#1. Marley Lilly is the most fun place to shop online.

I am not sponsored by Marley Lilly, nor am I an affiliate. This does not make me any money to say this. I just love this place. You can order anything monogrammed from Marley Lilly, and it does not come all the way from China! This stuff is monogrammed for you, in South Carolina.

When I first found this site, I may or may not have spent quite a bit of time pinning and wishing.

This store has the CUTEST stuff!!!

I’m a wee bit obsessed with monograms:

It may sound silly, but frilly touches like my monogrammed initials on my jacket and my hand bag do help brighten my day!

I don’t think I had ever ordered a single monogrammed thing before I found online stores who do it. Why? Well, I love the look of it, but we move a lot, so I do not know the places to go anywhere I live to find services like this.

Also, it just looks expensive, you know?

What I LOVE about this online store is that you can find pretty stuff for good prices. Everything is so cute, completely affordable, and I can order it from anywhere, without leaving my house.

#2. Etsy shops are essential for finding things that are super personalized.

Let me show you a few of the other adorable things I found on Etsy!!!

#3. Yes, I use Amazon just as much as everyone else. It is less personal, but it is obviously practical.

Here are a few cute things currently for sale on Amazon. (December 2023) I actually am an Amazon affiliate, so I do collect advertising fees when you order from my Amazon links.

I like this watch. It is on a deep discount for Cyber Monday. Unlike Fitbits and Apple watches, you do not have to constantly recharge this good old fashioned watch.

Okay, and this one is my favorite Amazon find:SaveSave

Where are your favorite places to shop? I would love to have more ideas to find affordable things.

The post 3 Fun Places to Shop Online appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

Have you tried Stitch Fix yet? Thought about it?

I’m on Box #5 here, so I’ll be happy to fill in any questions you have and give you a peek into what I received in my boxes. For the full down low on how Stitch Fix works, click on this post I wrote about my first one.

Normally, I schedule my fixes to come every 3 months. That works for season changes. However, from my May box I sent back 3 of the 5 things, and one of those was a tote-style purse. Plus, I was on a steep incline of weight gain for the past 2 years (I totally DON’T want to talk about it…Ask the doctors who told me to stop exercising. grr. We’ll address that on another blog post.)

So I found myself needing new summer pants, as in capris or cropped pants, which are my favorite. Who can find time to shop with 4 boys home all day in the summer??? It was just easier to go online and  request a box for July!

Why not just shop for myself online? Because I get overwhelmed, fill my cart up, then empty it and buy nothing. Do you do that?? Or is that just me?

Box #5

Stitch Fix Box #5 was spot on, and I’m keeping all of it. Plus, when you the entire box you get a 25% discount off your total price. Basically it makes the most expensive item in your box free, but only if you’re buying all 5 things.

Want to see what was in this box? I got ya covered.

My husband went on and on about how awesome I looked in this dress. So obviously, it’s a keeper.

Also, I didn’t like the shoes I wore with that dress, so I went to Payless and hit a STELLAR sandal clearance.

This outfit is very classically what I wear. Note the cute tote bag. That was from Stitch Fix Box #4. Since blue is my signature color, it goes perfectly with most of my clothes.

While the dress was my husband’s favorite, THESE PANTS were mine. They are cropped pants, but with my long legs they are almost capri pants, which is what I wear pretty much every day.

I don’t have a photo of the gorgeous Kate Spade earrings because……….this is so embarrassing to admit…. I wore them Sunday, and now I can’t find them!!! They will turn up.  This is the sort of mistake that I make regularly…misplacing earrings…but don’t worry.

You can see the earrings, which my stylist, Becca, chose in honor of Kate Spade, very clearly in this Facebook Live video below.

Also, I did not include a photo of the lovely floral print indigo-colored shirt from this box because it was too big. However, I did not send it back. Why? Well, the shirt was only $30, and by buying all 5 items, you save 25%, as I mentioned before. For this box, 25% off equaled out to be $70, which saved me much more than the cost of this one shirt, so it was cheaper for me to keep it. I’ll pass the shirt along to someone else.

Stitch Fix DOES do size exchanges. 

If you go online on the check out screen, you can also request a different size. Unfortunately, I didn’t know that until after I checked out. I could call and work this out, I’m sure, but I’m pretty lazy about returns so.. probably I won’t.

Want to learn more about Stitch Fix or order a box for yourself? Just go here.

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The post Stitch Fix Box #5: Love it or Send it back? appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

***I was not paid to write this review. All opinions are my own.***

Living  in the South has ignited a passion in me for all things monogrammed, engraved, and personalized, so when I came across this locket that you can personalize online in 5 minutes with words AND photos, and order it right to your doorstep, I HAD to try it. Thankfully, I was able to get my hands on a free blogger sample. (Thank you picturesongold.com!)

Making the Locket on PicturesOnGold.com

I was a little nervous about making it. Usually places like this want an exact size of photo, or I goof up and order 3 instead of 1…..like I did with those Third Love bras…but that’s another story…

Y’all! It was SO EASY, and there were OPTIONS– like Subway!! Silver or gold? What should be on the front? Which font? Choose your left inside. Words or photo? Choose the right inside. Choose what’s on the back. How long of a chain? Which type of shipping?

Want to see what I picked?

All 4 boys on the left, Alan and me on the right

What made me the happiest of all was that the upload time was quick, and they automatically shrink it to fit the locket. Then I was able to slide the photo around on there to center and enlarge the photos the way I wanted.

For the front I chose engraved initials:

Love!

It goes with everything. I was so excited when it arrived in the mail only a few days later, but you choose your own shipping option.

What sold me was that when the locket came, it was ready to wear. I did NOT have to go searching the house for tiny photos to fit in it. They are permanently “photoengraved” in.

Reader’s Discount!!!

After the Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales are over, you can use this code, just for my readers: BLOG10  That will give you 10% off your locket order. I cannot guarantee that the code will work in conjunction with other discounts.

Just go here to see all the personalized gifts they sell.

And now for the giveaway!!! Whoo-whoo!!!!

Prize is a locket like mine from PicturesOnGold.com for you to personalize online.

***Open to US residents only.***

Log in using Facebook or your email address. Then select one or 2 or all of the entering options to complete your giveaway entry! Best of luck! Winner will be announced in a week!

Happy Thanksgiving!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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My fit friend Julie. It was like Israel boot camp, but I could not have asked for a better person to tour with.

When I talked to Julie the week before our big trip, she mentioned that she enjoys walking, and she hoped to walk everywhere in Tel Aviv.

“Perfect, I love walking!” I said.

But then, as I got to know Julie better, I began to realize we were not exactly on the same level with the physical fitness. She walks, and she runs, and she exercises.

Julie is what we call fit. Super fit. I am more like what we call….not fit.

My gut closely resembles this Israeli statue…

He’s cute, isn’t he?

I could not have found a better person than Julie to tour Tel Aviv with. We were already acquainted well enough that I felt comfortable with her, and yet we were new enough of friends that there was no arguing. Ha!!!

Besides, Julie is awesome. She is laid back, intelligent, sensible, down to earth, and an excellent conversationalist, which is perfect because I often have a super hard time thinking of what to say. She also was better than me with figuring out where we were and how to get where we were going, which is important in a foreign country!

Go ahead and laugh. You know I have no sense of direction. And maybe you THINK I talk a lot, but inside I’m working hard to think of all those words.

This is the street in Tel Aviv that runs along the beach.

Tel Aviv Boot Camp

We had a routine that worked well. Breakfast and supper were free at our hotel, so that was what we ate. We had a late breakfast, skipped lunch, and then there was 4:00 tea time at our hotel, with snacks. Then there was dinner at 6pm.

So yeah, we just skipped lunch everyday. We probably did not save any calories though. They fed us so well at the hotel, we were not even hungry at lunch.

Tel Aviv Beach

Alan and I did a little walking on the beach together too.

The Shopping

You know I am thrifty, and Julie is too. I am so easily influenced by who I am hanging out with! I didn’t buy all that much, but we did walk around tons of shops and markets.

We went into Israel expecting to barter for everything. People had told us we would need to barter, and yet, that was not what we found. Maybe it is just different in Tel Aviv, but most everywhere we went the shop owners and workers said, “No, we don’t do that here. It’s just one price.”

I bought these Coca-Cola in Hebrew shirts for my 2 biggest boys.

I scored this entire outfit at the Shuk for only $100 shekels…That’s like $35!!

Funny story:

First of all, several different people asked Julie and me if we were from Germany. ???!!?? Germany? No! America! I found that odd, kind of funny, but also sad, considering Israel’s history with Germany.

But the funny story was the sales guy we met at the Shuk, where I bought that exercise outfit. He was an unusually friendly young Jewish man, probably around 24 years old, a cute, small guy. What I did not realize at first was that he actually lives in Miami, but he was in town for an event and helping his dad in their store that day.

“Where are you from?” he asked us, after explaining the day’s sales to us.

Each time people asked, I found myself not knowing what to call our country. Isn’t that hilarious? United States of America is sort of a mouthful. So sometimes I said America, and sometimes I called it the U.S. or the United States. That was not a sufficient answer for anyone that asked. Every single questioner wanted to know specifically what state we were from.

I move every 2 to 3 years, I do not truly belong to any one state, so my new policy is to claim to be from wherever I currently live.

This particular sales guy laughed when I said “America,” and said, “Well, yeah, I know, I mean I didn’t think you were from Germany!”

Julie and I looked at each other, mystified. Well, the rest of the country seems to think we are from Germany, and even this guy referenced it, so clearly their history left scars.

But he knew we lived in the States because he has been living in the U.S. himself for several years.

We bought this from an arts and crafts fair in downtown Tel Aviv.

We explained to the sales guy where we were from. He said to Julie, “You look like a runner!” Then they talked about running and swimming…Funny…no one ever asked me what sport I participate in……hahahahaha…

I was shopping for a cute exercise outfit, so I picked up Larges, but I’m usually borderline on sizes, so I was glancing around for a fitting room.

“Oh, you don’t need a large!” This sales guy had all the answers…”This stretches, see? You need a medium.”

Flattering, but I actually did not even need to try on the pants. I’m 5 foot 6 with enough hips for all 3 of us standing there. I require the large, and I am thankful I did not consider his advice.

Shirts are a different story. I have to try on every shirt I buy.

There I was, in a foreign country, trying on a shirt, in a storage closet, in an outdoor market area (The closet had walls. The store did not.), with Julie standing guard in the OPEN doorway, with the super talkative young sales guy, waiting outside the closet. He said he was waiting to “snap a photo (of me) and put it on Facebook.”

Laugh. Out. Loud. “Yeah, you are not putting this on Facebook.”

I was in such a hurry to be done with the process that I bought the shirt, without being sure if it fit well or not because I did not want to go out there and look in the mirror long enough for him to get a Facebook photo. (As it turns out, the shirt was far too spandex-y.)

Why do I care about him taking my picture? I am a blogger for crying out loud. My face is all over the internet. Yeah, well, I am a vain blogger who carefully crops out all chubby bits before posting pictures online, and me in a spandex work-out tank? No way was I putting that out there.

That sales guy was hilarious. He talked to us all the way out of the store, as we left, and invited us to come back and see him tomorrow.

I never did make it to the Dead Sea, but I did buy this soap at the craft fair, which was made from Dead Sea Mud.

Gotta love mud.

This was another character that we met. He had lot of jokes.

Okay. Sorry it’s all mirror-backwards, but look how hard it is to read a receipt in Hebrew and shekels!!! If it weren’t for the numbers, we would not even know it was backwards.

That receipt was from a group dinner. Don’t worry. We didn’t spend anywhere near that much.

Ah! I can’t wait to go back someday.

P.S. I lost 3 pounds.

At the Dizengoff Center, a shopping mall exactly like you’d find in America, I found MY store. Yep. April is a cosmetics store.

Julie and I averaged about 9 miles a day, over 20,000 steps. We were sweat-soaked each day when we made it back to our hotel room. If you go for a week, you need to pack like 14 outfits, complete with 14 sets of underwear.

By the time the trip was over, I had definitely built up my endurance. I have been sure to get in at LEAST 30 minutes of cardiovascular exercise everyday since we got back, so this trip was a grand success, in more ways than one!

Be sure to check out my last post on Tel Aviv to learn more about this bustling city!

Just can’t get enough Israel? I wrote a book about the whole experience, and you can click here to buy the book on Amazon.

The post Shopping and Shedding Pounds in Tel Aviv appeared first on Stories of Our Boys.

The Dan Man

It’s the week before Thanksgiving. At our house that means that Alan’s entire family is doing their Christmas shopping. They will be completely finished before the rest of us even start. I just wanted to pass that info on. Maybe it will help motivate other Christmas slackers, like myself.

I asked Daniel today, “What do you want for Christmas, sweetie?”

“Um…handcuffs..”

“Handcuffs?”

“Yup. And a balloon!”

“Oh, good,” I mused to myself, “I can do all of this boy’s shopping at Dollar Tree and be done just like that…”

“And a car!”

Yes!

“with a remote”

“Oh, you want a remote control car? I’m sure we could do that. Okay.”

“No, a car that you can ride on, actually.”

Whomp whomp whomp. Oh.

He wants a Power Wheel. We were so close.

Amazon affiliate link

I’m having trouble talking Alan into going along with that one. But, Alan, it’s Christmas…

So I’m making a note of this moment, I’m writing it down. Let the record show that I, April, am going to order at least one Christmas present today. I’m doing it! Joshua’s bringing me my hot pad, for my angry old hip, and I’m going to lay here and shop from home.

This has been a big and exciting week for us:

#1. Daniel had his preschool observation day. We got to go and sit in on a class, and if all went well, they told us he could start in January.

Well, someone get this boy a cookie. He was so mellow and sweet and well behaved. They told me he could start right away. She said, “He has done so well here. He’s so good and so mellow. It’s like he’s been here all year. He can start right away, if you’d like.”

Whoot! Go, Dan, go!

#2. I passed glucose tests 2 and 3. One was a three month sugar level test. Passed that. One was a fasting level test. Passed it too. No diabetes. Roll Tide!!

#3. I have my rheumatology appointment scheduled, but it may not even be a rheumatology related issue, so the doctor finally also ordered a new MRI.

#4. Alan’s list of possible jobs is in for us to choose from, and it looked good to me. We will probably be going right back to where we moved here from.

#5. This week is Thanksgiving! We have so much to be thankful for!

So thankful for these guys!

The healthy eating thing went so well last week, but I’ve made several big goofs this weekend, mostly involving Oreo cookies. I’m still trying to improve my diet, though, for the benefit of the whole family.

Would you believe that I did not get fog brain a single time this week? Amazing. It didn’t help the joint pain, though. That just keeps getting worse and worse. That’s why I’m looking forward to talking to more doctors about it. If we can figure out what is causing it, then I feel like I could more accurately do something about it.

I’m off to start this shopping! Happy Thanksgiving!!

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