Barnes & Noble Haul

The last two weeks at work were "Employee Appreciation" - meaning our discount on pretty much everything went up by another 10% - which led to me buying a few things I've had my eye on. As a book lover who works at a bookstore, my list was very long and I didn't end up getting nearly everything that I have on an ever growing list, but I am happy with what I did get! I thought I would turn it into a haul blog post for you. So let's get started.

First up: I got the Taylor Swift "1989" album on vinyl - spoiler but I'm getting a record player for Christmas and when I saw we had gotten this in at work I knew that I needed it for my first vinyl record!

Next up, an item I've been wanting since we got it in - a Frozen coffee mug! I just love the art style of Elsa and Anna here and couldn't resist - even though we already have a healthy collection of mugs. 

Next, the actual books I bought. "Girl Online" by Zoella, "East" by Edith Pattou (a book I read when I was much younger and absolutely loved and wanted to re-read), and finally a sequel to one of my favorite books, "Under the Light" by Laura Whitcomb. 

Other purchases: the new Walk the Moon CD, "Talking is Hard" - which you need to go out and buy right this minute (as well as their first album), and some Pomegranate Oolong tea. Finally, a new notebook (which I need like I need a bullet in my head, I have so many) by Riffle Paper Co. You'll probably recall I love their designs from my previous haul post. 

I went a little crazy, but considering I was saving 40% off of everything, I had to allow myself - as a Christmas treat.

Until next time,

Rose

Black Friday Haul

If you can really call it a "haul" - I only went to two places on Black Friday weekend, since I was busy working at both of my jobs to do much serious shopping. I didn't really have the money to be doing that anyway, but I was happy with the deals and sales I was able to get anyway.

On Friday, during my lunch break at Barnes & Noble, I hurried over to Bath and Body Works in the mall to hit their "Buy 3 get 3 Free" off EVERYTHING in the store.

The first thing I grabbed was one of my favorite candles - "Black Tie." 

This year it has a different, beautiful packaging that makes me so happy. It's sort of a silver and black, almost "frosty window" look to it. The scent, if you haven't smelled it, can only be described as "boy" - or rather, a sort of light cologne smell that burns wonderfully.

Next up is probably my favorite item in Bath and Body Works - and what I use every single day - the shower gels! I usually have a huge stock pile of these babies, but they had dwindled a few months ago and I usually stock up during their semi-annual sales when they are only $5 (or less!). This sale was definitely good for stocking up and will hold me over until their semi-annual around the first of the year. 

I got four shower gels. Two that are more festive: A Thousand Wishes and Sugar Plum Dream, then two that are signatures: Cashmere Glow (my absolute favorite) and French Lavender Honey. 

Finally to wrap up my purchases, I got a hand soap. Mia, Marissa and I love having soaps from Bath and Body Works both in our shared bathroom and the kitchen. This one is now in our kitchen because it would be a little....distracting if it was in the bathroom. Because this just isn't a regular hand soap - it lights up and makes noise. It's so cute and so festive and I really like the smell of Winter Candy Apple.

The only other place I went on Saturday was into Ulta after work. They had buy 1 get 1 free on OGX products - which I found I really love. I wanted to get a shampoo and conditioner of Coconut Milk, but unfortunately they only had the latter in stock. Instead I restocked my Kukui Oil curl cream (which I previously did a review on here).

I decided to grab a NYX lipstick, though they didn't have any of the matte colors that I wanted, so I decided to try out one of their regular lipsticks in "Electra," which is really pretty (ignore my chipped nail polish). 

And that just about wraps up this haul post. I hope everyone found the deals they wanted on Black Friday, stayed home on Thanksgiving to spend time with your family instead of going out shopping, and were kind to all the employees you encountered!

Until next time,

Rose

Rifle Paper Co. Haul

When I saw this Rifle Paper Co. phone case at work (Barnes & Nobles) a few months ago I fell in love with it. (It's called the Rosa.)

The roses, the colors, the gold - all of it was just perfect.

Since I can get my employee discount, I wanted to buy it right then and there, but I didn't really have spare money at the moment, so I told myself one day.

Days kept going by and I just didn't have the spare money to splurge still.

Barnes & Nobles has more Rifle Paper Co. products, such as another adorable "Hello!" Phone case, note pads and this beautiful "Hello Sunshine!" print. And oh did I want them all. If I had it my way, I would have owned these months ago, but I waited.

It seems that waiting paid off, because we started putting together clearance items about a month or so go. Our handheld devices (called PDTs) that sort books and other products give off a certain beep to let you know that you need to put it in the clearance bins. Basically, we're making room for all the product we're going to be getting for the holidays.


A cute Rifle Paper Co. recipe box (we had two in the store) was put in the bins and gone on the first day, when the discount was 50%. I wanted one, but I was not fast enough. Then I thought: huh, maybe the phone case I want is on sale, too.

And it was.









So I scanned the phone cases and discovered this and just, you know, decided not to throw them into the clearance bins. I just knew they would be bought in a second and I was still hurting for money so I just kept them where they were, sort of hidden.

I waited for the discount to keep dropping. 50%. 75%. Then finally, the day had come: everything was only $2. I also discovered another surprise: the print I had also been wanting had gone on clearance as well, so the several copies we had were just sitting there in the bin. I snatched one up and went to go make my purchases! 

So now I have both phone cases and the beautiful wall print, each for just $2. The whole purchase came out to almost $7 with tax and I just walked away from the registers with the biggest smile. I love Rifle Paper Co. so much - I visited their website to see more of their products and was just drooling the whole time. If I had more money, I'd buy one of everything.

The phone case itself (I put "Rosa" on my phone first, of course) fits perfectly and feels very sturdy. It's the Inlay case and offers a lot of protection for your phone.










If you come across anything from the Rifle Paper Co., I'd jump on buying it! I'm glad I waited and was able to score a great deal, but they really do have such beautiful designs. I'm tempted to get a calendar from their website for 2015. Their style is right up my alley: bright colors, lots of florals, and very, very cute.

Until next time, 

Rose

Lost in a Bookstore

Yesterday I ran a few errands: I had a few boxes in my car that I've been wanting to take to Goodwill, plus clothes to take to Plato's Closet and finally, a box full of books that I wanted to take to Bookman's.

If you're not in the state of Arizona, you probably won't know what Bookman's is. Basically it's a chain of used bookstores here in the state (they also sell music, records, DVDs and more) that you can take your books to and either get cash or store credit. You will definitely always get more for store credit, however.

So I dropped off my box of books - they said it would take about 15 minutes to look through them and decide if they wanted anything - and started to look around. So you may know I work in a bookstore (Barnes & Noble), but it's still amazing to me how lost I can get in them. I wanted to look at everything, as well as try to get some things I've been wanting for a while.

Something that used bookstores have that Barnes & Nobles don't is books with a story: they aren't straight from a warehouse, they've had owners before. I like to see those stories, collected under one roof.

First I found these cute notebooks that had the covers from old Harlequin books on them. I ended up buying a smaller version.

I love going through the kid's section of bookstores - I'm always on the look out for UK editions of Harry Potter, which you can sometimes find at Bookman's - but I also just love running into old favorites.

Like I said, the store has a little bit of everything.

In the end they wanted about half of the box I brought in, meaning I got $50 in store credit. I already had $11 from a previous donation so I was able to get myself a few things this trip and have $30 left over. 

                                       

Of them I got "Falling Skies" Season 1 for my mom's birthday on Friday, plus that notebook and two books:

I found this randomly and judged a book my its cover and title. It sounded great!  

This is actually one of my all time favorites. I had give my copy to someone and have been needing another for myself. 

So concluded my trip. I'll have to go to a different location with my store credit to see if they had any of the books I was looking for but couldn't find. 

Until next time, 

Rose

Afternoon Out and New Watch

I had the day off work today so I ended up messing around with this blog layout and then baking cupcakes (post for that to come tomorrow). Later in the day I went to pick Marissa up from campus after she was done with her classes. From there we went to Walgreens, to pick up some photos I sent in to get printed for scrapbooking and decorate my wall.

Next we made a horrible decision to get dinner when we were out and then made an even worse decision (because it wouldn't be Marissa and I if we didn't) and went to The Cheesecake Factory.

I got the Baja Chicken tacos and they were just amazing!

While we were at the mall to eat, I wanted to run into Charming Charlie, because I've been wanting to get a watch and get in the habit of wearing it. At work I can't carry my phone around and I'm not always near a computer, so I thought why not. I need to wear a watch. There were so many beautiful options...

But I went for this watch on clearance, so if I end up not wearing it as much, it's not as big of a waste of money. I absolutely love the color regardless.

So, I don't know if this was interesting enough to post about, but here it is!

Until next time, Rose