Cheap Little Treats

Doesn't everyone need a little treat sometimes?  Sadly, more than likely no one is going to get you a little treat unless you get it yourself.  But a little treat is just that--little.  So it needs to certainly stay under $20, and hopefully less than that.  My latest little treats:



1.  Well of course you know I'm going to say the wonderful, always free library.  While you're there, kindly check out Valley of the Dolls by Jacqueline Susann, go home, lie on the couch, and start reading.  I finished it last night.  So good, so much fun.  It's Hollywood, it's New York, it's lunch at  21 and  drinks at El Morocco.  Just a total soap opera, with sex and drugs and...well, no rock and roll, but there are some Broadway stars with issues.  It starts in 1945 and goes through to 1965. Susann wrote what was considered a trashy novel, but holy smokes, could she write!  I think a lot of trashy novelists today didn't make it much past 7th grade composition class.  Go on!  Just go get it!

2.  Havaianas flip flops on Amazon.com for $14, with free shipping! And in the color I wanted (navy blue--I'm not really a fashion risk-taker).

3.  Buy a magazine and a nail polish at Target (or Wal-Mart, whatever).  You can do that for about $10.

4.  Get a single-serving dessert at the grocery store bakery.  Nice big eclair, maybe a slab of carrot cake...your call.  $5, tops.

5.  Go to Amazon.com and download free music.  Amazon puts it directly into your iTunes, once you download their (free, very good) software.

6.  In Target, there is a makeup line called e.l.f. (which stands for eyes lips face).  Well, don't buy the makeup, since it's made in China.  But the makeup brushes (which are also made in China, but you don't leave them on your skin for hours and hours)?  Well, you need to own those.  I mean, buying good makeup brushes can start at about $20 and go up (and up).  And just because they are expensive doesn't mean you won't eventually want to throw them away, even if you are good about washing them.  These e.l.f. brushes are either $1 each or $3 each (those are the expensive ones).  I am trying to try a little harder with my eye makeup, and since I already had some MAC eyeshadow from ages ago floating around the drawer, I certainly couldn't justify a few new $10 eyeshadows (and we won't even talk about department store makeup prices).  But for $4, I got two new brushes, I'm using up perfectly good makeup I already had...well, I'm just so thrifty!

7.  I love perfume.  A lot.  And not just any perfume.  It has to be unusual, it has to have certain notes, and it has to be made in France.  I decided it was time for a change, so I was on a perfume hunt, but the stores in my travels just didn't have anything that worked for me.  So, naturally, I turned to the internet.  Now perfume shopping online is risky, at best.  You can spend a fortune on a bottle of something that smelled wonderful on the woman in line behind you at the movies, but smells dreadful on you. However, you can get samples (or decants, as they are sometimes called) for a very minimal cost. And there is enough in a sample vial to wear it for a few days, so you can really give it a good test drive. Try Luckyscent.com, fragrancenet.com, and theperfumedcourt.com to buy sample vials.  Most samples are under $10 (Lucky Scent has a few that are $12 or $15, but that's for perfumes that cost close to $500 a bottle!), with most being around $3 or $4--certainly cheap enough to get out of the celebrity-fragrance rut.  I went to The Perfumed Court to get a sample of the perfume my mother wore when I was a child (Dioressence).  Made me feel quite wistful--amazing how scent can instantly take you somewhere in your past.

8.  Finally, one of my favorite treats is getting all my housework done early on a Friday, and then spending the afternoon reading or cooking or laying in the sun (with sunscreen on, of course. No, not really.  I thought I should sound responsible. It makes me feel goopy. But at least I don't stay out very long, since I get too hot.) or doing something fun like a blog entry.  And frankly, a cocktail wouldn't go amiss in any of these scenarios.  In fact, I'm going right now to try a concoction of homemade lemon simple syrup, Ketel One Citroen, and soda water.  At some point, I'm sure I'll report back.

Music to Make You Dance Around the House

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="219" caption="Cover of What's New Pussycat"][/caption]

Sometimes I get down.  Really down.  And I think that I just want quiet and to be left alone.  Time and again I am proven wrong, showing an appalling lack of self-knowledge.  The very best thing for me is to put on some music, turn it up, and I can’t help it—I start dancing.  If the kids are home I try to bust my moves perhaps slightly less enthusiastically than I would if home alone.  Some of these songs are newish, some are really old.  Now, you don’t have to buy the whole albums (although I do like owning hard copies of my music), you can just download them off of iTunes or Amazon.com (I prefer Amazon).  So here are some songs that make excellent dance-around-the-house music (I have lots more, but I didn’t want to overwhelm you).

1.        Start off with “Always Loved a Film” by Underworld.  How can you not love a song that has the line “the rhythm of an engine, deep and throaty”?  You will feel like you are 17 and beautiful again (not that you could pay me enough to actually be 17 again, however), with every possibility in the world in front of you.  Put this on. Turn it up.  Trust me.

2.       Next go with “Beautiful Day without You” by Royksopp.  One of my most favorite songs ever.  A little mellower than “Always Loved a Film,” but it’s a good time for it, since you’ll be all out of breath from dancing so vigorously to “Always Loved a Film.” Well, I’ll be all out of breath.  I guess I can’t speak for you.

3.       Now put on “Feel It in My Bones” by Tiesto (featuring Tegan and Sara).  Just fun.

4.       Okay, “She Will Always Be a Broken Girl” by She Wants Revenge.  It starts off a bit slowish, but then it picks up.  This is a song I would have loved as a teenager, sitting on the floor by the stereo in the living room, singing along, reading the words off the inner sleeve of the record album.  Yes, a record.  I am old.

5.       “Too Young” by Phoenix.  You will not be able to resist this song.  It’s so happy, it just gets you going.

6.       “Empire Ants” by Gorillaz (featuring Little Dragon).  Be patient. Again, use the time to rest. Well, I’ll use the time to rest. About 2 minutes in, you won’t be able to hold still.  Fantastic.  Turn it up louder.

7.       “My Little Red Book” by Manfred Mann. This is the song in the nightclub scene in the 1965 movie “What’s New Pussycat?”with Peter O’Toole and Peter Sellers,  and it makes you want to go to a nightclub back in the early sixties, when everyone dressed up and drank things like scotch and water.

8.       “Tombstone” by Midnight Juggernauts.  Again, give it a minute.

9.       “Hong Kong Garden” by Siouxsie and the Banshees.  This is in the Sofia Copolla movie “Marie Antoinette,” when Marie Antoinette and her friends sneak out to go to a masked ball. This is the music they are minuetting or gavotting (or whatever dance it is) to.  Sooo good.  Quite the toe tapper.

10.   Finally, something a little mellower again, “Rise” by Samantha James.  A little more grownup than Siouxsie Sue.  This is the kind of music I listen to most of the time.  I love it. It’s upbeat, sexy, sunny.

Music is so important to me. It can change your entire outlook on life, even if just for a day, and sometimes that's all you need. If you don’t feel like dancing around the house, put it on the car stereo and turn it up.  Try not to drive too fast—it has that effect.  And on top of it all you got two movie recommendations (“What’s New Pussycat?” and “Marie Antoinette.”)  It’s one-stop shopping!