Holiday Craziness Has Begun!

After such a whirlwind Thanksgiving weekend that involved a little food, a lot of work and online shopping, I can say that come three weeks from now I will be totally ready for our Disney vacation.

So work is going to be cray cray these next few weeks. Actually the craziness has already begun. One of the joys of working in retail is that when it is busy, it's hard to keep an eye on everyone in the store and I have learned that there are an astounding number thieves in this world!

Yesterday, for example we had a homeboy come into the store with a bag FULL of Ann camis and long-sleeve t-shirts and no receipt. Now, here was his  first mistake...coming in and saying that his grandmother had come and bought a bunch of stuff for "him and his girl." After looking around he says with a shrug, "so you guys don't sell anything for men in here? Not even cologne?" Maybe, dude, you should learn what kind of store you're going into before you try to bring back stolen goods!

The stupidity of people astounds me sometimes. We obvi could't give him money back but offered store credit with I.D. which he didn't have. After he left to go home and get it. My manager called the store at the mall and found out that he had already been there to try and return the clothes there.

Moral of the story? Don't steal things! I thought that this was a rule learned at the age of 2. Clearly I was wrong. What I love is that the man had the brass pair to come back! We told him that his I.D wasn't valid and he said he'd go home and get something else with his address on it. He hasn't come back but if he does while I'm there I plan on bursting into tears and saying something like this...

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That should scare him away for good. This is my life now people...

Wedded Bliss Wednesday: Thankfulness!

Hello friends! I hope that everyone is super excited for Thanksgiving tomorrow! I missed out on last week's WBW but decided that this week's question was well worth answering. 

What are you most thankful for in your marriage?

There are so many things that I am thankful for in our marriage. When we got married there were a lot of people that doubted us, and since we moved to the East Coast right away some thought that it would be "too hard" for us. But they were wrong. I am so grateful that we had the chance to break free of our single lives and start anew. We really had the chance to grow as a couple in the past year and I will be eternally thankful for this time. 

I am also thankful for the roof over our head that Andrew has provided. He works so hard to take care of us. To have food on our table and a place to call home is such a blessing that not everyone is able to have. Sometimes we forget this but Thanksgiving brings all our blessings to the forefront of our minds. 

I am thankful for Andrew. I was pretty lucky to find a guy like Andrew. He's such a good and kind man and supports me in everything I do. He keeps us safe as a couple and just rocks overall. As we continue to grow as a couple I know that he will stand by my side. 

Even though we will not be able to be with family for the holiday we are looking forward to spending time with just the two of us before work gets super cray again. I am also thankful that I have yet another year to practice my Thanksgiving Day cooking skills before I ever have to host the day. We can't wait for leftovers!!! We wish you all a very happy and blessed Thanksgiving Day!

Fake It Till You Make It

It's been one of those weeks. Exhausting. Currently a little bit on the homesick side with the holidays approaching. So I was taught that in times like this you fake it till you make it! To do that, for work today I actually did my hairs all nice and I plan on putting a dress on. Oh yea, a dress.

While work has been super busy the last few days I do want to share with all of you what I've been working on! We have been changing the store over for the holidays and when we unloaded all the new clothes, I have to say I was a little skeptical. There was a TON of color and it just all seemed too bright for the winter season. But then we started putting it all together and it turned out like this...

A little bit of black but SO much color!

So Thursday, the team spent the whole day changing things over and I got to try my hand at setting different sections, including a window!

Each of us who had a section had a list of what went in each section and then run around the back room to find each piece. 

This was the first part that I worked on. 

This is what the whole section looked like completed. So much color!

Like I said before, I got to work on a window too and that was the most fun. I worked with one of my managers and we cranked it out!

Pretty colors!

Those of you who follow me on Instagram already saw this, but I am just so proud of it. Everyone that walks by gets to see this and it's just so festive! With these other couple of smaller window decorations...

Apologies for the glare...

I know the sweaters are crooked, I fixed it right after taking the pic lol

...so ended my first time working on the floor for a store set. It may seem silly but I had so much fun and it is really cool to see my work on a professional level.

I have to say I feel a little better after writing this post. Maybe I won't have to fake it so much today.

Hope you all have a great Saturday!

The Biggest Hint List Ever

I have been listening to Christmas music for about the last week and I am totally not ashamed to tell you all this! Because of this I have totally been getting all kinds of excited for this Holiday season and getting my small Christmas list together. Since we're going on our trip, we aren't exchanging gifts with family but Andrew and I still want to exchange gifts on our Christmas morning.

Possibly here again? *hint hint* via

So we are attempting to stick to a budget this Christmas. With Black Friday coming up and then Cyber Monday after that, it is a GREAT time to do some shopping. So, honey, when you read this if this isn't blatant hint dropping then I don't know what is! :D

This in gold with our initials (S+A) You'll find it in the cart already...

This Rachael Ray scooper has been on my radar for like a year, I just haven't gotten around to getting it, but it makes a great stocking stuffer! link

My absolute favorite Christmas movie is now on Blu-Ray! I'm so excited! This could come before actual Christmas and I would be OK with that. Link

So there it is. Christmas List 2012. Short, simple and straight to the point. I hope that all of you bloggy friends are enjoying the Holiday season and getting ready for the big turkey day next week! It's going to be another quiet one for us, just the two of us, but sometimes that's nice.

Spoiled Rotten!

It has been an amazing last three days! It was my first Saturday off in a couple of weeks so Andrew and I got up early and did what? See a movie, of course! We had free tickets to see a preview of Rise of the Guardians at 10 am in Hartford, so armed with coffee and bagels we headed out around 8:30 to wait in line for 45 minutes. But it was SO worth it! I will let you all know when our review is up because it was so amazing and the perfect Holiday animated movie to take the kids to!

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After the movie we headed to a great breakfast at A.C. Peterson's and then for some retail therapy. Unfortunately all the therapy was for Andrew, but I LOVE dressing my man. 

A couple new sweaters, running clothes and a button-up later and we finally headed home to run and clean-up around the house. 

The icing on the cake to a great weekend was that Andrew didn't have to go into work until late today and it was so great to be able to sleep in and get up to go on our best run yet! Andrew even went grocery shopping with me! How lucky am I?! When A went to work, I settled in with Sex and the City and this little piece of heaven from my Holiday Ann Taylor meeting...

Salted Chocolate Caramel on Shortbread and a little red wine

I hope you all had an amazing weekend and a spoiled Monday!

Wedded Bliss Wednesday: Prince Charming? I'll take My Man over any Disney Concoction!

 Excited to link-up again with Kayla and Alli for yet another Wedded Bliss Wednesday. 

1. When you were a child what did you imagine YOUR Prince Charming to be like?

Tall, dark and handsome. I always knew I would marry someone not blonde. But like most young girls my prince charming looked like this...

Oh. Well maybe that was just me...via

2. Does you husband match your prediction as a child?

Of course he does! It took me a while to realize that he really was my prince charming, but once I saw all past the cheeseball that is my husband I knew I was a goner. "Tall" is a relative term. To me, Andrew is tall. As far as dark and handsome, well I would say I have a winner! :)

3. What about when you were a teenager and knew it all about love, does you relationship match that scenario you had during those rebel years? 

Oh I was totally into the bad-boy thing in high school. I tended to go for guys who were, of course, bad for me. They were either a**holes or needy or had no idea what was going on in their life. As I hit 20 I snuck some good ones into the mix but it wasn't until I let my guard down with Andrew that things got good. Although if any one of these guys came a callin I'd be gone in a NY minute and Andrew is aware of this...

Ok, so there might still be a little bit of that bad boy thing going on...

4. What love movie would you best match your relationship to? Why?

I can honestly say I do not match our relationship to any movie in particular. I can pull different things from movies tho. I pull my part in the start of our relationship from Pride & Prejudice. I was TOTALLY an Elizabeth Bennet! I can pull Andrew from Moulin Rouge, he and Ewan McGregor have some stuff in common. But I'm more interested in creating our own story. I did that in the past, compared my relationships to movies, and funny enough the relationship NEVER measured up to the movie. Funny that...

I hope you all have an amazing Wednesday!

Weekend Recap/ AT Look

Hello bloggy friends! It has been a while since I did a little post so I decided to link-up with Sami, Dana and Leeann for a little weekend update!

Now that October is over, it is terrifying to think how fast the holidays are approaching! In only 6 short weeks we will be in Orlando for Christmas in Disney! I cannot wait to see my family and have a much needed vacation. That leads me to an update on our "Skinny by Disney" work-out plan...

We have been keeping up with our running (about 3 times a week) and adding in crunches and squats and I am excited to say that Andrew and I are shrinking! We're measuring by the inches and we have successfully shrunk in all the right places!

Even though I worked every day this weekend, I still had time to have fun! On Saturday we went out on a double date with our good friends, Rob and Bettina! After a yummylicious meal at Rizzuto's, we shut the place down with fun conversation and drinks!

oh well hello again Tuscan Sunset...

After seeing some fun movies this weekend too, I can say that it has been a jam-packed weekend and I love it! I have to say, friends, I have been feeling pretty useless around the house since I lost my job. After a week of not a ton of hours, my managers at Ann Taylor have been awesome and have scheduled me for a bunch of hours over the next couple of weeks! I'm really grateful and blessed to have a job and an amazing husband that is so understanding!

Last but not least, I am going to leave you all with an outfit that I rocked at work one day and got rave reviews on. What do you guys think?

It's a lot of color all together, but I loved the geeky/preppy feel of this outfit. Next time I might forgo the necklace and add a belt to make the peplum pop. I welcome any and all comments on it!