Lack of Posts = Giveaway for You!

Sorry that I've been MIA again. It's my busy season at work and I spent last weekend and most of this week in Chicago. I'm back and have a giveaway for you all!!!

$50 gift card to Apothica.com! It's just like Sephora with all your favorite beauty products. I just ordered DDF moisturizer from there so stay tuned for a review. My friend absolutely loves it so I had to try it. They also have the Boscia eye cream and blotting papers I love. All you have to do to enter is:

Must do to enter
1) Make sure you are a follower of my blog

2) Visit Apothica.com

3) Do one of the following:

• a. Go to Apothica’s Facebook and tell them what you think
• b. Send out a tweet about Apothica (using @apothica and @xtinacripps in the tweet)
• c. Write on your own blog about Apothica

Bonus entry – Opt in for their newsletter.

Leave a separate comment so I know you did this.

Contest ends in 14 days at midnight! Good luck!

Shoes for Spring/Summer

I'm getting my shoes ready for the spring/summer weather. Just ordered these two pairs from Piperlime since I had a 20% off coupon. Will see how they look when they come in. The Kate Spade Beachy platforms have been on my wish list and the BCBGeneration hopefully will look really cute with Favorite Thing #211.

Yummy Greek Yogurt

I think I'm one of the last people to try Greek yogurt but I had to blog about how much I love it and how surprisingly filling it is. My two favorites so far are Chobani's Peach and Yoplait's Honey. Yummy yummy. I have it for breakfast and/or lunch. Love it! You can go to Chobani's website and download coupons for it...makes it even better!

Product Review: Bosia Intensive Eye Treatment

As many of you know, I'm on the hunt for the perfect eye cream. I just finished Bosia's Intensive Eye Treatment. I actually really liked it. I noticed that my crows feet weren't as prominent and the darkness and fine lines under my eyes started to fade. It was light weight and smelled nice. This might be my new eye cream. I'm going to try Olay's Pro X eye restoration treatment and then decide which I like better. Let me know if you have a "must have" eye cream that I need to try.

Jewelry Organization

I've been wanting to reorganize my jewelry for a while because either I couldn't find things or I just forgot I had certain pieces. Now my jewelry is in perfect order and I can see almost all of it. I have my nicer jewelry in my jewelry box that sits on my dresser and then all my fun jewelry can be found on the wall in my closet. The wood piece is from Bed Bath and Beyond and it's perfect because it holds some of my daintier necklaces and earrings. My chunkier necklaces and bracelets hang below. There's a shelf that I can put my larger bracelets and rings and best of all there's a mirror so I can see how everything looks.


The other piece is just a memo board (thanks Shannon). I got push pins and hang everything from there. I tired to separate gold and silver necklaces and the same with earrings. I'm pretty happy with the end result. I know Hubby is too because now I don't have things all over the place.

20% Cash Back from GAP

Today Ebates is offering 20% cash back from GAP! I'm loving this daily double. I'm going to pick up up a few things for myself and these adorable day of the week panties for my niece (she is recently potty trained and I think will love them). GAP's Give and Get program is back too so I won't be buying too much since I want to take advantage of 30% later this week.

This is by far the easiest way to earn FREE money by shopping online. All you have to do is go to Ebates, log in, search for the store you plan on shopping at, click the link and voila you are taken there and all you have to do is shop! Each store has a corresponding percentage of cash back. And the money just adds up. Every quarter Ebates will send you a check and all you have to do is cash it. My next Ebates check will be for over $100! If you haven't already signed up, I definitely recommend that you do. You get $5 just for signing up! Click here to start getting free money!

Restaurant Review: Palena

During my "me" weekend I met up with my good friend for dinner at Palena in Cleveland Park. I'm so glad we went somewhere new because I really want to try new restaurants and share my reviews with you. Dinner was delicious. We both got the exact same thing - caesar salad and gnocchi with fotina cheese. We shared dessert which was a banana tort and select cookies and caramels. The salad was perfect, the dressing was light and not too anchovy. The gnocchi just melted in my mouth. The only negative about the entree was there wasn't enough and we were both still hungry. The banana tort and caramels were AMAZING. The cookies were ok, nothing spectacular. I would definitely recommend this place. It's right off the Cleveland Park metro...very convenient.

A "Me" Weekend

This weekend Hubby went back to Pittsburgh and I decided to stay back because I couldn't get a half day on Friday and I was looking forward to a "me" weekend. It was a wonderful weekend. Friday night I got home from work around 8:30 had dinner, watched some girly TV and was asleep by 10:30. The rest of the weekend consisted of pampering (massage, mani/pedi), the gym (it's been way to long since I've been there and my body is feeling it now), cleaning and organizing. My big project was to reorganize the master bedroom closet (I also have close in our guest room closet). Hubby kept complaining that he didn't have enough room. I wish I would have taken before pictures. It wasn't that bad but it looks so great now. Here's the finished product from two different angles.


After doing the closet redo I had another bag full of clothes to post on ebay. Check them out. I priced everything really low because I just want it gone.

I have been so lucky!

I can't believe my luck lately with blog giveaways. I won this fabulous Shabby Apple dress from Allie at Wardrobe Oxygen and a $25 Apothica gift card from Lyndsy at Yellow Brick Blog. Thank you both so much for hosting those giveaways! I'm so lucky to have won! Since I've been so fortunate to win these giveaways, I'm going to do one of my own very soon. Stay tuned.

Favorite Thing #212 - Arbonne's Pomegranate Energy Fizz Tabs

Fellow blogger and Arbonne rep Dina at My Superfluities sent me a bag of Arbonne samples a couple weeks ago and I was instantly hooked on Favorite Thing #212. The Energy Fizz Tabs in pomegranate are amazing. It's exactly what I need for an afternoon pick me up. In addition to giving me energy, it also "fills me up" and I don't have that need to do afternoon snacking. All you do is drop the tab in the water, let it fizz and dissolve and then drink. Think Alka Seltzer...the tab works the same way in the water. The come in two flavors - pomegranate and citrus, both are good but pomegranate is my favorite. Be sure to check out Dina's Arbonne site.

Great Fandango Deal!

Check out this great deal from LivingSocial - two movie tickets from Fandango for $9! What a great deal.

I'm a Winner!

A BIG thank you to Jenny at Not Just a Pretty Face for the $100 gift card to ShopBop! I'm so excited to use this. I haven't had a chance to browse around and see what I want but would love your suggestions. I'm tempted to buy another pair of Favorite Thing #211 but I think there are lots of other cute things I could get. Let me know your favorites.

Thanks again to Jenny. Make sure you check out her blog. She's got amazing fashion sense.