Back in December I saw some crystal peacock feather earrings on ideeli that were beautiful but kind of expensive for an impulse purchase.  I decided to sit on the thought, and by the time I’d decided I had to have them, the sale was over and — oh, guess what?  You can’t get them anywhere online!

For over a month I single-mindedly stalked every sample sale site I knew of that has ever carried KJL, sites of department stores that carry KJL, Amazon…I even set up a special search on my Zappos profile so I could check at a glance (they had a matching bracelet, but not the earrings!).  The pendant resurfaced once on ideeli, but not the earrings.  I was recently shopping on Harwin and found lots of cheap peacock earrings, but nothing came close and I knew nothing ever would.

And then one day…they came back!  I even purchased the membership upgrade so I could snap those suckers up the second they were available.  Sweet, sweet victory.

They are super heavy, but I love them!

I hope you had a nice weekend!  My Saturday was mostly occupied by a dear friend’s baby shower.  I have known her since college, when I used to sit behind her on a smelly river for a couple hours before sunrise every day.  She and her husband were college sweethearts and he was a rower as well.  I’m terrible at keeping in touch with people who don’t live near me, so it has been fun to see her go through her first pregnancy.  She is due October 28th, but I advised her to hold out for November 1st. ;)

I bought that dress to wear to the office with a cardigan, but forgot to do the sit-down test in the dressing room.  Whoops!  Turns out I won’t be wearing it to work, after all.  But I found something else that I think will work with a cardigan.  And although I was cursing Houston’s heat today (it reached 106 at the airport), I have to admit I’m excited that I will be able to wear it for a couple more months!

I tend to overstuff my work handbags, so most of them have been to the shoe & purse hospital several times to have their straps re-sewn.  I was recently considering that I should just get myself a preppy, New England-style canvas tote and call it a day.  I was considering a Wm. J. Mills & Co. tote because they are classic, come in a zillion colors and last forever, but was waiting until my current bags had suffered further destruction.  And then I spotted the following — on sale!  With free shipping!

It feels pretty sturdy and is probably big enough to hold a weekend’s worth of clothing — I foresee this bag going a lot more places with me than just work.  Don’t you love it when the universe delivers??

Speaking of work, I’ve finished my first week!  We work extended hours and get every other Friday off.  Tomorrow is mine.  Anyway, my first week was good, but have you ever heard of a Power Point presentation with more than 100 slides?  One hundred is probably on the low end for my new work group.  I told my boss about some ideas I have to help the group end this ridiculous practice, and he told me to run with it.  I’m going to summon my resources and all of my Toastmasters learnings, and see if I can get things turned around.  The preservation of my sanity at an upcoming week-long training seminar may depend on it.

I love to try new products, but since I am my own sponsor, I have sort of reached the saturation point on things like $18 eyeliners and $25 blushes.  These days, those things are on a replacement basis only.  I live out most of my makeup fantasies vicariously through Karen’s regular shipments of free Chanel and MAC from the makeup gods (confidential to MAC, Chanel and Dior: I can be very, very unbiased if given half a chance.  Wink, wink!).

However, I can always find room to try something that’s been marked down to $3.  At $1, I just might try it twice.  So whenever I hit Sephora online to replace a regular product, I always spend a few minutes combing the lowest end of the sale items.  Here are my steals from my latest order, which have turned out to be quite good!  (Product links are at the end of the post.)

brow pencils and sharpener

Above, two brow pencils — the silver one is a standard pencil ($1, originally $13), and the black one is a ‘sculpting’ pencil ($3, originally $10), which means it has a little wax in it.  The other thing is a sharpener.  I’ll show that to you in a second, but here are some swatches of the pencils.  They both work with my coloring, but the regular one is warmer and some reviewers complain that it’s too red, so be warned if you are a cool brunette.

Top: eyebrow pencil in brown 02. Bottom: brow sculpting pencil in medium.

Now the really cool thing: a sharpener that fits onto the end of a pencil, so it packs easily and you always know where it is.  Since sharpeners don’t last forever and these were $1, I bought two.  Without the cap, ready to sharpen:

With the cap on, snug on the non-business end of the pencil:

The other thing I was excited about in this order was that I was going to replace my mini MUFE Aqua Eyes black pencil (best liner ever, but $18 for full size, ugh!), but a mini was one of the 100-pt Beauty Insider perks!  I tend to hoard my points for something I really want to try or would have bought anyway, so it was fate.

Find any good cosmetic deals lately?

Products:

• Sephora Collection Eyebrow Pencil, Brown 02 $1
• Sephora Collection Brow Sculpting Pencil, Medium $3
• Sephora Collection In-Cap Sharpener $1

My sister and I visited Harwin Dr. (WHY do I always call it Harwin St.??) today for a little cheap jewelry update.  I always get overwhelmed, so this time I made a list ahead of time.  Of course I forgot to bring it, but found a few necessities anyway:

I’m a sucker for Chanel necklaces, but I’ve made peace with the idea that I’ll never own one.  I can live with $6 for a knockoff necklace and earrings!  L-R: earring/necklace set (necklace is about 34″), multi-strand bracelet, gold tassel earrings, another knockoff earring/necklace set (the longer strand is about 54″).  The best part?  I got out for under $40.  It would have been under $20, but the bracelet was a splurge!

High atop Cadillac Mountain in Acadia National Park, September 2009

Overall, I’d have to give this week 8 out of 10, mostly on account of having taken Monday off for Valentine’s Day!  Let’s see how the week washed out:

Work:

• Low: I have been so tired at work all week that I can hardly focus and had to lock myself in an empty conference room for 10 minutes so I could close my eyes!
• High: Tomorrow we find out about our bonuses for 2010 and there will be doughnuts!

Leisure:

• Low: I got burned by my hot stone massage!  Nothing severe, but still uncomfortable and unexpected.
• High: That I had a massage at all, of course!  And a full day at a great spa with my valentine.

Food:

• Low: We are out of dessert tonight and I was too tired to bake something. :(
• High: I can definitely get a week’s worth of high just remembering our Valentine’s Eve dinner at Rainbow Lodge!

Beauty:

• Low: Hair was out of control this week for no apparent reason and my next cut is still a few weeks away.
• High: I wore red nail polish for the first time in at least a year and realized I love it!

Shopping:

• Low: Inspired by my red nail polish, I decided to Back-to-MAC for some Russian Red lipstick at the closest MAC counter.  They were sold out!  Tried my next option, MAC Red.  They were sold out of that, too!
• High: Took home Syrup instead, which is so pretty it may be my new everyday shade.  And I still have plenty of empties to try again on that Russian Red.  Is anything more fun than free makeup?  Maybe a kitten, but just barely.

How was your week?