Dress for Less

If you're looking for a good deal for fashionable clothes, cute accessories, or trendy housewares, Ross is a great store to shop at. You have to be willing to look through the racks and up and down the aisles, but the deals are there to be found. 


I have my best friend Jennifer to thank for introducing me to Ross. After I graduated from college, I took a year off before law school to work and put some money away. I ended up working for a temp agency and being placed at a company where I met my best friend of the last four years. We'd make trips to Ross on our lunch breaks and found plenty of good deals (probably more than we should have). 

Sunday I stopped in and walked away with two purchases, an adorable shirt ($12 down from $40) and a great storage box ($5).

What can I say? I love bargains. I'm all about adding to my wardrobe little by little with reasonably priced pieces that will last and can be worn in lots of different ways. 

So glad this is a three day weekend...

Three day weekends are wonderful things, especially when you can just chill and relax which is exactly what I've been doing during this one. Sometimes a little rest and relaxation is the best you can hope for and your best gift to yourself. I've definitely hit one of those times.

Friday night I watched an old Clark Gable and Burt Lancaster movie, Run Silent, Run Deep. I'd never heard of it, but it was pretty good. Gable's a sub commander during World War II chasing down the Japanese ship that sunk his first sub, and Lancaster is the young, captain waiting in the wings. It was a good movie, and both men were not too bad to look at.

Saturday I decided to go to the library. I hadn't been there in forever, but I decided to renew my card (and save some money since I'll be more selective about my book purchases for now). I picked up a few books for the long weekend - Crank, The Girl Who Chased the Moon, Last Night at Chateau Marmont, and The Radleys. And remember, I'm still looking for good book recommendations.

I finished reading Dead in the Family today, and I loved it. The last few Sookie Stackhouse books had been kind of 'bleh' to me, but this book was really good. I know I'll be going to Target this week to buy the Season 3 True Blood DVDs. Target is going to have special edition covers for the Season 3 DVDs so you get to pick up a cover with your favorite character or the whole cast. I'll definitely be going for the Bill cover.

Oh, well. Back to reading for me. Next on my reading list is Ellen Hopkins' Crank. I'm already 250 pages in, and I'm hooked. I should have picked up one of her books sooner.

Page Turners

This week I skipped my usual Wednesday night movie night. Nothing really caught my attention so I decided to read instead. It's been a long week and by Wednesday night, my attention span was all but gone. My attention span's been gone all week if I'm being honest. It's hard to explain why. I'm just really ready for the long weekend, but who isn't?


I've been reading a lot lately. I'm an avid reader, and usually I'd rather read than watch TV or a movie but lately I've been striking out on the book front. Everything I've read has been okay or just alright but nothing special. Then I picked up Erik Larson's In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin. I'd read Larson's Devil in the White City a few years ago and loved it. In the Garden was just as good, and I can't wait to see what he comes up with next. 

I was a history major at the University of Texas, and I've always been interested in history, especially World War II. My grandmother grew up in Germany during World War II, and that always made me very curious about that time period. My grandmother's never really been one to want to talk about that time in her life, and I've never pushed. I'd love to know more about her life back then, but I'm afraid I'll never hear those stories. I've never been to Germany, but I'd love to travel there one day and find out more on my own. 

Larson's book is about the story of the American ambassador to Germany prior to WWII and at the beginning of Hitler's reign over Germany, Ambassador Dodd. The cast of characters are interesting, and the stories and little insights into that world are eye-opening and jaw-dropping at times. I highly recommend picking it up. 

But don't think I'm just some brainiac, my next book is less than educational and just proves how varied my reading tastes are. 

That's right. I love the Sookie Stackhouse series by Charlaine Harris as well as True Blood, the HBO series based on the books. This is the 10th book in the series, and I plan on spending my Memorial Day weekend blazing through it and getting sucked into Sookie's crazy, vampire-filled life. I'm more of a Bill-girl than an Eric lover myself, but that's for another post. 

Time for a little retail therapy...

Today I went to lunch in Willis with my boss' wife and one of our paralegals and visited an adorable antique store, Yesterday's Treasures Antiques and Gifts. They had tons of cute gifts and decorating items, and I immediately fell in love with this. 

It's a magnetic board that's going in my kitchen right away. It just stuck out to me, and I absolutely love the saying on it.

And because it's been a stressful week, more retail therapy was in order today so I stopped by Target after work. Target always has good deals, but I recently discovered that Target also has it's own set of coupons. Who knew? This just made me love Target even more. 

Today's Target purchases were half fun/half much needed stress relievers. 

Here's to hoping the rest of my week calms down.

Little Miss Movie Reviewer

This week I did two movie nights. First I watched Boondock Saints. I'd never seen it, but I'd heard so many people raving about it that I decided to give it a chance when I saw it was on IFC Wednesday night. 

I can't help it. I like mobster movies and TV shows. The Godfather. Goodfellas. Mob Wives (Bet you weren't expecting me to list that one!). Overall I liked Boondock Saints, and I'd watch the sequel. I suppose you could say it's a dark comedy, and I was totally in the mood for that. It was just one of those nights Wednesday. 

Thursday I went for something a little scarier, The Resident with Hilary Swank and Jeffrey Dean Morgan. 

Talk about messed up (and a little boring if I'm being honest), The Resident is about a young, single woman who moves into an apartment rented from Morgan's character after a being cheated on by her ex. The landlord develops a crazy obsession over the woman and stalks her endlessly. Probably not the best choice for me to watch since I'm a young, single woman on her own, but it wasn't too scary. In fact, I kept hoping it'd get a little scarier but it never happened. It was creepier than anything and creepy in a way that you saw coming all along. =/

Movie Night

I had an absolutely wonderful vacation. After not having gotten away for a weekend since September, I was in desperate need of a few days of r&r, and Austin is always good for that. I went to an interesting continuing legal education class on mental health issues and then spent the rest of the weekend relaxing. I did a lot of shopping at the San Marcos outlet mall and ended up leaving with a beautiful Coach purse that I'm absolutely in love with courtesy of my aunt. 

Pretty, right???

So Austin was good, and I can't wait to go back but back to the real world for now. 

Work is crazy, and Wednesday nights I can never find anything to watch on TV so I've been having movie nights at my apartment every Wednesday night lately. I haven't decided what tonight's movie is yet, but I'll be back later this week with my pick (and hopefully a good review). 

Vacation Time

Tomorrow I leave for Austin, and I cannot wait. I've felt absolutely drained at work lately, and a little getaway is just what I need. I'm actually really looking forward to the legal seminar I'm going to, and I always love visiting Austin. As you can guess from the title of my blog, I'm a very proud Longhorn, and I'm always happy to return to my college town. I had a great four years there, and I'd love to move back one day.

In honor of my Austin trip, I'm counting down five of my favorite places to visit in Austin.

5. Kerbey Lane 

Kerbey Lane is my favorite breakfast stop in Austin. The food is awesome, and the atmosphere is always relaxing. The Saturday and Sunday morning wait can be crazy, but it's well worth it. The restaurant uses all natural ingredients and definitely fits the health-conscious Austin lifestyle. I recommend the gingerbread pancakes.

4. 5th and 6th Street

Who hasn't heard of 6th Street? 5th and 6th Street provide an amazing array of music and fun. Walk up and down 5th and 6th Streets, and you can find any type of music, any night of the week.

3. The Driskill Hotel 

The Driskill Hotel is in my opinion, the most beautiful and romantic hotel in Austin. I love staying here! The hotel is said to be quite haunted, and I have to admit that's always intrigued me.

2. Chuy's

Chuy's is all my all-time favorite Mexican food. It's so Austin and a must visit!

1. The University of Texas

=)

My Slow Weekend

Knowing that I'm going to have a busy (but fun) weekend next weekend, I wanted a slow, quiet weekend this week, and that's exactly what I got.

Next weekend I'll be in Austin, attending a legal seminar on mental health issues. It sounds like it'll be a very interesting seminar, and I'm definitely looking forward to getting away for a weekend. I haven't had a weekend getaway since last September (I only realized today just how long it's been). My seminar is all day Friday, and then I'll have the rest of the weekend for fun, shopping, and unwinding. It's much needed.

This weekend though was nice and slow. My Saturday night was all for me.

The Buitoni ravioli was excellent, this particular Arbor Mist was so-so, and the movie was fantastic. If you haven't seen The King's Speech, go and rent it! After seeing this movie, I absolutely agree that it deserved the Academy Award for Best Picture. The acting was superb, but more than that, I loved the scenery and the colors. It was a beautiful movie, and the history major in me adored it. It was just the touching, warming movie I needed after a long, hard week of work.

I'm trying to watch more movies so if there's a movie you think I must see, please leave me a comment. I'll watch anything but sci-fi movies. This week I also watched Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and Abandon. I think we all remember the Indiana Jones movie, but you might not remember Abandon.

Abandon was a 2002, pre-Tom Cruise, Katie Holmes' thriller that is definitely worth watching. Katie plays smart college senior, Catherine Burke, a young woman on the brink of graduating and landing the job of her dreams. Benjamin Bratt plays a newly sober detective called in to investigate the disappearance two years before of Catherine's boyfriend, Embry, a wild, egotistical art student. You'll never see the end coming, and you'll be glad you watched. I'd forgotten just how good Abandon really is.

Well, I should get back to doing laundry and reading. Hope everyone has a nice week!

Freebies

It's been a very long work week so I was very much in need of a nice surprise. And voila, I get this in the mail (and yes, this was the actual package I received - it was just shrink-wrapped with a mailing label on it).

Cute, right? How creative to send an actual usable coffee cup containing goodies inside to a coffee lover.  This particular freebie came from International Coffee House and Vocalpoint (a consumer survey/rating website). Inside were plenty surprises, including a coupon for a free pint of International Coffee House's Creme Breve creamer, which I'm already a big fan of.

I especially loved the desktop "clock" included. I think we could all use it. I know I could this week.