September 2, 2010

Do I want to be responsible for hurting this littl bun bun? Oh, hell, no!

A little over a month ago, I made a commitment to purge my household – and my life – of products that are tested on animals.  I heard about the 120 beagles who were rescued on July 4th from a bankrupt testing lab in New York, and was absolutely heartbroken to think that they had never been outdoors, chased a ball or run with other dogs.  They had never been allowed to be dogs; they were just test subjects.

I’ve been vegetarian for 16 years, and 99% vegan for the last 8 months, so it seemed inconsistent that I avoid eating meat, dairy and eggs because I don’t want to be a party to an animal’s suffering, but I’m doing exactly that when I buy my favorite Loreal mascara.  Or Charmin toilet paper.  Or Garnier hair color.

So I decided to get with the program and clean out my house.  Care to know how it’s going?  I’m not gonna lie; it’s a bit tough here and there.  I have these random conflicted conversations with myself…

Maybe I’ll just buy the Charmin toilet paper one more time, then I’ll buy Seventh Generation.

No, you’re a hypocrite. You said you were committed.

I am, but it’s TOILET PAPER for cryin out loud!  I can’t buy crappy TOILET PAPER!  No one will know if I buy it just once more.

You’ll know.  You’ll make one exception, then it’ll be two, then fourteen.  Do it 100% or don’t do it all.

Yeah, but I can’t find a new mascara that I like.  I have to have a good mascara!  You can’t expect me to sacrifice everything!

If you buy that mascara, you’re responsible for poking the wand into a bunny’s eye!  Don’t do it!  Don’t do it!  There are plenty of other mascaras out there that you haven’t tried yet.  Don’t be a quitter.

Well, what about my Clorox Toilet Wand?  Do I have to go back to having a drippy germy toilet brush in my bathroom?

Stop being a baby!  Are you committed to living without contributing to animal suffering, or are you committed to whining?

And so it goes.

To be completely honest, it’s easier to replace some products than others.

• Method and quite a few other companies make cleaning products that are cruelty-free.

• The Seventh Generation laundry detergent that I bought is happily cheaper than Tide!

• I’ve tried 3 mascaras already, and am not in love with any of them, but I have others to try and am confident there is a great mascara out there that is not animal-tested.

• I found a shaving cream that smells heavenly, like coconuts, and feels like buttah!

On the other hand, I’m having some big challenges.

• The biggest is with paper products.  I’m pretty picky about the brands of TP, paper towels and napkins I buy; not to mention those, you know – feminine products – and I haven’t found any good replacements for them yet.  There don’t seem to be many options at all to choose from.  Surely, there has to be a solution!  The search continues…

• I’m also wondering what to do about my Swiffer Wet Jet that I dearly love.  Could there be a way to still make use of it since I already have it, without buying any more liquid or pad refills?  Those things were darn expensive anyway.

As I test more products and find excellent cruelty-free products, I’m going to assemble a list that will hopefully help someone else in my position.  I don’t want to blow smoke at you and tell you this process is a piece of cake, but it’s worthwhile and I’m committed.  Still whining a little now and then, because apparently I’m a much bigger brand-ho than I realized, and I like things the way I like them.  But I’m still committed! 

I’m really hoping that some of you will have some suggestions for me!  If you do, PLEASE send them my way and I’ll pay it forward!

Lil Bunny image from KevenLaws Flickr photostream.

~BigSis

June 4, 2010

I know it’s a week late, but tonight I’m going to see the Sex and the City 2 movie and I’m so excited, I can barely stand it!

There was so much going on with everyone last week that it was impossible for us girls to get together for the premier, so tonight, we’re doing a Girl’s Night Out “Dinner and a Movie”.

Not that I could ever afford any of these, but I can’t wait to see all the fabulous shoes they wear in this movie! How about these pumps that SJP has on in this photo to the left. Oh, how I’d love to be wearing a pear of these Christian Louboutin Glitter Pumps to the party tonight! They’re only $595.00.

Sarah Jessica Parker’s Carrie Bradshaw was seen wearing these Brian Atwood Studded Pumps in NYC on September 4th!

They retail for $800.00.

WOW!

I think I love this Christian Dior Newspaper print dress as much as the shoes!

Aren’t these Christian Louboutin Lace Booties spectacular?

I read on US Magazine’s site that these shoes were over $3300, but I saw them selling on one site for $1249.00. What a bargain, right?

This next pair just might be my favorite so far. Another from Christian Louboutin, these gorgeous studded Studio 120 peep-toe pumps can be your for $1895.00. I think I’d feel like Cinderella in these pumps!

I sure wish I could go out and buy a new pair of gorgeous heels for my Girls Night Out, but since that’s highly unlikely, maybe I’ll at least treat myself to a pedicure before the party!

Have a great weekend!

~LilSis

May 14, 2010

It’s another Fabulous Friday and today we’re talking swimsuits!

I’ve been putting off buying myself a new swimsuit for at least two years now, maybe three. I have friends who are lucky enough to be able to order suits online without even trying them on first, but not me! For me, heading out on a swimsuit shopping trip will most often bring on quite a bit of anxiety! Silly, but true!

On New Years Day, I set a goal to lose ten pounds in ten weeks. If you’ve been reading, you’ll remember when I started talking about joining the Ten in 2010 Challenge. When I set my goal, I also decided that I would reward myself with a new swimsuit when I hit my goal weight.

I did reach my goal by March 15th, but I still hadn’t been in the mood to do the “dreaded” swimsuit shopping until last week. Right before our overnight trip to the desert, I squeezed in an hour to run into Macy’s to look for a suit. Luckily, I was able to find one on my first trip. Granted, I tried on 25 – 30 suits before I found one, but this is the fabulous suit that I came home with.

2 Bamboo Braided Halter Swimsuit

I had never even seen this 2 Bamboo brand before, but I was pleasantly surprised. It’s a necessity that I have an underwire top and I also have to be able to purchase the top and the bottom separately. You can’t tell by the photo, but the most fabulous thing about this suit is that the top ties in the back and around the neck. It makes a huge difference for me instead of just having a hook that you can’t adjust.

And BigSis has been working her fanny off doing radical ‘two a day’ workouts, which includes a nightly P90X workout after a lunch time cardio workout at the gym. I think she deserves a treat for all her hard work! This is the fabulous swimsuit by Kenneth Cole that she’s eyeballing!

Kenneth Cole REACTION Swimsuit

This fabulous suit has a banded halter top and a ruched skirted bottom. Funny how we’re both attracted to the solid blues this year. I usually prefer a patterned or floral swimsuit. Luckily, when I got home from my shopping trip, I found a floral wrap that I’ve had for years and it matched the blue in my new suit perfectly!

We’re both coming to terms with the fact that our bodies won’t ever look like we’re 25 years old again, but a 40 plus woman can still wear a cute suit, right?

~LilSis

April 30, 2010

Aldi stores have finally come to Texas!  We’ve been looking forward to their arrival for a while, partly because we heard Trader Joe’s stores are owned by one of the Aldi brothers.  We hoped that TJ’s would follow Aldi here, but we’re hearing now that is only wishful thinking.  Boo!!  For now, we’ll have to settle with exploring Aldi stores.

Aldi stores are marketed as being basic, no-frills, and low-priced grocers.  I visited a new North Dallas store, and found those claims to be true.  The store was very small, with concrete floors, and products stacked in their shipping cartons instead of arranged prettily on shelves.  These are not warehouse club stores, but that is the feeling you get: bare and stark.  Prices are clearly marked on tags above the product.

No frills also means you bring your own bags and bag your own groceries.  You must deposit 25 cents to get a grocery cart, refundable when you return the cart to its home.  You should know too that Aldi brands eliminate the use of coupons, and Aldi only takes cash and debit cards – no credit cards or checks.

Another important note is that you’ll see very few familiar brands at Aldi.  During my initial 15 minute breeze-through, I only saw 2 or 3 identifiable brands.  That means you’re going to need to spend some time looking at products and reading labels to figure out what you’re buying.  You can’t just grab your favorite granola bar and know exactly what you’re getting.  You’ll have to do some research in the aisles when you first shop at Aldi.

On my first trip, I spent $14.59 on 7 items, an average of just over $2 per item.  That’s already a good sign, right?  It seems like everything I buy at the Wallymart or SuperTarzhay is $3-something or $4-something.  When’s the last time you bought something that was $2?

Here’s what I got (I know it’s an odd random list!) and how it worked out:

• Tuscan Garden Large Black Olives $1.19 – Perhaps on the medium-ish side, but good flavor as far as canned black olives go.

• Fit & Active Instant Brown Rice $1.35 – I’ve always made regular brown rice so this was  my first taste of an instant version.  It wasn’t quite done after 5 minutes of simmering and 5 minutes of steaming, as the directions stated.  After another 3 minutes of simmering and steaming, it was fine. Not fabulous, but ok.

• Benita Guacamole $2.99 – Wow!  Great!  Just like the Wholly Guacamole two-packs; it tastes like it might have come out of the same kitchen.

• Fit & Active Dried Cherries $3.49 – The best dried fruit I’ve ever had.  Really!  These cherries were plump and full of tart sweet flavor; not dried to leathery death.  Next time I’m grabbing a bag of the dried blueberries too.

• Grandessa Garlic Vinaigrette $1.99 – Slightly sweet for me, but a high quality dressing.

• Millville Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Chewy Granola Bars (10 pk) $1.69 – That’s not a typo…you get 10 bars for $1.69.  Granted, they are small bars.  Very small.  But they’re tasty little guys that my coworker says are a dead-ringer for Quaker’s chewy granola bars.  They weigh in at 100 calories-3 grams fat-2 grams protein-7 grams sugar.  These are too candy bar-ish for me, so even though they were yummy, that’s not what I want from a granola/energy/protein bar.

• Fit & Active Mixed Berry Fruit & Grain Cereal Bars (8 pk) $1.89 – These tasted exactly like Nutri-Grain bars to me, but may be a touch smaller. A great value for an 8-pack of bars.  They have 130 calories-3 grams fat-2 grams protein-13 grams sugar.  Delicious, but I don’t want this much sugar in a bar so I wouldn’t buy them again.

Overall, I thought these products were a fabulous value for the money.  The quality was consistently excellent, even though the prices were sometimes unbelievably low.  Will Aldi be a weekly stop for me?  Probably not.  I don’t buy a lot of processed foods, and the majority of Aldi’s offerings are not what I routinely buy.  I do see Aldi as an occasional stop for a few items from time to time, like that amazing guacamole and the scrumptious cherries!

~BigSis

March 20, 2010

We all like saving money, right?  I check the Sunday newspaper every week for coupons, but it seems like most of the offers are for things I never ever buy; otherwise they’re too puny to even mess with!  10 cents off 12 rolls of toilet paper?  Fugedaboutit!

There are lots of coupon sites out there, but I heard about a coupon database the other day that I think is pretty cool, and it seems to have lots of coupons I would actually use.  It’s on MyDallasMommy.com, which features all kinds of freebies, deals, giveaways and other fun goodies to help you stretch your dollar a bit farther.

Some of the coupons are printable, others will refer you to another site like CoolSavings or Upromise, or to a Walgreens coupon book.  I think this database is really a portal that organizes all of the stuff out there for you in one place.  One great feature is that expiration dates are shown with the search results so you don’t waste your time clicking all over cyberspace, only to find a bunch of expired offers.

On my first visit to the database, I found a $1 coupon for my favorite Sensodyne toothpaste.  I was referred to the manufacturer’s web site and I did have to sign up before printing, but for a decent savings on an item I use and rebuy all the time, it’s worth a few seconds of time for me.

So, that takes care of coupons for your usual “in-person” shopping.  What about saving money on the things you order online?  You need promo codes, of course!  Do you know about RetailMeNot.com?  I’ve been using it for years, and love it.  You just go to the site, type in your store’s url, and poof!  You get a list of coupon codes.  Voila!

These codes are reported to the site by other users, so it can be a bit hit or miss, but you can easily see the success rate for a particular code.  For example, today you can use “KCOOK34″ to get $5 off at DSW Shoes, and it has an 89% success rate.  If it doesn’t work for you, just go back to the site and report the failure.  When I pulled up Amazon.com offers, they were all labeled as unreliable, with very low success rates, so I wouldn’t even bother trying to use them.

I order supplements from Vitacost.com a lot, and always check RetailMeNot for a promo code first.  Right now, you can get 5% off your order at Vitacost.com using the promo code “pc13wb”.  The site tells you this code has a 94% success rate and that the average reported user savings are $6.03.

I also saw some great deals today for 25% off at Coldwater Creek, 15% off at Kohls and FootLocker, and free shipping at tons of sites.  Why wouldn’t you use this site, I ask? 

Now get out there and save some money!  And enjoy your weekend!

~BigSis

September 18, 2009

Have you seen the new “The Dress Issue No. 2″ catalog from White House Black Market?

Not only are there some beautiful little black dresses in this catalog, but there are some precious little black and white kitties, too.  I’m not sure what cats have to do with selling black dresses, but this catalog has a little kitty on almost every page.

I do love White House Black Market, though.  Their clothes fit me better than almost any other brand, so when I need something special it is usually the first place I go.  The last little black dress that I bought for a formal event, I bought at White House Black Market.

Here are a few of my favorite photos from the catalog. You can see all the new little black dresses on White House Black Market.

Piped Leather Button Heel $88.00

I love these shoes but the kitty is even cuter! Look at her pretty little necklace.

Satin Full-Skirt Dress 158.00

They must have given this little guy a treat to help him sit still. He’s still licking his chops.

Not that there’s anything wrong with it, and I am a “cat lover”, but if you’re all dressed up in a little black dress, are you really going to pick up a big, white, furry kitty?

Satin Rosette Dress $168.00

She has a smile on her face, but this kitty looks like he’s about done with the photo shoot!

~LilSis

August 20, 2009

I called this post Dorm Room Organizers, but these ideas could be used in any student’s room or anyone’s office.  I can personally ALWAYS use more organizers.  I’m a little bit of a fanatic about them…ok, a lot fanatic.  One perfect obsessive example is my pantry.

But enough about me.  Back to the organizers.  You say organizer, I say Container Store!  Oh, sweet mystery of life, at last I’ve found you!  I adore Container Store.  And you may know it’s the #1 company to work for, at least in Texas.  Their employees seem so darn happy, don’t they?  I think I would be if I worked in organizer mecca, however, I wouldn’t be happy when payday rolled around because I would owe the company money.

First of all, the Happy Organized Home Sale is running until September 7th.  My favorites:  Those skinny huggable hangers for $6.99 ($3 off) and their slim folding step stool for $19.99 ($10 off).

Back to back-to-school!  You see how easily I’m distracted in this place!  As always, Container Store has some incredibly cool things for your back to school organizing needs.  I love their organizing tips section for back to school.  You can shop by closet, walls & doors, desk, laundry, bath or storage.  Or you can search by your style of dorm: artistic expression, booksmart, a natural fit, high fidelity, big ideas or fashion forward.  Choose natural fit, for example, and you get this:

Container Store Natural Fit

Gorgeous, isn’t it?  Below the photo, you get a list of all the products used, along with their prices.  I’m loving the bamboo clothing rack ($129) and the coordinating magnet bamboo boards ($14.99 each).

Container Store Mini Mantel

Also, in the category of things-you-didn’t-know-you-need-but-now-must-have is this little mini mantel ($14.99) that grips onto your bed post.  This would be perfect if your dorm room didn’t have room for a nightstand.

And before we leave Container Store, don’t forget all of the awesome Elfa carts that make organizing simple.

And, one last thing.  There is a really cool web site that you must check out if you’re an organizing junkie like me.  It’s Jeri’s Decluttering and Organizing News.  She’s done posts recently on cool ideas in cork bulletin boards and on memo boards with pretty fabric coverings. Love these!

That’s it for today, gang!  Now get out there and organize something!

~BigSis

August 8, 2009

Beanie Baby Kaleidoscope by lyle58

Do you have boxes and boxes of Beanies?  I hate to even bring up this topic, because it makes me cringe.  I think that LilSis and SisMama feel the same way.  We fell victim to the hysteria that surrounded Beanie Babies, and we absolutely wish we never had.  Now, what the heckie darn do we do with all of them?  I have boxes and boxes taking up room that I don’t have, and I’d love to find a solution to the overpopulation problem.

I have three ideas so far, and obviously I’m not sold on any of them since I haven’t done a ding dang thing yet:

• Send the Beanies to the Beanies for Baghdad project. You send the Beanies to this organization, and they ship them to our military personnel overseas to give away to little kids who have so very little.  I wonder if this is still a viable option, since the president is talking about withdrawal timelines.  Once they arrive, could we be sure there would still be a purpose, a distribution channel and a home for them?

• Take them to children’s hospitals.  I’ve heard that hospitals aren’t always thrilled about taking in Beanies because they can’t be sure they haven’t been played with, and they can’t risk introducing any additional germs into the hospital environment.  Are there any nurses out there who might know about this?

• Try to sell them.  In this economic market, however, it’s the worst possible time to try to sell a collectible item.  It’s totally a buyer’s market, and prices are way down.  I also think demand is too low and the supply is too high.  This idea seems useless to me.  I’d much rather donate them than fiddle around with selling them for a song.

So, if you have tried any of these ideas or if you have any other solutions, I (we) would LOVE to hear them!!  I don’t want to just impulsively trash all these Beanies to get them out of my way … heaven knows how much money I invested.  But if they could be put to good use somehow, I think it would be selfish of me to hang onto them.  Help!

~BigSis

August 4, 2009

We had a great weekend celebrating SisMama’s birthday, and will talk about it later this week.  Meanwhile, I just stumbled upon this cool item and wanted to share it.

Do you remember being a kid and needing encouragement to eat?  I don’t.  I think I’ve always liked to eat, and sometimes wish I didn’t enjoy it so much!  But I’ve known kids who weren’t interested in food at all, and had to be bribed or threatened to eat.  Maybe this cool product would make mealtime fun for them, or maybe it would be even more fun for us big kids!

Food Face Plate

It’s Wooly Willy; that dude from the magnetic game you took in the car with you on road trips!  But now, he’s on a plate and instead of decorating him with magnetic metal shavings, you’re decorating him with your food.  I love the green bean eyebrows!

I heard about the Food Face Plate from FreshTrend, and found the plates available for sale on Perpetual Kid for $9.95.  If you buy one of these and play with your food, send us a photo!

~BigSis

July 26, 2009

I’ve been told that I need to wear better sandals due to recent foot problems. I guess the foam bottom Roxies that I practically live in aren’t a good enough sandal for daily wear.  I’ve thought about getting a pair of Birkenstocks, but I like those better on men, even though they do have some cute new styles for women.

I’m curious about the claims made from women wearing the FitFlop Walkstar. Apparently, more than a million women swear by these super sandals.  There have been claims made ranging from super-tight bottoms, disappearing backaches, to instant relief from pain in the feet.

Here’s how Bliss describes the Original FitFlop Walkstar.

Why we love it:

•it’s got the gym built in!
•helps tone and trim the legs
•absorbs shock and helps to reduce joint strain

Italian designed, with an all-leather, microfiber-lined upper, leaner, longer, lovelier lines—AND they load your leg muscles and boost ‘the bottom’s’, to give you a workout while you walk! Wow. U.S. women’s whole sizes 5-10. Half sizes order down.

Original FitFlop Walkstar $49.99

BlissWorld has a great variety of these sandals that range from $49.99 for the Original FitFlops to $59.99 for the new Walkstar3 FitFlops. I love these in Flamingo!

FitFlop Walkstar3 Jelly in Flamingo $59.99

So, I need some help. If anyone out there in the Blogosphere World has a pair of these sandals or knows of someone that does, I would LOVE to hear from you! I really want to get a pair but I’d like to hear for myself from someone that has had results from wearing these sandals.

~LilSis