It used to be that you had to go to a flea market to get a good deal on sterling silver jewelry and other such items that now a days you can go online and find good deals on. I still enjoy going to flea markets now and then, but most of them are full of used baby items and junk that you can find at the dollar store. I have no use for any of that type of stuff.
Once in a while you can find a dealer that has some good quality items at a great price, but that seems to be a rare occasion now a days.
I’ve decided on a few things that I want to purchase when I finally get my tax refund check that has been tied up for way too long, in the next week or two. It has been a while since I’ve had a few bucks in my pocket and I feel like a kid in a candy store with so many choices out there that I’d love to be able to afford.
It has been a good project to tackle at night when I’m done with all the farm work and I sit down in front of the computer. Most nights I’m too tired to concentrate on much of anything, so it’s kinda cool to be able to just mindlessly surf the Internet and see what is out there. There are things that I want and of course several things that I need for around the place so I’ve been trying to balance it out some.
One thing that I’ve definitely put on top of the list is a nice new set of wheels for my Jeep. I had such high expectations for my Jeep when I first purchased it 2 years ago and I haven’t been able to do as much with it as I had planned, but for now a sweet looking set of wheels will have to do. CARID.com has some great accessories that I’ve spent some time gazing out. Good stuff going on there folks and they accept PayPal.
It’s so good to get a hand written thank you card in the mail these days, it just makes me think that they are cool enough to take the time and effort to write the card, address the card, put a stamp on it and then get it to a mailbox. When these days in just a matter of minutes you can shoot someone a thank you and or a card with all of today’s technology communication options.
The reason I bring this up is that in today’s mail there was a thank you card from my 19 year old nephew for the bass eq that we, the aunts and uncles, all pitched in a bought for him as his High School Graduation gift. He is a good kid and he deserves a decent Bass Equalizer Pedal, and so much more, but that’s another story.
One of the most wasteful things around any of the holidays is using gift wrapping paper and then just throwing it all away afterwards. But lately I’ve been trying to get around that and eliminate some of my holiday waste.
I went online to try and get some more ideas on how I could wrap things in a green way, when I came across some clear wireless internet specials that I wanted to take advantage of, so I signed up for them.
I ordered some green holiday gift wrapping that was made out of recycled paper that’s pretty cute and have sworn that that’s all that I’m going to use of wrapping paper this year. I’m also going to try and come up with other ways to package up most of my gifts. I think that I’m going to put together a few gift baskets for some people so that they can reuse the actual basket for something else afterwards. I may also wrap them in tulle, which is something that you can see through, but that they can use for something else afterward instead of throwing it away.
These days it seems to be a big deal for everyone to have some special ring tones for their cell phones. You almost never hear anyone’s cell phone just ring a standard ring like all the home phones used to do. Now they have these little snippets of digitized music that play when a call comes in.
Some of the tunes I have no idea what song they are from or what they are supposed to mean. But some have been cute or recognizable, like the Star Wars theme song or even some oldies songs like Saturday Night Fever.
I was hoping to find the spigots that I needed for the wine barrels that we use out back somewhere in town, since I bought the darn things in town many years ago. Alas, that turned into a wild goose chase and I finally decided to go online and find the right ones. I should have just done that from the get go.
Sometimes trying to support local businesses is not worth all the extra time and gas to find what you need. Since it costs me at least $6 in gas to go to town and back, I can afford to pay shipping and handling up to $6 for anything I buy online and come out ahead. My new wine barrel spigots should be here by Monday, at the latest.
Spigots are made specifically for the 5- to 30-gallon Barrels .
For many years, more than I wish to confess to, I have been wanting to go out with some friends and go hiking, camping and fishing like the good ol’ days, but had just been too tied down with work and spending time with loved ones. This year I felt was a brand new year, and was a perfect time for me to get out there and so something I had always wanted to do.
Like I said before I had been wanting to go camping for a long while, and I found myself scavenging my garage for supplies and camping gear I needed to go. I found so many things I used to use while camping, but couldn’t find my tent I used to use. While searching for it, I realized my tent is very out of date and probably needs an upgrade even if I did come across it.
I took a night to sit in the office and just search around the net for some good deals on tents. I came across a nemo tent sale, and had found great deals on all types of tents, but the one that stood out to me the most was a 3 season tent, something I’ve always wanted to own. I ordered it right away and had it shipped to my home, and in no time at all I was camping out by the lake the following weekend. I am so grateful to have found such a sturdy tent to spend many of nights in while by the camp fire enjoying nature.
The word at my sister’s work is that they are ordering a magnetic name badge for everyone to wear and folks aren’t all that thrilled with the idea. It will be helpful for their customers/clients but a drag for them to have to keep remembering to wear them and not losing them. Unfortunately you gotta do what you gotta do these days to keep the boss man happy. They way I look at it, it certainly could be a lot worse, they could be receiving pink slips and jobs aren’t easy to come by these days.
Since both of our parents were killed over five years ago now, my oldest sister is always stuck playing hostess for most of the major family holiday dinners and get-togethers. Since I am on my own and live the closest to her and her family it only makes sense for me to pitch in where the others really can’t manage to do for a variety of reasons, I try and help out in any way that I can.
Over Christmas it was mentioned that we should try doing some karaoke at the next family dinner, which just so happens to be Easter and that believe it or not, is only a few short weeks away. My sister does have a karaoke machine but it’s been around the block a few times from the look of it and it doesn’t have the microphone that used to go with that particular karaoke machine. I have been looking at various microphones online in my spare time and have been totally surprised at how many microphones are really out there.
I think I finally decided on the right one, the sm57, but what freaked me out was in the description part of the add it boasts that it is bulletproof and how it stands up to road travel and abuse. Guess these are just an added bonus to the whole deal, I really don’t think anyone in my family would get that crazy during karaoke at my sisters on Easter, but in case they do I will know that the microphone will make it through all right! I can’t wait to share this story on Easter day with the family members that manage to find their way there this year.
The first time I heard someone talk about half chaps, I just couldn’t wrap my brain around the concept of just half of a chap. Now chaps aren’t something that are discussed much, so I hadn’t really thought about the half chaps that they are now selling of which so many of the equestrians of the world are wearing these days.
So when my oldest niece asked for a pair of half chaps for this Christmas I had to look a bit online and see what they are all about. Theequestriancorner.com is a great website for all kinds of equestrian gear and equipment which has a good amount of half chaps of which I took some time and checked out. They were actually cheaper and better looking than I had thought they were going to be, so I ordered her a pair for Christmas. The look on her face when she opened up the package was just fantastic! Her mom actually got a video of her shaking the box, trying to guess what was in it and then just ripping it open and the look of surprise and happiness when she got it open and realized what they were.
