Sale Alert - Awesome Tights for $6.99 - Hurry

Not sure if you are familiar with Zulily, but it's kind of like HauteLook and Ideeli for kids and moms.  They put up a sale every morning for a few designers or collections and the sale lasts a few days, items are limited quantity and the cool stuff goes FAST.

Anyway, today they had some awesome tights and leg warmers for $6.99 and I couldn't resist.  I mean even at American Apparel the tights are $12 and up.

If you want to check 'em out, click here (affiliate link).

Here's a sample of what I got.

I got the damask ones in brown too.  :)  I just found a coupon code that MAY work for $5 off $50 - GA8967.

 All together, for $62 with shipping, I got 6 pairs of tights and leggings and 2 pairs of leg warmers.  Yay!

Happy shopping!

New Year - New Workout

Borrowing this post from my other blog (HERE). I figure it fits here because this is how I'm planning to fit into all those cute new spring fashions!

Now that we are back on the fitness bandwagon (kinda), I was happy to give one of my new DVDs a trial run. I was pleasantly surprised by Jackie Warner's Crunch-Free Xtreme Abs. Finally some new ab moves! After doing one round of P90X (meaning Ab Ripper 3x a week for 3 months) and constantly trying to start another, I was very much in need of something new. This fit the bill.

The DVD consists of two 15-minute ab workouts - one consisting of floor exercises and one of standing ab work. They can be done separately or back to back. I chose back to back. I was sweating when we were done and by the next morning, I could feel it. In my opinion, the floor work was a bit more "Xtreme" than the standing one, but equally effective I'm sure.

Jackie's DVD has 19 reviews on Amazon and they are all 5 stars. Below is a little video preview that I found on YouTube. I am not affiliated with the website referenced in the video.



There's a lot more to the workout than what you see here. Give it a try if you are looking to switch things up a bit. I will be subbing this in for Ab Ripper during this round of P90X from time to time.

Looks I Love for Spring - Anthropologie

Just clicking through some of Anthro's new looks.  Found a few I really love.  Did a little fantasy shopping online and with six items in my cart, the total was just shy of $1k.  Yikes!!

See anything you like?  They all make me crave warmer weather.

My favs are the navy floral dress and the last one (especially those cute shoes)!

In 2011 I Will Be a Better Shopper!

While I don't do resolutions in the New Year, I do keep a mental list of some things I want to be more aware of in my day to day life and things I want to accomplish at some point in the foreseeable future.

For 2011 I want to be a more thoughtful shopper.  One of my bad habits is going shopping and not being satisfied unless I come home with bags and bags of god knows what that don't fit into my current wardrobe at all, resulting in even more shopping.  Going into the Gap outlet and stocking up on six sub-par sweaters just because they were cheap is something I no longer want to do.  My plan is to save up for some fabulous key pieces and to only purchase items I absolutely love.  Perhaps I won't be able to shop as often (this will be hard as hello, my name is Katrina, and I am a shop-a-holic), the UPS man won't be stopping at my house everyday and I will have to think about how I will wear something and what it will go with it that I already own before rushing to the checkout counter.

So, I will keep you posted on how this goes from time to time.  I'm hopeful it will work out!

Any other shopping obsessed people out there?  I believe there is a 12 step program for us.

Photography - My Equipment & Resources

Yet another of my short term goals is to become a better photographer.  In the long term, I hope to have the knowledge and skills that will help me become the art photographer I've been dreaming of for years.  On the bucket list is actually selling at least one art portrait for profit (and not to my mother or grandmother), becoming a professional!

The types of photography I'm interested in run the gamut from somewhat dark and romantic/erotic black and white portrait photography to the quirky and unfocused photo art created with various lens attachments and post processes (Lensbaby, HDR).  Of course, I also love taking fashion mag type photos of the kids.  I am obsessed with costuming and staging photos to look completely natural and unstaged.  LOL  This part gets expensive (thank God for H&M kids - great crazy fashions for kids, cheap)!  Driving around town, I am always on the look out for great locations to stage a shoot and have to pull over to jot it down along with photo ideas.  Drives my family nuts!  Just wait until I actually start shooting.  They will love spending their Saturday at the train yard changing in and out of three different outfits so mommy can "practice".  There will be bribes a plenty I'm sure.

As for equipment, here is what I am working with right now.  Nikon D80 DSLR with kit 18-135mm lens, a 50mm 1:1.8 prime lens (love, love, love), Dolica Proline tripod, Nikon SB-600 speedlight and a Nikon wireless remote.  Not a whole heck of a lot, but enough to learn the art without becoming overwhelmed by too much new equipment.  Learn the basics first.  :)

Sorry, crappy point and shoot used to take that photo.

My wish list is much, much longer than my equipment list unfortunately.  Ain't that always the way? It consists of, for the time being and for the sake of being somewhat realistic:

Three backdrops (black and red velvet, cream color canvas)
Couple of light boxes
Reflector
Additional camera body (Nikon D90 perhaps)
Any and all of the Lensbaby lenses and aperture kits
Another tripod
TIME to learn and practice

If anybody else is interested in broadening their horizons and learning more about photography, below are links to some interesting resources (technical and inspirational) I've found.  I would LOVE to hear about others you may know of and thank you in advance for any info.

Wolfe189 Photography (adult natured/nude photos so move the kids out of the room)
Mpix Forums (also a really great lab)
Lensbaby Studio Forum (extremely cool stuff)
The Photo Forum
Strobist (a blog about lighting)
Flickr (for inspiration)
HDR Photography Blog
All Things Photography (tips and product reviews)

I've got a few great books about digital photography in general, black and white conversion and HDR that were referred to me by my super fabulous camera shop (a/k/a my crack dealer, the money pit, my second mortgage...) if anybody wants the names of those as well.

For the other makeup and fashion obsessed, Flickr has many photography groups dedicated to those subjects as well.  Great stuff, lots o' eye candy!

Anybody else have resolutions, hopes, a bucket list?

Orangy Goodness

Awoke to dreams of orange today.  I think I'm craving sun and warmer weather already.  Sought out some inspiration on Etsy and Polyvore.  Mind if I share?

Orange doggies (I'm sooo loving this one)

From Etsy

Orange babies

From Etsy

Orange footsies

From Etsy

SIMPLY ORANGE by ♥♥G A B Y♥♥ featuring army coats

Waiting On Summer by Shedgy (Please no tags) featuring hair flower accessories

Poppy by ⚜xenia⚜ featuring a gucci handbag

Untitled by sugarsugar featuring golden jewelry

Lime and orange by oksana rasskazova featuring viscose dresses

Oh Yeah, and I'm Addicted to Nail Polish - Freebie Alert!!

Yup, me.  The one with nubs for finger nails.  I don't bite them or pick at them, they are just soft and break very easily.  Yet, I LOVE nail polish (and lipstick).  I think it's all the color possibilities.  Or maybe it's just the shiny sparklies!  Someday I'm going to go through what I have and offer some here - it's really time to cut back.

But, that day is not today, no sir!!  Zoya Nail Polish is having a Facebook promo offering 3 free bottles of nail polish with code FB2011.  Become a fan HERE and order away.  My plan was to take advantage of the three freebies and order one additional, but somehow nine polishes ended up in my cart.  Hmmm...I may have a problem.

If you order, lemme know whatcha got!!

Here's my haul:
Ashley
Casey
Emme
Midori
Tori
MataHari
Zsa Zsa
Mercedes
Eve

I'd add photos but it seems the site is having traffic issues and I can't get in.  Worth it to keep trying though.