Once again I go out shopping and wonder why I see people looking at me with just a little bit of curiosity. 🖤
Category Archives: Shopping
Our cruise shirts are done!
As soon as I knew we were going on a cruise, I knew I wanted to make personalized T-shirts for all of us…thus begin the search on Amazon and Etsy and eBay… betsy was the winner with the best choices but I knew that I wanted to create my own with our names or initials (or something) and not just buy a generic one. So then I managed to find a friend with a cutting machine who volunteered her machine and her services…
It was actually quite a long drawn out process because she had really not done many T-shirts before and I had never done T-shirts before and it was literally just a comedy of errors but we had a great time working on them together.
So without further ado…
They are all the same on the front but the kids have a warning on the back of theirs and Tom and I have a similar warning on the back of ours. (My dad and stepmom escaped warnings on their shirts.) I figured we are literally only going to be wearing the shirts for a few hours on debarkation day so it really didn’t matter what we put on them…and we thought it was hilarious.
The sidenote to this whole story is that Tom and I are now the proud owners of a Cricut Maker and a crap ton of accessories. I had thought about getting one of these machines in the past but knew I would literally go down a huge rabbit hole of projects and expenses so I always passed. So when this came up Tom asked me again if I wanted to get one because he wouldn’t mind having one in the future for some of his projects…so many hours of research later (and YouTube videos and reviews watched and debating the merits of the different machines and getting input from friends)… we decided on one. So stay tuned for many projects!!
I come from a family of hoarders.
This was from 1977. 😂
The things you buy for love.
Neither of these are appealing to me but I know Tom would want to try them.
No, white eyelashes are not my normal.
In my rush to get out of the house early this morning to take Owen to his Lego robotics class at school, my normal makeup routine was rushed. So if you see me within the next hour or so, I don’t have weird white eyelashes for any reason other than I only got primer on before it was time to leave and I forgot my mascara on the steps where I sat down to put my shoes on. 😂
P.S. It was another retail shopping day as I was meeting a friend in the Target parking lot to borrow her tent…and ended up going in with her.
Retail Therapy Day
So Anna and I decided today called for retail therapy so we met at Marshall’s and just had the best time. We’d talk each other into or out of things and spent most of the time laughing.
I wish I had a fun pic of us to share but I didn’t take one because I was SO entrenched in this display of beverage containers.
I literally parked myself here for a good 10 minutes while I debated quantity vs price vs brand vs expectations vs color vs what we already had vs what I know we needed to throw in the garbage and replace. 😂 There might also have been a steady stream of texts and a phone call to Tom to make some final decisions.
What kind of therapy do you like? I love retail therapy but I wish I liked exercise because one is soooo much better for you. 😜
A game changer for those of us always cold!
Friends, if you know me, you know I am pretty much ALWAYS cold. And I am a baseball mom who often has to sit outside in chilly weather. Plus I loooove technology. So when I saw a heated blanket that is powered by an external power bank? And can be turned into a cape? Y’ALL…I’M TOTALLY IN. So if you’re anything like me, I figured you’d want one for yourself. And there’s still a bunch of time left in this campaign for you to grab one… You’re welcome. ❤️
I love orange tag day at Sam’s!
If you walk into Sam’s Club and see this and get excited, we should be friends.
Packing it up for the freezer!
We might like chips.
Organizing the pantry today…
I didn’t succumb!
It was really hard not putting these 4 pounds of gummy bears in my cart.
Give me this over pumpkin spice any day.
Katie has little lady bugs!
So we did a thing.
It wasn’t really planned or begged for (her friend Sophia recently got hers pierced so she knew about it but she hadn’t asked)…but rather it was more a matter of Katie wanting earrings and clip-ons not really working well.
We tried, though. We searched Amazon together and decided on a pair. But one fell off and broke the first day she wore them.
I didn’t really have any issues with her getting them pierced so I talked to Tom about it (I had no idea what his thoughts were?!) and he said he didn’t care, so…we asked her at dinner and she said sure. So off we went!!
She wanted to take something big to squeeze in case it hurt. (She did hug it but she didn’t need to. She said it didn’t hurt at all.)
SUCCESS!!
Margarita PSA
PSA: These are currently marked down to $8.61 at Sam’s Club. I didn’t know until I checked out because I didn’t use the app today…since I needed a real receipt for Ibotta…since there’s a $2 rebate on them!! SCORE!!
DANGER! DANGER!
We looooove potato chips and are always up to try a new flavor. (I honestly don’t want to admit how much money we spend on chips. It’s utterly embarrassing.) So Tom saw these at Costco and sent me a pic to gauge my interest. You can see our exchange. 😂
Fast forward to tasting them. 😳😳 Yeah, we should have really gotten 23. Holy hell they’re good. It was SOOOOO hard to put them away after a small handful with dinner, but… accountability. If I didn’t physically put them away I could have easily eaten half the bag. Plus the kids actually like them, too.
That said, I’m not sure they beat my all-time favorites Ruffles Cheddar & Sour Cream and Lay’s Biscuits & Gravy, but they’re right up there.
What are some of your favorite chips? Bonus points if it’s something new to us that we can source locally and try!!
Cheers, it’s vacation, y’all!
I love coming home to visit. Hubby and I leave the kids with Gramma and Grampa and we hit all the local shops we love—shout out to Tip’n the Mitten which is always our first stop (I love me some 100% Michigan-made products) and then it was the AuSable Artisan Village (where my mom used to sell her Pysanky…and I have bought many things) and then some fireworks (since they’re not legal where we live)… and then, last but not least, Paddle Hard Brewing where I enjoyed two strawberry margaritas that made me SUPER happy and a little buzzed.
Do you have places you have to visit when you go home?
This is what Owen wanted at the thrift store.
Its a goalie mask which he obviously doesn’t need but he says he will use it for a catcher’s mask playing with the neighbor’s kids. 😄
Guys, I’ve had A DAY.
Not only were the kids completely and utterly annoying in many different ways, things didn’t go my way when I was out running errands.
- At the Sam’s Club gas pump, I was told my membership expired…which meant I had to go in. (Y’all, I usually only go in during pre-10am business hours because people.)
- When I was trying to park, this lady was slowly walking down the center of the lane pushing her cart like she was the only one around. Who does that?! (I was very tempted to honk my horn very loudly to see if I could get her to jump.)
- I went to use my iPad for a recipe and it was completely dead because SOMEONE had unplugged the wall wart (but it still looked like it was plugged in).
I know these are all first world problems, but after the kids have been poking and poking and poking all day…the little things become big things.
If this were any other day in any other week I would be about three margaritas in right now. But I’m not. I’m holding fast.
Because everyone needs this much relish when it’s $1.41.
I might have been unable to resist buying Katie these sunglasses.
But in my defense they were half off after Easter. 🙂
These are on the menu for tomorrow night.
I finally found them! Adult ice pops! The only thing I don’t think I’ll like is that they’re “skinny” and those usually have a weird fake sugar chemical taste to them. But I’ll try them for science.
How could I NOT get this Easter basket?
I mean, with the post-Easter 70% discount it was $3.
The boy options weren’t nearly as cute but I got Owen a new one, too.
It’s one of the best times of year!!
Easter candy is half off at Target! I texted Tom and he said when it gets to 70% I need to go back for more!
That damn cereal.
That damn cereal was still on my mind today so I drove back to the dollar store and BINGO–one full case of ❤️❤️ Reese’s hearts (plus two extra) and 10 boxes of ☘️☘️ Lucky Charms. 🙌🏻🙌🏻 I might also be extra giddy today because it’s 68° and I got a 2-mile walk in this afternoon. 🚶🏻♀️🚶🏻♀️🚶🏻♀️🚶🏻♀️🚶🏻♀️
Sometimes it’s the little, unexpected thrills that totally make your day…
I love dollar stores and on a total whim stopped at a new Dollar Tree while I was making a run to ALDI. Oh wow. It’s much bigger than the one I normally shop at and the stock, while mostly the same, just seems so much…more. I didn’t need anything when I walked in, but I managed to spend $50. And I found the holy Grail for my kids.
I may have gone Lush crazy.
Friday night in Chicago
You’d never guess how anxious I was two hours before this happy family photo.
You see I hate traffic, I hate congestion, I hate hoardes of people, and I don’t do well with the unknown…yet we were on our way to downtown Chicago with the kids to meet an out-of-town friend for dinner. I wasn’t even driving, but just simply being a passenger is enough to raise my anxiety levels (I can literally feel the anxiety rising up in my chest). Now, it’s not debilitating by any means and I can always power through, but it’s why I tend to be a homebody. The good part is that Tom’s presence makes me feel better and the kids get to see me handle something not fun…and everything usually ends up just fine.
We had delicious 🍕 pizza at Genos East Pizza, delicious 🍨dessert at Shake Shack, we drooled over everything at Dylan’s Candy Bar, and then went a little 🛁 bath bomb crazy at Lush Cosmetics (I’m not sure if I should thank or curse my friend Sara who introduced me to them). And I survived to tell the tale. 🥰
The kids loved it and we had a good time so I guess my anxiety was worth it…but I was glad to get back to our little burg.
Our family selfie!
And since we did have someone to take our photo…
I love me a rainbow…
I am so glad I remembered that Lush was on Michigan Avenue, and as luck would have it it was directly on our way back to the car!!
A new margarita flavor!
Orange pineapple!! I’m starting with two. Hoping they are just as delicious as my favorite Strawberry Lime…
Decent, but not even close to my fave.
DAMN Y’ALL. I’M FLABBERGASTED.
Can I talk to you for a second about my wattle? 🦃 I hate it, but I’ve considered it a badge of honor🎖for having lost 141# ⚖️ (now a bit less but let’s not go there in this post). 😂 But look what happened recently in just eight days?
DAMN Y’ALL. I’M FLABBERGASTED. I expected this to take at least a month or two IF IT EVEN WORKED. And it took days. DAYS Y’ALL.
(I’ve also been using it on my face but was so concentrated on watching for neck results that I didn’t take a direct face before shot. I’ve used it sporadically in the past but I’m determined to be religious about it going forward…because look at those results?!)
Snow. Blurgh.
I certainly wasn’t expecting this when we walked out of Costco…especially considering it actually felt warm(ish) today.
Apparently not a Whovian.
Someone at the Costco gas station just asked Tom what was up with the cheese grater. 😂
