Deals deals deals...

Would you believe I really haven't done any after Christmas shopping?  Today I went to Michael's with a friend at lunch time and bought a Christmas book for Georgia for next year...and some chocolate covered sunflower seeds for me. Then I met a girlfriend for dinner and zipped on over to Beall's afterward - not really to shop, but rather to see if they still had the Quiksilver flip flops that I got my brother for Christmas (a size too small). They did! $24, on clearance for what? $8.80. Sold. I actually bought 2 pair. The 2nd pair has the same design as the Quiksilver USB flash drive I bought him for his birthday - I just thought it was funny, so I bought them. Those were $6. Then I picked up 3 big containers of chocolate covered sunflower seeds - because they were 70% off and dang it they're yummy! Even at 70% off they were still $4.50 each. My annual treat :-)  I also snagged a woven / straw Quiksilver sun hat, a glittery 4th of July tee shirt for Georgia and a blown glass starfish ornament to put away for next year. 

I also conned Mr. P into popping into Pier 1 before we went to do the weekly BJ's shopping trip as I had seen a few Christmas things on their website that I wanted. The online inventory checker is not 100% accurate, but I did get some good buys and they had half the store on clearance, I stuck to my little holiday list though. I picked up some mini reed diffusers in holiday scents, lip balm, body wash, hand soap, and a couple other little things. They did not have the stocking holders that I wanted - I realized sort of last minute this year that my "stocking holder" was no longer available and I didn't have a place to put the socks this year! They used to get hung (via large twisted paperclips) on the three panel folding rattan screen that used to be in my living room...and now isn't. Instead I have a 4x4 Expidt bookcase. So now i'm on a mission to find stocking holders. If I don't find what i'm looking for without spending a fortune, I suppose i'll resort to Command hooks.

I hope you had a wonderful holiday season! Happy New Year!

The early bird gets the...

DEALS! Yes, the early bird gets the deals. It dawned on me the other day...I should be shopping year round for the various "drives" we have at work. There's always the food drives, sometimes a drive for the local BETA house, school supplies, and of course Toys for Tots. This year I was very last minute on my Toys for Tots shopping and I didn't get as much as I would have liked because well...it was expensive. So I've already started rounding things up for 2012.

Today I went to Beall's Outlet hoping to snag the remaining FL Gator flags, but alas...I snoozed and losed. No flags. But I snagged a cute sweater for myself - it was 50% off. I had to wander the clearance aisle of course - you just never know what might be there. Frankly, not a lot today. Then I saw the rack of kid stuff on clearance that didn't have a giant "Clearance" sign on it. Sweet!

I picked up a backpack for $3, 3 themed school supply sets for $1.25 each (Spiderman, Dora and Disney Princess), and a mesh bag full of sand toys for $1.79. In the Christmas clearance section I picked up a cute toddler book for Georgia next year. It's My Little Pony Christmas something or other and it has little tiny lights that light up and twinkle in the back. It was $1.49. Picked up a couple of other things for stocking stuffers.I figure I did well - I mean my sweater was originally $16.99...throw in the tax and you're at the $18 I paid for all of it. 


If you support Toys for Tots or pick Angels off the tree, or fill shoe boxes for the homeless or to send goodies overseas for our troops - I highly recommend peeking at what is in the clearance section of the stores you shop in - stores don't always clearance "junk" they clearance "last one" and "returns" and "making room for more new stuff" you just have to look thru the junk to find it - make some one's Christmas!

So in Pinterest type fashion...

It's only been...ummm well, over a year since I posted about my FREE spindles that I snagged on Craig's List.


You can read (or re-read) that post and my ride on the emotional roller coaster HERE I've had some projects on my mind during this uhhh past year and as any good thrifty trash picker knows, you can't always get what you want. At least not right away. My procrastination wait paid off this week! CEILING FANS! What? Yes, ceiling fans. There were THREE sitting on the curb at a house across the end of our street when I came home from work one night. I know Mr. Paisley hates not being involved in all the fun (ha ha), so I walked in the door and said "I have a project for you! Go get me the fans that are on the curb down the road" - he gave me that WTF look...you know the one.

Yeah, that look.


Then he walked out the door and came back with my treasures. He's a good man...I promise honey - as soon as I dig the spindles out of the storage unit I will have the fan scraps in the trash!


I saw these dragonfly pictures awhile back and thought I'd do a couple of these and then I took some photos of some random things made with spindles at a local antique mall. 

I have a three day weekend coming up - so i'm thinking it may be a spindle kind of day off :-)

I'd do it before then, but we already have plans in place for the weekends between now and then.


Photos to follow...of course.

Happy Birthday!

Wishing my "little" brother a very happy birthday -

Please donate

'Tis the season -

Earlier this year the wife of one of my colleagues was in the hosptial and it didn't look good. We sent a card wishing them the best for a speedy recovery and offering any help we could provide.

I didn't hear anything else about it. A few months ago this colleague became a coworker. I still didn't hear anything, and frankly, months had gone by and I didn't even remember anything about it.

He attended our department Christmas party with his wife. This was the first time I met Jody Green. Seeing her bandaged up and in a wheelchair still didn't spark my memory of this past spring. She was all dressed up for the holiday, she looked beautiful, she was happy, bubbly and a complete delight! Her eyes sparkled - I remember thinking to myself "I need to tell Jack how sweet and adorable his wife is next time I see him at the office".

Jody is a miracle and she needs our help - as with many people in tight spots, they would never ask for assistance, even though everyone wants to help! She's already reached her lifetime benefit from her health insurance. Everything is an out of pocket expense now. Can you imagine? I can - my husband could have been in the same situation after his accident in January of 2003. I can totally relate to how Jack and his family were feeling when Jody was first taken to the hospital. If you haven't been in that situation, count your blessings.

You can read Jody's story here at The Jody Green Project - you can also donate there or you can contact me.

We were lucky to have Mr. Paisley's employer behind us - they took care of a lot of things while he was off his feet for 6 months - 6 months, try to imagine waking up one morning and going about your regular business and just a few hours later something happens and you can't do anything for yourself for weeks...then months. Add to that not being able to work during that time. Then your insurance runs out. What would you do? How do you choose what bills get paid? How do you pay for surgery? Medication? How do you pay for home renovations now that you have to use a wheelchair? (again, Mr. P was lucky that he got OUT of his wheelchair, but when he was in it, we moved out of the Paisley Cottage and moved in with my parents - taking over their master bedroom - why? A wheel chair won't fit thru doorways in a 1940's house -) Obviously, not everyone has that luxury and in today's economy, i'm not sure we would have had the same financial support from Mr. P's company -

Enough rambling from me - if you can donate anything, please do.

All that glitters...

All that glitters is not gold...except when it is! I needed shirt boxes to finish my Christmas wrapping so I hopped in my trusty blue steed and ran up to the Dollar Tree to pick some up - as luck would have it, the shopping plaza wasn't particularly busy and I parked right in front of the store. Crazy!

After grabbing my boxes, I decided to bebop on in to Ross next door and see what I could see. Good decision on my part - I scored a Quicksilver tee for my brother for $6.99 and 2 Guayabera shirts for my grandfather - he loves those things. Both on clearance for $13.99 ($60 retail for each). One is black with 4 cream stripes in the front, the other is dark brown with 2 cream stripes. Nice looking shirts I have to say...and can't beat the price. 

  

 

 Evidently these are like a Charlie Sheen thing? Maybe he wore them on whatever that show was that he got himself booted off of...I never watched it.

Moseying on down the plaza I checked out the Beall's Outlet and scored myself a new Florida Gator flag - funny, just this last week I said "I need a new Gator flag" - my blue and orange flag is now faded purple and peach - compliments of the Florida sun. I found my new one in the men's underwear section in a bunch of clearance items. It had a pink "dot" so it was 50% off...$6. Sold! I will probably go back up there Friday (I get an additional 15% off on Fridays) and pick up the other 2 if they're still there - hello e-bay :-) 

After that, I went to Goodwill - because you never know. I made my regular rounds looking for my usual items of interest and found nothing...then I was sort of forced down the chrome rack "aisle" because of the party of 12 that shops together and stands there not knowing what to do. This aisle usually has broken stuff, open packages and the stuff from Target on it. I stopped in my tracks. A pair of sparkling gold finials (not sure what else I would call them) - sort of like mercury glass. $1.99 each. MINE! 

 

 

 Not overly exciting (to most) but I also scored 3 bundles of wood "clip" hangers - the type for pants and skirts. I hang most of my clothing to dry to keep it from shrinking, to save money and to keep the color longer and using the plastic hangers that the stores send home with you is all well and good, but the Florida sun is a killer on the plastic. They get brittle and break really fast so when I spied the wood and metal hangers - 3 bundles of 5 for $1.99 each bundle, SOLD. Love them - I found them on a website for $2.95 for a set of two. 

Hangers make me happy. :-)

To all my readers...