More Things I'm Not Buying

How stinking cute are these items from Madison Belle?

Unintentional Knockoffs?

I don't believe in buying designer fakes (can anyone say Prado?*), but I also am not that interested in spending $865 on a pair of shoes:

1. I'd much rather spend that on an awesome trip or grow my nest egg.

2. So many things eventually end up on sale that I'd kick myself later when they do. (Case in point: Gilt.com, RueLaLa.com, et al. Just today I saw a cute pair of Giuseppe Zanottis for $200 marked down from over $600.)

3. And didn't you hear that flaunting luxury these days is vulgar?

But what about when you unintentionally buy something that's a knockoff? I was browsing DSW's sale today** and saw these:

$50, down from $100

They looked familiar, and then I remembered** that Mr. Louboutin makes these:

$865 (seriously, where does the $5 come from?)

Now, I don't doubt that the CLs are made of the finest craftsmanship and that the ones from DSW aren't exactly the highest quality. (And since they're fun shoes more than anything else, does it really matter? I couldn't even imagine wearing the CLs out in public for fear something would happen to them.)

But if I was shopping** at DSW, decided to pick these up, and then wore them out thinking I looked pretty cute, would I get judgmental looks from ladies who know better? (I do live in Dallas, after all.) How would I know?


* from Serendipity:
Eve: Prada! Ooh! Prada! I love this stuff!
Salesman: That's 20 bucks.
Sara: Eve, that's a horrific knockoff! At least my knockoff says 'Prada,' yours says 'Prado!'
Eve: Well, I say for a dollar I can buy a magic marker and fix it. I'll take it!

** I'm not buying non-essentials right now, so don't ask me why I was even looking.

Baby Mama

No bebe plans yet, and no pregnant friends yet, but I need to store this away for a future baby shower. I'd love a fiesta baby shower! I'd be okay in not getting to partake in the margaritas, because let's be real, I'll be busy giving the baby what it needs - mas queso.

Found on I *Heart* You

Obsessed with Cubby Holes

Wayyyyy better than a bookcase, I am so wanting something with cubby holes...

Found here, I think it originally came from design*sponge

My mom used to have a collectors shelf like this on a smaller scale...I am emailing her right now to see if she still has it. Something like this would be perfect for my sand collection.

Apartment Therapy
So I could keep display the pretty pretty dishes and vases out in the open.

I'm still in love with the Expedit bookcase from Ikea - if only I have a blank wall big enough for it:

Both featured on Desire to Inspire

Photo Mobile

I think this would be really cute as a mobile in a baby's nursery. It could display photos of all of his girlfriend babies at Mommy & Me.

Just in Case You Didn't Know

Without watching the video, this is a tough one.

So Thankful

I got a call this rainy morning from my husband with words I hope I don't hear again: "I just got in a wreck and if it had gone any different I would have died." He hit a patch of water in the left lane of the highway and hydroplaned head-on into a guardrail. Airbags went off, and his car skidded around in the other direction, thankfully staying on the shoulder of the road or a car behind him would have hit him head-on.

Thank God he's fine.

He showed me the photos he took of his car when I got home. The whole front is caved in, and the engine is on the ground. It looks so bad. I had hoped it would be repairable, but I can see now that it's clearly totaled.

Thank God he's fine.

I feel like in some weird way I caused it.
1. Saturday, I was driving and exited where I totaled my car 4 years ago (also hydroplaning, but on an oil patch made slick by the rain - maybe we shouldn't drive anywhere in the rain), and thought about totaling my car.
2. Yesterday, I was talking to my MIL about James's car insurance and how I was looking into paying off his car loan with my tax return.
3. This morning, when I was getting on the highway to go to work, I was thinking about the rain and getting into an accident.
4. James called me earlier on his way in to school when he hit traffic to see if I could look online to see what was causing the slowdown, and I told him his route was showing a traffic jam but was the only one not showing an accident.
5. I had on my to-do list today to call the loan company to see what the payoff amount on the car was, and was really looking forward to no longer having a car payment.

Do I have some weird power? Women's intuition? Or do I just think of weird things?

Thank God he's fine. I'm going to go snuggle with him some more now.

Happy Earth Day

I often dislike seeing the inundation of ads for earth-friendly products, many of which don't seem to be so...and wouldn't it be more green to NOT buy that thing you don't need?

However, I've been wanting to pick up a reusable grocery tote for some time now, and I saw that Swoozies is selling these personalized "eco bags" for $10 this week. I love me a monogram, so I can't resist. (Does that make me hypocritical? I could probably rummage up some old tote that I don't use because it's covered with some company's logo that I got for free, but I want happy groceries.)

So which one to choose? Department (long) or grocery (tall)? What pattern? Choices, choices.

Blogs Using Graphs are my Fave

Did anyone else go for "get your booty on the dance floor" on this one? I assumed it would be the largest slice of the pie, but nope. 5. That's like, so uncreative.




Personal pet peeve.


This graph was actually on one of DH's PowerPoint slides in a med school lecture and he showed it to me a while back. He thought it was pretty spot on.

Via GraphJam

More Typography Love

I used to work with someone who used Comic Sans for everything and it drove me crazy. This poster is perfect for my inner font snob. Found here.

I'm also loving this "Kissing Booth" poster:

I'm thinking the hubs is more likely to let me have the white/red version:

Found here.