So, back in July I posted about the fact that I have learned that getting things cheaper is not always better.

Let me elaborate.  I used to be of the mindset that if something was a good deal then I should go ahead and purchase it.  What I have learned now is that is not always the case.  Of course, everyone loves a good deal, me included, but it should be something you really needed/wanted instead of buying something just for a good deal.

An example of this for me would be purses.  I LOVE purses.  This goes way back.  I have worked since I was 12 years old and I have always had fun spending my paycheck on purses.  Over the years I accumulated quite a collection but I found a problem with my collection.  The purses that I had bought had been “a good deal” and “ones I liked” but not exactly what I was looking for.  I didn’t want to spend a lot of money on a purse so I would settle for something cheap instead of the something I really wanted.  I also found that my cheap purses wore out really fast and I always felt the need to get a new purse.

Disclaimer – I am not suggesting that buying cheap purses is bad in any way.  I’m just sharing my personal experience and something I learned.

Enter Coach purses.  My family and I were on vacation in Myrtle Beach, SC and we decided to go to the Coach outlet store.  I found a purse and fell in love with it.  I was hesitant to spend the money even though it was at the outlet and a very good deal compared to full retail price.  My husband talked me into buying it because he knew I liked it a lot.  This is when I fell in love with Coach purses.

I made a promise to my husband that I would not buy any purses anymore since I now had a very nice, excellent quality purse.  At first I found it a bit hard because I still had the urge to buy purses.  However, something I learned is that I felt bad about wanting to carry any of my other purses I had because I knew I had this nice purse and it somehow just felt wrong neglecting it.  :-)

It was at this point that I went through my closet and got rid of all of my other purses and now only had the one Coach purse.

This of course was several years ago.  Now I have several Coach purses.  Do I need Coach purses?  No.  Do they make me happy and save me money at the same time?  YES!

Let me explain.  Let’s take this purse below.

This purse costs $700.00 in the retail Coach Boutique.  Sorry Coach but I am not willing to spend $700 on a purse.  So I wait.  I wait for it to go to the outlet store or the online outlet sale.  Then I buy the purses I like.  I take the chance that they may never make it to the outlet and I would miss out but it is a chance I am willing to take.  For being patient I am happy to report that I paid $212.00 for the beauty.  That is a huge discount off retail.

Now I know $200 if still a high price for a lot of people to spend on a purse.  When it comes to me though I know that this is a purse I will be able to use for years and years to come.  It is made very well and is a classic staple item in my wardrobe.  I am also very blessed with a husband who not only supports my Coach habit but also encourages it.

I have even purchased a few purses at the boutique and paid full price but I wanted to point out the deals you can get in case you were not aware.  Buying purses like this has actually saves us tons of money.  I never had a problem dropping $50 on a purse before just to have it fall apart in a few months.  Then I’d want a new one.  All of that money added up.  Now if I only buy one or two purses a year I come out ahead.

Besides….. I get to shop with the cutest purse shopper around.  He is going to make a great husband someday, don’t you think?

So, like my title says, I have an embarrassing secret.  Are you ready?

I have lots of soap scum in my shower!

There, I said it.  Whew, that feels so good to get off my chest.  My shower, especially the door, has a lot of soap scum residue.  I have tried lots of different cleaning products who all claim to be the best but never had much luck getting it off.  I mean, sure, they work with a ton of elbow grease but who really wants to spend that much time scrubbing a shower door?  Not me, that’s for sure.

Tide To The Rescue

I heard that liquid Tide laundry detergent would work well for removing the soap scum.  I decided it was worth a try especially since I already had a  bottle of Tide.  (Tide is seriously my favorite laundry soap ever)

I poured a little bit of Tide into a bowl and took my sponge to the shower.  Imagine my surprise when I started to wipe the Tide on.  The soap scum almost magically disappeared.  I didn’t have to scrub and scrub and scrub.  It was so simple to remove that soap scum using my trusty Tide.

If you are struggling to keep your shower clean then I really suggest you trying this.  A nice side benefit is your shower smells so good afterwards.

Just be careful and make sure you wash all of the Tide away.  It can be really slippery if left on the shower floor.  Don’t ask me how I know  :-)

This post is not compensated in any way.  I just love this method   of cleaning my shower and wanted to share with my wonderful        readers.

A – M – A – Z – I – N – G

Really, I could just stop the post here.  That one word describes the whole weekend.

How could I not have known about this amazing event before now?  I was so lucky to be contacted and asked to attend this event and share with all of you.  I just want to say right now, if you have never heard of this event you must check it out ASAP.  Depending on where you live there are still events going on.  Check here to see the next cities hosting it.  You have to go.  Seriously, have to.

As I said above I was given tickets to this event but I would pay any price for these tickets.  I really think they are priceless.  I left the event so full and recharged.  I am going to share my weekend with you.  I apologize in advance because this is going to be a long post but I have so much to share.  :-)

So my girlfriend and I headed out on Thursday evening for the 3 hour drive there.  We arrived in downtown Charlotte pretty late.  We had a great time laughing long into the night and just enjoying some girl time away from home.  For the weekend we weren’t moms, wives, homemakers….. we were just two ladies connecting with other women and spending times growing closer to the Lord.  Priceless!

Friday morning brought our first sessions.  They lasted throughout the afternoon with breaks every so often.  Each session started off with beautiful worship music sung by the Women Of Faith team.

On Friday we got to hear from two speakers, Sheila Walsh and Henry Cloud.

Sheila Walsh was an unexpected breath of fresh air.  I knew the speakers would be good but she was better than that.  She was so warm, personable, honest, transparent and funny.  She is a brave woman and shared alot of her personal struggles and how the Lord brought her through.  I appreciated hearing here stories of her son as I have a son about the same age and could really relate.  I wish I could be friends with Sheila.  She just seems like the wonderful Godly friend every woman needs in her life.  It was a pure treat getting to hear from her.

Dr Henry Cloud was next up.  Again, a great speaker and so funny.  I took tons of notes and loved hearing what he had to say.  He was brave being one of only two men present at Women Of Faith.  He spoke of fitting in because he carries a man bag. LOL, a man bag.  This guy is great.

It was time to break for lunch.  Boxed lunches were supposed to be included in the ticket price.  Something happened and there was a bit of a problem.  They ran out of lunches.  I’m not sure why but after just a short wait they took care of us.  They passed out vouchers for lunch from the vendors… in my opinion they did more than necessary to make sure our experience was great.

Now it was time to break until the evening session.  My friend to me to the most amazing dinner at Flemings steakhouse.  Seriously – worth – every – penny.

Here is a shot of the arena the event was held in.

The evening session did not disappoint.  We were treated to more speakers, comedy, worship singers and mini concerts from some very talented ladies.

I was blown away with how good Mary Mary was.  I have not heard their music before.  I was up on my feet, swaying back and forth, hands in the air worshipping my creator.  You can’t ask for more than that.  I wish I could worship like that more often.

Then we were also lucky to have Natalie Grant perform.  I have loved her music for a long time and she did not let me down.  She has an amazing voice and is so beautiful and talented.

I also got to listen to one of the funniest men I have heard in a long time.  Ken Davis was perfect.  He had me laughing so hard it hurt.  My face was sore and so was my stomach.  I always appreciate a funny comedian who is clean.  Ken Davis proves you don’t have to use bad language and be rude to be funny.  He was so good that I bought both of his DVD’s so I could share with my family.

I don’t have any pictures of these wonderful women but wanted to include them.

We got to hear from Luci Swindoll who shared a funny song with us.  She also shared some of her history with World Vision and sponsoring children.  I appreciated her style and would love to know her in person.  She seemed like such a genuine woman and lovers her Lord.

Nicole Johnson shared a skit about all the different hats women wear.  I don’t think I will forget it for a long time.  It was a great message and she did it with so much energy she wore me out.  What a talented woman.

Lisa Harper shared some true personal stories of her life.  She touched me in such a deep way that I will be forever thankful to her.

Karen Kingsbury, my favorite writer, was also there.  She shared a hilarious story about the characters in her book and relating to the characters God has placed in our lives.

I’m sure I left about a bajillion things out but I think I have rambled on long enough.  I cannot express enough how much this weekend meant to me.  I cried a ton, laughed a ton and learned a ton.  I am thankful to Booksneeze for offering to send me.

The most important thing I want to get across is this is an event you don’t want to miss.  Grab a couple of girlfriends and head out.  You will not be disappointed.

I am so excited you guys.  I was recently invited to the Women Of Faith 2011 conference in Charlotte, NC this September.

I cannot believe this wonderful opportunity I have been blessed with.  I’ve never been to a huge women’s conference like this before.  Here is a quick video of what you can expect if you are attending.

Here is the amazing lineup for this event….

Speakers

Sheila Walsh

Luci Swindoll

Lisa Harper

Ken Davis

Musical Guests

Ken Davis

Mary Mary

Natalie Grant

Drama

Nicole Johnson

Special Guests

Henry Cloud

Karen Kingsbury

Wow.  What a lineup.  I can barely wait until September.  If you are going to the event in Charlotte send me an email and maybe we can meet up.

If you would like to attend one of the events happening across the US then please visit Women Of Faith.

Thank you to Booksneeze for the event tickets. I will be posting my

thoughts on this event.  All opinions expressed are my own.

I posted recently about the new Ipod touch I purchased.  I am still figuring out apps, which ones are good and which ones I feel like I would like to purchase.

Well, I found one that I wanted to share with you all.  It is called Lose It.  It is a free app.  Yes, a free one.  It works on the Ipod Touch, Iphone or Ipad. 

It helps you by letting you set a calorie intake for the day.  Then throughout the day you enter everything you eat and it deducts those calories from your target, helping to keep you on track. 

Most things that I eat I have found in the stored foods built right into the app.  It has thousands of foods listed.  All you have to do is type in the food and click whether you ate it for breakfast, lunch or dinner.  That’s it.  So simple.

What I am enjoying about this app is that it is portable.  I can easily keep track of what I eat in a day which will help me with my weight loss goals.

Let me know of any other neat apps you have found.  I would love to hear them.

I am not affiliated with the Lose It creators.  I just found

the app and wanted to share it with you.

This post really should have been done long ago.  I cannot rave enough about these shoes.

I have had foot problems for most of my life.  I have extremely high arches.  How high you might ask?  Well, when I went to the podiatrist due to foot pain he said “Wow, you have really high arches”, to which I replied, “Yes, I know”.  Then he said “No, I mean really really really high, you might have the highest arches of any foot I have seen”.  Gee, thanks doc.   Anyway, on that visit I was diagnosed with Plantar Fasciitis.  The arches of my feet toward the heel hurt all of the time.  Seriously, sometimes I hobble like I am 100 years old.

So my love of these shoes starts in December of 2010.  I was on a shopping trip with some ladies from church when one friend and I started talking about foot pain and high arches.  She tells me about Dansko shoes.  She insists I try them on.  Now, at this point I’m thinking, no big deal, I wear good name brand shoes all the time, how are these going to be any different.  To make her happy though I decided to try them on.

Cue up a chorus of angels singing, seriously.  These have to be the most comfortable shoes I have ever owned.  My entire life I have not had a pair of shoes that I can feel under my arch, until now.  My feet hurt so much less when I wear these shoes regularly.  For now I only have the black oiled leather shown above.  I hope to change that soon.  They have so many styles and colors. 

So, if you have any kind of foot problems I would suggest trying a pair of these on.  You will be glad you did.  I should say here that I am not affiliated with Dansko nor am I receiving any compensation for this post.  I just believe in their product and want to share with others the way it was shared with me.

Have a great day guys!

When you have one of these…..

It helps to have one of these….

One day I found my sweet little kitty drinking out of my water cup on my desk.  Yuck!  I knew I needed to find a solution.

I like to keep water at my desk to sip throughout the day but I don’t want to share with my cat.

The solution…. the Starbucks refillable cup seen here.  It is plastic and comes with a screw top lid and straw.  I think the one I bought is 20 ounces but they also had a 16 ounce version too.  You can refill it as many times as you like.

It also has an inner cup that you can unscrew and fill out your favorite Starbucks drink combo on it.  Then when you go to Starbucks they know the exact drink you like.

I’m just using mine for water right now but it works great.

I have fresh water and my kitty stays out.

Check them out at your favorite Starbucks today.