Scentsy give*away

A couple of weeks ago, I attended a Scentsy party at a friend's house on base, and was instantly hooked! I am a huge candleholic and always have to have a candle burning when I'm at home. Scentsy makes electric warmers and scented wax bars. You put a few wax squares in the warmer, turn on the switch, and voila! The wax melts and fills your home with a delicious scent.  Because Scentsy uses a low watt bulb to gently warm the wax rather than a flame, it's a great alternative to candles as you can leave it going day or night, even when you're not home. Several of my friends use warmers in their kids' rooms as nightlights. My husband likes Scentsy because it means I can't set the house on fire. Our first time going to Friday night services here, I realized that I had left a candle burning and my hair straightener on at home. TLS had to make the 15 minute drive home to blow out and unplug and then make the 15 minute drive back to base. He has not let me forget that since.

Scentsy has a lot of different style warmers to fit different decors and personalities. Currently, this is the one I have:

It is so cute and cheerful. I love it.

My other favorites are:

Getting this one next to go with the red and white theme in my kitchen.

My current favorite scent is:

Banana Nut Bread- sadly, only available this month. :(

Scentsy also makes other scented products including Scent circles (perfect for the car), antibacterial gel, and stuffed animals (Scentsy buddies).

A sweet friend of my mine is a Scentsy consultant and is offering a giveaway this week for my readers.
One lucky reader will receive his or her choice of Scentsy buddy and Scent Pak.

Each adorable Scentsy buddy has a zippered pouch where you can put in a Scent Pak (30 scents available) to give it a nice, pleasant scent. ($25 RV)

To enter this giveaway:
1) Please visit Caryn's Scentsy page and leave a comment on here with your favorite item other than the Scentsy buddies. (Mandatory, any entries without this will not count.)
2) "Like" her facebook page and write "Preppy Girl Meets World" on it for a second entry. (This is so we can confirm that entry.
3) Become a follower of my blog through GFC for a third entry.
4) Post about this giveaway on your blog for a fourth enty.
5) I am currently hosting a Scentsy party with Caryn here. If you buy anything from my party, email her at carynwickless@gmail.com with your blog name and she will give you two extra entries for this giveaway.

This giveaway will close on Tuesday, August 9th, at midnight EST.

I had a little Kindle

Got woken up by a rather nice phone call from my husband today- he bought me a Kindle! He was thinking of getting me one as a going into the hospital gift but was going to hold off on it, until he saw one on sale for 25% off, at which point he immediately grabbed it!

Since that phone call, I have been busy updating my Amazon wishlist to ebooks (on TLS's iPad- isn't technology grand?) and looking at pretty Kindle cases and accessories online.

I love love love this one from Kate Spade, but I can't really justify a cover that costs almost as much as the Kindle itself.

The price on these ones is right and they're just cutesy enough without being overly so (similar concept to the Kate Spade one) but alas they won't be available to ship for 1-3 months. Love them but I just cannot wait that long for a cover. Patience is not a virtue that I possess.

Does this one remind anyone else of Desperately Seeking Seersucker?

This cover is gorgeous and the built in-light is a huge advantage.

My only reservation about it is that the built-in light draws its power from the Kindle itself and reviews have said that this can drain the battery on it. Does anyone have this one? Is it worth the money? How quickly does the battery on the kindle run out when you are using the light on it?

To those of you who own Kindles, which cover do you have? Are there any other nice ones that I should be looking at? I'm picky with a cover- I don't want anything silicone (ick), I don't want a stand, I don't want a neoprene sleeve, I just want something that opens like a book. Is it better to get a cover with a built-in light or to just buy a regular cover and get a small booklight for it separately?

Also, I am looking for book recommendations to add to my fun new toy. Read any good books lately?

Midweek Randoms

*A sweet friend from HS who lives in Israel now is in Germany this week for a conference. We met up with him last night for dinner and to catch up. We brought him a set of German beer in a pretty wooden crate and he brought us snack foods from Israel.

I fell in love with these when I was there in 2003 and would occasionally get them in the States. Shockingly enough, it's just not that easy to find kosher food in Germany, so getting this was a huge treat for me! There were two supermarket bags full of treats, most of those will not live to see the weekend.

*Have been feeling a bit frustrated today. I go in to the hospital in 3 weeks and called my cardiologist in the military hospital today to see if there was any pre-op stuff that I had to do. Her office told me that they are not authorized to advise me on it because they won't be doing the procedure so I have to call the German hospital where I'm getting it done. (Isn't the procedure the same, regardless of what doctor performs it?) I called the hospital and of course, the doctor's secretary's English is as good as my German (enough to politely order a roll with cheese for breakfast, but not much more than that). She started talking about a mile a minute and the only thing I could make out was the doctor's name before she hung up on me. One of the Sergeants from TLS's squadron is fluent in German and he called the hospital for me. He got told that the doctor's office doesn't give out pre-op instructions and he needs to call the surgery department for that. When he called the surgery department, no one there picked up the phone. It's nice to know that red tape is the same in any language.

*Had my first cheeseburger ever this week. After a lot of fruitless searching, we finally found a good soy cheese. We grilled burgers with the cheese the other night. I don't have anything to compare it to, but I thought it was delicious! My husband who has eaten cheeseburgers in a past life said that it was very good and tasted pretty authentic.

*Don't you just hate it when you see something online that you really really really want and absolutely need to have only to not be able to find it a little while later? A couple of weeks ago, I saw an adorable coffee cup coozie on a preppy gift site. It had an appliqued whale in a seersucker fabric on it. I knew I had to have it, but chose to walk away. I can't stop thinking about that little whale, I must have it. Of course, I cannot for the life of me remember where I originally saw it. All that I do remember is that it was not from an Etsy shop. If anyone spots this little whale anywhere, please please please please please email me to let me know. (Can't you tell I really love that whale?)

*Both TLS and I have become a bit obsessed with Words with Friends. (We are both incredibly competitive people.) Currently, I'm losing to my mother-in-law by 122 points. Ouch!

*Have started breaking out in hives randomly for no apparent reason. Trying to get an appointment to see a doctor, but have not had much luck so far. (Hurry up and wait.) I changed our detergent to a "free" one just in case that was the issue and have thought about switching to organic products for my bath and body/hair care/beauty products. Does anyone use organic products now? What companies do you recommend? The only one I know of is Lush but I'm sure there are plenty of great ones out there.

giveaway winner

Thank you to all those who entered. The winner of the Preppy Princess giveaway is

mrs.mfc

Please email me at whaleflipflops {@} gmail {.} with your choice of hot pad and personaliztion and I will get that along to the Preppy Princess.

Stayed tuned for another giveaway and more wedding pictures soon!

Professional Wedding Pictures #1

We got our cd of pictures from our photographer. There are so many good ones. It's going to take forever to go through them all so I will do it in shifts. Here is part 1- still lifes and details.

My late grandpa gave that pin to my mother right after my parents got married.

Happy birthday to me

Today is yours truly's 28th birthday. I'm still not sure how I feel about that. Tomorrow, I may be 24 again.

I WISH this was my cake.

I requested that this guy make an appearance at my birthday, but the lack of a Carvel in Germany kind of prevents that from happening. (Next year in America?)

The perfect cake- whale, chocolate, ice cream- what's not to love?

Tonight I'm going out for Margaritas Mexican Food with my husband and several of our friends. We have several possible choices for a weekend activity which we will most likely play by ear depending on the weather and what time we actually get up in the morning.

Birthday Month Giveaway #2

This giveaway is sponsored by one of my favorite stores, the Preppy Princess. The Preppy Princess is my go-to store for Lilly Pulitzer stationery and gifts.

The lucky winner of this giveaway will get to prepify her kitchen and receive a set of personalized hot pads from Lovie and Dodge.

To enter this giveaway:
1) Visit the Preppy Princess website and leave a comment with your favorite item for one entry.
2) Follow my blog through Google Friend Connect for a second entry.
3) Follow both myself (@whaleflipflops) and the Preppy Princess (@preppyprincess) on twitter and tweet about this giveaway with the link in your tweet for a third entry.
4) Post about this giveaway on your blog for a fourth entry.
You will also receive one entry for every person who enters and says that she was referred by you.

This giveaway will end on Saturday, July 23rd, at midnight EST.

Thank you to the Preppy Princess for sponsoring this giveaway.

Midweek Randoms and giveaway winner

*TLS reenlisted on Monday. I guess the Air Force owns us for 6 more years. (Someone please remind me to upload my pictures from his reenlistment and send them to his mother because I will forget.)
*My birthday is tomorrow. Was thinking of wearing a pretty Lilly dress that I got from the last Rue La La sale, but one tiny little problem with that- the dress is still not here. I ordered it 34 days ago. But who's counting? I hope it's not lost because it's a dress I've been wanting for a while. Le sigh. I hate the APO sometimes.
*For once, our living in Germany has paid off on the movie front- rather than being last to see a movie, Harry Potter was released here yesterday. TLS and I went to see it with a girl from his squadron after work and I absolutely loved it. A lot better than part 1 in my opinion.
*After flip flopping on them for a while, I've decided that I think I do want a Pandora bracelet after all. I have spent quite a bit of time lately on the site playing around with charms and designing a bracelet. It's fun. Does anyone have one? How many charms do you have on it? How often do you get new ones?
*Went to a Scentsy party at a friend's house over the weekend. I won a warmer and a bar. A friend who sells Scentsy gave us a few bars at our wedding and now we are officially converts!
*Was upstairs when I heard a loud crash coming from our office. Ran downstairs to see that our window (which has been closed for months) had been blown wide open by the wind and everything (including our printer) had flown off it onto the floor. It seriously scared me and I'm hoping that now we don't have to buy a new printer.
*Annoying downstairs neighbors were supposed to go on vacation for three weeks (!!!!!!) and asked us to feed their fish. We happily agreed and rather than giving us the keys to their house, they asked us to bring the tank to our apartment. The woman said it was a small tank. I'm not sure what she meant by small- it had a stand, a light, a plug, and the thing weighed a TON. No way was TLS getting that thing up the stairs. He asked if they could leave it in the apartment and I'd come down once a day to water it. The woman said she'd ask her husband and we have not heard from them since then. They were supposed to leave yesterday and this morning I heard shuffling downstairs and their door opening. I really hope they're still taking that vacation.
*Thank you to everyone who entered the Marley Lilly giveaway. The winner is:

Suburban Prep

please email me at whaleflipflops {@} gmail {.} com with your address, choice of hat and color, and monogram and I will pass that along to Marley Lilly.
*If you didn't win this one, stay tuned. I have a few more giveaways to share with you.

Rüdesheim

A couple of weeks ago, TLS and I went to Rüdesheim for the day. Rüdesheim is a gorgeous town on the Rhine river that is known for its wine there. It is popular among tourists, but has retained a lot of its charm. In typical Masha fashion, I forgot to bring my camera with me, so I only have pictures from my iphone to post here. (Once again, in typical Masha fashion, at the end of the day, on the drive home, I found my camera in my purse. Go figure.)

To get to the town, you had to take a ferry across the Rhine River. I was fascinated by it because it was my first time ever seeing a car ferry!

one of our first views of the town

Once we got there, we walked up to a cable car that went up the mountains, through the vineyards, and left us higher off in the mountains where we walked to the Niederwald monument. We bought a small bottle of wine and two souvenir glasses for 6,00€ and enjoyed it on the trip up.  (The next few photos will be blurry because I attempted to take them on an iphone in a moving cable car. Smart.)

view from the cable car

can't wait to drink all that!

This is the Niederwald Monument. Sadly, it was being cleaned when we were there so most of it covered by scaffolding.

 

It was built to commemorate the establishment of the German Empire. Here is a picture I found of what it looks like when it's not all boarded up.

There was an observation platform there that provided beautiful views of the town across the river.

After we took the cable car back down, we went to a little restaurant for drinks and this amazing cake! We walked around a bit to wine taste and found a square where a jazz band had set up and were playing so we bought two glasses of white wine from a kiosk there and sat and listened to them play.

Then we walked around some more going into all of the little shops that they had there. I got a little stuffed hedgehog (not pictured) named Pieks who now resides on our dashboard. One of the wine shops there had a person there who could etch your wine bottles, so obviously, I had to monogram one.

This bottle goes under the "too pretty to drink" category.

It didn't photograph that well because of the light reflecting off the bottle, but it has a picture of grapes on it and underneath it says

Rudesheim

Germany

2011

MST

Birthday Month Giveaway #1

I am a bit behind on posting my birthday month giveaways this month, please forgive me. Now that I am all caught up on stuff, it's time to post this.

This giveaway comes to you courtesy of Marley Lilly. Marley Lilly has a lot of fun, monogrammed gifts to choose from. I was lucky enough to win a monogrammed tumbler with straw from Marley Lilly in a giveaway and let me tell you, I am obsessed!

this was my first item with my new monogram on it!

The lucky winner gets to pick any monogrammed hat from Marley Lilly. With 21 choices in all, if you win, you will have a lot of fun just trying to pick your prize!

Here are my favorites:

bows make the world a better place

you can never have too many baseball caps

To enter:
1) Visit the Marley Lilly website and say what your favorite product is other than the hats, for one entry.
2) Follow my blog for a second entry.
3) Like Marley Lilly on facebook for a third entry.
4) Post about this giveaway on your blog for a fourth entry. You will also get one entry for every person who enters and says that (s)he was referred by you!

This giveaway will end on Wednesday, July 13th, at midnight EST.

Midweek Randoms

Have not had a chance to blog for a bit because I got busy with a project that I was heading, so think of this as my catch-up post.

*Went to Homburg Hospital yesterday for what was supposed to be my initial consult with the heart surgeon. Supposed to be. I was told by both my cardiologist here and Tricare that I didn't need anything for the appointment. Apparently that's not true and I was supposed to bring copies of my MRI and echo to the appointment.  Without the test results, the doctor couldn't do anything and we wasted all that time driving there for nothing. I have to go back again. Oh fun.
*A sweet blog reader sent me a lovely care package with some of these in it.

I had never heard of Berry Burst Ice Cream Oreos before but now I am obsessed with them! Thank you Grove Gal K!
*We bought a new grill. Growing up in Manhattan, I was always jealous of friends who got to grill for the summer and have been wanting to buy a grill since moving to Germany. It was something that we always "talked" about, but never actually did. 4th of July morning, I woke up craving some good bbq, and this craving only intensified when a twitter follower sent me the link to a Peach BBQ chicken recipe. I turned to my husband and said "we're buying a grill today." Sure enough, we went to base and came home with a grill. Being a chronic namer, I named her Charlotte Char-Broil. (Our car is Valerie Volkswagen. My mixer is Kitty KitchenAid.) Other than our nice sheets (which we still have yet to receive), she was the only big purchase we bought from our wedding money.

isn't she pretty?

*Since buying the grill, I have become obsessed with getting cute monogrammed melamine plates and things for her.
*It saddens me that according to Angry Birds, summer is half over.
*Right after I posted my previous post, we got the pictures back from the photographer. Go figure. It's going to take me some time to go through them all and post them, but I had to share my favorite one. (If you follow me on twitter, you've probably already seen it.)