Before I had kids, I would see every single movie that was out.  Now I am very, very picky. I just don't have hours of my life to waste seeing bad movies.

I was so happy that I went to see American Hustle this week.

American Hustle is loosely based on the Abscam Scandal  of the 70's but the movie is really about characters played by the unrecognizable Bradley Cooper (with a perm), Christian Bale (fat and bald), Jeremy Renner (with a toupee) and fabulous Amy Adams and Jennifer Lawrence rocking over-the top  70's hair and wardrobe.

The writing and acting is great. I was throughly entertained for all 138 minutes.

I'd highly recommend it. It is funny and serious and smart. If you liked Argo, you'll love it.

Black Friday just got worse….

For several years, I owned retail stores located inside a local mall. One of the best and worst days of the year for me was Black Friday.  I had to think about it on Thanksgiving. I could not overindulge because I knew that I was opening my business myself the next day at 6 a.m.  This was when the mall opened.  I don't mind getting up early and the craziness that awaited me every year when I walked into the mall was always amusing.

Photo from gsmnation.com

The mall did not require any stores to open until 6 a.m. but the department stores, at least most of them, opened at 4 so by the time that I made it to the mall around 5:45, the parking lot was starting to get filled up.  Once inside, despite most of the stores being closed, it looked like a busy afternoon except for all of the shoppers were wearing sweats and sneakers. There was not a stitch of make up or hairspray on the early morning crazies.  I always cracked up to see friends of mine dashing through the snow  marble tile to grab a bargain on a coffee maker or cashmere scarf.

This seemed crazy enough for me.  Luckily, I'm out of the retail arena (even though black Friday was always a great day for sales and the Holidays were my "bonu$" time of the year).  It seems that some retail stores (and even some malls) have decided to say "F black Friday...lets start on Thanksgiving"!

Wal-mart has decided to start the craziness at 8 p.m. on Thanksgiving night. I'm sorry, but I'm certain that the someone will vomit up their huge turkey dinner while dashing to try to grab one of those cheap tvs. Someone will slip on it and sue Wal-mart which probably serves them right for opening on Thanksgiving.

Other stores, for fear of missing any of those precious black Friday dollars, are following suit. Target (8 p.m. Thanksgiving), Best Buy (6 p.m. on Thanksgiving) Sears (8 p.m.), Macys (8 p.m.) Kohl's (8 p.m.) JC Penney (8p.m.)

Old Navy has decided to open at 9 a.m. on Thanksgiving Day. I guess you will look better in their cheap clothes if you skip dinner all together in order to grab some cheap acrylic sweaters. Same with good Old K-mart. They are opening at 6a.m. on Turkey Day.   And purgatory (otherwise known as Toys R Us during the holidays) is opening at 5 p.m. on Thanksgiving.

Some local malls here in Miami  including the Dolphin Mall and Sawgrass Mills are also opening on Thanksgiving.  

Even if you love to shop on Thanksgiving, the thousands of workers who are ,no doubt, grateful to have jobs this year,  can't spend the holiday with their families as they have to show up and sell all the crap to the shoppers.

This is sad and there is probably no going back after this.  This year I will be thankful that I can go to the beach on Black Friday or just sit around my house cursing myself for eating too much the day before. I'm thankful that my husband won't have to work either.   I will not be shopping.   

By the way, while Black Friday may have a few "door buster" deals, I did learn from my years of living working at the mall, that the better bargains actually occur in the weeks afterwards.  The week before Christmas usually has great deals, especially on sweaters, etc.  If you go to the mall when it first opens (exceptions are Black Friday and the days before and after Christmas), it is not crowded and you can get your list filled before lunchtime! 

A Restaurant Called "Crazy About You"...

Last night was my husband's birthday so I drove him to work and then we went out with the boys to a restaurant right around the corner from his office called "Crazy About You".  How could you not like a place with that type of name?

Crazy about You is located on the water in the Brickell Bay Area of Downtown Miami.  It has a gorgeous view when it is light out but we should have gone before the time change as it was pitch black when we arrived.  Regardless, it has a nice view of part of the skyline at night and the interior has a chic, modern vibe going on.

On each table was a cheeky little pot with a dare for everyone to put their cell phones in the pot. The one who takes his or hers out first, has to pay the bill. Guess who lost? The Birthday boy! To be fair, his phone was buzzing all day and night with birthday wishes and his money is my money  and the kids have no money so it was not really a game at all.

We have been to a sister restaurant nearby called "Dolores but you can call me Lolita". I blogged about it.  Both restaurants have the same concept.  You pick an entree and a appetizer for a set price. Prices range between $18 and $30 for the combo. The price is based on which entree you choose.  We all chose different stuff but the best thing on the table last night was the appetizer called "Calamari al Pepperoncini Flatbread". It was fried calamari with hot peppers, a ranch-y type of sauce on top of a thin pizza/flat bread.  Fried anything is hard to mess up and this was delicious.

The only downside was that I asked for birthday -something when I made the reservation and the waiter verified that something was coming but it never did. Just as well. We were full from all of the food and had a Birthday cake after the drive home.

I would definitely go back to Crazy About You ! 

Only in Miami...

I love living in Miami. Besides the glorious weather that we have for most of the year, the people in Miami are very colorful.  Miami is a true melting pot of many cultures and this makes for great art, music and food. (It does make for horrible traffic and drivers but its worth it to live in such an amazing city).

That being said, Miami is full of nutballs. I went to go get my Flu Shot on Friday at Walgreens.  I saw this lady walking through the entire store with her two dogs on leashes.  They were not service dogs. They were regular dogs.  Not one person that worked in the store said anything. They sell food in Walgreens!  What the heck? To make matters worse, I kept looking at the lady as she looked liked she could be one of the PTA moms that I know. She did not look like a loonie at all, she looked like one of my friends.  What does this mean? 

Moderation?

Every year the Halloween Candy heads into the house after a night of trick or treating.  Every year, that bucket of yummy sugar starts calling to me. Those little tiny-sized candy bars. They are not that evil right? They have less than 1/2 the calories of a real chocolate bar.  I start with just one. Then it seems like I am eating one every time I walk into the kitchen. They start calling my name. "Just another little one honey. What harm can one little chocolate bar do?" I can't stop. I eat too many throughout the day. I would have been better off just buying one candy bar, eating it and being done with it.

This year I decided that I could eat whatever I wanted on the actual day of Halloween which was at least four fun-sized chocolate bars (Which is equal to 2 full sized candy bars!) and went to sleep nauseous and with a great idea.  I decided that I was not going to eat any candy from the Halloween bowl after Halloween.  Not one piece. In fact, I decided that I was going to detox off of white sugar starting November 1st. I'm going to try to make it until Thanksgiving,  but I'm taking it one day at a time.

Yesterday was day one. Guess what? It was super easy.  I had drawn a clear line in the sand. I could have none of it. It was was less difficult than trying to limit myself to a piece or two. I did not crave it. I did not think about it. I easily walked by the bowl. I was not tempted at all.

I guess my problem is that I don't have the "moderation" gene when it comes to sugar.  I can't eat just a little bit.  I know that some people can. Have any of you learned "moderation" when it comes to sweets or am I just out of luck?

Sushi...

My blog friend Parsnip mentioned Sushi in her post today. This made me remember a great sushi roll that I had last week.  My husband works in Downtown Miami which is about 20 miles from my house. I try to drive him to work once a week and then I go down to pick him up and we try a new restaurant down there before we drive home.

Recently, he went to lunch at a Sushi place called Obba Sushi. He said that his lunch was great so that was last week's dinner date spot.  I ordered a Don Akil roll.  I don't know who Don Akil is but the description  sounded interesting . It is Yellowtail marinated in ginger yuzu sauce, with caviar, cilantro, asparagus, sesame seed with salmon and obba leaf.  The ginger taste was strong, and the roll was so flavorful. Sometimes it pays to try new things.

My favorite sushi roll of all time is a Kani Su. It is just cucumber wraped around crab and avocado and is served with rice wine vinegar. It is fresh and light.

It does not have rice so it is pretty low-cal.

I did have Sushi during my weekend B'nai Mitzvah event. I'm truly exhausted from the whole thing. It was a blast and will try to get up the energy to write about it this week. 

Do you like sushi? What is your favorite kind?  My mom is kind of scared of sushi. She still thinks of it as raw fish.  I think that she is missing out.

Only in Miami...

    I took this photo myself yesterday at an intersection near the mall. (I was not driving and photographing!)  It cracked me up. I guess dogs need to get to the mall too.

Teens and Drugs?

     Last night I attended an information seminar at my son's high school.  They talked about a lot of important stuff but the thing that stuck with me the most is when a family therapist stood up and mentioned that there are a lot of drugs in schools today. All schools, not just the "bad" ones. Way more craziness that when I was in high school in the 80's.  

     She stated that parents are naive about it.  She mentioned that the latest craze at high school parties is that all attendees raid their parent's medicine cabinets and steal a few pills. All of the attendees place the pills in a bowl in the middle of the room so it looks like a big bowl of colorful candy and they each kid takes a few. Talk about dangerous!

     I try to scare my kids about drugs all of the time. I have a cousin that ruined her bright life with drugs.  We have a close family friend whose father is a deadbeat crackhead. I don't edit the stories when talking about these two stories.  I try to remind them that they can't experiment. When someone famous dies of drugs, I remind them.  I hope that they listen.

    Then today I read that the producers of GLEE have decided NOT to have Cory Monteith's character, Finn,  die of drug use.  If you remember Cory died recently of a heroin overdose.(they have not announced what kills the character but have announced that it won't be drugs)   Its a wasted opportunity if you ask me.   

    I used to love GLEE but when the main characters graduated, I lost interest in the show BUT a lot of young children and teens still watch.  They will be crying tonight watching everyone pretty much glamorize the death of a young man by singing songs about him.  Wouldn't it be better to try to save a life or two by making him die from trying drugs just once. Something to scare kids. Like how about Finn went to a music festival and tried Molly (a  form of ectasy) and died. In my opinion, its a travesty that they are not using his death from drugs as part of the story line.

Time to squish the girls...

I got my annual mammogram today.  I always get mine in October because with all of the pink ribbon stuff going on everywhere, I can't forget.  If you are due for one, get it this month, then it will be easy to remember when your next one is.

One of my good friends skipped hers one year because her mother was dying.  It was the wrong year to skip. By the time she went the following year, she had a tumor that was big and had spread to the lymph nodes.  No one knows if it would have shown up the year before, but bets are that it would have, as by the time it was discovered it was a big and mean tumor.  She is fine now but she had a pretty crappy time kicking cancer's butt.

Sorry for the scary story but it serves a point. If you are due, don't put it off. Mine today hurt like hell but it was over very quickly. I know far too many women, young and old, that are BC survivors. 

Bragging????

Something really good happened to my son this week.  I'm really proud of his accomplishment.  I wanted to brag so I called his grandparents.  I also told my best friend who happened to call me as I was reading the letter that brought the good news.  I wanted to shout the great news from the rooftops and tell anyone else who would listen but I didn't. Why? Because I'm not a bragger.

I'm not a big fan of braggers. (Especially social network braggers)

I think that they brag because:
1. They are truly happy or excited about the thing.
AND/OR
2. They want others to be happy for them.
AND/OR
3. They want others to be jealous of them.

What happens when someone far removed brags (especially on social networking?)
1. People are truly happy or excited for them
AND/OR
2. People are jealous of them
AND/OR
3. People think negative thoughts about them

 I'm at the age where many of my friends have kids in the high school/college stage.  This seems to be the height of bragging age. My real friends tell me the highs and lows of their parenting lives. I feel true joy for their triumphs and real empathy for the-not-so great news with regards to their children.  I've never felt a negative or jealous feeling when someone that I really care about has something great happen to them.

That being said, when Facebook friends start bragging about their straight A student or their child's acceptance to the Junior honor society, I'm not that happy for them.  Sometimes, I even have negative thoughts like "I can't believe the jughead who used to call his Dad "A-hole" at the playground is now making the Princiapal's honor roll" or worse.   I'm not a jealous person. I truly believe that I would not want to trade lives with anyone on the planet but there is something about bragging that really rubs me the wrong way.

Bruce Feiler in an article in the New York Times titled A Truce in the Bragging Wars discussed the fact that Mommy bloggers only agree on one thing, that parents should stop bragging about their kids. He even set out guidelines for acceptable bragging (i.e. brag about effort, brag in context, brag to granny)

Feiler goes on to say that Parents want to brag because parenting is such a scary road and they want reassurance that they are doing well. I'm not sure that this is the case. I think it is because it really, really sucks when things are not going well with your kids.  Whether the problems with your kids are tiny (when my two year old bit a kid at pre-school almost every day, I thought I was a complete disaster as a mother) or the problems are bigger and more dangerous (as problems with older children often are), it is very hard to be happy. When you see a bad report card, it makes you feel worse than the subject of the report.  When your child screws up, it makes you feel like you failed.  So when your child accomplishes something whether it be peeing in the potty or getting into college, it is hard not to feel like it is your accomplishment too.


How do you feel about bragging? 

Yesterday morning I went to the Bar...

No not a regular bar, a blow dry bar.  It is hard to believe but my chic little city with all of our fabulous girls with fabulous hair did not have a blow dry bar until now.

Lucky for all of us in Aventura, a new one just opened. It is called SoBlo and they only blow out and style hair. No cuts. No color. Just blowing (and updos)

It was their grand opening and I happened to be in the plaza where it is located yesterday and I wandered in. They were giving free samples! I would have paid because I had a big, fancy party at the Fountainebleu hotel last night so I needed some stylin.

They have about 10 chairs and they were all filled.  The hairdos coming out of there looked great.

The styling seemed a tad bit slow.  My regular stylist blows out my hair in less than 15 minutes and my blow out took about 35 minutes.  It seemed like everyone was sitting in the chairs forever getting their blowouts.  My results were good.  Way better than if I had blown it out myself.  My hair is pretty straight to begin with so I'm not a tough customer.  The lady in the chair next to me had poodle-like hair which looked amazing after they were done with her.  Like a before and after ad!

SoBlo charges $35 per blowout which isn't the best bargain in town (my regular salon charges about $40) but SoBlo does not take appointments so that means you can just walk in when you want and walk out looking pretty.

SoBlo is located in the Promanade shoppes on Biscayne Blvd.

The Japolina Week in Review...

   Since hitting age 40 a few years ago, my vision has gone on a downward spiral. It is almost as depressing as the sensible shoe recommendation that I always seem to be bitching about on this blog.  I had not been to the eye doctor in two years so I went this week and he said that while my reading vision is a little worse, my distance vision is the same.  He blamed part of my issue on my severe dry eyes. I did not know that I had dry eyes, much less severely dry  eyes so this was better news than I expected.

Here is a shot taken from the beach on Friday morning during my bike ride.  Look at how flat the Atlantic Ocean is.  It is barely ever that flat and truly looks like a lake.  It is even more peaceful than watching it when the waves are rolling in. You would be amazed at how many people were hanging out in it on an early weekday morning.

On the flip side, the lack of any ocean breeze is making it crazy hot here. I did not cool down from the bike ride all day.   When I got into my car at 9:30 a.m., the temperature gauge said 99 degrees. On September 13th!  That is Florida in the fall!  I prefer hot over cold any time but a little bit of autumn might be nice.

I've been spending more time than ever in my car, carpooling my sons around.  It is killing me.  On top of that, it is time for a new car and my sweet husband dragged me to the car dealership one night during the week.  I'd rather go to the dentist.   We still are not sure what we want so after hanging out there for hours, I drove home is my own car! 

 I'd like this...

but I'm not getting a Porsche.

Because a Porsche is not in the cards for me right now (I have two kids who will both, g-d willing, be in college in the next 5 years!),  I'm trying to convince my husband to get me this...

Yes, it's a prius. 50 miles to the gallon. Earth-friendly.   I really think it is what I want. I've been driving an SUV for the past 15 + years and I feel like a bus driver at this point. I'm sick of the horrible gas mileage that you get in carpool lines and stop-and-go traffic.  A small, easy car that you have to fill up once in a while sounds so relaxing.

We'll see what I end up with. Probably something in between.

This week ended with the holiest Jewish day of the year, Yom Kippur. Yom Kippur is the end of the Jewish New Year. It is the day that most Jews fast to ask forgiveness for their past sins.  

The holiday started on Friday night where we at a giant meal. Then you are supposed to fast for 24 hours. (my men fast, I never do) . We then headed back over to the grandparent's house for another giant meal. There is a lot of eating involved when you are Jewish.  I feel gigantic today and need to seriously take it easy this week.

To all of my blogging readers , whatever religion that you practice, I wish you peace and joy during the next 12 months (even the many, many of you that visit but don't ever comment!)

Date Night Disaster...

Our favorite date night idea of late is to go really casual and find a place on the water where we can sit outside.   This is why we live in Florida, to enjoy the weather. The lack of tourists in the summer makes these types of places bearable at this time of year and we have had a mild summer so it is not too hot. Last night, we picked a new place called Joe's Tiki Bar.

Joe is located along a quiet stretch of the Intracoastal. Despite their very odd interesting menu choices (they serve sports bar food like wings, mexican and cuban food and sushi), the view was great. We sat outside while the sun set and watched the boats slowly head home (it's a no wake zone, so it is very mellow).  We ordered some appetizers and beer and just hung out.  There was a horrible karaoke type of singer but she wasn't that loud.  Waitresses were yelling at each other but we thought it was kind of charming in a dive-y type of way. 

As we headed out, things took a turn.  We valet parked the car (parking at places on the beach is limited and even dive bars have valet only!).  The valet decided to pull the car up right on the major street instead of in the valet lane.  This annoyed my husband as it seemed very dangerous and lazy of the valet. We were sort of commenting on this as we pulled away and did not notice what was to come.

We drove the 15 minutes or so home and when we got close, I insisted that we stop for self serve frozen yogurt at Tootie Fruitie.   My husband asked if I had to get yogurt. "YES!". 

My husband asked if he had to go in with me. "YES. I don't want to eat it in the car. I don't want date night to end!".

 So he pushed the button that turns off my car and we realized that the stupid valet never gave us the key. I have one of those dumb cars that has keyless ignition. I don't know who came up with this bright idea but it is just dumb.  Furthermore, my car makes the faintest bell noise three times if you pull away without the key being present. (if you don't wear your seatbelt, it yells at you!). Why you can even drive without it reminding you that you don't have the key is beyond imagination. 

 We were at Tootie Fruitie and had no way to restart the car.  Tootie Fruitie is a little over a mile from my house. I was wearing flats (it was casual date night) but they were not really walking shoes.  Regardless, we started to hoof it home.

Along the way, we asked our local pizza delivery boy if he could give us a lift but due to some insurance regulations, he couldn't . Just kidding but if I had spotted him, I would have asked.  We cut through the Publix parking lot on the way home and I looked for someone we knew.  Luck had it that we had to walk the whole way. We called Joe's Tiki Bar and after getting hung up on three times, we finally got ahold of one of the yelling waitresses who said that our key was at the bar.

We made it home, got the other car and set of keys. My sweet husband dropped me and my little one off at the car (and the yogurt store) and he left to go back to the Tiki Bar. I got my yogurt (it was great and refreshing after my walk!) and he retrieved the keys which were handed over without apology from the management. Big Surprise.

As we were walking and bitching, my husband said "you've got a topic for your blog tomorrow!"

Note to self: The next car needs an old fashioned key. I can't believe that this does not happen to ditzy old me more often!

Goodwill just hit the motherlode...

My little one is not that little anymore. We went for his yearly camp physical and he grew four inches since last June. He is now officially taller than I am (I am 5'8"!) This is certainly bittersweet.

He kept telling me that he had no clothes to wear. His closet was so messy that I couldn't believe this statement, so we decided to attack his closet today. I made him try every single thing on.

I am not lying when I tell you that I loaded up ten white garbage bags into my SUV and hightailed over to the goodwill drive through donation place.  He really has nothing to wear, poor thing. If you are around Target, Old Navy or the mall this week and you see a crazy brunette loading up, that is me.  

I did order him some t-shirts from my favorite site 6dollarshirts.com (i don't get any hook up for mentioning them but I do love their site!)

 Here is the one I'll be looking for in the sleep away camp online photos next month! Isn't this the perfect camp shirt! 

Summer Artsy-fartsy....

The ArtCenter/South Florida is a really cool place on South Beach. It not only is home to resident artists and their studios, it also has art classes. I took one a few years ago and it was really fun.

If you live or are traveling to SoFla this summer, you may be interested in their art camp.Their art camp is for kids ages 6 to 12 and the classes are held on the fabulous Lincoln Road where you can certainly find something to do while they are creating. Go to  www.artcentersf.org for more information. 



All parents know that summer reading is required in most schools. The thought is that it continues the education process if the kids keep reading during the summer. My kids have to read a ton of books this summer. My middle schooler has to read 4 and write reports. He can chose from a list of books so it is not the worst sentence.  My high schooler has to read two books, one of which is Jane Erye.   He has an exam on it when he gets back which leads to a dilemma, does he read it now and forget the details or while he is at sleepaway camp (which he will conveniently forget to do) OR read it the week before school.   I hate summer reading and I love reading for pleasure.  

I digress, the ArtCenter/South Florida feels that art during the summer is important. They back this up by quoting  the National School Boards Association, children who study art are four times more likely to be recognized for academic achievement. Studies show that art helps kids earn higher report card grades because skills developed through art lead to better learning in other areas.

Regardless, art is way more fun than reading Jane Erye, especially if you are a teenage boy.

I surrender...

This week, I tried to finish up a freelance law project and list a ton of fab stuff that a friend gave me to sell on eBay.  I had a lot of work to do and wanted to try to get back in the groove after the weeks of Bar Mitzvah chaos.  

First of all I had the cast debacle with my son. 
Then my computer started acting wonky and I spent hours on the phone with applecare getting it back up to speed
Then my iphone started acting wonky and I had to spend hours at the apple store getting it back up to speed.'
Then the flood came...

I realized that sometimes life gets in the way of life and hopefully my groove will return next week.

Oh yes, did I say flood?  We had a flash flood here in Aventura.  In the morning, the weather girl said to expect some light rain during the day due to the tail of tropical storm Andrea which was heading far away. 

The weather people in Miami are gorgeous but not very good at their jobs. I don't know why I even watch.  It started to rain. And rain. And rain. 

Our little city got 15" in one afternoon.  My place is usually fine in the rain but this was heavy and fast.  The entrance to my house is up three steps but I have a very large sunken living room which is on ground level.  During the 15 years that I have lived here, we have been through hurricanes and tropical storms, water has only seeped in under the sliding glass doors once. That was during a freak flash flood about five years ago during December. A little water leaked in, we sucked it up with a wet vac and forgot about it.

Yesterday I noticed a little water coming in around 2 p.m. I put down towels and some water absorbing things that look like giant sausages. By 3 p.m. more towels. By 4 p.m.  I was out of towels and I felt defeated, the water just started coming in. Luckily, most of my house is two feet higher than the living room.  I told my husband to leave work (He just started with a new company a week ago. I've already called once with a child headed to the emergency room and now with a flood! His new office must think we are a dramatic family!!!)  


It is a good thing that he left when he did. As it was, it took four times longer than usual. The closer he got to the house, the more cars were stalled out in the road. It took 45 minutes to go the last mile to my house! During the point that I wanted to take a shower but had no dry towels! I was glad that my living room had not been re-decorated lately and that I was not attached to anything in it other than photographs which had been moved to higher ground. Facebook friends from the area reported really long commutes as it got later. The rain finally let up and the water was sucked up. No permanent damage.

Here are the towels outside waiting to be washed. It may be time for new towels.

Here is the little lake in my front yard. Usually it looks so pretty. Floods are messy

I highly recommend that you own a canister style wet vac. We would never have been able to get a company to come out yesterday, everyone was flooded!!!

Summer is here....

As a mother of two boys who completed 9th and 7th grade yesterday, who hosted a Bar Mitzvah in the Bahamas two weeks ago, whose husband, after much deep consideration, just made a major career change , who now has to pack 4 camp trunks for sleep
away camp, who decided to undertake some freelance lawyer work which is more time-consumng than ever, who has been to 1 ER and two orthopedist offices in the past week, and is peri-menopausal,  I AM EXHAUSTED.

Usually when Summer Break arrives, I am enthusiastic. I am usually dancing in the carpool line. Not this year but I have resolved to fake it until it arrives.  In the words of one of my BFF, "respect the lull".  No homework. No 6:15 a.m. school bus to make.  No less nagging , bitching and yelling. 

Furthermore, soon the beasts will be heading off to the mountains for a month of good clean fun. This means, maybe 2 Publix Supermarket trips (the whole month!!!!) , way less laundry, way less driving and no nagging, bitching or yelling! Woo Hoo. Just typing that made me feel a little more summery.

My new true love..

I  interrupt my Bar Mitzvah planning craziness to introduce my new true love. The Flogg.

The Flogg is a hybrid between a clog and a flip flop and are the hottest new shoe around. These things are flying off the shelves here in Miami. So much, that the store that I tried them on in did not have my size in black so I had to order them online.

These babies are not only high heels but seriously comfortable. As I've bitched and moaned  blogged about incessantly on this blog , I injured the joint in my foot over thanksgiving and have been on a quest for comfortable, yet  chic shoes.  I think that they do exist. These have a nice thick footbed so they are really easy on the injury.

I just bought this pair and will road test them on the cruise. I wore them around my house (up and down the stairs 20 times) today and they were like heaven so I 'm thinking they are going to be perfect.  If they are, I'm seeing more Floggs in my future this summer.  I'm already lusting after these...

By the way, this is an unsolicited, uncompensated rave review of these shoes. I just know that these are the next big things and wanted to share my opinion 

Swag Swag Swag...

I'm still working on my cruise swag bags. If you want to catch up go here, and here.

They are coming along quite nicely but once again, if you, the reader are my sister, please stop reading now. Everyone else, here are a couple of more glimpses...

The group is over 40 people but other than t-shirts and hats, I really had trouble finding personalized items in small quantities  at normal prices. Sure you can get personalized tote bags for $30 each, but I wanted to make overstuffed bags with tons of stuff in it to make my guests feel pampered so I had to do a lot of it myself.



Here is a card that will go in every bag. The front features the guest of honor on a past vacation. I made them on Shutterfly and they came out so well. Very professional. Easy to do and affordable (about $1 per card)

In addition to the adult totes, I had to make 12 kids totes for the under 18 crew.  Once again, I could not source a bag that I liked in a small amount via traditional wholesale sites,  so I turned to eBay.  

As with a few of the things in the bags, I found what I wanted on ebay and asked the seller if they would give me a quantity discount. I was able to source the string backpacks below, lanyards and iphone speakers by asking ebay sellers to give me a wholesale discount. In addition, for some of the swag for the ladies, I asked in a boutique if they would give me a discount for quantity and they did.  So the moral of the story is that even if you are not spending hundreds of dollars, if you need a dozen or so items for a party, you can still be considered a "wholesale" buyer. 

I got these string backpacks for way less than they are selling in the stores. They have a nice mesh pocket on the front and the quality is good. 

I decided to personalize them only by attaching a Sam's Crew Personalized Luggage tag which I made myself as I own not one,but two laminators. I own them because I bought them on separate occasions at Costco because I thought that I needed to laminate something.  I'm so happy that they finally got used. The tags have each kid's name on the back so that we can figure out they belong to on the beach. The luggage tag can easily be removed after the trip and the kids can use them for camp.

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Fiats and Fun in Florida....

Hey fellow Boca Girls! (once a Boca Girl, always a Boca Girl right?). From May 9th-12th, an Italian themed celebration is taking place at the Fountain's Center on Camino and Powerline.

The Event will showcase some awesome Fiats (If I did not have to bus around every kid in my neighborhood, I'd drive one). One of the Fiats is custom painted by Miami artist Abstrk and there will also be a Chrome Fiat 500 Abarth Model on display.

There will also be a pop-up Pizza Cafe sponsored by Lavazza Italian Coffee with free samples! Other festivities include a sing along movie night to MAMMA MIA and some mother's days events

Go to www.Fountainscenter.com for more info.