor, just got into town yesterday, and I can't wait to see them! She's my godmother, and they're the most awesome people. He's Scottish, she's Norwegian, and they both have the most awesome, witty, dirty sense of humor. They're a blast to hang out with. :) I'm sure I'll have photos to post soon!

I think that's officially the longest blog on here, so I'll leave it at that. :)


~T

Quote of the moment: "If you want to know what God thinks of money, just look at the people he gave it to." ~Dorothy Parker

Scary Motorcycliststststs

I had a scary flashback from my childhood the day before yesterday that totally took me by surprise!

For backstory: I can still remember clearly going to the door in our old house in Norway and being scared witless by my dad's friend standing there, still wearing his full motorcycle regalia (helmet, black leather jacket and pants, boots) and being scared shitless. I must've been about 3 years old, but it's one of the few clear memories I have of living there.

Fast forward to 23 years old: So yesterday I was walking towards the printer at work, when I glanced out the window/wall (it's pretty much a wall made of windows) to see in the next parking lot over a helmeted, black-leather-clad guy (and before you catch me on sexism, I could tell by the walk!!) walking towards me. My heart honestly skipped a beat before I could even think twice, until I realized that it wasn't me he was walking towards, it was his bike.

Yeah, funny how things we experience at such a young age can be so ingrained in our memories as to affect us without us even thinking about it.

Busy, Busy, Busy

Keeping busy this week, although I'm still tired from actually going out late both nights this past weekend. But it was totally worth having some real me-fun-time before the boy gets back (only 3 more days!!). :D

Nikki came over Monday night, because we were missing each other and hadn't gotten a chance to hang out over the weekend. So we splurged on Chipotle (YUM) and rented "The Queen", which was a pretty decent movie. I suppose the only reason we didn't like it more is because Helen Mirren's character is so hard to like. And we both thought Michael Sheen, who played Tony Blair, deserved more credit than he got. On the whole very interesting storytelling, but I think I probably would have liked Pan's Labyrinth more, which we almost rented too.

Jacopo graduated from obedience class on Tuesday night, which made me such a proud mama!! Even though he had been nutty when we first got there (early, so we could have a bit of a walk to burn off steam that he had been gathering at home alone all day), he was a prince for the "testing" and made me so proud. :D Even though you pass the class no matter what, I was still happy, and I'm hoping if we keep on practicing we'll be able to make it through the other classes that are required for him to become a therapy dog.

For some photo coolness, I finally got my parents to sign up for their own Flickr account, seeing as they took some super gorgeous photos on their trip to New England a few weeks ago. If you like looking at random cool photos, you can check them out here. And for a teaser:

And That's It...

Chris gets back on Saturday, so don't expect to hear from me for a while!! ;-)


~Trude

Quote of the moment: "It has been said that man is a rational animal. All my life I have been searching for evidence which could support this." ~Bertrand Russell

Just A Note

I've had to put on some security if you go to post a comment, as I've started getting crap spammy posts. Can you believe that people think they can get you to buy something by posting on your blog??

Anyhoo, it's just one of those encrypted things where you type whatever letters show up. I'm pretty confident you guys can handle that. :)

~Trude

PS Chris countdown: 4.5 days!!!