Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Weekend Shopping Fun!

Happy Monday! I hope you had a wonderful weekend!

My favourite radio station has (as of this morning) gone all Christmas 24/7! You can listen to them online here if you need some holiday music to get you in the mood to decorate! I will be tuning in all day since I need to get the Christmas tree up and decorated this week and I am just not feeling Christmassy just yet! I will put a link to the live stream on my side bar!

My trip to Watertown was a success! The drive took longer than normal because it was a weekend and the dollar is very good right now so the border was busy with cars packed full of Canadian women on a mission!




As soon as we got to the shopping centre I went to the store I knew had Vera Bradley bags and picked up this bowler bag for myself! I wanted this style but they didn't have any pink ones so I went with the blue and brown since it will go with most of my wardrobe. I love this bag! It opens really wide and has lots of pockets! It will be perfect for going into the city as it is big enough to hold everything I need to take with me like a book, knitting, snacks for the train etc!




Have you tried these?! YUM! I love (LOVE) mint and chocolate together so I had to buy a few bags of these! They are very good but they don't have a crisp shell so that took me by surprise!






Sticking with my love of chocolate and mint I picked up a few bags of these miniatures...they are very yummy too! Did you really think I was going to make it through Target without a stop in the chocolate aisle? Yes I did buy 2 more bags of Dove dark chocolates...you know, just in case the world comes to an end or something! I also picked up 15 bags of candy for our Christmas party favours - mini KitKats, tootsie rolls, Dove peppermint, Rolos and Life Savers all in Christmas colours! I will post photos of our favours when I have them made. I am so excited to have the favours decided and ready to put together - every year we have to come up with some way to outdo ourselves! This year they will be all candy we cant get in Canada! Ok, we can get most of them but Canadians simply don't tackle the holidays the way Americans do so we have KitKats but not Christmas KitKats!

I got lots of clothes for the holidays and some presents for the Little Prince. The Suburban Prince is hard to shop for but I did find him a nice RL shirt and a sweater vest for him. We went to Khols but the clothes were just so-so that day but all of the Autumn decor was on sale and I got a great blanket, towels and a pumpkin soap pump! They are all packed away until next Autumn so I will take photos of them when I decorate next year.





The next stop was the mall where we bought out Bath & Body Works. Even though we can go into Toronto and shop there (BBW is very very new to Canada) we were there and figured we would just get what we wanted while it was all on sale! Have you seen the new Fireside candles and other scented items? I adore this scent!

When we were in Target I picked up a candle make by Nature's Wick. I bought Bonfire Nights scent and it is so nice! I burned it all day yesterday and it threw the scent really well! Throwing the scent is the very technical term for a candle's ability to actually scent the room after it has been lit. We have all come across those candles that smell great until you light them and then they don't scent the room! The Nature's Wick candles smell very nice while burning! The wick is made of wood and crackles while it burns! I couldn't find a photo online of these candles but they are in the candle section at Target. There are a number of candle companies selling wood wick candles online as well.

This week I will be busy getting the house decorated for the holidays as well as lunch with a friend, planning a girls night for Christmas and trying to figure out what to get my parents and in-laws for Christmas - even though we have told them we don't want anything for Christmas they seem to be insisting we exchange gifts. I think that means we wont be getting any gifts but are still expected to get them gifts! What do you buy someone who says they don't want anything for the house or anything that will take up any space? It often comes down to exchanging cash which I think is a bit silly. I have already been called a Grinch for cancelling Christmas by my dad - funny how he is the hardest one to shop for! I will need to stick to my guns on this one - we don't need anything and our parents don't need anything either so it would be so nice to just have a relaxing Christmas and a nice meal all together!


Have a fabulous day!

25 comments:

Princess Freckles said...

Love the Vera bag! I bought a new one on my honeymoon. I liked it so much I bought two more for my sister's yesterday. I think they are the perfect Christmas gifts for them!

Sierra said...

I love the Vera bag too and so glad that you found some great gifts for the Prince! You are making me hungry again for the chocolate, ha ha. Hope your week goes well and you are going to have to show us your holiday decor!

The Mothership Abroad said...

Those M&Ms look amazingly good wish we got them over here!

Christine said...

I love Vera bag...that's my favorite pattern! And I am now craving those chocolate and mint candies....my favorite too!

MCW said...

I love those M&Ms! All of those flavors are delicious!

Anonymous said...

Thats a super cute bag! I love mint flavor :-)

Unknown said...

sounds like a very fun and eventful trip! i started listening to christmas music the monday after halloween. i figure once a year i will listen to it 24/7! i love it!

Preppy Pink Crocodile said...

Oh I love hearing Christmas music already. For whatever reason I am very ready for the holiday season this year.

Cary Dale Taylor said...

I love the fireside candle!!!! It is awesome!!!

Jessica said...

OMGoodness - I love the bag!!

Sounds like you had a great time :)

Anonymous said...

Ha- "Canadian women on a mission"-- sounds scary!! Sounds like you a had a great time! So bitter you introduced me to those mint M&M's- I'm really starting to think I'm a sugar addict! And thank you for the grammar lesson- my mother is an editor, so that's such a peeve of mine! Hope your Monday was well! XO

Mona said...

The mint M&Ms look yummy!
A suggestion for your parents. How about a nice fruit, cheese, chocolate and wine gift basket? You can all the share this gift when you gather together. :)

KatiePerk said...

Cute bowler bag! Glad you had a good day! All that Chocolate talk is making me hungry.

A New England Girl said...

It sounds like you had a successful trip! That new bag of yours is SO adorable. :) And I guess you really are a chocolate fanatic! I'm glad you've stocked up... it must be miserable running out of sweet treats! Although I've mentioned I'm not a fan like you, I may have to try those m&ms... they sound heavenly! :)

Wendy said...

Okay, now I need a trip to the States! Do you think I'll find that bag in Devil's Lake, ND?! Stop laughing.
As for the family thing, it's so hard when you hit the point where no one needs anything anymore but people don't want to let go of the tradition. I have 6 siblings scattered from one end of this continent to the other. 3 of us have kids now. The gift exchange has gotten SO out of hand, but when a couple of us suggested coming up with a plan that allowed us all to pare back and not turn the holidays into a time of ridiculous stress and expense, you'd have thought we were suggesting selling our parents to the circus! So, we continue to exchange, and I honestly worry what my kids are learning from all this excess.

Sandy aka Doris the Great said...

Lots of questions for you.

1. Is the bag fabric? It's beautiful!
2. What are Christmas Kitkats?
3. Did your Bonfire Night candle smell like wood, old tires, burnt marshmallows and charred half-raw potatoes? 'cause that's what Bonfire Night ALWAYS smelled like to me (from Newfoundland)!!
And I love that the candle had a wooden wick that crackled! I could almost put up with the above Bonfire Night smell if it crackled.

Good shopping woman!

Unknown said...

Sooo jealous of your shopping1 American candy & target...what a day! : )

Children of the 90s said...

Looks like a successful shopping trip! I love love LOVE all the mint candy they have out around Christmastime. The best!

The Blonde Duck said...

I read once about a family that instead of exchanging gifts, went on a wonderful vacation together every year at Christmas and counted their soveniers as gifts. I have been trying to convince my family to do this for years, to no avail. I still have to buy tons of gifts that I have no idea if they'll want because they want to be "surprised."

Toi said...

You have 15 bags of candy at your house and Dove chocolate? Holy bats! If I had 15 bags of candy at my house and Dove chocolate I would call in sick from work for a week and eat it all. You are a strong strong woman!

Heather @ Simple Wives said...

Love the Vera Bag!!! :)

Suburban Princess said...

Blonde Duck - I dont want to be trapped with my parents or inlaws for a week! LOL! Maybe I will put all the money towards a spa vacation just for myself!

Toi - I have been on a diet my whole life so I have developed amazing willpower. It also helps that the 15 bags are candy arent really things I like that much - I prefer dark chocolate over candy any day of the week!

Headbands and Hand Bags said...

I am such a lover of mint and chocolate! The minis, I must find them!

Danielle Moss said...

I'm sure I'd love those M&M's. I'm not a big chocolate person (I know, I know) but I love mint chocolate.

Unknown said...

Woah - can I just say I love that Vera bag? I hadn't seen that style yet, but I think I just found something for my Christmas list. Thanks for the discovery. And dark chocolate is my favorite too!