How to fight fall gloom?

This is my second fall in Finland after a long absence and I'm once again feeling a bit gloomy. It's not just that the days are getting shorter, it's more of the fact that sun doesn't even make a quick appearance. It's just rain, rain and some more rain. The darkness never used to bother me before I moved to the U.S, it only started affecting me after I returned to Finland, so this gloom is a relatively new phenomena for me.

Do you experience fall gloom and how do you fight it?

I know some people travel elsewhere for the weekend, go to spas, watch movies, meet up with friends. Some resort to more home-y things like cooking yummy foods, burning candles or just plain sleeping more. I've resorted to online shopping, which always makes me a bit happier, to the dismay of my husband, I'm sure. This time the antidote was a lovely Disney (I know haha) bag and, surprise surprise, a pair of Rieker heels!

Rieker Raffaela heels, the correct color is somewhere in between these two pics

I think this might be my last pair of Riekers this fall, unless of course I find a nice pair of ankle boots from them, must keep my options open! I ordered the heels through Javari.de, which I highly recommend to my Finnish readers. Free shipping to Finland and very competitive (although ever changing) prices! The site is in German though and I couldn't find a way to change the language, but even with my very modest German skills (acquired when living in Germany), I managed to make an order just fine.

I also ordered the cutest bag ever from Javari: 

Minnie Mouse Zip Bow Bag (in the catalog and real life), which I think looks rather snazzy. 

I don't know if you can tell right away that it is a Disney bag, but I was a bit worried it would be like a kid's bag. No worries though, I think a grown up person like me (some might beg to differ that that's not an accurate description of this blogger) can use it just fine. Love it!

My darling husband had also noticed that I'm suffering from the gloom, so when I got home from class yesterday, these were waiting for me:

Love him!

Hope everyone is having a great weekend!

NYC shopping on a low budget

As a stay-at-home mom my funds are pretty limited. I have a small income of my own, but other than that its pretty much my husband who takes care of our finances. I'd love to shop on Fifth Avenue and all the designer stores, but right now that's not really a possibility. So here are a few of the places I shopped while in NYC that would not kill my budget :)

Burlington Coat Factory (116 W 23rd St) is my #1 source for jeans, dresses, tops and jewelry when on a low budget. They also sell coats (duh! :) toys, linens etc. so pretty much everything under the sun is on discount. If you're not too picky about the quality, you can make really inexpensive finds. For example two of my tops were only $3. I bought a couple of pairs of jeans, sunglasses, dresses, a bunch of tops, toys for our lil man and a baby toy for my new Godson. Husband found a pair of shorts and a nice looking tie.

Some earrings from Burlington Coat Factory, I think they were like $5 a pair

Century 21 (22 Cortlandt Street) is fairly popular with tourists since they advertise in all the tourist guides like NYC weekly etc. From previous experience I stuck to two departments: shoes and bags. The clothing departments are chaotic and messy, so I usually just skip them. The shoe annex is crowded as well,  but the shoe selection is pretty good. 

Shoes from Century 21, Adizero sneakers for less than $50 and Sam&Libby ballerinas for $23.

Daffy's (several locations, one on 1311 Broadway) is usually the place where I get my cocktail dresses. This time the selection was not as good so I ended up leaving with just one dress and a ton of books for our lil man. Daffy's sells a lot of clothes, shoes, bags and some toys.

Strawberry (several locations including Manhattan Mall) is another cheap clothing store. I left with a bunch of tops, each less than $10. Their sizes vary a lot though, so it's recommended to try them on. I'm usually size small, but this time I  bought a couple of tops that were size large.

I also usually stop by at JcPenney (Manhattan Mall) and this time was no exception. They have really nice baby, toddler and kids clothes for fairly cheap, so I stacked up on them upcoming birthdays in mind :) I've also been a fan of Arizona jeans, but didn't find any good ones this time. Instead I found a really nice summer dress for $17 for my Godson's christening, which was right after we got back. I got a lot of compliments, so it was a good buy :)

Other places I've shopped at are Forever 21 (which has some really nice tops among other things), Rainbow (cheap clothes), American Eagle Outfitters (for jeans), Aeropostale (for simple tee tops) and some sample sales. Samples sales can be a gold mine, but more often than not I've left empty handed. I Googled some sample sales before I left, but none of them seemed to appeal me this time, so I didn't go to any. I've heard there's a bunch of decent flea markets too, but I'm not really into buying clothes from them. 

Besides the stores mentioned, I also stop by at Sephora and Walgreens/Duane Reade for all my cosmetic needs :)

Do you have any tips for shopping in NYC when on a low budget?

Hope everyone's been having an amazing weekend!

Update 08/09/12: I just received an email saying that Daffy's in going out of business :( 

Favorite Christmas presents

I had been a very good girl in 2011, at least judging by the amount of presents I got :) I meant to post something about my favorite Christmas presents a bit earlier, but never got around to it. Better late than never, here are some of my favorite Christmas presents:

Darling husband got me the Guess Sundance satchel in grey that I had been eyeing for quite some time. I bought the matching clutch as a Christmas present to myself :) I have to admit that I really like Guess bags, although I do feel like some of them are hugely overpriced. There are, however, times I just can't resist buying one :)

I really needed a jewelry-tree, so my amazing sister-in-law gave me this for Christmas. I had a bit of a tough time getting it to Finland intact, but it arrived in one piece thanks to my hard Samsonite luggage. I've had other jewelry-trees before, but this one (finally) has enough branches. At least for now... :)

My mother-in-law got me this Caboodles Black In My Case, and I love it! It's spacious enough and it's leak-proof, which is really important since I'm storing my nail stuff (including gel polish remover) in it. It's a lil more pink-ish than it appears in the photo and has handy compartments and places for marbleizing tools/brushes on the sides. I might get another one for my make up :) The case also had a nice surprise inside it: a gift card to Sephora!

And here's probably the most useful Christmas present I got :-) I really needed a vacuum upstairs, since I had trouble carrying the big vacuum we have upstairs due to my bad back. My parents got us Electrolux Ergo Rapido 2-in-1 in metal yellow and I love it! It's super-handy and I don't need to look for a electric outlet, since it's cordless :) It's also really pretty and matches our yellow kitchen.

I also got other wonderful presents like gift cards, external hard drive, clothes, jewelry, a planner, and a Star Wars keychain :-) Hope everyone else got amazing presents as well!