lucyismycat

I'm really hoping Joann can restructure and survive this. I live in a larger sized town and even then we don't really have much in the way of options for apparel fabric. We have one really nice quilt shop, but sometimes I'm looking for different options. I've also heard that a lot of the Viking (Husqvarna) Sewing Galleries are closing as a result of Joann stores closing. The VSGs rent space from Joann to sell their sewing/embroidery machines. I'll be super upset if our local one loses their spot because of this - I have one of those machines and they are my local dealer for support. In other news, I strolled through our Macy's store Friday night and they now have big curtains hanging up around some empty sections of the store. I was looking for clothing to wear to a work conference this month; I found 2 tops but nothing really appropriate. I don't know how they've survived this long. I'll be amazed if they're not on the chopping block for the next round of closings.

Another month down, another room deep cleaned and decluttered in our household. I don't want to jinx myself, but so far this is going better than expected. April is oldest DS birthday month, so his room is in focus. He's in there now with some big garbage bags to go through clothes that no longer fit and whatever else he can find to get rid of. I'm hoping to get some silverware back! What is it with missing forks and spoons with teenage boys? Is it just boys?

Checking in for March! Moving forward with our "room a month" whole house decluttering plan! February was Kitchen month, and I got rid of 4 big garbage bags of various food items, all delivered to local micro food pantries in our area. Another half truckload of kitchen gadgets gone (seriously, how many popcorn poppers did we need???), and now I know what I have and where it is! March is Dining Room month, which will also be tagged as "sports and electronics equipment" month because right now it's been overtaken with hockey and soccer gear, as well as a bunch of monitors that DH was trying on for size before he settled on his current ones. I'm keeping an eye towards hosting Easter dinner for our moms at the end of the month.

The yearly "Macy's store closings" article - I do my best to try and keep our local store going but I am still amazed they're not closing. https://www.fastcompany.com/91013506/macys-stores-closing-2024-full-list-locations-ca-fl

Sayonara, January! I know we will still have a few cold days here and there, but hopefully the worst is over. I'm looking forward to some hockey tourneys, and we are thinking about a spring break trip again even though I swore last year I wouldn't do it again! This year I'm making a concerted effort to declutter our house, focusing on one room each month. For January, I picked the master bedroom. I ended up donating *15* big trash bags of clothes, shoes, sheets, towels, and other items. I threw out *3* big trash bags of stuff that nobody needs or would want. I used to do a one room/week plan, but with our crazy schedule these days it just wasn't working, so I switched to one room/month. This is definitely more realistic for our lifestyle right now. February is going to be kitchen month. There's no telling what I'll find in the deep recesses of our pantry LOL I hope the thrift store is ready for some unused/slightly used kitchen gadgets!

Happy Birthday!!!

Happy New Year! I hope everyone stays healthy and that loved ones are back on the mend. Time is short. We had a very nice Christmas, and I didn't even have to take anyone to urgent care, so that was nice LOL - for the past few years, someone has been sick on Christmas Day but we managed to miss out on it this year. I put over 1000 miles on my vehicle in the last few days but it was all worth it. Lots of sports activities and a last minute decision to drive all day to my younger son's hockey team NYE party as soon as my older son's tournament ended. Our weather is starting to turn colder, which makes me think about summer vacation ideas, so I'll be researching that just as soon as I buy a new winter coat (gotta have my priorities straight lol). I still haven't taken down any Christmas decorations but I'm hoping DS12 will help out with that since he doesn't go back to school until Thursday. Here for 2024!

I ended up spending more than I thought I would just because I finally came up with some ideas for my mom that were a little spendy. We splurged and got her a 55" QLED tv for her birthday earlier this week, and a new grill for Christmas. I also went over on DH, but some of it is just stuff he needed. He's getting a new coat, his sock subscription renewed, shoes and two 43" monitors (he also works from home). He'd already bought two of the monitors last week and one of them didn't work, so he took them both back and said he was ok with the 3 34" monitors he currently has. I just ordered the new ones today so they won't be here until after Christmas, but he won't mind - he's off until after the first of the year lol I did mostly stick to what I thought I'd do for the kiddos. There aren't many packages under our tree, but they really want for nothing and are so, so spoiled. My DMIL gives me money to shop for them and I finally just put her name on the Beats headphones I got them and called it good. The rest will go in their bank accounts. I'm taking my oldest to Chicago next weekend for a tournament, and then later in January one kid goes to Holland, MI and the other goes to Madison, WI. And then we'll be in Louisville and Kansas City after that. I'm sure we'll find "experience" gifts in all of those places. I'm mostly excited about the Dairy Queen Peppermint Blizzard cake I ordered and am picking up in the next hour!

DS12 decided he wanted to go shopping with me this year, so we left at 5:45 Friday morning and went to the Walmart that's closest to our house. It was totally dead at 6am when they opened. They were apparently optimistic about having a big crowd, with crowd barrier things up and all, but there was no crowd. DS was not amused - "where are all of the people? you said there would be lots of people" LOL We looked around for a little bit and got a soft blanket for $15 for his brother, and then we moved on. We went to Best Buy where I picked up some video games for DS13, Beats Studio Pros for them both, and a replacement Apple Watch (and later found out he doesn't need the watch, so I still have to take that back). We hit our local mall, where I bought DS12 some socks, a Waterford ornament for myself, some spatulas off the clearance rack at Macys, and we walked around the mall some more. He got some tennis shoes at Champs and the Nike Tech outfit he's been begging for. Then we went to Academy, where I bought a dog hoodie and another trail cam for DH. By that point DS was getting cranky so I took him home and picked up my mom and she and I went back to the mall and shopped around some more. I got some Bath and Body Works soap for the boys, and then ended up doing another Best Buy pickup for a game I couldn't find in store, but they had in stock, and that was pretty much it. Saturday my mom and I hit a local craft fair and I bought a bracelet and some dog treats. We also went to JC Penney on Saturday but didn't see anything there that we wanted. I spent probably around 1k over the course of those two days, which is down from previous years. I still need to get something for my mom and some more stuff for DS13 when he decides what he would like. Mom has the added bonus of having a birthday this month, so I need two gifts. Thinking about a Samsung tv and a grill. Of all the places we went, the craft fair was by far the most packed. Other than that, Academy had the most people...we actually had to wait in line there for a few minutes.

Happy December!! I managed to get Covid over Thanksgiving, but didn't realize I was positive until Saturday night. It's been kicking my butt, but I think I've finally found a combination of things that might help me knock some of the symptoms down a notch. Miraculously, none of my family members seem to have caught it from me. This is by far the nastiest virus I have ever dealt with. Most of my shopping is done, but I'm still waiting on two people to tell me what they want for Christmas. grrrrrrrrr

I feel this in my bones. DS12 has a very specific type of suit he likes to wear - velvet, Isaac Mizrahi. They stopped being available a couple of years ago, so he pivoted (by force) to another brand that he complains about every time he wears. So I was thrilled to see IM velvet suits showing up again, even if they were only online. I bought two, in different sizes, because it was difficult to find the measurements and he can be hard to fit sometimes. We got the first one, which was a size larger than he normally wears, but I knew I could at least hem the pants if it was a huge difference. Way too small, even the length was off - but the worse part was the fabric itself felt so cheap. It's nothing like the velvet on his previous suit (we still had one and got it out to compare, same color and everything). The new one is so cheaply made that I don't think I will bother with that brand again. Online can definitely help with the convenience factor, but when it comes to textiles, I really want to have it in my hands before purchasing. Now I have the hassle of returning everything, and we are still on the hunt for the perfect velvet suit. #firstworldproblems

Yep, I already have ad-fatigue. Is that a thing? lol I also have nobody-will-tell-me-what-they-want-and-I-am-tired-of-asking-repeatedly-fatigue. I have such a limited amount of time to get my shopping done, especially if I need to go to a store. This might be the year where people figure out that I meant business when I started asking them what they wanted for Christmas, in November. Maybe it's the year of gift cards for everyone! I buy gifts for fewer than 10 people, this shouldn't be so hard.

Longer than it should, but not as long as if I give them to DH to do. He measures the item, then measures out the exact amount of paper that could cover the entire gift. I use more paper, but I'm done in a fraction of the time. I am also in the boat of "what did I get this person, and where is it if I hid it?", so once items are wrapped, I write a number on them with a sharpie. I keep track of the numbers in my OneNote notebook for Christmas things, so I know what each number is, and who it's for. I don't use gift tags at all...sneaky children at my house.

Rubbermaid containers and sheets. I give the "old" Rubbermaids out with thanksgiving leftovers, and usually donate sheets to either a local thrift store or an animal shelter. Either way we get new stuff every BF. Never have I ever...bought a Kohls throw! *ducks*

And Macy's coupons! I couldn't tell you the last time I was able to use one, because whatever I am buying is always excluded! I really just dislike missing out on good deals, but I MISS the years when Macys would hire a DJ and get the crowd hopping all throughout the store on Thanksgiving night. Now it's like a ghost town on any regular day, and BF isn't much better. 80% of BF fun for me is people watching...with most sales happening online, there are fewer people for me to gawk at LOL

Here for another year! Trying to knock out some pre-BF shopping tonight. I just looked at our family calendar, and I will be out of town every weekend starting 5 weeks ago until after the new year.

Our gift budget will not be as high because there is no PS6 or Xbox series Y - These children HAVE EVERYTHING ALREADY LOL

Very excited for the first ad drop! My mom told me recently that she would like a tv that has the Samsung TV Plus channels so she can think about dropping cable. Can't wait for some more ads to come out so we can comparison shop. I'm ready!!! From this ad, I'll pick up the dog toys (yearly tradition), maybe a couple of sets of Beats for the boys, that GoPro deal looks promising and I've been trying to talk myself into and out of a Vitamix for a while. Perhaps this is when I pull that trigger! I'm also curious to see what kind of Apple deals they will have. I like this ad!

Happy October! 24 years ago today, DH and I said our vows. Happy Anniversary to us! Lots of upcoming travel for work and the boys' sports. I am nowhere near ready for fall, let alone any holidays. I think I have reached the stage of life where I am too busy to work LOL

Happy BERRRR months!! Our weather has given us a sneak peak of fall for the past week or so, but this weekend we are back up to the 90s to close out pool season! It's starting to be cool in the evenings, no matter how hot it is during the day. I could go for another month of that before the chillier days set in; we'll see if I get my wish this year.

August - hockey tryouts, school starts, DH's birthday, soccer season kicks off, all while being roasted in an oven. It's also the last month until it's time for the BER's!!!

Talk to me about Vitamix. I currently have a Ninja blender, and I've been happy with it, but maybe there's a reason I need a Vitamix. They used to have a stand at our state fair, and my mom and I would marvel at how they made peanut butter and hot soup, and chopped up the guts of a cantaloupe to make a smoothie that was pretty good. I just couldn't justify $500 for a blender at the time. DH is also thinking about a countertop ice maker this time. We make a LOT of sno-cones in the summer with our Norwalk "juicer" (that has only ever been used to make sno-cone ice lol), and he thinks it would be nice to have an ice maker closer to the juicer in the bar. I'm not entirely convinced it's necessary but I guess if I end up with a ridiculous blender, I can't really complain LOL What are you guys shopping for? What else do I "need" that I don't know I need?

I like this modern new look! Happy July! We had been in a drought for the past 6 weeks or so, and then got hit by the Derecho that slammed the midwest last Thursday. Since then it's rained at least once every day, and I am not complaining even though it means I'll have to mow the yard for the first time since May! This month is a busy one for our household. We have a ton of fireworks to set off tonight and tomorrow night (I might have gone overboard), then a family reunion next weekend. The 2 weekends after that, I'll be traveling with youngest DS12 for hockey tournaments. We are first going to Detroit, and then Nashville, so I told him that we'll run up to Frankenmuth for a couple of days to see the Christmas sights for Christmas in July, and then head to Nashville after that. We'll close out the month with a week of hockey camp for both boys and then head to tryouts in August. In the meantime, we've been battling a mink in our chicken yard. Still haven't caught the little sucker, but when I do, I'll be sporting a new furry accessory for sure!

And now Instant Brands declaring bankruptcy https://www.cbsnews.com/news/instant-pot-bankruptcy-instant-brands-chapter-11/ I did not realize they also own Pyrex and CorningWare. It's a sad day for our house, DH's Father's Day present just showed up yesterday...a new Instant Air Fryer. We love our InstantPot and use it at least weekly.

It's June! School is out, our local water park is open, the temps are heating up, we've been camping in the backyard (about as far away from my bed as I want to "camp" lol) and we got a new grill AND an ice cream mixer. Pretty good start to summer!