Mini Pre Christmas shopping haul

There's no way I can be the only gal guilty of going Christmas shopping and applying the "one for you two for me" ideology.  I'll be the first to admit that I may have soaked my sorrows in a bit of retail therapy this holiday season. With one child living many miles away while serving in the Air Force this will be our first Christmas with no children living at home, so it just "feels" different this year. It's more than fair to say that I've had no problems occupying a portion of my idle time with some good ole fashioned shopping, here's a peek into my mini pre-Christmas shopping haul.

I love this fragrance, RiRi by Rihanna is such a sweet, fruity fragrance. I tend to change up my scents through the work week but I've been reaching for RiRi day after day. I purchased a set that included a full size perfume along with a rollerball and smaller version of the full size. I thought I'd be reaching for the rollerball to touch up my fragrance throughout the day but this scent has staying power and my husband loves it also. If your into floral, fruity scents, give your girl Rihanna a test drive.


While shopping with my hubby a stylish pair of Timberland boots caught my eye. After trying them on I thought they'd be a fun addition to my weekend wardrobe. Also this feminine take on Timberlands will have me walking in style and despite the high heel the padded foot bed makes them very comfortable. I test drove these lovely ladies on casual Friday at work and a trip to the grocery store and I must say they are extremely comfortable and I just love the look, they get an A+ in my book!

I...love...accessories. I love accessories so much that I won't bother to capture all the accessories I purchased thanks to a visit to DFW this past weekend. For those of you who don't know DFW stands for Discount Fashion Warehouse and it's based in Columbus, OH. In short, it's basically a warehouse of discounted, out of season, possibly irregular merchandise from Limited, Express, Victoria's Secret, Cacique, etc. One could very well spend hours going through racks of clothing in search of deals but since my eyes were on accessories I was able to find a several gems that fit my needs perfectly.  In the winter months I'm a scarf lady and at $5 a pop for a luxury scarves I snatched up several. I also found a great leather belt for $5 and few pairs of fun, colorful earrings that will look great on the beach for our vacation next month. Couple these deals with a cute handmade scarf and headband I received in the mail this week from one of my favorite Etsy shops "One Stitch Away" as well as some cheap rhinestone headbands I grabbed from eBay all I can say is "Merry Christmas to me"! As many of you know headbands are one way I'm able to spice up protective styles with a bit of fancy.

My Ebay headbands as well as my handmade scarf and headband from Etsy

Full disclosure: I'm one of those people that has most of their Christmas shopping done before Thanksgiving day so in all fairness my little splurges didn't get in the way of putting deep thought into meaningful gifts for my loved ones. Now, don't mistake that disclaimer as an admission of guilt, I took the opportunity to treat myself as we all need to do every once in awhile.  This week I'm looking forward to baking Christmas cookies for the kiddos to decorate, watching my favorite Christmas movies (and catching the new Star Wars flick with the hubs) as well as preparing a feast for the family. The dynamics of our family has changed but my heart is perfectly full this holiday season and for me, that's about as good as it gets.