Girly Mom

In October, I celebrated my 18th wedding anniversary.  It doesn’t seem possible.  But, I guess when you’re married to a great guy, it just flies by.  Awww.

My husband took me to NY and it was fabulous.  I’m pretty sure we walked on every street in Manhattan.  We skipped seeing a show this time and decided to spend all our time walking, shopping and eating in as many different neighborhoods as we could.

We stayed at the Westin in Times Square. We’ve stayed all over the city, but  Times Square has its advantages because you can get anything you need 24 hours a day.  We shopped in Soho, got a foot massage and back rub in China Town, and spent Sunday afternoon in Central Park and at the Met.

Oh, and the food.  We ate hotdogs and roasted nuts and cupcakes from Magnolia Bakery in the West Village and Billy’s Bakery in Chelsea.  We ate pizza and Chicken Parmesan at Da Nico’s in Little Italy.  We had the best wings and BBQ at RUB in Chelsea.  And one of my favorite spots for breakfast is The Cupping Room in Soho.  We had pancakes and waffles and fruit and bacon that was to die for.  We had croissants and danishes from Dean & Deluca in Soho, Italian pastries in Little Italy and donuts from The Doughnut Plant.  I guess I don’t need to mention the little tiny bit of weight that I gained on this trip.  But it was so worth it!

I miss it already, but it’s always good to be home.  My family is so wonderful to take care of my kids.  They planned fun stuff for them to do and got them to school.  We definitely wouldn’t have been able to go if it wasn’t for them.

Here are a few pictures of the trip.

The view from our room

Jewelry shopping in Soho

Fresh fruit shakes in Times Square

Tweeting from Billy’s Bakery in Chelsea

I love Aquis Hair Turbans. I can’t get ready without them.  Everyday I wrap one around my hair then I’m off to make breakfast, get the kids ready for the day, put on my makeup, do the laundry, paint the house, refinish some furniture and teach French to small children.  Okay, my mornings aren’t quite like that.  I sometimes put laundry off until the afternoon.

This little towel absorbs the excess water in my hair which means it takes less time to dry.  And less time with the blow dryer means less damage to my hair.  That’s really important to a girl whose hair is, ahem, chemically enhanced.

Aquis also makes a small hair towel, but I prefer the turban because there’s a little button that secures it on my head and keeps it from falling off every time I lean over. These turbans are available at Amazon and several online stores as well as places like Bed, Bath and Beyond.  They’re well worth the price especially if your hair takes forever to dry.

If you have a product that you can’t live without, please share it with me.  I need an excuse to go shopping.

I have no eyelashes.  So when I find a miraculous mascara that gives me visible, dare I say long lashes, well, I’m ecstatic.  I am so happy, I just might stand at my front door and tell all the people that drive by to stop and look at them.  Or maybe not.  They might want to come in and my house is a total wreck.

Anyway, the mascara that gives me spectacular lashes is called Imju Fiberwig and I love it immensely.  Not only does it give me noticeable lashes, but it doesn’t smudge or run.  I wore it on our trip to Chattanooga at an amusement park and at the end of the long, hot day, there were no raccoon eyes on this girly girl.

If you ever see me in person you might ask yourself, “That girl is excited about THOSE lashes?”  Please remember that I have horrible, nonexistent puny little wanna-be lashes.  So of course I’m going to be happy when a product creates something from almost nothing.  My lashes would be almost invisible without it.

This mascara is a must for those of us who weren’t blessed with good lashes and those of us who aren’t coordinated enough to figure out false ones.

Summer is all about sun, sand, BBQ and flip flops.  Yes, flip flops.  I love them.  They are comfy, cute and I can get several pair for the price on one pair of winter shoes.  What’s not to love?

Now, I love Havaianas.  They are absolutely the most comfy flip flop I’ve ever worn.  But sometimes, they just don’t work right with that little summer skirt or those cute capris I just got.

I wanted to find something different.  You know, a flip flop that looks a little dressier.  OK, I know that a flip flop can only be so dressy, but I wanted something that didn’t look like I just walked off the beach.

So,  I began my search for some new flip flops.  I looked in stores, through several catalogs and online.  Oh the work that we girls endure when shopping.

I was looking at my Garnet Hill catalog at some super cute skirts and there they were.  They were just what I was looking for.

Look at those fantabulous colors!  I love them all.  I ordered the red patent and the silver.  About a week later, I went back to order more and the color I wanted was on back order.  I really wanted to take them on our vacation, so I checked at Zappos.

And of course, I found them.  I love Zappos, just take a look at my credit card bill.  (Just kidding, honey.)

Zappos doesn’t carry all the same colors but they have most of them.  And you can’t beat the superior service from Zappos. Their free returns policy is insane!

So, I now have them in red, silver, and brown.  And today, while I was making sure my Zappos link worked, my fingers slipped and I accidentally ordered the yellow.  Oops…

I found the best lipstick ever.  It’s the perfect shade for me.  It looks great.  I mean, when I wear this stuff I look like a blonde Cindy Crawford.  OK, I don’t, but I think I’m lookin’ pretty not-so-bad when I wear it.

I went to the store to buy more, only to find that my perfect color had been replaced with a new trendy shade, some horrible shade of puke that no one would be caught dead wearing.  I guess the manufacturers thought no one would be caught dead wearing my “so last week” shade.

Why?  Why do they always do this to me?

Another example: I finally found a good facial cleanser, the kind that doesn’t cost 8 grand and removes all my makeup without sending my skin into a breakout frenzy.  After a month or so, I attempted to purchase more and what did I find?  There on the shelf, in MY cleanser’s place, was some new improved, i.e. totally different and more expensive, rash-causing version of my beloved cleanser.

I remember this happening when I was younger, too.  I’ve been left foundation-less, moisturizer-less, even Chipsters-less (these were the best chips ever and *they* just took them away).

This has even happened to my husband.  He found (OK, I found them) this underwear that he absolutely loves.  Want to guess what happened?  Yup, they got to those too.  At least I got lucky and found them at a local TJ Maxx and bought about 10 pair.  But what is he going to do when those wear out?

(Oh, honey, if you read this, don’t worry.  Nobody reads my blog and so no one will ever know I’m talking about your underwear, baby.  Mwah!)

What is a girl to do?  I hate going through the trial & error phase with products just to find the one that works for me, especially on everyday stuff like cleanser, foundation and moisturizers.

Thankfully, I have found a new lipstick.  And I replaced my cleanser a year ago.  But I’m living in a state of uncertainty, just waiting for my favoritest products to be banished from the shelves.

I’ve always been able to find replacement products that I like as much and sometimes even better.  But I want to change products when I’m ready, not when the manufacturer decides they’re tired of a product.  I mean, I know if a product isn’t selling well, it doesn’t make sense for a company to sell it.  But I hate being left all lipstick-less.

OK, this is just a little rant.  I really don’t spend all day (usually) crying over lipstick or screaming about discontinued potato chips (but they were so yummy).  It just irritates me when I’m forced to scramble for new stuff when I was perfectly happy with what I had.

So, what have you lost to the Discontinued-Product Nazis?