More coupon codes

A. Tierney Friends and Family Sale: Take 30% off your order with code FFF09 through 10/27/09.

Sephora Friends and Family Sale: Get 20% off your purchase (online only) with code FF2009. Expires 11/02/09.

Saks Fifth Avenue Friends & Family Sale

From Thursday, October 15th through Sunday, October 18th, enter code FRIENDS2 at checkout to receive 25% off your total purchase (20% off on jewelry, and 10% off on cosmetics and fragrances). If you are an Ebates member, you get an additional 5% cash back on your purchases.

grey skies are going to clear up

TLS is getting stationed in Turkey for 2 months and is going to be there by himself for the entire holiday season. The time difference between the U.S. and Turkey is 7 hours which we're not exactly thrilled about. We had been talking about seeing each other again before he leaves but it did not seem to work out thanks to his limited amount of leave. Fortunately, I work for a company that gives me 4.5 weeks of paid vacation a year. We realized that I could leave after work, take a redeye flight, and it would be less time that TLS had to take. Our original plan was for me to fly out on a Wednesday night and stay for a long weekend, but then when we realized that a Wednesday-Wednesday flight would be cheaper, I said that I could stay until Wednesday and to minimize the time that TLS has to take, he can go to work and during the day I can just play Wii, blog, and cook dinner and use it as good practice for our life in Germany. TLS said that he would have to see if he could take leave so close to him leaving. This morning, I woke up to discover a plane ticket from the Evil Empire also known as Delta in my inbox. Between the two of us, we had enough e-credits to make the cost of the ticket cheaper than a flight within the United States! And the best part? Because I'm flying out of England on Veteran's Day and TLS doesn't have to go to work that day, that's only one day of leave that he has to take! I am so happy and excited right now. A trip is exactly what I needed after the week that I've had. November 4th cannot come quickly enough!

if it's not one thing, it is most certainly the other

Do you remember when I posted last week saying that I may be going MIA due to some unpleasantness at work? Well, Thursday while I was preparing for a meeting regarding said unpleasantness, I got a hysterical phone call from my Nana's home health aide. My Nana is 79 years old and she has Alzheimer's and Dementia. Wednesday night, she decided she wanted to make some tea and turned the stove on. Halfway through this, she forgot what she was doing, and did not actually light the stove. She went to bed with the gas from the stove running! Fortunately, a neighbor smelled the gas, called security who came upstairs to unlock her door and turn the gas off. This was something that we had been scared of would happen for a while. Clearly my Nana is not capable of living by herself and needs some serious help. My mother is out of the country, so I am stuck dealing with the situation. I took her to the ER on Thursday to see if they could admit her to the hospital to buy us some time while I can get her 24-hour help. Unfortunately, since there was nothing medically wrong with her they sent her home. My Nana has a home health aide, but her hours are limited during the week, and even more limited on weekends. I am working with her social worker to find a live in aide for her ASAP. Unfortunately, this is going to take at least a week to get someone, do a home visit to see if her house is conducive to having someone living with her, get the medical clearance, etc. Until the agency can place someone with her, I have moved in with her to keep an eye on things. This is not a wonderful arrangement for me. I love my Nana dearly and she is my only remaining grandparent, but more than half the time she does not know who I am. She has woken me up several times in the course of a night thinking that I am a random stranger who broke into her house and rob her. She also does not have cable or internet. I have been spending plenty of time at Barnes & Noble reading wedding magazines to occupy myself and have inadvertently managed to plan out TLS's and my whole wedding. (I do not want to know the cost of this wedding.) Fortunately, my Nana lives walking distance to two of my favorite places- Crumbs and Alice's Tea Cup. I am slightly embarassed to say how many cupcakes I have had within these past four days. Because I will not be going home until at least a week from today, if you have sent me anything and it goes unrecognized, please don't be alarmed. My massive meeting that I was dreading more than an anesthesia-less root canal got moved to Wednesday, and needless to say, I am so not looking forward to it.

TLS decided to partner with the Preppy Princess to send me a much-needed care package at work, and this was waiting for me when I got to work this morning:






Thank you so much to both TLS and the Preppy Princes!!!

If you can please continue to keep my family in your prayers that we are able to find my Nana the help that she needs soon and that I can go on living another week at her house without going completely insane I would greatly appreciate it.

going MIA

Sadly, due to an unfortunate situation at my job, I may be MIA from blogging for the rest of this week. I can't go into details on a public forum, but I am asking for everyone to please send me good vibes to get through this week. If you are a regular reader and would like to know more, please feel free to email me.

Giveaway Winner

Congratulations to #60 aka The Preppy Princess for winning this giveaway!!! You already have my email so just send me a message with the address you'd like it to go to and I will send it out this week. :)

Favorite Things Friday

It's October, which means one thing to MRM- Breast Cancer Awareness Month and consequently, lots of fun, pink shopping to be done. This week's favorite things post is devoted to products that give back.

From my favorite bakery, Crumbs, a special limited-edition cupcake with pink ribbon sprinkles, $4.50. $1 from the sale of each cupcake is donated to the Breast Cancer Foundation. Since it is my goal to try each flavor at Crumbs before I move, I will have to stop by there this month. Oh darn. All you non-NYC readers, don't worry. Crumbs ships within the Continental United States.


The item I have been lusting over all year- the KitchenAid stand mixer, now available in pink for their Cook for the Cure Collection. I am still flip flopping between the Pink and Empire Red models. TLS would prefer red, but how often is he really going to be using it? $299.99 at Bed, Bath, and Beyond.


Also from Bed, Bath, and Beyond, another favorite item of mine, the pink Brita pitcher. Brita will donate $50,000 to the Susan G. Komen Foundation from the sale of these pitchers. I had one and sadly it met an untimely death, and have been waiting for about 5 months to replace it. $31.99.


Moving away from kitchen accessories and onto fashion ones. Most of my readers know of my love of A. Tierney's colorful bangles. Thankfully, Alyssa has jumped on the Pink bandwagon and has released several bangles to benefit the Susan G. Komen Foundation. My personal favorite is this one, $50.


From Bloomingdales' Pink Shop, a lovely cardigan from DKNY, $125. This would be perfect for nights out in the chilly weather. To be quite honest, I'm not sure how much from the sale of it goes to breast cancer research, but it is from the collection.


Since I can't do a favorite things post without mentioning one of my favorite stores- the Preppy Princess, here is an adorable Scout tote at a great price, $32. I love gingham and love that 30% of the sale of this tote is donated to breast cancer research as well.


That's all for this week. Stay tuned next Friday when I will be talking about more pink things. Shocking. If you have not yet entered my giveaway, you have until Sunday at midnight to do so. Hope each one of you has a fabulous weekend!