A few random things for Monday morning...

1. Behold, the finished product for my giveaway winner, LSU Melanie! These turned out so cute (don't let my lousy pic fool you) - be jealous, ladies! Mellie, I hope you and your pregalicious belly enjoy! These will be en route to you tomorrow...


2. I started putting together the favors for this couples' shower we're throwing next month. Being that we're in massive budget mode, this shower has been quite a challenge - as I don't enjoy being limited in my party planning. It's one of those situations where I jumped up and said "me, me, me!" to hosting a shower as soon as our friends got engaged. And then now I'm like, oh damn... what did I get myself into? But, as with our other money-saving tactics, I've totally turned this shower planning on a budget into a game. As in, for how little money can I throw a fabulous shower? I usually don't keep tally on party expenses, but I'm drilling this one down to every last penny. And so far, I'm kicking some SERIOUS ass. You should see my Excel spreadsheet for this one - it's so awesome.

We're doing an "entertainment" themed shower. Bestest laughs at us all down south and our themed showers. So I guess this is not a normal thing around the whole country? Anyway, this entertainment theme seems to be all the rage now in the world of bridal showers. Gifts being things to entertain with... anything from serveware to board games. So I came up with this whole elaborate setup for the shower initially, and then I dumbed it down a couple of notches to something manageable. (That's usually my normal party planning process - dream big, then bring it down to reality.) The end result is a movie-themed shower. Now our take on "entertainment" covers everything from chic cocktail parties all the way to a movie night for two... so I decided to take the movie theme and run with it.

We're borrowing a friend's old fashioned popcorn machine (like the kind they used to give away on The Price is Right and I always wondered what the hell people were gonna do with it). Also, the hub has a "talent" for editing photos - so we're going to find some classic movie covers and edit them a bit to fit the bride and groom. I'll print those out and hang them somehow around the house. And I plan to display movie quotes all around the house on love and marriage... And here are those favors I started on. Movie theatre candy! Too darn cute...



3. I went to my J. Crew this weekend in an attempt to find a birthday prezzie for my dad with my super fun giftcard that I won at Jillian, Inc. (woo hoo!). But much to my surprise, MY store has ditched the men's section altogether and now is a women's "concept" store. Of course. Of course this happens the ONE time I'm in there looking for boy stuff. Completely baffled, I asked one of the sales girls where the hell the men's section went and she explained how they're doing this at 12 stores around the nation. But all the other Atlanta stores will still be selling men's and women's. Whatever. But I must say - if any of you locals are in the market, the clearance section at the Mall of Georgia location is freaking ginormous. And it was all marked an additional 40% off (for how long I don't know).

Saturday I had to run by our townhouse, so I hopped on over to the Perimeter location to check out the men's stuff. Nothing really caught my eye, so I also left that crew empty-handed. But I did notice the clearance section for women was like maybe a third of the size of the MOG store. Anyway, I decided to try my luck online - I usually have much more luck there anyway. So I ordered my dad a super cute pair of madras shorts and I also snagged these pretties for me.


A little give and take, you know. And I only went $4 over my giftcard once shipping and tax was figured in - woo hoo!

4. Lastly, I was very disappointed to learn that Warner Brothers is pushing back the release of the new Harry Potter film to NEXT summer. Nooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Way to tease us with the trailer and then yank it away from us! Cruel, I'll tell you!

5. NO wait, one more... the Kate Spade boutique is open now at Rue La La. Go buy stuff and I'll pretend I'm you!