A new look at the world of glasses. (Pun intended)

Since I was about 13/14 I have worn glasses, then a couple years ago contacts as well.
Up until this year I did not have vision insurance and as you know, glasses are not cheep.
Maybe you've heard of discount sites for glasses and been skeptical. After all, who wants to buy something that they're going to wear everyday without trying it on first?
Or maybe you're the type of person who likes a brand name on the side of their glasses. It's ok, you don't have to admit it out loud.
For the second time I have had a fantastic experience with Zenni optical.
The home of glasses starting at... DRUMROLL....$6.95
Nope. Not missing a digit or two. And yes, that includes the lenses.
Crazy right?
Take a look at these two pairs of glasses. Which were from Zenni optical for under $20 and which were from BJ's at a discounted price of $160 before lenses?

The answer to which is from Zenni?
The second pair.

Personally my insurance only covers contacts or glasses,not both for the year. So I picked contacts.
I'm super happy with my new glasses and it took less than two weeks (comparable time frame to when I've ordered in store before). At a great price point, you could even get multiple different styles and even prescription sunglasses.

Ebates (my best friend when shopping online) is also offering 4% back on any Zenni purchases.

Also if you're doing any shopping online today, they are offering double percentage back at many stores.

Product review time! Entering the world of eye cream.

Last week the makers of Valentia True Glow Eye Cream reached out to me so I cold test their product. I love testing products. And I love giving my opinions. Don't we all?

What really stuck out to me when I read up this was that it is vegan friendly and 98% natural ingredients. Even though I have dark circles and redness under my eyes and near the bridge of my nose,I typically used concealer to cover it up. This stuff changed the game. The cream has a mild tint to it and had a way of almost acting like a concealer. Totally unexpected. 

It wore fantastic under my foundation,it did actually seem to firm up my skin somehow and I was really tempted to use it on my entire face. I used some leftover (one pump is more than enough for both eyes) for my nose and saw great results in taking care of the redness.  I don't always notice the tingling feeling when I apply it but sometimes I do. I love feeling stuff work its magic!

As someone with skin that tends to have an extremely oily reaction to heavy products,I was worried when I saw this had a lotion type consistency. But it soaks in super fast and I have yet to notice any extra oil in that area.  

I feel like this bottle will last me a very long time and so far, I'm really enjoying it.

* Disclaimer
I received this product for free in exchange for my honest review of the product. All of my opinions are that of my own. I was not paid in any way.

Home sweet Pinterest home

I am sooooo guilty of a Pinterest addiction. I am also guilty of starting a home decor project and not finishing it.
I have finally been stubborn enough about my latest one to finish it. Our living room feature wall.



    It all started a few weeks ago I picked up some amazing clearance finds at Target. These awesome multi-picture frames. (Also another 5x7 frame that is no longer on their website)

Did I pay those prices?
Who do you think I am?! Of course not. Clearance at my local Target brought them down to $3 and $5. SCORE.

For prints I tend to order from Snapfish. The coupon codes are always fantastic! Plus Ebates is offering 10% back currently.
Example of some pricing with coupon codes

I then headed over to Tj Maxx clearance and found some adorable wood letters that even had holes in the back for hanging. Made hanging them up super easy.
But I needed an "&" for between the letters. I looked no further than Pinterest. A quick search for "printable free wall art" and a trip to Dollar Tree for a cute 4x6 basic frame.
Here is the site I printed my "&" from
http://smittenonpaper.com/blog/free-download-wall-art-collage/

I also LOVE this site for free printables!
http://chicfetti.com/free-printables/
I used this site for a cute monogram wedding planner cover and also the same graphic I used for our wedding shower cake inspiration. Just took the store making the cake the print out and they copied and printed it like they would typically print a picture on the cake. I've also used cute decor printables for other rooms in our house.

With the help of a couple pre-existing wall art pieces,this is the finished project!

Victoria Secret reward card mail-in is back!!

These mail-in promos make me into a crazy monster. My poor husband having to deal with all the entries I'm writing out,going insane if I forget to mail one each day,and then furiously checking my email for codes to be sent. The first time I received 5 at one time he probably thought I won a million dollars from my excitement. Sorry babe...just a $10 VS gift card. Same difference.

Here's all the official deets!

https://www.victoriassecret.com/secret-rewards-official-rules


There is a substantial difference in it this time though!

:All eligible entrants who are residents of the US, PR and Canada may enter by mail during Period 3 without making a purchase by legibly hand-printing your full name, address, valid email address, and date and year of birth on a 4” x 6” piece of paper, and mailing it, along with a legibly handwritten, self-addressed, stamped envelope with sufficient return postage and a return address, including first and last name, street address, city, state and ZIP or postal code, both in a sealed outer envelope with proper postage to Victoria's Secret Secret Reward Promotion, P.O. Box 139024, Dallas, TX 75313 (“General Access Mail-In Entry”). Outer envelope of General Access Mail-in Entry must be postmarked by March 28, 2016, and received by April 4, 2016 in order to be eligible.

• v.Once your fully completed eligible mail-in entry is received, you will be sent one (1) Secret Reward Card via postal mail in approximately fifteen (15) business days (i.e. excluding Saturdays, Sundays and holidays) from the date the mail-in entry was received. Mail-in entries, including both outer envelope and self-addressed, stamped envelope, must be handwritten. Each mail-in entry must be mailed in a separate stamped outer mailing envelope (i.e. more than one entry may not be mass mailed in one envelope). Each outer envelope must include a return address in the upper left hand corner that matches the requestor's street address indicated on 4” x 6” piece of paper included in the mail-in entry. Requests from Vermont (“VT”) residents that are postmarked in VT may omit return postage. Requests that are sent in business reply envelopes, that utilize address labels or stickers (for any address), that are photocopied, hand-stamped, computer-generated or otherwise mechanically or digitally produced or reproduced, or that otherwise fail to comply with these Official Rules will NOT be honored, acknowledged or returned, and the persons submitting such requests will forfeit any corresponding postage and envelopes. All entries become the exclusive property of Sponsor and will not be acknowledged or returned. Proof of sending or submission will not be deemed to be proof of receipt by Sponsor.

No more emailed codes. I'm not sure if this is a better or worse system than last time. As long I can still put them into a gift card app and use them all at the same time,I'll be happy.
Good thing I saved the leftover entries I wrote out from last time.

Here are the last two posts I wrote more about this promo.

http://savvysunshinewife.blogspot.com/2015/10/free-secret-rewards-card-from-vs.html

http://savvysunshinewife.blogspot.com/2015/12/secret-rewards-card-follow-up.html

Even after I wrote the follow up post, I got a few more codes emailed to me. The VS I used them at was a bit more skeptical of the app I had them stored in. Hopefully it's not such a hassle this time!!


Edit: A friend pointed out that the rules do state that you cannot use any gift card app and lists them specifically. Looks like this is going to be a frustrating redemption if all you get is $10 cards.

At home gel nails for CHEEP. And some other recent favorites for under $10

I love a good manicure. When I was single,living at home and working a decent job...I got manicures fairly regularly. Life changes,now I'm married and that's just not in the budget currently. When I did get manicures.I really liked splurging for gel because they lasted substantially longer. A few days before my wedding I got a gel mani and it looked flawless for a good two weeks, last through our honeymoon. Since then I've been on the hunt for a good at home gel manicure kit. The light systems aren't always cheep so I started out with just a two step polish hunt. I tested some products sent to me that were gel and also bought a few different kinds at target.

My overall absolute favorite is Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Duo. It's around $15 for the kit but once you buy the kit, you can use the gel topcoat with any other color in the line. My box came with a $2 off coupon inside..and it was on clearance at target for $7. STEAL OF A DEAL.
This one doesn't need a special light....so no further investment than the polish.

Day 5

On the same topic of nails I spotted these at DOLLAR TREE (take your jaw off the floor please).

The exact same product sells for $10.25 at Walgreens!

http://www.walgreens.com/store/c/essie-sleek-stick-nail-applique/ID=prod6177354-product

I will warn you, they're not at every Dollar Tree. I found the above at a hugeee Dollar Tree in Tennessee but locally at the newer and bigger stores they do typically have a small selection. 

Moving from nails to face..

The Maybelline Fit Me line is just a hidden gem... buy it at Walmart for the best deal.

Walmart tends to have it for just under $6 and the concealer priced about the same.

It has replaced my Mac foundation. That how much I am in love with it.

The concealer comes in a wide variety of shades and works great for contouring as well.

I have not heard a single negative review about this foundation....and I've watched alot of YouTubers review it. And I mean a lot.

Side note: I've heard if you have an older bottle it can start to do some weird things color wise. I've had mine for a bit now and I am starting to noticing some orange-ing as the day goes on. For under $6 a bottle I don't mind replacing it, and foundation shouldn't be kept forever anyways. So if that does happen to you, you're not the only one.

While I was on the hunt for the new Maybelline Dream Velvet foundation I found THIS crazy clearance at Target... Maybe Dream Velvet is replacing it??

I really hope not because I am loving this!! 

The weird wand applicator means you don't use to much at one time.

When you swatch it in the store it looks crazy dark..like hello, there is no way I'm lighter than #40 Nude. But after application and blending it was impressively close to my natural color. Even got the husband seal of approval for color match!! 

The same day I was browsing for something new and exciting I picked up this palate after hearing surprising good reviews.

The packaging feels like more than $3

I've been using this for a good two weeks and you can't even tell. So this is gonna last me a very long time. ELF can be a super win or a super disappointment. This was a $3 SUPER win. Contouring is a new and scary thing to me but I am easing into it with this super simple palate.

In case you were wondering,I am still keeping up with the "anti cleanser" challenge!

I've had ZERO breakouts and my husband said my face has never looked better!

Still working on finding a make up remover wipe I really love...so coconut oil is doing the job until then. And just maybe,It will stay that way.

~Emily~

Knoxville on points! And our first official experience with IHG points.

Minor backtrack to a time a couple of months ago....

Hubby had surgery scheduled. Thank goodness for good insurance. Minus not the best out patient coverage. Cheep doctor co-pays had me fooled.
So I thought, we're gonna make the best out of this and take advantage of a good sign-on bonus. IHG won. 80,000 points later...here we are. A long weekend in Knoxville booked via the point breaks list.
Total of 15,000 points spent. (Possible chance of getting 11,000 points back via the Accelerate program...waiting on confirmation on that.)

My targeted offers

We picked the Holiday Inn Express & Suites in Oak Ridge from the point breaks list.
http://www.ihg.com/holidayinnexpress/hotels/us/en/oak-ridge/okrit/hoteldetail

We were really impressed with the cleanliness of this hotel and the staff. We stayed in some Holiday Inn Suites in Alaska and this was just as nice,if not even nicer.

Thanks to our platinum elite status, we got a free suite upgrade. (And early check in...an amazing thing after driving all night and getting there at 10:30 am) If you really wanted to, you could share this room with two other people and get even BETTER value for the 5,000 points a night. Maybe even book half the night on their points and half on yours.


The hotel was just over 20 minutes from Knoxville and and hour and a half from Gatlinburg.
Knoxville had a fair amount of things to do, but if Gatlinburg or Pigeon Forge comes up on the list next time,I would recommend them over Knoxville. Unless the Holiday Inn that sits in downtown Knoxville was on the list. It was surprisingly huge. And has two room suites.
There is also Candlewood Suites that goes for 10,000 points a night that is a little closer to downtown Knoxville than our hotel was.

Gatlinburg and PF are both more "tourist friendly" in my opinion.
In general, there is more to do and see.
They're also a lot closer to the mountains.













Our Knoxville Highlights?

Babalu Tacos and Tapas

Ijams Nature Center

Who knew a marble quarry would be so cool?

The end verdict was that we got a great trip for an amazing value. I think I'm obsessed with vacationing based of the point breaks list!! That does means you can't plan a trip to far in advance,but I think despite that, it's most definitely worth it. Especially I we get 11,000 points back from this trip.

2016. The year of the shopping game changer.

Ladies. Take a seat. We have a problem. We shop. A lot. We get it on sale,we justify it. We buy it online and justify it while it takes 4 days do show up at our door. I'm guilty too. We all are. 
What if we could be more environmentally friendly about HOW we shop. (Notice I didn't say shop less.) That is my 2016 game changer. From January 1st on I have made a pact with myself that I will try to not buy any clothing or shoes unless it's second hand,thrift,resale,etc....
I tried this out at the end of 2015 with ThredUp ,Yerdle and Poshmark and was extremely happy with the results. About 40% of what I bought on these sites were still new with the tag on them.
Not to mention all the money you save buying second hand!! 
According to ThredUp
https://www.thredup.com/resale

With this pact I've made, I've also decided to clean out my closet. For every new thing that goes in,one old has to come out. Some things will be donated,others will be sold online in second hand clothing apps and then a few will be mailed to ThredUp.

Sounds like a good challenge right? Nothing more than window shopping at malls. No more Eshakti orders...and my JustFab membership will be canceled.
Care to join me?! I thought so. Here are the referral link to my favorite sites to get started. I have personally bought from each of these and had fantastic experiences!

http://www.thredup.com/r/MWNI1A


https://poshmark.com/   Referral Code when you sign up VIA THE APP  JPHVZ



https://yerdle.com/i/emily-flemer

I am new to Schoola so come join me over there!

https://www.schoola.com/stitch?ref=cp-3X8srwW6N
In conjunction with this,I've been using Ebates when I shop ThredUp. Absolutely genius! Why didn't I do this ages ago.... and the browser plugin makes it effortless.

http://www.ebates.com/rf.do?referrerid=Swmtd4dxfMnW5WaBBbObjA%3D%3D&eeid=28187