Category Archives: Shopping

The Bed

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So as I mentioned yesterday, sort of, MK and I are out shopping, aka I’m shopping and MK is reading reviews on his phone. With the best of intentions. We ended up at Ikea. Which I’m not putting in all caps because then I’d be screaming a store at you that I’m not all that into. But the internet said they had great mattresses. So there we were.

And there was a decent bed. But only if you spent another 300$ on the padded cover. So I guess really there was a good cover. But the reviewers on the internet said a different bed was better. A weird space ice cream kind. A memory molds to you kind. It was hard, at the store, to accurately try to assess just how comfortable the new space age bed was. But it wasn’t hard to see MK wanted it. When I kept saying, “Try this soft one” he kept bouncing on the space trampoline one. So of course we got what he wanted. And some pillows. The two of us added together almost equal 60 and this was our first co-purchase of furniture. Ever.

And wow this bed sucks. I mean, it says for side sleepers, but when I try to sleep on my side, as I am inclined, I get bad pins and needles in my hips. And a crick in my neck. So bad the first night I only got an hour or two of sheer exhastion sleep after MK got up. But I gave the space nougat bed another chance. Maybe I couldn’t sleep because I was so! excited! to have a new bed.

Nope. I’ve gotten a little more used to the space foam bed, or I’m just so tired I fall asleep. If I’m on my back. On a comforter. With an extra pillow. MK likes it, so we still have it. It did come with a 90 day return policy…so if I can come up with a coherent argument for the fact that even though the internet raves about this bed, I must care more about my sides, and the internet must enjoy feeling like sleeping in a wooden coffin. A space-age wooden coffin.

Review This

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If you read this website and aren’t a chicken, answer my question in the comments:

How often do you look to the internet for reviews?

Whether it’s for restaurants, hairdressers, movies, skis or I don’t even know what else, how often do you read opinions?

MK doesn’t really makes decisions without this type of review. It’s how we got our new bed (post about that tomorrow). MK reads yelp like some people read the headlines. And he takes it all with ZERO grains of salt. Let me clarify my beef:

Back in the old days, sure, normal people might take the time to write up a thing. Probably only if they really really liked or hated it. Now, seriously, everyone has the internet. My GRANDPARENTS have the internet. Anyone can get on these sites and review stuff. MK trusts these strangers. I’m the polar opposite. If you are someone that has time to do a ton of reviews of random sites for random stuff, I totally wonder about you. I don’t trust you, I want you to get off the internet. Especially if you spell something wrong. I’ve also heard too many stories about restaurants posting good reviews of themselves. And if I don’t know you and your avatar is a lil pic of you and your twenty cats, I don’t care what you think about the salon/food/gym.

MK sits on the internet on his phone IN THE STORE. I’m cool with that if he finds something cheaper elsewhere. But not when he’s all “KK395lady said this will be the best couch we’ve ever owned”. Riiiight.

Sidenote: Don’t be mad at me if you yourself painstakingly take the time to write well thought out, non irate, well intended reviews. I know you’re out there, I just think sometimes these days you’re harder to find.

Home Depot, You’ve Got It All Wrong

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“You can do it, we can help?” Um, no. I don’t want to do it. I’m not that into it. I lived in other people’s furnished rentals with my perfect husband for over three years for a reason. Like I keep telling you, we’re trying not to be those guys, all wrapped up in this house and nothing else. Come on, we’ve gotta stay COOL. Here’s my pitch for your new set of commercials:

“You won’t be here all day” Commercial

Camera shows parents resignedly giving money and lists to cute babysitter who takes three kids and waves as parents get in car. Parents are then shown at Home Deopt, overwhelmed. Scene cuts to babysitter and kids having a blast at the park. Then to parents fighting. Home Depot guy shows up and gives them an idea that’s all ready to go, and they get home hours earlier.

Who wants to spend the weekend at Home Depot? Admit it – I know there are SOME of you out there. We’re just not in that club. We knew home ownership would change things. And we even thought at our OLD AGES we’d be happier to embark on this journey of house flipping. But no.

MK is doing better than I am. He sees tools and crap he’s never owned and his eyes light up. I on the other hand, am still in the camp that if you don’t just decide something, and paint it, and whatever, it’ll never get done. And who cares if the faucet is silver or bronze? Not me and probably not our guests.

So, Home Depot, stop acting like taking up my weekend is cool. Tell me you want me in and out. And tell my husband to get whatever he wants, he’s earned it. And then we can go to the park.

Creative Lovelies

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My good friend JC (who got married this weekend, and is now JB!!!) had me over last week to teach me how to make soaps. She’s been running a small business for a while, doing beautiful custom designs (my favorites are the soaps with a loofah INSIDE and the rubber duckie ‘on the water’). I was amazed by her hobby and curious to learn the process.

It was, of course, way over my head. The mixology of color, scent, and shape is an art! There were neat iridescent soaps, clear, and opaque soaps. There were soaps for every occasion, every gift basket, every room in the house.

Here’s a picture of the soaps that we she made:

soap

It’s a camera phone picture, so it’s a little blurry, but we she made shimmery gold flowers, and a bunch of different bar designs. In the back was a half loofah/half soap idea she’s considering. The heart was my experiment – TB gets points for showing me the wonders of Press and Seal.

My main concern was that I don’t use soap that often, I’m a body wash girl. But we got some to take home and try, and the glycerin that she uses is smooth and soft. I was totally surprised. Guess what everyone is getting for Christmas…

Since I’m not just telling you how unskilled I am, and I am suggesting you try some soap…

here’s the Creative Lovelies website.

She also has an etsy store link that will be up and running after the honeymoon! :)

Bookmark and go back to often!

Repeated Disappointment

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The reason I asked about the face issue was totally that we were going glasses shopping. And we went. And MK still only looks good in bland wire frames. I was hoping we’d discover some new daring style he could take on. I still look totally lame in glasses period. Or, PERIOD.

We both have awful sleep schedules and stay out too late for our own good. We both agree if we could just be comfy wearing our glasses out it would solve half of the bailing early we do. My eyes get sensitive if I’m out in the sun all day, which we usually are. Solution: glasses in public. Problem: what we look like in glasses.

Every four years or so this lame cycle repeats itself (this started when I was 9 or so, people) where I go hoping to find something decent only to be reminded my face looks retarded with glasses. Not only that, but any frame that might look nice will suck once you put my coke-bottle lenses in.

just not hot

just not hot

The lady today suggested that the rectangular frames that look halfway decent on my face were the problem because somehow they make the lenses fit by making them fatter. So I need glasses that are kinda round or at least go up on the bottom corners. There goes any hope I had of looking stylish. But hey, maybe I won’t look geeky?
cool but not allowed

cool but not allowed

Scratch that. I look even worse that possible in the frames that are oval or round or rectangular with an arch at the bottom. Sucky.

meh

So there that goes. I didn’t buy anything. I hate the glasses that I have now, even though I thought they were okay when I got them…  so the problem remains. I’m going to try one more super high end store – for sure some name brand on the side will hide the fact that I look terrible in them – and if I can’t afford them I’ll look on eBay. Chances are I might just give up and go for broke:

My Press On Obsession

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Since this is MY website, I try to avoid looking like a total goober around here. I don’t tell you all my painfully embarrassing moments, although I average 5 a day and it would be a lot of content…

That notwithstanding, I just have to admit that the little bit of ghetto nerd in me has a new favorite thing: Press On nails.

Realizing that the mani-pedis were costing ‘the family’ about 80$ every three weeks, I stopped going to the salon for fake nails. I would get a pedicure every couple months as a treat and for major upkeep, then just do my toes myself. But my finger nails were harder to keep nice. In Utah for my birthday I found a little set of nails with rhinestones and flowers painted on. That’s fancier than the french tips I was paying so much for. They didn’t last all that long in the cold and under ski gloves, but they were fun.

In San Diego I’ve been wearing them every other week or so now. A set includes 24 nails typically for about 5$. I’m a savvy chick and can get two sets out of them by filing the big ones down to size. They usually last about a week, you really just super glue them on. I’ve gone crazy about them since I started getting compliments about what cute nails I had. Everyone asks where I get them done and I admit they are press ons and ignore the funny looks.

Here’s what I’ve got on right now:

silly

And here’s all the new sets I just picked up:

nails

What do you think? Am I the biggest dork on the planet? I am a little worried I’m too old for these things, but they’re just so much fun.

Exciting New Toy

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There’s a method to MK’s madness more often than not. He researches and shops online and gets us great deals. And I can’t stand it. There’s nothing worse than waiting for a big deal gift and losing that instant gratification – that’s totally my vice. I love seeing it, wanting it, getting it. So what if I forget what it is in a few weeks.

I didn’t even tell anyone about this one – it was on back order and I never thought we’d get to see it. MK got us a new Nikon D90 – a really amazing camera. We’re still waiting on one more lens but have already taken some really amazing photos. I can’t wait to share quality photos instead of links and low quality images. Yay!

Goof things to come

Good things to come

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Mall Madness

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Did I totally forget to tell you? Oh my. Well, there is a giant Tanger Outlet in my backyard. It’s the only one in Utah, as a matter of fact. We’ve been quite a bit. Wednesday before Thanksgiving all the sales had begun. We got MK some sweaters and I got a new pair of jeans. Some of the sales were over 50% off.

Thursday night MK and I played video games until midnight. Upon noticing that it was midnight, we decided to take a peek and see if people were heading to the mall for the sales that started at midnight. We took a back road from our house and decided that the economy can’t really be that bad. Either that, or it’s soooo bad that sales at the outlet were the logical answer.

There were cars parked up and down the street. People that had taken the wrong exit were stuck in the roundabouts. The parking lot was full. The store lines were long, both inside and out. We didn’t bring the camera but if you’ve ever done Black Friday morning shopping I’m sure it’s similar. It was a zoo. We laughed as we turned around and headed home.

The next morning MK checked the ads and found a few things he was able to order online. We did go to WalMart and scored a dozen DVDs and some PS2 games for 2$. Good stuff to have for the winter! The store was fairly tossed, and fairly busy. Quite a few shopping carts were balancing flatscreen TVs.

When I lived at home Dadd and I would go to the mall Christmas Eve to make fun of the last minute shoppers. It was almost just as fun to have MK take me to see the late night/early morning Black Friday madness.

 

Free Dr. Pepper Day

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Some of you are excited about Chinese Democracy, I’m just excited about free Dr. Pepper!

Not aware of the story? Link One and Link Two

Go to drpepper.com/freedrpepper now to get yours – only 8 hours left!!! NOTE – offer has been extended due to site issues yesterday. Go get you some!

Site is ridiculously slow loading, bear with it.

We Did Chicago

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There was a period of time there when I felt like I had a traveling job. We were flying so much I lived in an airport. We were pretty good at it. We recently changed that up for some road trips and so getting to the airport on time, parking, and checking in all had to be relearned.

We stayed at the Blackstone Hotel Thursday. I’ve never been to another hotel where they waited on us hand and foot. We ate and caught the VP debate. Friday MK traded a little from the hotel, which got us to a late start. BB and MB showed up and we met them at the Chairman’s Suite of the Sax Hotel. It ruled. There were a dozen TVs and a bar, dining room, living room, and enough hallway space for us all to try the moon walk. MB baked cookies and cakes and chex mix and brought all kinds of snacks. I decorated and covered the place in balloons and banners.

Three more friends of theirs and two of ours and it was a party. We almost didn’t want to leave! We checked out the bar scene and totally decided our room was more fun and went back.

The next day we enjoyed giant breakfast and some sightseeing, the Michigan Mile, Millennium Park, and had a drink at the top of the Hancock Tower. We went back for a little more drinking and football until we were starved enough to order pizza at Lou Malnati’s, then ate until we thought we might die. BB’s friends took off and we took MK out for birthday drinks. He got old at midnight and we went to our other not as big but still swank hotel room.

The next day was overcast but we ate and shopped and when the rain started went bowling. The hotel had a Microsoft Suite so we jammed a little Rock Band before MB and BB headed back home too. I took MK out for a birthday hamburger (his request) and we watched the end of the Red Sox game.

The next day we went to Navy Pier, then decided to challenge Lou Malnati’s with Giordano’s. It’s a tough call. Pretty much the only thing I learned about Chicago is the locals are overweight and I would be too if I lived there and ate Chicago stuffed pizza all the time…

So just like I told you here – we did enough but not too much. The idea was to be somewhere other than San Diego and to be with our close friends. We pulled that off and had a fun little break from reality. Now it’s back to work packing and planning. We’ll let my Daddy take us back to see all the good stuff we missed some time.

Don’t forget to read all my captions. They’re painstakingly there just for you.

Pictures Set One: Camera Phone pictures.

Pictures Set Two: Our Camera pictures.