I love a good deal
Wednesday, January 21 2009 - 0 comments
Peter introduced me to the Slick Deals and Fat Wallet websites a few years ago. I am now a huge fan. Basically, both are forum-based sites where people post deals they have found online and in stores. After a few visits to these sites my motto quickly became “Why EVER buy anything full price?” Earlier in the week, I heard on the news about a class action law suit that involved several of my favorite cosmetics manufactures . As part of the settlement, the cosmetics companies were required to give customers who had purchased any of their products (and they weren’t requiring proof of purchase!) between 1994 and 2003 a free product on Tuesday. Peter pointed me in the direction of this Slick Deals thread that talked about the deal. I first stopped by the Macys near our house. There was a pretty long line of people, probably 30-40 plus, but it moved quickly. The funny part about waiting in line was observing the others ahead of me. There were several guys, no doubt drug along by their girlfriends/wives in an attempt to get more free products. I internally laughed until I wondered why I hadn’t made Peter come with me too. Although they were out of most of the products, I did come away with something cool… Vera Wang Princess Body Polish Not wanting to miss out on other potential freebies, I then picked up Peter from work and we drove up to the other Macys. There, I scored this… Lancôme Cils Design Pro Mascara and Peter thought I should try this… Clarins Energizing Morning Cream actually when we got up to the table I was supposed to tell Peter what I wanted but I was to focused on the products to turn and around and tell him what to get so he picked this out all by himself – I was actually very proud of him because this product smells fantastic! If I had gone into Macys and purchased all of these items I would have paid approximately $95. I paid $0. I love deals.My first lesson from Cooking School
Monday, January 19 2009 - 0 comments
This book, Martha Stewart’s Cooking School, has been sitting on my dining room table for several weeks. I finally decided to give one of the recipes a try – can you guess what I made? Homemade chicken soup! It smelled fantastic but took forever. I did feel quite accomplished, however, I honestly can’t say that it tasted all that differently than Campbells soup. It made a much bigger mess than just opening a can. Peter was not all that pleased about this. In other news, my cat Jasper hasn’t been feeling well and I had to take him to the vet again today. He seemed to be feeling better this evening despite today’s excitement. I promise I’m not choking him here – this really is his happy face.I heart CNN
Saturday, January 17 2009 - 0 comments
Today it is freezing cold outside. Peter and I decided that we were going to hole up inside and not go out. We are definitely not cold weather people. I love snow, but I like looking at snow from the inside. And to me, cold weather without any snow is just silly. We’ve been camped out on the couch all day with our laptops and one or both of our cats and watching the Obama Express Train coverage on CNN as it traveled from Philadelphia through our little state of Delaware down to D.C. It is so cool and exciting that someone from Delaware is going to be in the White House – go Delaware! Yea for Joe Biden! :) In other news, I have some cool new gear to share. For Christmas, I got the coolest tripod from my hubby. This thing is a beast! I can’t wait to use it more in the coming weeks. It’s a Manfrotto 055MF3 . No more using my wobbly tripod!Something to think about
Friday, January 16 2009 - 0 comments
Po Bronson, author of What Should I do With My Life? , had a quote on the side of my Starbucks coffee cup this past Wednesday morning: “Failure’s hard, but success is far more dangerous. If you’re successful at the wrong thing, the mix of praise and money and opportunity can lock you in forever.” This really applies to me as I think about decisions to make in my life right now.WedComp08: Enter to win and benefit Thirst Relief International!
Wednesday, January 14 2009 - 0 comments
I read about this wedding photography competition today on Cliff Mautner’s blog and have decided to enter. A portion of the proceeds collected will be going to a charity I’ve been hearing more about lately – Thirst Relief International . Give it a try! You can enter by visiting the WedComp08 website here . But hurry because you have to purchase your credit(s) by tonight and upload your image(s) by tomorrow!Winter Recap Part 2 – Christmas in Prague
Tuesday, January 13 2009 - 0 comments
Peter and I flew to Prague on the night of the 23rd just in time to make it to Prague for Christmas with his parents. This was our first Christmas together in Prague and my first Christmas away from my parents. It was exciting and different for me at the same time. Despite only staying for a little over four days we had the chance to do a lot of touring, and saw three musical and theater performances, including the Nutcracker Ballet! We woke up to this beautiful sky on Christmas morning… I loved how the city of Prague had many Christmas decorations like these beautiful (real!) wreaths throughout the city. My favorite part of this image is the little boy in the background – he was practicing his marching as the Czech guards marched by. I told Peter I had to get my picture with the Euro Christmas tree – this made him laugh. On Christmas day we saw an exhibit of different nativities for the past couple of hundred years. Like Pre-United States Nativities. It was really awesome to see. Can you believe local Czech middle school students made these? I love image – especially because they are eating my favorite Czech poppy seed cookie. This sign made me do a double take. So of course I had to take a picture. I mean seriously - “Happy Package” – seriously?! Haha. Different processing here – love the cool vintage feeling. Milka Chocolate. Yummy. Enough said. Czech grocery stores are awesome. You should see the collections of chocolate, sausage, and breads. Yes, there are other things, but those were the three food groups I was concerned with. At the Christmas Market… Enjoying a sundae at a historic Ice Cream shop. Heading home…even the airport is decorated. I really love visiting Prague – I seriously think I could live there one day. Maybe we will.Changing things up a bit
Sunday, January 11 2009 - 0 comments
After doing some thinking, I’ve decided to make some changes to my websites to reflect the changes I’m going to be making in my business. First, my main website: http://www.monicarysavy.com . This went live this evening. I think I’m going to swap the picture of me out with the seasons/holidays unless that becomes to much of a pain. The third link, Training, doesn’t work right now. That’s because I’m still building my Training website. I’m super excited about this because it’s something I planned on adding from the very beginning, I just wasn’t sure when. I’m hoping to have my Training site up by the end of the week.Winter Recap Part 1 – My birthday!
Thursday, January 08 2009 - 0 comments
My poor neglected blog. A lot has happened since then, but since one of my resolutions is to blog more, I’ve decided to catch up on the last month plus in several blog post….hope that’s not cheating! First, my birthday…I turned 27 on the 21st of December. The past several years, Peter has always planned something special for me on my birthday and usually it’s been some sort of traveling. This year, I decided that I really wanted to spend my actual birthday day with my parents and Peter since we knew that we would be going away for Christmas (more on that in the next post!). When Peter announced that we would be doing something together the day before, I figured we’d be doing something low key, maybe seeing a movie, going out to eat, etc…I had no idea that he had a whole special day planned! Below is my birthday weekend in pictures! a) I woke up to this sweet message on the fridge from my hubby b) Us at the Amtrak station – Peter surprised me with a trip to Washington D.C. for the day c) Our train is here! d) Me under the Delaware Street sign e) At the Julia Child exhibit f) At Winterthur with my parents on my actual b-day g) Decorations at Winterthur – during the holidays I wish we had a huge house with a ton of rooms – then I could decorate more! h) A self-portrait at Winterthur – I’m 27! i) Jasmine helped me unwrap presents – aka played with the wrapping paper, bows, and ribbonStanding up for breakfast
Tuesday, November 11 2008 - 0 comments
Today, I started my day by eating breakfast with my husband. I sat at the table and ate my whole wheat toast with one over easy egg (trying the healthy lifestyle thing), and Peter ate his breakfast of oatmeal AND yogurt (dude, I so wish I could eat like that and stay skinny, sigh!) standing up in the kitchen. I realized half way through eating that he was doing his stand up and eat breakfast thing again. It makes me internally giggle - I have no idea why he does this. Sometimes he stands in the kitchen, as if it were the most natural thing on earth, leans against the counter, and proceeds to eat his oatmeal and yogurt without a care in the world. No crumbs, no mess, as if it were a very normal thing to be eating breakfast standing up. Meanwhile, I'm seating at the table eating breakfast and leaving crumbs.Playing with Aperture
Friday, November 07 2008 - 0 comments
These were all shot with my Canon 50 mm 1.8 lens at Goldey-Beacom College. f / 1.8 – Straight Out of the Camera f / 1.8 – with a little Photoshop Love f / 22 - Straight Out of the Camera f / 22 – With a little Photoshop love