True Confession Thursday (on a Wednesday): I'm an impulse buyer!

The truth is I'm the type of person that will buy something I like on an impulse (TJ Maxx and Target being my greatest downfalls) or I'll dwell on something and talk myself out of it...and then go buy it the next day when I've regained me senses and talked myself back into buying it! I truly overanalyze everything.

Well, my most recent impulse buy has been the Scentsy flameless fragrant system. I recently had only first heard about these products from my aunt and cousin on Christmas Eve. It sounded interesting but really, aren't all candle warmers the same?

I now know different! While we were staying in Alamogordo, NM with some of Stephen's family, I noticed, for several days in fact, a fragrance that permeated throughout the entire house. I was so confused because the scent was so strong for the entire day. I literally thought someone was spraying cologne continuously because the fragrance was that strong.

Then at dinner one night I noticed it. Sitting on the kitchen counter, looking rather inconspicuous but intriguing. There it was...a full size warmer. I immediately thought I had made the connection. So I asked the woman of the house if it was in deed what I had decided it to be. Alas, I was correct (hell, I should be a detective). Anyway she said yep it was Scentsy and her oldest daughter had outfitted her with the warmer and a dozen or so blocks of the scent. She pulled the bag down full of the scent bricks and I was immediately smitten. The bright colors and the creative names of the fragrances had me immediately thinking, "I need a computer with internet to order this stuff." So there's my first impulsive behavior, I literally would have purchased this stuff that night had a computer been available to me.

Then, she whipped out (drum roll please....) the catalog. I perused that catalog several times, dreaming about what warmer I would buy and what scents I would purchase.

All this went down probably last Wednesday or Thursday. We left Alamogordo on Sunday morning and when we arrived at our hotel in Albuquerque on Sunday afternoon, guess what... We got the wireless from the hotel and I got online and got my own Scentsy collection before we had even finished unpacking!

Here are my buys:

The warmer: Scentsy has a fabulous collection of warmers, surely something for everyone. Initially, Stephen and I decided we wanted this beauty:

 But when I found this one, name Socorro, I decided it had to be fate and I was sold. You see Socorro is a small town somewhere between Albuquerque and Alamogordo where we stopped for lunch on our way down to Alamogordo. I had to get it as a reminder of this trip!

Essentially, the "warmer" is a base with a dish on top. Within the base houses a light bulb. You can see the glow from the bulb somewhat in the image above. Anyway there is a cord on the back of the warmer that attaches to an outlet and ultimately powers the lightbulb. You place the scentsy bars/bricks in the dish. The heat from the lightbulb melts the bars and the scent fills up the space. It's pure pleasure!

Now to possibly the hardest part... deciding on the scents.

Scentsy has several money-saving combination packs. Generally the warmers are $30 and each scent block is $5. Well I purchased a combination pack that gave you one warmer and 3 scent blocks, which added up to a $5 dollar savings. Sign me up!

So I had to pick out 3 scents. This truly is difficult as they have (I'm not exaggerating) dozens of scents. They try to make the decision easier by grouping the scents into categories:

• Newborn Nursery Collection
• Bakery Collection (includes all the yummy cakes and cookies and pies)
• Fall and Winter Collection (always a favorite of mine)
• Romance Collection
• Scentsy Cafe Collection
• Scentsy Man Collection (smells like your husband's favorite cologne)
• Spa Collection
• Tropical Collection

I couldn't decide on just three so I bought another combination pack (buy 3 blocks for $14 a savings of $1)
Here's what I ultimately decided on:

1.) Vanilla Oak: Simple and classic blend of smooth French vanilla and woody oak

 2. Flirtatious: Fruity and vibrant, a combination of green apple, grapefruit, and white amber.

 3. Echo: Sophisticated, metropolitan fragrance of manly spice notes, Mediterranean citrus and herbs, and bitter orange.

 4. White Sands: Night-blooming jasmine softened by coconut milk and rice, enveloped in the gentlest breeze. This purchase was another homage to our current trip as we visited the White Sands National Park! I couldn't pass it up: White Sands fragrance in a Socorro warmer....what a great method for commemorating our trip.

 5. Cranberry Mango: A mélange of tropical mango, cozy cranberry and spicy pineapple

Sadly, I can't remember the 6th scent! I've been perusing their site and everything looks delicious and I just can't remember which I would have chosen.

Anyway, all of the scent names and descriptions come straight from their website here.

I ordered my system on Sunday and my mom called to tell me yesterday (Tuesday) that it had arrived! Talk about fast turn-around. I'm super excited to get home and give it a try!

Home-made Christmas

As this is mine and Stephen's first Christmas together in our new place we had the joy of decorating the place to our liking. (See this previous blog post about Christmas family traditions).

Of course we were lacking in the ornament department. We ended up taking the yearly ornaments each of our mother's had gotten for us. We loved that the yearly Christmas ornament tradition was something that both of our families shared. So in theory, that's already 48 ornaments (24 for him and 24 for me) and we've received a few acknowledging our first Christmas together, so we weren't doing to bad. But me, being the crafty, wanna-be, that I am, had to make a few to stick up on our tree.

I love the inconsistencies and the imperfections in the ornaments. I didn't dwell on trying to make them perfect, I just went with what I liked and enjoyed spending time with my mom as she made a few for her tree as well.

In total, I made about 8 or so and they really added to our tree and I love that they have a story behind them and will hopefully adorn our tree for years to come.

We're 2 for 2 with CraigsList Finds!!!

So since Stephen's moved into his apartment we've been hunting for good bargains to furnish the place. My brother told me about CraigsList and mentioned that he had bought cell phones, guitars and some other things from sellers on the site. So I was intrigued and checked it out. I love the furniture section. While a lot of the furniture is dated and not exactly stylish, I've been able to get a hold of some good finds which I thought I'd share.

The first thing we bought (actually my mom purchased for us) was what is now our kitchen table. The sellers originally purchased the table from JC Penneys and found that it didn't necessariliy fit with their decor. Turns out another man's loss was our gain. We purchased this great table at a great price and it looks great in the apartment.

The table itself is an antique white pedestal table which paired with these great sturdy white and natural wood chairs Stephen's mom picked up.

And today, we made our second purchase from a seller on CraigsList. While browsing I came across a pic of a great looking headboard. Well tonight, we drove all the way out to Bardstown and made the purchase. I must say it looks great with the existing decor and we couldn't be happier with the piece.

So... if you haven't scoped out the site, you should check it out. You do have to go through a lot of.. lets say "another man's trash" to find the good stuff but when you do, it's worth it, at least for us so far!

Going Coastal Cont...

So I couldn't resist!!!!!

I went shopping today and want to share some of my finds from shops around PCB!!

I love how they look in the shopping basket, just hope they look good in his apartment.

On a completely different note, I also went shopping for regular things, clothes, accesssories, books, you know, the usual stuff. Well as soon as I walked into Bath and Body Works a woman that worked there came up to me and said, "Babe, you need some of this as red as you are (it's true, I'm lobster red, you'd think after 23 summers I'd have the whole sunscreen thing down)"

Anyway she handed me their body souflee in their new scent, Deep Aqua. It was very cool and refreshing and felt great on my skin, so I bought it and I'm happy with it.

Going Coastal

Exciting news... Mr. Chicken Butt is getting an apartment and like any self-respecting fiance...I'm decorating it!!!

So after being on the beach for a while and spending another week on the beach in about 2 weeks I've decided that his apartment will have a understated beachy/coastal theme (not to mention it will already match the great furniture we've acquired from friends that moved to Alaska and couldn't take it with them).

These are the colors pretty much of the oversized chair we have and the couch is a blue jean color and material.

I've been hunting down all the not-so-tacky-touristy shops here and have found this one store in particular that seems to carry nicer home decor and I'm excited about picking some of it up.

I love the look of these weathered picture frames, I think a couple of them scattered wouldn't be too overwhelming.

I also loves these decor balls with shells, I love how in this pic they combined the balls with the star fish. (And I actually found this pic on a blog That's so Cuegly (just ugly enough to be cute). Check it out, she's got a lot of home-made decor ideas and I love, love, love these decor balls and might just have to make some myself!

I'm excited to get shopping and I'd love some more ideas about decorating!