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>Finding “the purse”

Kristen Heptinstall

>So, on my 30 Before 30 list, 2 of the items involve handbags/purses.

15. Find THE purse.
16. Then, sell or donate a bunch of other purses.

“The purse” that I’ve been thinking of is large but not too large (large enough to carry my wallet, cosmetics bag, iPhone, sunglasses, camera, keys, and a paperback), easy to carry over my shoulder, and made of a soft, buttery brown leather that looks good year-round. I have yet to decide exactly what style I want, but I think once I see it, I’ll know.

The idea here is to have ONE very versatile leather bag, along with a couple smaller ones for nights out, and eliminate the majority of my purses that just hang around and never get used.

I’d really rather NOT spend $300+for a bag, but if I absolutely fall in love, I would consider saving up for it, then consigning some of my older purses to help make up for the cost. I have a small blue suede Coach hobo, a nylon Coach, and a few Vera Bradley bags that I think could fetch at least a few bucks.

So, with that said, here are a few contenders for “the bag”:

I also like the Coach Large Madison Maggie in Brass/Walnut.

and the JCrew Brompton hobo in henna.

Which do you like? Do you have any additional recommendations?

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Random

Thanks, One King’s Lane!

Kristen Heptinstall

So a while back, I had invited a lot of friends to join One King’s Lane. It’s a by-invitation private sale of luxury home items.

Today they were having a Lilly Pulitzer paper sale, and not one, but 2 of my invited friends opted to buy, and therefore I received a $25 credit for each!

Here’s what I made out with, for free!

A set of 2 mugs:

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And a set of 3 sticky notepads!

I am one happy girl!

If you would like an invitation to One King’s Lane, I invite you to e-mail me at southernwebgirl@gmail.com.

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>Thanks, One King’s Lane!

Kristen Heptinstall

>So a while back, I had invited a lot of friends to join One King’s Lane. It’s a by-invitation private sale of luxury home items.

Today they were having a Lilly Pulitzer paper sale, and not one, but 2 of my invited friends opted to buy, and therefore I received a $25 credit for each!

Here’s what I made out with, for free!

A set of 2 mugs:And a set of 3 sticky notepads!

I am one happy girl!

If you would like an invitation to One King’s Lane, I invite you to e-mail me at southernwebgirl@gmail.com.

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>A great couple of weekends

Kristen Heptinstall

>Brian and I have had a great couple of weekends.

The weekend before last, Brian and I traveled to The Beach Club, our wedding venue, for the weekend. We had a free 2-night stay in a 2-bedroom condo and a free dinner for two that had to be used by the end of April, so we went ahead and took advantage.

It was really nice to be at the wedding venue in a totally relaxed state — no hustle and bustle, no planning — just relaxation! And even better, I was working in Mobile on Thursday and Friday, so once I was done with work Friday, it was just an hour’s drive to the beach.

On Saturday, we steamed shrimp and potatoes and ate those for lunch with Coronas and limes on our balcony.Brian posted the above pic on his facebook page and got lots of envious comments. lol. We hung out at the pool all afternoon getting some sun and drinking margaritas. It was just too windy to be on the beach, and there was a red flag too, so we never actually touched the sand.

Saturday night we took advantage of our free dinner for two — he got steak and I got mahi. Yumyum. And we split a creme brulee for dessert.

This weekend was also a good one. On Friday night we did some shopping and I was able to find a black dress, long aqua necklace and matching earrings at Belk for my friend’s Hindi wedding next month. Based on the bride’s advice, I decided on a little black dress for the reception, and I am going to wear my wedding rehearsal dinner dress — a silk print Lilly — for the ceremony the following day since it’s a 1 p.m. wedding.

Then Saturday afternoon, we ate at Flip Burger at the Summit here in Bham for lunch. The food was amazing, but we found the atmosphere to be much too trendy, and the music way too loud. We did some running around and then Brian made a Chicago-style pizza for dinner. Yumyum.
Also Saturday, we bit the bullet and got this:

A 26-inch Vizio HDTV for our bedroom! Woohoo! Hooray tax return $$! And Saturday night, we rented ‘Up in the Air’ from Redbox and it was awesome! Lovelovelove George Clooney, and Anna Kendrick was outstanding!

And then Sunday night, Brian made homemade spring rolls, crab rangoon and chicken stir-fry, then we went to go see ‘Alice in Wonderland’ in 3D. A good movie, but now I just want to go see ‘Avatar’ since ‘Alice’ was my first 3D movie, attractions at Disney World nonwithstanding.

Speaking of Disney World, we are just 33 days away from our arrival!

Celebrating our honeymoon in April ’09 at Magic Kingdom with Walt and Tink.

We are celebrating our 1st anniversary at WDW and staying at the Pop Century resort. To say we are both excited to return is a wee bit of an understatement. We’re also excited because we were able to get round-trip airfare for both of us for a total of $198 through Southwest. We were planning on driving, but with that great of a deal, we simply couldn’t pass it up, and in my SUV, gas cost would have been close to $198 anyhow.

I plan on doing some more blogging about our itinerary and the restaurants we are visiting. Our two favorite Disney sites are Disneyfoodblog.com and allears.net. If you are planning a WDW visit anytime soon and are foodies like us, bookmark both of those sites. They are great. I plan on taking a ton of photos to share with AJ at Disney Food Blog.

How was your weekend? I’ll tell you what, I’m ready for the crazy weather to end and the spring weather to set in for real.

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>Selling old iPods & cell phones

Kristen Heptinstall

> So, Brian and I switched to iPhones a couple weeks ago. LOVE!

We were left with 2 iPods and 2 cell phones that we no longer need. We found buyers for our iPods, but who wants an old cell phone? So I discovered Gazelle.com, where you get an instant quote on the devices you want to sell.

They're sending out a shipping label and an environmental-friendly box to me right now. I just put our phones in the box, send them in, and after about a week they will send me a check for just under $90 for our phones! You can opt to be paid via check, Paypal, Wal-Mart Visa card, Amazon.com gift certificate (they pay you 5% more this way), or you can donate your money to charity.

So, if you're interested in getting rid of some of your old devices, please click here: Get Cash For Your Gadgets at gazelle.com! I will get a referral this way. For anyone who signs up and sells at least $50 worth of electronics, I will get $10.

Items Gazelle.com will buy from you include not only cell phones and mp3 players, but also camcorders, desktop PCs, laptop PCs, LCD monitors, satellite radios, calculators, GPS devices, cameras and lenses, external hard drives, the list goes on and on. And they don't have to be in working condition, although I'm sure that will lower your quote.

So if you have old electronics just laying around, try this out and put some cash in your pocket!

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>Nike Tempo running short backlash!

Kristen Heptinstall

>I got a really hilarious blog comment on Oct. 29 on my post Funky Friday in which I was inquiring about the Nike Tempo running shorts. And I just have to share.

John had this to say:

Burn the NIKE TEMPO SHORTS this fad should die. die die die. It makes girls look sloppy. So many girls at the University of Alabama only wear Nike Temp shorts everyday. They aren’t running anywhere. They are in class. They wear Nike Temp shorts and oversized greek event shirts. They all look terrible.

John cracks me up. It sounds like he would like female UA students to make more of an effort. Luckily I am no longer a UA student, having graduated 4.5 years ago, and I only wear my Nike shorts (which I LOVE) when I am working out, walking my dog, or doing yardwork.

John, I do agree that always wearing running shorts & t-shirts to class does look sloppy. My uniform toward the end of college was either New Balance running shoes or Rainbow leather flip-flops, bootcut jeans or jean capris, and a Greek t-shirt or Polo oxford button-down. And I always did my hair and makeup, which girls seem to do less and less. And I NEVER wore shorts to class. I would not have ever considered wearing shorts to class for several reasons, one of which is that the lecture halls are usually FREEZING.

I was on UA’s campus last Wednesday and Friday and I noticed a LOT of girls wearing exactly what John mentions above — oversized greek t-shirt, Nike Tempo running shorts, and Uggs. I LOLed at that combination. Thankfully none of them were members of my sorority. It seems that trends like that hit the UA campus really hard, especially among sorority members.

Hmm, so Gracie Beth, any thoughts on John’s comments?

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>My favorite discount clothiers, because “clothiers” sounds fancy!

Kristen Heptinstall

>Like Miss Northern Belle, I have champagne taste on a beer budget. Though these days it’s more like champagne taste on a Natty Lite budget, I suppose. (c;

Despite including a couple of items from Target and Delia’s in my last post, I haven’t shopped at either of those stores for clothes in a while… especially Delia’s, as I can’t attest to being able to squeeze into junior’s sizes anymore. Although I MIGHT have just placed an order for the Delia’s coat and scarf from my last post, as well as these babies:Converse All-Star Ox in blue surf.

So thank you, AngryJulie, for bringing these back into my mind’s forefront as I was ordering my coat and scarf today. And thank you Mrs.SouthernBride and MojitoMaven for your Converse All-Star seals of approval via Twitter today. (c;

So, provided that I like everything and it all fits, the red dress and Target-brand Uggs from my last post will have to wait. I’m not sure if I’ll be going to any Alabama games this season, so the dress can wait for sure.

Because I don’t make tons ‘o cash, I can’t afford my favorite brands such as J. Crew, Banana Republic, Lily Pulitzer, Boden, or Tory Burch on a regular basis (although I will hit up the J. Crew clearance rack from time to time.) Instead, I’ve found some other stores that carry the same sort of styles at half the price.

Kohl’s. Kohl’s is my only store credit card, and they treat their cardholders really well. I’m constantly getting coupons in the mail for 15% and 20% off my total purchase. And their clearance racks are great if you have the time to scour through them. I really like their Apt. 9 line, as well as Daisy Fuentes, Vera Wang and the new Lauren Conrad Collection.

Macy’s clearance rack. I always find cute tops here. I recently got a $25 gift card for filling out a bunch of surveys with e-rewards. I found 2 really cute tops on the clearance rack for a total of $10 — a very preppy long-sleeved blue and white stripe button down shirt from Charter Club (with ruffles!) and a short sleeve blue dipdye top from Style&Co.

JCPenney. Believe it or not, they have some CUTE stuff. I really like their Common Genes jeans line — they are usually on sale for $29.99 and look and feel like a much more expensive designer brand. I have these and I hope to get a pair or two more. And I found a cute top from the I heart Ronson line. I also like their American Living line (so obviously Ralph) but have yet to buy anything from it.

Old Navy. Always good for basics! Nuff said.

Ross, Marshall’s, and T.J. Maxx. I haven’t bought anything from any of these places in a while, but they’re always fun to scour if you have the time.

What are your favorite places to shop when you’re on a Natty Lite budget?