99 Cent Jewelry Junkie

I like shopping for jewelry. But I really like shopping for 99 cent jewelry at NBC. The other weekend they had two large tables filled with Rubbermaid bins that were stuffed with jewelry. And everything was 99 cents. Be still my heart.

Now, most of the jewelry was in sad shape - broken clasps, only one earring, cracked stones, you get the idea. But there were some wearable or workable pieces and I snatched those up.

I got two of these Chico's necklaces. One for Sister and one for me.


There were a lot of these in the bins. Some had broken strands so all the beads off of one strand would be missing. Or the clasp would be wonky. I found two that were in pretty good shape. They each were missing only the outermost strand which is hardly noticeable and I think another strand might be overkill anyway.


I really like the bronze color of the beads. I think they'll go well with lots of different colors. The tag said $48.


Heavy bib necklaces have been catching my eye for the past few seasons, but they seemed so trendy that I haven't bought one. I had decided that I was going to get one anyway and then I was so pleased to find two bib necklaces in great shape.



I'm keeping one and sending the other to my sister.

The beads on this next necklace are really pretty in person.


There were sooo many of these. They had a neat magnetic clasp.



The problem with the clasp is that the magnets were falling out of the clasp. I found one that had a working clasp, but one strand was missing. I ended up buying a second one, too, planning on reworking it somehow.

I got home and removed the clasp from the broken necklace and restrung all the beads onto fishing line and a clasp I had left over from my days of making bead necklaces.


Uh, this took a lot longer than I anticipated. I was hoping that the teeny, tiny gold beads were attached to the larger beads, but they were not. I'm going to give this necklace to my mom which makes the work worth it because I think she'll really like it and it will look good on her.

Since the original necklace had all three strands, this single strand is now really long. She'll be able to wear it doubled:


or tripled:


I also bought my mom this Kenneth Cole necklace. She loves green.


It was in a Ziploc bag and the center stone was detached. When I got home I just reattached it with some floral wire.


The Kenneth Cole tag said $38.

I bought this necklace for myself.


The clasp was broken so I cut it off with wire cutters and replaced it with a clasp I had left over from a Goodwill necklace I restrung.


Seven necklaces for $6.93. I'm sure glad I stopped in that day!

Snow and Swimsuits

I was so delighted to look out the window this morning and see the beautiful snow! I thought I heard Tim in the garage getting ready to leave so I quickly made it out there so we could share the magical moment. I threw open the door.

Me: Look at the snow!
Tim: It's like a winter wonderland!
Me: I know!
Tim: (chuckling)
Me: Are you mocking me?
Tim: Uh-huh.

Whatever. I quickly grabbed my camera and shuffled outside to take some pictures. I absolutely love how quiet it is when everything is blanketed with snow. Everything is bright and still. It takes me back to Colorado. Sigh.

Even though outside it looks like Summer is far, far away, I know that my afternoons by the pool are only about three months away. I have a few new things for fabulous and classy poolside lounging.

I bought a new cover up.


While it might look a little boring, I really like it. It has a cute keyhole opening with a little bow adorned with wooden beads.


The price was right, too. Not $40, but ...


99 cents at NBC's 99 cent sale!

I went to Goodwill the other night and found a tote for the pool that I absolutely love! You know how I need a tote bag for every occasion.


It was only $4.00! And it has a great lining that can handle sunscreen squirts and snow cone drips.


I love the faux woven look.


It's very Bottega Veneta-ish.


Yeah, yeah, I know that's quite a stretch, but I'd say my Goodwill tote is as close to Bottega Veneta one can get for $4.00. Have you ever felt Bottega Veneta leather? Put it on your To Do List. It's UNbelievable.

As I was photographing the tote in my backyard (Yes! That's the magical snow from today!) I rememberd a cute little envelope I bought at Ann Taylor Loft.


I was just drawn to these. Maybe because they're so shiny. I wasn't sure what I was going to do with it, but I knew I could use it for pictures, receipts, To Do Lists, coupons, etc. The price made it too good to pass up.


And it was an extra 50% off so $2.44!

This will be great to hold my pool card, driver's license and snow cone money and it matches the tote perfectly.

I even have some new sandals. I got these muted gold sandals at the Gap Outlet.


I was kind of disappointed when I saw that they weren't real leather, but that is actually better for summer. I won't worry about them getting wet. How much?


So I'm set with pool accessories, but what is the main thing you need for the pool? A good swimsuit. Luckily, I've snagged a few over the last year. ALL under $5.oo and all from NBC.

This is a good family or mixed company swimsuit.


At $3.00 it's almost disposable.

I usually don't wear swimsuits quite this busy, but for $1.00 I thought I'd give this next one a try (with my own black bikini bottom, of course).


This one is my least favorite, but it was only $3.00 and it's really well made.


This is going to be one of my guest swimsuits. So if Sister forgets her suit she's taken care of. :)

This one's my favorite.


If you've seen these in department stores you know they're well over $100, but I got this one for $3.00. Score!

The snow continues to fall and I love it! Look at the bushes lining our sidewalk!


While I wait for Summer I'm certainly going to enjoy this!

Well, maybe you can start getting used to this

Some friends of ours took us to a Mavericks game several months ago. They have tickets through his work and since Tim's in the same line of business they took us and we mixed business and pleasure. It was my first time at a Mavericks game and my first time in the American Airlines Center.

Um, let's just say this game is what sparked my love of sports. After being wanded and politely searched we went up multiple escalators to a magical place called the Platinum level. I didn't see one painted face or foam finger. We enjoyed a delicious and leisurely dinner at The Platinum Club where I had tomato basil soup, ceasar salad, fettuccini alfredo and various cheeses and fruits and Tim and I shared a humongous piece of s'mores cake. We probably only finished about a third of the mammoth slice. Oh how I was wishing for a doggie bag.

I don't even remember who the Mavericks played at that game, but I had a great time. The people watching and shoe and handbag spotting were enough entertainment for me. After the game I told Tim that I had a lot of fun and would like to do that again. He laughed and said I had been ruined. He informed me that we would not be doing that again unless our friends invited us again for a real work reason.

Well, fast forward to last week when they GAVE us 4 tickets, 2 Platinum parking passes and $120 in Platinum Club gift cards for us to use however we chose.

Tim and I invited our Dads to the game. My Dad loves all things sports. He likes to watch sports, read about sports, talk about sports, think about sports and, while I haven't asked him, I would guess that he dreams about sports. It was really fun to go the game with him. He and I went early and had dinner on the Platinum level. I'm glad we asked someone to take our picture before the game started.

(By the way, I'm crazy about my Dad. He's a wonderful man and I'm glad I get to be his daughter. And to think I used to ask him to drop me off behind the school sometimes and give instructions on what he could and could not say when my friends or boyfriends would come over. Oh boy.)

Tim and his Dad came a little into the second quarter. It was an exciting game with plenty to eat. (I had stashed an emergency US Weekly in my purse and I didn't have to break it out once.)

Ice cream

Bottomless popcorn

(Not pictured are the bottomless Cokes, the s'mores dippers and peanut butter cookie. Don't judge. We took the peanut butter cookie home to eat on Saturday ... morning.)

I wore one of my favorite winter tops to the game.

It's a fine gauge, wool sweater from Ann Taylor. It was $98 on sale for $29.99. I loooove all the folds in the neck.

And it goes great with my favorite winter scarf.

Let's not review the retail and sale price on this Burberry giant check scarf. It was full price and it was expensive. The real fabulous find here is this guy.

He said he wanted to buy me this scarf (that I'd admired for years) when he got an unexpected bonus at work. He was in a really stressful job at the time and said the bonus was really for me because he couldn't do the job without my support. Isn't that sweet? I think of that time in our lives almost every time I wear the scarf. (I'd better change the subject quickly before Tim decrees his sensitive side blog-banned.)

I think the price of my earrings help balance out the scarf. I got to wear the 99 cent gold earrings from NBC.

At the fourth quarter we couldn't eat any more, but we still had money on our gift cards. Earlier in the game I had asked my Dad, "Who is the fast, little guy?" Right then and there I decided J.J. Barea is my favorite Maverick.

I have to support my guy, right? I now own an official NBA licensed T-shirt.

Now, let's be honest. I won't be wearing this shirt out of the house unless I'm making a QT run for my Coke fix. But J.J., when I'm cleaning the bathrooms, I'll be thinking of you.

Saturday

I can't believe it's already Tuesday and I'm just now posting about Saturday. I'm going to need to figure out some sort of schedule for myself or this blog is going to quickly head south and my two followers will stop checking in.

Saturday involved two key outfits. You don't need to see Outfit #1 when I was eating this.

Let's just say they were "at-home clothes". My most inner circle knows about these favorite indoor T-shirts: Casady (about to be retired), I Survived the Y2K Bug, We Be Jammin and my beloved, black Coca-Cola T-shirt with silver writing (that's not really silver anymore) that I got in fifth grade after saving up Coke can tabs.

Anyway, back to the real clothes.

We went to a 4-year-old tee ball game to support this guy.


How cute is he?! Wade and Sarah deserve the credit for this little guy and Sarah is the talented photographer behind the camera.

Since the Gators' team color is blue we HAD to wear blue to support #8. Um, navy is a form of blue.


I don't have much true blue so I settled on this navy Ralph Lauren skinny fit polo.


You can get it for $75 here,


but I scored this one for $19.99 at the Ralph Lauren outlet in Gilroy, CA.

Anyone else been to Gilroy? I could not get over how much the entire town smelled like garlic! It was SO strong! I kept searching for validation, begging someone to confirm that, indeed, IT SMELLED LIKE GARLIC EVERYWHERE.

I finally had my moment when we learned that Gilroy is the Garlic Capital of the World, home to the annual Garlic Festival and there is even a Miss Gilroy Garlic Queen & Court. Meet 2009's Royalty:

I paired the RL polo with some Gap Curvy Jeans.

These are $59.50 at Gap or online, but I got them on sale for $19.99.

Saturday night we met our friends Brent, Abbey, and Luke for some Tex-Mex.

Wait. Luke's little face didn't make that one and you don't want to miss out on this:

There. Much better.

I wore the Gap jeans, but paired them with a white tank top (not pictured) that I got for 99 cents at NBC and a drapey, short sleeved cardigan with cute pockets.

It's not much to look at on the hanger, but I really like it and get compliments whenever I wear it (and not just from my mom). A woman even stopped me once to ask where I got it. Don't you just LOVE it when that happens?! I told her it was from NBC, but I didn't tell her I only paid $3 for it and it had the Kensie tag on it for $98!

I wore it with this bracelet.


I've had this for a few years but you can still get it here at Express.com

I'm usually not a fan of the clothes at Express, but I do like some of their jewelry. For some reason I got a $10 off coupon in the mail from them so I thought it might be worth a visit. This bracelet was on sale for $10 so it was FREE. Totally worth the visit.

I've got one last picture from Saturday.

This is Brent and he is showing off a brand new pair of Salomon ski/snowboard pants I got at Goodwill for $4.50! I should have taken some pictures showing the cool pockets and ways you can adjust the fit of these pants. I was going to ask him to model the pants, but when I asked Tim to help me remember to get a picture of "Brent in his new Salomon pants" Tim said, "Don't do that." So here's Brent holding the pants.

Speaking of Goodwill, I went to Goodwill last night and I even took my camera with me so that I could share some fabulous finds out there for you. I was so disappointed to discover that my battery was dead! There was a cute, ruffled top from Ann Taylor Loft, a dark denim skirt that looked brand new and a plum, silk wrap dress that even had its matching belt. Matching belt is a major Goodwill plus. Matching belts seem to get separated from their garments at Goodwill.

Oh well. There's always a next time. And then the time after that and after that ...

Question: Goodwill. You WILL Goodwill or you WON'T Goodwill?