If You Have Ever Aspired to...

be a cover girl, but didn't want to deal with an old man, Depends, other bunnies and the pain of plastic surgery, then this is for you! The Playboy beach towel puts you right in the center of the action! Actually it is part of a promotion concocted by an Argentine ad agency for the magazine. It is really clever though, you have to admit.

This ad an 18 others was voted by youaddit.com as one of the 19 Best Ads I Have Ever Seen. The others are well worth checking out as well. You can find them here: http://uaddit.com/discussions/showthread.php?t=642

Which one is your favorite?

Have You Seen This Etsy Shop?

This week our spotlight is on Bows By Jessica. Originally started out of her love of making hats and hair bows for little girls, Bows By Jessica now offers much more than bows and hats. Jessica has a line of leggings, bibs, shoes and headbands as well. Boys are also welcome here as there are many items that can be used for boys or girls.


Let's take a look at Bows By Jessica:

Fall has certainly arrived in an adorable fashion with the Fall Bow.

Striped Baby Leg Warmers are so cute in Halloween colors. They are stretchy and fit any child from a newborn to about a 10 year old.

Bear Hat can be made in any size and in any color that you would prefer.


Reversable Bib has a different pattern on the other side. I am sort of partial to this print those as I think it completely compliments the Joy De Vivre background!


Craftsmanship is very important to Jessica. All ribbon ends on the bows are heat sealed so that the ends will not unravel. Her reversable bibs have a waterproof lining on the inside so that nothing will leak through to your little ones. All items area also made in a smoke and pet free home.

Bows By Jessica can also custom make any hat for you. Also you can choose either an alligator clip or a french clip on all of the bows as well as nonslip grip attachment. Jessica can be contacted here for any questions.

This week for our weekly prize we are doing something a little different. For this week, you get to decide what your prize is if you are the winner! Bows By Jessica is offering a $15 gift card to one of the Joy De Vivre readers.

Leave a comment about your favorite item and you will get one entry. Become a follower of Joy De Vivre and you will get another entry.

Don't forget to check back this Friday and see if you are the lucky winner!

Please Say It Isn't So!

According to the folks at showbizspy.com it is inevitable at this point...Miley Cyrus will be popping up on screen on the upcoming Sex and the City 2 Movie. I love Sex and the City. I love Carrie, Samantha, Charlotte and Miranda. I do not, however, love Miley Cyrus. Not to be rude seeing as how she is still, despite the way she looks and acts, a child, but I can not bring myself to even stomach her.

Miley Cyrus acts like a very rude, ungrateful brat in my opinion. I do not have a Disney tween issue, it is a specific Miley Cyrus problem. Why could they not have cast former Disney tween star Hilary Duff, who is too cute and could use a big screen role right about now? Even that adorable little Selena Gomez would have been better than Miley, but I doubt her parents would have allowed her to be in a movie that obviously is not the best subject matter for a underage girl.

I guess Miley's addition to the Sex and the City 2 Movie will serve one purpose. If this movie is as long as the first one it will give me a perfect time to take a restroom break!

For any of the other SATC fans there is a great new website set up for all of the new movie info:
http://www.sexandthecitymovie.org/

I Love Shopping...

And if you do as well, Glamour magazine is giving you 8 little ways to shop big this fall! Just visit the Glamour shopping page and you will get the inside scoop for savings on stores such as Express, H&M and Ann Taylor, just to name a few. With savings up to 25% it is certainly worth checking out!

For those of you who are new to Joy De Vivre, I was chosen to be one of the 2009 Glamour Magazine's Glambassadors. What does that mean exactly? Well, I get to try out lots of great cosmetic brands, check out new clothing lines and basically get the inside scoop on all things Glam. What does that mean for all of my blog readers? Basically that I get to give you all the scoop on any Glamour events and great shopping discounts! So keep checking back for future Glambassador info!

Snuggie For Dogs

When I first saw the Snuggie for people, I honestly thought it was ridiculous. I wondered what was the point of paying for a thing that makes you look like you are in some strange cult. Why not just wrap a blanket that you already own around yourself?

Now the Snuggie has branched out to our four legged friends. This time, however, I am not going to make any snide remarks. I am not going to joke about the dachshund being a cult leader. For, I, someone who has a pup who will not go out in the rain without his raincoat on, have no room to talk!

Our Weekly Winner Is...

Congratulations Jennifer! This must be your lucky week! Just to brag on Jennifer for a moment-her blog was one of the Blogger Blog's of Note this week. So congratulations for that and for being our weekly winner!

Thank you to Sue and Elissa for offering your shop for our feature! We loved being introduced to your shop and to your website with all of those yummy cakes! Best of luck with everything that you are working on!

Have You Seen This Etsy Shop?

Charonel Designs is the creative partnership of mother/daughter team Sue and Elissa. Offering a wide variety of items such as hand crafted home decor, greeting cards and favor packaging, Charonel Designs is also open to custom orders.

Intrigued and want to see more? Of course you do!

The decorative black and white toile shabby table spheres set of 3 shows Sue and Elissa's love of all things Shabby Chic,(birdbath not included).



Fuschia pink shabby chic chandelier gift tags come in a set of six. These tags would make any package look classier.



Vintage inspired Hand Embroidered Shabby Lamb Pillow would make a perfect baby shower gift.

If you are like me, you have already started planning your Halloween decor. If so, this week the weekly giveaway is coming at a perfect time!

Witch's shoe candy favor box is a perfect Halloween gift or a great way to store that stash of candy that you are going to hide back from the trick or treaters!

Just post a comment and tell us what you love about Charonel Designs by going to their shop on Etsy: Charonel Designs
You will also get an extra entry by being a follower on this blog.

Winner is drawn Friday at noon!

For even more inspiration check out their website featuring pictures of their gorgeous cake creations: http://charoneldesigns.com/index.htm

My Newest Guilty Pleasure

The Rachel Zoe Project chronicles the life of celebrity stylist Rachel Zoe in her very fast paced life of making her clients look amazing. Rachel Zoe is often shown traveling back and forth between New York City and LA and trying to make a million things happen at one time.

I am loving this show for many reasons:

• Love her or hate her, and many people seemingly do both, you can not take away from her that she is a very hard worker. I also believe she has a slight case of undiagnosed ADHD which I can totally sympathize with.
• I love seeing beautiful clothes that I more than likely will never be able to afford. Yes, I will admit it freely in the comfort of my blog-I am a shopaholic!
• It is fun seeing the celebrities and wondering why the heck they can not pick out their own outfits to wear on day to day occasions. I can understand needing help with Oscar dresses, but when you need help picking out clothes to wear to walk from your home to the grocery store I have to chuckle.
• She is friends with the most awesome designers, including my personal favorite, Marc Jacobs, featured below.

If you haven't yet watched The Rachel Zoe Project I highly recommend it. It airs Monday nights on Bravo. For more info check out: http://www.bravotv.com/the-rachel-zoe-project

Weekend Recap

Hi everyone! I hope you all had a great weekend. I meant to post during it, but I ran out of time. Since I was MIA for a couple of days, I will fill you in on some of the things I spent time doing.

Saturday Gabe and I went to the Museum of Natural Science. They are having a great exhibit right now on the Terra Cotta Warriors from China. In my design history class we did a section on them and I found them amazing. I knew I could not miss seeing them in Houston. Below is a replica of one. They would not allow us to take photos of the real ones in the exhibit as to preserve them.


After seeing the warriors we walked around the museum for a bit. I loved the gem and mineral section. I took so many photos of them, but I will only bore you all with two. I seriously need to figure out a way to get rich and famous so that I can afford the aquamarine stone, my birthstone, that they had displayed! ;) So beautiful and so unattainable!

Our friend Aaron got a new puppy and brought her over to meet us. Her name is Lucy and she is a really sweet pup. As you can tell from the bottom picture it took Barkley a few moments to get used to her! He looks like he is wondering what the heck she is! LOL! He does think he is a human after all!

What were you all up to this weekend?

Our Weekly Winner Is...

Congratulations Adrienne! You have won the Bubbles Ring from FrankenClothes Design.

Thanks again Maggie for introducing us to FrakenClothes Design and thanks to all of you who let her know what a great shop she has!

What is Going On in My World This Week and Other Silly Randomness

I think I have bad concert karma lately. I have been to tons of shows, but lately it seems that craziness ensues every time. It started at Cruefest when I almost was stabbed to death by an elbow belonging to a girl trying to get in front of me. After standing there for six hours, and the fact that Motley Crue's bassist Nikki Sixx is my most favorite musician, she had sadly underestimated me. I will never understand people that do not get concert etiquette. If someone has been standing there for hours and you have just walked in, you should stand behind them.

Then there was the fiasco at the House of Blues last week. Drunk people, bar room brawls and an irritable guitarist. That about sums up that night.

Last night the bad karma continued. I went to see Britney Spears with the hubs. Gabriel loves her, meaning he thinks she is so pretty, and I have always had a soft spot for her. The night started out good, until two drunken girls decided to park it next to us. Long story short, they first irritated Gabe by wedging in a one foot space in front of us at which point all we could see was their hair. Then one of them fell down twice, the second time falling into my shoulder, at which point the only thing that kept me upright was Gabe's shirt, which is very stretched out on the arm now! Once she got off the ground she decided it would be a great idea to start a fight with the girl in front of us. I marched my happy little butt along with the girl drunken chick was trying to fight, over to the security. We told them what was going on and they were promptly escorted away. I did not pay more money than I would care to think about, to be at that concert and be pancaked! Good riddance!

Britney had a good show. She sang two songs live, which is rare in case you have never been to see her before. I must say she sounded really good! I can't help but feel sorry for her when I see her, though. She may have millions and tons of fans, but it must be so sad to be in a bubble like it appears she is in. For some reason she still doesn't seem 100% yet health wise. I hope when her tour ends she can continue to heal from all of the issues she has had in the past few years. I can't help but think of Michael Jackson when I see Britney. Is it worth trading your childhood for fame and fortune? It doesn't really seem so, does it?

More randomness:

Two of my coworkers are suing each other. It is very different as usually coworkers that sit next to each other all day do not do such a thing, but we are a unique bunch!

How is it that on Myspace I could get an invite to join a church group and to try out for Hustler magazine in a matter of five minutes? I have no party pictures on there. Heck, I don't even "party"! Why would these folks think I am a hoochie who needs to find religion? Mental note, must rethink my look!

I have to go get my car serviced tomorrow and I am very frightened to go. It seems like every time I go lately for something I think is minor the total bill comes to at least $600. Fingers crossed it is much less tomorrow! How I wished that I lived somewhere that I could take public transportation or taxis!

I made a coupon book after seeing this lady at the grocery store with one. She had the most awesome coupon book made from a photo album and picture inserts. I copied her and now have mine in a similar contraption, but I feel like a fool taking my photo album coupon book into the store. Will I look like I had too much time on my hands or like a coupon freak, albeit with a very cute polka dot photo album? I think I shall just leave it in the car and grab out what I need ahead of time. In my defense though, I did save over $100 last month with coupons so they do pay off.

Well what have you guys been up to so far this week? Details, details! :)

Have You Seen This Etsy Shop?

If you are looking for recycled, reconstructed and custom clothing and accessories then you need to see FrankenClothes Designs. Maggie, the owner of FrankenClothes Designs, likes to recycle so she reuses items in a very unique way for her creations. Bonus for Joy De Vivre winners-mention this blog and Maggie will give you 20% off of your FrankenClothes Designs purchase!

Allow me to show you around:

The Vintage Reconstructed Necklace is made form a vintage rosary.

Vintage Blue Bohemian Necklace is made from gold chain and vintage pendants.

Random Necklace is a mixture of bells, charms and coins.

A few more tidbits about FrankenClothes Design:

Custom items are available upon request.

Check out Maggie's blog at:
www.magsrandomthoughts.blogspot.com

And what you may ask do we have for you all this week? Boy am I spoiling you or what! ;) This week Maggie has given the Bubbles Ring for our giveaway!

To enter leave a comment for FrankenClothes Design and tell Maggie what your favorite item from her shop is.
You will receive an extra entry by becoming a follower of this blog.

Entries will be accepted from now until Friday at noon. Come back after that time to see if you are the lucky winner!

MTV VMA-Kanye West Being Himself, Unfortunately

I don't think anyone has ever accused Kanye West of being an overly polite guy, but tonight on the VMA's he really pulled a stunt. For those of you who were watching, you know exactly what went down, but for anyone who wasn't here is the run down.

Taylor Swift won an award and up against her were Pink, Kelly Clarkson, Beyonce, etc. Taylor Swift, who admittedly I am not a fan of her music, but she seems like a sweet and innocent girl, went up onstage to accept her moon man. Kanye West proceeds to jump onstage, take the microphone from Taylor Swift and announce to Radio City Music Hall that Beyonce should have won the award. Poor Taylor and Beyonce both looked to be in shock. Beyonce is a classy girl and I am sure she was just as mortified as Taylor to be called out like that.

Someone needs to teach Kanye West how to be respectful to others when out in public. He obviously didn't learn how to lose, or in this case for his favorites to lose, with grace. I just wish that Pink would have won and he would have tried to take the microphone from her. Now that is a chick that would have taught him how to sit down and be quiet really quick!

Great way, Kanye, to put a damper on a show that started out with an amazing tribute to Michael Jackson. Madonna did a beautiful speech that made her seem more human than I have ever seen her be. Janet Jackson showed such courage to perform so soon after such a great loss. If you missed the tribute live, I am sure it will be readily available online.

Update-Beyonce won the Video of the Year and once on the stage she recalled winning her first award with Destiny's Child at the age of 17. At that point, she said that Taylor Swift deserved to come out and give her speech. Taylor came back out to accept her award. That was an awesome gesture Beyonce. It makes me proud that you are our hometown girl!

Weekend Recap-Ann Taylor Glambassador Challenge

This month Glamour gave the Glambassadors a challenge involving Ann Taylor. What was the challenge you may ask? Simply to go to Ann Taylor, try on the looks with friends and spread the word. If you love clothes like I do, that isn't so challenging at all!

If you haven't been to Ann Taylor lately let me catch you up. They have hired a new head designer who has helped to give them an updated image. Their new look is very modern with great colors, great fit and awesome shoes. My friends and I had a blast at the Houston Galleria location yesterday trying on all of the new fall merchandise. Whether you need a great fitting pair of pants for the office or a perfect dress for a cocktail party, chances are you will find it at the newly updated Ann Taylor stores.

Check out our finds:

Diana

Margaret
Megan
Krystal and Zobeida
moi

*Adrienne I didn't forget you, but I don't think you wanted me to put your photo up that you called the "bobble head" look! ;)

Our Weekly Winner...

Congratulations Erin! You have won the Cosmos Glass Earrings from Altered Beauty's shop.

Thank you to Altered Beauty for offering such a lovely prize and I think I speak for all of the readers when I say we enjoyed being introduced to your shop!

Always Remember..

Have You Seen This Etsy Shop?

This week our shop is Altered Beauty. The items in this shop are made using new, found and vintage materials, or a combination of these things.

At Altered Beauty the top priority is to provide you with a beautiful piece of wearable art. If you check out the sampling of jewelry below, I think you'll agree that goal has been reached!

Precious Egg Necklace

Wire Wrapped Drop Earrings

We Charm Bracelet

This week one of the lucky readers of Joy De Vivre will win these beautiful earrings below:

Cosmos Glass Earrings

By now all I think most of the regulars know the drill for signing up for the contests, but any of you newbies out there, welcome and here goes:

• Leaving a comment on this post about one of the items on Altered Beauty's Etsy page will earn you one entry into the drawing.
• Be a follower of this blog and you will earn an extra entry.

Altered Beauty welcomes inquires about custom pieces, repeat pieces or anything else you may have in mind. Just send a convo with any request.

Don't forget to come back Friday to see if you are the winner this week

Weekend Recap

I hope you all are doing just that and enjoying your day! I had a great day going out with my friends and their beautiful baby girl. After that Gabe and I went shopping for Halloween costumes. We are having a party this year and thought the sooner we started looking the better the selection will be. Though I haven't fully committed to one yet, I think the Medusa costume is the front runner.

The rest of my weekend unfortunately was not as enjoyable as today. My sinus infection is apparently back to stay thanks to the lovely air quality in Houston. That is enough to ruin a few days, but the loveliness continued.

Saturday, after smelling something electrical burning and my lights flickering in my office, the breaker went off for that room. After calling out an electrician who arrived at midnight, he realized that the fixture in my office was to blame. The wonderful people, I type while rolling my eyes, who put up our fixtures left the wires touching the screws in the ceiling. Apparently every time we were turning on the switch the wiring was slowly melting. Thank God our breaker went off! I was upset over the $400+ dollars it is costing me to fix this, but as I was watching the coverage of the fires in California it put my little problems into perspective. It could have been much worse!

Last night we went to the House of Blues. We had been looking forward to going to see The Cult, especially Billy Duffy who is one of my favorite guitar players. Unfortunately, like the start of my weekend, things didn't turn out quite like I had hoped. It started out with some girl who had about ten drinks too many giving me advice on life. For some reason I don't think that someone who more than likely will not even be able to get themselves home is the person I need to learn life lessons from. Then I got hit in the head from some really tall guy trying to get a guitar pick from the opening band. No one even knew who the heck they were! I would have been more than happy to hand him the guitar pick rather than get hit in the noggin!

Once The Cult started playing it went from bad to really bad! Billy Duffy's guitar wasn't sounding right. He spent the entire night throwing a fit about that. I completely understand the need to sound great, but if he wanted a reason to throw a fit, try standing around for two hours with a drunk chick accidentally spitting on you while slurring her words, squished between hundreds of people with no security in sight and getting hit in the head by some man! That my friend Billy, will give you reason to act a fool!

About thirty minutes before the show was set to end, yet another drunk chick pushed into Gabe. Following her was her drunk boyfriend. Gabe went to get the guy off of him and the guy started getting defensive. When he shoved into the man that was standing next to us, that man, apparently also disgusted with the crowd of the night started to go after him. Here we are in the very front up against the railing getting shoved, no security and the other fool onlookers would not move out of the way! That was Gabe and my last straw! While the other two guys started to go at it we decided that was our cue to get the heck out of that place! We shoved our way through the onlookers so forcefully I am surprised we didn't get into a fight! I don't' know why people will stand there and watch a drunken fight, yet don't understand the words "MOVE, I am getting squished"!

As we were leaving the House of Blues, vowing never to go back due to the fact that we felt very unsafe for lack of security, I had to ponder the question: Am I too old to go to these places or am I just to old to keep dealing with people's crap?

Anywho! I hope you all had a very safe and happy labor day!

Things Not to Do When Shopping With Children and the Crazy Slap Happy Man

By now I am sure we all have heard the story about the man who slapped the 2 year old girl at an Atlanta Walmart. If you have not heard it, you must have been out of the country, but here is a link: Walmart Crazy Man.

First of all the slap happy man, pictured above, does look...let's just say not nice. It is never, in my opinion, going to quiet a child down by trying to knock them out so I think he was very out of line.

While it is not appropriate to slap a child who is misbehaving, I must admit there have been times in my life that I have wanted to slap the parents.

Years ago, when I was a teenager, let me change that..a couple of years ago when I was a teenager, I worked in a department store. This experience really helped me see what NOT to do if I ever had a child.

• Do NOT send your child to the toy department by themselves and use said department as some sort of daycare center while you shop peacefully. If you do not want to shop with your child, find a real babysitter. Nobody making minimum wage wants to tape up toy boxes, find all the little parts, make sure your child isn't choking on a Lego, etc.
• If you are taking a toddler shopping put them in the basket so you can keep up with them. If that doesn't work, hold their hand. If that still isn't doing the trick, and I only recommend these as a last resort, get one of those leash things. Please, though, if going this route get one of those cute backpack ones. Let the kid have some dignity! You don't want him to be the laughing stock of nursery school.
• Don't be the parent who ends up finding out over the intercom that they have found your child and you didn't even know your child was missing!
• If your child needs to go to the restroom please take them there! It is bad enough having to shovel doggie poo when I take Barkley to the park, but retail employees should not be shoveling your children's! Trust me this happened at my old store, twice! In the middle of the aisle!
• If your child is having a hissy fit don't continue shopping for another hour. Maybe they are tired, or hungry, or need to go poo, whatever! Take them home! Just because they can't drive they should not be held hostage in Walmart!

Although I no longer work in retail, I am sure some employee out there will be MORE than happy if everyone takes this advice.

Our Weekly Winner Is...

Congratulaions Carol Anne! You have won an item of your choice from EUC Designs,(up to $18 in value).

Thanks to everyone who entered! As usual there will be a new shop and contest Tuesday!

Thank you Ilissa for being a part of my blog and offering a great prize to the readers of

Joy De Vivre.

Congratulations Are In Order!

Diane Sawyer was just named the new anchor of World News nightly on ABC. She will be taking over the desk when Charlie Gibson retires in January.

I love watching her as part of the group on GMA, but I am sure she will excel in her new position. Poor Katie Couric is going to get so beat in the ratings!

Congratulations Diane! You deserve it!

Have You Seen This Etsy Shop?

This week our featured Etsy shop is EUC Designs! At EUC Designs you will find a variety of web design needs. Banners, avatars, images, business cards and animated advertising buttons are just some of the offerings from this great shop. Do you need a customized blogger template or custom logos? EUC Designs can design those for you as well.


Here are just a few samples from EUC Designs on Etsy:

The Little Baby Lamb avatar

Summer Butterfly-Premade Business/Mommy Card Design

Red Berries on a Branch-Premade Business/Mommy Card Design

The items sold on EUC Designs are digital so your order will be sent to you via email as a .jpg file. Different formats are available upon request. Your order will be processed and sent to you within 24 hours of confirmed payment.

Ilissa at EUC Designs is offering a great prize this week! Just give her shop a comment on this post and you will be entered to win any item of your choice from her Etsy shop,(up to $18 value). Also if you are a follower on Joy De Vivre you will get an extra entry.

This week also we are offering a few more ways to get entries:

1) Go to EUC Designs and tell Ilissa what your favorite item is.

2) Heart EUC Designs

3) Heart one of the items on EUC Designs page

4) Give one suggestion for an item you would like to see on Ilissa's site or a possible change for her shop.

(For the extra entries, please leave your etsy username on this post so that the hearts and wonderful things you have to say can be properly traced to add up your entries.)

Don't forget to check back on Friday and see if you are the lucky winner this week!