Dear Zachary...

I have been hearing a lot lately about a documentary called "Dear Zachary" and how it is a must see film that everyone needs to see. Luckily for me it is on Netflix so when I had some free time yesterday the husband and I saw down and watched it.

I have never had a movie take me to such an emotional state as this one did. Maybe because it's a true story? Maybe because of everything the movie entails? Everything about the film just hit me. Without going in to too much detail and giving away anything about the film, one thing you find out early on is that a guy is filming this documentary to give to a boy named Zachary to tell him about the life of Zachary's father who had been murdered. He interviewed family, friends, classmates...anyone he could get in touch with who had known Zachary's father, Andrew Bagby. The filmmaker himself was one of Andrew's childhood friends and it was absolutely amazing to hear what everyone had to say about him. Not one bad word was spoken and you could tell that Andrew had touched so many people's lives. It was unbelievable. I can only hope that one day when I am gone that a quarter of the people that talked about Andrew have nice things to say about me. 

If you are going to watch this film I have a few pieces of advice for you: 

1. Make sure you have tissues nearby

&

2. Do not google anything about the film or Andrew Bagby. You really just need to watch the film to understand.

A beautiful day for a wedding

This past weekend I got to attend the wedding of a guy named Steven that I have known since I was 13. Considering we have not seen much of each other since we graduated high school I felt honored that he included me on his guest list. We have kept in touch through Facebook and even though the first time I met his wife was at the wedding, I felt like I had known her for years since I have seen so many photos of the two of them. They are quite an adorable couple and it makes me happy that they have found such love in one another.


The ceremony was one of the longer ones I have been too and I enjoyed every second of it. One of my favorite parts was when the doors opened and she walked down the aisle with her dad to the song "At Last" by Etta James. She looked like a beautiful classic bride so the song fit very well.

(His letter to her)

(Her letter to him)

(You may now kiss your bride!)

(My lovely husband and I before the reception)

(My very cute and pregnant best friend and I)

(Obviously the husbands enjoyed the free happy hour!)

(The beautiful bride and groom)

And lucky for us they had a photobooth!

Am I a lucky girl or what to be able to call that sexy man my husband?

Fill in the blank Friday

1.   If money wasn't an issue, the first thing I'd cross of my life list is: Buy a bunch of properties for me and the husband to fix up. And to make sure that whatever place we were living in had a huge walk in closet for me! 

2.  Lox (salmon) on my bagels :are something I like that other people think is weird.

3.  If my life were a movie right now, the title would be: The life of a shopaholic mom with a shoe addiction. 

4.  Three things I am looking forward to this month are: Valentines day and all that fun stuff, shopping for and attending a few fun events like weddings and baby showers, and spending some quality family time together with my husband and daughter.

5.  My favorite song to sing in the shower is: Pocketful of sunshine. Clearly I have seen "Easy A" too many times.

6.  If I found out that the production of   diapers   was ending this month, I'd go out and buy as much as I could tomorrow.

7.  One thing I'll never grow tired of is  seeing my daughter smile.

My hunt for Missoni

Even though the Missoni for Target line was released awhile back, I never actually got the chance to purchase any of the wonderful items. I was eyeing a few different items but by the time I got to my closest Target it was all sold out, except for a few children's items. And let's be honest, I don't think the kids clothing would look that fabulous on me. And then one day I decided to browse Pinterest and came across this lovely little outfit inspiration.

(Link to pin on my Pinterest)

So I went on the hunt to find this beautiful sweater. I checked my store and had no luck there, and when I asked one of the associates they looked at me like I was nuts. So I went to Target's website and found the sweater...only to find out it was completely sold out in pretty much every size. So what's a girl to do?

Go to Ebay!

So I type in Missoni sweater in my size and low and behold, there it is! It cost a little more than what it did in the store but I decided it was worth it. I read that a lot of people went to Target when Missoni launched and just grabbed as many items as they could, so they could resell it on places like Craigslist and Ebay for twice as much. Luckily for me, the sweater was only marked up an additional $10 over the normal cost. I bought it and a few days later this beauty came in the mail!

And of course my little lovebug is quite the camera lover so she had to be in a few photos...

Gotta love her little teeth =)

Breakdown!

Missoni sweater:   Ebay - $65.00 (after shipping)

Black tank top:   Love Culture -  $5.00

Stone Mountain purse:   Marshalls - $15.00

Skinny jeans:   Forever 21 - $10.50

Tan boots:   Cathy Jean - Can't remember the price. Whoops!

Total cost: $95.50

Not including the boots because I cannot remember for the life of me how much they cost.

Have you ever seen a piece of clothing that you absolutely could not live without, and you had to hunt to find it? I would love to hear your stories! I hope I'm not the only one who gets obsessed with certain items =)

Steals and deals!

In my last post I talked about some amazing deals that I got at DSW. Now, if you have never heard about them you are truly missing out. It is basically a fashionista and deal seekers perfect location to find some amazing shoes and even quite a few handbags. The first store I ever went to was in San Francisco with my mom when I was probably either 14 or 15. This store is MASSIVE. It is 3 stories high and in more recent years they added a basement section just for the clearance merchandise. The clearance section has different colored stickers on the shoes and you can find out exactly what percent off you will get based on the color. I haven't been to this particular store in a while but I live within 15 minutes of another one.

So the other day I decided to take a little stroll in just to "browse" and see if anything special caught my eye. I had no intentions of buying anything but like I always say - If the shoe fits, buy it in every color!

Black Clutch by Urban Expressions

(The inside of the clutch. I love the polka dots!)

 Brown top handle satchel by Kelly & Katie

Beige heels by Max Studio

 Taupe tassel heels by Levity

 Purple heels by Unisa

Total cost of items before markdowns:

Black clutch: $29.94

Brown purse: $39.94

Beige heels: $89.94

Taupe heels: $74.94

Purple heels: $49.94

Total: $284.70

All five items were marked down to 80% off 

Black clutch: $5.99

Brown purse: $7.99

Beige heels: $17.99

Taupe heels: $14.99

Purple heels: $9.99

New total cost: $56.95

Total savings: $227.75!

That is one heck of a deal if you ask me! 

Thankful Fridays!

T.G.I.F!

Anyone else remember being really excited for the weekends because you knew that Friday nights meant turning on TGIF on ABC and watching Full House, Family Matters, Step by Step, and Boy Meets World? Man, those were the good days. None of the shows that are on television nowadays can even come close to those ones. In honor of it being Friday, I decided to take the time to think about some of the things I am thankful for on this beautiful beginning of the weekend. 

1. The gorgeous weather! It has been super cloudy and raining on and off the past couple of weeks, so walking outside today and seeing sunshine was definitely one of the highlights of my day.

2. A fun filled weekend ahead spending time with my wonderful husband and daughter, and enjoying some quality family time. Husband has been working pretty much non stop the past month so a much needed break is in order. 

3. Planning a family vacation! Because of my school schedule we won't be able to take a vacation until after the semester is over, but we are talking about all the different possibilities of places we can go. We have some Southwest airfare credit we could use so we were thinking about taking a trip to Chicago to visit some of my family. You can't really pass up having a free place to stay! Other ideas were going to Southern California and then visiting a few other places that we could drive to like Las Vegas or the Grand Canyon. Guess we will have to see!

4. Finding some amazing deals yesterday at DSW. I will do another post later just dedicated to the amazing things I found there yesterday. But let me just say I found some awesome deals!

5. Getting all of my homework done last night so I won't have to worry about it again this weekend! Yay!

It's beginning to look a lot like...Spring?

The weather the past few days has been quite unpredictable. One day its sunny and warm and then the next four days we have rain and cold weather warnings. Not cool Mother Nature, not cool. I'm so looking forward to warmer days and some very cute and fun outfits!

Today's Pinspired look comes from this photo

(Outfit link)

For the jeans, shoes, tank top, cardigan and scarf in the original link the total cost was over $500.

I was able to put it together for a tad bit cheaper.

(Love the print of this scarf so much!)

I had been on the hunt for a pair of sandals like the ones above for quite some time. I found these bad boys a few months ago at Ross for $39.99 and highly contemplated buying them. I decided I would wait and look for another pair in case I found some that I liked more and that might possibly cost less. A couple of weeks ago I make another trip back to Ross and decide to browse through the shoes and low and behold guess what is still there....and marked down to $20.00! I had no choice but to buy them. It was definitely meant to be =)

I didn't have a solid cream colored scarf and I loved the print on this one too much to pass it up with this outfit. It's even more beautiful in person and the pictures don't do it justice. Now all I need is the leopard clutch to go with it and I am all set to go!

My total cost:

Cardigan:   Forever 21 - $15.00

Tank top:   Love Culture - $4.00

Scarf:   Forever 21 - $9.00

Shoes:   Dolce Vita found at Ross - $19.99

Jeans:   Forever 21 - $10.50

=

$58.49!