Saturday, March 26, 2016

Shopping Haul

I've been sucked into YouTube and the videos on all the shopping hauls (I didn't know that's what they're called now, I'm embracing it) people are doing. Sadly, my Dollar Tree, Target and it seems every other store I have are not near as cool as the stores people shop at. I know they live in bigger cities and have multiples in their cities, but I watch the videos and want what they have. So, I go shopping and get disappointed that I don't always find what they're buying. And since shopping makes me so happy (whether or not I have space for things, or really use things), I go shopping.
So, I've been shopping, the first few pictures are from a few weeks ago, my friend and I went to check out a new store, that ended up being closed because of spring break, but as you can see I still found stuff to buy.
First stop, Mayhem Comics:

 Litchi flavored Ramune, Chucky key chain, Storm figure, Wolverine figure.
I love Ramune, it's kind of like Sprite, but comes in many flavors, this time I chose to try Litchi, sadly it wasn't very good. Last time I was at Mayhem, I really wanted this Chucky keychain and it was still there when I went back this time, so I figured I should buy it. The two X-Men figures were in a couple blind bags that were on clearance. I love the Wolverine one, though I'm not quite sure why he's stepping on a skull, that's kinda weird.
Hy-Vee, Hobby Lobby, Jo-Ann's and a few other stores are in a strip mall altogether, so I have to stop at all of them when I go.
Next stop, Hy-Vee:
 I picked up a few Russell  Stover eggs for Easter baskets, fudge brownie for my mother, maple cream for my dad, and birthday cake for me.
Next up, Hobby Lobby:
 I try not to buy full price things at Hobby Lobby because there is certainly nothing I need (mostly) there. I always stop at the clearance section in the back and try not to buy things that are more than $2.00. This time I picked up some patterned tags, some baby stickers, Star Wars pins and some Goop. I really did need some E6000, because I misplaced mine (and then of course found it after buying a replacement, typical), I couldn't find any clear though, the two they had at Hobby Lobby dried white or black, I didn't even know those existed. So, I bought the Goop, which looked about the same, when I used it the other day, it's very smelly. I hope it works though. I bought the baby stickers because I had bought some wedding ones kinda like these where you could take out the wedding sticker and still use the frame, so I got these with the same idea.
Last stop that day, was an Asian food store.
 I love the Asian food stores we have. I'm always trying to try new foods and these places always have something different, unfortunately, mostly everything's in an Asian language so I don't know what I'm getting, so it's always hit or miss. Usually I find something good, if not I either take it to the library, or give it to a friend, everyone wins.
Anywho, egg tarts, cake balls, some kind of bread/cake, and a milk drink. I've had the egg tarts at an international food thing before, the cake balls I googled, they kinda dissolve in your mouth, they're a nice light sweet snack. I haven't quite figured out what the bread/cake things are, but they're yummy. And I've had the milk drink before, it's kinda like milk with a spice in it.

These next ones are from me wanting to get all the cool stuff from people's videos. I really wanted to go last weekend, but I also didn't want to go out of the house, and you can't really have both. I have a few Target gift cards that I wanted to spend.
 I'd seen so many cool things in the videos about stuff in the Target dollar spot, that I really wanted to know if my Target had them. They had quite a few, but not near as many. I found Epic for $4.75, that's a great deal since I've been wanting this movie for awhile. I had cartwheel savings for the Star Wars puzzle and the Frozen blind bag. I got the Star Wars eraser puzzle for a friend, it ended up having Kylo Ren and the orange/white robot. The Frozen had Kristoff, I really wanted the girls or Olaf, basically I bought it because my Cartwheel put it at 50% and my Target gift card made everything I picked up at Target free. I love buying notebooks, pens and pencils, so when I saw the Dr. Seuss pencils in the dollar spot, I picked them up. The boxes were my solution to needing small 'baskets' for Easter presents.
Everything here is from the Dollar Spot except the bowl, the pens and the paper clips. I've been wanting a tiny post-it notepad since I bought the cute Easter ones for Easter baskets a few weeks ago, but they didn't have any of the Easter ones left, so I picked up this set that has a tiny post-it note, a larger magnet and a pen with it. I love the wooden buttons. The zig zags are stickers. There were other paper clips in the dollar spot, but these were $0.88 on clearance. I bought the cards cause they were cute and blank. And pens, explanation above.
Next up Dollar Tree
 Gummy fruit, S'more crunch, gummy peach slices, gummy carrots, Hello Kitty surprise egg, life savers, chocolate seashells, and chocolate chicks. I have to say Dollar Tree has some surprisingly good candy, it's a very interesting selection, very different than you'd find in other places, and for a dollar who passes that up? The gummy carrots and lifesavers are for my family Easter next weekend.
I picked up the bag for a friend who has a birthday on Monday, I looked at the gift bags in Target because I had cartwheel savings, but they still weren't $1. Another set of notepads, more pens, some candles and a cute pencil bag. I saw this on one of the videos and I love that they had it, sadly they didn't have any of the cute stickers that the videos had. But, my Dollar Tree's kinda sad.
 
Now all my pens, pencils and notepads from this haul are living in the pencil bag, but they have nowhere else to go. The Ramune has been drunk, Chucky is on my bag, Wolverine is sitting with other geeky stuff on my shelves, I already had Storm, so I'm not sure what I'm going to do with her.
The eggs have gone into their respective Easter baskets. The tags and stickers have gone into my craft space as has the Goop. The pins were used for a present. I've tried and shared all the things I got at the Asian food store.
Epic is on my movie shelf, the Star Wars figure has gone toward a present, the boxes have been used as Easter baskets, Kristoff has gone to work. Mostly I haven't done anything with the writing implements and the notepads. I'm sure they'll get use some day. And I really need to stop spending money. As much pleasure as shopping gives me, it is hard to do.
 
Find anything cool in your neck of the woods?

Friday, March 25, 2016

Handmade Etsy Swap

I joined a swap through Chaotic Goddesses a month or so ago, called the Handmade Love Etsy Swap.
Handmade Love Etsy Swap

For this swap, we were supposed to load up our Etsy favorites and our partner buys some stuff up to $20 and sends it to us.
I joined this swap for two reasons, I really wanted to do a swap (I love swaps) and I like collecting art from other people.
There were an odd number of people that signed up, so it wasn't just a one-to-one swap. I was paired with a partner to send to and a different person was sending to me.
My person to send to was one of the swap hostesses, Angie of My So Called Chaos.
She really likes elephants, home décor and skeletons. So, I bought her a pair of skull earrings and a handmade elephant chain.
I also altered a box for her. Skeletons and not something I have a lot of, but I found just enough material to make her this:

 Head over to my other blog to read about the process.
Judy from The Knotty Needle sent me a package. Here's what she sent me (sorry the pictures are weird, I got the package shortly before I was to go to lunch, so the pictures are on my front porch.)
 She sent me this bag of extras to make my own stuff:
 This one was on my Etsy list.
There was also an altered pin, but after opening the print above, my ride picked me up for lunch and I opened it in the car. I'll get a picture up soon.

There's a new swap going on at Chaotic Goddesses (almost, sign-up's start on Monday), you should check it out.

Tuesday, March 22, 2016

Hodge Podge Vol 260

It's Hodgepodge time again. Head over to Joyce's blog to see other people's answers.



1. Has spring sprung in your little corner of the world? Other than the calendar how would I know? What's your favorite thing about spring?
It has, we have crocuses and snowdrops blooming in the front yard. I can see leave for tulips, and daffodils and iris' as well.



I love that garage sale season starts soon

 2. Besides the weather, what's put a spring in your step recently?
I recently got a few Target gift cards, those definitely help

 3. How does Easter impact you?
I create my own Easter basket and always put something together for friends. Plus my mom's side of the family usually gets together.

 4. I saw this somewhere on Facebook and thought it would make a fun Hodgepodge question. Which of the following would you find most disappointing...
 a just stuffed taco shell breaking open and spilling out before you take the first bite? dropping a just-purchased Starbucks/Dunkin Donuts coffee? opening the peanut butter jar and finding it empty? upending onto the sidewalk a just-purchased ice cream cone? a burnt bagel popping up in your toaster when you're rushing breakfast? or cutting into an avocado and finding out it's rotten? 
Probably the ice cream

 5. What's something held together with tape at your house? Or a paper clip? Or a wing and a prayer?The cover to my bathroom light. It's a light with a fan, but the cover to the light doesn't stay on very well. We tried to put it in like it's supposed to be, but sometimes when you're sitting on the toilet, it falls right on your head. The only thing I've found for a solution is to tape it on with packing tape.
6. Do you feel underappreciated? In what way?
Sometimes. I like giving gifts to people, and I do like being thanked for them. I know you shouldn't do things for people if you expect something in return, but sometimes it's nice to be acknowledged.

 7. What's something you'd build if you knew how?
I'm not really big on building something, I'm more of a crafter.

 8. Insert your own random thought here.
I'm excited for Easter. I created a few baskets for friends, one for my mother, and one for me. I can't wait to see people's reactions. Plus my friend's birthday is Monday, and I put together a pretty good gift for her.

Tuesday, March 15, 2016

Currently...

Have you guys ever read those Currently... posts? Where people post what they're currently doing? I love those, I've seen them pop up on some of my blogs, most recently Pinstrosity, so I thought I'd post one.

Here we go....

CURRENTLY....
Reading...I'm in the middle of a few books (as always) The Longest Kill: The Story of Maverick 41 One of the World's Greatest Sniper by Craig Harrison, The German War: A Nation under Arms 1939-1945: Citizens and Soldiers by Nicholas Stargardt, The Hot House: Life inside Leavenworth Prison by Pete Earley, War of Two: Alexander Hamilton, Aaron Burr, and the Duel that Stunned the Nation by John Sedgwick, A Very British Murder by Lucy Worsely and The American President: From Teddy Roosevelt to Bill Clinton by William Leuchtenburg.
The Longest Kill, I'm barely into. I started it Sunday night, it's requested by other people at the library, so I thought I'd actually read the book instead of turning it back in and re-requesting it. So far I've read about his life up to him joining the army.
The German War is all about the Germans experience of World War II. At first I didn't think I could really read it, but after awhile I got into it, it's a pretty thick book, about 500+ pages. I really do love a really thick book though, and I seem to be particularly intrigued in World War II, I've read about the Nuremburg Trials, quite a few books on the horrors of the concentration camps including one about the history of them. I'm not quite sure why this topic intrigues me so much.
The Hot House, is very interesting. The author actually was granted permission to go inside Leavenworth, which doesn't happen very often, and interview some of the inmates. It's an interesting perspective. If the book wasn't falling apart, I might add it to my Staff Picks shelf at the library.
War of Two, I'm about the first chapter into. I can't really say if it's interesting or not, but I find the topic interesting, I like reading about the American presidents.
A very British Murder is about the fascination people have with murder. It's about English fascination, but I think a lot of what she covers applies to other countries as well. I was trying to get it finished before it was due today, but that didn't happen.
The American President is also a very thick book, about 800+ pages, but I find it fascinating. Like it says, it covers the presidents from Teddy Roosevelt to Bill Clinton, it's very interesting.

WATCHING...movies as usual. I just finished The Intern today, that was pretty funny. I watched Antman last week and that was hilarious. I laughed very loudly and a lot during that movie
LISTENING....I don't really listen to a lot of specific things. My Ipod's usually on shuffle, though the other day I just wanted to listen to Jim Gaffigan the comedian, I guess I needed a little laughter.

EXCITED FOR....my day off tomorrow. I worked Saturday, Sunday, Monday and Today. Which isn't really that much, but I feel like I was on my feet a ton, and my feet are tired of standing. I have been sitting and on the computer since I got home today about 2:30. I'm not planning on doing anything interesting, just relaxing.
I am kinda excited about eating some of the snacks in my February Freedom Japanese Market snack box. They are a company in Japan that gather up popular snacks and send them out once a month. I tried a small box last year and wasn't very impressed, but I signed up for their mailing list and kept wanting to try another one. Last month they had a special of 10% off, so I splurged and went for the family pack. I was so excited to get it in the mail yesterday.
I'm always on the lookout for interesting and new foods, and Asian foods are very interesting and new. We have at least 3 Asian grocery stores here and I try to frequent them and try new stuff. I don't always like the stuff I try, but it's fun to try.

WORKING ON....Not a ton. I'm still trying to clean, sort and get rid of stuff, but I'm not very motivated to do it. I have packed some stuff up, but then I have less things out and it's kinda depressing.
I have put together an Easter basket for a friend. I'm excited about that. I guess that should be above.
I'm also trying to keep filling out the Wednesday Hodgepodge and blog more frequently. I have a swap coming in the mail at some time in the near future, so there's a post there.

AT THIS EXACT MOMENT...I'm sitting on my futon staring at the blank TV screen, listening to my growling stomach tell me I need to eat supper.

I stole these currently words from My So Called Chaos today, from her March 11th post.

Tuesday, March 08, 2016

Hodgepodge is back

Hi All, I'm back. I keep reading the questions and then forgetting to write a post, If you'd like to read other people's answers, visit Joyce's blog, here


1. March is National Women's History Month. In that vein, who are three women who've been influential in your life? How so? 
Probably, my mother, mostly because she's my mother, I wouldn't be here without her;
my high school art teacher because my art got so much better after taking her classes and she encouraged me to go into art,
and my upper boss because she said she still has no idea what to do with her life and neither do I, so it makes me feel better.
2. In what ways do you think women have it easier than men? 
I think people are much nicer to women, we also have much cooler clothes than they do.
3. What do you need most right now: faith, love, hope, or peace? 
I don't know what I need, but I know I'd really like some love right now. I'm so sick of being single.
4. Do you have a collection? If so, what do you collect and why? 
I have so many collections. I collect owls cause their cute, I collect snowmen cause it makes me easy to shop for. Honestly, I don't have really good reasons for collecting things, usually I collect things cause they're cute. I collect elephants and frogs and minions and toys from my childhood and picture frames and vintage jewelry. I collect too many things and it's really hard to stop. I heard somewhere that if you had three of something, you had a collection, so I'm sure I collect a lot of things.
5. Plaids, checks, polka dots, stripes...your favorite?
I like polka dots, but it depends on what your talking about. I really like things with polka dots, like backpacks and washi tape. But, I also like plaids, it's a nice pattern. If we're talking clothes, probably stripes.
6. In what ways are you the same as your childhood self? 
I still like to play. I kinda laughed when I heard about the adult coloring book fad, because I've always liked doing what keeps my stress down. I have a tendency to do dot-to-dots, there's a company that has Extreme Dot-to-Dot books, with pictures that are over 1000 dots, are on two pages, that use symbols or coordinates. I find that extremely calming, or last night I had fun just attaching things to pages with tape. I also like playing/collecting toys from my youth.
7. You're a contestant on the TV game show Jeopardy. What category will you ace?  
Something about books. I used to go to a trivia thing with my family, and when they asked about contents about popular books, even if I hadn't read the books, I still got all the questions right.
8. Insert your own random thought here. 
I'm loving our weather recently. Today it got up to 70 degrees. It's supposed to be pretty warm for the next week or so. I'm afraid once we get back to normal weather, we're gonna be so cold. It's only March and in Iowa we still could get snow.

Sunday, March 06, 2016

Shopping

I went shopping yesterday. I've been seeing people's great Easter finds, so I went to fill up my Easter basket and find some cool stuff for friends.
I went to Dollar Tree last, but the pictures are backwards, because it was how the bags were layered in my bigger bag. I always take a large bag to put all my purchases in because it's easier than carrying multiple bags because I'm walking. Anywho, here's my purchases:
 a lighter for candles, body wash, gummy candy, a metal bookmark, some post note arrows, Hershey kisses with hazelnuts, key lime pie and tiramisu dessert chocolates, Pez gummy bears, bunny washi tape, and some push pins.
I have some candles from my 12 Days of Christmas swap, and while I'm not a huge fan of candles, they smelled so good just sitting, I thought I'd light them, but my lighter thing wasn't working. I didn't know where to find them in the stores, but walked down the right aisle at the Dollar Tree and there it was. I've been needing some body wash, but I don't like to spend a lot of money for it, so it's the perfect price at Dollar Tree. The candy aisle is a very bad place to walk down in Dollar Tree, they have some great candy, I bought some gummy Pez candy, some gummy fruit candy (I devoured them today, the pear, tastes just like pear, soo good), there's key lime pie and tiramisu chocolates and Hershey kisses with hazelnuts in them. I bought some push pins for work, and some post-it note tags for my books, I have a hard time remembering where I finish reading in a book unless it's at the end of a paragraph, so I thought these would help. I bought a neat metal bookmark and some bunny washi tape for an Easter basket.
Next up, is Walmart:
 some rose chocolates, a set of owl kitchen towels, etc, purple mini clothespins, hairbands, and some chalkboard butterfly clips for an Easter basket.
The rose chocolates were from Valentine's Day and on sale, but I thought they'd be cute to put in Easter baskets. The owl towel set has towels, hot pads, oven mitts, and washcloths, I thought they'd be great for my new apartment, I'm packing them somewhere and not use them until after I move.
I've run out of hair ties and since I didn't cut my hair this year, it's getting very long. I'm going to have to figure out something new to do with it. It hits the middle of my chest, and all I do with it is put it in a braid, French braid or pony tail. Anyone know any easy things to do with long hair?
The tiny purple clothespins and butterfly clips for an Easter basket. I thought I'd glue some tiny MOP buttons to the purple clothespins.
First store I went to was Target:
 A package of gummy bears, Minions chocolate egg, an Avengers chocolate egg, a Star Wars chocolate egg, and some Cadbury cookies
The gummy bears are for an Easter basket. I actually bought two of these Minion eggs, they have a Minion toy inside the egg. The Avengers and Star Wars eggs also have toys inside them, they are fro my friends' Easter baskets. The Cadbury cookies had discounts through the Cartwheel app, and they sounded yummy to try. I find it's really nice when there's something I want to try and it's on the Cartwheel app.
A Scotch ideas book, some Spring stickers, cute pencils, some sticky notes, Minion Easter eggs, green paper 'grass', two Minion puzzle erasers, and some mini clothespins.
All the Minion stuff went into my Easter basket. The Scotch book, pencils, sticky notes and clothespins were for an Easter basket. I bought the 'grass' to make spring/summer altered Altoid tins.

I asked one of my co-workers if I could create an Easter basket for her, and she said yes (I don't run into a lot of people that say no, if you want to give them a gift). If you read my last post, you know I wanted to create an Easter basket for someone. Since, Easter is at the end of March, I figured it was a little late to find a swap, so I'm putting together one for a friend. I always put together a little thing for another few friends, so I have a couple things for other friends.
My Easter basket is full, so I'm not buying anything else for myself. I probably won't buy anything else for my friends either, I might find some more stuff around my apartment, though.
I have been such a slacker on getting things done lately, it took a lot to drag myself out to go shopping yesterday. I have been watching Piinksparkles on Youtube. She's so cute, and buys such neat stuff, I totally got sucked in.

Friday, March 04, 2016

life

Hello all. My life is so boring right now, I still have nothing to talk about. I get up and read my books and then go to work, or vice versa.
As you all know I signed up for Chaotic Goddesses Handmade Etsy swap, I was totally pumped for it, and now I feel like I'm failing miserably at getting together a swap package for my partner. I visited her Etsy favorites site, and picked a couple things, and a few of them told me they were unavailable, or the one I really wanted to get her, the shop is in India (or some far away place like that). I did get one item in the mail today, I also picked up something from a local store that's like one of the things on her favorites list. I'm not sure it counts as a handmade item, it is handmade, but it's from an actual store, so I'm not sure. I was also pumped to make something for my partner (which I'm still gonna do), I'm just having a hard time figuring out what to make. I don't want to send something breakable because I never know how to package those things, and I have gotten things in the past that haven't made it to my house in one piece.
I got my tax refund this past Monday, came about the same time as my paycheck, that was nice. I've been trying not to spend money (it's a lot easier when you don't go anywhere), but then I'm reminded that Easter is coming (at the end of March, that's kinda weird) and I want to put together an Easter basket, plus I have to stock mine. I've also read/watched some videos on YouTube about the cute things that people are picking up for Easter. Speaking of Easter, does anyone know about any Easter swaps? Like I said I want to put together an Easter basket for someone, but I don't have anyone to give one to. I haven't seen anything on my blogs about Easter swaps. I could go for a spring swap, too.
I'm slowly eating my Valentine's Day candy which I picked up on the 15th, which is pretty much the last time I went shopping, more or less. I guess as long as you don't count me going to Hobby Lobby with my mom and buying two mixed bags of buttons as shopping. I really shouldn't go down the button aisle at all.
I'm looking forward to garage sale season, even though I'm trying to downsize and I seriously need to clean and sort through all the stuff in my apartment. I just love the thrill of the hunt that comes with garage sales.
I haven't been doing the weekly Hodgepodge lately, mostly because the questions are very appealing to me, or most of them will be and then a few I don't like. I will try to push myself to do that.
I recently finished The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson. I like his books, but I find it really hard to get into them. I read Dead Wake about the Lusitania disaster and I liked that book too, but again found it very hard to get into. I've been wanting to read Devil for awhile, I kept hearing about how good it was, plus it was the 1893 World's Fair and about the first serial killer, H. H. Holmes. I find serial killers fascinating, I always wonder why some people turn out one way and others turn out another way.
I'm in between books at the moment, I'm trying to make myself read the ones I can't renew, but I have them in order of when they're due back at the library, and I find it hard to read one that's due back later than another one. I also suspended all my book requests until after I move. I have so many books from the library to read, plus ones from book sales that I want to read and then get rid of, plus all the other stuff I should be doing.