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What I Wore This Week

July 25, 2016Sara 2 Comments

I bought my first Christmas present this week. I know. Frightening thought eh? I start buying things early as I find them because that ensures that I don’t wait too long and then have to spend a bunch of money at once. This also makes sure that I don’t have to panic if we haven’t bought anything and don’t have the money to do it. Tom’s job site essentially shuts down over Christmas from anywhere from 2-5 weeks. This makes money really tight, hence buying presents in June.

I was searching on Etsy for cute ideas and came across a whole set of Harry Potter pins from the Etsy shop Black Umbrella Industries so I bought them. I should have checked their whole stock before I bought them because they also have a set of Doctor Who pins that I want to get too and could have saved on shipping. My kids incorporate these pins into their wardrobe and leave the house with a minimum of 5 pins on every outfit and/or bag so the purchase is a winner. I also got an email from Amazon letting me know that Harry Potter Chamber of Secrets illustrated story book comes out in October so that is another gift done once I preorder it.

I am kind of stumped for other ideas since both the kids birthdays are also in November and December. It’s a super expensive time of year and stretches my creativity level 😉 I’m also the only one who thinks this far ahead. If I left it up to Tom he would wake up Christmas Eve Day and say, “oh shit. I forgot”.

When do you start Christmas shopping?

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What I Wore This Week

July 18, 2016Sara Leave a Comment

First I want to say that if anyone has sent me an email and I have not responded I didn’t receive it because I have officially replied to everyone that I have received. I noticed that several messages sent through my contact form got stuck in the server and never went through so I want to sincerely apologize to anyone this may have happened to and if you want to resend me the message then send it directly to me at hello@livelovesara.com this email goes directly to my phone.

It was Ribfest this week in town and it was conveniently located across the street, so this weekend was filled with award-winning ribs and funnel cakes. Back to your regularly schedules program of eating okayish and exercising this week. Our library which is also located across the street is on strike. So unfortunately I haven’t been able to take my kids to any of the summer programs they have running. This is leading to trying to find a way to cut down on the amount of screen time they have right now. I admit that they have a lot but my oldest has Minecraft classes where she builds in groups with other kids around the world. She spends a lot of time on these servers which is okay with me since I love Minecraft and team work 😉 It’s also too hot hang outside for very long in the concrete jungle, so I am thankful we have an indoor pool to get some exercise. Oh, and of course Pokemon Go because who isn’t doing it?

As mentioned on many occasions my kids are massive Harry Potter fans. There probably isn’t a day goes by that there isn’t a HP movie running in the background somewhere. It’s our nightly reading book with my youngest. I read them with Roo at this age and she has read the series I ongoing since. She just keeps re-reading and re-reading and listening to audio books. I’ve had to replace her Prisoner of Azkaban three times due to her wearing it out. I credit the series with taking her love of reading to a whole new level. So to say we have a lot of Harry Potter stuff is an understatement. I bought them quite a few of the HP lego sets a few years ago. They have been in a storage bin since we moved in to this place because there wasn’t room to display them, but we finally figured out a spot and opened the bin this weekend to see than many of them have fallen to pieces. I swear I almost cried when I saw that because I spent a solid 10-12 hours building all the sets for them on Christmas eve so they woke up to a Harry Potter Village. It involved many tears and massive amounts of wine to complete so to see it in a state was upsetting. We have started to slowly rebuild the sets, this time it involves not only wine, but crazy glue as well. Never again 😉

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Dressing Room Selfies Shopping Fails

July 15, 2016Sara Leave a Comment

I love shopping online. It allows me to shop at my leisure, browse multiple stores at once (I always have a minimum of 15 tabs open at any given time), compare prices, find deals, and quick painless purchasing. I also try to buy from places that allow easy returns with good shipping fees. Don’t get me wrong, I love to shop in stores but with Tom working such long hours, I don’t get free time to go and shop alone. I tend to feel bad dragging the kids with me and can never spend as much time in each store as I would like to because I am constantly looking to make sure that my youngest doesn’t disappear (she tends to wander if something catches her eye), so I generally stick to online.

The Canadian H&M doesn’t have online shopping so I actually have to drag my ass down there. Yesterday I had some errands so while at the mall I thought I would stop in to see if those jeans I have my eye on were in stock yet. They weren’t, so I pulled some of the things that I have had my eye on and tried them on. I’ll sum it up as a general fail. The only thing I bought there were some loose summer Pants for my oldest and a cat sweater for my youngest. I tried on a shirt, skirt, dress, and cardigan and these were the results.

1. A red sleeveless lace shirt (I can’t find it in the red online) While the colour and fabric were nice, it wasn’t a flattering cut on me. It may have looked nicer with a skirt but that wouldn’t give me a lot of versatility. This is the small and it seems a little boxy, the x-small was a little too fitted that it bunched at the waist.

2. A long, loose summer dress (available in other prints and colours online). I have had my eye in this one for a while, and I like the casual cool effortless look of this dress but it was a huge fail for me. Way too long on my 5’3″ frame, too baggy and overwhelming. I looked like a kid playing dress up or like I should be wearing fuzzy slippers and curlers in my hair. I think this style is best suited for a taller or curvier woman. They do offer this print in a shorter more fitted option but they did not have it at more store to try on.

3. Black and white, feather print skirt. This was meh. While it would be cool for summer and I have looked for a breezy, print skirt or a while and this seemed to check a lot of boxes on the hanger. But on I am not a huge fang of the waist and it falls in a weird spot causing my legs to be cut off awkwardly. I can find something better.

4. Striped oversize sweater which I can’t find online probably since it was on sale and the stock is limited. This was an almost though. I actually really like this sweater and would have bought it once upon a time based on an almost feeling but since I don’t allow that in my shopping anymore I had to put it back. If they would have had one size down I may have bought it. I really like oversized cardigans for fall and winter. I am actually kind of regretting the decision, especially since it was $15 which is not a good reason to buy it but a hard habit to break.

I wish that I had the time to try on more things that day but the line-ups were too long (which shocked me on a Thursday morning) and as you can see my kid is getting bored. My oldest was waiting in a chair with her iPod borrowing free wifi from GAP so she was mildly entertained 😉 I am hoping for some better luck next time.

Any shopping successes lately?

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What I Wore This Week

July 11, 2016Sara Leave a Comment

This Saturday was my 12th wedding anniversary. It feels like we just celebrated our 11th. I always thought it was a cliché when I was younger, but time really does go by fast as you get older. I think we both almost forgot about it too, though neither has admitted it. I had to go back and check my Facebook posts from last year so I could remember the date. For some reason I always think it is the 10th when it is the 9th. Then I think my anniversary Facebook post prompted Tom to remember (he was at work and posted after I did). We aren’t huge celebration people but I got dressed up for a bit which I will probably post on Instagram this week because I forgot to on Saturday.

I was able to show some versatility of my Asos dress above by wearing it as a shirt on one of the days. It easily knots and can be worn as an oversize tee. Someone on Instagram left a comment about how she bought it but it was too short so be warned if you do. I am 5’3″ and it fits well on me but perhaps I have a short torso and it falls longer. It’s really hard to tell sometimes until you try something on which is a risk your take when shopping online. That’s why I always try to buy from places with excellent returns for shipping (although I hate returning things).

Our car lease was up soon and this past Friday we traded it in for a new car. This time we got a SUV and man is it different. Our old car was a very basic bottom of the line model, because we were broke and needed and inexpensive vehicle. It did the job for 5 years (a few hiccups along the way like a break-in and vandalism that led to needing a new motor but all in all it did the job). With all my excitement you would think we got a luxury vehicle, but it’s just Hyundai Tucson although it feels like a dream after the last one (it even has a panoramic sunroof).

We have had a few good Value Village hauls the last couple of weekends. I think I am going to put together a thrifting haul post sometime this week because I love finding a good deal and fun little treasures. I am also working on a 7 days in Stockholm packing list that will be coming up soon.

If you thrift how often do you hit the thrift stores?
We try to go weekly because of the constant changeover, we don’t want to miss anything. Now that we have a car with a big trunk space we can actually donate all the huge shit that has been hanging around and cluttering the condo. Good-bye giant coffee table and Tom’s hideous frat boy style chair.

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What I Wore This Week

July 4, 2016Sara 4 Comments

Somehow or another I fell back a week in the what I wore posts. This week is actually more like a week and a half ago when there were some brutally hot days mixed in there. Mostly t-shirts and jeans, nothing fancy as usual 😉

For the past few weeks I have noticed some hair breakage around the crown of my head. At first I thought it was from harsh over the counter hair dyes, but as I was getting ready for bed a few nights ago I clued in that it was from my frequent messy buns. I have routinely coiled my hair up into a bun every single night for years. It is my go-to lazy hairdo, especially in summer. It never even crossed my mind that, that was the cause of it, so now I have to find a new bed time hair-do that will keep my hair off my face that doesn’t involve an elastic around my crown.

Is it just me or is it really f*ing difficult to save for a vacation? We are trying to save for a Christmas in Europe vacation for this year and it’s like $100 into savings and $300 out sort of deal. There seems like there are so many expenses that keep creeping up. Our car lease is up really soon and we have to get another which will be an increase in monthly payments, and we have to pay the mileage overage on our current car because we drove the shit out of it when Tom had to travel for work a couple of years ago. We always seem like we are playing catch up with the bills and there never seems like there is anything left over for savings. It doesn’t help that we live in one of the most expensive cities in the country either because this increases rent/mortgages, food (which is super expensive in this country to begin with), and pretty much every other expense you can think of. Such is life. I guess it will make us appreciate it more when we get there.

Disclaimer: This is my self-pitying post of the month 😉

Do you have any tips on how to successfully save for holidays?

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What to Pack for a Business Trip

June 29, 2016Sara Leave a Comment

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