3 Day Weekend - Woop Woop!

It's a 3 day weekend!!  Hooray!
I'm writing this from Ocean City, Maryland.  My last hoorah for the summer.
I'll post again on Tuesday but until then soak up all the summer you can get guys!

 

 

Until Then -

 

 

My FAIR Lady!

We had beautiful weather this weekend so it was the perfect opportunity to visit the Maryland State Fair and Sunday we did just that!

I had never been to the Maryland State Fair.  I've been to many Maryland county fair's but never the state fair so this was a new experience for me!  In my head I thought the state fair would have been like the county fair x2!  But I was mistaken.  It was exactly like a county fair - in fact a little smaller than some. 

We started out walking around the animal section of the fair (my favorite part closely followed by carnival games)  The llama's and aplaca's are my favorite.  We got to watch a little bit of the llama showing - watching the 4-H kids taking the llama's they raised through an obstacle course.  Lets just say llama's aren't cut out for obstacle courses. Haha.

 

They were photogenic little guys!

For some reason whenever I walk through the animal section I spend the rest of the night contemplating being a vegetarian but luckily when I wake up in the morning those thoughts go out the window at the thought of bacon!

 

Next was on to the games and rides section.  It always looks so happy to me.

 

 

 

 

And then on to the food!

 

 

That's a whole lotta meat!

All in all it was a great day and perfect weather!  See you next year, Maryland State Fair!!

 

 

 

Good Thing I'm Not A Doctor....

.........because I really don't have much patience.   Or maybe I have too much.  That doesn't even really make sense but here's the story...

I went to Giant to get a couple things and went to the self checkout.  I rang my things up, paid and then went to the bottom to bag my things up. Now here's where it gets.....interesting? A guy had walked up behind me in "line" while I was paying.   So I start bagging my items, rather quickly I might add, and all the sudden a 2 liter of soda comes down the ramp and hits my hand.  I looked up shocked.

The guy looks at me and says "Oh, sorry" and then continues to send all his items down the ramp!  It was mixing with the items that I had left and was just SO rude.  Doesn't he know the proper self checkout etiquette!   I bagged the rest of my things and high tailed it out of there but then I seriously thought about it for the next couple hours.  I mean - even if he didn't know how to be polite the machine says aloud "Please wait for the bagging area to be clear"

Anyway - that's all I've got for now.  Opinions? 

August 2013 Birchbox Review

Yay!  My first Birchbox has arrived!! 

What is Birchbox you ask!?  It's a monthly subscription box that gets mailed to your home for $10 a month containing 5 sample beauty products!  This is a great way to try out things you normally wouldn't and learn about products you've never heard of!  Brand name gems sent right to your door!
If you're interested in signing up - I get some points for referrals and you can sign up HERE :)

Ok, so down to the good stuff.

First, I was very surprised to see the size of the box when it arrived.  I mean, I know it's samples but for some reason when I saw other people post their reviews the boxes looked SO much bigger.
So do not be fooled my friends - birchbox in this picture may appear larger than it seems!

Ok - so opening it up I received...

1. Wanderlust Collection - Full Size Nail Polish in Reign in Spain
2. Coola SPF Sport - Sample Size - in Mango
3. Dr. Jart Premium BB Cream
4. Jasmine Seven Fresh Feet Wipes in Peppermint
5. uniqONE Hair Treatment

 

I'm going to be completely honest and let you know I have not tried the fresh feet wipes or Coola SPF (although after reading other reviews I hear they are great)  but I have tried the other 3 products and here is my mini review.

 

I absolutely LOVE the Wanderlust nail polish I received.  The bottle says full size but that's only because full size is mini nail polish sized.  It's not completely tiny though don't get me wrong - but "full size" when you buy it is actually a 4 pack of mini polishes which is how they got away calling it "full size"  but aside from that I LOVED this polish. It took 2 coats to go on nice and is thicker than some other polishes but I highly recommend it.  Its been on about 36 hours now and has not chipped!  Also the color (called Reign in Spain) is an AMAZING color for summer!  It's a coral-ish orange color.  It's gorgeous.  I can't stop looking at my hands and after this post I plan on painting my toes the same color. 

(Sorry for the miniature picture I will make sure they're larger next time)

BB Cream is next.  This got tons of great reviews and one of my girlfriends who also receives birchbox raved about this and how much she loved it but I didn't :(  I love BB Creams and use them a lot and this one was thick on my skin and didn't blend well. 

It also didn't match my skin tone very well.  All in all this isn't a product I would buy and I was disappointed in it but happy I received a BB Cream in my box to try anyway.

Next product is the uniqONE all in one leave in hair treatment. 

It was a nice sized sample in my opinion!  This is for all hair types and is designed to eliminate using several hair products such as defrizzers and leave in conditioners.  I've only used it once so far but - so far so good.  Not sure if I'm sold on buying it or if I feel like its a better product then the ones I currently use but I'm still open to it and have a few more uses out of my sample to try.

 

So that's my birchbox for August.  I'm not disappointed with it but I'm not in love with it either.   I am however keeping my prescription and already excited to receive next months box!

 

Did I mention I'm in love with this nail color?!

Do you receive Birchbox?  What did you get this month?

 

Until next time -

 

 

Things I Love Thursday v.1

So my FAVORITE part of reading other peoples blogs is to go through their "Things I Love Thursdays" or their "Friday Faves"  I decided to post mine on Thursdays to give myself a little pass incase I don't post every Friday due to the overwhelming excitement of it being the weekend!  So Here goes - Version 1.0 of my Things I Love Thursday's!

This picture is not only hilarious but it pretty much sums up my life.

This tweet made me choke on my tea laughing.  Check out @LailaDaho on twitter!

 

Black Whale sign from this cute Etsy shop!

My new iPhone cover from Route One Apparel

 

 

 

I am in LOVE with this wall shelf from Mod Cloth

 

These hilarious cross stitch kits!

 

 This dog is AWESOME!  He does back flips haha. 

 

This skull necklace - LOVE!

 

Well that's all for now.  Hope you all enjoyed my first Things I Love Thursday!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sunday, Sunday, Sunday (a few days late)

Sunday (despite the not so great summer weather) was a great day!
Started off the day with a much needed sleeping in late session.  After waking up and getting ready we headed for Ikea!

Ikea is hit or miss for me with finds.  I ended up getting a couple shelves for the bathroom (which I will show at a later date after we paint and put them up) a couple little .49 cent toys for Morgan (my pup) and a tray from the kitchen section that I'm going to use in my bathroom for jewelry/makeup.

I also saw this headboard that I LOVE although for that price I'd probably search somewhere other than Ikea for one.

I've noticed these headboard more and more places.  What are everyones opinions on them?  Love 'em?  Hate 'em?

 

On the way home from Ikea we stopped at Su Casa.  My FAVORITE home store in the Baltimore area!  I highly recommend you check them out.  I loved these clocks.

Although I didn't leave with anything this time around I always love stopping in and browsing for a good find.

Next up was Francesca's where I bought this ADORABLE bracelet that I'm in love with.

And it was only 12 bucks!  Woohoo on the great deal!

 

We ended the day stopping at Home Depot for some paint samples for the bedroom.  I have the worst time making decisions!  I think more than the average person.  I know I want to go with a gray but there are seriously like 30 different types of gray paints!  By the way is it grey or gray?  Now that I type it grey is looking more correct.

 

Hope you guys had a good weekend and are enjoy your work weeks!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Whatever happened to customer service?

Yikes! 

That's the best way to describe my customer service experience today.
Lately I've been on this journey to become a better me - which includes more patience and less complaining.  HOWEVER, (haha) I don't think that applies to my blogging.  I promise I won't complain everyday - but geeze - what is happening to customer service?

I have had MANY customer service jobs.  Ok, maybe not many but at least 5!  I know the importance of holding your tongue and your temper or whatever is on your mind that day - being kind and making a sale!  So with that being said my day was a bit frustrating!

I woke up this morning with my normal Saturday morning type routine and got ready for the day.
My dog had a grooming appointment at noon and I arrived a little bit early.
When I walked in a new groomer was working and I could tell right away she was stressed.  She acted annoyed that I showed up with my dog 10 minutes earlier than my appointment but ya know I can understand that if she's on a specific schedule -  so, I brushed her annoyance off.   She asks me how I would like my dog cut today looking at my dogs folder (I always take her here) and said "the usual?" 
The usual is usually a shave down.  I said no actually today I want her just to have a puppy cut done.
"Oh NO NO NO" she says.  "She is a MESS"
"Well actually," I replied "Her hair has no knots or mats and is just a bit longer...the last time I was in they told me to come in at this time to get her hair cut in a puppy cut as opposed to a complete shave down"  The lady literally rolled her eyes - went in the back - grabbed a dog that was shaved down and said "This is a 7 - this is what I can do for your dog" I said "Oh ok, well is someone else working that can do a puppy cut?"  This apparently was the wrong reply because she took my dog said she could do it a little longer and walked her to the back.   When she came back up my passive side had kicked in due to her aggression and my complete avoidance of any sort of confrontation (a horrible trait I need to work on) and I said "Well please try to keep her face longer" and I left.

I was frustrated when I got in the car and voiced it to my boyfriend only making him just as frustrated at the woman because we had talked about the cut before I even dropped her off and knew that was what we had wanted.  Anyway - we proceed to drive to my moms house to take her to lunch since my groomers is near her house.  We were talking about where to take her and I mentioned how she had never been to Joe's Crab Shack and had wanted to try it out.  He agreed that would be a good choice for lunch.  I seconded guessed myself.  I have a hard time making decisions usually and I'm sure that's what the boyfriend was thinking was happening but I've been to Joe's twice and both times was horrible - but on the other hand my mom really wanted to try there.  So for mama - to Joe's we went.

It was empty when we arrived. And literally FREEZING in there. It's summer so ok - the AC was on but I don't think it was necessary to have the air condition on level artic freeze!  So we are seated and our waitress comes to take our drink order and then comes back a couple minutes later for our order - and then she went Houdini on us.  She literally disappeared.  Maybe she's attending magic school and is home for the summer - I'm not sure.  But she didn't "appear" at our table until about 20 minutes later - telling us that the appetizer would be out shortly - 10 more minutes pass and out comes the "steamed mussels"  I put that in quotations because they were the worst things I've ever eaten.  I had to spit it out.  20 more minutes pass and our meal comes out.  I saw a manager giving coupons to another table so apparently they were having the same experience. 

 I'm just gonna hurry this story up because I'm sure you get where I'm going with this.  Expensive meal - horrible service - horrible food - horrible experience.  At one point a manager came over and asked how our experience was - my mom replied "Well I'm not going to lie - our food took a VERY long time coming out" "I'm sorry to hear that" the manager says.  Then my boyfriend commented on his meal "I'm sorry to hear that as well" says the manager.  Haha, seriously?  I got a customer service survey on the receipt that I will be participating in but it definitely will not be to be receiving the free appetizer - because Joe's Crab Shack in Hanover, Maryland is one place I will NEVER return.

So anyway - later on I get the call that Morgan is ready to be picked up at the groomers and I go and pick  her up and - yep - she's shaved down razor 7 level.  Feeling defeated I just paid the $50 didn't leave a tip and walked with my head down to the car.  Haha horrible.  Oh and my dog looks like a real jackass with the way they cut her face.  I'll try to fix it myself so she looks presentable but I'm semi-afraid to because one day I accidentally went Edward Scissorhands on her but it was if Edward had a brother who's fingers were just busted up knives because she ended up looking like she had mange (sp?) so anyway I save that job for the professionals!

So that was my day.  It seems more and more customer service is no longer geared towards customers and more geared to how the employee is feeling that day.  Sad.

Rant over :)

Until next time - which hopefully will be tomorrow - I'd like to be on a roll this week...

First is the worst?!?



I always feel like the very first post on a blog - no one ever reads.
Yet - its always the most intimidating!  The introduction of yourself.  Not things or thoughts.  Just you.
I assume it doesn't HAVE to be an introduction and you can just jump right in but for some reason that just doesn't seem right to me so here goes nothing...

So the basics - my name is Kelly.  I live in the Baltimore metro region of Maryland.  I love this state.  It's kind of like a mini America if you think about it.  We have mountains (we have rivers, we've got sights that make you shiver...) beaches, farm land and cities - all 4 seasons and a whole lot of fun.  Perhaps Maryland should  hire me to do their advertising.

I love laughing.  And jokes - from stupid humor to twisted.  I love my dog.  She's a Pomapoo named Morgan.  I have horrible grammar (so please don't bother correcting it) and I have a love/hate relationship with my hair.  I have a horrible, horrible (or maybe magically wonderful) love for reality television.  I pretty much watch it all - my favorite being the Real Housewives (and yes I watch them all)

I live with my boyfriend who I absolutely adore.  I'm picky on which movies I love.  I am obsessed with music and all things that go with it.  I love my family and oddly enough I also love grocery shopping.

And most importantly I believe that nice matters.

Hope you enjoy my blog and most importantly, I hope I enjoy writing it :)