Why I Love JCPenney ***NOT**** a sponsored post!!

First let me say this:  THIS IS NOT A SPONSORED POST.  I'm just going to express my personal opinion about shopping at JCPenney.  Others may have different opinions.  I did not get reimbursed or compensated in any way, shape, or form to say any of this stuff.  These are just my own thoughts.  I don't do sponsored posts on this blog.  I don't have the time or energy it takes to handle that kind of undertaking.  People who write blogs like that work their tails off, and I am way too lazy!  I am simply mentioning the name of the store because I like it and I think they deserve to be recognized for being a store I like.



Second, I didn't upload my pictures.  Sorry.  But I am including some links to the JCP site where you can see some of the dresses I'm talking about.



Okay, so you might remember, those of you who read this regularly (well, as regularly as you can considering how "frequently" I post, ha ha!), that a while back I got a really nice dress at Penney's.  It was navy with pink polka dots and I still love it.  You might also know that I get all the girls' professional portraits done at the Penney's studio and they are awesome. 

I was recently shopping for a new dress for Easter.  Easter is one of those times when I just really, really want a new dress.  I got a coupon in the mail from Penney's for $10 off a $25 purchase.  They used to do these and then did away with coupons and sales, but that didn't work well so they're back.  If you have seen or heard anything about it, you may know that JCPenney did not have a great year.  But I think they're a good store, still, and worth saving.  (Example of my opinion)

I went to the store and shopped for a little bit.  They must have just put out all their spring dresses because there was a HUGE section of nothing but gorgeous dresses.  I looked at every single one of them.  Lace is really in this year and I could have bought 10 different lace dresses and been a happy camper!  I ended up buying one that's got navy stripes under a cream lace, with a large ruffle at the bottom.  It's sleeveless, so I wore it with a little cardigan thingy I got at Ross's.  I had a coupon for $10 off $25, plus the remains of 2 gift cards from Christmas, so the dress cost basically nothing. 

Well, as much as I like that dress, it just didn't seem "Eastery" enough to me.  So I kept looking and bought a dress one day at a women's consignment shop that sells high-end clothes.  It's a pretty dress, but I really wasn't thrilled with it.  I just needed something, and nothing was materializing.  So, since I wasn't so happy with the dress (for Easter), I decided today to head back to JCPenney after dropping off Karina at my mom's for a sleepover.  Elena was in a good mood so she was fairly cooperative.  They had definitely sold a bunch of dresses but there were still tons there.  I was, of course, instantly drawn to all the lace ones, but I really didn't want to get another one (even though really I did want another one if that makes any sense at all), because I just wore the first lace one last Sunday, for Palm Sunday.  I was a reader, so it's not like people didn't notice me in it.  I just think it would be weird to show up to church in two new lace dresses two Sundays in a row.  So, I continued looking and tried on a few dresses.  I found one I really liked, but it didn't look good on me.  Then I found another that was really pretty, with a white background and bright flowers all over.  It's a jersey fabric, which I have to be careful with because sometimes it's forgiving and other times not. But this was a winner.  I debated, after seeing this really pretty skirt, but when I tried it on, it looked awful on me and made my hips look even bigger than they are, so the dress was it.  It was regular priced $55, on sale 20% off, and I had my $10 coupon plus about $10 left on my gift card.  Score one $55 dress for $25!  Now that's a deal I can handle. 

This dress is by the same brand as the navy dress was, too, by the way, something called American Living.  Oh, and today when I was in the store they had put out all their prom dresses, or at least some of them, and some of them are sooooo pretty!  I had the ugliest prom dresses because fashions changed and everything was just hideous by the time I went.  Blech.  Now things are pretty again.  Go figure!  Anyway, they have them, not that I need one but some of you might know some teenagers who do need a dress, and I thought they were pretty.  Of course, not all the dresses were Eastery dresses.  I saw lots of different styles, colors, materials, etc.  (The black one I linked to there was one I tried on that Karina picked out; it looked good on me, but it wasn't nearly Eastery or churchy enough for what I wanted so I didn't get it.  But it did look good on me.  The purple print one I looooved in person, but again, not what I was looking for.) And really, it was a great selection.  Sometimes it's not a good selection and sometimes I think, have I finished the women's clothes section already?  But not the dresses, not the last two times I've been in there. LOTS to choose from.  And, at least in my store, there were lots of sizes for each dress, too.  I didn't have any trouble finding my size in the ones I tried on.  And my understanding is that it's a fairly common size.

I hope JCPenney doesn't go out of business.  Not only do I like shopping there for clothes and things, but where will I get the girls' pictures done?  Where else can I get $4 portrait sheets, any pose, any time, with a really, really small portrait club membership (I think I paid $20 for 2 years, and it waives ALL sitting fees, which are normally $9.99 per person, so I could take my entire family for pictures and there would be no sitting fees at all.  That's $40 right there!)?  I love the girls who do their pictures, too.  They are both awesome.  So if you are shopping for something one day, and you happen to pass by a Penney's, or know of one, think about maybe, if you feel like it, going in.  You might be surprised.  I always see pretty stuff in there.  I've gotten purses, shoes, kids' clothes, kitchen stuff, and lots of clothes and dresses there.  When I lived in Florida years ago it was about the only decent store in the town where I lived.  I got a bunch of super cute dresses there for really cheap to go on a cruise with Bill before we got married.  I don't know about markets and business and stuff so I don't pretend to know why they had such a bad year.  But it's a store I like and I just thought I'd share my very good experiences there with you.

And finally, I would like to reiterate that I did not get paid, asked, thanked, compensated, or anything else for writing this post.  I chose to do it of my own free will, simply because I like my dresses.  :-) 

One of the strangest dreams in a long time

The other night I had a horrible dream.  Not the kind where you wake up scared, the kind where you wake up and can't stop thinking about the dream because it was so disturbing.  I'm going to try to share it here.

First, some information.  I start remembering the dream partway through.  I know there was more before the point where I can remember, but that part is lost to me.  Second, this is just something I dreamed.  It's not a commentary on anything.  Third, one of the weirdest things was how, just a little way into the dream, I am not in it anymore, but I'm more like one of the other characters in it instead.  All but one of the people in the dream are completely imagined.  The real person disappears from the dream about the same time I do.

I start remembering the dream at the point where I am at what seems to be a community pool, but it's run by the military or something.  There's a military guy in the place of the lifeguard and everyone has to listen to him.  He's going to make everyone get out soon, so I suggest to the one person in the dream that isn't made up that he should jump in and swim now while he still has a chance.  Then suddenly everyone has to get out of the pool, and the dream abruptly switches over to a new scene of some airmen dropping out of planes.  They have these huge metal globe things with them, floating directly above their heads, and one of the airmen (a woman actually) ends up getting her globe thing blown up by what I assume is an enemy.  She begins plummeting through the sky past 'me' (I'm not me anymore, I'm now looking through this made up person's eyes now) and my character says something supportive to her, but I can't remember what it was.  Clearly she's a goner, but 'I' say something encouraging as she falls past me with a big brave smile on her face.  The rest of us can't do a thing to save her.  All we can do is watch her fall.  I think someone else falls, too, but that is the point where I woke up. 

I know that dreams don't come across very well when we try to retell them.  So I know this isn't creating quite the effect for you as it did for me, but I still just had to share it.  It was so weird, and I just couldn't get that woman's face out of my mind.  There was more to the pool part, too, but as soon as I started typing this, parts of the dream started to disappear from my memory.  Isn't it strange how dreams do that?  The harder you try to hold on to them, the faster they slip away. 

Well, I do feel a little better for sharing it.  Do you guys have bothersome dreams like this?  How do you get back to sleep after they wake you up?  This was nowhere near the worst dream I've ever had, but it was just creepy.  No, not creepy.  Disturbing. I keep using that word, but it's the best to describe the feeling I got. 

Hope all your dreams are happy ones!

Learning new words (nothing bad)

Karina picks up new words from everywhere.  Even TV shows.  She's always learning about stuff on Sesame Street or one of her other favorite PBS Kids shows (No this is not a plug for them.  I just like that they don't have commercials and the shows are nice).  Anyway lately she has been very interested in the new My Little Pony show.  My mom gave her the pony wedding movie for Valentine's Day, and ever since then, she's been asking to watch the shows on DVR and to watch the movie.  She really loves it.  And I admit, I don't mind that she loves it.  I grew up playing with My Little Ponies myself, and I can remember several occasions when I got one as a gift.  I loved them so much, they're that memorable.  Anyway,  Karina will watch the same episodes over and over.  Her favorite is an episode where the main pony, a purple one, changes from a unicorn to what they call an "alicorn" which is what, as a kid, I just called a unicorn-pegasus.  Anyway, when this happens she becomes a princess and the other ponies sing this nice little song as she is introduced to the country as Princess Twilight Sparkle.  "Behold, behold, the Princess Twilight Sparkle".  Yes.  I have seen this show quite a few times and I often memorize words to songs.  I still remember words to some of the shows I watched as a kid, such as (part of) the Transformers cartoon theme song.  (Don't believe me?  Scroll down.)(NO, I didn't look it up on Lyrics.com or anywhere else like that, either.)

Anyway I digress.

So the other day, Karina was making some things in the craft room with me.  She calls coat hangers "hookers".  That alone is hysterical.  She was making "hookers" for whatever reason and she came over to me as I was reading email.  She said, "Mommy, look.  Behold, it's a hooker onner."

Behold. 

She has used it more since then, too.  It cracks me up.

Okay, here you go.  The Transformers theme song, partly, by memory, and I hope it's not too wrong.

"Transformers, more than meets the eye.  Autobots wage the battle to destroy the evil forces of....the Decepticons.  Transformers, robots in disguise..."  and that's all I can remember.  But still, for a show I didn't actually watch, to remember all of that.  That's just weird.



And let me just reiterate that nobody paid me or anything to say nice things about PBS or My Little Ponies.  Everything in my blog is my opinion unless I tell you all otherwise.  I'm nice like that.

Pictures

Hi there, here are a few pictures from recent things going on.  First, these are the baby hats I was making obsessively recently (and I found out my relative might be VERY close to getting a baby!  Like maybe this month!!!!) and a little blanket that isn't finished.  It needs some kind of border but since I already sewed the edges I'm not sure how I'll go about that.  And then I threw in two of the girls. For some reason, the photos never upload in the order I put them.  Oh well.  You're all smart out there.  :-)  You can tell the difference between my sewing projects and my children, ha ha!  Have a great week everyone!

 Baby hats!  I want to do something with the two plain pink ones.  They look boring next to the others.  And yes, I know the stripes are off.  I couldn't help it.  I made it from a onesie and there wasn't much material to work with.  Then I sewed the little heart on.  It was at the top of the onesie where the stain was, so I just cut it out and sewed it on to the non-stained part that made the hat.  I did not sew on the frog.  The blue and greenish hat was the bottom of a shirt and had the ruffle already on it.  I think it turned out cute!  And I made the yellow one a little bigger because I realized if these are really baby sized, and the baby isn't super little, she won't be able to wear any of them!  Although to me, they are still special since they're made with love.  Anyway, hopefully there will be some news soon.  So exciting.  The relative called me the other day and I almost had a meltdown thinking it was really big news, but it wasn't.  Small news, they're close, really close, but mostly she had a question about something on Facebook.

 I just love this devious grin.  She's always up to something.  Sweet little turkey pie.

 Check out Karina's little friends, the ponies.  She's really (REALLY) into My Little Ponies right now and she just loves these tiny ones that come in little bags where you can't tell what you're getting.  My mom's been keeping her stocked with them, and actually these two, plus one other that isn't in the photo, came in a special set.  That's Twilight Sparkle and Shining Armor, and they are brother and sister.  There is also Princess Cadance, who is married to Shining Armor.  I think she's at the other end of the sawhorse.  (My dad's sawhorses...he hasn't been able to do much on the playhouse recently.  Between weather and his wife's health, he just hasn't done much.  Hopefully when it warms up and we have some nicer days he can start coming by again.  It's so close to being done, I hope he can get to it).

And then here's the blanket.  That's all material from old baby clothes, except the cherries one.  That came from some old pjs of mine that don't fit.  But it's still cute.  And that is not a dog face peeking out, it's the hinge on my sewing table.  It just looks funny to me, now that I'm looking at it!  The blanket is just backed in flannel and I haven't quilted it at all yet.  In fact you can still see the pins.  Those are there so I can topstitch around the outside (that just means stitch on top of all the fabric to make a nice smooth edge.  The quilting part is where you sew all over the blanket and make designs and stuff. I don't do fancy.  I sew along the squares.  Yep, that's me.  Simple.  And I don't do fancy designs either.  Just squares, or in this case rectangles, because a few of the onesies didn't have enough fabric for my square size.

Well there you go!  All caught up.  Sort of.  We've all been sick around here, with one thing or another.  We have literally been to the pediatrician every 2 weeks since January 16th, plus an extra visit when Karina got the flu last week.  We go back this Wednesday for Elena's ear recheck, and I'm going to have him check Karina's again, too, because she can't seem to hear me again, and last time she had an ear infection in both ears when that happened. 

How do I apologize?

I need to apologize to someone for saying (writing) something wrong, but I don't have any way to contact this person, so I'm putting it here.  (If it's you, I think you'll know.) I wrote something in response to something, having my heart in the right place but my words not so much.  Fortunately, the person did not publish it, and for that I am thankful. 

I didn't think it through carefully enough.  That was a mistake.  I was writing with my emotions and not thinking about how the comment would come across.  I just want to say that I'm sorry if it hurt you or made things harder for you.  That was never my intention and I have wished that I could email you to say it more personally.  I hope that things are all right and that you are doing okay.  I hope that you understand what my intentions were (although we all know where that road goes.  Right, the one paved with those good intentions?) and that I did not mean to sound callous or to be rude in any way. 


To all of you, I am certainly not perfect and I know I mess up sometimes.  I try to be a nice person as much as I can and I know in my personal life I fail miserably sometimes!  It's hard to admit I did something wrong, and harder when I can't say it right to the person who needs to hear it. But to me, it's even worse sitting around thinking about the thing I messed up, even when it wasn't intentional.  So as unpleasant as it is to apologize publicly (sort of) and admit that I made a mistake (because I HATE making mistakes), I know that this is the right thing.  And no, not just so I will feel better, because to be honest, I won't, and that's okay.  Because it's not about my feelings right now.


So again, I am so sorry I messed up.