Pintesting: VS Fashion Show

I'm sure most of you caught the Victoria Secret Fashion show last night like I did.

Each year I'm blown away by the beauty of the women - inside & out, their interviews are some of my favorite parts! and the fashion.

The talent is always amazing to watch and it's nice to see both the amazingly sexy side to these models, but you catch a glimpse into who they really are as people with the interview.

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Adriana couldn't be a more prefect ring master...mistress?

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Candice was the feature model.
Loved her story on how she was a fit model for VS first and her career has flourished, absolutely beautiful.

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Couldn't have a VS show without this girl, Alessandra Ambrosio!

The performers were fabulous! 

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Even Bieber did a prettttty good job!  
sorry not the biggest Biebs fan

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Loved Bruno!

He was so fun to watch, dancing around with his band, and he sounded great!

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I love Rhi Rhi but doesn't anyone else feel like she may have been lip syncing a bit?

How much did you love her catwalk though for her second performance?

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I couldn't imagine what it would be like to be backstage at the show.

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Lindsay Ellingson wings were probably my favorites!

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Loved the sassy witch, Behati Prinsloo.

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Miranda is my absolute favorite Angel ♥

I am proud to work for an amazing company that puts on such a great show each and every year!
Great job Victoria Secret & Limited Brands for putting on a fantastic show! 

Just one more thing to add for you fellas out there ;P

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Happy Wednesday!

Sample Sale Weekend!

This weekend, more specifically Saturday, was our company Sample Sale! 

For those that don't know what a Sample Sale is it's when a company sells all "leftovers" and samples from the previous year...and sometimes in our case years...for much less than retail value.

I look forward to this date every year! 

It's one of the greatest benefits that I have as an associate with the company.  

Our company hosts their sale for 2 weekends on Saturday and Sunday.
There is plenty of opportunity to get all the goods you could want, but this girl is in line early that first Saturday morning.

Why go then when I have the option of going later and fighting off less people?
Well for the experience!
I don't do Black Friday...ever. I never will either. I'd end up in jail.

So Sample Sale, my friends, is my Black Friday!

Even then I'm not that bad considering people show up way before I do just to be first in line.

This year was not nearly as organized as the years before and it showed.
There was a lot of waiting in lines it seems.
I was there for 11 hours people!  
11 hours!!!

The biggest problem was the location. 

They had the sale at 4 different locations in the last 4 years. This years was by far the worst!

This year it was right off a busy street so there was a lot of traffic. 

They didn't open the parking lot until 6:30 which caused a lot of issues.

Previous years I've been able to get in an our fairly quickly. 

 The shopping gods didn't seem to like me that much this year.

This was the shopping plaza across the street from our Sample Sale location.
Since they didn't open our parking lot until 6:30 the cars that got their earlier had no where to go but the plaza. It was jammed packed.

All those red brake lights in the distances are cars for Sample Sale!

The other side of the plaza.
There was hundreds of cars in this plaza...easily.

 

 The line going into the building when we finally got parked.
Doesn't seem so bad right...

Wrong!
The line when we got in the building, plus the people in the Sale shopping already.
They stop letting people in until there are shopping carts available since the bags get so heavy there is no way someone could just carry it around.

Right side of the sale.
Notice the red bags in the shopping carts.
We get to fill those with whatever we want and it's $100.00
We get three bags at one time. So you can leave with a TON of stuff for $300.00.
You don't have to get 3 bags if you don't want too.
You are able to go back into the sale after waiting in line again so you could get a lot more than 3 bags if you wanted.
I watched two women go through the line 4 different times.
Talk about extreme.

Middle of the sale.
You can see all the boxes just filled with product!


Left side and check out area!
Luckily they hire a local football team to put the bags into our cars.
Those suckers are heavy and the guys are given tips so you "donate" to a good cause.  

Digging through the clothing is always the hardest since that's usually where people go first.

There is a lot of un-knotting and de-tangling, as well as thoroughly checking to make sure you have no holes or huge stains on the piece of clothing you are looking at.

 

Yes, I did go out like this in public.
If you knew how gross everything got you'd understand.
Imagine tons of body wash, lotions, and sprays just thrown into a box with loose or broken lids. 
Lots O' Goop!

My haul this year :)
I've always gotten the 3 bags even though I have stuff left over from last year.
Just to good of a deal not too!

Pre-washed and sorted.
I wash all of the bottles and candles off as they are usually covered in dust and other body goop!

Thank god for linoleum floors :)

 

Post-washed and sorted. This is just this years stuff! 

Due to sheer exhaustion the rest of Saturday and most of Sunday was spent with me sitting on the couch and sleeping!
I was so ungodly sore from being on my feet for those 11 hours and my legs are so bruised you'd think my skin color was shades of blue and purple.
But it was oh so worth it :)

What did you do this weekend?

Happy  Monday!

What's your style?

First off, I'd like to apologize for my lack of blogging . It's been quite busy in my neck of the woods lately.

So last week as a new hire I took part in this "culture" training. I'm not sure if that's the best name for it, but that's what I call it as it was 2 days of the company values, how things work around here, and how to get better results for yourself and your team based on the environment of this place. Yes, I was treading it going in, I already had to take it once coming in as an intern. However, once I was there it really wasn't so bad, and I feel like I got a lot out of it. Hopefully I can continue to use what I've learned there in my respected area. 

One of the most useful topics we learned about was your behavioral style. You all thought I was going to talk about clothes huh...got ya! We really learned and had to decide which style we were, and even better we learned how to deal with the other styles that were not our own. We all know those people who are completely different than us on the job scene and don't you about want to wring their neck! I know I do sometimes. Now that I am powered with the knowledge of what my style is and what other people's style could be I feel like I can work with people much easier. It's a good thing to if you know what my job is! I'd like to share this with everyone because I feel like even if you don't use it to help you in your job it's good to know where you fall as it pertains to your life as a whole, not just the work place.

So first we had to decide what style best suited us based on this matrix:

Now understand you have to pick ONE quadrant. No line straddling, no putting a dot in the exact middle. What if I'm a little of both, or what if I'm a little of everything you say? We all have a little of all these things in us, but choose where you see yourself most of the time. Also, remember you can use this like a graph, you don't have to be extremely formal or extremely easy going. Here is an example of where I see myself. 

My matrix & where I see myself.

I tend to be a little less informal, honestly I think that is kind of our generation anyways. But I am definitely a dominant person. All of you that know me out there quit your head nodding. I know, I know - I'm the queen, the boss, and intense one, and I like it that way!

Do you have where you think you are? Now, time for the descriptions of them. No changing your mind, your initial instinct on where you fall is the right one. It doesn't matter if you change your mind anyways you still fall there and you still, for the most part, have these traits. 

Behavioral Style Characteristics

Please remember that all of these behavioral styles have their strengths and weaknesses, nothing about them is suppose to be a negative. Without all the the styles present in the work place, home, world - we'd be no where...or fighting a lot depending on the style :) These quadrants follow the matrix: if you are formal & dominant you are in the Controlling group, formal & easy going you are in the Analyzing group, informal & dominant you are in the Promoting group, and finally informal & easy going you are the Supporting group. Did you find your group? I'm in the Promoting quad. Now who you are suppose to work the best with and get the best results with is the counterpart, or the box diagonal for your own. Controlling/Supporting go together & Analyzing/Promoting go together. Makes sense right! Wouldn't you think you would work better with those you are opposite of you so you get both view points. The one's strengths is the others weakness, if you cover all your strengths and weakness how could you not end up with a good result.

Now that you know where you fall try to use this knowledge to the best of your ability anywhere you feel you need too. Not only take what you now know about yourself but use what you know about the other quadrants to get the best results out of the situation. As an example if you are a promoting person working with a supporting person remember they work better in teams, and like to get as much input as they can. Instead of bringing your normal behavior to the table try changing it up some to accommodate them as well as yourself. Your work and their work will get done much quicker, and be much more accurate. Hopefully this empowers you as much as it has me.  If nothing else work on your own behavior, make those potential liabilities into a strengths, maybe try to move yourself into a more desirable quadrant if you think you need to. Whatever you do with it, it's only going to help you to become a more aware of yourself, and all those around you.

The J.O.B.

As I'm sitting here I got to thinking about blog topics - and what my next one should be. Then it hit me - a big part of my life - work! 

I recently  (as of Monday!!!!) got hired on as a full time associate. Many of you know my situation for those of you who don't I've been with the company for about 3 years now - starting as an intern, switching over to a consultant, and finally, finally after about a year and a half of patient waiting I've been hired to stay :) 

It's one of the things I've been very very happy about the last couple of weeks, but hasn't been something I've shared with a ton of people. So now I got my sweet sweet discount back (had it when I was an intern, got taken away as a consultant) sample sale is in a couple of weeks (even though I've still gone the past 2 years :P) , I get my full paid time off (woooooo paid vacation!!!) , and even better I get to do a job that I really enjoy with some great people.

The job itself may not be the most exciting of jobs to many people- it's a resource allocation position (I make sure there are enough people who have enough time to do the work required). It's kind of along the lines of Project Management and I love it! I do a lot of the same daily tasks but at the same time it doesn't feel like that's what I'm doing as I am constantly dealing with different people asking and requesting different things. I'm glad I've landed where I have here - I see myself having a lot of opportunities for learning & growth.

As for the people I work with...only one word can really describe it - hilarious. I'm not sure if I was ever prepared to have such a "good time" at work. Mind you we aren't out of control - we do have an HR policy to uphold here people. My co-workers are all very fun, down to earth, hilarious people and we all just work well together. Our personalities are diversified yet we have quite a bit of common ground. I really could not ask for a better boss - he's laid back (within reason), patient, and willing to work with me if anything comes up or I need help overall. I've really started to consider them my good friends and a little bit like a second family considering I spend 40 hours or more a week with them. As weird as some people may find this I think that's a reasonable statement when you spend so much time with a group of people. As things are always changing around here I know this dynamic will not always remain the way it is. I'm cherishing this time with the people that I really get along with and can count of for work relate issues. I can only hope that whoever comes onto this team next is just like all of us - I'd hate to meet the person that messes up the vibe we all have going.

I say all this because I think it's very important to not only enjoy the work you do but the people you have to work with. And really vice versa. Now I don't mean that I think you have to be best friends with everyone you work with but even if there is conflict to remain civil is probably the best route to keep yourself from being to miserable at a place you are all day, everyday (well not weekends for me). Everyone has had those jobs where the environment just plain old sucks - sometimes it's the people (boss included), sometimes it's the physical appearance of where you work, and sometimes it's you (negative attitude). Whatever it is that's making it suck see if you can turn that around - if not - it may be time to look for a new job.

Because of this environment I can honestly say that I wouldn't want to change anything about my current life - my job is amazing, my hunny is wonderful, my social life is in full swing thanks to warm weather, and upcoming weddings :) Really thought - who would have ever thought the job could put you over the happiness threshold, but I'm glad that's what did it for me.

"When people go to work, they shouldn't have to leave their hearts at home.” --Betty Bender