Fun with a friend

Friday: I read all day. Took care of a bunch of books, whether finishing ones I'd started or reading a few short ones. 

Saturday: Last basketball game of the season, I didn't realize how excited I was about it. It was raining when I left, and unfortunately a bit more slippery because I thought it would be easier to walk on but the sidewalks were still shitty. I almost fell when I left for work. I made it down the driveway and walked in the street to the bus stop, the streets were much nicer. Asked my mom for a ride home because I was afraid of it being bad. It was a lot better when I got home, it had stopped raining and stuff had drained so there weren't puddles everywhere. Found a package when I got home.

Quick Crafty swap:

 We had to send each other a couple crafting items, total of $3. I probably won't use the bows, but I really like those butterfly buttons.
Sunday: read more. I had opened all the surpriseamals and here's what I amassed:

 A bunch of the Dalmatians and koalas for the Valentine's ones, but also the extra surprise (hedgehog), pink bear, elephant, white bear, polar bear, and zebra, For the Christmas ones, I had double unicorns, a green penguin, a grey penguin, grey cat, owl, candy cane bear, and the extra surprise (silver moose), I also had a couple regular ones: the pink fuzz ball, and the multi colored dragon. I enjoy opening them and the mystery about what's in them, but I don't particularly enjoy once they're opened, so I won't be buying more.
Monday: It was icy again in the morning, asked my landlord about getting a bit more ice melt and they basically said, just wait it will all melt off soon.
Found some mail when I got home.
Washi swap:

 Wish for tea:

 And an empty envelope:

 It was supposed to be a Valentine's Day tag, when I posted it to the group, the person sending to me said it was supposed to be a keychain. I'm amazed how people think things like that can be mailed in a regular envelope and won't get damaged or jump out. If you send anything breakable, it should be in a bubble envelope.
Tuesday is always my catch-up on getting things ready to be mailed day.
Secret sister:

 She said she liked adult coloring books, colored gel pens, mermaids, blank cards, embellishments and buttons. She had mentioned somewhere that she didn't have very much washi. I think I did pretty good.
Butterfly swap:

 we had to send 10 die cuts to a partner.
Wish for Kawaii stickers.

 Wish for stickers:

 she said she liked Disney and cacti.
And I made a Taped up Thursday tag:

 We had to make a 4x6 piece of art with washi.
I actually had not signed up for any tags since Thursday. I felt so accomplished being done with a lot of my tags and swaps, I just didn't feel like dealing with the world. Also, I found out on one group if you get 12 people granting your wish, you have to grant 12 other wishes, I can't really afford that. So, I made sure the wishes from that group were all filled.
I did sign up for one tag, Pineapple:

This is a pineapple squishie from Dollar Tree.
I really wanted to go shopping on Thursday, but we were in a Flood watch from 1PM on Tuesday until 7PM on Thursday due to warmer temperatures and the forecast of rain until Thursday night. We were in a dense fog watch from 9PM Tuesday until 1PM Wednesday. Found a wet spot in the back of the library (staff area) and it will probably be there until we're out of the flood watch.
When I got home from work on Wednesday, Facebook was messed up. I like to post my mailing photos shortly after getting home on Wednesday so I don't have to worry about it later. It's amazing how annoying it is when things don't work. My mail from Wednesday.
Unicorn tag:

 I think it's a bit childish. I like it, but I hate that it's basically a kid's stuffed animal.
Wish for tea:

 These all sound interesting. I was very annoyed that Facebook wasn't working. I should have read a book, but I hate it when the world tells me what I should do. I'll read a book when I want to read a book. I basically wasted time on the computer and watching Youtube. 
Thursday was my day off. Read a couple books: Imbeciles by Adam Cohen about Eugenics and the laws about sterilizing people, and Working Stiff by Judy Melinek about a medical examiner and the things she encounters.
I found a wish granted of tea in my mailbox.

 Friday: Found a St Patrick's Day loaded envelope swap in the mail:

 A better look:

And a surprise tag:

 It's hit or miss on what I get on these tags, too. I'm not sure about signing up for them in the future.
Saturday, I finally got to go shopping. My original plan was to head out to Hobby Lobby, JoAnn's and the Asian food store and a few places downtown and then go home for awhile and then meet a friend and get some blizzards at Dairy Queen. So I went out to Hobby Lobby and found a few interesting things. These were all in the 'spring' section, I think they're supposed to go outside, but I'm not sure if I'd trust Hobby Lobby things outside.
A cute snail and sloth:

 Dragon:

 Hedgehogs:

Birds:

 My haul:

 ribbon flowers ($1 and $2 respectively), mermaid stickers ($2), purple trim ($1), charms ($1 each), frog garden stake ($2), charm ($3), washi ($3).
I totally waited too long and there wasn't a lot of clearanced items left. I found some in the decorate your own shirt aisle and picked up the ribbon flowers. The purple trim has flowers on it. All the paper studio stuff was 50% off, so I picked up these layered mermaid stickers and the washi. The washi has animals with flower crowns on them.

 Easter stickers ($2 each), resin bunnies ($2), eggs ($2), Christmas ornament ($1), fairy girl ($3).
I did want to wait until Easter stuff was 40% off because I wanted Easter stuff, but I wasn't going to pay full price for it. I try not to pay full price for anything at Hobby Lobby. I really liked these stickers. The bunnies in the middle are wooden with little fluffy tails. I really liked those bunnies on the right side, they had little flower wreaths. There were some resin lambs that I wanted to buy, but there was at least one where the paint was messed up on it in each package. I saw these bunnies and there was only one package, so I grabbed it. I liked these eggs and hope I have an Easter swap, I'd love to include them. I found this yeti thing ornament in the back in the regular clearance aisle and totally had to have him. I also just liked the fairy girl. I spent about $29 there.
Next up was JoAnn's:

 rosette stickers ($2 each), ribbon ($0.50 each), wooden pieces ($0.50 each).
I totally picked up the rosettes because I'm not good at making them and I figured I could easily put something over the top of them. I figured if I didn't use the ribbon, I could include them in swaps. I noticed after getting home that I wasn't charged for the owls on the right side. I spent about $12 there.
While I was in JoAnn's my friend texted me and said her daughter and her would be in town soon and did I want to go to a thrift store, I said sure.
Next up was the Asian food store:

 green tea Hello Panda ($7), strawberry corn snacks ($2), green bean cakes ($12), wafer roll ($2), corn snacks ($2).
I love Hello Panda, though I usually only see them in strawberry or chocolate, so it's fun to find another flavor. I didn't want to buy the large package, but there was no other choice. I've had the corn snacks before and picked up the regular flavor for a friend. I didn't know what those cake things are on the right side and when I got home, I found out I paid $11.99 for them, they better be damn good, I'm going to be very upset if they're not good at all. The wafer rolls just looked good.

 Lychee mochi ($4), wheat flour cakes ($7), coconut and mango jelly ($2), and chocolate cookies ($4).
I love mochi, and lychee sound great, when I opened the package, it smelled wonderful. The last time I bought wheat flour cakes, they were really good, these were a different packaging, but I thought I'd try it. I like the 'jelly', it's more like tiny containers of jello, they're really good. Spent about $42 there.
At that point, I had started home. After getting halfway there, I looked at my phone and noticed I had missed a text from my friend stating they were at the Asian food store, so I turned around and went back.
I met them at the Asian food store and we headed over to the thrift store, I didn't end up buying anything, my friend asked if I wanted to go anywhere else, I asked if we could go to the Dollar Tree, so we did.

 bandaids, nail art, strawberry muffin, giant whoopie pie, air fresheners, shower cap, sponges, more bandaids, hair ties, cards, croissant.
My Dollar Tree had just installed their Snack zone and they had a ton of good looking snacks, I wanted to load up on those, but I refrained and only bought two filled croissants (I ate one), a strawberry muffin and a giant whoopie pie. I'm running low on bandaids, and I know these aren't a great deal (though we found out at Target, they're a good deal for decorated bandaids), but if I have to have a bandaid on, I'm gonna have a cool one. I picked up the mini bow nail art for crafting stuff. I needed the air fresheners and the sponges and the hair elastics, I also picked up the shower cap for showers. I take a shower every night and my hair takes awhile to dry and it's only getting longer, so I thought I'd try wearing a shower cap. I also always seem to need blank cards. I've noticed I have a lot that people have made for me, but I don't want to part with them.

 stickers, squishies, pen, figurines, notebooks, tape dispenser.
I'm surprised there weren't very many stickers this time around. I love these squishies, one is a cat on it's back and the other is a sloth. Found this cute donut gel pen (though I didn't notice it was a gel pen until I got home). Thought these figurines were cute, one package has a fox, raccoon and hedgehog, the other has a frog, turtle and owl. Also, couldn't pass up these notebooks even though I certainly don't need more and how cute is that donut tape dispenser? I can't decide if I want to keep it or pass it on to someone.
Here's the packages of notepads:

 I totally got the top set for the sharks and found out there were octopuses in it as well. I love that second set. It's 'Be kind' with a deer, 'Be Brave' with a bear, 'Be wise' with an owl, and 'Be clever' with a fox. Spent about $28 there.
Next stop was Target.
Found these cute mugs:

 And some interesting Bob Ross games:

 My haul:

 Twinkies ($3), mug ($3), flag ($1), envelopes ($2), Tsum Tsums ($1.50 each)
I was curious about the taste of these limited edition Twinkies. I couldn't pass up the mug, it says 'Due to unfortunate circumstances, I'm awake' I only have two mugs that I use as mugs, I have quite a few I use as holders of things, but I loved this one. Had to pick up the flag, I'm going to put it in my mug at work and call it a pride flag. I needed envelopes. I have a box of these, but I can't find them, now I'll have enough for ever. I saw these Tsum Tsums at the checkout and totally picked them up, I found out later they were $1.50 each, normally $5.99. Spent about $14 there.
We decided while walking around Target that we needed food at that point, so we went to Dairy Queen and had lunch. It was about 3pm at that time.
We headed to Fresh Thyme next.

 Ok, we actually went to Petco first (cause it's right next door), I wanted to hold a guinea pig for a bit, but they didn't have any in. The guy I asked, said next week, maybe.
I found this egg custard pie at Fresh Thyme and really wanted to pick it up, but I didn't.
After getting done there, we decided to hit Staples and be done for the day.

Stickers ($1), pom pom keychain ($2), surprizeamals ($2 each), tags ($0.50), squishy ($1), stickers  and cards ($1.60)
 I haven't been to Staples in years, it's way down south and I just have no desire to go to anything by it, so I don't. We headed straight to the clearance section. I found out later I wasn't charged for the owl stickers. The pom pom keychain was just too cute for $2, and as we know I can't pass up the suprizamals, these were also $2, and I was so excited to find the guinea pig in one and the walrus in another. I thought the deer tags were cute. I love the octopus, though technically, it's a sticker. Also, owl stickers and llama cards. Spent $13 there and we headed home. Found some mail when I got home.
Rainbow happy mail:

 I'm disappointed in them. Not sure about this tag in the future, either. I'm also annoyed to see the postal date on the package, it said March 13th, but the person who was sending to me said she mailed it on February 25th.
Wish for patterned duct tape and tea:

I have so much loose tea, that it fills my special tin for it, so I think I'm done wishing for it for awhile.
I spent about $150 today, I feel I'm good with shopping for awhile. We never did get those Dairy Queen blizzards, so we're going to hang out again in the future some time.

Tater tots

Sunday: I got a few things ready to mail.

National Old Stuff Day:

 Anything that's old, so I went with some vintage book pages, vintage cards and I included a vintage flower pin.
Wish for metal dies:

 Since people just keep sending them to me, I keep having to get rid of them.
Use what you get:

 We have to send a die cut to a partner and then use the die cut we receive to make a card.
wish for sticker destash:

 washi swap:

 Got my laundry done before work. Due to it being Sunday and book sale day, we were busy. I kinda felt like no one listened to me at work. Not my co-workers at least, I just might know something that would help in some situations, that was frustrating. When I got home, my door wouldn't let me in, the locks in this place have a tendency to hate me. I should have read some books when I got home, but I slacked off and watched TV.
I have this furry friend (most likely a rabbit), that keeps digging at my bedroom window. Friday and Saturday it was 5:30 in the morning, Sunday night it was 10-11 at night. I realize it's cold out and this window needs to be replaced (it frosts up on the inside, so probably leeks warm air out), but I need to sleep.
Monday: got to work to find out we somehow blew a fuse in a wall where a lot of things are plugged in. No one really knows how this happened. Found some mail when I got home.
owls tag:

 How cute are those stickers?
SMS Unique:

 this is blooming tea, you put it in your teapot and it 'blooms' when it has bloomed it's ready to drink. While I agree, it's certainly unique, it's not something I will use.
Surprise:

I hate getting face masks. I usually collect all the self-care stuff I get and post it in my reuse site to get rid of it.
Tuesday: I made myself get everything ready to mail. Finished a St. Patrick's Day Loaded Envelope:

 I'm not exactly sure why I signed up for this swap. I'm not particularly good at making loaded envelopes and I don't have a ton of St. Patrick's Day things. I think it turned out pretty well, I hope my partner likes it.
I put together a craft supply swap:

 We were supposed to send our partners stuff they could use in their crafts. my partner said she liked making ATCs, cards and mixed media. I figured the tissue paper, Angelina fibers, the felt banner and the piece in the top left (something that can be altered) would work for mixed media. The rest are some Graphic 45 sports pieces, rub ons, adhesive gems, sequins, and double stick tape.
I also made some cute St. Patrick's Day pom pom guys:

 These are actually from a kit from Hobby Lobby. The weird thing is the hats and the shoes were stickers. You're only gluing the bottom of the hats to the pom poms, and the shoes are glued on top. I guess the shoes would kind of make sense, because back in the day, there were these pom pom guys with sticky feet that were promotional figures.
I put together a wish of homemade envelopes:

 I don't use these, but people keep sending them to me. When I got them packaged up I realized they would be a parcel, so I included SMS unicorn: a unicorn coin purse and some chocolate.
Found some mail on my way in to work.
Hearts tag:

I really like the memo paper, the stickers at the top and the washi. I was also surprised she got it through the mail with pen in it. It had the extra ounce stamp, but they still go as regular letters.
wish of tea:

 I'm always wanting to try new tea.
Wish of SMS unique:

 I find those food stickers definitely unique, the others are old nail stickers. I opened the package and they kinda disintegrated.
Use what you get swap:

 We had to send our partner a die cut and our partner is to make a card with it. My partner said she bought this die cut, it's so cute I don't want to use it.
Wednesday: Found some mail when I got home.
Secret Sister package:

 There's a whole story behind this package. So, this was my February Secret Sister package. My partner sent it Feb 18th. She posted she was my secret sister on the reveal post at the end of February and I informed her I hadn't received it yet. When she looked up tracking it said information coming.
She finally checked with her post office on the 5th and they said information was coming, and she asked to have her phone number notified when they tried to deliver it. They apparently re scanned it the next day and she finds it's in a town about an hour away from here, so she calls them and they forward it here.
I just looked up the tracking and I don't get her story. I looked at the mailing label the PO put on it and somehow it got in the system wrong, it has a variation of my address in this other town, so it got sent to where it was supposed to according to tracking. The tracking history says they tried to deliver it on 2/21 but couldn't find a good place to leave it and it was sitting at this other town's po until she asked about it. I posted on the page about it and she got mad at the post office, when you look at the tracking and the postage printed off at the po, it's partially her fault. I didn't realize mailing things was so hard.
It's an ok package. That mini backpack is filled with 'jelly' which is actually the Asian version of jello, there's a package of a chipboard alphabet, a package of 'hamburger' cookies, a stamp set and then I just found a mermaid tail pen in the envelope when I picked it up to check tracking.
Here's the card I made with the die cut I got on Tuesday:

 My partner had also sent this embossed paper, so I used it as a background, centered the die cut on some foam tape. Added the Happy Easter sticker, some pink gems and some egg washi to the side. I like how it turned out.
Thursday: I went to lunch with a friend, I was kinda hoping we'd have more time to do other things. A meal is never enough time to hang out with my friends. We did get to have a quick stop at Goodwill. How cute are these figurines?

 I didn't buy anything and then she had to run off to a meeting. Found some mail when I got home,
wish of something hedgehog:

 It's a cute little patch.
Wish for tea:

 Wish for tea:

 And then this great package from my penpal.

 She knows I love minions. She had messaged me shortly before sending it to say she'd found these figures and thought they were minions, but when she looked at them closer found they were tater tots dressed up as something. I told her to go ahead and send them to me. For some reason I was thinking they were pictures or stickers, so I couldn't figure out why the package was so bulky. I opened it and was tickled pink when I realized one of them was Wonder Woman, one was Clark Kent and I thought another one was Thor (it's actually Hawk girl). They are dressed up as figures from the Justice League. I think they're wicked cute. I'm not THAT into Justice League, but I do like Wonder Woman and Superman. Best thing in the mail this week.
The forecast was for snow today, an inch or less, pretty sure we had more than an inch before I left for lunch. After getting home from lunch, I decided I wasn't leaving the house until I had to work on Saturday, plus I have all these books checked out that I need to start reading:

That's 37 books. I have been just renewing my stuff lately and not reading. I totally ignored the world this morning to finish a book and again rediscovered how calming reading is. I feel I re learn this every time I sit down to read lately. I really haven't had a day to myself since Feb 17th. The 18th-20th was work, I went to a friend's retirement party on the 21st, the 22nd was the library, the 23rd-25th was work at Hilton. The 24th we had that wicked blizzard and of course temperatures have been in the single digits with double negative digits for windchills. The 25th-27th was the library. The 28th and 29th I had to hang out with my parents, which is an ordeal in itself. The 1st-6th was the library. Today was my first day to myself, went to lunch with my friend and tomorrow I know I'll get bored with my reading. It happens every time.
I'm trying to reel myself back from joining too many swaps and tags, but it may not happen. I did feel very accomplished being caught up on mailing stuff yesterday.

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.