Hello friends!
I hope all is well out in the virtual world. As for me, I’ve been battling some kind of wacky sickness all week. I get fever, feels like I’m swallowing broken glass, hacking, but the side effects are that I’m incredibly happy and overjoyed. Honestly, I think I did myself a solid by “hiding” folks on Social Media back in July. This has helped to improve my mood and mostly kept me out of the loop during this election. For the rest of you, thank you for your honesty, tenderness, wit, joy, and humor during that time.

Back to the topic at hand…Rent the Runway & The Dallas Margarita Society

I am really big into philanthropy. If you know me, you know this. I also like when players in the philanthropic world unite socially. One of the biggest charitable events of the year here in Dallas is the black-tie, by-invitation-only, Dallas Margarita Ball* put on by The Dallas Margarita Society. I work and am friends with a member of DMS, so I was invited. Naturally, after securing a sitter for our girls, I fretted quite a bit last year over what to wear and after being there, I had more perspective. Granted, wearing an old bridesmaid dress would have sufficed, actually. Nothing is too opulent or over the top. So, what did I wear? I wore a long black gown from White House Black Market and Don wore a black suit. This is what we looked like:


There were so many gorgeous frocks and gowns. I was more impressed with everyone’s creativity. Dallas really does know how to step it up and step out! As a result, this year, I wanted to try to stay away from black and go with some real color. Well, I didn’t want to commit to a color for long term. I’ve bought plenty of bridesmaid dresses, a few of which I only wore on the wedding day. As a last resort for this year, I was going to pull one of those out and make it work, until I found Rent the Runway. I signed up, logged in, was welcomed with a coupon code, and after browsing their site and marking several items as favorites, I had a stronger idea of what I was going to wear. The next week, I culled it down to a handful of gowns and shared my choices with friends. They each gave me their feedback and I chose a vibrantly colored number. I was unsure if the length would suffice my height, but the best part about RTR is that they allow you a 2nd gown of the same style but a different size. I knew I was keeping my size, but instead, I chose the longer version. Speaking of size, I tend to waver on size and I was scared to death that the gown would not fit!!

I had to wait for a month before the event. During that time, I made sure to exercise and eat right so that I could maintain some semblance of the figure I would need to wear the gown. The day came for delivery. The night before, I had fever and chills and woke up with a ridiculous sore throat. (like I mentioned before) But then I remembered it was delivery day and the giant pile of work I had waiting for me, so I sucked it up and went in to the office. That afternoon, I was welcomed with this delivery!!

Inside were the two gowns on a hanger, each with their own plastic wrap similar to clothes returned from the dry cleaner. Additionally, they were wrapped in a long, vinyl travel bag. Hanging on one of the gowns were instructions for returning my items. Items, because I also rented the bracelet. It was a surprise, because I had the option to add on an accessory for a lower price. Finally, there was a large UPS pre-paid bubble wrapped envelope for me to use to return my rentals. They only requested that each item be placed inside of their plastic wrapping which had the barcoded label.

I tried on the gown and initially, it wouldn't zip up!!!! Plus, I was grateful for the longer choice because the shorter one would have been much too short. When I got home, I told Don of my issue to zip up. This time, I took off my bra (you really can't wear one with this dress) and it zipped right up. I was still able to move and dance with ease, so this was EXCITING!!

Tomorrow night, I will wear a $1500 Carlos Miele “Cerulean Duchess” gown, paired with a $210 Lee Angel “Wrapped in Elegance” bracelet, for way less than 10% of the cost of the gown. I’m not going to have to worry about cleaning the gown, what to wear---fretting about the day before or the day of, and I won’t have another special event frock taking up space in my already limited closet space. I am INCREDIBLY excited!

As for my Beloved…he is stepping it up a notch and we purchased a Calvin Klein tux, with accessories and shoes for 50% off total price (thank you Men's Wearhouse!). Now that I know about RTR, I’m looking for any excuse to rent a nice frock. I already have a couple in mind for upcoming holiday events! Check them out!

*The Dallas Margarita Society, Inc., (d.b.a. Dallas Children’s Charities) was formed in 1977 when a small group of business acquaintances decided to host a holiday party for associates and friends.
The Society is a 501(c)(3) non-profit charitable organization whose goals are twofold.  The first is to provide at-risk Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex children with gifts at Christmas time and the second is to help those community organizations that work with at-risk children throughout the year.
The Dallas Margarita Ball has grown over the years and is now believed to be the largest annual invitation only charity black tie gala in the world, providing gifts for more than 6,800 at-risk children each year.
 

I was not compensated to write this post. I just wanted to share a good idea with all of you. If you click my referral link, you will receive $20 off a $100 rental!

Kroger Cart Busting Sale: Preparing for Cooler Weather

I live in Texas. Up until last week, we have been having 90 degree weather. All of my summer clothes have been out and I've been happily (mostly) wearing my flip flops enjoying the last bits of summer. In reality, I knew Autumn would roll in fast. That's how it happens here. One day, it's nice and warm, and by that evening, the wind has blown in the cooler weather, the leaves change color and fall in a matter of days, and next thing I know I'm surrounded by hoodies, closed toe shoes, scarves, and colored tights. It's exciting and fun! 

The only drawback for the cooler weather...sickness! The changing of the seasons always forces some kind of cold. For us, we've already had bouts of sinus infection and yes, even bronchitis for the Sugarbaby. Yikes! To prepare, we stock up on plenty of Hunt's Tomato Paste for fideo and Vick's, especially their Dayquil to help us adults get through the day! 

Wanna make your own fideo? Well, here's how we do it!

Fideo (fee-day-oh)--goodness for the soul

1 package of angel hair pasta nest

1 onion diced

3 cloves garlic

1 can Hunt's Tomato Paste

2-4 cups water

1 tablespoon whole cumin seeds

1/2 tsp of cumin (I love cumin!!!)

Pinch of salt

Oil

Fry up your angel hair pasta nests in a bit of oil just to get them brown. If you have plenty of time and want to turn on your oven, then lightly coat the nests in the oil, place on parchment paper, and bake at 300 for about 10 minutes (just until it is brown)

On medium-high heat, in the oil, fry up your onion and garlic. Once brown, add your cumin and stir until coated with oil. Next, add your pasta and immediately add the tomato paste and the water. (You might need to add a bit more water. Use enough to cover the pasta. We tend to add more to ours because we like it soupy.) Go ahead and sprinkle a bit more salt and add the remaining cumin. Stir and bring to a boil. 

Lower heat and cover. Letting it simmer until your pasta is al dente and ready to eat. Enjoy!

For added flavor, you can add some demi glace and saffron if you have it on hand. (Don't we all have such things on hand? Right??<---stole that idea from Chef Primo) If we are wanting extra spicy, I will add a tablespoon of red pepper flakes or dice up a bit of serrano to add to it. 

YUM!

This post is sponsored by the Kroger Cart Busting Sale going on from October 7th to October 20th! Visit this site each day for different savings (shown below). Download a digital coupon for a different product each day straight to your shopper card at the Cart Buster site for great deals on your favorite products at the Kroger Co. Family of Stores! 

Participating Stores include: 

• Kroger
• City Market
• Dillons
• Food 4 Less
• Food 4 Less Fremont
• Fryís
• Gerbes
• Jay C
• King Soopers
• Owenís
• Pay Less
• QFC
• Bakerís
• Fred Meyer
• Ralphs

Download a digital coupon for a different product each day straight to your shopper card at the Cart Buster site for great deals on your favorite products at the Kroger Co. Family of Stores!

****I was selected for participation in this campaign as a member of Clever Girls Collective.****

Bountiful Baskets: Great for the Budget

For about a month now, I've heard about this food co-op called Bountiful Baskets from Jacki. For those of you who don't know her, well, you are missing out. She's an amazing resource for all things that are good. Well, to me, any way. She's a real salt of the earth kinda gal. She knows her stuff about sewing, cooking, canning, gifting, running, food, pretty much all that kind of stuff that I think was normally passed down from generation to generation, but somehow some of it was lost for me along the way. She's helped to reinforce things I had learned and has taught me so much along the way.

Anyway, when she mentioned Bountiful Baskets, I had to do further research. When I went out to the website, I can honestly say I was simultaneously overwhelmed and unimpressed. What? How? Well, there's not a whole lot of photos and there's a whole bunch of text. I was going to have to sign up to fill out a form too. bleh! Well, I missed that initial offering. And then Jacki posted a photo of all of the stuff she had gotten. To further rub my nose in it, she posted some pretty amazing looking recipes of her haul, which had me drooling. All of that sexy looking produce, all delicious, all packed a PUNCH! KA-POW...suck on that non-wholesome/chemically laced foods!

So I went out to the site again and bombarded poor Jacki with ridiculous questions. To which, she had the patience to deal with me for a bit and kept posting the link back to their site. I know she was probably thinking, "For the love of God, Bianca, this isn't complicated. read the damn site!!" But she was very cordial and helpful! I signed up, I read, re-read, then read aloud to Don everything I thought was important. We huddled over the computer trying to decide which basket to buy. Organic, non-organic...do we do add-ons? Hmmm...We ended up going with 1 organic basket (basket=$15+organic=$10...$25 total for organic basket) and added on 2 pumpkins, which were described as smaller than a basketball ($3.25 each). We figured if they weren't large enough to carve, we could get cheaper ones later.

Since this was our first time to participate, we had to pay a $3 first time fee. Each time you participate, there is a $1.50 processing fee. Knowing that there didn't have to be further commitment, we thought $36 was ok to invest. To further complicate things, we were out of town, so instead of picking up where we would normally pick-up, we decided to do pick-up in Lubbock. Not only were were buying for the first time, but we were also going to be traveling with these foods. Luckily, they have a food storage guide, so we used that to go on. We took 3 re-usable shopping bags, and showed up 10 minutes before pick-up time (you can arrive an hour early to volunteer. I may do that another time.). We were 15th in line with a longer line snaking after us and others continued to arrive after we left. This is what we received:

Organic Basket (filled 2 of our shopping bags)

• 1 bunch of chard
• 6 bananas
• 6 plums
• 4 tomatoes
• 2 zucchini
• 2 avocados
• 2 apples
• 4 pears
• 2 acorn squash
• 1 basket of concord grapes
• 1 basket of kiwi berries
• 3 romaine hearts lettuce

Add-on: 2 large pumpkins, one was the size of a basketball, the other one was larger!

Oh my, was a haul!! I've never even had kiwi berries, nor have I prepared chard on my own. I'm guessing it is chard because I don't know what it is. I am going to be using this recipe and I want to try out this acorn squash bisque recipe, too! Can I just say that meal planning has been amped up 5 notches. I'm beyond thrilled and excited to be cooking. Plus, my Everyday Food magazine actually features many of the foods I received (they are in season, after all), so I can use a whole lot of those recipes in there too.

If you have a Bountiful Baskets offering in your area, I would highly recommend you check them out! I calculated everything that we received and compared it to what we could have paid in the grocery store and honestly, we saved about $5, but hey, that's an overpriced coffee right there. Knowing most of the foods are more local, and that I have a boost in my meal planning (after all, I don't have to think as much, I just have to figure out what to make with what I have instead of deciding what to buy AND what to make). Go for it and enjoy!

Budget 2: Supper Club, Discount Sites, & Consignment

It's been a while since I first mentioned budget. Well, in my attempt to achieve some sort of life balance, I've sorely neglected my blogging duties. I apologize for that. Anyway, the next items to mention are Supper Club, Discount Sites, and Consignment Sales!

Supper Club
We used to do this more and I hope to start it up again. Essentially, Supper Club is where you get together with friends and share a meal. This achieves many purposes:

1. You share the cost of a meal with friends. 
2. You get to spend time with friends socializing. 
3. You exchange recipes if you choose. 
4. You try new foods.

We typically alternate homes where we have the meal. Who ever hosts is in charge of the main entree. If you are a guest, then you bring a side item. This is the same concept as meeting friends for dinner. The only thing is that with this, you plan in advance, you prepare your meal, and instead of paying (in our case, $60+) for the meal, you pay less than a fraction of that. If you plan it around themes of food: Italian, Mexican, Indian, Japanese. I really like this because we can do this with other families who have children. This way, we both don't have to pay for childcare and the children entertain themselves! If you are feeling especially sassy, feel free to bring a bottle of wine to share with your friends. Drink responsibly, but also, you can discover new libations. Single folks, you guys can do this too! Hang out with your friends, share a meal, and still have room for leftovers to take for your lunch the next day.

Discount Sites
Make use of sites like Groupon, LivingSocial, BuyWithMe, and others. There are a lot of great deals to be had for quite a bit less. Groupon has introduced a GrouponNow feature that allows for the deal to be used that day. No worries if you don't use the GrouponNow deal. You are just refunded the money. The only drawback to these is that you MUST use your vouchers before they expire! Otherwise, you are just wasting money. (Guilty party, right here!) Another win is that they have a Causes page which focuses collective giving for a specific charity. People can partner together to make their micro giving a major grant to help fight the highlighted charity.

Also, you can utilize discount sites like Zulily, BabyHalfOff, HauteLook to purchase items you like, but at significant savings. Of course, you don't get to pick what items are on sale and when, but they are still a good deal. While shipping isn't a whole lot, it does stink to have to constantly pay it when making a purchase, especially if you purchase items with a large-ish subtotal. I guess that's how you can get spoiled with free shipping. Truth be told, having to pay for shipping has prevented me from completing many purchases, which in and of itself is good because I probably didn't need whatever it was to begin with!

Consignment
When I became a mom, I discovered just how expensive children can be. I wanted Mari to be clad in all sorts of cute fashions and designs, but when I read the sticker price on many things, I was in for a total shock! There was no way I was going to be able to afford the cutesy boutique clothing I'd come to adore on my budget. I remembered thinking, how do people afford to have more than 1 or 2 kids! And then I discovered stores like Kid-to-Kid and Once Upon a Child. You can later imagine my excitement when I discovered Divine Consign.


Sidenote: There's another one called JBF, but I don't like to participate in that one. The two times I tried to shop with them, I was rudely turned away and vowed to not return. There are plenty of other consignment sales in my area that I can shop and not have an issue. That's my own personal experience, so don't let that influence you in any way. I'm just telling you how it was for me.

Divine Consign is a twice a year consignment event. Unlike the previously mentioned stores, which are open year-round, DC's shopping sales are awesome. You can shop for gently used or new items for a fraction of the price! They have some incredible stuff there. Some of my favorite pieces for my girls have been purchased at this sale. I have graduated to consignor, so the goal now is to break even when I shop. I have yet to meet that goal, but I have come close. Once upon a time, I budgeted about $200 for clothes for each season, with an extra $30-$50 for a coat/swimsuit. This was when I paid full-price for clothes and shoes. Now, I have been able to whittle it down to a little less than that amount for both girls, including the coats and other accessories. I now have a great appreciation for hand-me downs, even though I hated them growing up. I will totally sympathize with Tesla! The beauty of these sales is that I'm almost always guaranteed to find a brand-new items with tags still attached! Many of these articles of clothing are from the specialty boutiques too. Not just limiting to clothing, they have furniture, toys, books, carseats, sports equipment, feeding/bathing tools...pretty much anything you need for a baby up to when they are 10, you can find it. This is a big win for me!