I don’t know how many times I’ve mentioned this before: I’m a sucker for second-hand books. Sunday’s Greenhills date would not have been complete without checking out BookSale. We walked out of there with almost a thousand pesos worth of reading material. Haha. I’ve said it before, with the books we have in this house, we would be wise getting into business to sell used books.
Apart from this pile, we got one for the boyfriend, and a PC Utilities magazine too. That last one turned out to be a good find but I’ll blog about it more some other time. Maeve Binchy is one of my favorite authors, the last one of hers that I read is Quentins.
I was excited with this particular find:
And I almost didn’t get it. After all, I still haven’t really baked anything out of The Pioneer Woman Cooks which I finally got back in February, and it’s been a long time since I took out my Field Guide to Cookies. And then there’s also my Hello, Cupcake! book that’s sitting in a dark cabinet. I just don’t want this one to meet the same fate. Besides, it’d be a waste of money to buy something and not use it.
But I opened it, and well, couldn’t put it back on the shelves:
Could you have resisted these? The Cupcake Deck has 25 cupcake recipes in individual booklets. No need to copy the recipe onto an index card. 🙂 The photos are great too. The deck makes for a nice gift. The box I got isn’t mint condition though (2nd hand remember), it’s breaking apart at the seams, but I don’t mind.
So a colleague at work sells original branded perfumes at discounted prices. We got one for the boyfriend and thought that the price was very reasonable. Specially since we’d checked out at the malls and saw that it was being sold at around 4.5k. Then a former agent of mine mentioned that he sells branded perfumes, original and still boxed, for only 1.8k, regardless of the brand. Hmmm.
Today, while walking around Greenhills, we saw at least two perfume shops that were selling the brand (CK Man) that the boyfriend just go for 2k – lower than what we got it for. The shop also carried lotions, a few make up, and even acne pills. All at very low discount prices. I just wonder how they can manage it. Even if they were able to bring in those goods tax-free, the prices in which they were being sold just makes it hard for me to imagine how they profit from it all.
I don’t need another bottle right now, but maybe in a few weeks I’ll contact my former agent and find out if I can get my favorite fragrance from him…
I was excited to get to work because I knew, my bag would be there! It wasn’t until got back home though that I was able to fully appreciate Ginger, and all the other goodies I got today.
It came in this big blue bag, wrapped in plastic. The plastic wasn’t intact anymore, which was okay. Ingrid had to check it out and pack it in her bags too (thank you so much for doing this for me girlfriend!).
Here’s the sticker on the plastic packaging. I think this is going to be my photo for the day, my 7/365:
Taking out of the blue bag, you’ll see Ginger in her dark chocolate goodness, and all those blue stuff is what you can use to make compartments inside the bag. You’re free to configure them according to your needs. It comes with a detachable strap that let’s you sling the bag across your body, for convenience while shooting. And see that cute bag charm? Love it.
Inside the pockets, I found these two cards: Epiphanie cards. They’re a source of inspiration. You could keep it or pass it on.
“If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put foundations under them” – Henry David Thoreau
“Whatever you do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius and power and magic in it.” – Johann Von Goethe
I love my bag already, I’ve arranged it and it’s ready to go with me to work tonight. 😀 I’d like to give a shout out to Madeline of support over at Epiphanie Bags, she really helped me with my questions and even went the extra mile to make sure my package would be delivered in time. Thanks Madeline, you rock! 🙂
But Ingrid didn’t just receive one package for me. There’s a second one:
Yup, I ordered the Photojojo book and added two seatbelt camera straps! Thank you Suman (who uses the signature Mom-in-Chief & Photojojo Customer Support in her emails) for helping me with my questions, and changing my order so I get two different color straps instead of just one. I love Photojojo! 🙂
These purchases definitely made a dent in my budget but they’re well worth it. Everything’s coming out from my online earnings, I don’t have to sell my timeshare as some would say (okay, I don’t have one but I do have a condo that I’m renting out, does that count? Lol). 🙂 I’m not going to be doing any online shopping anytime soon…
Oh, did you notice the green dinosaur? They just added that in free, a totally pleasant surprise! I think he’s going to be the subject of many photo shoots 🙂 Okay, he wins. He’s today’s photo for Project 365. Rawrrr!
I have put in an order for my very own Epiphanie bag, I’m going with Ginger, despite the bright attractive color of Lola. Hehe. To remind you of how it looks like:
Ginger (click the picture and check her out at their shop)
To be honest, I was reluctant to place the order.
1. The site does not accept PayPal so I had to use my Credit Card. It’s not the CC usage that got me worried; it’s just that I am supposed to be buying the bag using my online earnings.
It’s virtually free, really. Here’s why: the money I earn off my blog all goes to extra spending money. I don’t feel guilty spending it because it didn’t come from my regular salary. But, if I see the charge on my credit card bill, even if I end up withdrawing my PayPal money and use that to pay, I will feel the impact of the spending. 165 is a lot of money to spend on just one bag. Still, the boyfriend agrees with this purchase. I deserve this camera bag. Maxine deserves it. 🙂
2. The bag will be delivered to the hotel where my friends from work will be staying next week. They are travelling to Seattle for training and I grabbed the chance to save on shipping. But they’re not there yet, they leave on Sunday. Of course I had to place the order ahead of time because I can’t pay for next day shipping. I just hope all goes well with their trip (ie that it pushes through) otherwise, what will happen to my package?
But more than anything, I am excited! I can’t wait to have Ginger home in two and a half weeks! 🙂
I have more news to share. My weight loss adventures are here again. Hopefully this time I will actually shed some pounds. I didn’t end up taking any of these fat loss pills, but I am taking a meal replacement drink paired with health supplements. Today’s just the second day and unfortunately I have eaten some stuff I shouldn’t have. But I am still confident. 😉 This first stage takes five days and depending on the results, I’ll either extend it or to move on to another stage. I’d love to say more about this, but I gotta run. My eyes are droopy and I don’t want to pass off the chance to get to sleep as soon as my head hits the pillow.
I blame our client/guest for getting me bag crazy again, lol. Well no it’s not her fault really. Just before they arrived I had already seen this Coach bag that I so want to own. It’s an original and over 200 dollars. 🙁 So anyway, I happened to notice the client’s bag, it was Coach and surely it was an original so I commented on it. That’s how we learned that we both had a thing for bags, and the trip to Greenhills that weekend was sealed.
Apart from buying pearls, she got bags and boy was she able to get a good bargain. She commented that she doesn’t want to use her bags here anymore because people would think it’s not an original. I think she was shocked that there were so many replicas available, and good quality ones too. I saw several ones that I really liked. I think the bags at Greenhills have moved up a notch. They’re knockoffs but if they just remove the brand and sell them as their own brands, I’d love to buy. What I mean is that I’m not for the brand but rather the look and the feel of the bag. There’s this particularly simple leather tote that I really wanted but I was surprised that they were selling it for over a hundred dollars. I would do a double take for a knockoff that costs 5k. I saw the original Chanel in the Michka stall in the Promenade Mall and it costs a hundred thousand pesos if I remember correctly! You know what? The knockoff version actually looked better. But I still don’t want to spend that much money on the knockoff Chanel.
