Cheese Festival!

The 6th most popular searched term on Pronto.com this week?

"Cheese Festival"

Heck yes. I'm glad people want to have festivals of cheese, but boy have you come to the wrong place.

Spam E-mail

Today I received quite possibly the best spam mail ever, it goes a little something a-like this:

"Hurrah my boy! She must have been a clipper. What is the matter with you? Why don't you get up and dance? What are the poor things to do?
We heard from Pearson to-day. That is why we have the fire.Shall we go down and shut it? Let me see!
But thou art my woman now. He looked at Pablo and grinned again. And you can love me? It is already hard to get food. With this face? You were all right at the train."

I'm not even angry that my spam filter fumbled on this one. That was an entertaining read.

Life of Marie: NY Resolutions

Now you may read the title of this post and think "Oh ok, Marie is making some resolutions now that she's moved to New York", but sadly, in this instance, NY does in fact stand for "New Years". Thusly, resolution #1 should come as no surprise:

1) Procrastinate less. Despite the the evidence to the contrary (Exhibit A = this blog post), I'm making some headway here.
2) Play more video games. Yes you read that correctly. As it stands my PS3 is almost exclusively used for streaming Netflix, which while fully awesome, is an egregious affront to my gamer sensibilities.
3) Get back in shape. This one is pretty much a given on most NYR lists, but my wedding led to my honeymoon which then flowed right into the holidays last year so I had to put this one on the list as cliche as it is. After a small amount of procrastination I have signed up for another triathlon and joined the Chelsea Piers Sports Center, so things are looking good on this front.

POTD: Super Reeboks

As seen in TJ Maxx.

You should really only be wearing these if you are Captain America, Wonder Woman, or a descendant of both.

POTD: F U, Penguin

As a lover of penguins, this book caught my eye on a recent trip to Barnes & Nobles. One minute of flipping through F U, Penguin later and I was sold. Unnecessary swearing and adorably cute animals? I'm all over it. Made me laugh out loud in the store, so if you get a chance, give it a flip through.

Spoiler alert: If you are a friend and/or family, don't be surprised if you receive this from me as a gift in the future.

Savvy Shopper: Lady in Red

I'd been in the market for a new winter coat for quite some time when I finally laid eyes on the Lady Day Coat from J.Crew. I knew I was smitten, but I also couldn't ignore the three hundred dollar price tag. Finally, J.Crew marked it down to a price that I started feeling much more comfortable with. Then, in December they had a 30% off all Outerwear sale! Great! ...except I was smack dab in the middle of my Christmas shopping so couldn't shell out the money at that time. So I missed out, the Holidays came and went, and then I hunkered down to play the waiting game. In February my patience paid off and J.Crew announced another 30% Outerwear sale. Well, you better believe that coat was in my cart before you could say Billie Holiday. I picked red after the husband vetoed the pink one and with my low tolerance for cold it was a no brainer to spring for the Thinsulate version. Here are the results:

Originally: $318
Marie Paid: $180
= Total savings of $138 or 44%

Savvy Shopper: Jacky Pumps

When the hubster and I came to NYC to find an apartment we experienced bitter, bitter cold. Expecting more of the same weather-wise, limited by the two suitcase restrictions of the airlines, and wishfully thinking that the rest of my wardrobe would be joining me soon I find myself in need of a few items to tide me through this awkward in limbo moving period. First on my agenda was to acquire some pumps and after a little browsing around on ProntoStyle.com I came across these Banana Republic Jacky Platform Pumps. Gorgeous, good comfort reviews, and already 58% off? Yes please. Now factor in various coupon codes and reward cards and I am looking on quite the deal:

Originally: $120
Marie's final price: $35
= Savings of: $85 or 71%

POTD: Hop To It!

Oh ModCloth.com, you have such adorable goods for sale! But this Hop To It Wedge perhaps takes things a little too far. Try as I may, I'm having a hard time picturing someone pulling this off. And yet it's sold out! Now that I live in NYC where you can see just about anything I am going to be on the lookout for hipster fashionistas sporting these little guys.

POTD: Baby Torture

This Stokke highchair looks more like a torture device than something I'd care to put my baby* in. Must be a dutch thing.

* This "baby" is completely hypothetical and by no means real.

POTD: Grobal Flower Pot

This is rare folks, I'm going to use "Product of the Day" without being sarcastic. Without being particularly in the market for a flower pot, I happened upon this Grobal Grobal Baby Self-Watering flowering pot and now I can't live without it. I really want to buy a few and create a mini herb garden in my new swank apartment in NYC...it's actually kind of hard to not order them now, but actually obtaining keys and moving into said apartment is probably a scoatch above starting an herb garden at the moment priority-wise. And no, I don't just like it because "Grobal" is really close to "Groban", although, it doesn't hurt.