Category Archives: Shopping

An Evening Of Makeup (or Besame Cosmetics)

Posted on December 17, 2014 | 1 comment

Right after Brandi’s birthday brunch, I had to rush to get to my next event for the day. I had been invited to check out Besame Cosmetics and the launch of their latest product. But since I’m not great at doing makeup, my in between stop was here.

A new friend of mine from Orangetheory is a makeup artist for Smashbox and she offered to do my makeup for me before I headed to Burbank for the Besame event. I said yes right away and was so excited to have my makeup done.

As soon as she was done, I was shocked at how I looked. I don’t think I’ve ever felt so pretty!

While it seemed like a lot of makeup to me, it was the perfect amount and I couldn’t have been happier with my look!

As soon as I got to Burbank, I found a parking spot in front of the store and headed inside.

I hadn’t heard of Besame Cosmetics before this event, but their makeup all has a vintage theme and has fewer ingredients than most companies (making them better for sensitive skin). Their store was so cute!

The launch party was for their new Vanilla Brightening Face Powder.

It’s a translucent powder that can be used with or without foundation. And it seriously helps to brighten up any dark spots or circles on your face (sadly, I forgot to take a picture after I tried it out). The Vanilla Brightening Face Powder is for light to medium skin but they also have a French Vanilla Brightening Face Powder for darker complexions.

What I loved the most about this product was it is pretty much fool-proof (a necessity for any makeup that I use). It also smells super yummy!

I checked out all the various products that they had at their store and then starting chatting with some other bloggers. The women I met at this event were so friendly and happy to give me some pointers on what I can do to make this blog better. I’ve met so many bloggers who have the attitude of “I had to learn it all on my own so you have to do it on your own too.”. It was so nice to meet bloggers who really wanted to help others not make the same mistakes that they have.

After chatting with the bloggers, we decided to get a drink. There was a bar in the back with a couple of speciality drinks. I tried the Vanilla Snow, and it was so delicious!

It was made with vanilla vodka, Godiva white chocolate liquor, milk, and crushed peppermint candies! I might have to try to make this if I end up doing a holiday-time party this year!

It was getting late (at least late for me when I had been up at 6am that day), so I got ready to head home. On my way out, I was presented with a gift bag.

Inside was the Vanilla Brightening Face Powder and a bottle of their 1950’s perfume (I got to choose my perfume and I liked the 1950’s scent the most).

I have to say that know that I know about Besame Cosmetics, I definitely want to test out more of their products. They have some amazing lipstick colors! And if you want to check out their new Brightening Powders, they will be for sale at Sephora in the New Year!

1 Comment

Posted in Beauty, Fun Stuff, Shopping

Tagged makeup, party, shopping

Upgrading My Kitchen (or Time To Organize)

Posted on December 12, 2014 | Comments Off

After my day of bulk cooking, I realized that I don’t have some things that I can really use in the kitchen. And I have a lot of things that I definitely don’t need (or are expired and I never noticed it).

So on Monday (my day off from my main day job), I set out to remedy this problem. The first thing I did was go through all of my cabinets and throw out any things that had expired. I had a lot of oils, sauces, and dry goods that I don’t use that often and many of them had expiration dates of a year or 2 ago! While some of it I know I will be replacing, many things in my cabinet were things that I bought for just one recipe and never used it again. That’s such a waste of money (and cabinet space for me). I’m really going to work on only restocking things that are more than one-time-use items.

My next clean out was my storage containers. As pretty much everyone does, I had a ton of storage containers that didn’t really go together. I had a lot of lids without containers and visa versa. And while I do like the “disposable” storage containers you can get at the store, I wanted to make sure that if I was going to bulk cook that I had good quality containers.

I got rid of many of the disposable ones (since I pretty much never use them) and saved all of my Snapware. I have the plastic Snapware that I got a long time ago and have always liked how they sealed so tightly.

My last clean out stage in my kitchen was to move things around to be in more convenient places for me. Until this week, I stored several pans in my oven because I didn’t know where else to put them. I almost always remembered to take them out before heating my oven, but on the occasions that I didn’t, it was always a pain to lift super hot pans out of my oven and find a place to store them (usually on the top of my stove). After moving some pantry items around and having more space since I got rid of expired things, I found a new home for those pans.

Then, it was time to add a few things to my kitchen to make sure I’m prepared to bulk cook again.

The first was to get more storage containers. I didn’t have that many to begin with and I wanted to get some more Snapware since I know I like those containers. I know many people don’t like plastic containers, but since I do not plan to microwave in them I figured that they would be ok. I looked online for prices and found that Costco had a great deal on them. So I headed over there and ended up arriving even before the store opened (am I the only one who didn’t know Costco didn’t open until 10am?).

I found exactly what I wanted pretty quickly.

I also was looking to get a second cutting board for my house. I only had one and during the bulk cooking I had to wash and dry it multiple times. It’s not the easiest thing to wash and it was slowing me down a lot. But while I was looking at cutting boards, I found something pretty awesome.

This bamboo cutting board has a groove cut out in the middle to place different liners in. There are 7 different ones to be used for different food products. While I might not always use the meat liner for meat, this basically gives me 7 cutting boards to use when I’m cooking!

While I got rid of more things than I added in my kitchen, I think that I am now more prepared to do more cooking at home. I’m made my tiny kitchen space as efficient as I can be and I’m looking forward to seeing what other things I can cook and store in my bulk cooking.

It’s so weird. I’ve never enjoyed cooking that much. I’ve tried to force myself to like it because my mom is an awesome cook and I see what can be created at home. But it never really clicked with me. I don’t want to say that I’m been completely transformed, but I’ve never felt this way about cooking or meal planning before. I’m excited to see where my food journey goes next!

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Posted in Food, Fun Stuff, Shopping, Weight Loss

Tagged bulk cooking, cooking, meal planning, organization, prepared, shopping

First Time Bulk Cooking (or Making My Kitchen Smell Yummy!)

Posted on December 11, 2014 | 3 comments

Inspired by my cooking confidence that I gained while making the salmon dish, I decided to try something else new.

Bulk cooking.

I looked up a lot of ideas on Pinterest and various websites to find some basic things that should be easy enough for me to do. I decided on one basic protein (chicken breasts) and a couple of vegetables. I hadn’t completely decided on the vegetables prior to going to Trader Joes because I wanted to see what I would find and if anything inspired me.

I ended up buying the chicken breasts as well as broccoli, green beans, red onions, red peppers, and sweet potatoes. I also got some baby carrots, sugar snap peas, and hummus to have as snacks.

It was one of my more expensive shopping trips, but I was buying food for the week. Plus I usually don’t buy meat (at least not meat I have to prepare) so that was a bit more expensive. But considering that this should be my only shopping trip for the week and that I’m not eating take out or delivery this week, it actually is less than I would usually spend.

Before I knew it, my kitchen was looking like this.

I cut each chicken breast in half lengthwise and put a little olive oil and some Trader Joes seasoning on them. Then they baked until the insides weren’t pink anymore (about 35 minutes). The sweet potatoes went in the same time that the chicken went in, but they ended up taking a little over 2 hours to bake (starting at 400 and then ending at 450). The broccoli, onions, and green beans went in when the chicken was done. I did learn my lesson with the green beans that I overcrowded them and they steamed more than they baked, but they were still yummy. And the onions were perfectly caramelized!

Overall, I think my first try at bulk cooking went really well. My timing of things was a bit off, but that’s to be expected when you aren’t a big cooker.

All the food went into storage containers to cool before going into my fridge.

With everything in the fridge, it looked more crowded than it usually is, but since it’s just me at my house, that’s fine.

I made my first reheated bulk dinner the next day after a workout. I put everything on a plate and microwaved it (I’ve since learned that I need to smash up the sweet potato otherwise it doesn’t heat all the way through). My first plate looked beautiful and was very yummy.

I’m not sure if I’m going to bulk cook every week. I’m going to see how this entire week plays out. In a typically week, I can cook on Sundays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays so I’m toying with the idea of doing some bulk cooking but then cooking a recipe on those days and having leftovers on the day between cooking days.

Either way, this is a major step for me. I don’t know why I’ve been holding back on cooking for so long. While it’s a bit tough considering how small my kitchen is, it’s not impossible. And now I’m eating much healthier (and much more food since everything is lower in calories than frozen dinners). Hopefully I can make this trend continue just like my workouts have been.

3 Comments

Posted in Food, Fun Stuff, Health, Saving, Shopping, Weight Loss

Tagged bulk cooking, cooking, health issues, meal planning, meals, recipe

Westside Wonderland (or Hanging Out At The Mall)

Posted on December 10, 2014 | Comments Off

A fellow blogger had posted a giveaway that they were doing for an event at a mall near my house. I entered, but since I never win much, I didn’t pay too much attention to the details. A few days later, I got an email saying that I won, so I decided to do a bit more research to see what I had gotten myself into.

The event was Westside Wonderland, a shopping evening with food, drinks and entertainment.

The contest I won was for 2 tickets, so I texted my friend Rayshell to see if she was free and wanted to come along. She could, so on Sunday she met me over at my house and we headed over to the event together.

We got there a little early, but we were able to check in and get our wristbands. We had a few shopping errands that we both wanted to run, so we went and did our shopping first. Then we decided to see what sort of offerings there were at the event.

There was a jewelry store that had some veggies, brownies, and sparkling cider so we hung out there for a bit (the jewelry was pretty awesome too but neither of us had the money to spend on it). There was also a photo booth set up and a DJ in the middle of the mall.

Then we noticed a crowd toward the other end of the mall so we headed there.

We knew that there would be food, but we had no idea that it would be like this.

Fill R Up was there making these amazing savoy (and some sweet) Brioche donuts that were filled with savory foam and topped with lots of yummy things. Then, they were torched right there in front of us to be cooked!

It was so cool to watch, and everyone wanted a bite. We tried the Filly Tank (a Philly cheesecake style donut) and the Caprese Tank (which tasted like a pizza to me). Then we got some dessert with the Campfire Tank which was like a deconstructed s’more.

We hung out at that food station for a while, but it was so good that we kept wanting to try more!

After that, we decided to head back toward where we started to see what other things were going on. We were both getting a little tired and didn’t have a lot of money to spend. So we were thinking that we were getting ready to leave soon.

Back near the entrance of the mall, there was a lounge area set up for attendees of the event (the mall was open to regular customers while we were there, so that’s why we needed the wristbands).

In the lounge area, Fleurish was there to help us all make our own flower arrangements. I had never heard of Fleurish before, but it’s such a cool idea! You get to make your own arrangements with the help of the employees in their studio and you can even take classes to be able to make arrangements at home!

Rayshell and I both wanted to make a little arrangement. And with some help from a Fleurish employee, I think we both did a pretty awesome job!

After making our flower arrangements, it was time for us to head out. While we didn’t stay a long time at the event, we both had an awesome time and we got some shopping done and got some wonderful things to eat!

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Posted in Celebrations, Crafts, Food, Fun Stuff, Shopping

Tagged contest, event, shopping

Girls Shopping Day Out (or Spending Free Money)

Posted on October 15, 2014 | 2 comments

A few weeks ago I got an awesome email from Women In Film. They were going to do a Girls Day Out shopping event. This was going to be held at the South Coast Plaza in Orange County, which is about 45 minutes away from my house.

Usually, these types of events are only open to members of Women In Film who have a higher level of membership than I do. But this time, it was open to everyone!

I RSVPed, and even though I was initially on the wait list, I got off the wait list and officially invited to the event!

I was allowed to bring someone with me, and I had to ask my friend Emily to come with me. She’s a great shopper and I knew that she would love this event!

I got there a little late (I had an appointment that morning and I knew Emily would be a little late too because she had church) and so the VIP suite that we had use of was a little crowded. So I waited outside the room for Emily to get there.

But I did get my amazing gift bags!

One gift bag was from sugarfina and had some gummy candies in it. The other gift bag was the mall gift bag. It had a map of the mall, the dining options, the schedule of stores that were doing special things for WIF members, and a $100 gift certificate to use at any store in the mall!

Emily arrived shortly after me and we stopped at each store that had special things for WIF members. One store had a bag with a catalog and a perfume sample, another one said it was a typo on the list and they only had a gift with a purchase, and finally there was a store where you could enter to win free UGGs.

A lot of the stores were stores that are very fancy. I joked that the mall was like an inside Rodeo drive.

After doing our laps around the stores, we decided to get some lunch. There was some free food at the VIP room, but since it was so crowded we decided to just go somewhere and pay. We had a nice quick lunch and before I knew it, I had to get back to LA.

I didn’t spend my free $100, but when I looked at the gift certificate it said that it doesn’t expire! So when my money situation is a bit more steady, I’m definitely going there to go shopping!

Even though I only got to spend a little bit of time there, it was a really awesome time! And after I left, Emily used her free $100 to go and get some awesome shoes! I which I could have stayed longer, but I had a very exciting evening planned.

And on a silly note, on the drive home, my car reached a milestone!

Guess I need to take my car in to be inspected soon!

2 Comments

Posted in Fun Stuff, Shopping

Tagged free, shoes, shopping

Babysitting=New Vacuum (or I’ve Got $0.49 To Spare)

Posted on September 30, 2014 | 2 comments

I’ve been doing some babysitting over the past few weeks. The last two Saturday evenings I’ve had new families to sit for and this past Sunday I had an interview with another new family (although I’m not sure I’ll get that job because it seems like their schedule and my schedule won’t work out).

I’ve been doing babysitting since middle school and while I didn’t do a ton of it right after college, I’ve been getting more into it lately.

I joined an online babysitting service (kind of like online dating but for finding babysitters and families) and I paid to have a premium profile on there because that includes a background check.

I’ve been getting contacted by families ever since I upgraded my profile, but often they are just asking if I am available even though my calendar on the system says that I’m not.

The family I sat for this past Saturday evening was a new family that lived not too far away (always a bonus). They had 2 boys and they were only awake half of the time that I was there (another bonus). And I was there for 8 hours, so I made a decent amount of money.

The next day, I had a plan to go to Bed Bath and Beyond. I still needed to replace my vacuum that died in my water heater flood. I had been doing a lot of research because I wanted a good vacuum but I don’t have a lot of money to spend on one.

I ended up finding a Shark vacuum that got almost all 5 star reviews on Amazon and it was available at Bed Bath and Beyond (thank goodness for all the 20% off coupons I’ve been hoarding)!

I got there and found it right away.

I had only brought one 20% off coupon with me so I wasn’t going to shop around any more. When I went to the register, I was trying to figure out if the money I made the night before would cover the vacuum or if I’d have to pay a little more.

I got up to the register and she rung up the vacuum and my coupon and when the total came up, I laughed.

It was exactly $0.49 less than I made the night before. I have to admit that I feel like it was fate to buy that vacuum at that price so I wouldn’t have to put the vacuum on my credit card and have it contribute to my debt.

I happily paid almost all of my babysitting money to the cashier and took my new vacuum home.

And my quick review of the vacuum is that it is amazing!! I love it! My old vacuum was a very fancy one, but it was super heavy to move around (you could break a sweat while vacuuming). This one moves around super easily and I like that it is a canister vacuum so I don’t have to buy bags for it. Although it was shocking how much dirt it picked up (maybe my old vacuum wasn’t doing a good job anymore?).

I’m glad that I’m getting more families to babysit for. I enjoy the work and when I’m doing “date night” babysitting, it pretty much never is a conflict with other jobs or auditions so it fits into my schedule perfectly! I just hope that I get a few more families so I can stay busy!

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Posted in Fun Stuff, Saving, Shopping, Work

Tagged babysitting, money, work

A Birthday Present For Me And My House (or Thank You Mom And Dad!)

Posted on August 15, 2014 | Comments Off

My parents are pretty great at getting me awesome presents. They do ask me what I want, so that always helps.

A few weeks ago, my mom and I were talking about my birthday and I mentioned that I finally wanted to replace my old couch.

I had that couch in my old apartment before I moved into my house (I think I got it 7 years ago). The couch was actually part of a set of 3 pieces: the couch, the loveseat, and the armchair. The couch and armchair moved into my house with me. The loveseat was ruined by my last set of roommates at my apartment (one of the cushions got sliced open somehow), so I made them buy it off me.

I loved my couch, but it was starting to show some wear and tear.

About 6 months ago, I saw a couch at IKEA that I loved. It was a couch with a lounge on it and it turned into a double bed! I tried it out then and thought it was super comfortable. I remembered it for future reference.

When I mentioned wanting to get a new couch, my mom decided that that would be my birthday present from my parents!

So earlier this week, I went to IKEA to check out the couch again. I went to sit on it, and it didn’t feel right. The back was super low. Turns out, they changed the couch. This one was similar to the old one I saw, but it was a different one with a different name (who remembers the names of IKEA pieces?).

I was pretty upset. I really wanted that couch. I called my mom and she encouraged me to go look at other furniture stores. You never know what else is out there.

I went around to 4 or 5 different stores with no luck. Either the couches were way too big, or they were way too expensive.

As I was driving home, I passed the storefront for Sofa Club. I’ve driven past it a million times, but I had never gone inside. I found some parking, walked inside, and right next to the door was my dream couch!

It was exactly what I wanted (minus the sofa sleeper part but that’s ok)! The owner of the store gave me a great deal on it because I bought the floor model and Sofa Club is actually a custom furniture store. Then, I asked if she had any discounts for the beginning of the school year, and she said that if I was a teacher, she would give me free delivery and take another $20 off the price. I’ve never been so grateful that I keep my teacher ID card for substitute teaching in my purse.

The couch came a few hours later. The delivery men were nice enough to move my old couch and chair into my garage (a friend is taking the couch from me and I’m still looking for someone to buy my chair).

The couch looks amazing in my house!

I am thinking of getting the back pillows switched out. The owner said if I wanted pillows without buttons, they would exchange the ones I have for new ones at no cost (they would just have to take a few days to make the new pillows). I’m pretty sure I will get the other pillows. While the buttons look cute, they aren’t the most comfortable to lean against.

My parents will be in town next week to visit me, so they will get to see the present they got me in person soon. I’m so grateful that my parents got me such an incredible gift. It’s the nicest piece of furniture I’ve owned. And it really makes my house look even better than it did before!

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Posted in Celebrations, Family, Fun Stuff, Shopping

Tagged birthday, parents, presents

Learning To Coupon (or Trying To Save Since I’m Not Earning Much Now)

Posted on July 3, 2014 | 2 comments

First of all, a little update on the job situation. I was not let go from my assistant job yesterday. However my boss said he really only wants to give it another week. If I can’t get the results that he wants, then the job will end. As much as I want to be optimistic about being able to get the right results, what he needs is about 3 times what I’ve ever been able to get. So it’s not looking so good for me. But at least I will have a job through next week.

While I’m not making much money right now, I’m trying to save wherever I can. Since I’m being sponsored by OrangeTheory for workouts right now, I’m not going to SoulCycle. I just can’t afford it. I’ll totally go back eventually, but for the next 2 months, it’s not in the budget (nor could my body probably handle more workouts in a week).

I’ve also been selling back old DVDs that I don’t watch anymore to Amazon. I’m sure I could get more money if I sold each online on EBay or something, but selling back to Amazon has been easy and for the condition that my DVDs are in, I think I’m getting a pretty fair price.

And the biggest change I’ve been trying to make is using coupons. I’ve never really been a coupon person before. I’ve tried to, but it just never works out. Either I forget to bring the coupons with me to the store or I forget to go get the paper on Sundays. And when you are only saving a few pennies here and there, the hassle doesn’t seem worth it.

Plus, I’m pretty much only grocery shopping at Trader Joes if I can. There are still a few items that I have to go to Albertsons for, but pretty much everything I need is at Trader Joes. And I find that I spend less money there than at other stores. But Trader Joes doesn’t take coupons.

So I’ve been focusing my coupon energy on CVS. It seemed like a pretty great idea from the start. Every other week or so I get a coupon either in my email or in the mail that’s good for 20 or 25% off all my items in one trip at CVS. That’s a pretty impressive savings to begin with.

Then, you always get like 100 coupons on your receipt at CVS. I used to be annoyed by that, but I’ve been starting to pay attention. There’s also a machine inside of CVS that gives you bonus coupons.

And finally, I’m going online and printing coupons from the internet instead of buying newspapers. That way I’m not spending money on coupons (which seems like a silly idea to begin with).

I know on those extreme couponing shows they show people making huge plans for shopping trips and seeing what coupons could match with what sale. I really don’t have the energy to do that all the time. Plus, there are times that I just need to buy an item.

So my focus is on what coupons (and Extra Bucks) I get from CVS and what coupons I can find online to match them with. It doesn’t take me that long because I’m not buying a lot of items. It’s mainly paper goods and beauty stuff. And I’m not going to use a different brand because there is a coupon, I’m pretty brand loyal. So if I see a coupon for something I use, I print it and try to wait until I have a 20 or 25% off everything coupon to match it with.

I’ve done pretty well so far with saving a lot of money on things I would have bought anyway.

52% savings is pretty awesome. As my dad puts it, you can’t get that sort of return on money in the stock market that quickly.

The other day, I had some Extra Bucks that I needed to use and I got an email that there were more Extra Bucks waiting for me at CVS. I needed to buy some toilet paper, so I decided to go and use my Extra Bucks on that. I figured the Extra Bucks would save me over 50%.

I got to the store only to realize that toilet paper was on sale and was actually less than the value of my Extra Bucks! If I was a super organized couponer (which I might try to be), then I would have already known this! I didn’t want to lose the extra Extra Bucks money and the toilet paper was about $2 less than my coupons, so I grabbed 2 individual bags of peanuts that were $1 each. I always try to keep emergency snacks in my car (so I’m not tempted to get fast food) and peanuts are a good snack to have.

I went up to pay for my 3 items and had an epic savings!

Yup, 100% savings! Technically, I still had to pay a few pennies in tax, but that’s nothing compared to spending almost $15!

I’m totally aware that I probably sound crazy, but this is exciting to me. Any extra money in my bank account is money that can go toward my debt. And sadly, that’s not going down that much due to my lack of income. So $15 is a lot to me!

If you are a couponer and have some advice to a couponing newbie, I’d love to hear it. I’m shocked that I got such a great savings so quickly, but I know that it was dumb luck this time. I want to make sure that I am able to figure out how to do this again.

2 Comments

Posted in Fun Stuff, Saving, Shopping

Tagged savings, shopping

Honest Company (or Going To Target And Seeing Celebrities)

Posted on July 1, 2014 | 2 comments

On one of the blogger groups I belong to on Facebook, one blogger mentioned that there was an event coming up at Target to celebrate the Honest Company having their products for sale there. I gave the blogger my information and hoped that I would be picked to attend this event, and somehow I was lucky enough to be chosen!

The event took place at a City Target in Westwood. City Targets are smaller than the usual ones, but they are in places that really need a Target and don’t have a space for a huge store (Westwood is right by UCLA so you know those students could use a Target).

I’ve been familiar with the Honest Company for a while. I absolutely love their hand sanitizer gel (I always have one in my purse) and I use their lotion at nighttime (I try to use lotion with sunscreen during the day and their lotion doesn’t have SPF in it).

And I have another reason to love Honest. They did a contest for babies to appear on their marketing, and my friend Heather’s son James won the contest and is now featured on their diaper boxes!

So I was pretty darn excited to go to this event already, but I got even more hyped up when I walked in and was handed a press pass.

I don’t know why having a press pass is so exciting for me, but it is! I also got a really great swag bag when I walked in!

We had some time to kill before the blogger event started, so I walked around to see if I could find Heather’s son on a diaper box. It took a few minutes of looking, but I found it!

I texted that picture to Heather to let her know I found James on a box, and she texted back that she was on her way to the event! Again, I got super excited (I swear it was like I was on a sugar high). I got to see Heather and her kids before heading in to the blogger event and already people were noticing that the baby from the diaper box was there.

Eventually, I left Heather and her family to go to a private blogger roundtable with the founders of the Honest Company (Jessica Alba and Christopher Gavigan) as well as a representative from Target (whose name I sadly have forgotten).

I noticed that behind Christopher Gavigan there was another diaper box with James on it and I mentioned something to the blogger I was sitting next to. Christopher heard me say that, and he looked at me with shock and said, “Is that baby really here?”. I let him know yes and he insisted on getting to meet James. So not only was I in a room with a celebrity (Jessica Alba), my friend’s baby who I hung out with earlier was a celebrity to the founders of the company!

The blogger roundtable was pretty cool. Basically everyone in there was a mom, so a lot of the conversation was about baby stuff. But I did get to ask my question (I want the Honest Company to make travel sizes of their products) so that was pretty amazing.

After the roundtable, of course I had to get a picture with Jessica Alba.

I wanted one with Christopher Gavigan as well, but he was very busy talking to some other people. But as I was leaving, he made me promise to introduce him to James.

I headed back out to the store where the next part of the event was happening and found Heather and her family. I let them know that James was turning out to be the big celebrity of the night. I also said how the founders were so excited to meet James. And once Jessical Alba and Christopher Gavigan came out to the next part of the event, they saw James and made a pretty big deal out of him being there.

After the event, it was time for me to head home (I don’t need to be tempted to spend money in Target!). This was such an amazing event and I really felt honored to be invited to it. I still consider myself a newbie blogger so getting to go to something that Target was doing was amazing.

If you haven’t checked out the Honest Company before, I highly recommend it. Most of their products are now in Target stores so they are super easy to find!

2 Comments

Posted in Beauty, Fun Stuff, Shopping

Tagged baby, celebrity

Thank You (or You All Made Me Feel Less Alone)

Posted on May 26, 2014 | Comments Off

I wanted to do an update post on something I wrote about last week: being fat-shamed while bra shopping. I honestly wrote that post as a rant and didn’t feel like many people would be able to relate to it.

The response I got was so unexpected and it made me feel so good. First of all, thank you to everyone who commented (here, Facebook, and on twitter). I also got emails and text messages from people about the post. Most of the reactions to the post were shock. People couldn’t believe that I was treated like that.

I heard from people who I haven’t heard from in a decade telling me their bra shopping horror stories. I heard from people who I’ve never met before telling me the same thing.

It seems like feeling shame and frustration while bra shopping is an almost universal feeling. And I know this may seem stupid, but while writing that post I really wondered if anyone would understand my frustration. Most of the people I know can walk into any store and find something that fits them. For me, I sometimes have to drive miles to find a store with my size. And even then, many times my size is sold out (because they only have one or two items in my size). But it turns out that even my “straight-size” friends understood. I wasn’t expecting that.

Besides people telling me their stories, I also got some advice on other places to look for a sports bra in my size. Sadly, many of the places recommended to me won’t work out. Most don’t have my band size. And the few places that have my band size don’t have a cup size small enough for me.

But I think I might have found something that could work. I got a recommendation for this bra from RoadRunner Sports. They do have my size, but only carry it in black or white (why can’t I get a cute color?!?). I ordered a couple of different sizes in black and I’m waiting for them to arrive so I can try them on. Hopefully one will work and then I can return the others (sports bras aren’t cheap!).

Again, thank you to everyone who read, responded, or shared that post. You helped me feel less alone and less self-conscious about wanting to find workout clothes that make working out easier and more comfortable for me. You helped to make me realize that I am worthy of finding something that is right for me and that I shouldn’t let mean salespeople get me down.

Comments Off on Thank You (or You All Made Me Feel Less Alone)

Posted in Fitness, Shopping, Tough Stuff

Tagged bra, fat-shaming, online shopping, sports bra, thank you

Category Archives: Shopping

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