Sun and Warm Weather is where its AT!

Last Sunday this happened in my hometown:

But...

Now I’m enjoying the lovely weather in the southern California desert! It’s close to fifty degrees warmer here than it is at home. I feel for everyone back there but Christmas in Cali is a very nice change. Not to mention we have been having an amazing time with Matt’s family which is a rare change from our usual as my family is the one centrally located in Boston.

We do miss our nephews and Matt’s sister and BIL of course but seeing an entirely different side of the family has been fun. FIL and Step-MIL plus Matt’s Aunt, Uncle and two cousins are here and we rarely see any of them so we’re making the most of the fun together!

My sister is also driving out from Arizona today (hooray!!!) and it will be fantastic to spend some time with her this Christmas as well.

If I’m a little spotty this week I apologize but I fully intend to enjoy this vacation of warmth on the other coast so I can soak up as much as possible before heading back to the likes of the photo above.

But don’t forget to swing back over after the New Year to read about the Green Gift Guide and giveaways!

Eco Fashion Friday Featured Website Rusty Zipper

Short and sweet today folks because its time to go get my Christmas on but I thought everyone could appreciate this website because they have taken Vintage to an excellent extreme! I highly suggest grabbing a warm cup of cocoa, some blue eye liner and a can of the strongest hairspray you can locate while you peruse through the selection of Christmas sweaters from the 1980’s. Oh yes, appliqués, fuzzy collars, plaid and huge gold buttons abound!

They don’t just have Christmas sweaters though, check out Rusty Zipper for all your Vintage shopping needs from men’s hippie clothes to women’s suits to sew it yourself patterns for both sexes and just about everything in between. Their prices are reasonable and the photos are clear enough to get a great idea of the item for sale. Their selection is wide and varied and I plan to spend a bit of time checking out the whole site tomorrow.

But for today…Enjoy your day and for those who are celebrating today along with me, Merry Christmas!

Fabulous and Frugal

Let’s face it, most of us have cut back on buying outrageously over priced merchandise at the drop of a hat in recent years. Then again, some of us never went that route to begin with but even still, we did like to shop. So what is a girl to do in the midst of a recession? Why we get creative by getting frugal!

I was introduced to the Fabulous & Frugal website via Facebook by a mutual friend and let me tell you, these gals have got the right idea -- their tag line reads “A Girl’s Guide to Living Well and Spending Wisely” Nice!

With tips on everything from how to live frugally in some of the most expensive cities across the United States (think San Diego!) to making home made gifts that will not only get use but are sure to impress, the site provides an insane amount of information for how to cut back without anyone ever being the wiser.

One of their recent articles was with regard for giving cost effective gifts to all of those people you really aren’t sure what to do something for like bosses, co workers, hostesses and neighbors. I fell in love with this article and began considering using their ideas immediately.

The holidays are not just limited to Christmas of course, there are always birthdays, Mom & Dad’s Day, Anniversaries, Valentine’s Day and more throughout the year and I am always on the lookout for ways to keep costs low, but personalization high, for gifts on these occasions as well.

So basically I wanted to give a shout to Stephanie Berenbaum and Brandi Savitt over at Fab & Fru because you have saved me very likely hundreds of dollars over the next year and sparked my own creativity where gift giving is concerned, so thanks ladies!

And speaking of gift giving & being Green…stay tuned just after the New Year for your guide to some of the most amazing gifts to give in 2010, as well as a giveaway of a whole slew of those very same items! A giveaway, talk about being frugal -- free and won items are the best yet!

If you are on Facebook you can find the ladies at Fab & Fru over there as well, just click on their logo to go direct and become a fan today!

Thanking the Troops

In keeping with yesterday’s theme of awesomeness and Monday’s message to be grateful, this is the perfect day to thank our troops for all the work they do toward ensuring our freedom in this country. I recently came across a website called Let’s Say Thanks and it definitely falls into the awesomeness category!

The program is sponsored by Xerox and it is so easy to send a postcard of support.

First, choose the design you like best. All of the colorful and inspiring postcard designs were created by children across the United States.

Next, personalize it with a message or select from the pre-written messages of thanks right there on the site.

Hit ‘Submit’.

Yes that’s it! It is free and so easy to tell out military service men and women how much we appreciate what they do and at this time of year when they can not be home to enjoy the holidays with their families it is vital to show how much we care.

I encourage everyone to pop on over to the Let’s Say Thanks website and take a minute to send a message today! Mine has been sent, I used the postcard above, as designed by Austin, in Upper Saddle River, NJ. Thanks Austin, and thanks to our troops! Get home safe and soon!

Awesomeness Defined

Well I finally did it this morning, I Googled ‘awesomeness’ and you want to know what I discovered? There is a whole lot out there on this one little word!

First of all Urban Dictionary defines awesomeness as:
An unmeasurable amount of awesomenimity something can produce.

Wow! That seems above and beyond the best ever right? And that was just one of the definitions. The general rule of thumb seems to be that awesomeness is something way beyond the standard level of awesome.

Next I discovered that there is an entire website dedicated to nothing but awesomeness -- awesomeness.com. Score! Well I’m not exactly sure where the 585 area code is but if you live there you can have Awesomeness come on over and hook up your computer network. Not only that but they will service or repair it too.

Scrolling down I discovered that you can actually buy awesomeness from Amazon.com. Well that didn’t exactly surprise me considering they have everything else for sale over there but then again, isn’t awesomeness a state of mind? I had to explore further. Turns out awesomeness is a tag that users can attach to products on Amazon. Some of the things people considered for the awesomeness category include: a T-shirt with a great white on it, Stanley heavy duty utility knife blades, organic celery seeds, Living Life As A Thank You book, the Planet Dog Cozy Hemp Adjustable Harness and so many other items I could never list them all. If you’re looking for products that are even better than awesome head on over to Amazon and check it out.

Going back to Google I also found out that I can listen to awesomeness. Over at Last.fm people listen to their favorite grooves and rate them in categories including awesomeness. Curious what some people think of in this way? How about NOFX, Radiohead, Michael Bublé, Beats Antique, The Appleseed Cast, Alice In Wonderland, Skye, DJ Bitman and Paramore not to mention a whole bunch of others. Not sure who any of those acts are? Well Last.fm lets you find out!

I was also amazed to learn that awesomeness is available to watch, read, join and most importantly read about. For example, Harvard Business Review has an entire post dedicated to what awesomeness means to businesses everywhere entitled The Awesomeness Manifesto.

And all of this was only on the first page of the search! Whew!

I guess what it all comes down to is that awesomeness is everywhere, we just have to be open to recognizing it even if it isn’t defined as such.

What is your personal awesomeness?