One of the things that I don’t enjoy about shopping with Chuck is that he likes to window shop a lot more than I enjoy it. I prefer to prepare a list of what I need to buy, go to the store, get in, grab what I need to get, pay for it, and get out again. I don’t enjoy lingering and longing for things that I can’t have. The last time I went shopping with Chuck, he told me that he only needed to buy some new guitar picks, but he ended up spending over an hour “window shopping” at the store, checking out the new shipment of high end acoustic guitars. Yes, they are very nice, but they are also very expensive, and I’d rather not waste my time pining over things that I can’t afford to buy!
The Guitar
When Sammy told me that he wanted a new Yamaha for Christmas, I thought he was talking about a new motorcycle or an ATV.
I can remember driving past a motorcycle store and seeing the word “Yamaha” prominently displayed on the building. I just about flipped my lid! I started telling him how dangerous motorcycles and ATVs can be, and he started laughing at me!
I was so surprised when he told me that he was talking about a new guitar! What a relief that was!
Chocolate gift ideas
All of my friends adore chocolate. I’ve been letting my fingers do some shopping online and have seen some great gift ideas. I usually don’t eat sweets or much sugar at all, but every once in a while I get a craving for some chocolate. It’s a craving that usually strikes believe it or not, in the middle of the night. My mom is the same way. She keeps a chocolate bar in the drawer of her night stand and in the middle of the night, will break off a piece and eat it, then go back to bed. In fact, my oldest daughter is the same way. I think we get it from my mom!
Online I found some great gift packs to give my friends and family for Christmas. Usually my mom will always get a box of chocolate covered cherries from all of “us kids” (I have two brothers and three sisters), but she secretly gives most of them away, I found out. But we have been giving her boxes of them since we were young. It’s sort of a tradition. I like them, but only if they have the clear liquid in them, not the white kind.
My youngest daughter always asks for her stocking to be stuffed with chocolate. She loves the dark chocolate, so she’ll be set for sometime. I found a great sale on it and the chocolate mint is my favorite!
Getting ready for goblins
With tomorrow being Trick or Treating in our town and I’ve been decorating the front yard and porch, hoping the weather is good and the predicted rain or even snow holds off for the kids that come trick or treating. I’m going into town to buy candy and get some odds and ends that I need. I love Halloween. I won’t be dressing this year though. First time in I don’t know how long. I have a pinched nerve in my neck and to be honest, since I’ve lost quite a bit of weight and am down to about 109 lbs, my costumes would all need taken in a size. I don’t have the time to do this. The kids are all ready though and will look great!
Kitchen Renovations
I can remember many years ago, hiring a custom cabinet maker to renovate my kitchen in a house that I used to live in. I had spent a lot of time looking through magazines and planning out exactly what I wanted. I spent several hours consulting with him, showing him the magazines, and going through his hardware catalogs, picking out exactly what I wanted. That was back in the early 1980’s, before I had a computer with Internet access. That was a lot of work back then.
From time to time, I day-dream about using some ideas that I found from here and renovating my existing kitchen. I love so many of the new ideas for cabinet storage! If only I was independently wealthy!
Personalized jewelry
One of my favorite types of jewelry is the necklace. I love the new, trendy look of layering necklaces because it allows me to wear several of my favorite necklaces at the same time! I have a very large peg-style rack (think old-fashioned, accordian-style hat/coat rack) hanging on the wall behind the door in my bedroom that is overflowing with necklaces. At the time that I put the rack there I thought it would help me keep them from getting all tangled-up, but to be honest, they still get easily tangled. I find that frustrating.
But, I digress. I was writing about how much I love the necklace. I especially love the personalized necklaces that I have been given as gifts over the years. I enjoy them so much that I have made a point of buying some for my nieces over the years, and they always tell me how much they love them, too. I especially like the ones that include a gemstone that represents the birthday month of the person that I am giving the necklace to.
I used to buy sterling silver necklaces because they are so pretty when they are new and clean. I have found that they tarnish quickly, however, even though the so-called experts say that if you wear the silver frequently they won’t tarnish. I find that my sterling silver still tarnishes, and then the tarnish rubs off onto my skin or clothing. I have stopped buying and wearing sterling silver now, and buy white gold instead because that won’t tarnish.
Bakers Twine
Have you ever heard of Baker’s Twine? Me neither. I have, for years, always kept some special twine in the kitchen that I used to tie the legs of poultry when I was roasting it. This twine is on a large cone, and I have had that twine so long that I don’t remember where (or exactly when) I bought it, and the label is long gone. But I do remember that when I got it that I had to go to a specialty place because I wanted to make sure that it was food-safe twine. I had read a recipe that called for using food-safe twine to tie the legs of poultry together, and that piqued my interest in finding it.
Before I purchased that particular twine, I never used any kind of twine when I was cooking, because I didn’t trust it to be food safe. This kitchen twine that I have now, I use it for everything that I need twine for – including bundling cardboard and newspapers together for recycling.
Last weekend I went to a birthday party, and saw that some of the gifts were tied with a very pretty, decorative twine. In the past I’ve seen gifts wrapped with yarn, but not this pretty twine before. I asked the people that had wrapped the gift “where did you find that pretty twine?” and they told me that they had found it online, and that it was called Bakers Twine. It didn’t take long for me to find a few websites that sell it! There are a lot of really pretty color combinations! I don’t know how I am going to choose which colors to buy!
A new Halloween store opening
It’s really great to have found out that tomorrow is the opening of a new Halloween store that is opening in town! Normally I will take orders from friends or the folks around here, to make costumes for their kids or even some of the adults, and I really enjoy making them. Some people who make costumes would be bummed about a big store of costumes and everything else one could think of for Halloween in the area, but not me.
I love to go into stores like this to get new ideas and also to buy the items I need to make All Hallows Eve the best time possible. From what I am hearing, this new store has thousands of costumes, mainly the pre-made and sold in packages type ones. But they also have loads of masks and also everything thinkable for this night of ghouls and witches, black cats and skeletons.
The opening of the Halloween store will be held in a few days and I of course will be going there to scope it out. As for buying anything, I’m going to wait until right before Halloween and then the day after, because I also hear tell, that the store will have tremendous discounts on the non sold special effect items and so make up, and blank masks which is what I am looking for, since one of my specialty hobby’s is making masks for all occasions.
Business sign
My sister is starting up a small sandwich and salad shop and she wanted me to help her have the perfect business sign made up. She actually is the artist in the family, but she really doesn’t use her talents anymore, unless it’s doodling on a piece of scrap paper while she’s keeping our rummy scores. I hate it when a gift goes to waste, but she says that she got tired of drawing and just doesn’t feel like doing it anymore. I’ve known a lot of artists that sort of “tap dry” and who won’t draw or sculpt anymore. I guess it is sort of like a writers block.
While looking at various signs, my sister decided also to look at their brass plaques. There were quite a wide selection and she had a hard time with making a decision. At lunch I could tell she had put her thinking cap on because she was really quiet.
When I asked her why she wanted that kind of a plaque, she said that it was going to be a sort of commemorative plaque for the date we found out our mom and her husband were finally cancer free. The whole family is going to pitch in for this plaque. It makes me really happy that she would think of something like that. commemorative
The dreaded grocery store
Once again, it’s time to make a weekly trip to the local grocery store. I hate to shop, let alone grocery shop. Prices have gone sky high and there seems no end in sight. One can of veggies that went for .49 are now doubled…and that is the store brand or generic. I’m armed with my list, pen and grocery money, but it took me all of last night to figure out what I am going to make for a week’s work of dinners, plus what to buy for the extras that we need. It’s all starting to bum me out a bit, to be honest.