Toy story postcard

Sunday:

 The mermaid, unicorn coin purse, macaroon bath bomb and snowflake washi are from mine. The ribbon from the swap. I used the ribbon on the right to wrap a present already.
Day 15: what I sent:

I got my laundry done, watched some movies, and read a couple books.
I also got my mail packaged up for the week.
Christmas ornament:

 Christmas ornament:

 I usually don't allow myself to do more than one of a single tag, but I had some ornaments I wanted to get rid of, I was hoping to do 3, but the tag was Friday, so it was hard to get it in between my travels.
Gift for a friend:

 She likes Peanuts stuff, I figured she'd enjoy these. I picked Woodstock up at a thrift store last year and the socks at TJ Maxx.
A gift for a co-worker:

 Most of these are from swaps, she always says I can pass things on to her that I don't want. I did buy the reindeer candle holders and the snowflake. I didn't buy them this year, but I didn't want everything to be stuff I didn't want.
Monday:

 The die cuts are from the Advent Calendar swap, the washi, snowman and palm tree ornament are from mine, and the package of die cuts are from the 12 Days of Christmas swap.
I'm beginning to think all my partner made in the Advent Calendar swap was die cuts. To me, you don't really make those, you cut them out. Maybe if she'd done layered ones, that would be different. There are 9 more days left, we were supposed to make at least half of our items. I've had 3 days of die cuts and a day of handmade embellishments.
A close-up of the die cuts from the 12 Days of Christmas swap:

What I sent:

Some snowflake embellishments that I made.
Another one of my co-workers gave me a cute gift at work:

She made the cookies and ornaments. When she gave it to me, I was really excited about the ornaments, as I was admiring them, she says "there's cookies, too" I was more excited about the ornaments than the cookies.
My plan was to go shopping after work, but the boots I chose to wear are giving me a blister, so I went home and changed clothes and went shopping.
I found a couple pieces of mail when I changed my clothes.
RAK:

 I guess, I'm not sure, but it's cute.
A Christmas ornament:

 Very cute, but I almost had to rip apart the envelope to get it out.
I needed to find something for my brother's girlfriend, they have money, so anything they want, they just buy it. I usually just get her something nice.
My first stop was a local gift store:

 I found the star ornament and the snowflake ornament for her. I picked up the gnome for me. Total spent $13. I put the gnome in my Advent calendar for next year.
My next stop was a local toy store, they always have some interesting stuff. Totally just bought it all for me.

 scratch pack, stretchy lizard, sticky notes, nature activity book, green activity book, flowers dot-to-dot, tiny pegasus. Total spent $11. I put the scratch pack, the lizard and one of the activity books in my Advent calendar for next year.
Next place was another local gift store. I was looking for some fudge for my dad, I found this cute thing for me instead:

 Total spent $4. I put it in my Advent calendar for next year.
My last stop was a drug store. I wasn't going to go in here, but I thought I was there, I'd just look.

 Ghiradelli chocolate, keychains. Total spent $24. I had noticed a post about these mixed chocolate bags in my history on Facebook. I was extra excited when I noticed them, and then I found a bin full of Claire's stuff on clearance. These ranged from $8 to $10 each originally. I'd never pay that much for one thing, but I'll totally pay $8 for all of them.

 I think I'm done shopping. I'll probably put in some chocolates, but I'm done. My mom said we should just do stocking stuffers this year.
For my brother's girlfriend:

 the two ornaments I got today and a chocolate bar.
For my mother:

I feel a little bad that I don't have more for her, she's easy to shop for, because she collects Santas, but after she said she wasn't doing presents, I stopped shopping for her, I guess if she's disappointed, it's her own fault.
For my brother:

 He's also pretty easy to shop for, he collects reindeer. I picked up the Mario ornament because he played that as a kid. I also picked up the R ornament, because he likes green and his name starts with R.
For my dad:

The hardest person to shop for. I usually end up just giving him candy. Mom said that should be fine.

Merry Christmas!!!

My Advent calendar for the 24th:

 The sticky notes are from mine, the straws from the envelope countdown, and the arrows from the pocket letter.
I did laundry yesterday, two loads, so it took about all day. My parents and I went to my aunt's for Christmas eve. We used to go to my grandparents (on my dad's side) every Christmas Eve. Last year my aunt (on my dad's side) invited us to her house for Christmas Eve, and I hope it becomes a yearly tradition. I feel that we don't get together with my dad's side of the family much and it's fun. I may not like kids very much, but one of my cousin's kids has 3 kids and they are just entertaining.
I had to snap a picture of my aunt's pig serving dishes for my friend, she likes pigs.

 And here's Christmas. I didn't get a picture of my Advent calendar goodies: I didn't have anything for mine, I had a LUSH bath bomb from the envelope countdown and some snowman socks from the pocket letter.
I went over to my parents house about 8, we didn't open presents until probably 10. Here's what I got:

 the tube has pieces to make a giraffe, a snowman wall hanging, an ISU snowman, some Ghiradelli chocolate, a stuffed owl, the snowman from Rudolph the Red Nosed reindeer, and an Andes mint chocolate bar.

 Washi, a washi book, a cute iris folded card, and an owl keychain.
The washi was from my brother's girlfriend, I love that she got me something I'm into, I feel bad that I don't really know what she's into. My mom made the Iris fold card, there was a Target gift card inside it.

 two soft and warm hats, socks.
There was also a raincoat, but I'm not gonna use it, so my mom is keeping it, she said she'd give me something the equivalent of what she paid for it.
I also had a lamp re-wired, another Target gift card, and some cash.
My dad is cleaning out his DVD collection, because he doesn't watch them anymore, so I got some:

The Da Vinci Code, Seabiscuit, National Treasure, The Hunt for Red October, Night at the Museum, The Bucket List and A Few Good Men.
My brother made a roast for lunch with mashed potatoes and green beans.
I went home about 2:30. The older I get, the more unexciting Christmas gets. I realize this when I can sleep through the night before Christmas. My brother and his girlfriend went to her family's get together after lunch and I went home. I know part of the holidays is to spend time with family, but when I'm at my parents house, all we do is sit there and do nothing. I'm not gonna sit there and do nothing when I have stuff to do at home.
Tomorrow brings after-Christmas shopping. I bought a few of the presents I gave out this year at after Christmas shopping last year, so hopefully I'll have the same luck this time.

Lunch with a friend

Today's Advent calendar:

The tree clothespin is from the pocket letter, the tree mix from the envelope countdown and the minion from mine. I really like that packet of wooden trees, it also has some plastic pieces that look like peppermints
Here's what was in the minion blind bag:

 Apparently it was a Halloween one.
I went to lunch and shopping with a friend today, and I spent way too much money. We had tacos for lunch.
First stop was Micheal's:

 mini notebooks ($1.99), pink 12x12 paper ($0.69), two big blue pom poms ($0.89 each), dinosaur sticker book ($1).
When I showed my explosion box to one of my co workers yesterday, she asked if I would sell her one for her niece, who likes pink. So, I had to get some pink 12x12 cardstock. I have maybe three sheets of 12x12 cardstock.

 two packages of mini matchboxes ($2 each), a set of vintage decorated clothespins ($2), flower washi ($1.99), thin pink washi ($1.99), a waffle squishie keychain ($1), vintage calendar ($0.80), wooden under the sea shapes ($0.29), a bunch of pastel trims ($2), and some sequin trim ($0.49). Mostly everything was on sale, the matchboxes, clothespins, paper, keychain and sticker book were regular price.
Across the street is a Tuesday Morning:

 I found this stack of 100 sheets of colored 12x12 cardstock for $7.99, there was a smaller pack (probably of better quality) for $9.99, this will work fine for my purposes. The small pack of 6x6 paper is called tealightful, it was $2.99, it has 36 papers with 24 designs. The misc me! journaling card kit was $5.99, it has 240 cards: 60 8x6, 60 4x6 and 120 3x4 cards. I love the designs.

 Robot stickers ($1.49), lace collage pack ($2.39), puffy pony stickers ($0.79), mini sticky notes ($.99), glue sticks ($0.99), gymnastics stickers ($0.29), jeweled flower stickers ($0.99), and acetate under the sea pieces ($0.29).

two packages mini croissants ($1.03 each), mini cookies ($2.39), European cookie collection ($2.39), raspberry marshmallow cookies ($2.39), and a chocolate cone ($0.71).
My friend suggested Pier 1 imports because they usually have some good stuff on clearance at this time of year. They already had Valentine's stuff out:

 I found this cute hedgehog.

 A cool hedgehog towel, I was tempted to buy it for $5.

 A cute mug, I love mugs, unfortunately, I only use one or two if I'm lazy and don't wish to wash the other one. I kinda wish I could have a shelf full of cups, maybe some day when I have my own place.

 Also, saw this cute card.

 I bought a spider necklace and some owls. The spider necklace was from Halloween and was 90% off. All their ornaments were 50% off, but these rang up less, I'm not complaining.
We still had a little time before I had to be back for work, so we went to Dollar Tree:

 bagel thins, candles, legal pads, toys, shipping labels. After buying all that food at Tuesday morning, I didn't want to buy too much more, but I was intrigued. I got the candles to put under a Christmas tree. The legal pads are for a future swap. I can't help tiny toys. I misplaced my shipping labels the other day, now that I bought more, I'll probably find them.

 stickers and washi. I found those new 'metal' stickers, I picked up the hearts, stars and royal looking ones. I wanted the ones with less color. I found these cool color your own stickers. I found the minion and Tsum Tsum washi, and some puffy princess stickers as well as these cool flower stickers.

 These were in the blind box above.
When I got to work today, I found a few gifts.

 A Supernatural Impala, sucker, keychain, chocolate and a Burt's Bees ornament. I may have already eaten the other food.
Here's her card:

 We're both dragon fans.
As I was taking pictures and sorting stuff out when I got home, I found this beautiful moth pin.

 The person that asked me to make the explosion card gave me this card:

 She told me it looked like a card I would like, she was right.

 One of my supervisors gave me Christmas potpourri.

I also found this pen and notebook set in my mailbox.
Work was a normal Thursday, slow.
I spent way too much money on myself. So much for not spending extra money, and I'm planning to go after Christmas shopping next week. But, considering there's not a ton that I wanted before Christmas that I didn't buy, maybe (hopefully) I'll just get some good deals on stuff for next year. I do, want to buy stuff for my Advent Calendar next year, nowish, because I knew what everything was in it this year, I hadn't really forgotten by the time I opened it.
I didn't get any mail Monday and Tuesday, Wednesday I got a pocket letter, today I got a bill. I'm hoping I can get something interesting tomorrow, but not holding my breath.

Great mail day

There were 4 large packages and an envelope waiting for me in the mail today.
First up, was my post it note swap:

 Second up, a Christmas pocket letter:

 Third, a Peachy Cheap grab bag that I bought on Black Friday:

 It's funny with every subsequent grab bag I get from Peachy Cheap, I like more. The paper is from Bella Blvd, it's the Holly Jolly Christmas collection and it's double sided, with the back side being solid color. Next up is some cork stickers from Coffee Break, by Prima. There's some fringe hearts from Maggie Holmes and 'hello banner bites' by jillibean soup as well as 'Life is sweet' soup labels by jillibean soup as well. There's also a Jen Hadfield self-inking stamp that looks like a name label that says "hello my name is". Next row has some mini file folders by Pink Paislee  and then some phrase stickers by 7 Paper as well as mini placemats by Jillibean soup. After that is a set of cling stamps by Heidi Swapp and underneath them are some wood veneers in the shape of arrows and hearts by Studio Calico. There's some geotag chipboard shapes by Studio Calico with a package of 10 glitter washi tapes and a box of Label stickers. Last in the row is October Afternoon Holiday Style Journal Cards. On the bottom is a burlap pencil case that says 'love'.
I don't like the glitter washi, the placemats, the geotags or the stamps. I'll either trade them out with someone in my facebook groups, or just send them out as RAKs.
Fourth was a Countdown to Christmas Advent calendar that was mailed over a week ago.

Last package was a bunch of holiday goodies from my aunt:

I opened my 4 days of Advent calendar goodies, first day:

 Second day:

 Third day:

 And Fourth day:

I will add them to my Advent calendar posts