I can't believe it's been almost a month since I last blogged - this month has gone by crazy-fast! I have sooo much to write about, but it's way too much to put into one post, so I'm gonna do a quick randomizer post so I'll remember all the topics for later, longer posts. :)
1. Remember that epic thrift-store sale shopping trip I was about to go on the last time I blogged? Well, it was truly epic. :) We left around 7:30 AM and got back that night, hit three HUGE thrift stores - well, actually, sort of four because two of them shared a building - and I for one hit the jackpot. I spent about $50, which I'd normally consider an insane amount of money to spend in a thrift store, but considering that I came home with 90% of the supplies I needed to make Christmas gifts, I consider it mony well spent. Wish I could tell you everything I found, but unfortunately that's gonna have to wait til after Christmas.
2. Included in that $50 shopping spree? Two side tables, normally $10 apiece but 50% off on that particular day, and I have to admit, they looked horribly ugly. :) They had a terrible whitish finish, awful old-lady hardware, and I didn't blame Maggie for taking one look at them and asking me if the prices had gone to my head. But I could picture them repainted in a nice slate gray with uber-mod hardware, and I couldn't pass them up for the price. Home they came with me! I'm gonna do a longer post about how I refinished them, but suffice to say they turned out amazingly and I'm loving my new nightstands. :)
3. I am very, very slowly but surely chipping away at my Christmas list. It feels like I'm never ever gonna get done, but when I look at my list, I can see that I'm making progress. In case I failed to mention this before, this year I'm handmaking all my Christmas gifts. While it wasn't the main point of the experiment, I did think in the back of my mind that it would probably help me cut down on shopping. Um, not so much!!! I can't count the many times that I've run out of mod-podge, craft gun gluesticks, or whatnot, and had to make an "emergency" run to the nearest craft store. :) At the moment, I'm 3/4 of the way through one gift and I ran out of yarn. Which our local Michaels is out of. I'm hoping Mags and Mom can track down a skein when they go up to College Park tomorrow.
4. This year was our Black Friday "on" year - we only go out every other year - and this year was different because most of the sales started Thursday night, instead of Friday morning. Traditionally, we come home after Thanksgiving dinner, go to bed and sleep for a couple of hours, get up a bit after midnight, and we're standing in line outside the store by 2:30 AM. This year we left Thanksgiving dinner a little early to come home and strip every unfilled seat out of the van, and then Dad, Allen, and I headed up the street to check things off our list.
We've never had a bad experience Black Friday shopping, and this year was no exception. :) We got almost everything on our list, and it's true, we waited in line for a long time, but everyone was very friendly, compared deals, and helped each other find stuff. :)
5. The Christmas cantata is going much better. :) I feel like I'm finally in a rhythm, and I'm looking forward to our first performance, which is coming up fast! I ended up choosing "Raisins & Almonds" as my Russian/Yiddish lullaby, since I already knew it, and just hadn't realized it was Yiddish. Luckily, everyone present loved it when I used it in rehearsal, so I'm good!
No comments:
Post a Comment