a bit of shopping

Today I went to the Florida Mall and spent around 4 hours or so in Sephora. It is an AMAZING store, and I went with no makeup on so I could play. They have testers of everything you could possibly imagine makeup, body, and hair-wise, and they have little stations all over the store with lighted mirrors, tissues, a variety of makeup applicators, water, cleanser, sanitizer, etc. Kelly and Yanttze (pronounced Yancey) helped me--they did my eyes in lots of different ways, made my lips shiny and kissable, helped me find proper skin care products, found me an incredible foundation, and loaded me down with tons of sweet-smelling samples. When I finally left I was pampered, shimmering, scented in pink sugar, mai-tai, pina colada, and cotton candy--and my wallet was quite a bit lighter! But it had been awhile since I had paid that much attention to myself, so I figured I deserved it. Brian agreed--he encouraged me to make the most out of this time while I don't have a job. :-)

Anyway, here are a few of my favorite things I bought:

Urban Decay Shadow Box 2






DuWop Little Stars Lip Venom Glosses








Vincent Longo Liquid Canvas
Dew Finish Foundation




I also bought Stila eyeshadow, Smashbox brow tech, Philosophy cleanser, a brush set, and many other beautifying and pampering products. I LOVE it all!

When I left the Florida Mall at about 6:30, I headed to The Scrapbook Boutique on Sand Lake Road. It was a beautiful store with lots of new stuff. I'm quite proud that I only spent $11 in there--on ColorBox Fluid Chalk cat's eye ink pads (thanks, Sera) and some Christmas paper.

Brian was still working so I went on over to the Mall at Millenia. It was a FAN-CEEEEE mall! I went in Neiman Marcus, Bloomingdales, Pottery Barn (of course), Crate and Barrel, Tiffany and Co., Betsey Johnson, and many more stores that were way too expensive to buy anything in!! :-D I did, however, notice that Macy's was having a sale, so I ran in there and bought some awesome $70 shoes for $25! Nothing like a bargain! The shoes are brown pointy-toed sling-back heels. They are awesome. (Tara would be proud.)

AND....now for the big news!! My wonderful piano-playing friend Leslie is in Florida! Leslie and I were piano majors together at MVNU. We also lived in an apartment on campus together for 2 years. She and her husband and their adorable son are staying at the Jupiter Beach Resort, which is about 2.5 hours away from here. Scott is there on business, so Leslie and Joshua are just vacationing--and I'm going down tomorrow to visit them! I haven't seen Leslie since my wedding (!) and I haven't even met Josh, so I'm super excited! I guess I'd better get to bed so I'll be decent company tomorrow! But first I'll have some ice cream and watch America's Next Top Model. I'm lovin' all the drama! haha!

One final thought - my life certainly isn't perfect, by any means. But I'm so thankful that I've made the decision to be happy. Brian and I are deliriously happy, even though we miss our friends in NY, Brian has to work lots of overtime with no extra pay, it's hot, etc.--the list of complaints could go on and on. We all have many things to complain about, don't we? There are always people who are better off than us, it seems. But Brian and I are happy TODAY, in the small things. And just the thought of that makes me happy.

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It's almost time to watch A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving!