Birthday Outing (& Shape-up Shoe Review)

Today my mom took me out for an early birthday treat. It was so nice to have an excuse to get out of my daily t-shirt & sweats combo and actually put on an outfit and do my makeup and style my hair for a change, and to get out of the house and just be girly for a few hours. And of course to be doted on by my mommy.

First she took me to Kohl's, where she bought me this purse (in deep metallic plumb) and a pair of Ked's shape-up Mary Janes that I can't find on the site but are very similar to these, except beige with light pink accents. I know they were on the web site, because I picked them out online before we went and was so determined to get them that when I couldn't find them on my own in the store I tracked down a salesperson to come help me find them...who then quickly found them in a spot I'd walked right past at least five times. Hi, I'm a salesperson-bothering dumb-dumb. But at least I got my shoes!

I admit that I was skeptical about them when I tried them on. I expected them to be harder to balance on, but they were actually pretty easy to walk in. I decided to get them anyway, and kept them on for the rest of the day. We did more shopping at Kohl's and then stopped at three more stores after we grabbed lunch, and by the time we were leaving store #2, my inner thighs were starting to burn a little, so the shoes were definitely doing something. I also noticed myself standing up straighter in them. So I guess they don't throw off your balance enough to be really noticeable, but just enough to make you unconsciously work to stay upright. I don't expect them to replace my regular workouts, but I think they'll give my overall fitness routine a little boost, especially if I wear them on days I don't have time to work out (and don't sit at my desk all day).

Mom also made me cry by giving me a star sapphire necklace that my grandmother had originally gotten her and that she's worn all my life. She has jewelry that she's designated for me and each of my sisters that she'd been planning to leave to each of us in her will, but she decided she'd rather enjoy seeing us enjoy them while she's still with us. So we're getting them for our birthdays this year (pretend you didn't read this part if you're my sister, okay?). Of course I have mixed feelings about this. I've loved this necklace since I was a little girl and it means a lot to me to have it in my possession, but I also don't like to go anywhere near the subject of my mom not being here someday. So I almost refused to take it, pointing out that she's still got plenty of years left to enjoy wearing it herself. But she said at this point she'd get more enjoyment out of me wearing it, so... I guess it's mine now.

I got her back by showing her my song, which made her cry... which, wow. My mom hardly ever cries at anything.

So all in all it was a perfectly lovely day out, which I really needed. It almost makes me not mind getting older.

Almost.

Maybe I just need a veil. Veils are sexy, right?

I took the plunge. For the first time in my thirty-some-odd years, I bought myself some pricey department store foundation. For years and years and years, I have been perfectly fine with the cheap drug store variety (in the last few years I've been particularly fond of Neutrogena), but my reasonable, money-saving beauty ways have turned on me, and my face has rejected traditional foundation. It's also rejected tinted moisturizer, and pretty much anything with any kind of oil in it. Suddenly, a good fifteen years past the point I thought I didn't have to worry about it anymore, I have acne. I guess you could say that this makes me look youthful, but I'm pretty sure it just makes me look gross.

So lately I've tried going without makeup. This isn't so bad. It's actually kind of nice, since it gives me more time to sleep in the morning. I just wash my face, slap on some oil-free moisturizer-slash-sunscreen, and go. This is definitely a morning routine I can live with. Except that in addition to the acne, I also seem to be developing a slight case of rosacea. Whoo, patchy red spots! Can it get any better? I'm sure it can. But I'm no longer comfortable baring my splotchy face to my co-workers, so it's time to find a makeup that won't simply make things worse, or make me look like I've caked layers and layers of foundation and concealer on top of bad skin.

I've been asking around for a few weeks now about Bare Minerals--that makeup that's all mineral powder--or a reasonable equivalent, and while I've heard nothing but raves, I hadn't had a chance to sample it for myself, to see how my skin reacts to it. But then the other day, at the mall, I passed a kiosk that was hawking Micabella products, where a lovely Latina was eager to brush some on my naked face. The half that was made up (yes, she only did half, and had I known that beforehand, I probably would have passed instead of walking around the rest of the afternoon looking like a before & after poster) looked great, and felt light, and now I sound like an infomercial, but it really was awesome stuff, and I wore it the rest of the day and my skin had no problems with it. Sadly, it was also very expensive stuff, so I didn't buy any. Instead I made plans to start saving my pennies for a jar of Bare Minerals, which I'm told is equally awesome and also half the price.

Santa must have heard my plans, because when I checked my e-mail for day after Christmas sales, it led me to an Introduction Kit on sale at Ulta for $15.00. I can totally do $15! So I did. And hopefully it will get here soon, and I can become one of those nicely made-up, apparently-smooth-skinned ladies insisting that you should try this stuff, seriously, because it is awesome, and totally worth the price. Unless it turns out that it's really not. But at $15, I can take the chance and find out for myself.

Something to say Woot! about

Woot's item of the day for today is a pair of refurbished Sandisk Sansa 1GB MP3 players for $14.99. I tell you this because I bought a pair for myself and Husband the last time they were offered about a year ago, and we have both been very pleased. 1GB might not sound like a whole lot these days, but mine currently holds several CDs with enough room left over for rotating my favorite podcasts. I listen to it while I work out, and it has been dropped many, many times, because I am clumsy even when I'm standing still, and it's still plugging along.

Back then, I checked Amazon and found that one of these was going for $90. I don't see this particular one for sale there now, and their 1GB players have come down considerably; but you still can't get 2 for fifteen bucks. This is a good deal.

At least I started out feeling well-rested...

This week has been a pretty weird one, with most of said weirdness surrounding workplace drama that left the entire admin staff feeling demoralized and insecure. Good times! My vacation is already a distant memory. Speaking of which...

How I Spent My Summer Vacation

As you know if you've been paying attention, we were supposed to go camping with extended family, but what with the sucky, scary, life-endangering weather we've been having, we decided to stay home. I'm not going to give you a day by day blowdown, because even I realize how boring that would be. And so, in chronological (more or less) order, here are some easy-to-skim bulleted highlights! Wheeee!

• Best day: Tuesday. I slept in ridiculously late, got up and ate breakfast around 1, took a bubble bath, then drove into town for a little me-time spent shopping for new clothes and drinking fancy coffee with a fancy pastry and sitting outdoors and gazing thoughtfully out at an empty duck pond between writing the occasional paragraph and getting bits of fancy pastry all over my lap.
  
  
• Best discovery: The charity thrift shop I found in an affluent neighborhood where affluent people donate their ridiculously nice, barely-worn clothes as soon as they're "so six months ago." I walked out of there with a sack full of brand names I didn't think I'd be wearing any time soon, all of which made up four or five different summer outfits, for around $35. Awesome sauce.
  
  
• Best entertainment: The Phantom of the Opera, which I saw Saturday with BFF. This was the fourth time I've seen it, and I'm going again with Husband in a couple of weeks. I still frakking love this show, beyond all reason. Even though I'm a little more mature now than I was back when I was a bona fide "Phantom phan," and I've got a little more perspective on just how messed up Erik is, my heart still breaks for him. Poor Erik. I know, I'm such a geek. But... that's kind of the whole point of this blog, so you knew that.
  
  
• Worst mellow-harsher: Real Estate Guy, who for various and sundry reasons beyond his control had to cancel Friday's house hunt. I feel for the guy and understand his plight, and really appreciate the education he gave us the one time he took us out, but unless/until his schedule gets less busy, this arrangement just isn't working. So we're checking out Big Sis's agent, which we probably should have done in the first place. Hopefully, we'll actually get to go look at some more houses soon.

There was other stuff, too, much of which involved napping, Chinese food and pre-mixed mojitos. Now here's hoping that next year's vacation is an actual getaway, preferably to someplace tropical where you don't have to get out of your lounge chair to refill your drink.

Feeding my style addictions

I've found a new time-wasting addiction: Stylefeeder. It's basically social window shopping. You rate what you like, it compiles recommendations, you can add or reject them, or get linked to the proper site to purchase them... it sounds an awful lot like Amazon as I'm writing this, actually. But it goes further with the Web 2.0 social networking aspect, allowing comments and tagging, burning feeds of your selections and widgets for your blog/myspace/facebook/LJ/whatever (see mine over there on the sidebar). And, the part I'm having the most fun with/trouble tearing myself away from, it matches you to your "style twins", users who have similar tastes to your own whose own personal styles you can plunder and copy to your heart's content.

Of course, my whole list is pretty much a fantasy wish list, what with the fact that I can't even afford to hit up the local thrift shop right now. Which is probably why I'm finding this so entertaining. All the pretty clothes! All the things I would totally wear, or sit on, or read, et cetera, if I could afford them/they came in my size, but in this case it doesn't matter. I can show off my keen fashion sense without spending a dime. It's making me feel girly and fashionable, and I like it.

Birthday Blues

It's become a tradition between my mother and me (as well as between my mother and my siblings, and between her and her grown grandchildren) to take me out to eat and then shopping for my birthday. This way we get to spend some quality time with each other, and she doesn't have to worry about what to get me ahead of time. She's on a fixed income, though, so this is never a huge splurge. Last year, she took me to Ulta and we loaded up on sale-priced makeup, and then she bought me a cute but inexpensive suit jacket at Ross. The year before that, it was the clearance sections at Old Navy and Target. The point is, I can either pick one nice thing, or find a good sale and get a lot of bang for her set number of bucks. I usually take option number two.

This year, though, I think I've decided to switch it up and go for the one nice thing; that thing being a pair of nice, figure-flattering jeans. For the last several years I've been buying the cheap discount chain store stretch versions of Levi's and Lee Jeans, refusing to spend more than $20 on a pair that I figured would just be too big by the time I finished losing weight.

Well, you know what? I think I'm finished losing weight. Not that I couldn't stand to lose another ten or twenty pounds, but I've accepted the fact that I'm most probably not going to. I like food too much, and I don't like exercise enough. I maintain enough of a balance between those two things to keep from gaining weight, but not enough so to lose weight without actively trying.

And I'm pretty much done actively trying. Sure, I've got some extra jiggle in my lower regions, but my husband has no problem with that, and tells me I don't need Carson Kressley to tell me how to look good naked. I can swim a mile, I can walk up several flights of stairs without getting winded, and my arms are toned enough that they don't jiggle. I eat healthy, most of the time. I look good in my clothes, I can wear a bathing suit in public without feeling self-conscious or having to hide under a giant tent of a tee-shirt, claiming that it's really just to prevent sunburn. I'm finally, FINALLY comfortable with my body. It only took me 35 years to get there.

I feel pretty. And gosh-darn it, I deserve a pair of nice, bum-flattering bluejeans.

And maybe some shoes, if there's anything left over.

This & that

It's a sad day for science fiction, y'all: Arthur C. Clarke has died.

I have a raging girlcrush right now on Elastic Waist. Sadly, I'm going to have to unsubscribe from the feed, because I think it's largely responsible for the productivity sinkhole I've fallen into this week.

I just found out there's a Japanese hot pot restaurant right here in Tulsa. We have to go there as soon as possible. Yes, HAVE to.

Speaking of Japanophilia, I've become addicted to Perfume. Thanks, Doug!

I really want a "day of beauty" for my birthday. Well, a day of budget beauty. Which pretty much means getting my hair trimmed into a decent shape, enjoying half an hour in a pedicure chair, and fifty dollars with which to go nuts at DejaVu. Such a day would be lovely. Such a day will probably not happen.

Fill out some forms.

These are worth your five minutes:

Firefly Season 2 - this one is gathering fan demographics and testing the feasibility of a possible "on demand" independent production of everybody's favorite unjustly canceled space cowboy show. Shiny!

Get free e-books from Tor--including Scalzi's Old Man's War--just by signing up to their newsletter.

In completely unrelated news, todays woot! offering is a pretty decent 1GB mp3 player for under $10. I just ordered two of them. Woot!

2007 Halloween Tricks & Treats #12

Halloween tee-shirts from Diesel Sweeties.

I need (not merely want, need) "Rock is Dead." And "Chewie is my co-pilot." I'm not sure how I've lived so long without these shirts.

Saying goodbye to Summer--I'm SO OVER IT

*Sponsored Post*

With summer winding down (what? Labor Day? You mean it's September already? When did that happen?!), now is a good time to take advantage of summer clearance sales and stockpile goodies for next year. I pray to God that Husband and I will have moved into our own place by next summer, so it really is tempting to stock up on stuff like Wind Chimes with which to christen the big back porch that our new home is sure to have. Man, I can see it now. Lazy summer nights on the porch, watching the fireflies and sipping a cold one while Husband stokes the grill, the tinkling chimes lulling me into peaceful relaxation... that's the life, folks.

Of course, by now I've about had my fill of summer and am SO VERY READY for the most wonderful time of the year: October! Yay! 'Tis the season for Halloween Decorations! Man, I love fall. It really can't get here soon enough for me.

Product Love: Blister Block

This is NOT a sponsored post. I pimp because I love.

I've been meaning to tout this for a while now. Band-Aid brand makes this stuff called Blister Block stick. I picked some up at Wal-Mart (in the bandage aisle) a couple of months ago out of sheer desperation when I forgot to wear some socklets with a particularly blister-inducing pair of shoes. I totally didn't expect it to work, but like I said, I was desperate.

Well, it worked. This stuff works so well that I've given up socklets and those sandal-fitting toe covers (if there's a name for those, I have no idea what it is) altogether. Instead I rub this stuff on in all the spots where my feet are prone to blisters, and whaddya know, I don't get blisters. Awesome.

It seems a bit pricey (especially for a cheap-skate like me), but a little goes a long way, so one stick should last quite a while. My one stick has gotten me through sandal season so far, and it's not even close to running out.

Coolness.

Crocs are... cute? Really?

Sponsored post!

I've always turned my nose up at Crocs because, well, they're ugly. I don't care how comfortable they are, I just can't handle that much pure fug on my feet, and besides, they're not allowed at my office, anyway. Except, I just checked out some of their new styles, and, well, these are pretty cute. Cute enough to be tempting. I'm pretty sure they'd pass muster with the dress code, and as much running around as I tend to do on a daily basis, cute, comfortable, affordable shoes are pretty much my new Holy Grail. These are a decent price to begin with, and with these ShoeBuy coupon codes, it looks like I can get them for a steal (aren't online coupon sites the best thing ever?).

I already blew my fun money budget for this week helping to line J.K. Rowling's heavy pockets, but just you wait, Crocs Sassari - Chocolate/Gold. Next payday, you will be mine.

Freeze It!

This is a sponsored post, but that doesn't make it any less true. My love for this product is a pure love.

My mom has a fun tendency to get hung up on one product that is her magical cure-all for everything. For my entire adolescence, it was Alkaseltzer Plus, for all things reasonable and otherwise.

"Mom, I have a cold."

"Take some Alkaseltzer Plus!"

"Mom, I stubbed my toe!"

"Take some Alkaseltzer Plus!"

"Mom, my date stood me up!"

"Take some Alkaseltzer Plus!"

So after years and years of that sort of thing, you can bet I was glad when she found a new favorite cure-all, even if I'm the one who found it first, by doing something as simple as throwing my back out. After my chiropractor sent me home with a handful of Biofreeze samples, my mom tried some on one of her many aches and pains, and a new catch-phrase was born:

"Mom, I'm hungry."

"Put some Biofreeze on it!"

For once, I had to agree with her enthusiasm, if not necessarily her application. Biofreeze is good stuff. It's crack for the chronic back pain set, making you feel tingly and warm and taking the pain away. Trouble is, it's about as convenient to get a hold of as crack, too, and also about as expensive.

This explains why I'm actually glad, in retrospect, that I woke up one morning last month with the mother of all neck cricks. I was all out of Biofreeze, and in a panic, I called my mom. "Mom! I have the mother of all neck cricks!"

"Put Biofreeze on it!"

"I can't! I'm out!"

"Well then, I don't know what to tell ya."



*whimper*

I popped some painkillers, trudged to work and suffered through the morning, unable to turn my head. By lunchtime, I'd had enough, so I packed my stiff, sorry self into the car and headed to Wal-Mart to find something that could possibly fill the void left by my beloved Biofreeze.

I scanned the shelves. I started to lose hope. And then, there it was.

Freeze It.

What's that? I asked myself. The packaging sure looked a lot like my favorite brand of crack. I picked it up and examined it more closely:

"Compare to the active ingredients in Biofreeze(r)!"

Could it honestly be? An affordable equivalent right there in the Wal-Mart pharmacy? One that I didn't have to make a special trip to the chiropractor's office or take out a small loan to purchase? This was simply too good to be true.

And then I tried the stuff.



Did it work as well as its snooty, high-maintenance twin?



Yes. Yes it did. And it stole my heart. I was so overcome with gratitude and adoration that I even caught myself making out with it.


Because that's the stuff, baby.

Of course, I had to tell my mom about this stuff; and now we have a new catch phrase:

"Mom, my toast is burnt!"

"Freeze It!"

Freeze It, indeed.

Jim who now?

Sponsored post alert!

I think I'm about the only person left in Western civilization who has never seen an (American) episode of The Office. There are good reasons for this, primary of which is that several years ago, I came to the conclusion that I was watching far too much television (yes, believe it or not, I used to watch way, way more than I do now. Hush.), and that I could probably live without any more sitcoms in my life. So I gave up half-hour comedies and never looked back. The other reason is that I had seen the BBC version and, though I didn't get hooked on it, thought it was pretty high-larious, and, well, Hollywood doesn't have a very successful record of trying to Americanize British sitcoms, so I naturally assumed that the American version would suck.

According to almost every person I know, I assumed wrong.

So now Target has The Office Season One for $19.99, and I guess that leaves me without any excuses not to start catching up to the bandwagon. While I'm at it, I might as well finally get myself a copy of Angel Season 5 for $27.99. That's not the best price I've seen it for, but with one of these Target coupons, I can get $5 off. Oh, wait--I'm a few dollars short of the $50 requirement. Oh noes! How will I ever make up the difference? You know now much I can't stand shopping at Target! [/sarcasm] But seriously, somehow I don't think that will be a problem.

And then I'll finally be able to get to the bottom of all this Jim and Pam business.

This post is sponsored by Coupon Chief, the first place I always look for coupon codes.

Cheap DVDs!

All FOX Television DVD sets are on sale for $19.99 at Best Buy. It says FOX TV, but it must include 20th Century Fox productions that aired elsewhere, because Buffy and Angel are included. Angel Season Five, you will at last be mine!

(Psst! And if you buy them at the store in person and use this coupon, you can get them for only $9.99!) Never mind. I didn't realize when I linked it that it's not an online coupon, it's just a scan of a hard copy somebody picked up in the store. I'm pretty sure printing copies and trying to use them isn't kosher.

Found via Whedonesque.

Do uTango?

Sponsored post alert!

From the "Looks Too Good to Be True" Files: you can earn cash rewards and even eventually fund your retirement simply by doing all of your regular online shopping. Yeahbuhwhat?! It seems the utango rewards program gives online shoppers the opportunity to sign up for free and earn rewards for logging into uTango and shopping their affiliate merchants, which include the likes of Target, Starbucks, and Barnes & Noble, places I shop all the time. Apparently, if I start shopping at them via uTango, I can start earning $200 per year, and if I stick with it over a lifetime, my loyalty could earn me up to a cool million in retirement funds!

This is awesome. Not only can I make free money just by buying books, CDs, ground coffee, clothes, jewelry, adorable inexpesive pre-fab furniture, housewares, home decor, and about anything else I normally shop for online, but I can also research and book my travel through the utango rewards program and earn even more. Pretty much everything I ever do online, commerce-wise, is included in this program, so there's not a single reason I can think of not to sign up. And did I mention the part where it's free? Wow. Double this with your credit card's rewards incentive program and you could really rack up the extra cash. Now that's what I'm talkin' about.

Free Postage Offer from Stamps.com and Coupon Chief

Sponsored post alert!

Postage rates are going up again on Monday. Postage increases are always a pain in the hinder; I'm rushing to mail everything I can this weekend and use up the stamps I've got, so that I won't have to mess around with buying any three-cent stamps. Snail mail is getting expensive, too, and with the USPS's customer non-service and track rate at losing packages, pretty soon we're going to run out of reasons to send things via regular mail instead of something more reliable like FedEx or UPS. In the mean time, though, here at least is a chance to catch a break on postage: My favorite coupon site is listing a Stamps.com coupon for $25 in free postage when you sign up for their 4-week free trial. As if that's not a cool enough freebie, you also get a free digital scale. You know how much I love bargains, especially when they involve freebies. I'm all over this offer.

Phone Envy

Sponsored post alert!

My husband and I are still, overall, pretty happy with the free cell phones we picked to go with the new plan we signed up for last year. They're not the sleekest phones on the block, but they do everything we need them to, and we've had too much fun with the built in cameras. Still, that doesn't stop us from the occasional bout of cell phone envy. This free BlackBerry Pearl, for one, really makes me want to consider canceling our current T-Mobile account and signing up for a new contract. Hmm. I wonder, if we do some shopping around, if we could negotiate a couple of BlackBerries into our current plan? Might be worth checking out, especially since we recently realized that the phone numbers they gave us are routed outside of our actual calling area and are long-distance from the landlines of pretty much everybody we know. Not cool, T-Mobile. Not cool at all.

T-Mobile's free BlackBerry offer isn't the only hot free phone offer going. Motorola's giving away a RAZr with their plans, and from Cingular you can get a free Sony Ericsson Walkman phone. This one has both a camera AND an MP3 player, as well as a built-in radio, all of which definitely ignites my phone envy. It even comes with an eMusic coupon good for 50 songs, AND the phone can double as a modem for your laptop. Want! The RAZr's not bad either, with its Verison VCast package which would be a nice compromise to my pesky "no high-speed internet at home" problem and let me catch up on my favorite TV shows. Sure, the picture is wee, but better a wee Battlestar Galactica than NO Battlestar Galactica.

Yes, I definitely think it might be time to rethink our current plan (I'm pretty sure we didn't sign a contract, so it's doable) and check out other options.

Sunglasses killer to sunglasses seller?

Ad alert!

If you're paying attention, then you already know that I'm a fan of inexpensive replicas of designer sunglasses, what with my penchant for getting sunglasses lost or broken. I love sunglasses, period, and it's great to get that fashionista look without having to invest a lot of money in something that probably won't last me very long. I'm sure a lot of people feel the same way, enough so to make selling them a fairly lucrative business venture. Wholesale Sunglasses are now easier than ever to come by, thanks to CTSWholesalers, who just launched a new web site devoted to hooking up entrepreneurs with all of the supplies needed to launch just such a business. Below is a press release detailing what they're all about, with contact info for anyone interested in pursuing such an endeavor:

CTSWholesalers Launch Website for Wholesale Sunglass Buyers

CTS Wholesale Sunglasses today launched a web site dedicated to helping sunglass retailers who sell designer replica sunglasses.

CTS Wholesale Sunglasses today announced the launch of their new site at online sunglass store for selling at high traffic areas.

The retail sunglass industry has high operating margins and the dealers can make a nice profit buying the sunglasses in wholesale and then selling these at retail counters or stalls in malls and fairs. "Sunglasses that typically cost $15 a dozen can be easily sold for about $8 per pair, earning a very high profit per sale," reported Kirk Bachelder while announcing the site.

Our sunglasses do not carry any brand names and are 100% safe for the dealers to sell
The site contains information about a large variety of replica sunglass designs that are inspired by leading brands. "We do not sell fake sunglasses and do not recommend that the retailers sell them", cautioned Kirk. "Our sunglasses do not carry any brand names and are 100% safe for the dealers to sell," he added.

The site will also carry special offers like a starter pack with an assorted collection of 36 pairs of latest and popular designs and a rack to hold 24 pairs, at a low $99. A newbie retailer can test the waters and explore the market with this low investment package before jumping in with larger stocks.

The helpful customer service and blazing fast shipping ensures that the dealers get their shipments before the time most of the other wholesalers have even dispatched the goods.

The retail sunglass industry is very popular with entrepreneurs because of the high margins. People prefer to buy cheap 'compare to' or replica sunglasses that look like the eyewear from the leading brands but cost much lesser. They do not feel the pinch if these sunglasses are lost or broken. They can also try different looks easily to match the season and the mood.

About CTS Wholesalers:
CTS Wholesalers offers tips and guidance to the sunglass retailers about the best ways to maximize the profits in marketing their wares at the malls, stores, exhibitions and flea markets. Visit the site at www.CTSwholesalers.com.

Contact Information:
Kirk Bachelder - Member
CTS Wholesalers
3525 Brady Ct. N.E.
Salem, OR 97303

Phone: 503.364.3486
Fax: 503.589.4121

Of course, if you're just looking to shop for sunglasses instead of selling them, they have a ton of cute styles available at their online wholesale sunglasses shop, for prices even a sunglasses killer like me would be happy to pay. Right now I've got my eye on these faux Versace sunglasses for $28.00, if I can only decide between the pink or the brown.

Magic carpets not included.

Sponsored post alert!

I just found an awesome guitar-themed area rug that will be perfect for my husband's theoretical future practice room/recording studio. Yes, once again I'm virtual-window shopping for stuff for my theoretical future house. As my theoretical future house naturally comes with hardwood floors, I'm going to be in need of a few area rugs, and Designer Floor's area rug catalogue has plenty of cool, funky and traditional options. I think I'm particularly fond of this Chinese "Peace, Love & Prosperity" rug" from their contemporary collection. I'm not sure what color schemes my new home will have, but once I do, I'm sure I won't have any trouble finding a tasteful rug here to compliment my decor. Since these are machine-loomed rugs as opposed to made by hand, they're also durable and affordable as well as beautiful.