Tuesday, October 27, 2015

Hodgepodge Volume 241

It's hodgepodge time again, head on over to Joyce's blog to join in.


1. Are you comfortable with silence? If you're home alone, do you like silence or do you need regular background noise? Do you seek out times and places to be silent? What's your favorite place to find silence/be silent?
Not generally. Like uncomfortable silences, I don't like, or the other day I was reading a book, and my refrigerator stopped running (like it's supposed to in it's cycle), and I kinda freaked out, cause I thought it was taking an obnoxiously long time to start again. I guess I was being a little paranoid. But, I have to have it quiet, except for background noises like that when I read, otherwise I can't concentrate on what I'm reading. I also like walking out in nature and listening to nature, which I guess isn't really silence.

 2. October 28th is National Chocolate Day. Can't let that go by without a mention now, can we? Will you celebrate? How? Let's say you can have one of the following right this very minute... a cup of hot chocolate, a strawberry dipped in chocolate, a bowl of plain chocolate ice cream, or a slice of chocolate pie...what's your pleasure?
Almost made me want to bring a bag of chocolate to work, but since I don't go in until late, I decided against it. It's a tie between hot chocolate and chocolate dipped strawberry. If it was cold out and the hot chocolate was flavored (even if it wasn't), I'd go for that. I really do love a chocolate dipped strawberry, though.
 3. How do you feel about blue jeans? Favorite thing in the world to wear or nope, don't own a single pair? How often do you wear blue jeans in a typical week? Do you own a blue jean jacket?
I like blue jeans. I recently moved into a position where we aren't really supposed to wear them, I can if they're really nice, but we're supposed to be more dressy.
I used to live in blue jeans, I wore them all the time, even in the summer (not shorts), but I think Levi's aren't near as sturdy as they used to be, also my inner legs rub together more and I have to replace them more often. I still love my jeans, but I don't find them near as comfortable anymore. I do have jean jacket, it's actually the nicest jacket I own right now, which is kinda sad.
 4. Are you superstitious? If so, in what way?
Not so much. I figure if something's gonna happen, it'll happen.
5. If you had to come up with a costume using only things you have on hand right now, what could you come up with?
I actually am doing that this year. I didn't find anything I really wanted at the stores, and then I got un inspired. But, since I'm working on Friday (which is when trick-or -treat night is here), I thought I really need to dress up. I've decided to go as Sad from Inside Out. I have a blue sweater, I'll wear blue jeans, blue socks and grey shoes (only cause I don't have blue shoes). I'm not sure what I'll do with my hair, hers is blue, I kinda want to dye it, but I've never dyed my hair (me personally) before, so I don't know. I might just find a blue hat and wear that.
6. What scares you a little? What do you do when you feel scared?
The future, the unknown. I try to keep a calm demeanor. I hate it if people know I'm scared. I'm really good at being calm on the outside, but freaking out on the inside.
7. Perhaps today will be the day I ______________________________.
go get shoes. I'm really in the need for some winter shoes. I can't get away with what I have, I just can't really get motivated to go find shoes. Every time I find something cute, I buy it, get home and some part of it doesn't work out. I'm actually rather tired of trying on shoes. It might be that I can't really wear flats, or shoes like that. I seem to do fine with boots and tennis shoes and sandals. So, maybe I just need to find another boot for the winter.
8.  Insert your own random thought here.
My schedule keeps changing around. I had to tell myself all day today "It's Tuesday, I go in at 4:15". Tomorrow I'll have to say "It's Wednesday, I go in at 5:00". Once I get a set schedule, I'll be fine, but it's been changing so much lately, it's totally throwing me off.

Saturday, October 24, 2015

Interesting week?

So, new weekend, new update. I got a little distracted on Etsy last weekend and bought four pairs of earrings
 Pink and gold, clear with flower details, blue and green and owls. You can see three of some of them, she sent me a matching pendant for some of them. And the total was under $20, great deal.
 Wednesday, I wore the above outfit, and one of my co-workers said I looked really nice.
Thursday, I found this really cute tree idea, and thought it'd be neat to recreate.
 
 I went to lunch with my dad, we had to wait 30 minutes for our food when the restaurant was mostly empty.
 I got this grilled cheese sandwich which was good, but I'm not sure it was worth a 30 minute wait.
Today, a friend and I hit 4 church sales. I saw this gorgeous Sunbonnet Sue quilt at one of them.
 And here's what I picked up:
 A cute angel box that I thought would work great for a swap, some wired ribbon, a cute hanky, a tiny Happy Birthday book that I thought I could use for someone's birthday, a nice ginkgo leaf bowl and a Santa wallhanging for my mother.
I had fun, but we started late, so I felt things were a little picked over.
This afternoon, another friend and I went shopping for winter clothes, and checked out the Asian food stores to see what was new.
I got some chocolate covered strawberry filled cookies, some fish shaped cookies, some green tea candy, two different rolls, some milk tea and the care bear came from a goodwill.

I'm tired of shopping for clothes. I can make do with what I have but I do need another pair of winter shoes, I figure I'll check out a place at the mall for those this week. It's only getting colder out, so I probably should get on it.

Inventory of my new clothes.

This is more for me than for you guys, feel free to pass over it, if you wish.
I did an inventory of my new clothes today. I have bought 27 shirts/sweaters to wear, one pair of black pants and a pair of boots.
Here's what I have:
 A sleeveless pink ruffled top, I haven't worn this one yet, I don't know what to layer on top of it. I also am afraid it doesn't pass the lean over test.
 I have this under sleeveless, it's a vest. It's a velvet burnout vest. I just got it today.
 A black sleeveless shirt, it has an added fabric detail on the left shoulder. I like this one, but it's sleeveless and anything I wear over it covers the detail on the shoulder. I suppose I could always put a long sleeve shirt underneath it. I wore it on Wed with a black skirt with white flowers and one of the green shrugs below.
 A brown short sleeved shirt with flower like details on left shoulder. I love this one, sadly it doesn't pass the lean over test either. I've worn it with my black pants.
 A green short sleeve shirt, I just got this one today.
 A green short sleeve shirt. I've worn this one with my black pants as well.
 A magenta short sleeve sweater, it's got lace on the front and brass buttons by the shoulders. I love this one as well, I have worn it this a few times.
 A purple short sleeved shirt. This one looks a lot like the green one above, I thought for sure it was the same shirt, but they're made by different brands. I've worn this one quite a bit, too.
 A teal short sleeved shirt with ruffles around the neck, it's a little iffy on the lean over test. This one's nice but I'm a having a bit of trouble with the ruffles and the deep neck.
 A red, grey and white patterned top. The black strips tied behind the back. I like this one, it's a bit longer than a regular shirt, but not quite long enough to wear leggings underneath. I have a little issue with this one. I get mistaken for my boss quite a bit, we  both have about the same length of brown hair, that we mostly wear back, and we have glasses. When I wore it last week, I had a co-worker think I was my boss because she has a similar shirt.
 A grey short sleeved shirt. The bottom fans out a bit and it zips up the back. I like this one, when I tried it on in the store I had a pair of khakis which didn't exactly fit, but looked really good with this shirt. I don't have any khakis and I don't think it looks really good with my black pants. I really liked how this shirt looked with the khakis, though.
 A white spotted black short sleeved shirt. I really like this one, I've worn it a few times.
 A short sleeved black dress. It's got ties around the waist and lace at the top. It's a little short, when I wore it, I wore tights with it, I plan to wear it again.
 A long sleeved green patterned shirt. I just got this today.
 A black and teal patterned long sleeve shirt. I haven't worn this one, mostly because of the ruffles. I've picked up a few ruffled shirts lately, which is weird for me, so I haven't really worn them yet, I'm thinking of wearing this one on Monday if it's cold enough.
 A navy blue and white patterned long sleeve shirt. I've worn this once, it's a synthetic fabric and is a little warm, plus it pulls down in the front. I felt like I was constantly adjusting it, pulling the back back down, and the shoulders back up.
 A green long sleeved shirt with a beaded detail at the top, I just bought this today.
 A green long sleeved shirt with white and green ruffled detail on the front. I just bought this one today.
 A long sleeved pink sweater with beaded detail around the neck. I just bought this one today, but I really like it.
 A blue long sleeve sweater with white shirt beneath. It's a bit heavy, I just bought it today.
 A black long sleeve shirt with a tie detail at the middle of the front. I like this one, it's very comfortable, it just hasn't been very cold, so I've only worn it once.
 A black long sleeve with detail around the neck. This is a very thin fabric, I wore it to my interview for this job. It's a little tight in the upper arms, so I haven't worn it recently.
 A green short sleeve shrug. It hasn't been very cold lately, but I did wear it with the black sleeveless top above.
 Another green short sleeve shrug. I'm not sure why I bought two of these. This one is a little brighter and dressier looking than the other one.
 A blue long sleeved shrug/cardigan. I love this color, bought it today.
A purple cardigan with black flowers on the left upper sleeve. I really like this one too, bought it today.

My goal was to find a black cardigan today. I found a few cardigans, but not a black one. I really want a black one because that will go with most items. I also want a pair of khakis because they go with a lot of things, and I need another pair of winter shoes/boots. The pair I got is not that dressy, though someone said they looked fine to them.
My friend that I went shopping with said she knew all the second-hand clothing stores in the tri-state area and since we'll have the same day off soon we should hit them. I'm excited, but I think I have mostly enough clothes right now.

Saturday, October 17, 2015

my week

So, I'm still spending money. Now that it's getting colder, I need dressy long sleeve shirts and cold weather shoes. I have tennis shoes, which also need replacing, but I need nice looking shoes. I bought a pair of really cute flats a few weeks ago at Walmart, but they gave me horrendous blisters when I wore them, one is still healing. I bought a simple black pair at Target, but they didn't fit well, too big. I did find some 'combat' boots at Walmart that looks like they'll work, but they're not really dressy looking. I'm thinking I'll have to go up to Younkers, they have Clark's which I've been happy about.
I'm just trying to remember what I've done in the past week, which is kinda sad cause I haven't been that busy.
Sunday, we went up north to celebrate my grandma's 99th birthday (which was actually Thursday). That was fun, but I feel I don't have that much in common with my mom's family anymore. I used to love going to family get-togethers, but now, I don't have a family or a boyfriend and that's what seems to interest them. They don't seem that interested in my job, even though I'm now salaried and more settled. That was all day.
Monday, I worked in the afternoon/evening. I've been watching Halloween movies (I have a lot) every October up until Halloween when I watch Maximum Overdrive. When I was in high school my friend would have a party every Halloween, and I remember one year her parents were watching Maximum Overdrive and it seemed soo cool. So, when I found it on DVD it's my Halloween movie. Some of my movies, I'm getting tired of. I've seen them so much, they're just boring after awhile. I'm also working through the X-Files TV series, so I've been binge watching that when I have time.
Tuesday, I had training with the city. Since I'm now salaried, I have to go to a few days of training with the city. I'm not really learning that much cause I've been with the library for 6 years, so I know about the city, but it's fun to be with different people. This next week is the last day and we get free lunch.
Wednesday, I work a weird shift 10-3, it's been shortened lately because I can only work 20 hours and I get about 8 hours on Tuesdays. After finishing season 2 of the X-Files I had season 4 of The Walking Dead to finish.
Thursdays, are laundry days. That's stressful. I'm going to my parents house to use their laundry facilities because it's free, but it's way more stressful than paying. Now that I've switched to Thursdays, my dad doesn't make me go out to lunch with him cause he's got other stuff going on. My dad's legally blind. I enjoy free lunch, but my parents still treat me like I'm five. Last weekend, we went to lunch and they had to ask about health insurance. I may be making more money, but I still can't afford the city's insurance. My parents seem to need to know everything about me. They're always asking my schedule, and I know they think that if I'm not working I have all the time in the world to help them out with stuff. Sometimes I feel like I should have moved away for college and stayed away. This week, I had an Art Club meeting at the library. About a month ago I was working on a Thursday because of stuff, and someone came to unlock a meeting room for this art club, that sounded interesting to me, so I had her add my name to her list. So, this month I went. Most of the people there were drawing people, which I find interesting, but not my thing. I also felt a little out of their conversation. I took some Halloween stuff to make ATCs for co-workers. I think I'll take something different next time, and try it again. Afterwards I went back to the walking dead.
Friday, I had off because I'm working this afternoon (which is weird), and I hate having the whole weekday off. I never know what to do. I went to Target to return a bra (because colors and sizes are hard) and see if they had any cardigans I wanted to buy. I ended up with a new bra in the correct size, a cami and some cookies I've been wanting to try. I downloaded the cartwheel app to my phone a few weeks ago, but I might be giving up on it. I don't shop at Target very much, mostly because things are cheaper at Walmart and one of our Walmarts is a little easier to get to than the other one (which is by Target). I like going to Target for their selection of chocolate, but I sure don't need it, so it's not like I go to Target for things I need. It's nice saving money on stuff I don't need, but why go to Target just to do that, why not not buy the stuff I don't need and save more money? I had a lunch with a friend scheduled at 12, that was ok. We went to Perkins and while I was waiting for her, I was staring at the muffins and they were having a special of buy 3 get 3 free, so I did. After lunch I realized I had 6 muffins to eat, and decided that was too much so I gave my free ones away to co-workers, so everyone won. I haven't been to Perkins in awhile, but they've been on my mind since they had their free pancakes a few weeks ago. Now, that I've been there twice in a week, I remember the food's not all that great and I might as well stay home and not spend money there. Afterwards I totally used my self-control to only buy bodywash at the dollar store, like I planned. Later that afternoon I met with a friend to check out a new thrift store that neither of us found very interesting and I went home.
And now it's today. And I've totally wasted the whole morning online. Like I said I have to work this afternoon, which is weird. I'm used to working the weekends as an aide, but now that I can only work 20 hours a week and am still in training, my boss has had me only working the weekdays. I'm ok with it, I've just heard that it's a little more hectic at closing time.
Tomorrow, I'm thinking of heading over to our Goodwill to see if I can find any nice long-sleeve shirts or cardigans. I've thought in the past they don't have a lot of good stuff there, but I also don't really look at clothing. I could get away with character T-shirts and jeans for my job. Now, that I can't and have to find dressier shirts I'm totally checking out the second-hand stores.
I bought 4 pairs of earrings on Etsy today. If they just didn't send me the email about stuff that looks cool. My mom was always about having the perfect earrings to go with her outfits, I've kinda fallen into that lately. Earrings are good, my necklaces all seem to be the perfect length to have the pendant fall into my shirt, I don't wear bracelets cause they get stuck on stuff, I'd like to find a nice ring that doesn't stick out too much, kinda like a cuff, but in a ring. I've also decided I want earrings that match everything. I got some copper ones and white ones at the art festival a few weeks ago.

Saturday, October 10, 2015

More books

Today was a busy day.
I had a few garage sales, my mother and I were meeting to discuss some games for a bridal shower tomorrow, then we had lunch and went to Walmart, after that I was going to visit my friend with some treats and peruse the library booksale.
I was supposed to meet my mother at about 11:30, so I left for my garage sales a little after 9, walking by the library to drop off some books. I didn't find anything at the first sale, the second sale I found a perfect book for the bridal shower tomorrow.
As I was heading towards the second sale, I saw this cute set-up in someone's yard. It looks like they used cuts of the branches for chairs.
 At the last sale, they promised lots of vintage stuff, I really wanted to go for the jewelry, which sadly I wasn't interested in.
This Gremlins lunchbox was one of the first things I saw:
 My brother has (maybe he got rid of it) a Star Wars lunchbox when he was a kid, it's in much worse shape than this, but wouldn't it be cool to get one of these lunchboxes to take your lunch to work in. I'm not interested in spending $8 on one, though I'm sure it's a good price.
I also found this cute yellow colander.
 It was $5, probably another good price, but I don't need a colander (I have two already), maybe I should have bought it for the bride.
I also saw this cute chair:
 Someday, when I have my own house, I plan to have all vintage furniture, I'd love for this chair to be in it.
We went to Perkins for lunch, which was extremely busy. Afterwards, we had to go to Walmart to get some prizes for the games (I tried to contribute some stuff I had at home, but my mom seemed like she wanted to buy stuff). At Walmart, I saw these cereals from my childhood making a comeback for the Halloween season.
 I don't remember what they have in them other than marshmallows, so I didn't waste my money on them. Here is what I did buy, garage sales first
 A couple Christmas stockings (I have more than enough for Christmas swaps now), a cute elephant planter, a fall towel, some Valentine's playing cards, that perfect book for the bridal shower and some cute keychains.
I'm planning on giving the elephant a good scrubbing and then going over it with some brown alcohol inks. I was going to paint it, but I think it would be way cuter to just put the brown ink on it. I'm also going to glue some fabric on the inside and use it to hold chocolate on my desk at work, I really don't have room in my elephant collection at home.
The book is called The Perfect Man, it's got pictures of different things and says why it's the perfect man. The cover is a chocolate man, it says: "He's sweet, He's smooth, And if you need a friend, you can chew his ear off."
The key chains are for a few of my friends and some Halloween goodie bags I'm putting together for them.
You don't see the picture of some pot holders, measuring cups and measuring spoons I picked up for the bridal shower gift. There's also not a picture of some other necessities (someone commented the other day that I spend more cause I'm younger, most of my spending lately has been things I need for work, and I still need other things for the colder months).
I got home, unloaded my bag and went to visit my friend, she was working at the library, and while I was there I looked at the book sale.
I'm not really allowed to buy more books, I have a whole shelf on of books I've bought at book sales and haven't read, some from years ago of library book sales. I really wanted to just peruse the books, but knowing I shouldn't buy more I just didn't feel like it.
I have read a volume of "A History of Women", my luck, this is the volume I've already read. I've heard good things about Little Heathens, plus it's about Iowa and I love books about Iowa. And I can't turn down a good sounding quiz book.
I've found I don't have a lot of interest in stuff that usually interests me. I haven't baked anything in awhile, my anniversary at the library was yesterday and I usually bake something, but I didn't feel like it this week. Tomorrow's my grandmother's birthday party (she'll be 99 years old on Thurs) and I usually make something for that, but I didn't feel like it (I think part of that is, being at the end of the alphabet I was assigned a salad or a vegetable and I'd rather bake). I haven't really been interested in doing art lately, I did some cards for a swap last month, but other than that, I haven't been interested.
All I really feel like doing is sitting and watching TV or reading books. It's kinda worrying me.

Side note, I would love to do a Christmas/holiday swap this year with some one who crafts. I have a lot of crafting supplies I'd love to wrap up and trade with someone. If anyone knows about a swap like that (I know it's a little early), or knows of someone/website that will be doing a holiday swap, let me know.

Thursday, October 08, 2015

I need to stop spending money

I really need to. I have more money, but I'm also spending too much. Right after I got my new job, I started buying nice tops, I went to a few stores and after awhile stopped. I was so excited when I paid my rent this month and still have money left. This week, I feel I spent too much money again.
I got this book from the library and decided to just buy it on Amazon, while I was there I thought I'd get The American President for my mother, she's been wanting it for awhile, so I got it for her for Christmas, I might give it to her sooner. Then I wanted to make sure I had enough for free shipping.
 So, I bought a mix of Russian/Ukraine candy, of course I found out after I added to my cart, that it shipped from elsewhere and didn't qualify for my free shipping, by that time I was tired of looking for something that made it enough for the free shipping.
 I decided I still wanted the candy, though when it came today, it was smaller than I figured it'd be. I thought it would be more candy bars, not just small wrapped candy.
 I had the whole day off today. I totally slacked off until about 3pm. I had to go to Target to return some flats that were way too big, plus I need some winter shoes, all I have are tennis shoes, which do not work with skirts and dressy pants.
So, I ret'd them and picked up a bra.
Since I was at Target, I went to Walmart (they're right next to each other), I did find some 'combat' boots. They lace up, but also have zippers on the side, I think they'll work, but I probably still have to find some nicer boots. I also bought a Batman shirt.
Afterwards, I went to meet my friend and go to JoAnn's, Hobby Lobby, an Asian food store and HyVee.
I found a cute tiny keychain at JoAnn's, some Halloween treat boxes, a porcelain flower and some metal reindeer for my brother at Hobby Lobby. I had a gift card from my birthday for Hobby Lobby.
I also went to an Asian food store that I haven't been to in awhile. I picked up some taro mocha, some green tea pocky, custard cakes, and some strawberry corn starch snacks.
 At Hyvee I picked up some dark chocolate covered cashews, a Russel Stover pumpkin, a couple skeleton eggs and some cranberry orange muffins.
And then I got home and found I picked up the wrong size bra at Target. I guess it's not that bad, my Cartwheel app wasn't working when I was at Target, so I didn't want to look at the things I knew were on the app. I guess there will be another day.
Tomorrow, I have a couple garage sales to go to and one on Sat, but I don't consider using my cash to spend money.

I kinda wish Fareway (my grocery store) had an app like Target, it's the place I spend the most money at, so it would help a lot.