I love my...

...new cognac boots!

I've been searching for the perfect pair of cognac boots for a while now. My requirements were this:

1) Must be flat...I hate wearing boots with heels.

2) Must be big enough around the calf for my giant calves....seriously they are huge and I hate that it's so hard to find boots that allow wiggle room in the calf.

I stumbled upon these boots at Kohl's this past weekend and almost squealed with joy when I tried them on and realized there was plenty of room in the calf. SUCCESS!!!

I got them on sale for $45 plus an additional 15% coupon. Heck yeah!

Here's a link to their online listing, if you're interested.

Paired with a charcoal sweater dress and grey tights, I felt like quite the fashionista today!

(Please excuse the randomly placed computer chair in the background....we were doing some organizing in the study and needed to move it out for extra moving room.)

Super Sales

FYI Ann Taylor Loft is currently having a sale of 40% off all sale styles PLUS you can get $15 off for every $75 you spend with the code sale15 at checkout! ANNNNNND free shipping on all orders over $125.


I bought 8 really adorable item {a pair of capris, 2 skirts, a dress, and 4 tops} for $200 total, which is REALLY good for ATL.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Also, Bath & Body Works is having their semi-annual sale right now. Wallflowers are on sale for $5 each, candles are 50% off, antibacterial hand soaps are $3 with purchase of 4 or more, and LOTS more deals.
I'm about to go load up my cart with some candles, soaps & wallflowers right now! :) A girl can never have enough of that stuff! :)

Or if you'd rather get a FREE B&BW candle & wallflower, go enter my 200th post giveway!

My Name is Ashley and I Have an Addiction

It looks like this:


And this:

Oh dear Wallflower, how I love thee and the way you keep my bathroom smelling pretty even after my husband takes a dump in it. :)

And when they go on sale at Bath & Body Works and I happen to have a 20% off coupon, things like this end up happening:

{Not all of these are B&BW candles, FYI}

And, even worse than that, this happens:

I stocked up BIG TIME today! I'm constantly burning candles and I have 3 wallflowers spread throughout the house so I go through these things fast. I refuse to buy them at full price since if you wait a little while they always end up going on sale, like right now.

Wallflowers are on sale for $6 and 4oz. candles are on sale 2 for $10.

Also, here's a 20% off coupon {online or in stores} if you're interested. Unfortunately, it ends today so hurry up and use it ASAP!

Cool Etsy Product Alert

It's a purse organizer! It keeps things well-organized, easy to find AND it makes it super easy to change your purse! Just take out the purse organizer and place it in the new purse.

I literally only change out my purse every 5-6 months or so because I am ENTIRELY too impatient to move all my purse crap on a regular basis. I always wonder how people have the patience for doing that all the time, but this purse organizer is the perfect solution!

The best part is it's only $28, which I think is pretty reasonable for a homemade purse organizer! I really want this thing, but I've already made my extensive wish list and at this point buying anything for myself when I should be buying Christmas presents would just be irresponsible. So for now, I will hold myself back from the instinct to buy that sucker faster than a hobo eats a ham sandwich. {sorry, that was bad}

P.S. I originally saw this purse organizer mentioned on the Failed Feminist blog. It's a great blog so check it out! And she may have even inspired a "What's in my purse?" post for me. We shall see.

All I Want For Christmas...

...is the things on this list! I always love reading/hearing about other people's wish lists because it gives me ideas of things to ask for and/or give for gifts. I readily admit that I suck at thinking of things to ask for as gifts and I REALLY suck at giving gifts. I can just never think of anything good when the time comes to actually buy something for someone. Maybe it's the pressure?



Anyway, below is my 2009 Christmas List that I started way back in early October so I could be sure to have time to think of stuff. The dollar signs at the end of each item stand for the price range:

$ = $50ish or under / $$ = $55-$150 / $$$ = $155 and up

Ashley's Christmas Wish List 2009

• Bare Minerals SPF 15 Foundation in “Fairly Light”: I love me some Bare Minerals but it's so expensive that I refuse to buy it for myself. I've always been a drugstore makeup kind of girl so it's hard for me to justify the extra cost of this stuff, despite how much I love it! $
• Workout Apparel (tops, shorts, Capri pants, sports bras, etc.)
• Bike Seat Gel Pad (for Spin class) $
• This work-appropriate dress in size 6 $$ SOLD OUT
• This perfume from Mary Kay and matching solid perfume and lotion $
• Mary Kay Microderm Abrasion Set $
• Mary Kay Timewise Miracle Set: Can you tell that I went to a Mary Kay Party recently?? :) $$
• Non-nickel Earrings: (I’m allergic to nickel). Especially the big dangly kind. $
• Digital SLR Camera: I honestly didn't expect this to be something I would actually get. I've been asking for one for going on two years now without much luck. But this year my husband is actually buying me one!! I guess the deployment made him a softie. Plus, he's getting a new truck...so the least I should get is a new camera! :) I can't WAIT to see what he picks out and to use my new camera. $$$
• High-quality Cookie Sheets: The heavy duty, non-stick kind. My cookie sheets are from my college days and they have seen better days. $
• Flip Mino HD video camera: We have one of these at work and I love it. So small and easy to use! $$
• Cute Cosmetic Bag: Not picky on color/style as long as it’s cute. I like medium-sized ones usually. $
• High-Quality, King-Size Bed Sheets/pillow cases: in white, light blue, or mint green. We only have one set of sheets for our master bed because nice sheets are so dang expensive and it seems ridiculous to spend $100+ on a backup sheet set! $$

Retail Therapy

I woke up today feeling much better after my pity party yesterday. Then, out of the blue I came across an AMAZING shoe sale at 6pm.com. Retail therapy is the BEST kind of therapy. {Massage therapy is a close, close second}

We're talking about such a good sale that I thought it was either a joke or a glitch when I saw the prices. A lot of shoes are marked down more than 95%! {The sale is still going on if you're interested, although I think they are sold out of a lot of sizes and such now.}

I was really wanting to spruce up my shoe collection with some chic high heels for work and such. Boy did I hit the jackpot!
I got these beauties for $7.95...no I'm not joking! The orignal MSRP on them is $121.00. ::::faints:::::


Aaaaand I'm back. How ferosh are these nude patent platform heels?PRETYY DAMN FEROSH! I also got these for $7.95 (MSRP $110.00).


These polka dot espadrille wedges will be perfect with a Spring or Summer dress {so I will have to wait a while to wear these}. These I got for $14.95, MSRP of $185.00 (they're Anne Klein New York).


These might be my favorite...white pumps with yellow heels. They cost me a whopping $7.95. MSRP is $91.00.


These last ones are a little "out there" for me but I love them and I've always wanted navy blue shoes. I hope they look good on me! These were $7.95. MSRP is $55.00.

So when you add it all up and include the shipping cost, I paid $53.80 for FIVE pairs of amazing high heels. I'm just hoping that they all fit okay and they aren't super duper uncomfortable. Luckily, they do have a return policy so I can return any that I don't like.

Are you jealous yet?? Well go snatch up the rest of what's left at 6pm.com and you'll feel MUCH better. :)

Garage Sale Shopping 101

I've been inspired by a lot of DIY trash to treasure makeovers lately in the blogs that I read, so I decided to go garage sale shopping on Saturday. I've never really shopped garage sales before so this is a new concept for me, but I think I'm hooked now! It's so fun seeing the potential in other people's trash!

I know I'm still a newbie to this but I learned a lot just in one day. Here are my tips for garage sale shopping:

1. Use Craigslist to find garage sales. There is a "garage sale" section of Craigslist just for people to post their upcoming sales. It's awesome! I got on Craigslist on Friday night and printed out the listings of the sales that peaked my interest (basically all of them). Then I organized all the listings by their locations so that sales in similar parts of town were together.

2. Gather your supplies. I put all my organized listings in a folder. Also it's important to have a pen (to take notes, if needed) and cash. It's a good idea to have small bills and larger bills since a lot of garage sales can't make change. I used my GPS to find garage sales but if you dont have one you can just plug all the addresses into Mapquest and print out directions the night before.

3. Start early! Most garage sales start at 8am so leave your house at 7:45am or so. I got a later start yesterday (8:30) because my friend needed a ride to the airport so I missed out on a lot of the popular items like furniture. At one of the first sales I went to I actually saw a couple loading a BEAUTIFUL shelving unit into their car as I pulled up. I was so bummed!!

4. Have an idea of what you're looking for. For me, I was looking for home decor and furniture so I was able to zone in on those items. Some sales that I went to mostly just had clothing and such so I was able to walk away in less than a minute without wasting time.

5. Don't get discouraged. As I said above, I got bummed in the beginning because I didn't find anything I liked at the first 4 garage sales. But I'm so glad I kept going because I ended up finding some great stuff!

6. Negotiate! One garage sale I went to I asked how much something was and the lady said "$3" and I said "Okay, well I'll buy it if you can give it to me for $2." And she agreed. These people just want to get rid of this stuff so they are DESPERATE to sell! Granted, I'm not all about robbing these people of their stuff but if I think their price is a little high then I'm going to negotiate!

7. Look beyond the outer appearance of the items and look for potential! I'm totally guilty of being an outward appearance kind of girl. If something doesn't look nice, I won't buy it. I had to change that mind set as I was garage sale shopping though because so many things have great potential with just a coat of spray paint or a good scrub down.

Ok so you wanna see my purchases? I probably went to 8 different garage sales, plus I went to two different Goodwill stores and I was done shopping by 11:30am. Here is my bounty:I spent a total of $13 on all this stuff! Amazing!

First off, the teapots: I started off finding the one with the pears on it at Goodwill and I thought it was so cute and would be great as kitchen decor. I figured I could spray paint it to match my decor. But then, at the next 3 garage sales I found the other 3 teapots and I just couldn't resist buying them either! I guess I started a teapot collection! Ha! I think I'm going to display the teapots on top of my cabinets in the kitchen but my new dilemma is whether or not to spray paint them. The one in the front right is just too beautiful to spray paint so I'm thinking I may leave them as is. I'm kind of loving them!

Next up, the Christmas angel candleholders. How adorable are these?!?I actually had to dig these out of the bottom of a box but I'm so glad I did. They are REAL SILVER candlesticks and I'm pretty sure they were never even taken out of the box because the stickers were still on the bottoms and they look new (minus a little tarnish). I paid $1 for these beauties....ONE DOLLAR! O. M. G. What a steal! I can't wait for Christmas season to get here so I can display them!

Finally, these little green glass urns (I guess you would call them urns...not sure?).So cute! I think I have an affinity for colored glass because I was so drawn to these. Plus, they are GREEN which is a color I am loving right now! For now, I have them displayed on the mantle and I love them there.

So there you have it, folks! $13 worth of garage sale finds. Have I convinced you to go garage sale shopping yet?!? Can't wait to go again!