Que Zara, Zara..........such bargains to see, to see

ZARA  is the discount retailer with stores worldwide and it is having a big big sale going on now.
There are so many cute items for amazing prices, however I'm going to post some of the toddler girls' clothes that I have my eye on.
If you are not lucky enough to live by a Zara then I suggest you move ASAP.........kidding!
You can always locate the nearest store on their website and ask to have the items shipped.
And those are not typos, those really are the prices.

$5.99

$5.99

$5.99

$12.99

$5.99

$5.99

 $5.99

 $5.99

 $5.99

ZARA website 

My Funny Valentine

 I fancy myself quite the cinephile.
In my DVR titles you'll find such classics as Metropolis, Goodfellas, The Bicycle Thief, and Blow Up amongst others.
Heck, I even recorded Intolerance one night when it was on AMC's Silent Sunday.
And I fully intend to watch it the very next time I have a free 3 1/2  hours to kick back and see a 95 year old silent movie.
I might even throw in a viewing of Shoah and call it a weekend!

But in a folder of my DVR, hidden from prying eyes, is my stash of guilty pleasures:
Sleepless in Seattle, My Best Friend's Wedding, Notting Hill, When Harry Met Sally.............!
Even as I swear I can never forgive Ralph Fiennes for appearing in Maid in Manhattan, I'm eating up every scene like it's the last brownie in the pan.

My name is Jacquie and I am a rom-com addict.

And the one time of year when I feel no shame in indulging my addiction is tomorrow, Valentine's Day.
If you're a singleton, wondering when Mr Right will come along............well if a poor hooker in L.A. can snag a billionaire, (thank you Pretty Woman) than you gotta believe there's hope for you.
And if you're already in a relationship, as crappy as it might be sometimes, at least you're not  Jennifer or Reese or Drew or Julia or any other ridiculously beautiful woman, failing at love, over and over and over again up on the big screen.

So tomorrow night I will set a piece of chocolate pound cake with rose-scented cream cheese frosting in front of me and spend the evening with my favorite couple, Alvy and Annie.

And I'll leave it to Alvy Singer to sum up, so much better than I ever could, the meaning of love:

“After that it got pretty late, and we both had to go, but it was great seeing Annie again. I... I realized what a terrific person she was, and... and how much fun it was just knowing her; and I... I, I thought of that old joke, y'know, the, this... this guy goes to a psychiatrist and says, "Doc, uh, my brother's crazy; he thinks he's a chicken." And, uh, the doctor says, "Well, why don't you turn him in?" The guy says, "I would, but I need the eggs." Well, I guess that's pretty much now how I feel about relationships; y'know, they're totally irrational, and crazy, and absurd, and... but, uh, I guess we keep goin' through it because, uh, most of us... need the eggs.”

It boggles the mind.

I live in a suburb where the moms dress chic and the toddlers dress chicer.
When a 3 year old showed up to my twins swim class wearing a Burberry bathing suit,  I didn't bat an eye.
The time I saw a mother/daughter combo with matching Tory Burch rain boots, I barely missed a beat.
But last week walking downtown, I saw a pair of munchkins wearing snow boots so showstopping, I not only paused, but ran after the mommy to find out who, what, where?????
Turns out they were Bogs and she got them at G____, the independent and terribly expensive childrens shoe store downtown.
Now I don't know if it was because I was in a rush and had thrown on my husband's ratty turtleneck sweater, but this mommy made a point to tell me that the boots were a little pricey but she was sure I could find them cheaper online.
And thus, my search began.

REI, Zappo's, Amazon- they all had the boots I wanted, for approximately the same price of $55. Maybe not a fortune, but when you are always shopping for two, that adds up quickly. And when one of those two has changed shoe sizes TWICE in one year, well you get the picture.

I finally decided to drop in to the new DSW near my house hoping I could find them there. Unfortunately, this DSW doesn't carry shoes for children.
Totally deflated, I slipped into the Nordstrom Rack next to it just to warm up and strategize my next move, and what happened next is what totally boggled my mind.

A salesperson walked right by me holding the pair of Bogs I had been searching for. They were the exact size I needed. He showed me where the rest were stocked and I found another pair in the right size for the other twin. Then this salesman looked at me and said, “Boy these have been really popular lately. You're lucky we just discounted them today.”

And sure enough, I looked inside the boots and saw the big red discount tag.
And it read $19.90.

 

 Bogs website

 

Pay the Piper

Piperlime's final sale is going on now with amazing discounts on great items from Marc Jacobs, Rachel Palley, and Theory among others.
And since it is a final sale, there are no returns or exchanges, so make sure you commit before you hit “submit”.

Piperlime

Hallowgreen

Since it's the season for witches, ghosts, and goblins, how about a real horror story Mummsy style?


–60 million plastic bottles end up in American landfills daily.
–Bottling water produced more than 2.5 million tons of carbon dioxide.
–It took 3 liters of water to produce 1 liter of bottled water.
–38 billion water bottles are discarded into landfills every year.
–Producing the bottles for American consumption required the equivalent of more than 17 million barrels of oil, not including the energy for transportation.


Scared enough already?
Well check out the Hydros water bottle.

The Hydros Bottle provides a reusable, filtered water bottle and is 7 times faster than traditional water pitcher filters.
It's BPA free and manufactured and assembled in America.
It's sleek, easy on the eyes, and easy to walk around with. (Kind of like the Jon Hamm of water bottles.)
And if all the above isn't enough to convince you, each bottle purchased helps provide 2000 gallons of safe drinking water to people in need.

Where you can purchase one

And one last reason to get the Hydros water bottle, it's just the right thing to do.

There's no sugarcoating this.

I have a guest room in my house with a fairly large closet. This closet is full of my coats. I have fall coats and winter coats, spring coats and “holy shit! it's 15 outside with a windchill of 10 below” coats.
I have an amazing Italian wool coat that I bought for $50 at a boutique's “going out of business” sale. This coat should be a winter coat. However it is a size smaller than I usually wear and thus, I cannot button it, beautiful rhinestone buttons be damned.
But hey, for $50 bucks it makes a gorgeous coat that I can wear walking jauntily down Boul Mich, my coat swinging open on a beautiful fall day.

Yeah I know, I need an intervention.
But until that happens, here are some great casual coats I found for under $350.
Click on prices for more info.

$88

$129.99

$325

$248

$168

$298

 $120

$198

                                                                        

Happy Birthday John and Sean Lennon

 

Beautiful Boy by John Lennon