Old Navy Groupon Deal Today!

Happy Thursday everyone!  I am clearly oblivious to the day of the week because I posted Three Things Thursday yesterday, which was Wednesday.  Obviously I'm trying to get the weekend here just a little faster!  Thanks for not judging me.

I think I may have mentioned it before, but I love a good deal.  I hardly ever buy things that aren't on sale and I love getting things for super cheap.  I also love to shop.  Frugality and shopping can coexist!  I am a member of Groupon because it can be a great way to get a good deal.

I just wanted to share the today's deal is for Old Navy.  You get a $20 gift card for $10.  I could really use a few new shirts so I snatched one of these bad boys right up when I got the email this morning.  They also have some cute workout gear.  Want one for yourself?  Join Groupon HERE and check it out. 

I will be honest and say that if you sign up via the link I just provided and you buy a Groupon, I do get $10 to use toward a future purchase (which would be pretty sweet).  However, I have purchased Groupons in the past and I had a good experience with them.  I'm not trying to be some shameless salesperson.  I think they can be a great way to get a deal on something you'd like and I just wanted to share.

Don't forget my Allied Medal Display Giveaway!

A Dress, Ikea, and Mine Falls Trail Race Week 3

Tuesday already?  I've been meaning to post all weekend, but somehow the time got away from me.  How does that happen?  Well, I kicked off the weekend with a 16 mile bike ride.  The weather was gorgeous and it got me feeling good for my final dress fitting.  That's right, the dress is done.  I think it came out pretty good.  Unfortunately, you'll have to wait until the big day to see the final product.  It's still all a bit surreal and I'm struggling to be super excited about it.  They do have to adjust something at the bust, so while it's technically done, there is one final stitch to be put in. 

Saturday night Patrick and I headed into Boston for the evening.  We were really in need of a night out.  It has been a busy couple of weeks trying to get the wedding stuff done.  And between that, him trying to find a job, and family stresses, we needed to get away for a bit.  We strolled through Boston Commons and down Newbury St. (i.e. shopping galore) and just took it all in.  Then we headed to the North End for some yummy Italian food at this place:

The service was so-so, but the food was delicious!  After the meal we walked back up the street to Mike's Pastry and got a cupcake, a brownie, and a piece of cheesecake for $8!  What a deal!  We saved it until we got home because we were full.  No pictures of that because we were too busy stuffing our faces.

On Sunday I went to Ikea for the first time.  That place is like Crate and Barrel on crack.  Seriously, that place is out of control.  I've never seen anything like it.  Personally, I don't think Ikea fits my personal shopping style, but it was an experience.  My friend and I kicked the trip off by indulging in a cinnamon bun for $1.  It sure was worth the dollar, but maybe not the calories.  Oh well.  I did have to restrain myself from spending a ton of money.  I ended up with just a couple things for our bathroom in our new apartment for about $30.  It's probably a good thing that our new apartment is going to be tiny because there's less room for me to fill with crap we don't need.

And finally, last night was week 3 of my trail race series.  It was another hot and humid evening.  There was even a heat warning in effect, but I hydrated all day and figured I be ok.  Final time: 35.43 minutes.  However, I did stop about a half mile in to help another runner out.  The poor girl was on the side of the trail and having an asthma attack.  A bunch of other people ran by her, but no one was stopping.  That just seemed absurd to me.  So I stopped, gave her some water, and got her walking.  Finally, a friend of hers caught up to us and took it from there.  Talk about scary though!  I was just so surprised that no one was stopping to help.  I mean, it's only a trail race.  I would feel so guilty if I had just kept going and found out something really bad happened to her.  So all you runners out there, listen up: if you see a runner hacking on the side of the road or trail, stop and give them a hand. 

A Saturday of Fun

Can it really be Sunday already???  I swear weekends go by too fast.  Yesterday my family had a yard sale.  I had the best intentions to get a bike ride in yesterday, but I was having to much fun chatting it up with the customers at the yard sale.  I was most surprised by what people bought.  The stuff we never thought we'd sell, actually sold and we are still left with the nicer things (dishes anyone?).  I wish I had taken some pictures because we were having a ball.  But really, anything with my family is fun.

Patrick and I also did a bit of shopping in the afternoon.  We're potentially thinking about getting a small sofa for our new apartment (lease starts August 1st!).  We have a lot of second hand furniture, but not really a sofa.  What do you all think of this one?

I also picked up one of these (full review to come!):

Then, last night Patrick and I went out with my parents to a place call Strange Blue Tavern to see a blues band.  We had a super fun time.  Getting out and seeing a live band is something we should really do more often.  These are my parents:

Patrick enjoying his beer:

This place had something like 74 different beers on tap.  Too bad I'm not a beer drinker.  And the awesome band:

That last photo was taken without a flash in a really dark bar.  Isn't that impressive?  A digital camera was one of the shower gifts we got and I'm loving it!  I guess I should do a review on that too...

Anyway, what did you do this weekend?
And don't forget to check out my giveaway!

What I've Been Up To

Well, it's been quite the holiday weekend in my world.  I started the weekend off by getting in a run on Friday, after work.

Miles: 3.13 miles
Time: 34:34 minutes
Pace 11:01 min/mile

It was a nice day for a run.  A little warm, but I didn't walk at all and I felt like I really pushed it at the end.  Patrick and I ended up going out for Chinese food with my family and my aunt and uncle.  We then all went bowling together, which was hysterical.  I haven't been bowling with my family in years.  We split up into teams and played against each other and just had a good time.

On Saturday I did some serious shopping.  My bedding from my registry went on sale big time this weekend.  My mom had the receipt for the stuff that my grandfather bought me.  In the end I was able to get $163 back.  Is that not insane?  And that is exactly the reason why you should never pay full price for anything.  If you can wait, it will eventually go on sale.  I was able to pick out a bunch of other stuff, so major score! 

Yesterday I got in an awesome bike ride on the local bike trail.  I actually used it to ride down to Patrick's aunt's house where we were celebrating his mom's 50th birthday.  Here's how the ride went down:

Miles: 15.7 miles
Time: 1:02.15 minutes
Pace: 15.1 miles/hour

The party was really nice.  I got to visit with some family and friends.  I was really good and only really indulged on a piece of cake (yum!).

Today we're going to visit my grandparents.  Other than that I've been catching up on sleep, reading my book, reading blogs, and generally just relaxing.  I'm trying to just enjoy it all before the wedding stuff starts consuming my life.  What's everyone else been up to?  And do stay tuned - I'm hosting a giveaway this week!

No, I Haven't Been Ignoring You

It's been a busy couple of days and I guess I've been neglecting my blog a bit.  Whoops!  I guess I should go back to Thursday, where all the fun began.  And trust me, if you make it to the end of this post there is a funny story.  It's only funny now that it's over, however.

Thursday was Patrick's last concert with the UMaine Symphonic Band at Merrill Auditorium in Portland, Maine.  Andrew, who is one of our groomsman was heading down to the concert and he let me tag along.  We decided to make a day of it and hit up the outlets in Freeport.  I think Patrick was happy that Andrew was taking me shopping because it meant he didn't have to go. 

The one place I really wanted to go was the Coach outlet.  I love that place.  It smells so good and you can't beat the deals.  And when I go outlet shopping, I really want to feel like I'm getting a deal.  This is the deal I got:

Isn't it beautiful?  My aunt bought me my first Coach bag at an outlet 3 years ago as a graduation gift.  I love that thing and really haven't bought a purse since.  I figured that I could justify buying it because I haven't been spending money on new handbags for the last 3 years.  And it will practically last forever.

For lunch we grabbed a little Ben and Jerry's.  Yum!  Andrew and I both got the Double Fudge Brownie frozen yogurt.  We're trying to be good.  It was funny because there was an older couple in front of us that just went in, ate a couple free samples and left.  They poor guy manning the counter was so confused.

We hit up a couple of other stores and just walked around and enjoyed the nice weather.  It was definitely the perfect day for it.  We were kind of getting a kick out of the fact that people thought we were a couple.  That and all the teenage girls that were checking Andrew out.  Did I mention he's a real cutie?

Anyway, we finally made it down to Portland.  Andrew thought he knew where the auditorium was, but he really didn't.  Typical.  We drove around for about 45 minutes before we found the place.  We were going to stop at Stonewall Kitchen, but ended up not having the time.  We quickly parked in the nearest parking garage and dashed over to Subway for a quick bite to eat before the concert began.  We met up with a friend at Subway who told us about cheaper parking around the corner.  We decided we had enough time to quickly more the car to save a couple bucks.

Here's where things got interesting.  We got back to the parking garage and the gates were down.  As in, it was closed.  Uh, not good.  There was a car coming out that had a pass key and when the gate went up we went under.  We got into the car and tried to dive to the attendant to pay and get out.  No such luck.  The place is legitimately closed.  I had recalled seeing a security guard hanging out a window a couple of levels up, so we drove to find him.  He turned out to be a little scary, but he was out ticket out.  After interrogating us as to how we got back into the garage, he agreed to let us out if we paid the $25 lock-out fee and the amount due for the time we were parked there, another $5.  Great.  So for $30 we got out.  It's a darn good thing our friend suggested moving the car or we would have gotten back to the garage at 10:30 pm and would have been in big trouble.

Finally, we made it to the hall with about 2 minutes to spare.  Isn't it a pretty place?

And here is Patrick soloing:

Once again, he did an amazing job.  We got to catch up after the concert and chat with his family before Andrew and I had to head back to campus.  It ended up being a long day, but we had tons of fun!

Fun Day Sunday

During the past week Patrick announced that we were going to have Fun Day Sunday today.  I was excited because it's not often that he plans something for us to do.  He usually leaves that up to me.  We started off our morning with some more bowling.  As I mentioned in a previous post, the local bowling alley has a great weekend deal.  The mood soon turned sour when I started kicking Patrick's butt in the first game.  My high score was 102!  Considering the best you can do is 300, I was pretty impressed with myself, especially since it was candle pin.  Patrick is admittedly a poor loser.  Fun day Sunday was not off to a good start.

For lunch we hit up the lovely Olive Garden.  I don't mind the place, but I really wish we had a better selection of restaurants up here.  All we have is chains.  Anyway, we both got the soup, salad, and bread sticks deal which is rather budget friendly as well. 

We were supposed to go see Avatar after that.  However, I just wasn't feeling the sitting in a theater for 3 hours thing.  Instead we did some shopping.  I got the new Jillian Michael's workout DVD I've been lusting over since it came out (review to come!). 

 

I also got a Jodi Picoult book (love her - and she's from NH!).  

Finally, I got a little running pack.  None of my running shorts have pockets and since I'm running more than ever, I want to be safe and be able to take an ID and my phone with me.

So, as you can imagine, I was in a pretty good mood.  Patrick, not so much.  So Fun Day Sunday did not turn out to be so fun so we're going to have a re-do next weekend.  Oh well!  What did everyone else do this weekend?

The Journey Back Home

I am happy to report that I am back in Maine and preparing for the upcoming semester (by lounging around and doing nothing, of course!).  I actually got back yesterday.  My mom drove me to Freeport to meet Patrick and he brought me the rest of the way.  We had lunch in Freeport at a nice little place called Azure Cafe.  The food was yummy and I was surprised to find that their portion sizes were appropriate.  I was bad and ordered fettuccine alfredo, but it was really only about a cup's worth of pasta so I didn't feel so guilty.  It also came with a salad, so I got some veggies in too.  My camera was packed so I had to take a picture from their website.  Because we all know that this place did not look this pretty in January!

When Patrick and I got back up here we went grocery shopping.  I was so impressed by how many fruits and veggies we bought in comparison to the rest of the food.  We're going to have a healthy week.  Go us!  One of the few things that was not a fruit or a veggie was our ice cream.  I'm slightly addicted to sweets and I love a little something sweet before I go to bed.

Enter Edy's Slow Churned ice cream.  I love this stuff!  For a half a cup it only has 120 calories and 3 grams of fat.  How can you feel guilty about that?  And what I love most about this stuff is that I don't feel like I'm sacrificing.  There are lots of cookie dough chunks and chocolate chips and honestly, I can't tell the difference between this and the real stuff.  Patrick says he can, but I've got him eating this without complaints, so I think he's lying.  We also like the Peanut Butter Cup flavor and the Mint Chocolate Chip flavor.

 

And don't you love our little ice cream bowls?  My mom and I just had to stop at the Crate and Barrel outlet in Kittery on our way up.  I found these for 95 cents!  I like that they're on the small side so they keep portion sizes in control.

I also bought these cute vases while I was there.  These are the accent colors I want in my kitchen after we get married (we don't really have a choice right now).  And I was happy to see that my plants weren't completely dead.  In fact, my African Violet is in bloom!

What a nice thing to come home to!  Hope you all have been having a lovely weekend.  I'm off to run 4 miles!

Can You Beat This?

I just want to start out by saying that I love coupons!  I got several in the mail from one store and one from Black Friday.  So I hit up the mall this afternoon for some shopping to de-stress.  And the best part is I only spent 45 cents.  That's right people, 45 cents.  So what did I get for 45 cents you ask?  I got 2 pairs of underwear and a new sports bra.  How can you beat it?  It was nice to get out and go to the mall and not feel guilty about spending a lot of money. 

Did I also mention that I love a bargain?  And I'm going to tell everyone about my great bargain.  I'm one of those people that when someone compliments something I'm wearing, like my free Express jeans I own, I am compelled to tell them the story of how I got free jeans.  It's almost like it's a sport of its own.  I swear by the rule of never paying full price for anything.  It's just not worth it.

In other news, the weather around here has been wacky!  On Thursday it was 62 degrees out!  It was supposed to be a rest day, but it was just too nice out to pass up.  So I laced up my sneakers and went for a run.  I'm happy to report that my time was about a minute faster than the day before.  Yay!  Today was in the 50s and it isn't supposed to go below freezing during the day within the next week.  This is horrible to say, but thank you global warming!  I dread winter and the bitter cold, so I'm okay with the current weather situation.

Hope you all had a great Friday!