Shopaholic in Alabama

Happy Thursday everyone! One more day until Friday - and Super Bowl weekend! :-) Earlier this week, I attended a Haiti Relief Benefit Open House. This event was hosted by my BFF Amy. I've known her longer than DH - how about that? The event featured products from Southern Living At Home, Tastefully Simple and Thirty-One; and 13.5-15% of all sales from the event were donated to the Red Cross For Haiti relief fund. Shopping? Yes! And for a cause? Oh yes! Amy, you had me at the invite. :-) One more fun thing about the evening (other than the socializing and the wine, natch)......I brought Amy her first LILLY PULITZER DRESS! I'm proud to say she is the new owner of the Jacqueline dress in pink, which was one of the best-selling Lilly dresses of ALL time. Isn't Amy going to look FAB at The Knights of Revelry (that's KOR to locals) mardi gras ball? At KOR, ladies wear cocktail length dresses and hats, almost a Kentucky-derby type theme. So much fun! Hope you're al...

Happy Sunday! All week I have been thinking about what happened in Haiti, the pictures we're seeing and all the devastation. As someone who lives on the gulf coast, in what many fondly refer to as "hurricane alley", I am keenly aware that natural disasters occur. When I "forget" about them, I am reminded in a big way. Hurricane Ivan and Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast while DH and I were living up "north". Luckily, we did not have to endure the water shortages, power outages, and unspeakable fear that accompanied them. Not to say we weren't affected, believe me, we were. Between those two storms, we lost our place on Dauphin Island - a barrier island off the coast of Alabama. My parents condo was rendered useless for what would turn out to be years. My aunt and uncle left New Orleans and moved north to Oklahoma. But looking back, we WERE the lucky ones. Our families were SAFE. I didn't have to worry about watching the news in Charlott...

Hello FF! We all know because the "media" won't let us forget.....the worldwide economy is in the tank this holiday season. Now I don't know about you, but I'm doing my part to help out. I'm shopping just as much as normal, and spending about the same as always. One thing that is really suffering because of the economy right now are the charitable organizations. This time of year, they REALLY depend on donations. There are many ways you can get involved that don't cost very much $$ or very much of your time. Here are some suggestions: 1. Volunteer to serve a meal at your local womens shelter, homeless shelter or soup kitchen. This is a great thing to do as a family and make a new tradition of giving that will be passed on for generations. 2. Adopt an "angel" from one of the trees. The Salvation Army has an excellent program for children. 3. Toys For Tots - United States Marine Corps has collection sites all over most towns. Take a new, ...