Shopaholic in Alabama

Happy New Years Eve, Shopaholics! Unfortunately I am still sick, but trying to get through it! Here's hoping I start 2011 with a clean bill of health and no sinus infection. As we get ready to welcome 2011, today I would like to reflect on some of the top news stories of 2010. Keep in mind - this is just my list - despite a few awful things that happened, there was some good. I enjoyed putting the list together, because it reminded me of several things that were very positive and happy!  *Alabama Won The BCS National Championship. Our first one since 1992, which seemed like an eternity ago. *More Than 230,000 people were killed in the Haiti earthquake. Over 300,000 people were injured. *Apple unveiled the iPad. Sadly, I don't have one yet. *New Orleans Saints won the Super Bowl. Their first ever. This lifted the spirits of the city more than anyone could imagine. My "second home" had a reason to celebrate.  *Sandra Bullock's world was rocked by he...

Happy Thursday, Shopaholics! Are you enjoying these last few days of 2010? Unfortunately I am sick with a sinus infection, which has seriously interfered with me getting out and shopping all the after Christmas sales. (At least in person). No need to be alarmed though, I'm pleased to report that sale shopping online and via telephone are still ongoing. :-) Yesterday I heard from so many of you that were thrilled to find the Mallory shirtdress on a great sale. Congrats! Today I have another sale tip to share! Don't worry - I will not be tempting you deals like this every day in the new year. It's just....lately the sales have been too wonderful not to share! Some of you might remember, I'm a big fan of the Lilly Pulitzer Blayney dress. Have been since it came out - I think it was Fall 2008. Anyway, the Blayneys in the Fall 2010 collection are once again to die for! This year they added a ruffled neckline. Let me tell you - if you are like me and self conscious abou...

Hello my friends! I don't know about you - but I can't believe it's already Wednesday. Every year between Christmas and New Years Day, I can't even keep up with the date! So far, this year is no exception. Don't laugh, I'm sure many of you are the same way - especially if you're on vacation from work! :-) Today I wanted to tell you about the Mallory Shirtdress from Lilly Pulitzer. This dress was part of the Fall 2010 collection, and wasn't even on my radar. Sure, it was on a few of the Via Shop websites; but went largely unnoticed by moi. My fascination with the Elsa top Lilly produces has already been well documented here on the blog. Guess what? The Mallory shirtdress is basically an Elsa top with a belt and made into a dress! What's not to love? Surely you realize by now that everyone around me likes to shop just like I do, yes? Soooo you won't be surprised to learn that my sister found this dress on a huge sale? When she called and told...

Happy Monday, Shopaholics! If you celebrate Christmas, I hope your holiday was filled with every blessing imaginable. We all decorate for the holidays, right? Some of us more than others of course... Yesterday I noticed on Facebook that several of my friends were already taking down their holiday decorations. Old southern "legend" says that if your Christmas decorations are still up on New Years Day, it's bad luck. When do you think it's acceptable to take down the decorations? I usually try to have everything down on NYD, I have to admit - I get sick of looking at it before then. I'd love to hear what you think! Have a great day - and stay warm!

Merry Christmas to you all - from me and the DH. Enjoy your day with family and friends. Hope your blessings are many!

Happy Christmas Eve, Shopaholics! Does your family dress "up" or "down" for the holidays? My mother and sister are the exception; but traditionally everyone else pretty much dresses "down" in our family. I keep wearing dresses to everything - hoping to inspire change!  Here's what I think I'm wearing tonight and tomorrow. Lilly Pulitzer, Jonah Dress, White Ginky - making the rounds on Christmas Eve Lilly Pulitzer, Blayney Dress, Turquoise Ginky - making the rounds on Christmas Day There is a method to my madness - if I stick to the plan, I only have to travel with one pair of boots! :-) Hope you have a wonderful Christmas Eve! Thanks for reading my blog the past year. I feel so blessed to have found all of you!

Wow Shopaholics! Two Days Until Santa arrives! :-) Many of you will remember that I shared this recipe with you back in January 2010. At the time, I heard from several readers who made the pralines and loved them! Earlier today, I went to Publix and picked up all the ingredients to make these tonight. Seriously - it could NOT be any easier! Your family, friends and guests will be impressed. They'll think you worked soooo hard. No worries - it can be our little secret! Enjoy - you probably have the items on hand to whip these up tonight! Let me know how it turns out! :-) EASY PRALINES Ingredients: 1 Cup Firmly packed Brown Sugar 1 Egg White, Beaten 1 1/2 Cups Chopped Pecans, Lightly Toasted Instructions: Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Stir together brown sugar and beaten egg white, then fold in chopped pecans. Drop by heaping tablespoons onto a heavy-duty aluminum foil-lined baking sheet. Turn off oven, place baking sheet in oven. Let pralines stand 8 h...

Happy Wednesday, Shopaholics. Pardon moi while I interrupt the party season for a very important announcement. Thank you, Lowe's. If it weren't for the snarky little man processing my return, I STILL wouldn't know that my drivers license has expired! And, to add insult to injury, it's been expired for *ahem* almost ninety days. Yes, I said ninety days. I had no idea I was driving around with an expired drivers license. Turns out, the state of Alabama can't afford to send you a postcard (once every FOUR years) to remind you it's time to renew. What?!?! Seriously!?!? The taxes we pay??? Don't even get me started... So, even though I haven't finished my holiday shopping - I'm on my way to the DMV. I need to get legal again. Must drive verryyyyy sloooowwww, don't want a ticket in my stocking this year! Have a Wonderful Wednesday - after I'm legal again, I'll be out shopping with all the other procrastinators. :-)

Happy Tuesday, Shopaholics! Are you "shopped out" yet? Ready for Santa? Still not ready here... The past few days have been spent enjoying time with family and friends at various holiday gatherings. On Saturday we had our immediate family over for a low key holiday dinner. Last night I went to a "Girls Only" holiday party at my BFF Ashleigh's house. We had a great time - wine, food, Dirty Santa and one of our favorite holiday movies "The Holiday". I loved Ashleigh's tree and really wanted to take the pink Sock Monkey ornament home with me...instead, she sent me home with a new Christopher Radko ornament for my collection. :-) For blog reader "Amie" - Ashleigh and I wish you "Happy Holidays"! And to answer your question, we've been BFF's for --- hmmm --- about sixteen years now!  Have a Terrific Tuesday, and while running around trying to get it all done - take a moment to breathe and enjoy the season!

Happy Monday, my friends! Hope you had a great weekend. Are you ready for Santa? Not so much here, lots of work left to do! How do YOU manage holiday commitments and family time? Do you feel like you just run, run run all around town (or you have to travel and THEN run all over the place - that's what we do)? Naturally, all of our running around occurs on either Christmas Eve or Christmas Day. I can remember a time when we lived in the same county as everyone else - but would put 170 miles on our car CE/CD. Insane! When is it just too much? When do you decide to stay home? Or better yet - when you do say "heck with it" and celebrate the holiday a week early - then go to NYC and wake up Christmas morning at the Plaza? Hopefully with a light dusting of snow outside... One day, this is where Santa will have to deliver my gifts...

Happy Friday evening! Congratulations to blog reader "flip flops and pearls" - you are the winner of the $25 gift card to "Jewelry By Margaret" (original post  HERE ). Please contact me ( lori.driver@hotmail.com ) to put you in touch with Margaret! Thanks to everyone who entered and for reading my blog! Have a lovely weekend! p.s. Don't forget - Jewelry by Margaret is offering a 10% discount to all Shopaholic In Alabama readers. Use code "shopaholic" during the checkout process on her Etsy website . Great idea for last minute gifts! :-)

TGIF! What do you have planned for the weekend? We are having family over on Saturday for dinner. Of course we have to show off the results of our remodel! :-) Finally, I managed to get some of my decorations up. Every year DH and I put up a 9' artificial tree with all Christopher Radko ornaments (we have quite the collection at over 150 pieces). In addition to the "Radko tree" we also have a "Lilly tree" and a football themed tree "Alabama/Dallas Cowboys tree". For a little extra decoration, we put a fiber optic tree in every bedroom. In the interest of time and the hassle factor, this year we decided not to put up the Radko tree. As you can imagine, this made me quite sad. I look forward to decorating with my Radkos. Every ornament is special to me - I can remember where most of the ornaments came from and who gave them to me. Funny the things you recall....like this story...I remember being in Northern Virginia on business. Staying at my "n...

My goodness, I can't believe it's already Thursday! I'm beginning to wonder if I will be ready for Santa's arrival...T-minus 9 days...yikes! And since I'm already so overwhelmed, and should be taking care of business, instead I'll be spending this afternoon in my stylist's chair. Phillip is going to DIE when he sees how much work my hair needs! Let's just say this - the remodel has not been kind to my roots, and I still have some paint in my hair. Oops. Moving right along to fun stuff - have you tried the ELSA top from Lilly Pulitzer? If not - you.must.get.one. Lilly added these to the line last year (resort) and the top quickly became a favorite among the pink and green crowd. I seem to recall, even my buddy Alice over at Summer Is A Verb looking high and low for a particular print in Elsa. :-) For the 2010 Resort line, the Elsa is back and it continues to be on my wish list, in every print/fabric combination - of course! I just ordered these two f...

Happy Hump Day, everyone! I had a different post planned for today - then I remembered - December 15, 2009 was the date I started this little blog, Shopaholic In Alabama. So today; we celebrate! It's hard to believe I have been blogging for one year. In the early days, I never imagined that anyone would even want to read what I wrote; much less allow me to continue blabbing for a year! I remember begging my family and close friends to "follow me" and they were like "what are you talking about?".   All I can say is a big, huge, THANK YOU! I have met so many wonderful friends as a result of this blog and the blogging community. Many of which I expect to have for a lifetime. I look forward to my second year of blogging - let's see what kind of trouble we can get into together! :-) Thank you so much for taking valuable time out of your day to check in on little ole me. During some of the darkest hours of the past 365 days, you guys have helped keep me goin...

Happy Tuesday, Shopaholics! WOW has it ever been cold here.  I'm already longing for spring and just think - it's not even "officially" winter yet. Yikes! On Saturday, we went to the boat parade here in town. My sister and her family, plus my parents, all came down for the event. We had a wonderful lunch at The Original Oyster House (if you make it to Gulf Shores, AL one day you must eat there); outlet shopping (a little damage at J. Crew and Tommy Bahama, I confess); then off to the boat parade we went. I had plans to capture a ton of photographs in hopes of sharing them with you! However, we took the one above and then my camera battery died! Doesn't that just figure?!?!? Does this ever happen to you? I know I should always have spare batteries with me, and this time I didn't. Grrr.... Then again, DH and I have had no time for our normal "maintenance" routines - not to mention we haven't had mirrors in the bathrooms for weeks. Perhaps w...

Happy Monday, Shopaholics! I'm betting that many of you had snow, ice and crazy weather over the weekend. Hope it wasn't too bad! Even here at the beach, we are experiencing mid 20's at night. Brrrr....But hey - doesn't the cold weather put you in the holiday spirit? :-) Today I wanted to profile a few of my favorite holiday gifts under $100. Let's see if you like my selections... Flora Earrings, in any color, $44 - from Caroline Grace Jewelry on Etsy (link HERE ). No matter what color is your gift recipient's favorite, you are covered. For winter, I really love them in teal. Of course I love all of Caroline Grace's jewelry - and you can't go wrong with these! A perfect stocking stuffer! Added bonus: CGJ is offering a 15% discount on orders less than $100 to all Shopaholic readers and a 25% discount on orders over $100. Use code "Shopaholic15" for 15% under $100 and code "Shopaholic25" for 25% over $100 at Etsy checkout. Fleece ...

TGIF, Shopaholics! I hope you've had a wonderful - and productive - week! Today I wanted to thank everyone who entered the J. Bee Designs giveaway (original post HERE ) - and announce our winner! "Colleen" - you are the lucky recepient of the $40 gift card! Please contact me ( lori.driver@hotmail.com ) so I can put you in touch with J. Bee Designs! Congratulations! On another note, are you all stressed OUT for the holidays? I must admit - I am! Typically at this stage of the game, all my shopping is done and most of the gifts are wrapped. I usually have all the decorating done by the week after Thanksgiving...not so much this year. Yesterday I finally managed to get up our tree(s). Running just a weeeee bit late...still have lots of gifts that need to be purchased, and every.single.gift needs to be wrapped. I blame it all on the never ending renovation. You know how it is - one project turns into another. Dialogue between me and DH, late last week: Shopaholic: ...

Hello, Shopaholics! Is it really Wednesday already? Wow, I can't believe it - this week is flying by. Good news - we are finally beginning to see the light at the end of the remodel tunnel. More on that another day! :-) Seriously you guys - I feel like a big dummy. Why didn't you all tell me about Ebates? Why didn't you insist (as in FORCE) me to join before now? All the online shopping that happens around these parts, I could have been earning $$$ all this time. Who knew??? Clearly - I didn't! For those not familiar, Ebates is a website you join and then link to your favorite stores while shopping online. You can earn up to 25% CASH BACK. There are no membership fees - no strings attached. You register online with Ebates, and then every time you shop online (yes, all your favorite retailers are there) you link to their website through Ebates. That's it! Easy easy easy! This week, I have already earned cash back of around $12. Now it doesn't sound like muc...

Hello, Shopaholics! Happy Tuesday to you! Today I'll be running around like a crazy woman, trying to get these bathrooms completed. After that I have to decorate the house for the holidays. I can't believe it - I have NEVER been this late getting the decorations up. I'm beginning to wonder if it's even worth the effort at this point. Typically I have the tree up by the weekend after Thanksgiving. Ugh. Always running behind... Anyway, it's turned really cold here (don't laugh, friends up north - it's under 30 degrees and that is cold for us!). For tonight's dinner, I need something easy, quick and warm. Enter the famous Shrimp Chowder recipe from "Southern Living". Mother gave me this recipe several years ago and it's always a hit. DH is famous for telling me "soup isn't a meal" but that does not apply with this recipe - it's very hearty. Try it - you'll love it and so will your family! It's on the menu here t...