Deals, Deals, and more Deals!

Hi everyone! I haven't posted anything in a while. I'm back now. Just finished checking my email and there alot of deals going on. So I decided to post up as many as I could to share with you guys. Everything from groceries, nail polish... to vacations. I hope you enjoy.
Well lets start with the one I am really excited about. Julep is a high end nail parlor in Seattle, Wa. "Julep is a boutique nail salon, but we are so much more. We are the place where girlfriends can come to share a fun moment and get the best treatments!" says owner. Customers can also become members and receive discounts on services on certain days, upgrades when they bring a friend. Julep also makes customized nail colors that you can receive monthly before anyone (like the magazine beauty editors). All you have to do is click the link www.julep.com and take the quiz to see which "julep maven" you are and they will choose colors that go along with your "maven personality". I'm an American Beauty. Go figure. I'll take that!  You will then receive $40 of nail polishes every month for $19.99. If you use the code AFF50 when you check out you will be able to get 50% off which will make it $10!!!!  One bottle of OPI polish is about $8-$9. Now you cant beat that!

 Now since I have started blogging I've made it my business to read and follow other blogs to see what is going on in the world of discounts and sales. I have found some amazing "high end" discount websites. OpenSky is one that I am quite fond of. This site posts up deals found by celebrities. You can follow up to 10 people and you will be emailed when they post a new deal. Its pretty cool. I just checked my email today and they have upgraded my account. So now I can follow as many people as I like...oh! Did I mention you can make money when your friends join? Oh my bad. You get $1 for each friend that joins....more friends...more money! www.opensky.com
Here is one example of a deal that is running:

     This is a sale offered by celebrity chef Ming Tsai. This is a Gullah Gourmet crab cake crate. Retail value was $60 on sale for $28. 53% savings. Sale ends in 2 days. Ming has different things he is offering at discount. You can receive updates when you follow him. I think this is an awesome way to find out and buy different and unique things that the average person might not have access too. What do you think?

Anyone who knows me knows how much I love shoes....but how I DONT want to pay full price. Www.gilt.com is the place to shop if you want that expensive shoe without paying full price. Now I'm not saying these shoes will be $29.99 but they will be a lot cheaper than normal. LOL. Gilt has everything from mens clothes, children furniture, food and even travel destinations! If you like what you find on this site please click on this link to join:http://www.gilt.com/invite/chicchick1970
Here are a few awesome deals featured on their site today: click on each pic to enter website to see the deals.

Booties for under $175...gotta love it!

Shopping for lamps for your new place?

Need a vacation? Antigua anyone?

Drum roooollllll pahhhhleeeese!!! Gilt City has officially launched in the "A"! Gilt city is similar to all the online discount websites but on a different level!  Cocktail etiquette or teen etiquette classes. Fashion night out tickets. Pretty cool, huh?

Now for all of my coupon cutting cuties here are some deals for this weekend and the rest of the week! I have two website that I check out online for sales at the grocery store. www.southernsavers.com and www.coupondivas.com.  Kroger and PG (procter and gamble) are having another Mega event at most southern area Kroger stores. I love the mega events! Mega events are sales that allow you to save $5 when you purchase a total of 10 sale items in the store. They could be the same ten or a multiple of ten different items that are on sale during the event. Click on the southern savers link to check our the Kroger/PG sale.  Kim has some tips on discount shoe shopping. Kim is the lovely lady who started the coupondivas blog. I'm checking out her blog right now and I am kinda bummed that I missed out on an awesome deal yesterday. 
http://coupondivas.com/new-balance-470-womens-running-shoe-only-25-99-orig-69-99
I need to do better. Oh well...you win some, you lose some.
I hope you all enjoy these posts. Subscribe to this blog so I can keep you posted...thanks again for reading!

I love youtube...and the world wide web!

I absolutely love youtube. If you need to learn how to do something and don't know how or where to get started I'm sure youtube has a tutorial for it. I love all the natural hair tutorials they have. I have done two styles already. I uploaded one not to long ago. I just did another one this afternoon. I will try to do a new hairstyle from one of the videos I find on youtube a week. I will also do my nails once a week from either something I found on youtube...giving credit where credit is due of course. Or just changing my color or type of nails I'm wearing.
I have also made myself a youtube channel. For what? Because I wanted to! LOL. It's in its cheezy stages right now but I am working on making it fab.

I also am trying to learn photoshop....they're tutorials for that. I watched some youtube video to figure out how to make a quick video with Windows movie maker. Super easy! Well here it is! Let me know what you think.

Alternative Minority Girl...the minority report

AMG Baby!!!!  AMG 4 Life! ( yea yea!....in my best Mack 10 voice) LOL!
Ok so let me explain. Alternative Minority Girl is something my friend Genene made up with some of her friends. I was over her house doing her nails and we were listening to her amazing playlist of music and I realized she liked the same type of music I liked. Not just r/b and rap, but folk, soft rock, pop, metal rock, electronic, shoot whatever sounded good! So I said to her that I should make a club for black girls who like all kinds of music and movies and what not. She said she already had a club. LOL...AMG....alternative minority girl! I fell out laughing. "I love it! I wanna join!" So I guess Im in. We havent had any meetings. I haven't meet her other friends that are in this wonderful group. (btw....its for all minorities, you don't have to be black.) I have a few friends that want to join too. LOL.
This is my vision for AMG. AMG is a group of  women that do not want conform to typical stereotypes of their particular race. AMG's pretty much live life to the beat of their own drum. We date outside our race if we like one month and date inside our race the next. LOL! We will listen to Goodie Mob one minute and James Taylor the next. We will not let the color of our skin define us. We are individuals. We have friends of all nationalities and enjoy living life outside of the box society would love for us to stay in.
I guess since I am blogging about this wonderful group we should meet up and have our first meeting. (sending Genene a text when I'm done.)
Now what prompted me to write about this is the fact that I hate when my people...black people say that I am trying to act white or be white because I'd rather watch "its always sunny in philadelphia" than "the game." Or that Id rather go see the Foo Fighters than Trey Songz. I like what I like and I am comfortable in my own beautiful dark skin. So leave me be. Mainly its ex-boyfriends that say that. Boy stop! I date one guy that said that I was trying to assimilate because i straightened my hair. I press my hair because I want it to blow in the wind and bounce around and look pretty. I love my nappy hair. I just choose not to wear it curly at times. Its in its natural state now!
Now the white guys I have dated would never say that because they know that it would be upsurd!  Yes, I speak proper and correct english but I can get "ghetto." When I'm proper no one takes me serious. When I let the "hood" out people listen. It shouldn't have to be that way. LOL. 
If people would just learn to enjoy life and what God has blessed them with and stop worrying about what others think they would be fine. I could care less. Because if you cared about me it wouldn't matter anyway. Real talk! (oops, thats my hood speaking.)
For your entertainment here are some of my random top movie and music picks.
Music
http://youtu.be/ccenFp_3kq8 (hall and oats)
http://youtu.be/4JkIs37a2JE  (jamarquai)
http://youtu.be/EPfmNxKLDG4 (beck)
http://youtu.be/mQZmCJUSC6g (carly simon)
http://youtu.be/XeJLZi0uyJw   (sheila e)
http://youtu.be/34QVPwRLRKU (klymaxx)
I could go on and on with my music....its so all over the place.

Movies
http://youtu.be/ltjOydHAO0M (the heiress)
http://youtu.be/o2XADAhBAwE  (cooley high)
http://youtu.be/BPvZlsj4nfQ  (inception)
http://youtu.be/qFWgxOHN9JQ  (beaches)
http://youtu.be/oabGaaCLZ5g  (lil miss sunshine)
same with my movies!
Enjoy.

Two strand twists and lasagna!

Today is National lasagna day! Woohoooo! I love lasagna! Once again Jenny from Southern Savers has posted another awesome deal for the day! You can go to www.southernsavers.com and check out all the Italian restaurants that are participating. Hopefully I will be able to make it to brio. I have a couple of clients scheduled this evening. Maybe I can squeeze in a quick bite. I need some me time while the niece is spending time with her mommie. A glass of wine and lasagna sounds just fine. That will be an awesome treat, especially if my hair turns out right today...
I have been on youtube checking out some natural hair tutorials and I ran across this chick "Jerseystylez". She made it look so easy. Very informative. All her styles were really nice.  Im pretty creative and have been doing my own hair when I have to since the age of 9. At 40 Id rather have someone else do it for me but if I can save some money I will do it myself. So I'm trying a style I saw on her youtube channel and we will see how it goes. My flat twist on the side already look nothing like hers but Im sure with some practice I will have it down. (Im sitting under the dryer right now)  I will post a pic and a video of my completed hair. (good or bad) and I will upload her video as well.

Woe is me....and the poor little baby!

Here is another post of many about my little niece Gia. She is teething and she is not a happy camper. Her teething woes definitely have not kept her from trying to crawl all over the house, bed and me! Last night she gave me the blues for sure. I have never seen her fight sleep for 3 hours. I thought I had done a good job in getting her to go down pretty early last night for her to sleep for 10 minutes! So ensued the drama! After about 2 hours of trying to play with her, rock her and sing her to sleep I just gave up and shot a quick video with the blankest expression on my face.

A good friend and I were laughing about this book I saw in borders a while back called "Go the F@#$ to sleep!" https://www.facebook.com/G​otheFtoSleep Boy I could have used a laugh from reading it last night. I was fit to be tied!  I still might run out and get the book, I know I will need it again.
Oh...btw...she finally went to sleep and slept a pretty long time. Thank goodness!

Bloggin for dummies

This is my very first blog that I am actually proud of. Yes, it is a work in progress but I am enjoying it. Everyday I am learning and understanding more about this blogging world. As I continue to write I will also update my blog to make it more attractive to my readers. Im just so amazed at all the blogs that are out there.
I used to keep a journal about 10 years ago. I don't know why I stopped...life I guess. I think I will use my blogs like my journal. I wont be so personal like what I used to write in my journal but this will be very therapeutic for me. Next thing to do on my list....drive more traffic to www.thepolishedauntie.com.

To Gel...or not to Gel (polish)

Ok, so I am going to give you my honest opinion about gel polish and the brands that I am familiar with. Personally speaking I think the gel polishes are the best thing smoking! As a nail tech I can't wear regular nail polish at work without messing up my nails. I hate waiting for my nails to dry just like the next woman and I mess mine up all the time too. So I immediately jumped on board.
I will be giving you my honest opinion about five brands that I use right now. OPI's axxium, CND Shellac, Harmony's Gelish, Cacee GP and Eagelly brand gel polish. 
OPI Axxium
www.opi.com

I love all of OPIs polishes. Especially the colors more so than the sheers. I'm kinda sweet on Essie's sheer colors. "Sugar daddy" being my favorite. OPIs French collection is my fave. "tickle my fancy" and the enfamous "you dont know jaques" are at the top of my polish list. The pros about OPIs axxium gel polishes is that you can match the gel polish with the corresponding regular nail polish of that color. (Eventhough you can put gel polish on your toes)  The only con that I have noticed with this particular brand of gel polish is that it is the hardest to remove and slightly more damaging to the actual natural nail plate. Even more so when it is not removed the proper way or drills are used.
CND Shellac
www.cnd.com

 
Oh Shellac, Shellac, Shellac! I was so excited when I first heard that CND was coming out with a gel polish brand. But it quickly turned into a nightmare for me. I purchased the started kit from beauty site online only to have to wait over 6 weeks to receive my (almost) complete kit. CND didnt anticipate the response it was to receive and could not keep up with demand and were always short on supply. After giving up I found a new brand that I absolute adore. So I decided not to purchase any more shellac for fear they would never have what I needed when I needed it. I have and still use the few bottles I do have. But I have noticed that it seems to be a little thick and instead of lasting the full 14 days its about 10 and sometimes it peels off like a sheet. Not good.
Harmony's Gelish
www.nailharmony.com

Gelish the 21 day manicure! I love, love, love Gelish! I found out about Gelish when I was going thru my fiasco with CNDs Shellac. I love they have 78 colors now...more than any gel polish brand I know of right now. The colors are fun, classic, conservative....what ever type of polish you are looking for they have it. Also they have their own LED UV light that I call supersonic (I know that is for hearing). the regular 36 watt UV lamp requires 1 minute for the base coat, 2 minutes for the 2 coats of color and 3 minutes for the top coat. The Gelish LED lamp only requires 10 seconds for the base, 30 seconds for the coats of color and another 30 for the top coat. I normally do a minute. I wont be done with the other hand in 30 seconds anyway.
Cacee GP Gel
www.caceeinc.com

I only have a few of these polishes but I love them just like the Gelish. One reason is because I can still use the gelish base and top coat with this product. I bought a few because they had neon colors available. They wear a little over 14 days.
Eagelly Gel Polish
Where to buy Eagelly
I dont even know anything about this company. They sell this brand at my local nail supply store. They had it on sale and I loved the colors so I bought several. The only thing is that this brand has a smell that is so loud and it can come on a little thick. But like the Cacee it can be used with the gelish base and top coat. I purchased the base and top made by eagelly but I dont like how it goes on. I guess Im just a Gelish girl at heart. I love that brand the most out of all the brands. I make sure that I have a variety just for my clients sake.
Helpful tips:
1.  Find a nail salon that you like and stick to going to that spot. Different techs apply different ways sometimes. You want consistency.
2. If your tech uses a drill to buff off top coat please ask them to refrain. Same goes for removing the gel polish. You want to subject your natural nail to the least amount of stress as possible. A buffer or less gritty file will do just fine.
3. Removal wraps or just plain acetone soaked cotton wrapped with foil on each finger is the best way to remove gel polish. Soaking the whole hand in acetone will dry out your hands. You can also do this at home if you cant make it to the salon.
4. I suggest not wearing the gel polish of any brand longer than 3 weeks.


 Now these are just my opinions, observations and experiences with these brands. Please feel free to try them all and come to your own conclusion. Just in case someone needed a honest opinion....these are  just mine.

Mob Deep

As most of you probably already know I am a sucker for a sale or any discount.  Im sure you guys have heard of groupon, living social, half off depot and many more of the discount daily deals sites that are popping up. I have even used a couple to promote my mobile nails business. I will say that I have never purchased a deal from these sites. Most of the times people buy the deals and forget about them or wait until its expired. I would be one of those people. There is a daily discount website called Scoutmob and I am a scoutmob feign! I love the fact that you can download the app and use the deal when you are ready...as long as it is before it expires. I love that! You can download the app if you have an iphone, ipad or android phone. www.scoutmob.com 

The deals are for dining and shopping in the cities available. I recently bought some shoes from Cherrybomb, a boutique in lil' 5 points (in Atl). The deal was discounted up to $50. I purchased two pairs of shoes and some shades for $48! I wore one of the pair of shoes yesterday. ( i need to cut my toenails down because that peeptoe almost killed me! LOL)

Hush little baby.....Go to SLEEP.

My little niece Gia is the only baby I know that will fight sleep for 2 hours. That is 2 hours you could have been sleep little mama! She doesn't want to miss a thing. I've changed the channel to sprout, loaded up my Pandora and turned her playpen into a tent so she could finally go to sleep. Thank you Jesus...and thank you Rock-a-bye baby. Rock-a-bye baby is an album of covers by different rock stars. Gias favorite is the album with Journey covers. How appropriate that the song that put her to sleep was "Who's crying now". www.rockabyebabymusic.com

Mint Condition

The more blogs I read the more amazed I become with all the deals I find online. How awesome would it be to be able to save up 65% and receive 5% cash back on the purchases you already saved money on. Well awesomeness has a place on the internet and its address is www.mintbox.com With sales at Saks, Bloomies, Macys, Agent Provacteur, Crate and Barrel and many more how can you resist? One of my fave shopping websites is featured this week. Shopbop! I love it! Here is something I love...and of course they are all sold out!

Agent Provacteur $150...originally $490

Neon Lights lift me up...

Can you believe it? I finally did my nails. It was a long time coming. I gave myself a pedicure today also. I am on a roll! All I need to do is my eyebrows and I will be alright until I get my hair done friday.  I have had a rough month. My father passed away and I have just not been able to get back into the swing of things. As a matter of fact I just feel like everything is falling apart. I picked this bright color to cheer me up. I think its working. I came out of my robe today and put on an outfit for a quick minute to run and get me something to eat. That's progress. After I put my lashes on tomorrow I will take pics so you guys can see. I need to cheer up a little and I'm gonna put as much effort as I can to hold my head up and be strong about this situation.  This hotter than pink color is called "Olivia" by Cacee. I love all the gel polishes they make. Especially since they have an array of neon colors. Ive been feeling a little nostalgic for the 80's and this color is perfect. Do you like?

The Purple Princess Gia

Ten days after my 40th birthday, Nov 18, 2010 I became a proud auntie. I thought I was gonna be doing a lot of traveling in my 40's. At least that is what I had planned to do. I can still do it. But my neice lives with me most of the time so I am going to have to figure out how. I might just do some local traveling for now.  I had always tried to envision in my mind what my niece of nephew would look like. Never did I imagine her to be sooooo adorable. My niece Gia is the cutest, feistiest and the silliest little 8 mos old baby ever! I have an absolute ball with her everyday Im with her. My son was fun when he was young but its just something about girls. I get to dress her up. She is like my walking, living "baby alive". I loved that little baby alive I had as a young girl. I love shopping for her and its so easy because I can find the cutest things for her for little of nothing at my fave discount shopping stores like Marshalls, TJ Maxx and Ross. I found these adorable gladiator sandals in black patent leather and sparkling gold at Marshalls for her for only $5.99 a piece.  I had to get them!

Www.gilt.com also has the cutest things for newborns and babies. I think this cute lace ruffle romper with the 3 buttons in the front will be my next purchase for my little niecey. Isn't it adorable?

$28....orig. $59

Here are the pics of the cutest little girl you ever did see! 

My brother had a beautiful baby girl. I just adore this little lady.

Let's go Krogering...my favorite place to shop!

As some of you may already know I LOVE KROGER! I love grocery shopping just as much as I love to shop for clothes and shoes. I guess that is due to the fact that I also love to eat just as much as I love to get dressed up to go out to dinner. Above all of these things I love to save money on the things that I purchase. So when I stumbled upon TLC's Extreme Couponing show I was amazed at the money these people were saving. I will sit down and watch the show like I am taking a class. I study and take notes and research everything the top savers do. In doing this I have come across numerous websites that help you save money in the grocery store with online coupons and digital coupons. My favorite coupon website is www.southernsavers.com. The blog is written by a lady named Jennifer. I absolutely <3 her! Her site makes coupon shopping less confusing and easier to do. Please feel free to click on the link and check her out. Absolutely amazing what she does on the blog.
Now back to Kroger. Kroger is having an awesome Mega event. A Mega event is when kroger puts certain items onsale and you can buy ten of any participating items and save $3-$5 on each multiple of 10 items you buy. Using you coupons with this deals makes it amazing.  Here is a video of Jennifer explaining Krogers Mega event.

Dont be Gilty (Guilty)

This is such an awesome site. www.gilt.com offers deals for a limited time only. You can find deals for anything and everyone. They now offer a "taste' section for restaurants and food. The only catch is that you have to check in quite often to see what's new. But that shouldnt be problem because they always have something new and interesting.  Looking for a new bag for your vacation to Bermuda? Gilt will have the perfect bag and discounts on your week long vacay to Bermuda!

Hugh convertible tote originally $625 now $159

Pink Beach Club&Cottages $345/night orig. $555/night

I know if you are working class like me the Bermuda vacay might still be just a dream. But isn't that view amazing? In my dream Im sitting right on the balcony of the beach house in Bermuda reaching inside my Hugh tote to grab a few pieces of TCHO Chocolates. A chocolate a day will keep the sadness away. I am a chocolate-chocolate addict! 

My addiction