Winner of the 17th Blog Giveaway and August Cravings

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Congratulations to Heather from the fabulous blog, The Peacock Fairy, winner of the $30 Amazon e-gift card! I hope you get something awesome! Thank you for entering, reading and for being you. I appreciate it! And thank you to everyone who entered. I just really cannot express in words or emotions (’cause you can’t see them) how much it means to me when you stop by and sit a bit. I love the connections I have made here. I cannot imagine my life without all of you.

It is August and with this sweltering summer month, comes back to school shopping. It was odd, because my daughter ended up shopping with my son, because apparently I do not know what the kids are wearing. If you still have some back to school shopping to do, I have some quick tips:

1. Anytime I am at the mall, I will go up to the information kiosk and ask if they are having a promotion. At our mall, they often do a promotion once a month or so. It is usually not advertised. You have to ask. I asked at the end of July and knew that between August 4-10, if I spent $200, I would get a $25 gift card to the mall. $400 or more would get me $40 (with two kids that is what I spent). So, I earned a gift card simply for doing something I had all ready planned on doing. I know our mall is not the only mall that does this, so be sure to ask in case your mall does promotions also.

2. Famous Footwear is where I always buy my kids’ back to school shoes. Their B1G1 1/2 off coupled with 20% off coupon is great. And because I am a reward member, that one shopping trip typically earns me a $20-25 reward in December which I always use to get one of the kids a free pair of shoes.

3. Staples is the place I go to for back to school supplies. Their door busters (you have to usually go on Sundays to not miss them) cannot be beat. It takes multiple trips, but the money saved is huge.

I think that is it. And now for my cravings. When I was at the mall, I stumbled upon the cutest boutique selling amazing clothes. Both of my children coerced me to go in to try on a skirt on the 70% off stand, because “it’s so you.”

“But we are here to shop for you.”

“But try it on! You cannot not try it on.”

Imagine those good and bad shopping devils on your shoulders from cartoons and now flick off the good one and replace it with another bad one. Those are my children in my ear when I am shopping. Except they are solid and real. And much louder.

So, of course I tried it on. And then I found a line of clothing that was just the coolest. It is called Luna Luz. Have you heard of it? The store was having a huge sale and I bought two dresses from the brand Luna Luz at a big discount. The kids made me. They made me get the skirt, too. Sigh. Needless to say that I am not buying anything else this month because I had also splurged on this dress. I still have my gift card waiting for The River Fade Dress if it hits sale any time soon. But unless something popsback for less than $20, I cannot buy anything.

But I can dream. Free People is killing it this season. I love almost everything in their new arrivals. Here are things I am watching:

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The Anthropologie Azure Lace Dress tops my list right now. Although the petite size I had been wanting is now sold out, so it might never happen on sale for me. I reviewed it here, in case you missed it.

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Free People’s Emma Love Tee is so good. I can see it paired with leggings and skinny jeans. A giant pendant and hair in two buns. I will probably snag this in September, because I love the look and the price.

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Modcloth’s Out For The Day Dress is lovely in its simplicity. I can picture it being sweet with bare legs or black tights and boots. Or spiced up with some mustard or fun fuchsia tights this fall. I have a black dress almost exactly like this one, but this dress is a high craving for me.

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Free People’s Dreamweaver Dress makes me want to skip through the streets as I swing my basket full of apothecary medicine towards the nearest village and clasp my dragon repellant in my other hand. It is perfect.

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Okay, “dress” is not the right name for this item, at least not for me, but I love the berry color (I would hope it would translate well in real life). The sleeves are so adorable on The Arosa Dress, too. I am not sure how it would be worn as a top. It is definitely too short for me to be worn without pants. Petite girls would be amazing in this.

What are your cravings? If you have kids, are you done back to school shopping? Do you know if your mall offers promotions?

Also, I have fourteen outfit posts I have to get out soon. I took too many pictures. This is going to result in more outfit posts than usual in the next few weeks. Sometimes I might have to have two posts on a single day (only one will be an outfit post). I hope you do not mind. I want to clean out my summer backup before fall arrives.

*this post contains affiliate links. Clicking on a link will result in a small commission for dragon repellant this site.

12 thoughts on “Winner of the 17th Blog Giveaway and August Cravings

    • You are welcome! Congratulations, girl! I bought two very boring things on Amazon today. Don’t be like me. I bought vacuum cleaner bags and hair gel for the boys. I hope you get something better than that! : )

      Have a happy week!

      Jenni

  1. Can’t wait to see more outfit posts. Hope you can get the azure lace dress, even if you can’t get the petite version. I think it is quite lovely. The dreamweaver dress is very you, and I can picture you wearing it with your gladiator sandals. Great sales are so hard to resisit. Did manage to snag a pair of Jack Rogers flats at about 60+% off this weekend, so I was pretty excited about that. No clothes back-to-school shopping for me, but helped my daughter get some bathroom stuff (rugs and towels to match a new shower curtain) since she moved from a dorm to apartment this year. Thankfully we don’t have to help her do any moving! The last 2 years we had to drag stuff up and down stairs because the dorm had no elevator. Hope you have a great week!!

    • Thank you Barbara! How fun and exciting for your daughter. I am both dreading and looking forward to that day I shop with my own daughter for such necessities. Moving is the absolute worst. You are definitely luck to have avoided that this year.

      I had not heard of Jack Rogers before. I had to look them up. They have some really cute shoes. I love flats. One of my biggest regrets is not buying the most perfect pair of brown leather flats at Nordstrom Rack last year. I loved them.

      Have a super week!

      Jenni

  2. Wow that first Free People dress is making me drool and I don’t even like dresses like that normally. The boots too.

    You are such an enabler!

    bisous
    Suzanne

    • Ha. I am an enabler. I am bummed the River Fade Dress still did not make it to sale. Oh well. It has to go on sale one day, right? I keep telling myself that anyway. That Free People Dress is killer. I realized today that I have a very similar dress, but I have not worn it since my grandmother’s memorial because it makes me too sad. I need to make myself wear it again. I hope I can do it.

      Have sweet dreams!

      Jenni

  3. May I please borrow your shopping devils?
    Thank you for the mall promotion tip. Wow. I had no idea.
    Can’t wait to see the outfit pics.

    Congrats, Heather!!

    • Yes! Although now that I think about it, I think only the girl one was coaxing me to try on and buy. She was so loud, I did not realize the boy one was sullenly mortified at being dragged into a woman’s store. But he did not protest. Poor guy.

      I love mall promotions. On Black Friday they have the biggest one!

      Have a jubilant day!

      Jenni

  4. I love all your picks! I can’t wait to see all the outfit posts. I happily was able to get the bermeja tunic dress on sale this week ( with free shipping!) so I am now holding out for a few dresses to hit sale. They are super new, so it will probably be spring! Ha! Oh! The Forever 21 dress didn’t work 🙁 The slip I got for it did not work with it. I still like it, but I ended up returning it. If it ever goes on sale, I will probably get it. But, I just couldn’t think of enough ways to wear it… bummer. I will just live through you wearing it!

    • Darn! So bummed about the tunic for you. But so excited about your Bermeja Tunic Dress! I plan on wearing mine again tomorrow! : ). I love it. I thought about getting the black one when it hit sale but I really want to save my last part of my gift card for The River Fade Dress if it ever hits sale (I have been waiting since January!). There are a pair of booties that just went into new arrivals that I want so, so badly. I will definitely have to wait. Waiting is both really hard and really satisfying when it works out. : ).

      I hope I get to see The Bermeja Tunic on you!

      Have a great week!

      Jenni

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