Congratulations to Carly and Dusty for each winning a $30 Lane Bryant gift card!
Need a little fashion inspiration for an upcoming holiday party? How about tips on how to keep your look fresh this season? Sure it’s cold outside, but that doesn’t mean we can’t feel and look sassy, stylish, and maybe even a little flirty through the winter! Come one, come all, because we’re talking holiday fashion with our friends at Lane Bryant! Join our @LaneBryant “Holiday Fashion Fun” Twitter Party this Monday, 12/17 at noon PT/3pm ET! Fab prizes! RSVP to win prizes, including more $30 Lane Bryant gift cards! RSVP: http://clvr.li/128tjBx
The Details:
What: Lane Bryant “Holiday Fashion Fun” Twitter Party
Today is Day #5 of the 12 days, and I am so excited to be chosen for this opportunity, as Lane Bryant is already one of my favorite places to shop!
I headed over to the Long Beach Towne Center location yesterday to pick out a holiday outfit. My style can be best described as quirky retro rock star, and I was on the lookout for neutral colors with bright or metallic accents: something comfortable enough to wear during the day, then I can just throw on some gold chains and smoky eye shadow and be able to take on the big city by night.
Right when I entered the store, I was greeted with sassy, uplifting music and lots of adorable clothes just BEGGING me to try them on and take them home.
Wonderful day-to-night outfits: black with flashes of gold
Check out the gold foil skulls on this baseball jersey-inspired shirt! So playfully edgy -- just my style!
Bubble Hem Utility Blouse in Moon Rock. Again, love the gold detailing.
It looks a little on the casual side on the model, but it fits me tighter all around and I paired it with dark jeans, so I truly believe it can be dressed up for a night out:
Just for kicks, this cowl neck sweatshirt also caught my eye. It has the perfect California casual, effortless chic vibe:
And of course, I gotta give props to my photographer, Emi:
After a nice, relaxing hour of shopping with my pint-size bestie and a couple awesome new tops, and I'm totally ready to kick off my holiday season!
What's even more amazing is that I can share the love with a giveaway! Two of you will also receive $30 gift cards. All you have to do is pin your favorite Lane Bryant looks to your own Pinterest account using the #LB12Days hashtag. Then leave the link to your pin in a comment below to be eligible for a prize. Easy peasy, puddin' pie!
Today's special surprise offers are:
In store and online: Select sweaters are $20 (Rayon V, Dolman V and Shaker sweaters), 40%-off all sleepwear In store only: All earrings $5
I was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls Collective, and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.
Congratulations to cg for winning the Mang Family art pack! I will get a-sewing right away, and will send it out soon.
Thanks to everyone who contributed sentences! This Word of the Week thing turned out to be really fun! And as a parting gift, one more sentence with my favorite people: the lonely housewife and her pool boy.
Numen: a spiritual force or influence often identified with a natural object, phenomenon, or place.
Example Sentence: The lonely housewife often reveled in their post-coital numen, that clung like steam in the bedroom air.
Congratulations to Angie from Texas, who won last week's Shu Uemura cleansing oil giveaway!
Hrm...the last commenter won the first giveaway, and now the first commenter won this time. Random.org is trying to tell me something.
Angie's sentence: Despite years of training, my husband is not biddable. Trust me. There are still underwear NEXT to the laundry hamper.
Gurrrrrrl, ain't that the truth!
Okay, this week's prize is going to be: The Mang Family Arts and Crafts Pack. It will include a piece of cross stitch art sewn by yours truly, drawings from Emi and Isaac, and the biggest rainbow pack of Sharpies I can find at the office supply store.
This week's word is actually pretty useful: ERUCTATION.
Erucation means: an act or instance of belching.
Example sentence: After consuming too much pool boy essence, the lonely housewife fell victim to a fit of chlorine-flavored eructation.
Congratulations to Dusty for being randomly selected to win the $50 Amazon gift certificate! I will contact you shortly.
Here is Dusty's hilarious use of the word "gorgonize":
Using the word gorgonized is very challenging and spell check says that it's misspelled and it suggested that I should use the word organized instead.
This week's prize is a 450 mL bottle of Shu Uemura brightening cleansing oil. I use this on my face instead of soap or foam to remove make-up and cleanse, all in one step. Retail price is $81, and the reason why I'm giving it away is that one of these puppies lasts me a year, and when I reordered one recently, I didn't realize I had already received one as a gift a few months back. So, might as well share the wealth!
The non-soapiness takes a little bit to get used to, but let's face it peoples: no one's skin benefits by stripping away all the natural oil it creates. Dry skin gets drier, oily skin makes more oil to compensate. These cleansing oils leave your skin clean and baby-bottom soft, and this specific formulation works to even out skin tone and fade sun and age spots.
In order to win, all you have to do is leave a comment below using the latest Word of the Week: BIDDABLE.
Biddable means: easily led, taught, or controlled. Synonym: docile
Example sentence: The pool boy turned out to be the labrador retriever of lovers: biddable and eager to please.
This month, I will be hosting a giveaway on Mondays! In order to enter, all you have to do is comment below using the Word of the Week in a sentence. Conjugation is allowed.
This week's word is GORGONIZE.
Gorgonize means: to have a paralyzing or mesmerizing effect on. Synonyms include stupefy and petrify.
Example sentence: The pool boy's 10-inch penis gorgonized the lascivious housewife.
This week's prize: A $50 gift certificate to Amazon.com.
Okay, so last Friday, there was a winner drawn for the YoKids/Tom's of Maine goody bag, and it was jooliyah! I mailed it over the weekend, so you should be getting it soon, lucky duck.
Sorry for not finishing off May, I got caught up in anniversary afterglow and Emi contracting every disease on the planet. She's on the mend from her latest illness, a stomach bug that came and left her body with alarming abruptness. My car bore the brunt of it, though, and I just threw out her carseat. Which reminds me: how did people get rid of upholstery barf smell before the invention of Febreze?
Speaking of romantic things like barf, I made Tim a playlist highlighting a couple songs from every year we've been married. The songs are either ones we listened to a lot, have a specific memory attached to them, or concisely sums that year up:
2002, Two Of Us, Aimee Mann & Michael Penn 2002, Something to Talk About, Badly Drawn Boy 2003, Such Great Heights, The Postal Service 2003, The Hardest Button to Button, The White Stripes 2004, Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels), The Arcade Fire 2004, Portland, Oregon, Loretta Lynn 2005, Love and Longing, Stellastarr* 2005, Precious, Depeche Mode 2005, Here He Comes, Jakob Dylan 2006, Like A Star, Corinne Bailey Rae 2006, Emily, Joanna Newsom 2007, Killing The Blues, Robert Plant and Alison Krauss 2007, Battleships, Travis 2008, The Bones Of You, Elbow 2008, Who's That Girl?, Robyn 2009, Inní Mér Syngur Vitleysingur, Sigur Rós 2009, Islands, The xx 2010, Birds of a Feather, The Civil Wars 2010, If You Think You Need Some Lovin, Pomplamoose 2010, I Remember, Yeasayer 2011, Reunion, M83 2011, If I Had A Gun, Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds 2012, Velvet Elvis, Alex Winston 2012, Crush, Sleigh Bells 2012, Shake It Out (Glee Cast Version), Glee Cast
Just to be clear, I'm not getting paid for saying this. I sincerely appreciate that both companies provide high quality, all-natural and/or organic options, and we seriously use their products multiple times a day. Isaac and Emi grew up on YoBaby yogurt, and now I pack a Yogurt Squeezer in their lunches every day. We all use Tom's of Maine toothpastes, which have no artificial sweeteners or dyes, are cruelty-free, and come in environmentally responsible packaging.
To promote this special deal, Stonyfield Farm sent me a strawberry-themed goody bag to give away to one of my readers. It is packed with the following goodies: Reusable cotton YoKids lunch sack filled with several Tom's of Maine products including a full 4.2oz tube of Silly Strawberry children's toothpaste, as well as samples of their Naturally Dry deodorant and Daily Moisture soap. The bag also includes FREE YoKids and YoKids Greek coupons (both available in strawberry!), YoKids Greek temporary tattoos (in strawberry AND raspberry!), and YoKids Strawberry-flavored Eco Lips chapstick!
To enter for a chance to win this goody bag, just comment below with your favorite way to eat strawberries! Mine is chocolate-covered, mmmm....
This week's random number out of 4 was 1, so congratulations to Erin for winning the Tarte True Blood Book of Shadows palette. Her sexual fantasies, like mine, lean Sapphic, so I definitely approve.
Okay, remember about two years ago when I thought Emi was growing up to be a sassafras? Well, I spoke too damn soon. 3-year-old Emi has got nothing on 5-year-old Emi right when she wakes up. She definitely isn't a morning person.
Two recent examples:
Mommy and Daddy were having a boring grown-up conversation in the living room. Meanwhile Emi wanted to do yet another puppet show.
Dad: Emi! Wake up. What do you want for breakfast? Emi: Nothing. I’m so sleepy. Dad: Come on! How about some toast? “Toast is the Most”!!! Emi: No. “Toast is the Least”. Go away.
And look at the expression on her face. Tell me that's not the look of total dismissal. I thought we wouldn't get this from her until she was a teenager!
I swear, she's lucky she's as cute as she is, because heaven knows I would not have been able to get away with that kind of backtalk when I was her age, or any age really.
Also, those of you in Trader Joe's areas, have you guys tried the Fruity-Os? They are a Fruit Loops knock-off, but they are sooooo delicious, it's not even funny. Their colors are Pinterest-approved pretty (I assume because they used natural dyes), they taste like lemon bars, and they stay crunchy in milk. Our whole family is addicted.
I bought this a few months ago and although I've opened the box and looked upon it lovingly many times, I actually haven't used it. So I am giving it away, hopefully to someone who can do it more justice than creepy staring.
The palette contains 17 full-size eyeshadows, ranging from everyday natural to glittery fabulous, primer, aqua gel eyeliner, and mascara. Because it was limited edition, it is no longer for sale in retail stores, but right now it's going for about $80 on eBay.
So, what I want to know is: Which character on "True Blood" would you most like to do bad things with?
You know the deal: Comment below to enter to win! I will randomly draw a winner on Friday. Good luck!
PS: Although I love me some Eric AND Bill, I'd have to go for Pam first. She's so fierce and she swings my way? Jackpot!
