My Whole House is Now Covered in Glitter...Seriously

I am officially glittered out for today.  We just finished making some Valentine's cards.  Only 12, and I never want to see glitter again.  Or at least a day.  I was just going to make the cards for the girls' grandparents, but then Abby liked the glittering so much we just kept going so I figured these could be for her class too.  So now I need something like 20 cards.  We did 12 today.  So 8 more, plus family cards to do too.

Valentine's is a week away.  I didn't seriously realize this until a friend reminded me of this.  We're not very big holiday people around here anyways, so it's not like I have these huge Valentine's plans.  Hubs and I aren't planning on going out, mostly because it's the month with the cheque with Christmas break on it, so we don't really have the money for a babysitter plus a fancy dinner (or as fancy as you get in a small town!).

But it did remind me that I have some random thoughts floating through my head, not fully developed or anything.  I just kind of wanted to do a bit of a nice dinner at home maybe, and have a sort of "date night" or something.  But I'm not fully sure on any details or ideas of what exactly I want to do.  I'll have to check Pinterest, they have everything there! ;-)

How an Auction Gone Crazy (For Me) Leads to an Embarrassing Moment

Last week the preschool my daughter attends held a charity auction.  All the parents donated a couple items, and some businesses from around town donated as well.  I went there not expecting to purchase anything, maybe a toy or two if there were any that I might want as gifts.  I left there $84 poorer.

I am almost ashamed to put that number down.  I was shocked when it all tallied up.  See, I hadn't kept track as I bid and won item after item.  I got a few good deals, like an electric breast pump (no, not pregnant, just for the future) and a haircut for $20.  The only thing I truly regret is the gift certificate for our bakery.  It is a $20 value and I paid...$20.  At least I didn't lose money.  But in my defense, I though I was bidding $17.50.  I think the auctioneer was cheating.  Ok, not.  There were just a lot of "paddles" in the air.

So I was surprised when I looked at the back of the business card for the hair salon, that it had an appointment time for the next week penciled in.  I though 'Perfect.  I don't even have to make one.'  So today I trucked my kids over to my friend's house and then headed over to the salon.

On the way, I'm pep talking myself about being confident.  Talking confidently with the hair dresser, and saying what I want without it sounding like I'm a little mouse hiding in a corner.  Confidence, confidence, confidence.  And as I'm driving I have a vague thought, like "what if that appointment was actually someone else's and they lost the card, or something like that."  But I proceed anyways because better to find out than just run away, just in case.

I get there, and someone else is arriving at the same time as me.  That is a slight blip to my confidence, since I can be so intimidated by people.  We are walking up at the same time, when I see the closed sign in the window.

Blip number two.  I stop, and then ask if that sign is for the salon.  The other lady, who I actually recognized as another mom from the preschool but I don't know her at all so can't even claim acquaintanceship, said that she must have forgotten to flip it.

Blip number three comes once we're inside.  The hair stylist is still working on someone's hair.  She says to the woman who came in with me, "you must be my 2:15."  To which she replies yes.  At this point  I feel like melting into the floor, because I quickly realized that we can't both be the 2:15 appointment.

As it turned out, the preschool mom was one who helped out at the auction and she had stapled the business card to the gift certificate, but had accidentally stapled the one with her appointment time on it.  Oops.  So now I have my very own appointment for the coming Monday at 6.

I hate these kind of instances.  And I really shouldn't, because it isn't that big of a deal.  To me it feels like everyone must be thinking of how stupid I am, for assuming it was my appointment.  I should have called.  And yes, I totally should have called.  In fact, I actually thought of calling just to confirm.  But I didn't.  The reason?  Because I'm scared of talking to people.  I just feel awkward.  But a little awkwardness on the phone would have been a lot less awkward than standing there with three other people listening in.

So the moral today is to pick up the phone and just call the people already!

Shopping Hangover

I can't think of a better name for it.  Does it happen to anyone else?  I guess I should explain what "it" is.  I go shopping, doesn't matter where, could be a department store, a thrift shop, online even, and purchase clothes or accessories for myself.  I am super excited about the stuff I bought.  Hurray!  I can't wait til it gets here (if online shopping) or I can't wait to wear it (if bought from a store and I have it in hand). 

But then I settle down and the cloud of shopping high fades away, and I am left with my shopping hangover.  I hate all my purchases.  Yes, I don't like a single piece.  Okay, maybe one, or two.  But the majority I definitely don't like and will never wear.  If they are from a regular store, I might let them sit in the back of my closet, banished there and probably never to see the light of day again.  If they are a thrift store purchase, I will most likely donate them right back to it. 

Quite stupid, isn't it?!  To buy something just to give it back.  But at least if I'm buying from a charity thrift store it's a good cause for my money.  What sickens me is the money I spend on new items.  Like the glasses I just ordered. 

Clearly Contacts was having a one day sale, where they were giving away free glasses frames, you just had to pay shipping and any costs of upgrading the lenses.  Well, I totally went for that.  My last glasses cost me somewhere around $250 (actually, now that I think about it, my Mother-in-law bought them for me, She's great!).  But that was 2 years ago, and that was definitely a case of "shopping hangover".  And the sad thing is I obviously tried them on.  Picked them out with my eyes wide open.  But once I got them home, totally didn't like them.  And since I was out of contacts, I wore them exclusively for a year.  Nobody can tell me that I don't sacrifice to save money.

So I jumped at the chance for free (relatively) glasses.  I ended up paying $43 since I had to upgrade my lenses.  The free lenses that came with the glasses don't go much past -2.00.  I was very excited about ordering them, though I knew that my husband wouldn't like them.

But now looking at the picture of the ones I ordered, I don't think I like them either!  I am so fickle, or something!  I guess I'll just have to wait until they get here, which should be tomorrow, so maybe you'll be hearing from me again, letting you know the verdict. 

Meal-Planning Thoughts

I am constantly trying to get my life more organized, and a couple months ago I started planning my meals ahead so that I wouldn't be scrambling around at 3 o'clock with no meat defrosted and no idea what I am going to cook for our supper meal.  And I fell in love with it!  I loved planning my meals out.  I had a whole month written out and probably would have done more except I felt slightly nerdy. 

But nerdy is ok if it works!  But I have discovered a flaw in the whole meal-planning thing.  If you don't keep it up, eventually you run out of meals.  Which is where I am today.  I haven't looked at my meal plan calendar this past week, and consequently I have nothing planned past yesterday.  This is unfortunate.  Now I have to sit down and figure out what I am going to do, and that is the worst part. 

On the upside, it's advance pay-day so I will have some money for grocery shopping!  Hurray!  This means no more chicken soup with only celery and homemade noodles (which we had last Wednesday.  It was tasty, just a little boring.  Not even any saltine crackers to put in!). 

So I can plan my meals without having to seriously consider what we have in the house since I can go shopping again.  But I am also trying to be a little more frugal with my grocery shopping since we have a bad habit of just running to the store whenever we need something.  I want to make more budget friendly meals.  Or just budget friendly meal planning. 

I think my next post I write will be about my lack of effective communication skills, as this post is an excellent example of.

Secondhand Shopping

I love thrift stores.  I have to admit it.  Sometimes I forget how much I love them and I don't shop there for a couple months, but every time I go back in and score such great deals, I am thrilled.  I went to Gleaners today, which is one of the seondhand stores here in town.  And in my opinion it is the best one.  The reason is that everything is super cheaply priced.  Some secondhand places still have (relatively) expensive prices, but not Gleaners.  Three years back I got an Oster coffee maker for $1.  And it still worked when I got rid of it last year.  The only reason I got rid of it was that it took quite a long time to fill the pot, but still.  $1.00!  My current microwave I bought for $4.  It's old but it works.

I get a rush just thinking of those things!  I can't go shopping there too often or I would buy too much stuff.  They sell kids books for 10 cents each, adults for 25 cents.  The way my kids wreck books, it's better than taking out library books. 

I can just go on and on but I won't.  I was just excited since I went there today and got some clothes for Abby, and some ribbon for a project I'm going to be making for the girls, and some books.  I used to always think that thrift stores were for poor people, but down here, I see almost everyone in town there.  Seriously, it's always busy on the days they are open.  And I totally get it now.