Minions

Thursday: I had an appointment with my parents to set up a retirement account, sadly the place we went was having computer issues, so it didn't work out very well. We went to a restaurant close by for lunch. I had a salmon wrap with soup. We learned as we were paying for the bill that you should always review your bill. I kinda already know that, something usually rings up wrong. I had gotten their lunch special of half a wrap and a cup of soup and then they charged me extra for the soup. We were supposed to go to Dollar Tree because I need to pick up some stuff, but that ended up not happening since we knew we had to go back on Friday when computers were working. I basically watched movies for the rest of the day.

I found some mail later, flat happy mail:

 pretty cute. The person who was sending to me I find always sends something good.
Friday: Went back to the place and got my retirement thing set up, and then my mother forgot we were going to Dollar Tree, so I didn't mention it. My boss had texted Thursday night asking if I could come to a meeting on Friday, so I went to that and then decided to shop a bit in our downtown area. I was commenting on Thursday about businesses with ice on sidewalks and my mom had said that a lot of businesses had ice because of the weather. I realize it was in the 20's on Friday, but a lot of their sidewalks were dry, meaning they didn't have any on Thursday. Anywho, I was commenting how people weren't clearing their sidewalks. I'm so tired of it taking me twice as long to get anywhere, because people don't clear their sidewalks. I realize it's cold and won't be melting any time soon, but I've also seen instances where people have used ice melt and cleared off their sidewalks, or use ice scrapers to clear off sidewalks. It's almost been a week since we got this ice, there is no excuse to not have things cleared off. The grocery store I go to, I have to complain all the time and ask them to clear off their north and west sidewalks because they are mostly ice covered. I feel I do this every year.
Anywho, went into quite a few stores and didn't find anything I wanted, and then I went into HyVee Drug and I was looking around, found a few Easter things and then saw they had a bunch of Surpriseimals blind bags left over from Valentine's Day, so I bought them all:

 And some chocolate, some chai mix and some airheads.
I really like these blind bags (I like blind bags in general), these are tiny stuffed animals, plus I can still send them in my mail groups if I don't like them. The Snickers looked good, they weren't really that interesting. I needed more chai mix, I try to alternate between this one (the green tea) and the regular one. I'm always afraid if I drink too much, I'll get tired of the taste. I picked up the airheads cause they sounded good. I didn't realize they were sour until I got home. Found a few things in the mail when I got home.
This and that swap:

 Basically we had a list of stuff to pick from and sent what we wanted.
Destash tag:

 This was sent in a small priority mail flat rate box. I would have packed a lot more in it if I was sending it. I feel it could have been sent in a bubble envelope for less money. I'm not sure if I'll use any of this.
Craft supply swap:

 Basically our partner tells us what kinds of crafts they are into and they send us supplies to coordinate with them. I said I did paper crafting and hand sewing.
What's in the pack on the left:

 Aren't they pretty? I'm not sure I'll be able to open it and use them.
This is the item on the top, it's a sewing kit:

 Also, really cool, though I don't know if I'll actually use it. I shouldn't have said I was in to sewing, because my hand cramps up when I sew. I guess I was kinda hoping for decorative buttons. Oh well, my partner went overboard for me.
Saturday: I had to open at the library. It was kinda weird, our system went down. The public side was down for about an hour (the first hour we were open) and then our IT guy re-started it and that took about 10 minutes where we couldn't do anything. We also have our big book sale going on this weekend, so we're busy because of that. I love that we were busy, though. I hate when we're slow and I'm looking for things to do.
Due to the fact I didn't get to go Dollar Tree, I went up to Walmart and the mall to check out TJ Maxx.
Saw this display of clear bags:

 Thought it was pretty cool that there were so many styles. I wish I could show this to every person that doesn't bring a clear bag to my other job and just whines about it. Totally didn't notice that bra in the top right corner until I was editing the picture.

 bubble envelopes ($6), pipe cleaners ($1), paper shred ($2), packing tape ($9), double stick tape ($6).
I really needed tape, that's what spurned me to go to Walmart. I try to pick up a pack of the double stick tape every time I go to Walmart, but I was down to one pack and 3 rolls. I hadn't been shopping since the 3rd of February. I also needed some bubble envelopes, I try really hard not to buy envelopes, but people are not sending me stuff in this size of envelopes lately. Figured I'd pick up the clear tape because I haven't seen duct tape marked down anywhere lately, and the Dollar Tree tape rips really easily. That tape was the most expensive thing I picked up, I wonder how long it will last.
The green pipe cleaners and the paper shred are for a St. Patrick's Day swap.

 unicorn pouch ($1), Easter decoration ($2), Ritter chocolates ($5), Tim Tam cookies ($3), Pac Man blind bags ($3), Oreo bar ($2), peanut butter rabbit ($2), lemon rabbit ($2), and the black leggings I was wearing at that moment ($3).
I couldn't pass up that pouch for a buck, it was probably about $10 originally, thought I could use it in one of my groups, thought I could use the Easter decoration, too. I picked up the Ritter chocolates, because I hadn't seen them before, as well as the double chocolate Oreo bar. I picked up the Tim Tams because they are $3 something at Target. I couldn't pass up the Pac Man blind bags. The bunnies are for me. I spent about $60.
Stopped at the grocery store on the way home for milk and cereal, picked up a Mountain Dew, some peanut butter and some Chex mix. I made 10,000 steps while I was at the grocery store, and noticed the obnoxiously salted sidewalks when I left, I feel there will not be any ice on those for the rest of the season. I'm tempted to steal some of the extra salt and throw it on a couple of my neighbor's sidewalks. I ended up walking in the street to avoid some on my way home. And there was fun mail when I got home.
Grant a wish:

 I had asked for something minion. I don't even care that they are Christmas ornaments they are minions and you can't go wrong with those.
A RAK:

There was some miscommunication on what was to be sent for one of my swaps, so this was sort of a replacement.
I was so tired by the time I got home, that I just sat on my butt for the rest of the day.
I'm trying to be better and eat healthier, so I bought a bunch of salads the other day when I went grocery shopping. I've had one at least once a day since Wednesday. I'm kinda tired of salads. As you can read above, it's not like I'm going all healthy, but I thought if I substituted my normal mostly high in sodium frozen dinners with salads and vegetable mixes, it might help. The salads I pick up are personal size, so I know all the portions are for one person, normally they are $4, but when I pick them up they are close to their sell by date, so they have stickers that say $2 off. Of course on Wednesday when I was shopping, I picked up all those, and then just kept counting for how many I'd need for the week, and didn't notice that I had picked up regular priced ones. I will pay more attention next week. I have already eaten all the ones on sale, and am hoping the rest I have in my fridge won't go bad before I get to them. Also, if the weather ever gets nice again (I'm impatient) I'll be out walking more. I realize I went to less garage sales last summer, that will change this summer. I think it was because I was trying not to buy stuff, but it's better for me to go to garage sales because I get more exercise and even buying things at sales is cheaper than going shopping to Target and Walmart and Hobby Lobby. I'm tired of being over a certain weight,  so I need to try harder.

Shopping trip

Thursday: was long and cold. I was scheduled to work at the bookstore 9-5, it was pretty dead, I wanted to go home. I had plans to have supper with a friend afterwards, but it was really cold, we hit the high at 5AM of 18, it was -6 with a -14 degree windchill at 5PM, so we cancelled for the day. Got home and found a package waiting for me.

SMS Soft:

 A for effort, but I won't use it. It's a soft hat. I totally stayed in and read a book for the evening.
Friday: I closed at the library, it was pretty slow, probably because it was still cold. The high was 3.
Found an envelope on my way in to work.
Valentine's card:

 It was very sparkly, but I like the emoji heart stickers.
I also purchased a few books:

 I had the Jolly Postman when I was a kid, it was one of my favorite books. It had all these envelopes that you could open and take out the contents.
The top book I picked up for some of the things in it. Like this bookplate:

 And the title page, where the library punched out their library name:

 And the back pages with the check out card and library card pocket:

 I kinda wanna make a junk journal with it, but I'm not sure the pages will hold up, it was published in the 1920's.
Today, I went shopping. The 24th-26th was Downtown Dollar Days and I wanted to go on Friday, but most stores don't open until 10, and I had to be at work at 1, so with making time for lunch, I didn't want to squeeze it in. I headed out at 10, first stop was HyVee Drug. I was disappointed as they didn't have any dollar deals. I did pick up some chocolate for swaps:

 Lava cake kisses ($4), Russell Stover hearts (3 for $2).
Next up, I was going to go to a second hand store, but they have decided to go more clothing less other stuff and I don't really want vintagey clothing. I headed over to our British Foods store, but they were closed. I didn't go in to look at the sign that said why, I was so sad, I had been putting off going to it until today thinking they'd have some great deals.
After that, it was a store called Lindsey Loo's, they're supposed to be part consignment, part artsy, and part store that's rustic. I feel they're going back to their rustic roots lately.
They had a Christmas room with things half off.

 snowshoes ornament ($2) and snowman ornament ($2.25). I had to guesstimate on the prices. I know I spent $4.55, but she didn't give me a receipt. I was listening to my co worker talk to a patron yesterday and she was saying she liked to go snow shoeing. I picked up the snowman for a swap.
I went to a local kid's store next but again was disappointed because even though they said there was a sale corner where things were 70% off, I didn't see it. I also visited a local boutique that has Baggalini bags and local people's jewelry, but didn't find anything.
Next up, was Worldly Goods, a fair trade shop. They had a 50% off section.

 bag ($1), penguin ($5), elephant ($2.50), snowman ($6). I bought the bag for the snowshoes ornament above. The penguin is for me, the elephant might be for me or a friend (I haven't decided yet), the snowman for the swap.
Next, was a local flower and gift store, they just got these cute gnomes in for spring:

 They had their Christmas stuff 60% off, their sale cellar 50% off the lowest price and 20% off everything else in the store.

 hedgehogs ($2.10), pig planter ($4.20), book ($2), lamb ($2), tree ($4.80), flamingo ($5.80), snowflake ($4.20).
I picked up a hedgehog, the planter, and the lamb for me. The other hedgehog was for a friend. Figured I could use the tree, flamingo and snowflake for swaps and the book is for Mother's Day.
Last stop was a pop up store by a local antique company. There were a bunch of people in it. It kinda made me wish we had an antique store again.

 elves ($1 each), bag of misc ($5), jar of misc jewelry ($3), bag of magnets ($5), fish box ($2), glass butterfly ($1), pin ($2), hedgehog ($1).
I thought the elves were just wicked cute. There were a couple things in each of the misc bags, you'll see those below. I should have left the fish box behind, but it was the first thing I picked up, it was cute, so was the glass butterfly, I actually have a collection of these little glass figurines.
Here's what I liked from the bag of misc:

 I actually picked it up for those two glass monkeys, but I think that wooden boot is just neat.
jar of misc jewelry:

 Totally picked it up for the wooden elephant, but how cute is that whale pin and the pinecone pin?
The bag of magnets:

I love magnets, I wanted it for the butterfly and bird ones. I was happily surprised with the two Iowa ones and the Charleston one. This is the second time I've found a Charleston magnet in a random bag of stuff.
I think it was a good shopping trip. It was a little cold, but I dressed for the trip, so I was more warm than cold. I think my favorite finds were the hedgehogs and the magnets. My refrigerator is so covered with magnets right now, I need to start getting rid of some.

Collective Haul

I feel like I'm always catching up on here. So, let's start with a facebook swap. One of my Facebook groups is called Random RAK (Random Act Of Kindness). We send our partners a minimum of $15 worth of things each month. My package took a little side trip on its way to me. It got to Des Moines (it's about an hour away) and then decided to travel to PA and then came back to Des Moines and back to me.

I finally got it on the 28th and I love everything that's in it:

Heart shapes, stickers, stuffed animal, buttons, flowers, gel pens, and some more stickers.

We had decided to put together Valentine's packages for each other. I love everything, I'm a little bummed that she gave me the hot air balloon stickers since I just bought them the day before. Oh, well they're still cute.

This week, the weather's been weird again. It was in the 50's on Monday, Wednesday I walked outside and it was snowing. It's been blowing and cold-ish the rest of the week. Today, we're supposed to hit the 60's, so I went shopping. I went down to Walmart and Target to see what they had for Easter stuff.

First up, Walmart:

 stickers, toothbrushes, gift bag, Easter scatter, stuffed animal, plastic necklaces, chapstick, chocolate.
Of course, they didn't have the cool stuff I've seen on people's haul videos, but I did find some cute stickers, a set of plastic necklaces and the table scatter. I thought it would be neat to cut up the necklaces and use them as a banner for the Happy Easter on the top of a pocket letter. The toothbrushes I picked up for my trip over the middle of March. I didn't need that many, but the whole pack was $1, that's better than I'm gonna find at the Dollar Tree, so why not. The gift bag is for my friend's birthday on the 28th, and it was $0.98 cents, so cheaper than the Dollar Tree again. I just loved the dinosaur, I didn't find anything else I wanted for me in the Easter section, so I picked him up, because I totally need another stuffed animal, I could just enjoy it until the end of the month and pass it on to my friend. For some reason when I go out, I always seem to go about lunchtime, I was in the checkout lane and the chocolate just looked good. I decided to give the Godiva to my friend, the Hershey's is for me.
Next up, Target:

Chocolate, mushroom, gel pens, tags, rub ons, stickers.
I'm wanting chocolate lately. I didn't get down to the after Valentine's sales, so I guess I just want some. I picked up the mushroom because it will match my gnome I got last year for my desk at work. I can't pass up gel pens, the metallic ones I got about a year ago are running a bit low. I picked up these tags mostly because of the cute little clear pockets they are in. These rub ons are the only ones I really liked. I really wanted the two wide washis, but there was no washi in my Target dollar spot, typical. I picked up the foam stickers because they were springy, I thought I could use them for a long while. The chocolate was $3.50, the gel pens were $3, and the foam stickers were $5, everything else was $1.
Next I went over to the Dollar Tree to see if they had any interesting Easter stuff since Monday, of course they didn't. I wandered over to JoAnn's hoping they would change out their Valentine cheap section to Easter, but they still had Valentine stuff out at 70%, so I didn't buy anything there. As I was walking towards home, I saw a girl scout table, and I've wanted some, so I picked some up:

 A box of Thin Mints, the new S'mores, and a bag of gluten free.
I love Thin Mints, I saw the S'mores on their website, I'm not sure I'll really want a whole box. I picked the bag of gluten free because I work with people who are gluten free, though now I'm really tempted to open them and eat them. My boss's stomach is very sensitive, so if I take them to work, I can't open them until she's tried them.
I tried to spend money at our Asian food store, but I couldn't find anything I wanted to buy. So, I went to HyVee to find something interesting for lunch.

Chocolate, chai, chicken wrap

Once again with the chocolate, I remembered I was low on my morning chai, so picked up some more of that and some lunch.

I also stopped at the grocery store on the way home.

Karlene will get a kick out of this, I was almost home and thinking to myself that I wasn't going to go shopping for at least a month (except for my trip to Chicago), that I didn't need anything and realized I forgot to pick up mouthwash. I planned to pick some up at the Dollar Tree, because mouthwash is expensive. UGH! Story of my life sometimes