Wedding Dresses Under $500: Part 2

Here are some more great dresses for my budget brides (click on the dress...it will take you to the site):

Li'l Playzone with Lights and Sounds

I am a happy woman today. I figured out a way to keep my kid safe in my living room without gating him in like a farm animal. Enter the Lil' Playzone. This thing was literally delivered today...I was waiting (somewhat impatiently) all weekend for it. My son has become an expert scooter and unfortunately he's been scooting into places he shouldn't be. The colors of the play yard are very bright and fun plus one of the walls has a bunch of toys on it. It was very easy to put together, no tools needed, just snap the gates together and you're done. I bought it with two extensions to make it a little bigger. The Playzone itself is kind of small if you don't buy extensions. If you have a huge living room, you may want to invest in two of these and just connect them. So far it's working out pretty well, but then again, it's only been three hours.

This is the Playzone alone:
This is the Playzone with two extensions:

LeapFrog Learn and Groove Musical Table

The LeapFrog Learn and Groove Musical Table is my son's favorite toy. He can sit and play with this thing for 15 minutes straight (that's a long time in baby time), giving me a much needed break from chasing his butt (he only scoots) around the living room. Here's a description of the product from Toys R Us:

A favorite among moms and kids alike, the award-winning Learn and Groove Musical Table by LeapFrog engages and entertains with more than 40 learning songs, sparkling lights and lots to spin, slide, push, pull, open and close. Introduces the alphabet, numbers, colors and sounds and features 15 musical activities in both English and Spanish and more than 40 songs and melodies. Sliding the trombone introduces numbers and counting 1 to 10 in English and Spanish. Three activites with the Learn and Groove Musical Table introduce opposites such as open and close, up and down, lights on and lights off in English and Spanish.

Cookies That Are Too Pretty To Eat

These cookies are just too cute for words...and with some of the gift sets being $75 a pop they should be...but if you are looking to send someone a really nice gift, these would definitely get the OMG! reaction you are looking for. Eleni's NYC (http://www.elenis.com/) does deliver nationwide. Here's a few examples of their wares:

Virtual Keyboard

Don't ask me what I was doing watching Room Raiders, but this episode happened to be very interesting because the girl doing the raiding was given a virtual keyboard to help in her spying. I did a search in Google for it and this is what I found:

The iTech Virtual Keyboard:


Here's a description from the website:

The Virtual Laser Keyboard (VKB) leverages the power of laser and infrared technology and projects a full-size keyboard onto any flat surface. As you type on the laser projection, detection technology based on optical recognition enables the user to tap the images of the keys, complete with realistic tapping sounds, which feed into the compatible Bluetooth-enabled PDA, Smartphone, laptop or PC.

So I guess this thing is supposed to replace a stylus or a chubby finger when typing on a handheld device. Not sure how well this thing works but it looks pretty cool.

A Reason to Write About Robert Pattinson

Us Weekly has published a special, limited-edition magazine called The Sexy Stars of Twilight. I found out about this from a daily newsletter I get from the magazine (I swear I didn't go searching for this). The magazine is full of photos of the stars and behind-the-scenes info. It also includes seven pull-out posters...five of which include Robert Pattinson (shocker).

Also, New Moon, the second book in the Twilight series, has been re-released with a new cover featuring the stars from the movie.

Both of these items would be perfect if you are looking for a gift for a tween, teen, or um...adult who is obsessed with Twilight (OK, yes that does include me).

babyGap Crib Sheets

When I was preparing my son's nursery last year, I became obsessed with finding the perfect crib sheets. I didn't want to buy a bedding set because I kept reading that bumpers in cribs are a big no-no. I did some research and found that babyGap sells separate crib sheets. These sheets are not only cute, but they are 100% organic cotton and I've washed them a 100 times and have had minimal shrinkage. You can mix and match styles and at $19.50 they are pretty affordable.

http://www.gap.com/browse/category.do?cid=40266

Clinique Free Gift at Lord & Taylor

Lord & Taylor is offering a free 8-piece Clinique gift set with any $25 purchase of Clinique products.

http://www.lordandtaylor.com/eng/brands/search/BeautyFragrance-lordandtaylor/5233

Bling

I came upon the Soho Gem (http://www.sohogem.com/) site when I was searching for some unique fine jewelry. This stuff is just gorgeous! Obviously a little pricey, but if you've got the means (because so many of us do these days) I would look into some of these beautiful pieces. If you happen to live in the Tri-State area, they have two locations in Manhattan.

Here's a sample of what they have:

Engagement rings:

Wedding bands:

Men's bands

Splurges:

Wedding Dresses Under $500

Two of my friends are getting married this year and they are both looking for wedding dresses that are under $500. In an effort to help them avoid going to David's Bridal (worst customer service ever!) I've compiled a couple of gorgeous dresses that I've found that fit their budgets.

J.Crew:

J. Crew has some amazing wedding attire. Some of their dresses are pricey but they've got a few pretty ones that fall right into this price range.

Simple and elegant:

http://www.jcrew.com/AST/Browse/WeddingParties/Wedding_Bride/gowns/PRDOVR~86454/86454.jsp

Great for a destination wedding at the beach:

http://www.jcrew.com/AST/Browse/WeddingParties/Wedding_Bride/gowns/PRDOVR~11429/11429.jsp

Nordstrom:

If you want to go short:

http://shop.nordstrom.com/S/3033067/0~2376776~2374327~6005464~6005465?mediumthumbnail=Y&origin=category&searchtype=&pbo=6005465&P=1

Laundry by Shelli Segal has always been a favorite of mine:

http://shop.nordstrom.com/S/3032848/0~2376776~2374327~6005464~6005465?mediumthumbnail=Y&origin=category&searchtype=&pbo=6005465&P=1

Love this tiered gown:

http://shop.nordstrom.com/S/3026588/0~2376776~2374327~6005464~6005465?mediumthumbnail=Y&origin=category&searchtype=&pbo=6005465&P=1

The beading on this one is so pretty:

http://shop.nordstrom.com/S/3001079/0~2376776~2374327~6005464~6005465?mediumthumbnail=Y&origin=category&searchtype=&pbo=6005465&P=1

Bloomingdales:

Ethereal:

http://www1.bloomingdales.com/catalog/product/index.ognc?ID=433818&CategoryID=14954&PageID=14954*1*96*-1*-1*14#mainProductImage

If you're looking for color:

http://www1.bloomingdales.com/catalog/product/index.ognc?ID=189095&CategoryID=14954&PageID=14954*1*96*-1*-1*64

A little vintage at http://www.dollycouture.net/

http://www.dollycouture.net/pb/wp_6a1ddf5b/images/img2552548f4745e2acd6.jpg

If all else fails, why not try a preowned dress? All the wedding dresses at preownedweddingdresses.com are either sample pieces or gently used.

http://www.preownedweddingdresses.com/

Check out this beautiful never worn Jim Hjelm dress for $500!

http://www.preownedweddingdresses.com/dresses/7481/Jim-Hjelm-8555-Size-10.html

You Don't Need To Be An Artist

I stumbled upon this site when I was looking for ways to decorate my son's nursery. I didn't want to pay for an artist to paint a mural nor did I have the talent or time to do it myself. So you can imagine my excitement when I found these awesome decals from Blik Surface Graphics (http://www.whatisblik.com/). The Blik decals are self-adhesive and easily removable. They have lots of patterns and images for everyone. If you are looking to decorate a nursery, Blik has a line of Re-Stik decals in their Wee Gallery (http://www.whatisblik.com/weegallery.html). The Re-Stiks are the ones I bought. They were really easy to put on the wall (just peel and stick) and they are reusable so you can always peel them off and put them somwhere else.