Target Anonymous

I've decided that I MUST save money for a new Zeiss lens to badassify my camera for weddings in the fall. I need a high quality zoom lens for shooting. The best lens I have is my 50mm, which I love so much I would marry it, but it's not really a convenient at-all-times lens. When I'm trying to get a nice close up shot of someone standing at the alter, I don't think the bride and groom want me hoovering twelve inches in front of their faces. It might be a little... oh distracting maybe?

So, I'm going to save for a Zeiss lens. Which is a lot of saving to be done in three months. To expedite the process, I'm putting myself on a Walmart diet. I am not allowing myself within 100 yards of a Target until I have enough cash in my pocket to buy it. I shouldn't be able to breath the crack-laced Target air from outside that range.

Happy Cupcake Day

Happy day after Valentine's!



I celebrated my Sunday by shopping the clearance V-Day rack at Target (I bought a pair of cupcake pj pants for $3.49!) and buying some of the new Orla Kiely collection. (Including that table cloth.)

Sunday is family day around these parts. It was our turn to host, so we had some of Matt's family/people-who-are-essentially-family over for brunch today. I've figured out that the best time to bake something is when company is coming over. Then, I can send all the leftovers home with other people and avoid eating them myself at 11:00 at night when I'm bored and watching the DVR, thus slowing down the amount of time its going to take for my ass to inevitably get fat from baked goods.

Today I baked what is known as a tasty cake. Real "Tasty Kakes" are these gross little packaged cupcakes that Matt used to eat as a kid when he lived in Delaware. I've tried one and they're bad. Really bad. The idea is good - a piece of cake covered in peanut butter and chocolate - but the execution fails terribly. Over the last few years I've created my own tasty cakes. They started out as a boxed cake mix slathered with peanut butter and dropped into chocolate bark.

I've upped the ante since then.



Here's the most recent incarnation:

The cake is from Bakerella's yellow cake recipe. I piped in a peanut butter cream filling made of:

1 cup peanut butter
3 tbsp unsalted butter
2/3 cup powdered sugar

(Mix together peanut butter and room temperature butter. Sift in powdered sugar and mix until creamy.)

And topped it with a chocolate icing made with 1 cup of heavy cream and 8 oz. of chopped up Ghirardelli's semi-sweet chocolate.

(Bring cream to a simmer. Remove from heat and drop in chocolate. Let sit for 5 minutes then stir with a whisk until blended. You can let it sit for a few minutes if you want it to thicken up.)

I only bought the Ghirardelli's because the store was sold out of the cheap stuff. It ended up being delicious though.



I'm still not great at making my baked goods look pretty. I put too much batter into each cupcake liner, so they sort of exploded all over the place when they baked. All the tops broke off when I took them out of the pan. Plus, I'm doing something wrong when I make Bakerella's yellow cake. Mine always ends up sunken in instead of puffed out.

And then the chocolate was a complete mess.

Guess I shouldn't have stopped taking those pastry classes.

Orla is Coming

Someone better clear a path between me and the nearest Target store on February 15th.

Orla Kiely is coming.

Mentally Spending More Money

I was looking at some Jonathan Adler home crap and I came across this really nice bedding. I'm not interested in the bedding though, just the bed in the picture.



I am very much in love with it. It's a little on the "welcome to my sleeping chambers" side but it's still very pretty. I have owned a queen size mattress for nearly five years and never got around to making a proper bed out of it. For three years I just ignored the fact that I was sleeping on a mattress set on the floor. At least I lived in a loft so it looked a little "bohemian" instead of just "hard up for cash." When I moved in with Matt I upgraded and went from sleeping on mattresses on the floor to sleeping on mattresses on top of a $35 metal frame. Score!

Since this bed is being used in Jonathan Adler's catalog shots, I'm going to assume that it's beyond my affordability range. So even if I knew where to find this, there's no chance of me ever buying it. I can always count on Target though for offering cheap alternatives to all of life's pricey problems.



Our bedroom walls are powder blue on three sides and chocolate brown on the fourth. We have a smattering of blue, brown, polka dot and striped bedding. None of it actually matches but it all coordinates. Much like this headboard. I think it's a tacky enough and funky enough to sort of blend in.

Living Room Re-Deux

Our European dream vacation is going to cost us $5400 not including the cost of feeding and entertaining ourselves for twelve days. So, that's not going to happen next year. We'll save it for 2010. Or 2015. That means the living room rehab is back on. I searched again for some new stuff for the living room. I made a few changes and dropped the price on the makeover:



I love it! It's a lot more grownup and a lot less "burn your retinas" with all the yellow and red everywhere.

I swapped out the club chair ($359.99) for an identical chair from Ikea that is $99. It's fabric, not leather. But who cares? Leather furniture is kind of gross to sit on in the summer anyways. The ottoman ($699) got traded for a yellow one ($279), also from Ikea.

I'm going to pause here to say that Ikea is exactly the same as CB2 except much, much cheaper. Is this common knowledge? I've only been in each store once so maybe it's just me who didn't catch on.

The white credenza, from guess where, is $299 instead of the CB2 one that's $499. Again, it's the same freaking thing! How are they getting away with this? I changed my mind about the end tables because the other ones were sort of cheesy. This one is $79 instead of $119. I'm still obsessed with the yellow table so that stays. And as far as that couch goes, I really love it but spending $899 for something that the dog is going to end up sleeping on seems like a bad idea.

Obviously I never had any real intention of buying the $3200 photo print. I really want a large piece of art to hang in the living room above the couch though. I was looking on Target.com and came across their wallpaper section. I know! I didn't realize they sold wallpaper either! There is some great stuff on there. I really love a red and white patterned one and at $75 a roll it would make for a really cheap piece of art. Since framing something that large would be way pricey, I'm going to find (or stretch if I have to) a really long canvas and then paper that and hang it up.

The total price of the furniture is like $1200 less than before. I think it's actually affordable now! Couple that with the $3100 reduction on the wall art and the room is a bargain! Matt might actually go for it this time.

Fight the Good Fight!

I'm fighting the urge right now to buy this jumper from Target. It's 30% off! And lots of Christmas parties are coming up! It's so easy to rationalize buying it!

I already ordered a digital photography tip book from amazon today so I should just cool it. I'm going to go clean the bathroom and distract myself from internet shopping.

Cheap Until I got to the Furniture...

I went back and priced everything, just out of curiosity. And, this way I know exactly how much money I have to convince Matt to let me spend out of his gig paychecks this month:

Waverly Damask Window Panel - $34.99
Indigo Flora Glasses Set of 4 - $12.99
DwellStudio™ Lattice Decorative Pillow - $24.99
Cynthia Rowley Stainless Steel Shaker - $7.49
Teardrop Table Lamp - $59.99
Bing Table Lamp - $59.95
Radinka Table in Red or Yellow - $119.99
Chirp Pillow - $29.95
Sol Console Table - $299
Halogen Credenza - $499
Chet Sofa - $899
Broadway Leather Ottoman - $699
Barrel Club Chair - $359.99

Bullseye

I am freakishly addicted to Target. Their stuff is great and affordable... downright cheap sometimes. As a result, I suspect a lot of their products were probably made in Indonesia by eight year old children but hey, let's all look the other way, shall we?

I went to the new Target a few minutes from my house, which is in a less than awesome part of town and thus doesn't get a lot of traffic. They had clearance galore over there! I bought a couple throw pillows, a huge glass jar, a lamp, two Christmas presents, lots of picture frames, a clock, running clothes, and a few pieces of the Richard Chai, Go International collection. Grand total was like $100 for all of that.



Thank you Target.