If you follow me on Twitter then you have seen me tweeting with the hashtag #DisneySMMoms.  SM stands for Social Media, in case you had other things in mind.  I’m going to a Social Media Moms Celebration at Disney World (check the badge to the left) and I’m really excited because #1 I love Disney World and #2 I get to meet other women in social media.  This time my family is going with me and my mother too.

Like my other recent trip to Disney World, it’s tricky packing the right clothes for business and pleasure while still being comfortable enough to navigate the parks and since it is a media event and it’s highly possible to be on film, fashionable and cute too.   I decided on my outfits last week, but still needed to pick up a few things, so I went shopping yesterday.

My first stop was TJ Maxx.  It’s always hit or miss, but if you hit it good there are deals to be had.  I hit it on a good day.  I went there for a black skinny belt and found a Michael Kors belt for $14.99.  Nice, because I hate paying a lot of money for a belt.  Next I needed a container for my puppy’s toys and I found one to match my living room.  Check; that was off my list.   I really should have left then because that’s all I had come to buy.  But you know TJ Maxx is perfect for finding things that you never knew you needed, like a new brush for the puppy.    And body scrub, I could always use that.   Didn’t I just lose my small umbrella?  I found another one to replace it.    Hmmm…we could use another piece of luggage for our trip and how about I found matching luggage to my laptop bag that I bought online months ago?  That was just spooky.   TJ Maxx is like that; sometimes it’s a bust, but sometimes they have everything you need want didn’t know you needed, but had to have anyway.

Next door was Old Navy.  Ugg, I hate that store.   It has a certain smell when you walk in, you know?  I think I identified it as rubber.  It’s all those cheap flip-flops giving off fumes; they are on display now even though it’s freezing outside.   I went in there because I needed some sweat pants for the drive to Disney World; I don’t really own any sweat pants except for cute Lucky Brand capris and it’s too cold to wear them.   Old Navy, as usual, was a bust for me.   The sweat pants were too big and too much money for how cheap they looked.

Gap, big brother to Old Navy, would have some sweat pants I thought.   Since the puppy was at daycare and I had time to spare, I went to the mall, thinking that I would go straight to Gap and still make it home in time for lunch.   Gap didn’t have sweats either, just yoga pants.   I must say that I used to love Gap, but it has been rather disappointing to me the last few years.  Just “meh”.

Ahhh, but there is one store that never disappoints me and that’s Anthropologie.  I LOVE THAT STORE–the merchandise, the layout, the smells; it is truly a shopping paradise.   It wasn’t crowded yet so I poked around and found a really cute necklace on sale; it will complete on of my Disney outfits perfectly.

A relatively new store to our mall is Madewell.  I had low expectations, thinking that it was going to be like American Eagle or something similarly teen-booperish, but I was pleasantly surprised; it’s like a well-edited, more fashionable Gap.  I didn’t buy anything this time, but I have bought a great-fitting tee from there.  I’m really digging Madewell.

On the way to the mall my iPod car adaptor cassette tape died, so next I went to the Apple store.  I think my husband feels the same way about the Apple store that I do about Anthropologie; he can stay in there forever just soaking up the atmosphere.    I hung for a bit, longer than I usually would shopping alone, because I needed a new iPhone case.   An Apple employee took great pleasure in helping me choose a new case, opening up the packages and actually putting them on my phone for my approval.  It was a very pleasant experience.

By now it’s lunchtime and I am too hungry to go home to eat.  The Corner Bakery is right across the hall, but I’ve been impressed by Panera Bread’s new menu, so I head there instead.   I decide on the Fuji Apple Salad, but since there is a long line I  look up the nutrition information while I wait.   This is when I just love my iPhone even more than I normally do, which is pretty darn much.    By taking a few minutes to look up that information, I was able to make a better choice of ordering the Asian Sesame Chicken Salad instead.

My last stop was J. Crew.   I want to shop at J. Crew; their catalog models always look so freshly scrubbed and happy, but for a few exceptions the clothes really aren’t my style and I just need to quit fighting it.   It’s like when I was a teenager in Minnesota wearing Izod sweaters and penny loafers; it wasn’t me then and it’s not me now.   I bought a tee shirt yesterday, against my better judgement, and now I have to take it back because it looks hideous on me.   I just need to stick with the shoes and accessories at J. Crew and leave the clothes to others.   Ironically, Madewell, the new store that I like, is owned by the same company that owns J. Crew.

So all in all, despite the tee that I have to return to J. Crew and the sweat pants that I didn’t find, it was a good shopping day.  I love when that happens!

My daughter had gotten quite a bit of wear out of her fall clothes the last couple of years and I only had to add a few pieces here and there, but this year she finally grew out of those clothes and had to get a whole new wardrobe.  Typically I buy 80% of her clothes from Mini Boden, 20% from Nordstrom and all of her jeans from GapKids; it’s pretty easy to shop for her this way.   This year I was disappointed to find that she can’t fit Mini Boden shirts because she is at the top of the combined size (i.e. they size 7/8 and she wears an 8…she wore their 7/8 size last year) and she needed shirts more than anything.   I went to GapKids where there was nothing exciting to buy but jeans.  Bloomingdale’s, Gymboree and Lucky Brand Kids were all a bust too.   My fail-safe, the place that never lets me down–Nordstrom–didn’t even have fall clothes out yet (it was mid-September; they really need to rectify their buying schedule).    What was I going to do?

Luckily it stays hot in Georgia most of September, so I had some time to surf around….and around and around.  It was so hard finding cute clothes for my daughter online!  FINALLY I found LaBella Flora Children’s Boutique and this is where I bought most of her new clothes.  They have the cutest clothes for baby girls all the way up to age 14!   I have seen some of the brands they carry, like Flowers By Zoe, at Bloomingdale’s and Nordstrom, but never so much in one place.   And I was introduced to some new children’s designers that I had never heard of, but will be looking for again in the future.  My daughter had a great time picking out her clothes, but had to have a limit or she would have gotten so much more.   Bottoms from Mini Boden and dark-washed skinny jeans from GapKids completed her wardrobe.    Per her instructions, all her pants and jeans had to be skinny this year.   My only rule is that she had to be able to move comfortably in her pants; they couldn’t be so skinny to prevent her from running, playing and sitting “criss-cross applesauce” on the floor.

Thankfully she can still wear her red peacoat and polka-dot green dressier coat from Mini Boden that I bought last year, so that’s an expense saved.   Converse are her shoes of choice so she got 2 pair of low-top Chucks in navy and in gray from Zappos.com.    Short tan moccasin boots from local children’s shoe store, Sprong, and black suede slouchy Steve Madden boots from Nordstrom gives her choices for different looks.  Sadly she can’t wear UGGs this year because of the sizing.   I got most of her tights and leggings from Target, but look at these cute socks I bought from Mini Boden; they are packaged so nicely that they could be a gift.

Excited to finally receive all her clothes in the mail, Girly put on a fashion show for Funkidivagirl.com readers.

She loves this 2 piece Flowers By Zoe outfit.  What’s not to love; it’s tie-dyed and has a blinging peace sign!

This Hannah Banana 2 piece outfit is her favorite; it’s very rocker-chick chic.  I like that she can wear it dressed up with the boots or to school with the Chucks.

This shirt by Morfs is super cool.  The candy necklace is made from recycled fleece and the sleeves are tie-dyed tube socks.  The silver belt is Mini Boden as is the orange plush cord skirt.  The funki gray leopard tights are from Target.

Here’s the same orange Mini Boden skirt, Boden purple leggings and a shirt made by Lemon.  The smiley faces are studded; so cute!

The same Lemon shirt with green “Funky Slim Fit Jeans” (gotta love the name!) from Mini Boden.  She loves these pants; I think that they will be getting a lot of wear!

The same green Mini Boden pants with a Flowers By Zoe shirt.  Do you see a theme here, tie-dye and peace signs?  I swear I had nothing to do with it!

Another Flowers By Zoe shirt with another pair of Mini Boden pants, this time in a brown cord.

This Flowers By Zoe hoody is in the same vein as the shirt; it has a cool design on the back as well.  She will wear this as a fall jacket everyday to school.

You might remember this skirt from a shopping trip with Girly this summer; I wanted her to wear it in the fall as well, so I found this Flowers By Zoe shirt to match.  The peace sign has rhinestones.  I wish that I could wear it…bling and peace signs, that’s my thing!

Of course all of the shirts can be worn with her skinny jeans or denim skirt from GapKids, so she has lots of options.  My husband calls Girly “my little doll” because I like to dress her up, but hey, she needed clothes; right?  I can’t let her walk around naked and cold.   So she might as well look cute!

When the Nordstrom catalog arrived in the mail a few weeks ago several items caught my eye, but one pair of shoes in particular made me drool.  The catalog page wasn’t even highlighting the shoes–it was about shawls–that’s how powerful these shoes were to me; they just leapt off the page.

So, on a shopping excursion to buy my daughter some new fall boots, I brought in my ripped out catalog page and asked about the shoes.   Trying them on, I fell in love even more.  While the heel is very high, it’s also a platform so the shoes are relatively easy to walk in.   And the inside…ahhh…they feel like butter.   They looked so cute on my feet that several shoppers stopped and admired them; one lady even bought a pair in black.  The price gave me pause, but thanks to the generosity of my mother-in-law I had a nice gift card in my wallet that I supplemented with the last of my PB & J money.

Nordstrom didn’t have my size in stock, but they ordered them from a different store and mailed the shoes to me without a shipping charge.   I just got them in the mail yesterday and I can’t wait to wear them if it ever cools down here in Atlanta…..maybe I’ll rock them at Blogalicious!

I have joined a new group: PB & J For Purses.  Well, there is only 1 founding member, me, but you are welcome to join!  The mission of PB & J For Purses is to free up disposable income for the purpose of buying purses (or shoes or make-up or whatever gets your groove on).  Each week I get an allowance to use for lunch, tea at Starbuck’s, books, etc., but I have found that if I eat lunch at home (PB & J is always good), brew my own tea and get my books from the library, pretty soon I have saved up enough money to buy something better than a gourmet salad.  Accessories are my thing, so most of my PB & J money goes to purses, boutique jewelry, watches and sometimes shoes.

After a recent movie date with Girly to see G-Force (oy!) we did a bit of shopping.  First I bought this large wristlet from the new Coach Poppy Collection.  I think that the size and color will be perfect for my upcoming beach resort get-away; big enough to hold my iPhone, room key and lip gloss but still fabulous.  And you know I like the bling!

Speaking of lip gloss, I made a quick dip into Sephora to pick up a new tube of Fresh Sugar Desire.

As I have said before, I always manage to find funki gear and good deals at Belk.  I know, I know–it’s hard to believe–Belk?–but it’s true!  I just love my new Dolce Vita sandals and they are even more lovable at 60% off; my daughter says that they look like a summer version of my favorite Minnetonka boots.

See? Membership has it’s privileges.

Independence Day, July 4th, starts my official birthday countdown; exactly 1 month until August 4th.  I just LOVE my birthday!  When I was little it used to suck that my birthday was in the summertime because I never got to celebrate at school like the other kids, but now I love it because it usually means that I am on vacation somewhere.  If I do happen to be at home, I like to have several celebrations: one with my family, one with friends and one by myself.  As for gifts, well I’ve given up hope long ago that I will get what I really want, so I just plan to buy it myself.    Here’s what’s on my list so far:

Over the past couple of years I’ve come to accept that I like buying watches; after all, they are just bracelets that tell time, and I love bracelets.  I have about 3 watches now that I currently wear, and I could for sure use another one.  I saw this Toy Watch at Nordstrom last week and think it will look fabulous on me; I love that it looks like a tattoo!

I’m not really a designer purse-type of person, but I do like Coach wristlets; they are the perfect size for the times when I want to just carry my phone, i.d., a credit card, cash and lip gloss–like when I’m on vacation.   I love the look of the wild new Poppy print!

Aunt Micki, now she always listened to my gift requests and a few years ago she bought me a Juicy Couture bracelet along with a lion charm (for Leo, the lion).  Since then more charms have been added: cherries, a peace sign, lipstick, a take-out coffee cup and a diamond ring.   I think that I will make a habit of buying a new charm every birthday; this year I am looking at the popsicle or dog.

That’s a good start.  I’m sure by August 4th that I will find even more things to celebrate me!