Tax Free Weekend (+ Monday)

Hello again! Great to talk to you lovely people for the second time in three days! Nothing insanely exciting has happened since I last blogged, but I was lucky to be able to experience the wonderfulness that is Tax Free Weekend. See, here in the incredible state of Tennessee we have a fun little event every so often where our lovely state government decides to lift the tax on certain items for a limited time. Usually this happens at the beginning of the summer or before school starts in the fall, and this past weekend was the selected time for this amazing opportunity! And you better believe I took full advantage of it!

Yeah babyyyy.

Since I worked most of the weekend (Friday night, Saturday night, Sunday all day), my chances to experience the glorious tax-freeness were limited. I somehow forced convinced the little sister to join me on a little shopping endeavor on Saturday afternoon, though. After giving a tour, I hurried back home, changed out of my orange polo (GO VOLS!), and jumped in the little sister's car. She just turned 16 on Thursday, so I have designated her to be my personal chauffeur in order to give her more driving experience. I'm such a great big sister, I know.

Such a good chauffeur.

Our first stop was at Charming Charlie's. This store is basically a girl's dream....jewelery and dresses and shoes (oh my!). After searching around the entire store--and finding the clearance section--we made our purchases.

Bling.

 Gold necklace $7.00.

Don't know why this one is sideways...

Blue/White necklace $5.00.

Oh my gah shoes.

Brown sandals $14.99.

Satisfied with our successes, we continued on to the ever-classy Target. With really no game plan in mind, we wandered around the store until a few items caught our eyes. Here's my loot:

It's orange. Of course I had to buy it.

Orange watch $12.99.

Bling for da ears.

Earring set $4.99.

As you can see, Target did not disappoint. Unfortunately, I had to be at work soon so my chauffeur drove me back to the house. <<< I did buy her lunch for all her troubles, though, I'm not a completely horrible sister.

Although I wasn't able to find more tax free steals yesterday, I did manage to devote some of my time today to shopping. Who am I kidding....I can always find time to devote to shopping. Sadly, today's purchases weren't tax free, but they were still at a good price! Again, I asked the little sister if she wanted to join, and she happily obliged. This time we journeyed to the mall while jamming out to some fantastic 90's hits (Backstreet Boys and N'Sync will always hold a special place in my heart). Forever 21 was our first stop.

Basic jeans.

Jeans $10.80.

Flowy.

Blue tank $10.50.

Pearls and gold. Doesn't get any better.

Pearl/gold necklace $8.80.

The Forever 21 at our mall is very hit-or-miss. But I would say this time it was a hit! Also, their jeans are pretty much the greatest thing since sliced bread sushi. They feel like two clouds wrapped around my legs. <<< I just laughed out loud at that description...is it weird that I make myself laugh?

Belk was the next destination on our list, for the simple task of looking for Lilly Pulitzer croakies. However, once I saw the 50% off shoe clearance section my mind went blank and I couldn't even stop my body from walking in that direction. I also accidentally bought these insanely comfortable brown wedges. Oops. At least they were at a killer price!

So cute. So comfy. Best of both worlds.

Brown wedge sandals $17.99 (originally $50.00!).

We decided that we should probably leave the mall after Belk so that I would have some dignity money left in my ever-decreasing bank account. Besides, we had a dinner party to attend! Ok, so it was just the little sister, the madre, the padre, and I but who's defining dinner party? I sported my new duds for dinner.

Yay for not having to pick out an outfit.

PS. Sorry it's blurry. We went to a new Mediterranean restaurant called Zoe's Kitchen. I am strongly convinced that I am half Greek (and the other half Mexican), so I was stoked to get some hummus and pita in my tummy. I think we got enough hummus...

Never too much of a good thing.

I also had some salad with my hummus. Because we all know I went face first into that puppy above. But at least the salad was slightly substantial.

Shrimpy goodness.

Everything was delicious, and I left with a full belly and a happy heart. I really do love family dinners. Plus, I pretty much have the greatest family in the world, so anything with them is sure to be a good time.

Time to go catch up on my Olympic viewing! It's gymnastics time!

Til next time,                   

Shelby