I'm In a Glass Case of Emotion!

My emotions have been all over the place this past day week. I was sick and cranky last weekend, happy about going to see my family, elated over the wickedly good deal I got at the purse factory yesterday (see picture below) and the fact I made it on to Flickr Explore yesterday (again, picture below) and then crying this morning because I'm going to miss Sean so much when I go back to the States.

I'm also a little perturbed right now at a friend who can't seem to make time in their, oh so busy schedule, to send back a message on FB. In fact, this person is awful about ever answering any message I send them on FB. I don't get it? How hard is it to simply write back a message? It's not like they are never on, because I see them online all the time. Makes me think we aren't such good friends after all. And that my blog readers, is a pretty crappy feeling.

Anyway, I've got a lot planned this next week before I head back to the States for 3 glorious weeks of friends and family time. I haven't been to the States since Sean's R&R in April of 2010, so I am well overdue for a trip back to the good old US of A. I'm already imagining all the great places I will shop (Hobby Lobby, the mall, Old Navy, Goodwill) and the places I will eat (Taco Bueno, Qdoba, Mazzios) and the drinks I will sip on (Starbucks pumpkin spice lattes). Oh..and seeing friends and family is pretty cool too. :)

This weekend Sean and I are having our 2nd annual snack night and Christmas Vacation movie night. It's a tradition that my own immediate family does every Christmas, but Sean and I started doing our own version of it last year, when we weren't able to go home for Christmas. We'll also be opening our gifts to each other since we won't be together on the actual day of Christmas. Then I'm hoping we can fit in a quick trip to Venice so I can look for a couple of last minute presents for people.  This year for our snack night we are making the following:

Mexican Pinwheels
Little Smokies with BBQ sauce
Bacon Wrapped Jalapenos
Spinach Dip
Caramel Bars

(If you want the recipe to any of the above, let me know and I'll try to post them)

Here is the picture that was Explored on Flickr yesterday as one of the 500 most interesting photos uploaded that day.

This photo comes from a Christmas session I'm doing with a friend's baby.

Without further ado, the pictures of my new purse!

I actually went to the store in search for a dark brown purse to match my boots and favorite wedge heels, but alas, there weren't really that many brown purses to choose from. Seriously, maybe one or two. I guess brown is not in this year. So, instead I "settled" for this lovely gray purse, that has brown stitching. It was in the "sale" room and it was a steal at 50 euro. Especially when I looked at the before price.

50 euro for a purse that was originally 218 euro? Yes, please!

I'm in Love!

With my beautiful new purse!



Last week a friend told me she went to a local purse factory store, (it's called Nicoli), and they were having big sales on last season's collection. Since I could care two hoots about whether something is "last season" I wanted to go check it out myself. She said all purses were marked down from 5-40 euro.

Today my friend Kristen and I decided to go check it out and see what they had. We started off in the main showroom and I found THE purse. I just knew it wasn't going to be marked down since we weren't in the sale room, but it was 50 euro. 50 EURO!!!! Do you know how incredible of a deal this is?! I went into the sale room, which did have some awesome items, but nothing caught my eye like the first purse. It was beautiful and soft like buttah. When I paid for it, the lady told me it was a very special purse and I was getting a great deal. I kinda guessed that, but when I checked online how much the bag I bought was selling for I was shocked. Let's just say it was more than three times what I paid for it in the store.

I'm hooked on these purses! I haven't bought anything really "Italian" since we moved here besides ceramics at Nove. I can tell where a lot of money is going to go before we leave here. The purses are seriously amazing and so beautiful. If you're ever around this area, email me and I'll tell you where to go so you can see for yourself.