I love moments like these...

Mr. Paisley and I were out Christmas shopping and we popped into a super fantastic store that i've mentioned here before - Lightstyle of Orlando. Aside from the most amazing selection of lighting, they also have artwork, some furniture, accessories, rugs...you really never know what you're going to find, but it will be great. There are also some smokin' deals to be had in the clearance section. This particular day there were some fantastic pendant lights for under $20 (among many other things). I was looking for candle sconces, but didn't find exactly what I was looking for...but I did find this -

Look familiar? Unexpected Score - indeed.  Please note that Lightstyle had it on sale for $49.95. I bought it back in July...for $6.99 at Ross.

I love finding things that give me that "atta boy!" affirmation of my mad shopping skills...

Make a fun Santa video for...well...anyone!

Portable North Pole allows you to make a free personalized video (though there are some limitations - on names - you just have to try it out).

Click here- PNP

I made one for Mr. Paisley...you can watch it here - Mr. Paisley's Video  tee hee...

Last Minute Deals!

Need to do some last minute shopping? Want to pick up a few things for yourself?

Here's a printable coupon for Old Navy - 30% off your entire purchase - expires 12/21 so hurry up! Too bad I didn't find this before I spent $100 there on Sunday! *ugh*

Old Navy

Here's one for Bath & Body Works. Free Item with $10 purchase - good in-store and online - check coupon for online code.

How about Kohl's?   20% off your order  - use coupon code PRESENTS4U
If you have a Kohl's charge card you can STACK (use both) that code online with coupon code GIFT4KC and get FREE shipping - no minimum purchase required.

Victoria's Secret - you can usually stack 3 codes.  Try SHIPVS2DAY for free 2 day express shipping on orders over $100, plus DRESSY30 for 30% off Sweater dresses, and code PERFUME for a freebie with a sleep purchase.

Don't forget to earn your cash back using Mr. Rebates - if you don't have an account, click the goofy little guy below and sign up! No strings attached! I currently have $53 (almost $54) sitting in my account waiting for me to click the "request check" button. Get it on the action!

Visiting Orlando?

If you're coming to Central Florida any time soon, check out the MagiCard (it's free!) - it gets you discounts on lots of things. Food, attractions, shopping, even travel to Orlando on Amtrak!

This one expires in March 31, 2012, I would bet there will be a new one available after that.

Pinterest #4 - clean silver quick

Greetings oh so patient blog readers. I have returned. I can't believe how fast time flies and that it has been nearly a month since my last post. Bad blogger, bad!

Well, Mr. P is working all weekend, so aside from catching up around the cottage since we've been out of town, I thought it was time for another Pinterest Post.

This one involves the dreaded task of polishing silver jewelry. I'd sooner slam my finger in the car door. Again.

I pinned a link to Crafted Love on how to make that task less painful.

First I gathered a few pieces of jewelry that I want to wear in the near future. Nice and tarnished....and a nightmare to polish.

Then I grabbed a glass pie plate

And added foil

Then I put the water on to boil

Then I dumped some baking soda on the foil

And laid my silver in

The key is for the silver to be touching the foil - everywhere.

This was taken with the flash on - the heart on my Tiffany bracelet there is indeed THAT dark. Sad I know.

Then when the water was boiling, I poured it over the jewelry

 You can already see the heart and clasp turning all shiny and bright!

Then you get hit with the stench of rotten eggs...two cheers for chemistry!

As you can see in the photo above, most of the chain links weren't touching the foil enough so I did another round and...ta da! No more tarnish!

Rinse off the baking soda residue and dry with a soft cloth - then slap that shiny goodness on and wear it proudly.

Garden score

So we stopped by Lowe's and they had some really great stuff on the clearance rack. I went looking for mums for my three large flower pots sitting in the front flower bed. Large mums are crazy expensive in Florida and they weren't out when I was in TN.  Imagine my surprise when there was a 7' rack stuffed with 1 gallon pots of lavender mums! For $1 each! ONE DOLLAR. Now the lavender ones don't scream fall to me, and they are a little dull as far as color goes, but hey, Mr. Paisley chose to do the flower beds in a bunch of shades of purple with a little white thrown in for good measure back in May and being Florida, everything is pretty much still growing well. The multi-colored petunias that were in the pots is what crapped out and that's all I was replacing.  Why were they $1 you ask? All the "current" blooms were dead, however the plants were full, lush and LOADED with buds for the next round of blooms. Sold. I loaded up 6 in my cart, plus a flat of some little fringe petal flower in purple and white that was $3 (18 in the flat) I don't know why these were on the rack, maybe it was the one that looked a little wilty - the rest were just dandy. Into my cart they went and for a little more height I paid full price ($3.49) for some multi-color leaf plant that sort of resembles a Croton, but the leaves are a dark green at the edges with pinky purple streaks in the middle. I ended up putting these in the middle of my pots and surrounded them with the flowers from the flat. The mums ended up in my new urn and in the tree line flower bed. 

Here are photos as of 6:06pm - a lot of the blue daze flowers have already closed up for the day, but you can see how much of the May plantings are still there and doing well!

PSA

I was wondering about all the "remember, it's just a test" commercials that I've seen on TV lately. Now it makes sense...what doesn't make sense to me is the lack of a message. Why isn't there a message?

Please take a moment to review the following and share with everyone;







FEMA Emergency Alert System Test - November 9th






Please be advised of an upcoming national emergency alert test that FEMA will be conducting. Please forward this to others in hopes of eliminating, or at least substantially reducing, unnecessary anxiety related to this event.






On November 9th FEMA, DHS and FCC will conduct the first national test of the Nationwide Emergency Alert System test. This test will kick off at 2:00 p.m. (EST). The test will be nationwide, running concurrently across all time zones.





The test will run on all radio and TV bands and the message will run for three minutes. The fear is that the lack of an explanation message might create panic. Please share this information with your family and friends so they are aware of the test.






Below are two Web sites that will provide more information.






http://www.fema.gov/emergency/ipaws/eas_info.shtm  






https://nationaldialogue-emergencyalertsystem.ideascale.com/