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.

Still waiting

Tuesday: Advent calendars:

I received the K&Company tag stack and the scissors in the swap, the gingerbread ornament and everything else I seemed to have gotten last year in swaps were from mine.

 I had a physical in the morning, and decided to just go up to the mall to see if I could find anything for my brother's girlfriend for Christmas.
I found this great gingerbread kit at Walmart, my brother would love it:

 What I did get at Walmart:

 Mystery ornament, Lucky tin blind bag, Reese's pretzels, Turtle Chex mix, chocolate bar, and a monster. I put the mystery ornament, the blind bag and the monster in my Advent calendar for next year. Figured I'd give the chocolate to my brother's girlfriend.
I was also looking for some long sleeve shirts:

 red sweatshirt, it says instead of gift giving, I'm giving everyone my opinions, it was cheap so I got it, the middle one is really fuzzy and has a sugar skull on it, I think it's a junior's size, because it's a bit short, and the last is just a red/black baseball style shirt.
I needed a long sleeve red or white shirt for work. I found some at Walmart, but not in my size. Found this one at JC Penney's

 It was more than I wanted to spend, but it was the only one I could find in my size.
Next stop was Claire's, I was looking for more blind bags for my Advent calendar.

 The ghost was on clearance from Halloween. I put the erasers in my Advent calendar. I needed an eye mask for an upcoming trip.
Next up was TJ Maxx, thought I could find something there.

 I found the unicorn bag in the checkout aisle, it's filled with chocolate that I will take to work. The box of chocolate I also found in the checkout aisle, I was doing so good at not buying chocolate as I had just bought a box at Chocolaterie Stam the other day. I picked up the gift bag for a friend. The cactus notecard set I just couldn't pass up, and I needed the drain strainers.
My last stop was Walgreen's:

I put the Tokidoki and the two cat blind bags in my Advent calendar. The Ooey Gooey cakes are so good, they were the whole reason I went back, I wanted more, but they only had one of each. Also love peanut butter twix. I couldn't pass up the giant Nerds figure.

I also picked up a Jimmie John's sandwich for lunch. My doctor did say I needed to eat more fruits and vegetables.

I put together a wrapped flat item when I got home:

 And received a Christmas card in the mail:

 Along with my International Blessings box:

 Not happy with it. The reviews said last year's Christmas box was much better. The bell looks and sounds like a cow bell. The owl is cute, I just don't know what to do with it. I'll be sending the bicycle to a friend. I need to make sure that this box doesn't renew at the end of the 6 months.
Wednesday:

 The Woodstock figure and, the felt envelope and the ticket washi is from mine. The cutaparts, stickers and die cuts are from the swap. I keep hoping to get something really cool handmade, so far I've gotten 3 days with die cuts and one day of embellishments for the handmade items.
I had hoped to see my 12 Days of Christmas swap waiting for me when I got home, I didn't have any mail. Turns out my partner was sick and it should be mailed by the 12th.
I put together a Christmas package for a friend:

 I had a basketball game to work that night. Same shit, different day.
Thursday:

The snowman and washi are mine and the candle from the swap. I'll be passing the candle on to a friend.
I'm supposed to be heading out of town with my mom tomorrow to help make gingerbread houses. I can't figure out what to pack. It shouldn't be that hard, it's an overnight trip, it shouldn't be that much. I totally packed my Advent calendar items to open on Saturday. In theory I should have my swap package waiting for me when I get home. I spent the day sitting, as my feet were throbbing when I got home Wednesday night. I had another game tonight. It was kinda wild. It was one of the big ones, men's so crowds are much bigger. We had to turn people away because we ran out of room, they weren't happy. We were afraid they might rush the doors, had an adrenaline rush from that. We also saw Andrew Yang, that was pretty cool. I knew he was in town as I had seen his bus earlier in the day at city hall.
Someone gave me a ride home because "It's way too cold to walk home" It was about 20 degrees, which to me is not very cold, but I wasn't going to say no when someone offers me a ride home, plus my legs/feet still hurt.

Koala Folder

Wednesday: Met up with my friend about 8pm, we went to eat at HyVee and checked out the new candy aisle.

 Raphael, Haribo, Dove Raspberry Rose, Bueno, Zoet. Total spent $14
We originally were going to go to Fresh Thyme, but it closed early, so we ended up at Walmart.

 pajama pants, yeti, Jigsaw, Jurassic Park, Christmas tags. Total spent $25.
I needed some pajama pants, saw someone pick these up in a haul on YouTube, love them. I coulda waited a couple days and got them cheaper, but I'm very glad I got them, they're very comfy if you're not going outside the next day. Found the yeti and tags in the Christmas aisle. Picked up the two DVDs cause I don't have them.
We exchanged goodies and I went home:

 Thursday: Did basically nothing all day, found some packages for me in the mailbox.
Die cuts:

 Halloween ATCs:

 I had gotten a postage due from this person last week for these, it's obvious she made new ones and sent them out, because I could feel how thick and not flexible they were (the whole point of the postage due).
I hate that. Every time I have a postage due and I refuse it, the person sends me something different. I've had about 4 or 5 things I'd love to see what they originally meant to send me. I don't get reimbursed if I pay postage due.
Fandom: Hello Kitty

This came from Amazon, of all the things there is on Amazon, she chooses stickers.
Friday:I woke up bright and early and decided to take care of my health insurance first thing, the website was having issues, so I went shopping. I went up to the mall, there was nothing I wanted in Walmart, so I headed over to Claire's

 Found this cute fairy bunny keychain for $7, turned out to ring up at $2.
Went to Spirit Halloween next. The sign said costumes were 25% off and other things were 50% off. I found this cute costume that I wanted:

 but it was still $33 on sale, I can't justify spending $30 on a costume at Walmart, I'm not going to spend $33 on something that's probably just as cheaply made at a different store.
I picked up a couple cockroach magnets and found a few more things while I was waiting in line to pay.

 I found a couple cool pens, some blind bags and the magnets. I ended up spending exactly $16. I overheard another cashier saying they'd love to come back next year, I murmured under my breath that we'd still probably have empty store fronts.
Last stop was TJ Maxx, I found this sign that I loved:

 I didn't want to spend $6 on it, because I thought it needed to look cooler.
I found some food:

 Pistachio Berry Blend, Mango fruit, dark chocolate bars, and some macaroons.
Also some other stuff:

gel pens, trivia cards, folders, invisible ink activity book.
The gel pens were 30 for $10, I got super excited for the trivia cards, but didn't read that they are sports related, I'll be taking those back. Also, how cute are those folders? there are cats and pandas and sloths as well. Total spent was $44.
I hurried off to the bus stop, thinking I might miss it as I got to the light late, but I was saved by a group of other people at the stop.
No mail. :( I tried the marketplace again, and it was still having issues, due to the stress of that, I couldn't relax all day. I'm having ice cream for supper.

Walmart and TJ Maxx

Monday: I lied, I didn't spend the rest of the day reading, I slacked off on the computer.

Tuesday: I put together a few things to mail.

Dollar Store:

 Surprise:

 Unicorn:

 Had a wicked hard time trying to figure out what to send for this tag. Finally settled on the sticky notes, I received them for a wish in this same group. I try to not send out things I've received in the same group, but I didn't really want to send out the unicorn tag I received from another group.
Purple crafting supplies:

 I didn't get any mail Tuesday or Wednesday, I hate no mail days. It makes me want to go shopping or sign up for more tags. It led me to sign up for a couple more swaps than I was planning to do.
Wednesday: I got a new guy at the post office, it's always fun when I get a new person that I've never interacted with before, I only had one package so not too much.
I spent the rest of Wednesday reading. I signed up for a book club that's meeting on the 11th, and I hadn't finished the book yet and I had said I'd go with my parents to visit my aunt on Friday, so I knew I needed to sit down and read it. It was weird. It's called White Tears. It starts with following this guy, Seth, as he travels through his town recording things going on on the street. One piece, a guy singing at chess and another guy playing a guitar. Later we find out he's really good friends with this rich guy, Carter and they live together in New York City where they have a music studio. Seth basically puts things together and Carter funds it. They do have to get a loan from Carter's brother Cornelius.  Carter puts the singing chess guy and the guitar guy together and messes around with it to make it sound like a record and puts it online. Some guy, Jim gets kinda upset when he hears it and says they had to have bought it somewhere and wants to meet and buy it. Jim gets more upset when he meets with Carter one night but Carter didn't bring the record. Carter goes off in search of some records to buy and gets the crap beat out of him and is in a coma. His family won't let Seth see him, Seth falls into a deep depression trying to get over this, in the meantime, Cornelius stops paying rent on the apartment they're living in and kicks out Seth and changes the locks at the music studio. Seth tries getting in touch with Jim who then tells him this weird story about traveling down south with a friend to find this record of the chess guy singing. Once his friend finds it, Jim can't remember what happens and they get back to New York and split up. His friend goes crazy and spontaneously combusts. Seth tells Carter's sister they need to go on this trip to follow Jim's footsteps to find the chess guy. Somehow, Carter's sister gets murdered and Seth gets blamed for it. As he's in the police station he goes back in time and becomes the chess guy being accused of killing some lady and then dying in a prison camp. This prison camp is run by Carter's grandfather who also helps to kill the chess guy. Seth goes back to the present and the cops find the guy who killed Carter's sister and Carter's family pays Seth off it forget the whole thing.  As Seth is bouncing around the country trying to find out what happened to the guy that killed Carter's sister, he somehow gets possessed by chess guy's soul and ends up killing Cornelius and Carter's parents and then goes to jail. It was wicked weird. I get an email about all these things I'm supposed to be thinking about for the book club and that we should come up with 3-5 discussion questions about the book. I'm not so sure I want to go anymore. I just wanted to see what other people thought about the book, I'm not that interested in homework before this meeting.
I had an email from the bookstore people when I got home on Wednesday, we'd been going around about my application, because the university switched over to a new payment system. They finally got it, but again they keep telling me I have to do stuff that I don't have to do. We do this every August. I'm at the events center at the university so I work throughout the year and am in the system, btu they always insist I have to go file paperwork to get in the system. They also asked me about my schedule, I was going to just ignore it for a day, but I filled it out.
Thursday: I had planned to go shopping, but didn't feel like going outside. I had a reply email from the bookstore and they basically scheduled me for every hour I said I was available. I always forget they do this. So, I am again working every moment there that I'm not at the library. I don't have a day off until Labor Day. Which also makes me not want to go to the book club. It's on the 11th,  my last day off until Labor Day and I have some errands to run that I won't be able to do otherwise.
I do this every time. I over schedule myself at the bookstore and then once I get the schedule I freak out. I did tweak my hours in January, I said I wasn't available until 9AM and didn't work weekends and then I got upset when I didn't have a very big check from them. This time I decided I wasn't available until 9, and I wasn't working after 5 except one day when I'm there for 6 hours on the first day of school and leave at 8. I had asked for vacation from the library, the first two days of school starting, but haven't heard back from my boss yet, I just decided if I get the time off I will just not work. I'll need the time by then. I did also say I wasn't available on Wednesdays, that's my errand day, otherwise I don't have time to go grocery shopping.
I found a few things in the mail on Thursday.
RAK:

 I don't really use memo sheets, but I like the Aladdin postcard.
Surprise:

 I'll be passing this on.
Wishes granted.

 I had asked for mini glue sticks and something handmade. I'm a bit bothered by this she said she had mailed it like 2 weeks ago and it just now showed up.
I did finish a blue/yellow pocket letter for a swap:

 This was challenging because I know I have more yellow items, but I couldn't find them. Also, you can see the top left card, I dropped the pocket letter on the floor and lost that blue paper, so I had to create another card that didn't really match.
Friday: I did go shopping. Chose to walk up to the mall and hit some garage sales on the way there.
First stop was one I'd gone to in the past, and they had a ton of stickers. Not so much this time.
The second stop turned out to be a collection of sales. I found the stress fish, but as I was about to pay the lady got a phone call and walked off inside. I was tempted to just leave the quarter on her stack of stuff and leave, but I waited.

 The red flowers and lady bugs were from the first sale, total spent: $1. The fish and stickers were from the second sale, total spent: 25 cents.
As I was crossing the street to Walmart, some guy in a van turned left when I had a walk light, so I flicked him off. I keep thinking I should buy an airhorn because people in cars don't really notice pedestrians flicking them off when they act like assholes.
A few weeks ago, my cousin said she'd dye my hair for me, but it didn't happen. Took some pictures of the color I'd like to have for her.

  

 Something in that color range. I miss having red hair, but I'm too afraid to dye my own hair.
The whole reason I went was to get shampoo and tape, they didn't have tape.

 Fruit snacks ($3), shower poufs ($1), Aloe drink ($2), shampoo ($2).
I picked up the fruit things for snack while I'm at the bookstore. Figured I'd pick up a shower pouf now because I probably wouldn't have time to pick one up before September. These Aloe drinks are pretty good.

 Chocolate ($4), pencil sharpener ($1), Lost Kitties blind bags ($3, and $2), Moj Moj blind bag ($2), Smushy Mooshy blind bag ($4).
They still had a ton of toys on clearance, I've learned it's easier to navigate the toy aisles at the north Walmart. Total spent: ~$24.
My second reason for going to the mall was to look at Bagallini bags at TJ Maxx, I wish I had a smaller bag that fit my wallet. I couldn't find one and I believe I just need a smaller wallet.

 donut shower curtain ($5), cheese snack ($4), peanut butter bites ($4), peanut butter cookies ($3 together).
I need a new shower curtain, the cheap ones at Walmart are $5, so finding a nice on at this price, I grabbed it. I picked up the cheese snacks for the bookstore and the others because I was hungry. I also picked up a Cherry Coke. Total spent: $20. My total was at $17 something and they asked if I wanted to donate for something, so I rounded up to $20.
I high tailed it to the bus stop and rode the bus home. Had to stop at the grocery store on my way home because I was supposed to get cereal, I realized I needed milk as well. Hit 10,000 steps before I made it home. My dad had said I should use the health app on my iPhone since the fitbit is based on how much you move your arms, and isn't really accurate. It does give me a lower number, but I don't always have it on me when I'm moving. Like when I'm at work, or just walking around my apartment. Again, if people would have just bought me a pedometer, but like always, they think they know what's right for me.
Found a few things in the mail.
Wacky Wednesday: soft:

 This was a re send because the first time she sent me random sticker sheets and handmade envelopes. It was supposed to be new. I like these, I'm just not sure how they fit with the theme of soft.
Kawaii:

 This one perturbs me a bit. I refused to pay postage on the first time she sent the kawaii tag, it was a parcel. She must've got it back and then decided not to send me the same thing. These are sticky notes mailed with one stamp.
Also, waiting for another swap I refused, or I feel it's one I refused. I had another item come as the same time as the above and I refused to pay postage on it, too, also a parcel. I'm still waiting to get that one.
I put together a back to school swap:

I had the pencils, colored pencils, notebook and pencil pouch already ready for this swap, figured I should send a pencil sharpener, so picked that up while I was at Walmart. Thought it was rude to send pencils but no pencil sharpener.
Took my shower and sat for the rest of the day. Tomorrow I plan to hit a couple sales and work, Sunday I'm pretty certain I won't be going to the book club because of errands I need to do before starting at the bookstore.