Brides Beware, Target Registry Sucks!

My number one piece of advice for brides? Don't register at Target!

Prior to my engagement, I loved Target. I shopped there at least once a week even if I didn't need anything. They have good deals and I love their clearance. Naturally, when it came time to register for wedding gifts, I was excited to register at one of my favorite stores, Target.

(FYI: I work retail. I do not work at Target. I do not work for any of Target's competition. This is completely unrelated to my work other than I expect good customer service as every consumer should.)

My then fiance and I headed to our local Target one day in January to register for fabulous things for our new house. We started our registry, got our scanner and spent the next hour or so wandering the store scanning items we wished to own.

When we arrived home, I excitedly located our registry on Target's website so that I could link to it on our wedding website for our guests' convenience. Imagine my surprise to discover several items we most definitely did NOT scan during our trip to the store. BABY items. I am so glad that I discovered the errant items and was able to delete them before any of our guests got the wrong idea!

So, I fixed the mistakes, kept an eye our registry, added and deleting things as needed. I had my bridal shower in May and I had a lot of fun watching our registries and trying to guess who bought us what.

Unfortunately, I did have to return a couple items after the shower due to some miscommunication. I had gift receipts and the items still had all of their original packaging still attached and intact. Simple transaction right? Not at my local Target! The girl working at the guest services desk preceded to accuse me of using the items I was returning and made a big deal about taking them back. I remained polite and calm and gladly took the in store credit given because I loved Target and knew I would use it.

Luckily, we did not have to return any items to Target after our wedding.

Fast forward to about a month after our wedding. I receive an email from Target congratulating us on our wedding (4 weeks later) and informing us that we would receive a (one time use) coupon for 10% off to help complete our registry. Well, cool! We received several Target gift cards and I had my eye on a few things off our registry that we didn't get. I though I'd just wait for the coupon and use them all together!

As of Friday, we have been married for 5 months. I have yet to receive that coupon. And I have yet to use any of our Target gift cards.

I wrote to Target through their website to let them know how disappointed I was in my experience. That was 1 month ago. I have yet to hear from them.

The moral of my story? Don't register at Target if you want to be able to return things or complete your registry.

I am not the only one to have these complications. I highly suggest reading wedding message boards to hear about others' experiences with Target. Weddingbee and The Knot are good places to start.

Free Christmas Cards!

If there's 2 things I love, it's bargains and Christmas. So, I'm really excited to share with you a Christmas bargain I've found!

Shutterfly is giving away 50 free Christmas cards to bloggers as long as they blog about Shutterfly's awesome Christmas cards. (So, consider this a sponsored post) Shutterfly always has a great selection of photo cards and this year they have a fabulous selection of Christmas cards.

I really want to send photo cards for Christmas this year because we have fabulous photos from our wedding to use. I have a feeling it's going to be tough to pick one! Almost as tough as deciding on which card to use. Here are some of my favorites: (Click on any of the pictures to see more details about the card)

I definitely want a card with the year on it, so people can remember when we got married. I love the diamond background because it reminds me of argyle, which we love!

I really like the plaid on this one. It makes me think of cozy blankets and a warm fire.

As the example shows, this card is great for a wedding picture. Love the lace since my dress was full of lace and the Merry Christmas font is pretty. (By the way, Shutterfly is also a great source of thank you cards if you're recently married.)

I like how simple this one is, yet still elegant. What a great way to show off a favorite photo.

I love black and white damask and the snowflake damask is so cute!

It's going to be a tough choice! Which one is your favorite?

Are you a blogger that wants free cards? Visit this link for details!

Not a blogger? Shutterfly is offering 20% off all holiday cards!

October's New Recipe - Pepperoni Pizza Pasta

One of my 101 goals to complete in 1001 days is to try a new recipe every month. Since it's the last week of the month, I knew I better get on the ball in order to keep my goal this month. Since my local grocery store didn't have any good meat on sale this week, I decided to try this pasta recipe. My mom gave the recipe to me a few months ago since she knows how much the husband and I love pepperoni pizza. I don't know where she found the recipe or I'd give credit.

Normally, I tend to follow recipes to the letter, but for some reason with this one, I kept making changes as I went along. I'll give you the original recipe and make note of my modifications as well.

Here's what you need:

• 2 cups uncooked ziti (I used mostaccioli since it's what we had on hand. They're the same shape. And I used the whole box, so I doubled the recipe as I went.)
• 1 (14 oz) jar pizza sauce
• 2 oz. sliced pepperoni, halved
• 1/4 cup finely chopped green bell pepper (We hate peppers, so I omitted this.)
• 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese

Heat oven to 375. Spray 8-inch square baking dish with nonstick cooking spray. (I never spray my glass baking dish when I bake pasta, so I didn't do this step. Had no problems.)

Cook ziti to desired doneness as directed on package. Drain.

In large bowl, combine cooked ziti, pizza sauce, pepperoni, bell pepper, Parmesan cheese, oregano and garlic; mix well. (Because we love cheesy pasta, I also added a cup of shredded mozzarella cheese.)

Spoon into sprayed baking dish; sprinkle with mozzarella cheese. Cover with foil. (I didn't sprinkle with the mozzarella cheese at this point.)



Bake at 375 for 30 to 35 minutes or until mixture is thoroughly heated and cheese is melted. (I baked for 25 minutes and then removed foil and sprinkled with mozzarella cheese. I then baked it for another 10 minutes or so until the cheese was melted.)

While waiting for the baking to be done, take pictures of your oh so adorable cats.



When it's done, you get this



We like to have bread and dipping oil with our pasta.



Overall, this recipe was fairly good. My husband really liked it and ended up eating most of it. I prefer just regular baked mostaccioli. This dish didn't have enough cheesy goodness inside for my tastes. Also, the garlic turned out to be too much for me, and I love garlic. Since I was doubling the recipe, I used 2 small cloves of garlic and I probably should have stuck with just one. Keep that in mind if you make this recipe.

Let me know if you try this recipe and how you like it!

Owls?

I tend to get mildly to completely obsessed with things. Argyle, giraffes, penguins, cherries...all current obsessions. Over the past few months though, I've developed a new thing. Owls.

It all started with this...

Photo by Amanda Fales

I found this alley in our historic downtown. Ok, my brother found it, but whatever. I thought it would be a fun place to take some wedding pictures with the bricks and the faded ad. At the time, I thought, "An owl, ok, whatever...it looks cool."

But then, this happened...

An owl. A real live owl. In Africa. Ok, not really Africa. It was Walt Disney World's Animal Kingdom. We were on day three of our honeymoon and enjoying our second ride on the Kilimanjaro Safari when we spotted this. Obviously, it's not an animal typically found on a safari, but it decided to have a little fun, I guess. Our guide was even shocked to see it.

I fell in love with owls right then. An owl on my wedding day and then one on my honeymoon? How could I not? They are my new favorite flying animal. (Although, I also happen to think bats are pretty cool, but mostly only around Halloween.)

So now that I'm obsessed with owls, I have to have owl things, right? Of course!

I've already ordered this fun owl flag for our garden flag pole.

Source

Next on my list, this awesome owl lamp! He's going to look so cute in our living room.

Source

And I was excited to see this guy on our trip to the local zoo yesterday...

One owl thing I don't like? Owl City. Can't stand to listen to them and unfortunately, the music at work has several Owl City songs. Drives me nuts everyday.

I'm off to search for more awesome owl stuff.

What are you obsessed with?