American Pretty Boutique - Sponsor Spotlight!

This month I am so sincerely proud to be sponsored by American Pretty Boutique.

One thing I am passionate about, and try my hardest to do (even though it's not always easy) is to buy American made products. It's especially hard when shopping for clothes, because everything is made in mexico or Thailand or really expensive. Now that I have been introduced to Dani, the owner and founder of American Pretty, that will soon become even easier!

Dani set out on a mission in December 2012 to promote and  provide girls with great fashionable, made in America quality clothing, at affordable prices. If you ask me, she's doing a heck of a job! Most boutiques you have to choose between good quality or an affordable price. Dani is providing us BOTH! Not only that, but her inventory boasts extremely contemporary and fashionable pieces!

The Down South Maxi -$40

Maxi dresses are all the rage this summer! Besides, who doesn't love the small lace detail at the bottom!? Precious!!

Marina Del Rey Dress - $49

Love this beautiful detail on the back of this dress. The color is perfect to show off that dark summer tan!

Leather and Pearls - $56

This is a great piece! I love the combination of the soft pearls and the leather.

Cruise Control top - $34

My personal favorite! I love coral. This top will be able to transition well from work to play. You can't beat the price for boutique shopping either!

I really, really recommend you take a couple minutes and hop over to American Pretty and browse through the rest of their inventory. Be sure to like them on Facebook here too! I'm sure there will be something you'll fall in love with and just have to have! So go on over, tell Dani I sent you.. and buy me something nice as well ;)

Just because they love my readers as much as I do, Dani has decided to spoil you all and give you 15% off your ENTIRE purchase! How sweet is she?! Just use the coupon code: VIP15 at checkout and then proceed to do your happy dance. 

Why didn't anyone tell me that?

There were a few pieces of information that people failed to tell me my freshman year in college..

1) You don't HAVE to take 8 am classes. Just because you've started school at 8 am your whole life, doesn't mean that you still have to.

2) You don't always have to look presentable anymore.. but lets be honest, I'll judge you if you do it everyday

3) Whatever you do, DON'T BUY TEXTBOOKS!
I spent the first 2 years of college paying and ungodly amount of money buying text books I didn't even read only to sell it back at the end of the semester for next to  nothing. Seriously, one year I sold back an armful of textbooks and received $5 and a small, plastic water gun in return. You can't make this stuff up, people! After a year the book already has a new version, and the bookstore won't even buy it back! Side note: Billy's grandpa is actually has published a college textbook used at universities nationwide, and this even bugs the crap out of him! He's getting paid for it, and still thinks it's wrong!

My Junior year in college was about when renting textbooks actually became feasible. The first two years it was really not worth the effort, to rent and return them. By then, the campus book store offered it as an in house service. {Queue the Hallelujah Chorus!}

If you've never heard of renting text books before, it's not as sketchy or risky as it could initially sound. Take Campus Book Rentals, for example. My favorite part about renting textbooks is the price. I INSTANTLY saw savings.. I could rent a book for 40-90% of the cost of buying it. I could treat it as if it were my own--I could write in it and I could keep it until I no longer needed it. Then I could ship it back for free at the end of the semester! Selling my textbooks back to the school's book store got me nothing, and selling them back online didn't make enough money to justify NOT renting textbooks.

Another great thing about Campus Book Rentals is that, with every textbook rented, they donate to Operation Smile, an international charity that provides medical services to children born with cleft palates or lips in 60 countries around the world. Finally, something good about textbooks!

So back to all those old textbooks I have stacked up underneath my bed to this day and all those I have since sold off.. I wish I had known in college that I could rent out to others instead of selling them! Well, at Rent Back, you can! This is news to me, who knew!? For instance I sold my programming book that I bought for $200 back for about $40-50. I could have rented out to others and gotten $100-200! That would have actually helped me break even on my books, which is more like it!

Now that I have gotten so excited about being able to rent my textbooks back, I'm going to say Ta-DA! and wrap this up. I can't resist anymore, I've got to go pull those old books out and get to turning dust collectors into cash!