Friday, June 30, 2017

Weekly update

I don't feel like separating out my shopping trips this week, so I'm not gonna.
Sunday: I made a birthday card for one of my supervisors:
 I'm liking these envelope flip books.
I also finished up a mini pocket letter to send out as happy mail:
 Monday: I went to Target and Dollar Tree. I realized there were a few more things I wanted to pick up for favors for my birthday brunch next week, and I wasn't sure if I'd find the right things at garage sales this week, and I wouldn't have time on Saturday to go shopping if I didn't find anything at the garage sales.
Here's Target:
 Kashi bars, Rolaids, magnetic bookmarks, Unreal candy, glitter washi tape, mini sticky notes, sticker book.
The Kashi I had a cartwheel for, as I did for the Rolaids, the flavor of Target brand antacids I have right now is getting sad, so I wanted to try something different. I've been seeing people haul these magnetic bookmarks on Youtube, so I was really happy my store had them. The Unreal candy is basically M&Ms, as far as I can tell, the bags were $0.48 each, so I bought 3 for my friends and one for me, I haven't tried them yet. The glitter washi is for a swap, it's hot pink with silver stars. I just loved the sticky notes and I liked the sticker book.
Dollar Tree:
tumblers, scissors, duct tape, Snickers, bags, ice cubes
I was originally going to get mugs for my friends because I found them at a sale last weekend, but then decided one of them didn't really fit my friend's personality and I was still short one, so when I saw these tumblers at Dollar Tree I picked them up, I had another one at home I'm using. I have like six pairs of scissors but I'm always losing them. I found a pair at Tuesday Morning last week for $1.99 and I almost picked it up, but my friend says she just gets hers at Dollar Tree, sadly I wanted a better pair than I found. I'm always picking up cute duct tape, as I was putting it away later I found my tape drawers are full, so I need to stop doing that. The Snickers hazelnut was for me, the Snickers almond, I put in my treat bags. The bags are to put the tumblers in, I've put all my other stuff in the tumblers (I decided not to personalize), so I just need to decorate the bags and put the tumblers in the bags. I was rather excited my Dollar Tree has these plastic ice cubes.
 Placemats, stickers, pens, book, buttons, sequins
I use the placemats on my desk when I'm crafting, the pens are for me (cause I can't pass up gel pens), I want to make a flip book with these wall stickers, I thought the heart stickers were cute and I have a swap of a summer flip book, so I picked up the other stickers. The cookbook is for me, I don't really know why I picked it up. The buttons and sequins are for a swap.
When I got home I had a swap in the mail:
 I love these little shaker paper clips she made me.
It was a summer sticker swap. I'm thinking of using the vintage ones on a summer pocket letter I have to make. I'm sure the rest will be great to use in my summer flip book.
and then I had to work Monday night.
Tuesday: I don't remember doing much, I think I just watched movies, which is good cause I had a ton checked out. I worked Tuesday night.
Wednesday: I opened at the library, as I was leaving I saw this rock:
 I thought it was cute. I think it would be fun to hide rocks throughout the library as a fun scavenger hunt.
I finally decided to open my loaded bag swap:
 I'm loving that little elephant paper clip.
I also opened another piece of happy mail:
 Lefthandedcrafter on Youtube buys these garlands at Dollar Tree and then makes paper clips out of them, she had a drawing for her latest bunch and I won.
She also sent me this:
 Another garland she picked up, I'm thinking I'll need to use at least one piece on that summer flip book.
Thursday: I made a pocket letter and mailed out some packages and went to work.
Friday: No sales in my area. I worked extra in May and got paid for that, but apparently I should have just asked for money for my birthday. I didn't even spend that much money between the 15th and the end of the month, but I do have three bills in there. Most of my money goes to postage and food. I wish food was cheaper, if I want interesting food, it's expensive. If I buy the cheap food, it's boring. I also usually get $20 out on my weekly shopping trip and try using that on some purchases so I don't have to spend out of my checking account. I only spent $30 on my shopping trip at the beginning of the week.
Why is it, when I think I'm doing well with money, I'm really not?
Tomorrow, I'm planning to check out the farmer's market because we're having a family get-together that afternoon.

Sunday, June 25, 2017

A visit to Tuesday Morning

What I have done this week?
It feels like work and making art.
Sunday: I went to brunch with my parents for Father's Day. And then I worked.
Monday: I finished a tag:
Opened a swap of Birthday Cards:
I love her use of the Happy Birthday die cuts.
Packaged up a bunch of swaps, and went to work. I picked up this book at work:
I grew up with this book, basically it has a lot of Mother Goose nursery rhymes but it also has the equivalent of those, the Father Gander ones, and some other nursery rhymes, the pictures look like they've made with colored pencils.
Tuesday: I finished a pocket letter:
Opened a couple more swaps of $5 mystery swap:
We had to buy five $1 items at a store and send them to a partner(s)
 glittery washi, glittery clothespins and some pinwheel stickers.
 Stickers, bling, ephemera kit, tape and labels.
This cute little card came with the above swap:
I love that paper and the shaker paperclip.
I also finished a loaded envelope:
And went to work, sadly I felt crappy at work, so I came back home and relaxed for the rest of the night.
Wednesday: I went to work, went to the post office and mailed off the tag, the pocket letter, the envelope, three destash swaps, a washi swap and a sticker swap, went to the grocery store and decided they needed to retrain their baggers. My bag guy put my gallon of milk in my bag along with a bagged item and a few small items. I learned how to view Youtube on my Bluray player and watched some movies.
Thursday: I plowed through some more movies
I opened my envelope flip book:
I love the paper pad she used.
and went to work.
Friday: I had the day off and had plans to go shopping with a friend.
We started off with a tour of her new house.
She gave me a bottle of homemade wine for my birthday:
 I'm not a huge wine drinker, I tasted this at her house, it's pretty good. I am a little afraid that I won't be able to finish the bottle.
I figured out there was a Tuesday morning right across the street from the Michael's we visit. After watching everyone's YouTube videos on their Tuesday Morning purchases, I was excited to visit it. It was a very small store but still had a craft aisle. I just didn't feel like looking through all the hooks of stickers, I like that craft stores have the same sticker on a hook and aren't mixed. I'm not a big 'digger' person, I have that issue at some garage sales as well.
I spent more money on food than crafty items:
 pastries, chocolate
I love food, and I love when stores have different food than what I find at the grocery store, I love going to the food aisle of TJ Maxx as well.
Deliza Pastry Cream, cream filled puff pastry for $1.99, 2 Mini croissants with vanilla custard for $0.99 each, Dark chocolate sea salt pretzels for $2.99, Guylian seahorses for $2.49, a box of Exquisite cookies with chocolate for $2.99, and Messori cone snack for $0.79.
Crafting supplies:
 Art C embellishment pack for $0.99, black and white maritime tags for $0.99, Halloween goblet stickers for $0.99 and some mint green washi tape for $0.99.
I love that no one thing I bought was more than $3 and that I didn't spend more than $20. I didn't pick up any crafting supply that was more than $1.00. I did see the a few Downton Abbey paper pads and dies, I also saw some Martha Stewart products. Mainly I like stickers and ephemera and washi. I don't have a die cutting machine, I'm not big on punches, I'm not great at using stamps. I just didn't feel like looking through all the stickers, most of them did not interest me.
Next we went across the street to Michaels, I spent less than $10 there:
 Two sticker books for $1 each, Recollections vintage cards and envelopes for $0.79, Recollections sticker book for $2.79 and some pink trim for $1.49. I'm not really in the mood to buy crafting stuff lately because I have so much. I actually thought I'd buy way more because I haven't been to a Michaels since March, but the prices just didn't work for me.
Last stop of the day was Sam's Club, again, I love their food selection. I picked up these:
 They are soo good, and phenomenal if I warm it up for a 15 seconds in the microwave.
I got back about 7pm and watched movies the rest of the night. Somewhere during the week I figured out how to watch YouTube videos on my TV through my BluRay player, and I'm loving that.
Saturday: I went garage saleing. I didn't feel that motivated to walk a ton, or spend money, but I made myself go.
 I found some mugs for my friends' favors for my birthday. Those pipe cleaner things are supposed to be bunnies, I kinda think they look like some creepy rodent. I picked up some button covers and some trim.
My birthday is next weekend and I'm putting some favors together for my friends, I thought I'd put the items in some mugs for them, I feel I'll be keeping that owl mug, so I think might be going to Dollar Tree this week to find a third one, I do have to go for something else anyway.
I watched a bunch of movies yesterday to finish out the day.
I also got a washi swap in the mail:
We were to send each other samples of Christmas washi.

Tuesday, June 20, 2017

Hodgepodge time

It's Hodgepodge time. I think this is the first time I've participated in the shorter format. I haven't found a lot of questions I've wanted answer, sadly.
Anywho, let's begin. Head on over to Joyce's blog to see what everyone else answered.

1. The first day of summer rolls in later this week. What are ten things you'd put on your list of  quintessential summer activities? Will you try to manage all ten this summer? I'm pretty sure I don't have ten items. I don't really have things I must do. Garage saleing is always in there, but I usually start that in May. My birthday is in two weeks, I have plans for that. There is a get together with my dad's side of the family planned. That's about it.

2. Do you collect seashells when you're at the beach? What do you do with them once you get them home? What's your favorite place to comb for seashells? How many of these 'best beaches for hunting seashells' have you visited? Which one would you most like to visit?
Calvert Cliffs State Park (Maryland), Jeffrey's Bay (South Africa), Sanibel Island (Florida), Shipwreck Beach (Lanai Hawaii), Ocracoke Island (North Carolina), Galveston Island (Texas) and The Bahamas I have been to Florida and Hawaii, not sure about those beaches. The place I went to in Florida was an island that seemed covered in shells, that was pretty cool. Honestly, as long as it has water and a place to swim, I'd be set. I haven't been swimming since last summer and that was in a pool. I really miss it. 

3. At a snail's pace, shell out money, come out of your shell, go back into your shell, drop a bombshell, happy as a clam, clam up...which 'shell' phrase could most recently be applied to some event or circumstance in your life? Explain. Maybe clam up or happy as a clam. I work with a difficult person and I feel I'm getting nowhere in saying things to my boss so I feel I need to clam up about it.
Happy as a clam because (fingers crossed) I have three exciting things coming up. And I really need them for my sanity.

4. What summer activity do you dislike? Why? Not sure I really have one. I'm not a big fan of more kid centered activities at the library because it brings in more kids, but that's just life.

5. What's something you see as quickly becoming obsolete? Does that bother you? Reading. I work at a library and I feel even though people check out books, they don't read any of our signs.

6. Insert your own random thought here. Like I said my birthday's in a couple weeks. I'm not sure how I feel about turning 34, but that's life. I've planned a get-together with my friends and I'm excited about that. 

Friday, June 16, 2017

Stupid spider

Sunday: I made a couple birthday cards and a mini pocket letter
Monday: I have to take 2 vacation days before they disappear on July 1st so I took off 6/5 and 6/12. I actually got a little bored on Monday. I really need to be reading and creating, but I don't. I mailed off some swaps, a loaded bag and some dollar tree swaps. I did stop in at the library because just cause I took vacation does not mean I didn't have stuff to return or pick up.
Tuesday: I woke up with horrendous back pain, I'm pretty sure it was muscle pain, it felt like muscle pain, but was really bad. I took some ibuprofen and acetaminophen and went along with my day. 
I went shopping. 
Wednesday: It was a little weird going back after three days off, but oh well. I really wanted to go to Hobby Lobby after work, so I went to the post office and mailed some more swaps, dropped my stuff off at home and went shopping again.
Thursday: I meant to go grocery shopping, I usually go on my way home on Wednesdays, but I went to Hobby Lobby instead. I'll probably go on Friday when I run out of food. I did take a nice nap in the middle of the day. I didn't get much accomplished.
Friday: I went to garage sales, and then work, best buy of the day was 2 Fast 2 Furious DVD to add to my collection.
Saturday: There were more garage sales and 5 miles of walking and then I don't have any idea, I'm gonna guess I sat on my ass the rest of the day.
Sunday: I made these:
 Star Wars paper clips, and this:
 Under the Sea pocket letter (this is the back).
And spent way too much time trying to figure out how to make an envelope flip book.
Monday: I made this:
 The envelope flip book. I know there was reading in there somewhere as well.
Tuesday: I made these:
More paper clips, because paper clips are addicting and easy. I also got a bunch of swaps wrapped up and packaged to mail.
Wednesday: I opened at the library, and mailed off all my packages afterwards and went to the grocery store. I also finished Bellevue, which I have been trying to finish for way too long. 
Thursday: I finished Final Flight, which I have also been trying to finish for awhile, those two books had been renewed 4 times on my library account, I try really hard not to renew things the five times I get. I realized why I have this issue, it's because I'm trying to finish the things that I have renewed so many times and then the newer books just get renewed until I get to them, and I rarely read small books. I try to at least read a chapter in my newer books to find out if I even want to keep them, and then there's all the books that are requested and I can't renew, sometimes I just re-request them, other times I try to get them done before I have to return them. Plus, I have to live and work and watch the movies I have checked out and do art and other stuff. I'd never have time to read if I had a full time job.
Friday: That's today. I went to a garage sale next door and bought a few things, but there weren't many sales in my area today. And I've been grumpy, I wish I knew what to do to make me feel less grumpy, you'd think the four day weekend I had last weekend would do it. I really want to go buy a Mountain Dew for the night, but I don't need it. I want to hang out with people because I know that does wonders for my mood, but people aren't free. Crossing my fingers I do have a few get-togethers scheduled for the future, but things usually come up and they don't actually happen. The last time I had that happen I went shopping by myself and spent way more money than I should be spending. Yesterday was payday and I usually consider my middle of the month payday extra money because I don't pay any bills then, but then I realized I do spend about $200 before the end of the month when the rest of my bills come about. I need to just spend money on food and postage, but that's not gonna happen. 
I whined a little on facebook about people not following rules on swaps and how I really wanted to whine about people doing shoddy work, but I didn't want to offend anyone. And then I look up and there's a big black spider on my wall, because that's my life.

Saturday, June 10, 2017

Garage Sales

I was trying to figure out if I wanted to go to garage sales on Friday morning because I had to work the afternoon. There were a few close by, so I chose to go out. I found two more on my walk. One of them looked like they had set up Thursday night and left everything out overnight because it was soaked. It had rained Thursday night and everything was just sitting in water, boxes were falling apart, there were stuffed animals that were just waterlogged. It was kinda gross.
At one of the sales on my list, the lady running it was talking on the phone the entire time and when someone asked her a question about something she had sitting out, she seemed annoyed to be interrupted.
Here's what I picked up at two of the sales:
 DVD, snowman, book, earrings, stress ball.
I'm only missing the 3rd Fast and Furious now. I loved the snowman, I certainly don't need another one. I picked the book up for a gift for Christmas. I just liked the earrings, I don't need more of those either. I just really liked the peanut stress ball.
I ended up walking 3.08 miles and spending $2.45.
Today, I couldn't decide if I wanted to go to a sale that was pretty far away from the others on my list, I finally decided to when I got out the door, it was a waste, but how would I know until I went to it, plus it added a few miles into my walk. By the time I got to the sales that were closer together I had talked myself out of one, but found another one and was closer to the one I didn't want to walk to, so I went to it anyway. I didn't find anything at either of them, the first one mostly because everything reeked of cigarette smoke.
I finally found something at the next sale:
 I picked up this cute teapot for $3.
I kinda lost myself, (not really, I knew where I was, I just wasn't sure where a street went) on the way to the last one where I picked up these:
 I really wanted to by the bag of shopkins I saw, but they'd just sit there and stare at me. I'm trying to take the time to ask myself if I'll actually use something, sometimes the answer is no, but I love it so much I want it. Like the smaller owl in the picture, I mostly bought it because it was an owl. I bought the teapot because it was a teapot.
These were all in the free box:
sticker, pencil pouch, toys, erasers, pin I love free boxes. I haven't gone through the stickers yet. I seem to be amassing a pencil pouch collection. I picked up Strawberry Shortcake because she's Strawberry Shortcake. The minion is for a friend. I also have quite a collection of erasers. I picked up the ribbon pin for me, it says birthday girl, I figured I'd wear it on my birthday
The next sale I went to find didn't start until 10, it was 9:30, I wasn't waiting until 10.
Here's what I picked up at the last sale:
stationery stuff, book, pom pom kit
I'm not exactly sure why I picked the Barbie bag up, I think it's because it's full of pens and pencils. I picked up the book for a co-worker whose wife is having a baby soon. It was one of my favorite books as a kid, but now that I think about it, it's too old for a baby. I love the pom pom kit.
I walked 5.15 miles today and spent $5.50.
I'm wicked tired now, and even more tired when I think about how much I walked between the two days.

shopping hauls

I *needed* some replacement metallic gel pens, so I went to Target where I picked them up the first time. Of course they didn't have them, they only had a pack or metallic, neon and glitter for $15. I didn't need all that, so I put back the dollar spot items and new washi I was going to buy and went to Walmart. They had the same pack of pens for $12, I decided since I had to buy the whole pack anyways, I might as well get them for cheaper. I've already used a neon and a glitter but not a metallic. 
 I also picked up the wafer things cause they looked interesting. I have found some rather unique food stuff in Walmart's checkout lanes.
I was so proud of myself, I spent under $15.
Next up I went to the Dollar Tree, I'd been wanting a 20 oz cherry coke but my local grocery store has been out, so I was hoping to get one of those. I also went to find a good children's board book, I didn't find any that peaked my fancy.
I saw this:
and was tempted to buy it just cause it was a dollar, but then realized I didn't really want it.
Here's what I did pick up:
 monster stickers, erasers, treat bags, acrylic block, cards, keychain, stickers
I picked up the monster stickers, because monsters. The erasers I picked up because of the designs on them, they say they're chalkboard designs, I just thought they were cute. I also thought the treat bags were cute, they are actually plastic, there's four in the package. I've been looking for an acrylic block ever since I got a couple cling stamp sets in my Peachy Cheap grab bag, I finally found one and tried out one of the stamps the other day, I feel I need a little practice. The notecards because I always need notecards. I picked up the coffee and butterfly stickers because they were new. I want to do a coffee themed pocket letter some day. I picked up the white flowers because I had picked up a sheet in the past and sent them out in a swap. I picked up the Dory keychain because I'd seen others haul these kind of keychains but never found any.
I went to Burger King for lunch and saw this written on the sidewalk on my way home:
 After getting home on Tuesday, I watched some YouTube videos, and one in particular, a haul from Home with Tanya talked about some new paper packs and washi she found at Hobby Lobby, which I specifically avoided when I was out shopping. She showed a paper pack, Newsworthy that I fell in love with a couple of the papers, so...
On Wednesday, I went to Hobby Lobby after work. I was a little annoyed that it was fall in Hobby Lobby until I turned a corner and found it's also Christmas at Hobby Lobby:
 Now, that was all I saw, ribbons and a lot of empty space, but is it me, or does it seem Christmas comes a lot sooner to the stores nowadays? I'm used to it being Christmas by my birthday (July 2nd), but this was a little ridiculous.
Here's what I picked up:
 and because one of my photos has to be blurry, I guess this is it.
paper, tiny bags, sequins, duck tape, punch, stickers, die cuts, cards. I picked up the blue paper because it's a sea theme and one of my swaps I'm working on is an under the sea pocket letter. I got the Newsworthy paper pad. The tiny paper bags are also a sea theme, I picked up the sequins because I thought they'd work in the pocket letter. I'm always on the hunt for duct tape, if it's on sale or at the Dollar Tree I will pick it up (I'm not paying $5 and up for duct tape). I've been wanting another punch to make handmade embellishments with. I just loved the stickers. The die cuts are also for handmade embellishments. The cards were on sale, and I always need notecards.
Paper Studio stuff was half off, so the single paper was 30 cents, the paper pad was $10, the punch was $4, and the sticker sheets $1 each. Everything else was on clearance. I try not to pay full price for anything at Hobby Lobby, we all know I don't need anything from there.
My Hobby Lobby is in a strip mall with a Salvation Army and a JoAnn's in it, so I went to those too.
The Salvation Army is getting tons of donations lately, so everything in the store was half off.
 I love these bowls, the Pyrex, I think they are the 2nd smallest size, I don't know why I keep picking them up, this was $1.
Here's what I picked up at JoAnn's:
paper, washi, buttons
As I was walking out the door, I got a bunch of coupons for JoAnns, but most of them started on the 8th. I wasn't even planning on going to JoAnn's so I didn't take the one that was valid for Wednesday, but since I was down there and was seeing other people's hauls, I thought I'd check it out.
I know I say this a lot, but I feel again that I should stop going to JoAnns. Again, there's not much there I want. I picked up the tiny paper pads and the washi from the $1.99 section. I've been wanting grass washi. I also love the pastel mini paper pad I got here awhile ago, so I picked up the brights and neutrals as well. I need some white cardstock and I thought I could use the rest in this pack, it was $5. The buttons were on clearance for 50 cents each. 
I thought my JoAnns got rid of the clearance section, but they just moved it, but there still wasn't anything I wanted in it. As I got up to the register, I found a unit with buttons, we all know I love buttons. I picked up a few until I realized they were 97 cents for two buttons, that's almost 50 cents per button, not worth it to me. I JUST realized the two I bought were 50 cents each and there's only one button on each of the cards. Maybe I could just say these were bigger. I have no excuse.

Saturday, June 03, 2017

5.3 miles of walking

It's been a weird week, I'm not sure if it's because of Memorial Day or what.
Sunday: I had to work, I remember being very annoyed with a lot of people
Monday: went to lunch with my parents and basically relaxed the rest of the day, I seriously needed it. I finished A Mother's Reckoning by Sue Klebold. Someone had it requested, so I had to finish it. It was very sad.
Tuesday: I have no idea what I did until I had to go to work. I remember being very stressed out about getting something packaged up to mail on Wednesday and then finding out I didn't have to mail it until June 6th.
Wednesday: Opened at the library, mailed a rainbow pocket letter, went grocery shopping and I don't know what else. I put in to have two of my floating holidays and am excited (sorta) to have a three day weekend this weekend and a four day weekend next weekend. Sorta not excited because I won't really be doing anything.
Thursday: I made a birthday card for my boss, her birthday is one month before mine, which is why I remember it. My birthday is July 2nd. I got some stickers in the mail from a swap:

And then there was work. 
Friday: I had a doctor's appointment and then I went garage saleing. I ended up walking 5.31 miles and only bought one thing for 10 cents. I did buy some lemonade at two different sales for $1.50, I think by the time I made it to the last sale, I just felt like I had to buy something, so I bought this cute little guy:
He's a very fluffy keychain.
Friday night I went to the annual art walk, sadly I didn't find anything to buy.
Today: I wasn't sure I'd go out to garage sales as I had walked so much yesterday and I had to work this afternoon, I figured I'd be rather sore. I wasn't that sore when I got up, but then I looked at the temperature, it was 9:30 and 88 degrees. I chose not to go out, especially since I had to take two showers on Friday because of the heat. I did go down to the Farmer's Market and again decided it was a waste of time. I'm actually very proud of myself for not even picking up sweets. I went by the grocery store on the way home and picked up some comfort food. I did finish The Book of Chocolate by HP Newquist, that was actually pretty interesting. Then there was work.
I'm excited about my birthday, even though I know it will come and nothing exciting will happen, so I'm not as excited as past years. I always hope something interesting will happen.