Happy new year

Thursday: after my shopping excursion, I found some happy mail waiting for me.

Winter happy mail:

 I've already used the felt mittens and one of the bags. I attempted to use the temporary tattoos on something, but of course it didn't work. I love the penguin gems.
Friday: I closed at the library I actually had to work a 6 hour shift because of the weird week. I was thinking after I got home that Fridays wear me out and then I realized it's because the other days I work (M, T, W), I sit a lot. Fridays and any weekends I work I walk around the library a lot more. I feel a 5 hour shift of standing/walking around should not wear me out.
My dad had commented at Thanksgiving that he wanted some cookie butter, so I picked some up for him at Trader Joe's on the 13th when I had my fun day with my aunt. When I was at Hyvee on the 23rd, I found some there for like $6, when I was in Fareway on Friday I found this:

 I didn't realize it was so popular everywhere. Now, the one above and the one at HyVee is a different brand than the Trader Joe's one, but it's nice to know I can buy it locally if I want to. I've never actually tried it, so I won't need to buy it.
Found some mail when I got home.
Wish for cute pens:

 These are colored pens, not what I would consider cute. I was thinking ones decorated with unicorns or have neat caps or something like that.
Keychain tag:

 This came from Australia, and she included the cute magnet as an extra. Love it.
Saturday: I had no plans. I was going to go to a coffee meetup, but then when I realized it was the first day I had all to me since the 15th, I decided to just be lazy at home.
I made a snowflake pocket letter:

 I put together a few tags.
Wish for pens:

 Surprise tag:

 And received some mail.
wish of cute pens and something chocolate and surprise tag.

 Again with the not cute pens. Also, I guess I should stop asking for chocolate, last time someone sent me a big Hershey's kiss, this time I asked for not Hershey's and I get hot chocolate, which is chocolate, but not what I wanted. The surprise tag is the lip balm at the bottom, it's very fragrant.
Send me something unique:

 I originally thought these were for the magnet tag, as they are magnets. But, then I did some investigating and figured it was the SMS unique tag. I love them.
I also finished a Christmas explosion box that I started shortly before Christmas:

 Sunday: I did laundry early and got it done before I had to go to work. The library was weirdly quiet and annoying chilly. Apparently the boilers decided to stop working Friday afternoon for some strange reason. It actually wasn't too bad, I dressed a little warmer than usual because I was cold on Friday (though I didn't know about the heat issue until I went in on Sunday). Other departments were much colder because we have a lot of windows in the new building. We got an email suggesting to dress warmly for Monday as well.
Monday: I wore the penguin sweater I had gotten on the 27th. I felt very furry, but I had a few people tell me they thought it was nice. These were random patrons that I didn't know, so figured it was actually pretty cute.
Found some mail when I got home
wish:

 it said wish for something fun, but it was supposed to be for something else, these are fun, too.
destash:

 Not usually what I get for destash, but I like the cactus stickers.
wish for tea:

these smell amazing and I'm excited to try them.
I finished my last book for 2018: Heartland about a lady growing up poor in Kansas. It was good, it was just really dry. It took me like 4 days to read it and it was less than 300 pages. I could tell the difference today when I started another book and got through 200 pages pretty quickly. My plans for the evening were not exciting: Swanson fried chicken dinner with sparkling apple pear juice. I did stay up barely to midnight and went to bed.
Tuesday: I woke up to a text from my mother saying Happy New Year. My phone is on do not disturb until 9AM because people bother me too early, I should just start putting it on silent when I want to sleep in. Her text came in at 9:09, I was still asleep, but couldn't go back after that so got up.
Totally slacked off today. I knew it was January 1st, but totally forgot I had to pay my rent until about 5, I was not the only one who forgot about it.
So, in theory, I'm at the bookstore next week. I say in theory, because I haven't heard back from them, yet. Which is really annoying, they said we had to send them our schedule by December 10th and I haven't heard anything since then. I ran into someone else at the library on Sunday that works there, too, and she hasn't heard anything either. They're running very late this year. Supposedly I signed up for training next Tuesday. I actually had to revise my schedule today, because I forgot I had switched a Jan Sunday for Dec 30 to help a co worker out. That makes it so I work a Friday I thought I had off. I felt kinda bad, and then not so much, because they hadn't gotten back to me with a schedule yet. I feel you can't ask someone to give you their schedule so far out and then not get back to them for three weeks and expect nothing to change. I'm hoping to see an email tomorrow, but I guess we'll see.

It's the end of the week...almost

And I am ready for it. This week was only a 41 hour week compared to last week that was a 52 hour week. I was thinking it was less, apparently when I'm really tired my brain doesn't work as well.

Thursday was a 12 hour day, basically I got up, went to work, came home went to bed. Today I only had to work 4 hours and the temperatures were in the 40s. It was my last day of work at the bookstore, so I went shopping. My first stop was Walmart:

 Choco waffle chips ($2.50), gummy minions ($1.50), marshmallow lollipop ($1), which technically isn't a lollipop, it's just a marshmallow on a stick. I have already eaten the waffle chips and they were good, but I'm not sure they were $2.50 good, also the minion gummies taste like fruit punch, they are soo good. Side note: it was lunchtime, and I hadn't had lunch yet.

 Minion blind ball ($1), double stick tape ($5.84), duck tape ($1), stuffed heart ($0.97), Disney metal toys ($2), owl sticky notes ($0.97), Hello Kitty blind bag ($1), Squish-dee blind bag ($1.50).
I tell myself I have to pick up a pack of double stick tape everytime I go to Walmart, I have run out in the past, so this rule has saved me lately. I put the minion, hello kitty and squish-dee blind bags as well as the Disney toys in my Advent calendar for December, and I want to open it all right now. I had a chocolate stuffed strawberry in my basket to buy as well, but it was $2.98 and the heart was only $0.97, plus it's green and has glasses. I feel every time I pick up duck tape from the clearance aisle, it's never marked down, this was marked at $1, but rang up at $3.97, this is the third time this has happened at both the Walmarts here. When I went to get my money back, they had to approve it, that annoyed me, it was their fault it wasn't in the system correctly and now I have to wait for you to make sure it's ok.
Here, the Target, Walmart and Dollar Tree are very close, so I try to go to them all at once. So, my second stop was Target, I had gift cards from Christmas, so technically everything was free.

 dark chocolate pretzel sea salt bark thins ($4), minion marshmallow pop ($1), fries before guys marshmallows ($1.99), Sparkling Ice water 3 bottles ($0.85 each), Merci chocolate ($4.99), Oreo bars ($0.89 each). The bark thins were my friends fault, we were in the chocolate aisle and the bigger bag was the same price as the smaller bag, so I bought one (and I was hungry and there was pretzels). I seem to really be liking marshmallows lately, so I picked up the minion marshmallow and the 'french fries' marshmallows. I had the cartwheel savings for the sparkling ice, so I picked up a few of those. I thought I had a cartwheel for the merci, I didn't but the holiday ones are always cheaper than the ones in the regular aisle. I love the oreo bars.

 unicorn bandaids ($1), gift bags ($3), Spritz chipboard stickers ($4.99), pocket pages ($4.99). I love decorated bandaids, I don't like band aids, so if I have to wear them they might as well be fun. I love these gift bags, there were 8 for $3, four designs, two of each. I totally jumped on the bandwagon for the chipboard stickers. And the whole reason I went was to get the pocket pages, I was supposed to get them last time I went.
Last stop was Dollar Tree:

 Love bug, glitter sticker, hand cream, foam shamrocks, lip balm, card. I have the pink version of this bug already, and when I'm stressed I apparently need to buy stuffed animals, so I might as well get the cheap ones. Saw these glitter stickers, they are soo cute (there's a better picture down below), I love these hand creams, I don't use hand cream, but I needed a hand cream/lotion and a lip balm for a swap. Someone sent me one of those foam shamrocks in a swap and I used it on a tag and was so bummed I used it. I love the hot air balloons on this card, I realized I have a Valentine's gift bag with hot air balloons and thought I should use them on a pocket letter.

 Squeesh yum minis, white chocolate bear, glitter stickers. I've seen people haul these, and I put these in my advent calendar as well.
Here's a better look at those stickers:

I hadn't seen anyone haul them, and they are wicked cute. I was hoping to find more of those name brand stickers, but I certainly don't need more stickers. And these were hidden in the check out aisle.
I know I don't need to be shopping, but when all I do is work, I need the release of shopping. I'm thinking of going to our other walmart and TJ maxx this weekend, I also have to return something to Kohls as well.
Tomorrow, I still have 9 hours of work, but I have a nice 4 hour break in between.

I am so tired of cold. The high today was 5. When I got up it was -5 with a windchill of -28. Yesterday my mother told me it was 27 in Alaska. Tomorrow the high is in the 20's and we finish the week in the 40's, I'd be happy if we stayed in the 20's-teens.
I'm also tired of standing, last week I worked 52 hours, most of those on my feet. Yesterday, someone yelled at me, I don't get paid enough for that. I had a pretty nice weekend, I got home early on Saturday, had Sunday off, I didn't even go outside on Sunday. Monday the high was -1, that's not a high to me. It was very hard to motivate myself to go outside. It was hard to get up this morning and go outside. But, I had something cool waiting for me when I got home from work. Last week I ordered some handmade pumpkins from Kimberly Laws.

 Close-ups:

 How cute is that doily pieces and the yo yo? It's a very light green fabric.

 I love that beaded flower on the right.

 Loving the doily on the top

 The stem on this one is covered in a beaded piece. The actual pumpkin is made out of a mesh with black sequin leaves all over it.

 This one has some shiny pearlized leaves and a stick pin on it.

There was also this grouping of three tiny ones, the two back ones are velvety.

Long Week

And it has felt very long. Basically, all I've done is get up, go to work, come home, go to bed, repeat.
Sunday was the start of a new Screw it and do it challenge on one of my facebook groups, here's Sunday's creation:

I wanted to sign up this time around to make myself create something even though I was wicked busy. This one is in my notebook.

That's all I did on Monday. I worked an 11 hour day.
Here's Monday's SI&DI creation:

This is another page of my notebook.
Tuesday, I didn't work until noon, it was nice to sleep in but I misjudged my timeline and had barely any time to eat lunch, this was an 8 hour day.
Here's Tuesdays SI&DI creation:

Another page of my notebook.
Wednesday: I opened at the library, went to the post office to mail swaps, that I don't remember what they were (that's pretty sad). I went grocery shopping on the way home and had to work a basketball game that night. My feet just hurt so much at the game, I was glad to be at a slower door. This was a 9 hour day.
Here's Wednesday's SI&DI creation:

This one is a decorated vellum bag.
Thursday, I did the same thing as Monday. This was my longest, a 12 hour day. Thankfully, I got to sit a lot at the library that night. Weird thing was that my feet didn't hurt near as much as they did on Wednesday. We had some interesting weather, they predicted blizzard like conditions. We got lots of wind, some heavy snow periods and very cold temperatures, which was a big 180 from earlier in the week when we hit 44.
Here's Thursdays SI&DI creation:

This one is a mini loaded bag I made for a swap.
Friday was another shorter day with only 9 hours. I opened my mail that I received on Thursday, year-round paper clips:

 February calendar tag:

 Alphabet tags:

 I stopped off at the grocery store to get some pickles and milk. I took a bath and used up a LUSH bath bomb someone gave me for Christmas, I wasn't impressed. I've decided I just need to accept the fact that people are not going to ask if you use bath stuff, beauty stuff, planner stuff, religious stuff and so much other stuff before sending it to you in a swap and I just need to accept it and be happy that they sent me something.
I also created for the SI&DI challenge:

This will probably become a card. It's just a single paper right now.
I spent the rest of the night watching ER and catching up on the computer.
Saturday: I was scheduled to work 10-4 at the bookstore. I again appreciated being able to sleep in. I got to the store a little early, so I shopped:

I thought that small canvas would be fun to send to a crafter, I think that's how we all feel about our washi tape. I wanted some chocolate, so I picked up the 'chocolate' rocks. I saw this little book on one of their displays. Basically it's a book of quotes and neat artwork. I kinda want to cut it up and use it for an inspirational explosion box.

It was wicked slow and then the lights started going off (apparently someone accidentally flipped a switch they shouldn't have). I went to take my lunch break at 12:15, and my boss said I could just go home because it was so slow, so I went to Hobby Lobby to spend some money.

 I saw some cool displays throughout, cactus:

 flowery:

 unicorns:

 I also saw these sticker books, they kinda look like Paper Studio's version of the Mambi sticker books, they were $20 each.

I saw on one of my facebook groups that it's national sticker book and Hobby Lobby had their stickers at 40% off. There were a couple interested me, but I thought I'd wait until their paper studio stuff was 50% off, not that I need more of anything.
Here's what I picked up:

 Some tiny zip top bags, rosette stickers, pack of 50 sheets of 8.5x11 paper, some retro stickers, a couple of sticker books.
I needed the bags for goodies, I just liked the rosettes. I don't need more paper, but I loved the top paper. There were 50 sheets, 48 were originally priced at 44 cents and two at 59 cents, so great deal, but I really have to stop buying paper and stickers. I love the retro looking stickers.
This is the Months of the year sticker book:

I love the images on this.
 And the 100% girl sticker book:

 The images on this one match the Pink Parisian paper pad, sadly the colors do not.

 White thicker stickers, a snail, a couple rolls of Finding Nemo duck tape (these were marked at $1, from $6.99. I always need duct tape), decorative bags, tags, cupcake pics, washi.
I like the thicker phrases, and fell in love with the snail. I saw people hauling the bag set and the washi set, so I picked them up, I don't think the bags have to be for Valentines day. Love the flamingos on the tags. I thought the heart pics would be cute as ephemera.

 Burlap hearts, monster stickers, gem hearts, stickers, foam hearts, felt stickers.
The Valentine's stuff was 40% off as well. I may have gone a little overboard, but I really like everything I bought and will probably use it all. I picked up the foam hearts because I have to make a heart shaped flip book, I don't have any reasons for the rest of it.

Here's today's SI&DI creation:

 Another decorated vellum bag.
I also finished up the mini loaded bag:

I'm trying to catch up on YouTube videos, but that rarely happens without watching all day. I also have a book I need to finish by next Wednesday. I was originally scheduled to work tomorrow, but my boss at the bookstore said they were over scheduled, so she took me off. I know I shouldn't be happy about getting hours cut, but I need a day off, I've been working over a week without one. I forget every time to schedule a day for myself.

It's Sunday

Sunday: Today was my shortest workday for the week. I worked a couple hours at the wrestling meet, though it felt way longer than two hours it was so dead. It's my usual laundry day, I chose to wait until I got home from work to start. I tried to catch up on Youtube this morning, and did my Screw it and Do It challenge for one of my facebook groups. We have to craft for 10 minutes, I wanted to make sure I did it this time because I'll be so busy for the next two weeks:

I'm seriously thinking about moving now. Just something that happened at work makes me seriously think about moving. I kinda wishing I was dating some guy who got a job somewhere else and I chose to move and go with him, that would make it much easier.
It was gorgeous out today (compared to the last two weeks of double digit below zero days) we hit 34. So, I decided to walk home from the match. One of my co-workers was doing the same thing, so I walked along with her until she had to turn. And then my feet started hurting and I got tired, so I rode the bus home, I think I walked about half way home. I was a little apprehensive to walk home. Last time I did, was back in August after a long day at the bookstore and just missing my bus. I got home and had spotty vision as well as tingly arms up to my biceps. I was kinda scared that would happen again. I stopped off to get some pop and some chai for tomorrow morning on my way home. I started my laundry and did the above piece.
My landlord got a new washer and dryer a few weeks ago. I've been noticing white residue on my black clothing pieces when I'm taking them out of the washer. I've never put them in to the dryer with the residue, I just run them through the wash one more time before drying them. When I googled the issue, apparently it's an issue of too much detergent in new machines and not enough rinsing. I have less than 10 tide pods left over, so I guess I'll be making sure I push the extra rinse button until I finish them up. I just hate having to wait so long for the laundry to be done. I started at 3:30 today and finished at 8:30 for two loads of laundry.
I spent the rest of my day reading and trying to catch up on youtube. I usually don't catch up on youtube at RUSH time.

Happy New Year!!

I hope it's happy. Yesterday certainly wasn't, but let's start with Thursday, because that's where I left off. I read that book I said I would: Paths to Happiness: 50 Ways to Add Joy to Your Life Every Day. I didn't learn a ton, I knew a bunch of the stuff would add happiness. I found a bill in my mailbox on the way to work. I don't remember anything of note happening at work. We were slower than normal, I'm not sure if it was because of the cold, or the holidays or what, but I got a lot done.
Friday, I didn't go outside until I had to work that night. I read another book, Quiet Power: The Secret Strengths of Introverts. That was kinda interesting. I had to work the game that night, and it was cold. I had my scarf, hat and gloves on, and I had to keep switching hands because my fingers were getting so cold. I got a hot dog on my way out and a co-worker gave me a ride home. I love it when people are nice. My mom always makes it seem like a big chore to help me out with anything and then brings it back later on. My co-worker gave me a ride to Fareway and then waited while I bought my milk and gave me a ride home.
Saturday, I had to open at the library, it was slow again. Sadly, standing in front of the door is cold, not as cold as working the games, but still chilly. I had a couple errands to run on my way home and ran into my mom. She did give me a ride to my errands and home. She said I looked really cold, even though I didn't really feel it, but I won't say no when the temperature is - and feels even colder with the windchill. I started a pretty thick book that I didn't finish until Sunday. I basically spent the rest of the day reading that book.
Sunday, I finished the book, Curators: Behind the Scenes of Natural History Museums. It was 348 pages, it was also bigger than a regular book. It turned out to be my last book read of 2017. I read 61 bigger books, and 44 small books (what I don't consider in depth reading, more kids easy books). One of my goals for this year is to read more. I found that when the world annoys me and gets to me it really helps my mood to just disappear into a book.
As I'm getting ready for work, the zipper on my coat breaks. A couple of the little teeth broke off and the actually moving zipper foot popped off. I was freaking out, because I was supposed to be at work very soon and I didn't have a coat. I borrowed my roommate's and wore two coats to work. I also found out that our catalog and email were down and texted my boss about it, so we got the catalog up so a lot of people wouldn't freak out at home and call us about it. Work was slow, again, which was fine for me, Sundays are usually wicked busy. I didn't realize how much I use the email at my work. I got a ride home and did laundry all night. My mom said she has a coat I can borrow for the week, because it's still gonna be wicked cold for the week. It was an exciting New Year's Eve. I bought a replacement coat online which should get here sometime next week. I finally gave in and went to bed about 11 when my laundry was done.
This morning I 'fixed' my coat, sorta. I got the zipper pull back on the zipper and I can zip up and down the zipper if I'm not in a hurry. It works and will be a nice backup, but I think if I'm in a hurry it won't work and get locked up. I'll still borrow my mom's coat because I have to rush off to catch a bus home a few days.
Another thing I want to do this year, is spend less on crafting stuff, which was really hard this morning, when Peachy Cheap said their deal was a mini grab bag. I did go to the web site, but as I'm sitting there staring at it, I decided not to hit the check out button. I seem to like the larger grab bags, but I've not really used any of the stuff I got in the Black Friday bag, so why buy more I might not use? Even though that's the whole reason I signed up for Peachy Cheap. I seem to buy a lot of stuff and never use it, so I'm *trying* to not buy so much crafting stuff.
I don't usually make a lot of New Year's resolutions because I'm so good at not following through. I hope I can follow these, though.

a couple hauls

I meant to post on Monday after going shopping but life never happens like you mean it to. I'm not religious, but I've always loved this saying: If you want to hear God laugh, tell him your plans.
Anyway, I guess this will kinda be a weekly checkin.
Sunday: I had to work at the library at noon, it was actually kind of quiet. We didn't have anything going on, not near as many people seemed to be there, the weather was nice. There was a little rush at about closing, but there's always more people at closing on the weekends.
Monday: I finished some swaps.
A flamingo and pineapple pocket letter:

 I also decorated some paper bags for a destash swap:

 I like this one. I love all the embellishments I added to it.

 This one, I didn't really know how to decorate it, so it's rather plain.
My parents asked if I wanted to go to supper with them. I always have to figure out whether or not the free meal outweighs how much they will annoy me at supper. I took this picture to compare the differences in serving proportions:

 I had gotten the special of butternut squash ravioli and got 5 ravioli, my dad got a calzone and it was huge. They were also rather slow. I got a cannoli to go, and it wasn't that great when I got around to eating it, I probably will not go back there.
We were very close to an Asian food store, so I wandered over there before we left, I found this guy on a window on my way over:

 I really shouldn't go in to the Asian food stores, I always end up spending way too much money and half the things I don't end up liking.
 It was basically green tea everything.

Green Tea Mochi ice cream, I've had a few of these and I don't find them too flavorful, I think I need to let them warm up a little before I decide I don't like them. The wafer thing was like a square sugar cone with chocolate and green tea ice cream, I liked that one. There's another green tea ice cream mochi on the top, I haven't tasted this one yet. Green tea kit kats, I love these. Green tea cakes, there's too much cake and not enough green tea in these.

 Milk cake, they are kinda like a fig newton in the cake part and the inside kinda reminds me of mochi, it's not creamy like it looks like. The bags with faces on are like giant cocoa puffs. I've already finished one bag. Raspberry kit kats, love these too. The only thing I don't like are the bags are $5 each. Banana cream cereal sticks, these are strange but kinda good. It's like cereal on the outside and a banana cream on the inside, I wish the outside was sweeter.
Tuesday: I watched TV all day. It was a good day.
Wednesday: I opened at the library and then did my errands. It was a pretty good day. It's funny the week before I had a great Tuesday, too, and then on Wednesday, someone on Facebook annoyed me, same thing happened this week. It's my art swaps and how I seem to get a lot of people sending out late or not really putting any effort into the swaps.
Today, I had to be at the bookstore at 8, I got up at 6:30, not feeling that great, I saw this beautiful sight at the police station:

 all the police SUVs lined up.
I continued to not feel so great at the bookstore, so I went home early. I found this box on my porch when I got home:

 It's my hollar haul. I'm not as enamored with them as some other people, the last few times I was on the website I didn't find anything I really wanted to spend my money on, but when I was on this time it was specifically for the coloring pads in this picture:

 I had seen someone on YouTube haul them, and I'm not a coloring person, but I thought they'd be fun for art, and you can't just buy those, so I ended up spending about $30. The paper pad was $1.50
Here are some close-ups of the insides:
DCWV color and create tags - colors and objects, $3

 DCWV color and create tags - nature designs, $3

cutout journal and photo album - vintage $3

some envelopes, stickers and clear acetate ephemera

The coffee cup stickers were $2, which is a bit steep, but I really wanted them. The scrapbooking stickers were 99cents.
 Close-ups:
Embellished journey envelopes and cards, 10 count, 99 cents

Embellished surf shop envelopes and cards, 10 count, 99 cents

 clear cut love shapes with glitter accents, 99 cents

 Family time clear cut shapes with glitter accents, 99 cents.

stickers:

Everything was 99 cents in this picture. The monsters are temporary tattoos, but I've seen people use them in crafting stuff.
I also picked up a few stuffed animals:

The owl and the monster were both $2, the bear was 99 cents.

I'm excited to get into these and start creating with stuff.