Sometimes you just need a nap

This looks like a good one . I'm jealous.
(This isn't our $75 ikea couch by the way. This at the New Years cabin...in case you were wondering if we got a new "cabin fever" couch).

I heart free stuff

Today Daryl sent me an e-mail entitled: "saw this and thought of you." It contained a link to an article called "how to find free stuff." Aww, he knows me. What's better than a bargain? Free!
Yesterday I went to my first (and probably only) bridal show. When I bought dress #2, this lady approached me about signing up to come to said bridal show. While I wasn't interested in that sort of thing, I went ahead and gave her my info...I thought I'd help a promo girl out. A few days later I received an e-mail confirming my registration to this event. I noticed that normally they charge $50 to get in, PLUS there was a gift bag involved, so when the event rolled around last night, I thought, "why not?" I showed up in my uggs with my hair in a pony tail and not a stitch of makeup. I had no idea it was sort of a fancy deal. People supposedly flew in for this thing and stood in line in the cold to get in. I got there early and only waited for a short time....and it was totally worth it. I had cocktails, cupcakes, coffee, and filled a bag with all kinds of nifty promotional gear from photographers, stationary companies, honeymoon places, etc. The best part of all was when I turned in my ticket and received a huge goodie bag filled with more fun stuff. Later I learned that this particular bridal show is marketed as a luxury event for brides with discerning taste (and a lot of money to blow on one day) Even if I did not already have everything pretty much planned, I still could not take advantage of the services offered to me at this event...financially or morally. No, I can not spend 36,000 to rent an island for a weekend. No, I will not shell out $9,000 for you to photograph my special day. No, I do not need a 500 dollar tiara. Or a 5 foot tall ice sculpture centerpiece. And I certainly could not enjoy eating a cake that costs as much as my rent.
However, there were a lot of talented folks there and I can appreciate and respect their work. It's just not my cup of tea. Or pricetag. But I'm loving my swag bag!

My 15 seconds of fame

My friend Kelvin took these pictures of my very brief Ugly Betty appearance on his TV. The episode was called "A Mother of a Problem."

Face Gadget

I've been wanted to get a photofacial for a long time, but it's ridiculously expensive. To put it simply, you go in and they use lights to zap discoloration, get rid of fine lines, etc. It really does work, but it's a pretty penny. However, I think that your skin is an important investment. I get free haircuts and I don't get my nails done b/c I bite them off anyway (gross, I know....I'm trying to stop) and so I decided to splurge on my face and get the at-home version of the photofacial. It's this gadget called Tanda. I saw it at Sephora a few weeks ago, did some research and then found one on E-bay. I'll let you know if it works. I won't be posting any before and after pics though...that might be a little too up close and personal.

Happy St. Patty's Day

I celebrated today by wearing a green scarf. I had to take it off as soon as I got to the subway though because it ended up being a gorgeous sunny day. I spent the day in some lovely parts of Brooklyn promoting a deli that's new to the area:
That's me. It looks like I gained 20 pounds, but I'm just wearing a puffy coat and like, 3 sweaters because this picture was taken on a much colder day. For the most part, it was pretty fun. However, everyone thought that we were giving away sandwiches or ice cream, and were pretty disappointed to found out that our fancy bike-cart was filled with menus.

Wedding update: Daryl has a ring and a suit, (and some ties in the mail coming from a place called 3 Buck Ties...hopefully one of them will work) and I have found shoes (my "something blue" at 70% off), earrings (amyhatch.etsy.com) and a polaroid camera. I also got a nifty new high tech face gadget that I will write about tomorrow because I need to wake up in a few hours to get to Brooklyn. People need my menus!

I had a bad feeling about that place

The marketing company I freelance with has been sending me to work in the most ghetto parts of NYC. This is unusual, because clients we work for usually do not target this particular demographic. Some of the neighborhoods have been lively and the people are lovely, but many of them have been awful and it has not been a great experience. We never feel endangered or anything, and we're always out in groups during the day. However, I just turned on the news and saw a shot of a restaurant on a very familiar looking street corner. I said, "Hey, I think I flyered on that corner for a few hours yesterday" The news anchor proceeded to confirm that, yes, it was indeed the exact intersection we were at yesterday and that four people were shot there this afternoon. Then they showed shots of blood all over the sidewalk. Not cool.
I'd so much rather work in Time Square. Or a street fair in Long Island. Or a mall in New Jersey. Or in a blue dot suit.

Coffee!!!

I love kitchen stuff, and if I actually had a real kitchen to put things in, my cabinets and countertops would be filled with them. Sadly, there is simply nowhere to store all of the useless gadgets and appliances that I long for. However, today I made room for this very special machine:

This is the Keurig B60, a one touch single cup brewing system. It makes coffee, tea and hot chocolate with the touch of a button. So far I love this thing. My coffee addiction is relatively new. I'm pretty sure it comes from having to wake up at ridiculous times of the day on a regular basis.

Alright, that's it....kinda dorky but I had to share because I'm just really excited about my new coffee machine.

Shopping Online

I've never been a big internet shopper. I like the immediate gratification of seeing something, picking it up and taking it home immediately. However, I've turned to the web after realizing that it's the only way I'm going to get everything done. In my quest for wedding day jewelry, I discovered this wonderful website: etsy.com, an online marketplace for buying & selling all things handmade. I also bought a used polaroid camera on ebay. Did you know that Polaroid no longer makes instant cameras? Crazy, right? My kids won't know what a polaroid camera is!

Working

This week was all about bringing home some paychecks...no auditions. Unless you want to count the go-see I went to on Tuesday. I went in, talked to a camera about how I feel about my eyelashes, had my eyes photographed, and was given a couple of tubes of product that's supposed to make my eyelashes grow. In a few weeks, they're going to call me to see how it's working. If all goes well, I might be in my first infomercial. Woohoo! Every actor's dream! It would be pretty cool if the stuff actually works.

While I consider myself to be an odd job wondergirl, the bulk of my income since I've moved to NYC has come from the promotional marketing field. I get hired by different marketing agencies to promote their clients' products and services to the public. This has consisted of everything from distributing beer samples in bars to handing out bags of potato chips in the streets to demonstrating home gutter systems at a trade show. Sometimes it's a lot of fun and sometimes it's sort of torturous. No matter what, it has proven to be the most lucrative and flexible job for me at this time. This past week, I represented a cable service one day and a cellular phone company for the following few days.

I'll tell you what, it's easy for me to save money when I do this type of work. If I see something I want, I think to myself, "Is this pair of shoes/cute shirt/latte worth 1 day/2 hours, or even 15 minutes of this:"








The answer is usually NO!

(and yes, this really is me. It was very hot in there and some teenage boys tried to knock me down.)

Snow Day

Last week it felt like spring and today you could build a snowman on the sidewalk. They had to cancel NYC public schools today for the first time since 2004. Daryl's class was canceled and so we decided to tromp around the city in search of: a wedding ring for Daryl, plates, a cake stand and a Butter Lane cup cake. Our mission was a total bust! It turns out, Daryl has very particular wedding band taste. Who knew? The plates were ridiculously out of our price range and the cake stand was too small. At least we had our cupcake to look forward too.....



Or Not. Seriously! At 3 in the afternoon? Hmmm...maybe they actually took a snow day.