shopping

Sunday: I did laundry. That was pretty much it. I watched a few movies as well. Very productive day.

Monday: had a weird swing shift at work and it seemed to go one forever. Had to pick up cereal on my way home and had the hardest time deciding, I always go for the sugary kid's stuff, mostly cause the other stuff just doesn't taste that good. I did get some stuff in the mail.

A wish for happy mail:

A destash tag:

And another happy mail tag:

I really liked all three of them this time.
Tuesday: I had plans to go shopping with a friend, on my way to meet her I found a kawaii tag:

This came from Australia, and took 3 months to get here.

I also got a birthday surprise from Germany, that one only took a month, it's amazing the difference in how long things take to get here from other countries.

Our first stop was TJ Maxx, they had a sign saying only 68 people were allowed in the store. I highly doubt there were more than 20. I also saw some employees wearing the masks under their noses, if you're going to wear it, wear it right. I understand it makes it harder to breathe, and it's even worse when you're doing manual labor.

I got a couple packages of toffee pretzels, a package of dark chocolate covered pistachios and a dress. Sadly when she rung up the dress, it said it was a junior's dress. When I tried it on at home, it's cute, just hits me about mid-thigh, and if I more around too much, rides up a bunch in the back. I'm keeping it, I just have to figure out what to wear it with. I'm thinking either bike shorts, or I have some capri length leggings.

Next up was Walgreen's. I can't show what I got there, it automatically went in my birthday bag, you'll see that in less than a month.

Then it was Walmart.

Picked up some body wash, stickers, more pretzels, shower pouf and some heel things. I was going to pick up the body wash at my grocery store, but they had smaller bottles than this one for about the same price. I signed up for a 4th of July pocket letter, I don't have a ton of things to use, so I picked up the stickers. I need the heel things for my shoes. It never seems to matter how tight I tie my shoes, my heels rub and give me wicked blisters, these help.

A shirt, a bunch of bralettes, tape and a birthday cake Kit Kat. I need some new bralettes, that black one is wicked comfy. I bought this same pack of tape last March and I'm just getting close to finishing it. I remember thinking it was a lot of money for the pack, $9 for 4 rolls, but if it lasts me over a year, I think it's good.

The shirt:

Totally can't wear it to work.

Last stop was an Asian food store;

I'm not entirely sure what things are. I ate the mochi mango ice cream right before lunch, it was so good. We went to a burger place for lunch and then my friend dropped me off.

I put together some sticker swags:

We had to send 5 packs of new stickers:

I did three.

I usually only allow myself to do one of each tag, but I'm tired of not getting mail, and I have a ton of stickers. Of course I only send ones I don't really want.

I also got a flat item ready to mail.

I realized I work 12-5 tomorrow, so I'll have to get to the post office before work and go grocery shopping after.

Estate Sale

I saw an ad for an estate sale this weekend, last Monday. I really wanted to go, but it was pretty far away. I asked my mom if she wanted to go and she said sure. We ended up leaving about 9, which is when it started, got there about 9:10, masks were required and they asked us to stay 6 feet apart, that didn't happen. At an estate sale? Seriously? I didn't see people standing right behind others, we gave each other space, but it wasn't 6 feet. This house looked so small from the outside, when we got to the basement, it was like a whole new house, there was one room we walked through and then a kitchen and another room and then into what looked like a workshop, which looped back around to the stairs back up. The garage was majorly weird. Ther was a box of hair:

a make your own bird:

That's what it seemed like to me, all those feathers and then the picture of the bird on top.

I'm not sure what this was:

It looks like a tail of some sort.

More feathers:

These looked like wings.

On the first floor, you walked into a living room and then into the kitchen, the basement stairs off the living room. The garage off the kitchen/dining room. There was a little sun porch off the dining room. The kitchen led to what seemed like a den, which went into another room and then into a bedroom which had a closet that came around to the front door. I think it would have been a cute house to live in.

I loved this:

I would have bought it for sentimental value if it wasn't $6.

Found this cute picture:

That's a great Christmas if you ask me.

I'm not sure how my mom knew, but she said the lady who used to live there died at 103. She was a button collector, a cookie cutter collector and had to do something with sewing and yarn. There was tons of yarn and a few looms, plus a spinning wheel.

This is the ad from facebook: "She was a collector! There's a huge button collection, notebooks full and more buttons everywhere. There's 2 looms and a spinning wheel and lots of yarn and wool and fabric. We have a cookie cutter collection, huge cookbook collection, lots of collectibles everywhere. There's vintage toys, a crock, pottery vases, vintage jewelry, a stamp collection, foreign coins, tokens, a thimble collection, wood cookie molds, primitive kitchen utensils, fur coats, vintage hats, beautiful vintage linens, vintage Christmas, lots of collectible knick-knacks, clocks, B&G plates, 2 sewing machines, old books, silverware, an old trunk, lots of pretty dishes and kitchen, furniture, crates, primitive cabinet, tools, advertising items, a basement full of interesting things--boxes and boxes full of little things to look at!" 

How can you pass up a description like that? I was actually just hooked on buttons and the pictures of buttons. I didn't end up buying any buttons. The notebooks full of them were priced as low as $10, and up into the 50's. Way over my budget, especially when I don't do much with them. There were jars of buttons at $25, I admit some of them were cool, but I'm not paying that much for a jar of buttons. I realize it's an estate sale, not a garage sale, but I'm still cheap. They never price anything under $1, and it felt like the price of the day was $5. It also felt like after awhile, they just started shoving things in boxes and bags and throwing $5 price tags on them.

What I did get:

2 boxes of random, an ornament another box, a tiny panda pencil sharpener, cool spoon, vintage Mickey. I ended up spending $9, which was less than I figured, the highest priced thing I had was $3.

The things that weren't boxes of weird stuff:

That box at the bottom was $1, I wasn't going to get it, and then I saw another one in a different room priced the same in way worse condition. It's a magnetic box that used to hold cards, I just wanted the box. It had some miscellaneous stuff: a package of kleenex (open), a mini stapler and staples, some emery boards. I pretty much threw everything in the box away.

One box of random:

I really liked the egg ornament, it had a donkey and an elephant on it and on the other side it says 1980.

Another box of random:

I really just wanted it for the 3 tins, that I could see on top, also the box of gold butterflies. I has happily surprised to find the dico ball apple and the cute sun catchers. 

The next stop was a garage sale near the estate sale "Craft room cleaned out. Lots of specialty papers, stamps, die cuts and stickers of all kinds." Pulled from their facebook ad. I just wanted to go for that line.

I found this card game:

I did not buy it, because no one will play games with me. They had a tub of loose ribbon, two tubs of stickers, a tub of images, a tub of die cuts, and a pile of paper pads. 

Here's what I did buy:

a paper pad, a bunch of die cuts. The paper pad is brand new, all the paper in it for $2, I remember seeing it at Hobby Lobby, but didn't want to pay $15, or even $7.50 for their 50% off sale. My rule with paper pads is I have to like at least half the designs to buy them. I'm really not supposed to be buying paper. I looked through, and I don't like half of it, but I love the designs I love, and $2. The die cuts are foil from Hot off the Press, I'm thinking they're bought online, I don't know I've never seen them, there were tons of them, mostly priced at 25 and 50 cents.

A booklet of travel images, crown wood veneers, a bag of tags, gem flowers, some 3d stickers and a set of City of Ames playing cards. There were a couple booklets of images I wanted, but I put back the vintage images for this one, I'm thinking I should of picked up both. I love wood pieces (I don't really do much with them). I had to pick up the playing cards, I work for the city of Ames, and I love these, they were brand new in the package.

The bag of tags:

There were almost 80 tags in the bag for $1.00. I love tags, don't use them much either. Maybe I should use them for the Tag Tuesday challenges.

Total spent was $7.25. I think that's pretty good for all this crafting stuff, it's almost what I would pay for the 50% off sale of Paper Studio for the that paper pad at Hobby Lobby.

Catching up again

I'm not doing this on purpose, I just forget to post. I have a journal that I've taken to writing in and I kinda forget about this, but I still want to share things with the world (even though it feels like no one reads it).

Tuesday: I received my You Matter subscription box:

I'm not that impressed. I passed on the facemask to a friend, I feel like I'll give the rest of it to someone for a birthday gift. There wasn't a t-shirt this month.

I also got a sympathy card:

and a hello card:

and a happy mail tag:

There was also a postage due for a swap.

I shaved my legs in the shower that night, that was a labor of love, I hadn't shaved in awhile.

Wednesday: Work was chaotic, it has been since we started curbside pickup of holds. We usually fill up the appointments for the week of by Tuesday of that week, and the next week doesn't open up until Wednesday afternoon, so people are very grouchy about not being able to get a spot. 

I got really excited because my grocery store brought back self-serve donuts:

I'm not a huge fan of donuts, but I really missed them, I think it was the fact that I didn't even have the option to buy them. There was a cheaper price for 6, so I bought 6 and then the cashier charged me the single price for the 6, which of course was more. I also wasn't that impressed with the donuts themselves.

I totally picked up these fruit snacks just because they were monsters.

I went to the post office before work to take care of the postage due, turns out they went to self-serve kiosk and mailed it as a large envelope, but due to the fact that it wasn't flexible, it was a parcel.

It turned out to be a purple swap:

And a flowers swap:

I counted them as mail for that day, which was good because I didn't get any other mail for the day. I learned all the 4th of July stuff is cancelled, that rather bums me out. I finished a book on Ruby Ridge, that was certainly eye opening.

Thursday: Work was slower, that was nice. I went to a local store that's closing soon, it's a drugstore/grocery store. I didn't take a picture of what I bought. I found some shampoo and conditioner for $1 each. I picked up a bunch of my chai mix (I haven't seen it anywhere else, I don't know what I'll do when I run out), 4 containers for $2 each. I picked up a larabar peanut butter chocolate chip bar for 50 cents, one of the youtube people I watch said they were really good, I didn't find it that good. I picked up a couple Lindt Lindor truffles for 25 cents each. I also picked up a couple TY beanie boos, originally $6, they were supposed to both be 30% off, but I was only given the discount on one. That will be the last time I go there. I was going to go closer to the close date, but there's nothing I need there, so I won't. I didn't get any mail and I'm getting tired of people thinking all about themselves.

Friday: I got to pull the holds for the next day's curbside pickups. I liked that position, I didn't talk to any patrons on the phone, so I wasn't annoyed by them. I was busy pretty much the whole day. I miss being busy all the time. Since, I was working with people the whole shift, I had my mask on pretty much the entire time, I had to take it off shortly before I left because it was bugging the crap out of my ears and jaw. 

I'm not sure about my Blessedly Coping box. I haven't heard anything from the owner. I'm a little perturbed that I paid for 6 months and I've only gotten one box. I think I'm done with subscription boxes. I liked the Lollipop box, I just never used any of it, I still have 6 months of boxes from them that I haven't used. I liked the International Blessings box, I just again didn't use much and I can easily get most of it here in town. I'm still kinda on the fence about Once Upon a Bookclub. They always seemed to have shipping issues (of course 2 of the months were after the world fell apart), but I also didn't like the format of the books (all told from at least 2 different perspectives) and of course I didn't use the gifts. 

I received a happy mail tag:

Saturday: Basically just spent the day watching TV and doing stuff on the computer. I did receive a card:

and a birthday surprise, I stuck it in my birthday bag of stuff to open on my birthday, I can already tell I'll have less this year.

Sunday: Another lazy day, I got my laundry done, made plans with a friend to have supper on Monday and had a farewell zoom meeting for a friend.

Monday: my boss gave me the day off. I don't like long weekends, especially now when there's nothing to do. I went on a chocolate shopping spree.

I found this interesting display:

And spent about $30. I picked up some lemon donut holes, some danishes, a strawberry cake slice, sea salt caramel Flipz, a birthday magical and cookies and cream fun mallow, a giant kit kat, a dark chocolate kit kat, a milka bar, an aero bar, a couple things for my birthday box, and some twizzler bites. I went to drop off my phone payment with my dad on the way home and spent too long talking to him, my chocolate was very well melted when I got home. I threw it in the freezer, it will still taste the same.

I got a Dollar Tree tag:

a birthday surprise:

A wish of rainbow stickers/washi:

a wish of floral washi:

and a wish of happy mail:

ready to mail. I received my postage due reimbursement and a penpal letter in the mail. I headed out to my dinner with a friend. It was good, nice to go "out" to supper with someone other than my parents. It ended up being more than I was expecting, oh well. I could definitely tell I hadn't been out to garage sales or out in the heat, it was a lot of work to walk to the grocery store for the chocolate.

Tuesday: Work was ok, we didn't have curbside appointments as it was primary election day. Everyone was contained to the auditorium, one less headache to deal with. 

I received a wish of something minion in the mail:

Wednesday: we added 3 weeks of open slots for our curbside, that should cut down on phone calls and emails. Most of them are of people saying they can't find an open slot. Found these weird fruits at the grocery store:

Also bought a rotisserie chicken, a container of mixed cut melon, and some golden kiwis.No mail that day. I tried the aero bar, it's peppermint and very sweet.

Thursday: It's been wicked cold in my apartment this week, we've been hitting highs of upper 80's and low 90's, so the AC has been on. Being in the basement, it's always cool, turn on the AC and I freeze. Most days, I'm wrapped up in a fuzzy bathrobe, a sweater, flannel pj pants and fuzzy socks under at least one blanket. 62 is way too cold. We got a ton of new movies at the library, I found a bunch more to request. I got my schedule for next week, I have a swing shift (10-3), I hate that shift, I had one this week and I traded it out, saw I had one next week and have just decided to give in and work it. I have a 12-5 and two 8:30-1:30s. I've decided it's kinda like Saturday schedules, we don't need near as many people every week and there's only 3 different shifts. My aunts and I are trying to go to Junkin in June, it was originally scheduled for June 12th, but the organizers pushed it back to July 17th, I got the 17th off, so hopefully it will work out.

Friday: I woke up with a headache and from a really weird dream. Work was pretty slow. There are finally garage sales showing up. I went to a couple right after work, I didn't even stop to have lunch. Again, I could tell I hadn't been out in the heat or walking.

The first one was 10 blocks away, it was a moving sale, lots of kids stuff. 

I picked up a bag of trim, a frog puppet, an Eeyore and Tigger and a butterfly rubber ducky. Total spent $1.25 I totally picked up the bag of trim for this one:

I realized when I was taking the picture, there are embroidered teddy bears on it. I couldn't tell what they were when i picked up the bag, but there were a couple cute trims (like I need more of those).

Second one was 3 blocks from the first one, I went solely for the jars of buttons.

And that's pretty much all I bought, a couple jars of buttons and 3 vintage postcards. Total spent $8.50. A little higher than I'd normally go, but there were some very interesting buttons in the jars. You could tell a lot of the items were pulled from an antique booth, though the prices weren't as high as I see some being. A dollar each for the postcards are more than I'd normally spend, but I really liked these three. I also bought a bottle of water and drank that on my way home. According to my fitbit I reached 10,000 steps before I got home, my mp3 player said I had about 5,000 and my phone had me at 9,500. It's interesting to see the differences in all of them. I realize I move my arms around more than just when I walk. The phone was in my pocket pretty much my whole time at work, so apparently I almost walked 10,000 steps. I also could feel a blister by the time I got home, when I looked at it, I had rubbed the skin clean off. I really need new shoes/sandals.

I found a scavenger hunt swap and a happy mail tag when I got home.

I miss the days when we just sent whatever for the happy mail, this was a free choice one, but it pretty much went with the rules of a normal happy mail tag. She also included a birthday card for me.

The scavenger hunt:

Alphabet stickers, Brads, Clouds (stamp), Doilies, Embossed paper (random pattern and cupcakes), Flowers, Greeting card, Hearts, Iridescent, Junk mail.

Key, Lace, Map, Napkin, Ombre (ribbon), Puzzle piece, Quilted, Receipt.

Stars, Tissue paper, Unicorn, Vellum, Washi, X-our choice (monkey stickers), Y-letter about you, Zig zag

This swap was so fun to do. I like swaps where I have to find stuff and then to find 26 different items. As I was putting my end of the swap together, I didn't know what I'd do with some items: brads, doilies, junk mail, key, puzzle piece, receipt, tissue paper, and zig zag, but I still wanted to do the swap.

I will try better at keeping these posts shorter in the future.