Category Archives: shopping

Oct12

Packing up the lawn ornaments

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Packing up the lawn ornaments, originally uploaded by DianthusMoon.

I have ‘things’ scattered in various gardens around the house that are getting put away soon. For instance, there are mostly squirrels in here that are looking a bit green and sad from spending months and months outside. Since we’re going to have good weather, I’ll give them a little spray with bleach. I also double check to see if I really want to keep them. It would be a good time to clean the beds out better to avoid all the work I have to do in March and April.
Unfortunately between planting 20 odd iris rhizomes and playing Word Twist like a maniac last night ( Bri was helping), I had a achy left hand until 4 am when I finally went looking for an ace bandage and the icy hot. It’s much better now! Bri was wearing one on his knee. The price for yardwork!

Rant-
I bought a tiny pot roast (they call it oven) for dinner. It was like 1.5 pds and cost $8 and was fatty, tough and horrible. I want to complain, but the local store has a large patronage of shoppers. The Hispanic shoppers tend to go in one day and buy an entire cart of meat. Frankly, they don’t care what I say, as they are making money off of unsuspecting people. But if they are trying to sell cheaper cuts of meat for ‘oven roasts’ then I am perturbed. I think I’ll buy my roasts elsewhere. Dang, I’m hungry right now.

Sep30

Did good

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I’ll have to remember to schedule my yearly appts on Tuesdays, as I was in and out of the doctor’s office in 30 minutes-there weren’t any other people in the waiting room! The young woman who checked me out heard about things that were bothering me like the tingling from my back to my front, etc. I wrote stuff down. Got the script for a mammogram. Seems if you get a benign on the biopsy, it’s like starting from scratch again. I’ll have to schedule that. (I hope you caught Oprah today. Christina Applegate was on and talked about early detection as she was only 36 when she found out she had breast cancer. 70% of women who get breast cancer don’t have a family history. So be aware of any change in your breasts, even if you aren’t 40+)

I went in a few stores on the way home- a Hallmark store and then Walmart. I wanted to look at the Halloween things in the Hallmark and got my niece the cute singing  ‘trembling toads’ decoration in the black cauldron special for this year and reduced in price there.  My brother and his family absolutely love Halloween. That’s why we all head there each year.

I also got Sean a birthday card that almost made me cry in the store, but when I tried to read it to his dad, I was a blubbering fool. It mentions about the first heartbeat of his to growing up to be a fine man who is my friend too. That’s how I feel about him too.

I wanted to get some cute cropped pants I saw in a magazine in the doctor’s office that were sold at Walmart, but when I got there, one of the sales gals said they didn’t get Metros in this year. I founds some others. Also wanted some spray paint to freshen up my art desk.

I’ve been cooking more from scratch, thanks to Martha Stewart’s Everyday Food magazine. Last night we had pork and broccoli stir fry which was good, but I’d have to tweak the size of the meat cubes (I cut them too large) and the sauce. Tonight I had herb encrusted Salmon (both recipes from the Sept issue-I think it’s #55) and it was delicious! Also made the tomato and white bean salad. It called for cannellini beans and all I had was butterbeans. They are good too. Bri enjoyed the dinners, plus I am serving some heart healthy meals too. Goes to show I like new recipes, especially if they are quick to get together. That magazine is wonderful.

Sep18

Proofs

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We got our portraits today and I’d thought I’d tease you with showing you the proofs. Our church is making up a directory and one of these will be in it too. That’s the main reason we had them taken.  I will show the excellent shot of Sean as we are calling it his graduation photo (May 09). We also purchased one of the two of us to represent our 25th wedding anniversary coming up in April.  I did buy some Christmas cards with one of these also. Can you guess which two we used? And the seat belt mark is softened (my neck) on the 8x10s as is Sean’s shiny head, but they didn’t get rid of the string from my upper dress (like my Liz Claiborne?). You’ll have to look at these in larger mode. I didn’t wear my glasses so I wouldn’t have nose marks and then I get the selt belt mark! I personally like the one with #26 on the end of me and the one with  #18 on the end of Bri, but I had my eyes closed (we didn’t use them)!

I love this photo! Look at the cute dimples! His shirt is green, though looks gray for some reason. This is the air-brushed one. As I mentioned last month, it was the last shot the young photographer took when Sean was more relaxed. I can’t believe my baby looks so grown up here.

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Went to my mom’s on Thursday (I am writing posts late at night now) and took her to lunch at one of our favorite restaurants. They had the nerve to change their chicken salad recipe which I have salivated over for 26 yrs! They added tarragon, almond and grapes which doesn’t go in a club sandwich at all. Shame on them!

We then went to AC Moore craft store, another disappointment. Before that, we had gone to say ‘hi’ to the rescue kitties in Pet Smart. They were so cute. I fell in love with a black and white one with long fur and a pink nose who seemed playful. Most of the other kitties were around 7 and miserable looking as I guess they had to be taken from elderly owners.

We also went to another shopping center. Mom was having problems with what she thinks is a floater, but I think it’s the tail of a stitch. It’s driving her batty. I went in a Home Goods store and bought a little 3 drawer cabinet for CDs for my family room. Guess what, it barely fits any in the drawers! I asked Bri if he could make a shelf unit for the top and he half- heartedly said ok. He’ll have a spot for his collectibles then. I’ll show you the little cabinet in my ‘Show & Tell’ post.

Sep12

Mom update, etc.

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My older brother came and took Mom to her follow up visit. The eye doctor said it was healing slowly and she couldn’t even read the big ‘E’ on the chart yet. I had called her before she left and she was sweeping down the steps! OMG-with an eye so susceptible! What was she thinking? Thank goodness she is loading the eye up with 4-5 different drops. She said she had a monster headache all evening. The doctor said that was probably from the anesthesia. He also said she was probably ‘feeling’ it as the anesthesia was wearing off too soon. Mom said she didn’t sleep well, was thinking about all the mess in her house. I told her to worry about her eyes. My mom mom always said the dust will be around in 100 yrs and you won’t.  Wise woman. Mom gets rechecked on Tuesday-keep thinking about her please. : )

I forgot to mention that we got a new t.v. on Wednesday night. We went with Courtney’s suggestion, and got a 26″ Samsung LCD-HDtv. We need to get the high def hooked up. It has a really great picture, she was correct. I am still getting use to the rectangular format over the square. I’d like it maybe 2″ higher too.  I am so old-fashioned! We’re getting our Dishnet updated on Monday to HD-made those arrangements late in the afternoon. Won’t cost anything and we can sell back the old receivers too. I was talking with the young lady and she had cataract surgery as she got a hockey punk to the eye, sort of a coincidence.

It’s rainy here again. It couldn’t rain when we wanted tomatoes and peppers. And there was again another Philly police officer, a woman, who got killed by a 16 yr driver who went out of control in an SUV (I believe). Our local stations have been televising the funerals-so sad.

This evening-

Saw James Taylor selling his new CD ‘Covers’ on QVC tonight. You know, I wonder if I could have been in the stinkin’ audience? Ahhh! The QVC studio is about 25 minutes from here. I guess I’ll have to see if they have a calendar. James seems to have a deal with QVC as he’s been on before hawking CDs. He’s sure not comfortable doing PR and must have taken 8 sips from his water bottle in 1/2 hour.

I’m working on one of those canvases I bought to alter and so far it’s not proving easy. My main image was the front of a catalog and she is wrinkling-a lot. My friends swear by gel medium and I use tacky glue or Mod Podge. I’ve been sticking little holes in it to get the air out. I will just have to layer more. I painted it with Gesso first, that got a little crackled. Then I added red and gold acrylics. I can see ‘something’. My 3 pieces of large art that I found (two from a Christie’s auction catalog) are pretty. I’ll definitely share one way or another.

Sep10

All about shopping…

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Sherry had some shopping questions on her blog yesterday. And may I say how cool it was to win a surprise from her! Thanks for letting me join the fun! I can’t wait to see what I get. : )
I’m a bargain shopper. The more percentage something is marked down, the more I want it! For example, I hit a 70% off sale at Peebles and got this big canvas of a rooster for my mom’s birthday for $3.00. I’m thinking I could buy the last couple of ones to recycle and do art on! They also have a limited edition Boyd’s bear named Peebles for about $8.00. (why are people putting *s in store’s names? Because of search engines? Like they would put in Pee*bles). Anyway, I think I’ll at least get a few more canvases.
1. Where is your favorite place to shop? Love stores like Tuesday Morning and T.J Maxx. Favorite dept. store is Kohls. Love all the craft stores, but Michaels takes the top place. Do not like grocery shopping unless I am buying ingredients for a special dish or am shopping at BJs Wholesale. And I love thrift stores and the Goodwill.

2. Would you rather shop on-line or in the stores? I like both. I utilize the internet more during the Christmas holidays. I do buy books throughout the year mainly through Amazon. And there is also eBay!

3. If you needed new undergarments, but you saw something that you didn’t really need, but just wanted, which would you buy?
I probably would! Underwear is so boring when you get to be my age.

4. What really annoys you about other shoppers?
People that don’t move out of a spot when they know you are trying to get by or want something in the area they are hogging. Those who talk on their blue rays and you think they are talking to you. Someone who picks up something you are about to pick up.

5. Have you ever got up to the checkout stand and had a ton of stuff in your cart and after they rang everything up you realized you didn’t have your money, check book, debit card, or credit cards? I usually have a few forms of payment. I have not had enough money, $5 or so, and have just taken a few things out of the cart so I wouldn’t have to use the debit card too.

6. If you buy something that isn’t necessary or something just for fun do you feel like you have to justify it to yourself or your partner? Not really unless it was pricey. I wish I could ‘just for fun’ buy a Ford Mariner. : )

7. Do you hide those unnecessary things for awhile and then later claim you’ve had them for a long time? No, that’s just silly. We discuss big purchases. And as I said, I usually hunt stuff down that’s on sale.

Have to do some food shopping later-oh joy!
I probably won’t be posting until late afternoon or so tomorrow as I will be getting mom from her surgery.
Has anyone else had allergy issues? They are saying it’s one of the worst seasons so far. I get the stuffy head, post nasal and then congestion in my chest.

Sep1

A little daytrippin’

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I can’t believe it’s September already!

Bri and I went down to Dover, De today. It’s about 50 miles one way and takes an hour. Not much to see, just some marshy areas with egrets and I saw a whole family in one area. Every once in a while, there is a housing development. There are places I want to see and photograph like Lum’s Pond (about 20 miles away-we went there for a company picnic years ago) and Odessa (about 30, but they decorate the old homes for Christmas). I did take a photo of the St. George’s bridge:

This is over the Chesapeake and Delaware Canals (thus named) and taken at over 50 mph. The average speed limit on this stretch of road to Dover was 65 mph. That just seems to fast to us.

Hit a big sale at Atlantic Books warehouse-buy two, get one free. I shop the middle of the store where the bargain books are Bri tends to shop the perimeter where they aren’t on sale, but he was thinking the sale, though he picked out only two books that were over $20 each. Now I really have to love a book to pay that much. When we were checking out, I tossed one of my books in with his-got a $9.00 book for free. I guess we saved $25 on the total sale. I was very selective. I may sell a few of the ones I bought anyway.

We ate dinner at 3:30, having skipped lunch, at The Olive Garden-good parmesan crusted Talapia! Oh, I got a new postage scale at the Office Depot so I will know how much stuff over a pound will cost to ship. I can use click and ship now too!

It was nice to spend some time with Bri as he’s back to work tomorrow.

I’ve been going through links and adding some and taking some out. I think I have some awesome ones to share.

Aug12

Down the pike

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I finally got to my mom’s house after not being there for a few weeks. It was just so hard to drive with a sore shoulder blade. (I do go for my first chiro treatment tomorrow). I went to my brother #3’s house first and got my hair done by C. Got to see my niece play ‘Dance, dance revolution’ on the Wii system. She had to follow-move-dance to arrows that come up on the screen. She did pretty darn good. I said she should be a cheerleader and I didn’t know they had try outs (for 4 graders?) and she didn’t want to.

I then went to mom’s and took her out to lunch up the street-she had crabcakes and I had their famous chicken salad club. Before we went to lunch, I checked out mom’s yard. My brother #2 had chainsawed a bunch of bushes, even the lilies I planted a few years ago next to the house. Mom said they had all bloomed. Mom got poison ivy on her foot from being outside with my brother the day he was working in the yard. You can cut stuff back, but you really need to get the roots to a bunch of things-like the ‘weed’ trees. He had planted a tree thinking it was a red bud tree like 30 yrs ago and they are all over the place now. I never saw any tree grow so fast.

We got to see Mom’s friend who hurt himself, as he stopped by after a doctor’s appt and to get a few things. He’s in an assisted living place until his family helps him find a place to live. He has about a 4-5″ triangle shaped cut on his forehead-I think his friend called it a dog tear? and his nose is scabbed over and looks like frost bite. He has a dimple over the top of his nose, from hitting hard I guess. I think it had to be a paver that wasn’t set correctly and he caught his foot on the front of it and down he went. They are new this year and he never fell before. I worry about mom falling too. We’ll have to fix them in the ground better. My #2 brother put those in.

Sean came to mom’s after ‘work’ (he is finished his internship on Friday) and he was craving brick oven pizza. I wasn’t really hungry as I had a late lunch, but I went with him and ate one piece of white pizza with broccoli.

We went to Pet Smart and talked to the kitties there-so cute! And mom and I went to JoAnn’s and I got a 3 drawer piece for my craft goods and a few yard things for 70% off. If you like Debbie Mumm, she designed many of the things-with roosters too (Zoey!). I got a rooster whirligig-couldn’t resist.

There seemed like a ton of people on the road tonight, we’re thinking tourists.

I missed the last episode of ‘The Mole’ so just watched it online and found out who the mole was-I was right! Yeah! I almost changed my mind at the end, but I said ‘Craig’. I like who dunnits!

We have to start getting ready for our Atlantic City trip. I hope it will be a good time. We have always enjoyed walking through Caesars and to stay there will be awesome.

Aug7

Bulk item happy

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Sean and I did head for BJs Wholesale Club in the afternoon. Those places always overwhelm me! We took around a calculator and we were watching what we spent. I had to use the restroom and when I came back, Sean had messed up the running total! The items don’t have prices on them, the signs are the only indicator of what the prices are. We were very selective. We’ll be splitting some stuff, but he’ll have a good array of snacks and breakfast cereals to last him until he comes home and we go again. He got a huge Phillies towel for $15. It will be great for him to toss in the wash and not have tons of towels to worry about.

We ate in a Chili’s where Sean and I shared nachos and he had shrimp fajitas and I had the little burgers, two I saved for Bri.

Sean had to have car repair and it was expensive. He is planning a day trip with a pal or two to one of the Delaware beaches, and of course he is going back to PSU in a little over 2 weeks! I don’t know where this summer went. Of course I’ll miss him, but now he has an apartment and we could take the inflatable mattress up and spend the weekend with him sometime. We haven’t made our minds up if we are going with him this time.

I got a few cross stitch magazines at a Barnes & Noble. I got the one with the DaVinci lady that I admired a few weeks ago. I think I’ll kit her up! Got the JCS Xmas ornament preview issue and Cross stitch and Needleworks for the Halloween design from Mirabilia.

As luck has it, my uncle’s neighbor is a retired chiropractor and his son is a practicing one! And he’s right in the same complex as my dentist, eye doctor and GP! I’ll call to see if they take our insurance. My shoulder blade is better, but I’m getting a flash of tingling that goes around to the front after I’ve been sitting a while like in a car. What I’ve read, it sounds like a pinched nerve. It doesn’t bother me when I am sleeping-yet.

Mom’s friend Jim went in a rehab (I think) center near the main line of Philly today. His brother-in-law will be coming to help clear out his room and ‘tons’ of stuff at mom’s house. My #2 bro has been really testy and wants to hire a company to clean out some part of mom’s house. He complains about me not doing cleaning and sorting down there. This isn’t exactly the time of year I do that-I’ve got a big yard to tend! I did try to make an art corner in my dining area and got laid up with my shoulder. I still want to do this. Waiting for someone to move a table in there for me. I may not even like the chosen table.

Think I’ll go drool over the cross stitch magazines. : )

I’d love to go to Longwood Gardens tomorrow, but carrying the camera and it’s case may be pushing it. Walking isn’t really a problem. It’s lifting and sitting too long that bothers me. And you know if you have anything that is ‘off’, it effects your entire self.

Jul31

Strasberg, PA 7-30-08

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Strasberg, PA 7-30-08, originally uploaded by DianthusMoon.

Sean and I went on a daytrip up to Lancaster yesterday and did some power shopping at the outlets and got many good buys. On the way home, we got off the beaten path of Route 30 and went down Rt. 741 which runs through the quaint town of Strasberg. It was getting dark, but we parked in this gravel lot of a Lutheran Church and walked around a bit. Sean got some ice cream too. It’s known for the railroad station there, and we’ve done that, many years ago. I like doing some things on a whim.

The haul: A pretty tank with green background and blue flowers that look like a photograph; a sleeveless navy blue dress with white butterflies (like a potato print kind) and cute teardrop cubic zirconia earrings-Liz Claiborne outlet. Did I mention we had 20% off coupons for this one outlet center? I bought the dress to wear in our portrait for the church directory, so you’ll see it when I show the photo-probably Sept-Oct.

I finally got a microplane grater-used the 20% off at Le Gourmet Chef.

The Gap-really cute t-shirts-red with a flock of birds and green with flowers, plus a peach t. Used a coupon! Sean got some nice shorts there-coupon.

A place called Steve & Barry’s opened up-it is partly owned by actress Sarah Jessica Parker. Everything in the store is $8.98-even blue jeans! They must have a 100 or more t-shirt styles. I got Brian a Ford one and navy blue shorts plus some brown dress pants for me (I need to lose a few for these to feel comfy). The quality of the clothes was on the most part good-reminded me of The Gap.

Borders books-two paper crafts books and a gift for mom.

Tuesday Morning-they expanded their craft area-yeah-so I got this set of rubber stamps-little crowns, wings, flourishes for $2.50. The neat thing is they are magnetic and stick to their container. I need to see if I can get any more of them at the local TM for resale and gifts. Also got this big box of decoupage stuff-you are suppose to decorate the box-but bought it for all the papers included.

We ate at a new Olive Garden. Some older lady pushed by me to get ahead of me to get on the waiting list. She probably didn’t ask for first available, so we got seated before her and her husband, near the bar, but that was fine. Before we got called, she had the nerve to pull out her nail clippers and start clipping her nails (we were outside, thank goodness, but I saw the pieces flying). Ugh!

I am by no means skinny, never was, but there were so many heavy people, mostly women going into the restaurant. We sat where we could watch and I swear, every third one was big-like over 225! I mention this as it was a wake up call for me too. I am scared for how big so many Americans are getting. I try to serve more turkey over red meat, but we love our pizza too (only once a week). I do pasta, but I guess I should do more whole wheat pasta. Since Sean’s been home, he actually lost weight and gained muscle (he works out), so that goes to show what he is eating isn’t all that bad. I tend to snack at night. I’m not super hungry during the day and about 9:30-10 pm I have to eat something or I won’t be able to sleep. I had rice cakes the other night. It think I’m one of those people that needs to eat every 3-4 hours. My metabolism is terrible. You’ve got to try as hard as you can-but I think to get moving is a big thing. I have a few books that didn’t sell for me on eBay-Curves and the Biggest Loser-so I guess they are mine and I’ll be reading them. : )

Oh! Wish me luck-Sean took my van for my brother to look at today. Since Sean works in my hometown and my brother lives there, it worked out better for me. I hope the air doesn’t have a leak in it.

Jul21

Shopping frenzy

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My mom alerted us that a local(?) store (Value City) had some awesome sales going on, so Sean and I went down to the one in Delaware to check them out. She was right! I came home with three new throw rugs -two for the kitchen and one for the bathroom; New York & Co tops and a silk skirt, two pairs of sandals that are leather-about $10 each, a quilt for the bed, weed blocking fabric, a cute tote, a Mudd ‘compact’ purse (little, but holds a lot) 2 jars of high end salsa for Bri and a pretty necklace with a real Amethyst in it for around $100! Not bad. Sean got a few nice make shirts and a pair of dress slacks.

We ate in a Taco Bell as he said he is getting tired of sandwiches. We got their smoothie like drinks and I took one sip and had a ‘reaction’ (I think) from the tooth missing part of the filling. I am going today at 3 to get it fixed. The top layer of a gumline filling came off Friday night. I’m not in pain, but it’s ugly looking and there is space now between my gum and tooth. The dentist doing it is so nice and gentle. Thank goodness. Guess I’ll wear a new top and sandals! : )

Does anyone in blogland ever get a frequent sore neck on one side or the other? My left side has been bothering me off and on for a while. If I wear my hair up, it hurts more. When I use my infrared on it, I feel it up to my ear. I think it has to do with my support garment or carrying too heavy of a purse. Isn’t it always something? I did buy a new pillow, so it may be what I think it’s from. It’s not all the time and I can turn my neck fine.

Update-Man oh man, that was a nasty dentist visit! He had to take off some of my gum before he could put the filling in as he said it had ‘grown’ into my tooth area. Of course that meant bleeding-a lot. And I had to get two shots of Novocaine causing half my tongue to go numb. Driving a hot car home was no picnic. My gum is sore of course.

The haul (you can double click to make this photo much bigger):

I really like the tote (brown tones). I wore the black sandals yesterday along with the polka dotted top. The pretty silk skirt is black with green accents and a dark green tie at the waist.