New York shopping

Well, after all my planning & preparation, to say my shopping 'haul' from New York was a bit disappointing is a huge understatement!!

A lot of the makeup I was after was sold out in many (many!!!) Sephora stores & even though we went into pretty much every CVS & Duane Reade we passed (so yeah, a LOT!), the displays were nearly always empty so I didn't get everything from there either.

Here's the few pieces I did pick up....

From Sephora, I only managed to snag a mini Sephora mascara for $5 (from the Aisle of Temptation!  You'll know if you've been there!!) & an Anastasia Beverly Hills Dipbrow Pomade, which was $18.  From CVS I bought two lipsticks from Wet n Wild for a couple of dollars each (which are surprisingly good & give MAC a run for their money!)  I also picked up a MAC lipstick in Call the Hairdresser from Macy's from the rudest sales assistants I've ever had the 'pleasure' to come across.

I desperately wanted to find the E.L.F. store but the address we had, after traipsing up & down this sodding street several times in torrential rain, we discovered had closed down, grrrrr!!!  So I thought that'd be a no-go but then I found a small display of products in Old Navy & picked up 2 each of the brushes shown here (one set for my daughter) & a BB cream.  However, apart from the MAC & one of the WnW lipsticks, everything else is as yet unused waiting to be reviewed so watch this space!!

I didn't find one single bag that I liked enough to warrant spending a few hundred dollars on & no clothes were to be found either.  Anything I found that I did like, I knew I could buy cheaper here so I left them!  To be honest, we spent most of our money on bits for the kids!

But the one thing I did buy that I really wanted & is now my pride & joy, was my Tissot watch.  However, this was bought from Duty Free at Heathrow so doesn't really come under the 'New York shopping' heading but hey ho!!  I googled the price of the watch in NY & it would've been significantly more to buy there so as I was going to save £70 off the price buying from Duty Free, it was a no-brainer!!

So I'm sorry I don't have more to show you but now that my computer is working again, I'll get reviews of the bits I did get up asap!!

New York shopping list

I can't believe that a week today, we'll be in New York & I'm ridiculously excited - I'll just skip over the part about turning 40 though & pretend like it's not happening!  It's been sooooo long in the planning, it seems very strange that we'll soon be there & it's safe to say, my shopping list is growing daily, as are my daughters' !

It might sound odd to other people, but the majority of what's on my list is cosmetic based with some house-y bits thrown in too.  My main thing to shop for will be a new watch & I seem to be veering back towards a Michael Kors one again.  I went off them for a while as it seemed like everyone & their dog had one but I just can't find another one I like as much as this one, simple & classic;

There are specific stores I really want to visit, mainly being CVS & Duane Reade pharmacies & Sephora for makeup, Pottery Barn, Bath & Body Works, Nordstrom, Tiffany & Co, Bloomingdales, Kate Spade & somewhere to buy Converse too!

I have a wee notebook that is rapidly being filled with more things as & when I think of them & now that it's just the two of us going (my sister, brother-in-law, dad & stepmum had to pull out due to the health issues of my sis & stepmum *sobs*) poor Hubble is going to be dragged round store after store!  He has been forewarned however & is prepared - he'll be fine as long as he gets plenty of coffee/beer breaks!!

So as well as the shopping, we've planned to do the usual tourist things as it's hubble's first time in NYC & I haven't been since I was 18.  We'll be doing The Empire State Building one morning & Top of the Rock at sunset, the Statue of Liberty, maybe a helicopter tour, Central Park & whatever else we can fit in.  I've also managed to get a long list of eateries we'd like to try too - I think we should've gone for 2 weeks rather than 4 days!  We booked to stay at the Sheraton Times Square as it seems perfectly situated midway between Times Square & Central Park & is close to a subway.  So this is a warning that there will be a fair bit of Instagramming going on next week (sorry, not sorry!)  I just really need to crack on & get all my laundry sorted now.......

Btw, my pc is having to go in for repairs as it's still very poorly & I know now what a faff it is trying to do a blog on an iPad as I can't insert any photos.  I'm having to draft it out on here (iPad mini), then email the images to myself to download onto my daughter's laptop to insert on here - I think I need a Chromebook too or something similar as this is soooooo time consuming :(. So apologies if anything looks odd with the final blog post!

Amazing Marrakech ~ part 2!

I've spoken before on a blog post about my need  for visiting Marrakech (that'll be like my need for new shoes more often than is necessary, ahem ahem!!) & it looks like it may be finally happening, arrrgghhh!!

You may know from my previous blog posts that myself & 2 friends have spent months designing a new library for my son's primary school & we mentioned that we should treat ourselves now it's all finished - you know, a well-deserved pat on the back sort of thing!  It started out as having a lunch out, then a posh night out & then after getting an email from Travelzoo the other day with some amazing deals on it, we all thought sod it, we should have a girlie weekend away instead!

So that's what we're doing.  Come September, the 3 of us & another friend are going to escape the constant laundry, cooking, housework & cries of "muuuuuuuum" etc & just enjoy a weekend of sun, shopping & souks!  And maybe a camel ride thrown in for good measure!  Watch this space - I feel there will be Marrakech planning posts aplenty coming up.......

Summer 2013 #1

Hi folks,  I've been a tad quiet this last couple of weeks due to a much needed break down at my dad's house in the Midlands & then visiting other family who were up in Scotland.  It was great to catch up with friends & we also had a great night out for my sister-in-law-to-be Sarah's hen night!  Much shopping, sunbathing, bbq-ing, reading, eating & drinking was enjoyed (I'll be blogging some of my newest purchases!!)

 

Then when we came home, the following day my dad & step-mum followed us up to Scotland & we met up with my aunt & uncle over from California at the fabulous Kilconquhar Castle in Fife.  Exciting news is to follow regarding this magnificent place!!

 

  We've all had a great time & have enjoyed the sunshine & heat immensely, seeing as we haven't felt like we've enjoyed a summer since we left France!!

 

I thought I'd post a wee mix of photos to show what we've been up to!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sorry about that last photo, I had a mad 5 minutes trying to take photos of my new Smashbox BB & was losing the will to live at this point, heh heh!!! 

 

Hope you're all enjoying your summers so far!