Thrifty Shopping

Yes, I went thrift shopping again this weekend. I believe I'm addicted to it and don't want an intervention...yet. I "caught" this thrifting bug from reading some of the following blogs: The Queen of Fifty Cents, One Gals Trash, The Thrifty Chicks, and Just Something I Made to name but a mere handful of wonderful blogs on thrifting as a way of life. These women among many others in the blogging world lead what I believe to be incredibly rich lives on small budgets. I'm definitely a newbie to all this, but I'm definitely willing to learn.

This weekend I visited Amvets just off the Pacific Coast Hwy and purchased this dress and a bag of elastic for a total of $4.81. The dress was originally $4.95, but was half off! Yeah!






















Then I went on to the Salvation Army in Point Loma where they were having a 50% off everything in the store sale. There I picked up a Stephen King book, "Thinner," a pair of brushed khaki denim shorts, and a very pretty black skirt with floral embroidery. The book was 50 cents, the shorts $1.50 and the skirt $4. And here are my purchases.







My last stop was the Thrift Korral in La Mesa where I picked up two more books, "Theophilus North" and "Rebecca." Both of these books were made into the movies "Mr. North" and "Rebecca." If you get a chance, rent them sometime. So here are the books.


Today I visited two thrift stores in Pacific Beach, the United Cerebral Palsy Thrift Store (aka UPC Thrift Store) and the Goodwill. I didn't get anything at the UPC store, but did pick up a sweater ($5.99) & skirt ($4.99) at the Goodwill. A cool thing about the Goodwill is that they don't have to charge sales tax! Since they are considered a HUGE recycler by the State of California, they are exempt from charging sales tax. They also give 10% discounts for students, military, and seniors (over 55).




















I hope you have enjoyed seeing my thrift finds this weekend. Now I just need to get my behind up early to check out garage sales as well.

Hello everyone. I had the most amazing day...I experienced my first facial ever. It was SO wonderfully relaxing...then I came home and took a nap. Aah, bliss! I've set another appointment already. Karen, the Esthetician, is marvelous, and her studio is just perfect. If you're interested in setting an appointment with her, just let me know.

It's late, but...

I knew I wanted to make a 2nd entry on my blog...don't want to be one of those people who add to their blog once a month. Anyway, I went to my Demo meeting tonight in Sam's garage. We had a great time, talked about the latest with Stampin' Up, exchanged our swap cards, which Sam has already posted to her blog, and made a box with the Top Note die lid cover. It's really adorable, and I love 3-D paper crafts. I promise to post a pic of mine this week! But for now you'll have to be content some pics of Miss Dinah, my niece's kitten who lives at my house...guess that kinda makes her my kitten...lol! Anyway, here she is with her play toy...a foam pool "noodle" which I have cut into sections approximately 6"-8" in length. It's perfect for her to pounce on, roll, bite, etc. She's teething so I've been looking for those old fashioned rubber teething rings for babies (the human kind), but I haven't been able to find any. They're all filled with water or are attached to some "interactive" rattle type thingy.

Wrestling with that noodle is hard work, so now it's time to chill out with her "dad." Yep, Dinah has definitely bonded with my husband, Mike. She can be sleeping on my lap, but when she hears his footsteps or voice, she wakes right up, and goes to him. And who couldn't resist her?

Gather in the Garden

After much thoughtful dreaming, I decided to join "Blogland." I've been inspired by Kydia's blog, Understand Blue, Sam's blog, stampinsamsgarage, and many others. I can only aspire to be creative like them. In the words of Cameron in Ferris Bueller's Day Off, "You're my hero."

Here's a picture of my garden. I love roses and have been amazed at how well they have grown & flourished. I choose my roses by their color and then their scent...they have to have a strong scent...none of this light, slight or non- existent. I want my roses to smell like roses. I also have honeysuckle, star jasmine, pink jasmine, night blooming jasmine, sweet peas, freesias, daffodils, narcissus, dutch iris, gardenias and hydrangea as well as French lavender, English lavender and rosemary. I love the sights & scents of my garden. It's truly a place of tranquility for me.

As I'm typing my first entry, my surrogate fur child (kitten) is helping me...make that attacking my sleeves and hands. She's a cutie and belongs to my two nieces. They have named her Dinah. However, as my sister is extremely allergic to cats, Dinah lives with my husband & me and our four fur children, Stevie Ray, Jimi, Zoot & DK...so now we have five fur children...but it's NOT like having five dogs...at least that's what I tell people when I read their facial expression as "OMG! You have five, I mean FIVE cats! What are you thinking!!!" Guess they're just not cat people, or I really am crazy! Yep, crazy in love with my darling fur children. So without any further adieu, here are my children.
This is Stevie Ray, our "first born." He's now 12 in human years...not sure what that is in cat years. He was homeless and showed up on the doorstep where my husband worked. All the gals there said someone needed to take him home, and as we had just decided to get a cat about two weeks earlier, Stevie found his home. When we brought him home, Stevie was all legs, all tail & all voice. He's still very vocal and loves to be around people.

We adopted Jimi and his brother, Charlie, nine years ago. Their mom was a homeless cat and ran into my friends house and gave birth to Jimi and his two brothers, Charlie & Junior. Junior found a home, but Jimi (originally named Bubba) and Charlie were still looking for a home. After seeing their picture, I just couldn't resist. We renamed Bubba to Jimi in keeping with our music theme. Charlie's name stayed the same...for the drummer of the Rolling Stones. Charlie has since found another home, but still comes back to visit.

Zoot is very photogenic. I have LOTS of pics of him, so I'm sure you'll see more on my blog. Zoot belonged to another friend who could no longer keep him due to a hospital stay and move to a new place. He's a cuddler...loves to lie on my lap and be pet. He also loves to play with the other cats, but Stevie & Jimi are the only two who will play with him...and only for a limited time. He & DK used to play & chase each other when she was a kitten, but now she won't have anything to do with him. Poor Zoot! I keep telling him that if he plays his cards right, he'll have a new playmate in Dinah. I'll keep you posted.

Here's the queen of our household, DK. She was originally adopted by my husband's daughter and her roommate. They named her Dangerous Liaisons and called her Danger. I wanted to change her name to Billie (for Billie Holiday) or Etta (for Etta James) both in keeping with our musical theme, but since she has a strong streak of daring, Danger stuck and my husband's oldest son said she reminded him of a cartoon character, Danger Kitty...so she was renamed and now goes by DK.

And here is the new addition to our family, Dinah. She was seven weeks when we got her and has been growing like a weed...just like all children. Our other fur children are starting to come around. There was quite a bit of hissing, growling & running away at first, but they are beginning to realize that she is here to stay. It's been quite awhile since we've had a kitten in our home, so it's great fun watching her play.

I hope you've enjoyed reading my first post as much as I've enjoyed putting it together. Take care & talk to you later!
Auntie Del
;o)