The Trials and Tribulations of Online Shopping

Argh another horror story.  I mentioned the Louboutins I bought from an online retailer based in Texas.  Well the saga only just ended a few days ago.  I received the shoes and there was a manufacturing fault - different sizes.  I contacted them and was involved in a 5-way email thread with the retailer, their supplier, and a few other randoms.  Eventually I posted the shoes back to them on 8th Feb (cost me $72 for the most basic postage and I wasn't even able to track it - thanks Australia Post).  It took 13 working days to arrive when Aus Post quoted me 5-7 working days.  I started stressing after the 7th business day and was contacting the retailer to see if they had received the shoes yet.  No response (surprise surprise).

Finally 2 days ago I got an email saying they had received the shoes and would be issuing me a refund.  Great.  Finally.

Yesterday I decided I was going to take the plunge and buy myself a nice Burberry trench coat as I've wanted one for the longest time (it's also my birthday on Saturday and I have loads left in my Frugal Feb kitty since I sold my Chanel).  Found a trench on ebay in my size (which is already difficult) - BNWT from Bloomingdales.  Excellent.  Buy It Now.  Wasn't expecting anything from the seller til overnight as they are based in the US.

So at 3am my time, I get a message from the seller asking me:

Which is your address- Sydney AU or Erlanger, KY? Thank you.

Obviously it's 3am so I don't respond immediately.  At 9am I get another message:

Thank you for shopping. Your item(insured package) has been sent to Erlanger, KY 41018 today. If you have any questions, please feel free to let me know. Thank you again.

I woke up JUST after 9 and fired off a response immediately, hoping to catch them at the end of their work day.  No response for the last 3 hours so obviously they've gone home.

Firstly, I have no idea where they got this 'KY' address from.  I assume KY stands for Kentucky???  I only have an Australian address attached to my ebay account and I don't even know anyone who lives in Kentucky or anywhere in the US for that matter.  When I click on 'Order details' right now it shows me this (I've deleted some details but you get the gist):

Postage details
Kay Sydney New South Wales  Australia

My ebay page also says my location is Australia.

Secondly, why couldn't they wait a whole 6 hours for me to respond before shipping the item off?  Clearly they weren't certain of my address because they sent me a message asking me to confirm.  Why then send the coat without receiving a confirmation either way??  And if I don't respond in 6 hours maybe it's because I'm in Australia which is a different timezone.  And also, I PAID FOR INTERNATIONAL SHIPPING.  HELLO!?!?!?!

Whoever lives at that address in Kentucky where they sent my coat will receive a free BNWT Burberry coat which cost me a mint.  I'm lodging a dispute with Paypal but I have kindly given the seller 24 hours to respond since I am aware they are in a different timezone and it's reasonable to allow people at least 24 hours to respond on ebay.

Thanks for letting me rant.  I'm in a horrible mood now because sorting all of this out will just be a huge headache.  I guess that comes with the territory when you online shop.

Crazy busy and I Hate Study

I hate those weeks where you don't get a chance to breathe.  I sat down last night (like I do most Sunday nights) to work out my rough plan for the following week.  It wasn't until I sat down and wrote it down that I realised how much I have to do this week.

Tonight we are going to watch the Cirque du Soleil 3D movie as we bought vouchers ages ago that need to be used by Thursday.  We thought we'd kill 2 birds with 1 stone by having dinner with my family beforehand since we're in the area.

Tomorrow I have no plans apart from studying and running errands like paying bills and posting some stuff I've sold - including my Chanel.  Bye Bye Chanel :(

Wednesday Tom has a gig in Bondi so we're heading there for a night.  Should be good.

Thursday is an ex workmate's farewell.  She's moving to London with her boyfriend so will be super-sad to see her go.

Friday is my cousin's boyfriend's birthday slash housewarming.

Saturday we have to visit Tom's grandparents as his grandpa had a hip replacement at the ripe old age of 92!  He's doing well but we'll drop in for a cuppa and some cake.  Then later that arvo we're going to celebrate my birthday!!  27 isn't anything exciting but any excuse to get my closest friends together will do.  I've got my dress, almost chosen my shoes, and pretty much sorted my jewelry.  Yay for being organised.

Sunday we're going to have dinner with my family to celebrate my birthday.  No idea where we're going yet, I suspect it will be a surprise.

The most annoying thing about this coming week is that my Applied Finance Final Exam is early next week so I really need this week to prepare for it.  I will have to be super diligent and do as much study as I can during the day.  It's hard though because I prefer studying at night because I'm more 'awake' at night than I am during the day, and also Tom's around for me to ask him questions (he's the Finance whizz in my household).  Doing it during the day when I'm an amazing procrastinator is not easy.  Plus, since when was Probability and Statistics so boring!?!??!  Lucky I'm not working as well because I would be up to my eyeballs and probably not sleeping much this week.

Sorry for the lack of pics.  Here are some random pics from my weekend.

This is my friend's ragdoll cat.  She's super adorable

Haven't had a Campos coffee in aaaaages.  It didn't disappoint

My Mum is so proud of her beautiful rose bush.  I definitely did not inherit her green thumb  - give me a backyard of concrete any day!

Peter Alexander sleep shorts for $13!

Peter Alexander undies for $3 each.  They are so much better than Bonds undies :S

Good Shopping Karma

I'm a firm believer in karma, and generally with things less superficial than shopping, but today I feel like I've got good shopping karma.  I took my sister shopping as it's her birthday 2 days after mine (next week) and told her she could get whatever she wanted up to $500.  6.5 hours and $400 later we decided we would leave the $100 for another day.  She managed to get 3 bags, 2 pairs of heels, 2 blazers, a whole heap of tanks/tees/skirts/dresses, a strapless bra, some nail polish and lip gloss, and a belt.

I dropped her home and grabbed some of my packages while I was there.  I got my Asos order (with one incorrect item) and Mimco order and love pretty much everything (apart from the incorrect item).  I also managed to find and purchase a Sheike dress I fell in love with when it came out 5 years ago for NINETY-NINE CENTS.  Thankyou ebay.  I'm also on the verge of selling my Chanel for a price I am happy with.  Fingers crossed.

Bailey is beyond adorable

Waterproofing my babies

I put this Marcs coat on lay-by.  Lucky I did that too because size 4 is already sold out and the coat was only released last week!  I have been on the lookout for a pale blue coat ever since Monica wore one on Friends about a decade ago.  Finally found one :)

New Blog Section Launched!

I've decided to officially launch a new section of this blog.  I haven't listed any of my items for sale on this blog and mainly sold through ebay, but I've had a number of people ask for my ebay username and also a few people contact me directly to purchase some items.  And given how laborious ebay is, I've decided to give this 'advertising items for sale on my blog' a shot.  Someone on the Vogue Forums did it and said she had a lot better luck selling that way than on ebay.

So if you scroll to the top of my blog you will see 3 tabs:

1. Home
2. What's Kay like?
3. Stuff I have for sale

The third tab is the one you're after.  I've listed stuff with pics and a description and asking price.  I haven't quite finished, still need to get some pics and fix up test, etc so please keep checking back.  I'm happy to negotiate if you are purchasing a number of items.

Thanks for looking!!

- Kx.

January Louboutin (#15) - Lady Peep in Pivoine Pink

I can't remember if I mentioned on my blog that I was restricting myself to one pair of Louboutins per month in 2013.  But now you know.  I definitely went a bit overboard towards the end of last year and need to control myself somewhat this year (I'm sure most of you think 12 pairs of CLs a year is still a lot and I know it is).

My January pair were Lady Peep peeptoes in Pivoine Patent.  The colour is difficult to capture as it ranges from fluro pink in some light, to almost red in other light.  The actual colour is a dark red-y pink.  The heel height is 15cm and when I first put them on I felt SO wobbly.  After a few wears I've gotten somewhat used to the wobbly-ness.  They aren't the most comfortable heel ever (being a stiletto 15cm heel) but they're not unbearable unless I stand for more than an hour.

I've taken them TTS which is a perfect fit.

ValentineSingles Awareness Day

I may be in a relationship but for some reason I would rather call Feb 14th 'Singles Awareness Day'.  I'm not really a sappy girly girl when it comes to Valentines Day.  I told my boyfriend before we started dating that I don't ever want flowers, and I don't really eat chocolate.  All I want on Valentines Day is a card.  I'm not even fussed on homemade cards; store-bought will do me provided he doesn't just scribble "To Kay.  Love Tom" in it.

He always gets me good cards.  It's in his blood - everyone in his family gets good cards.  Apparently he went to 3 newsagencies before he found a card he was happy with.  It's so cute and very fitting for us because we share a love for coffee.  It sort of made up for the fact that he worked til 8pm on Thursday :S  Which was fine because we had already made plans for Valentines Dinner on Friday but it still sucks to be home alone til 9pm on Valentines Day :(

I spent something like 4 hours making him this card.  Only because I saw a picture of what I wanted to create but no instructions so trying to plan and execute it with no instructions is harder than you would think when you're cutting card with a blade.  Also because I'm a perfectionist which makes me slow.  Also because I was watching Real Housewives of Atlanta when I was doing it.

My Dad abandoned my Mum on Valentines Day.  Ok that sounds awful.  He had to travel interstate for a funeral.  But nonetheless my Mum had no Valentine on Valentines Day and my Valentine was at work so I had a romantic date with my Mum and youngest sister.  We went to New Shanghai in Chatswood for some fantabulous dumprings.  Oh I love dumprings, especially the ones with the soupy bit inside.  Lovelovelove.

So we had our Valentines Dinner last night.  Tom requested I sexy it up because I've become lazy/complacent/'dressing as casually as I can get away with' recently.  I brought out this dress that I haven't worn in 5 years and ACTUALLY PUT LIP GLOSS ON.  Woo for me.

We went to The Deck at Milsons Point and the view was breathtaking.  It makes you realise how privileged you are when you are sitting at dinner and you have a direct view of the Sydney Harbour Bridge and Opera House.

I hope everyone had a great ValentineSingles Awareness Day, whether attached or not!

Frugal Feb Update slash Asos Haul

Not sure if it's blasphemous to talk about an Asos Haul in the same sentence as an update to Frugal Feb but here goes.  I've made 'back' over $2,000 so far from eBay and refunds this month.

My Holy Grail Christian Louboutin popped up on ebay in my size (I've been looking for over a year) and although it was a bit steep, I had to have them.  They should be arriving in the next few days but here's a stock pic instead:

I also got some Chanel ballet flats but waiting to exchange them for another pair so I won't show you guys yet.  They ordered a pair in from Perth and were supposed to call me yesterday or today to pick them up but nothing yet.  I might call them tomorrow to find out what the dealio is.

Last night I was on Asos and put a few things in my cart but ultimately decided not to pull the trigger.  This arvo I get an email for an additional 10% off everything (VALENTINE10 btw) and that was the nudge I needed.  I scored all of the below for £56 (yes I still pay in pounds because it works out cheaper, because my credit card doesn't charge currency conversion fees)!

The top isn't really my style but I'm keen to give it a go.  Been eyeing off the black and white polka dot scarf for yonks, and it finally went on sale!  I think I nabbed the last one....

What to bake (and eat) when you don't like sweets

I don't really eat sweets even though I'm more than happy to bake them and bring them to a lunch/dinner.  I was inspired to make this cake by Jharna from Baking Myself Happy (and also because my flatmate came home with 9 limes... really?  9??).  I found a recipe on Taste (not the one Jharna used as that one's not up yet) and decided to make it for Tom's grandparents.

The original recipe is here but I adjusted it slightly.  I used just under 1 cup sugar for the cake and only the rind of one lime for the syrup (but I still used the lime from 3 juices).  This cake is really not sweet at all, and the lime syrup cuts through the small amount of sugar there is.  If you prefer (normal) sweeter cakes, I would use 1.5 or 2 cups of sugar.

Slight crack in it which I successfully covered with the lime rind/syrup

Delicious!

Kay's Personal Planner!!

I've never won anything.  Ever.  Except a book about cross-stitch in Primary School which technically my Mum won from the raffle but I claimed as my own because I'm possessive like that (forget the fact my Mum cross-stitched and I didn't know how to)...  You can imagine how thrilled I was when I found out I had won a customised Personal Planner from Jharna (Baking Myself Happy).  Not only had I legitimately won something on my own accord but it was something that I was super duper crazy ridiculously excited about.

If you've been reading my blog for long enough you'll know I'm a crazy planner (especially overseas trips but also weekly meal plans, to-do lists every day) and avid colour-coder (each subject in highschool had its associated colour so I had an array of pens and highlighters for each subject).  You can imagine my excitement when I was able to personalise most aspects of my very own planner.  From selecting the planner size (I went with A5 landscape), to the front and back covers, to the layout of the days, whether you want weather icons or smiley icons, the colour of certain lines, and even adding special events on certain days.

Every planner comes with a plastic front and back cover

You can upload your own picture for the front and back covers.  I took this photo during Vivid Sydney last year

I chose the pink banner and yellow stripes.  The ruler is also pink and you can move it each week

You can input special events

Lined paper at the back

Back cover

  

Plastic sleeve you can put anywhere - I decided to put it at the back of my planner.  I also chose the pink elastic

Sudoku for when I get bored!!

To be honest it's kinda fun just to go on the website and play around with the different options.  I ordered my planner on 28th Jan and received it on 8th Feb so it was a super-quick turnaround (much faster than the estimated 3 weeks they quoted me).  A huge thanks to the team at Personal Planner and to Jharna for this amazing prize.