Tag Archives: shopping

I heart fabric shopping!

Posted by sunshineandsometea in Uncategorized and tagged with , , , , ,

Hope your weekend was great!  I finally got out to spend some of my birthday gift cards yesterday.  Of course, they were almost all for crafty-type places.  I ended up with quite a haul of fabric for future projects!

Fat quarters were on sale for $1 each, so I got a ton:

And there were a few others on the bolt that I couldn’t resist.  The linen (at the very top of the pic below, above the Star Wars fabric) was a pre-planned purchase.  I am thinking about trying some sunglasses cases with that.  The rest will be used for about a million other projects I have floating around my head.  I wish I could sew full time so that I could get done everything I want to do!

Isn’t that yellow floral awesome?  I’m not sure why, but I have been really drawn to the yellow/black/white color combo lately.  I actually love how it looks with that black & white check fabric…hmmm…

Oh, and the Star Wars fabric is for Tadd.  He wants me to make him a wallet out of it!  We’ll see how that turns out.

Kicking fall off a little early.

Posted by sunshineandsometea in Crafts & Decor and tagged with , , , , , , ,

I know it’s super early, but I already had Tadd pull out the fall decor boxes…

and got to work!  We didn’t have anything else planned today, so it seemed like a good way to pass the time doing something productive.  The house is starting to look quite festive!  I finished the Dollar Tree tray craft I have been talking about all week and it is looking cute!  I hope to show you what I did sometime this week, so stay tuned for that.

We also went to Bath & Body Works, where I got my fall/Halloween handsoaps (I am a total sucker for them…especially the seasonal ones).  Look at the cute purple & black spider pump topper!

The scents they have for fall are REALLY good this year, old classics and new ones too; sweet cinnamon pumpkin, green candy apple, orchard leaves, sour drop, marshmallow, caramel apple, creamy pumpkin, cranapple crisp, cinnamon raisin cookie, and pumpkin caramel latte.

Oh, and as promised, this is the wall art we bought for the kitchen from Hobby Lobby for $25!  I love it!  Although now I am thinking this corner of the room needs some red to be incorporated somehow.  It’s all looking a little too neutral for me.

Happy September!!!

Posted by sunshineandsometea in Local Central Florida and tagged with , , , , , , , , ,

I can’t tell you how happy I am that the summer months are OVER!  I know in Florida that this absolutely does NOT mean that summer weather is over (we probably have another 6 weeks or so of that), but at least it means I can very nicely request that my husband dig into our “Harry Potter closet” (that’s what we call the closet that goes under our stairwell) this weekend to retrieve the bins of fall and Halloween decor.  I’m not sure if I will really start decorating this weekend or next, but it’s coming…SOON!

It also means that Tadd and I officially made it through our No-Spend August challenge!

We officially met our goal of 18 days in August without spending any money.  It wasn’t always fun, but I can’t tell you how much it helped me realize how much spending a little here and there, without planning, can add up quickly!  It was so nice to see a good sized extra buffer in our checking account, and it made planning our budget SO much easier because there were very very few random, spur-of-the-moment expenses (Starbucks, lunches out, etc).  We planned ahead, spent based on our plans, and anytime we THOUGHT we “needed” something we would challenge ourselves to really think about if it was a need, want, or something we could put off for another day.  I think the biggest tip I took away is cutting out the random little trips to the grocery store!  I always end up spending more than planned if I run into Publix for “just a couple of things”.  We only went grocery shopping 3 times during the month, and all three trips were heavily planned out and meant to last until the next planned grocery trip.  All in all, Tadd and I really value what we gained from the challenge and think we may do another one after the holidays.

I celebrated making it through the challenge by going to Hobby Lobby after work!  Yes, after learning my lesson about unplanned spending, I rewarded myself by doing some unplanned spending…I know…  But, I got a few items that I plan to use on that tiny Dollar Tree wooden tray I got last week, which I spray painted black and plan to turn into a Halloween decoration this weekend.

I also got a large piece of framed wall art for the kitchen that I will show you later.  It goes with the French Bistro look I have going on.  And everything I got was on sale!  I think I spent about $30 total (and the wall art was originally $50 by itself).  So not too shabby.

Tadd and I also treated ourselves to a much-needed date night last night!  We decided to go to Pannullo’s Italian Restaurant on Park Ave in Winter Park.  Once we decided when and where to go, I went on Restaurant.com (which is the site I mentioned previously in this post) and scored a $25 off $45 certificate for $3, using their current 80% off promo code TASTY!  We got there around 7:30 and to our amazement, the weather was comfortable enough for us to sit outside and enjoy the charming atmosphere of Park Avenue.  We each had one adult beverge, shared an appetizer (the cheese triangles…mmmm), salads, bread, and 2 entrees (I had chicken piccata, which was delicious…Tadd had the lobster ravioli), and our bill including tip came to about $50.  Not bad for a nice evening out.  I really, truly love Restaurants.com!

Cheese triangles!

Greek Salad

Chicken Piccata

What is your favorite way to spend a date night?

TGIF and Happy Labor Day!!!  Let’s get this long weekend started!

Tuesday’s Tip: Threadless.com T-shirts

Posted by sunshineandsometea in Memes and tagged with , , , ,

Who doesn’t love a good, clever novelty t-shirt?  Even if you are not fond of wearing them yourself, you can at least chuckle a bit when you see someone else wearing one.  And chances are, we are all probably close to at least one person who loves them (which makes them great for gifts!).

Enter Threadless.com, the website where you can order some of the funniest, most creative, and most clever t-shirts on the web.  One of the interesting things about Threadless, is that anyone can submit a design for them to use on their apparel. Users vote on which designs they would like to see printed, and the winning designers get paid for their submissions.   Click here for more info on submitting designs and how it works.

I have used the site in the past to buy shirts as gifts for my husband, brother, and friends, and they have all been much-loved.  Here are some of the ones I have purchased:

"Of The Dead" (for my zombie movie loving husband)

"MP(3)" (for my rockstar brother)

Some of the other ones I have bought are now out of print, but they included a shirt that showed an empty roll of toilet paper with the caption “WHAT WOULD MACGUYVER DO?”, and a shirt done in the style of an Ikea instruction manual showing how to put a viking ship together in pieces, with the word “Vikea” in the Ikea logo font, and a shirt showing Darth Vader pruning a topiary into the shape of the Death Star.  All goofy, but all very clever, cute, and funny.

Since I first became a customer of Threadless.com, they have branched out into hoodies, tote bags, and even baby onesies.  Check out this cute Baby Godzilla onesie currently on clearance for $10, perfect for your adorable “little monster”!:

"Baby Godzilla"

Fans of The Cure (like me!) will love this one which offers a literal word-for-word translation of the lyrics of Friday I’m In Love.  “I don’t care if Monday’s blue, Tuesday’s gray and Wednesday too.  Thursday I don’t care about you, it’s Friday, I’m in love!…”

"Friday, I'm In Love!"

My husband has a thing for squirrels (not sure why, he just likes them…one Christmas I got him a squirrel calendar for his office and he was THRILLED).  How cute is this for fall/football season?:

"All-Conference Squirrel" FRONT

"All-Conference Squirrel" BACK

See what I mean?  Cute/clever/funny/whimsical…Great for gifts, and sometimes they even have sales where they have a ton of designs for $10 each!  I know some of the menfolk in my life will be getting stuff from this site over the holidays!  Maybe one of these days I will finally get one for me too.

Disclaimer: Thoughts are my own.  I am not being paid to make the aforementioned
statements.  Simply reviewing products and providing tips of items that I love,
to share with my readers.

Autumn To-Do List!

Posted by sunshineandsometea in Uncategorized and tagged with , , , , , , , ,

Can you believe it’s almost September?  Crazy how this summer (and this year!) has flown.  I had a teensy taste of fall-like weather this past weekend in Vermont and it was ever-so-beautiful.  It was the kind of weather that was warm but comfortable during the daytime, but had you grabbing a light sweatshirt or jacket in the evenings.  Just gorgeous!

I am longing for that beautiful weather for this weekend.  Although I am grateful that Hurricane Irene seems to be passing us by (but endangering my friends & family up north…thinking of you all and hoping everyone stays safe!), I noticed that the high temps tomorrow are in the mid-90′sF and the heat index is showing 110F!!  I have plans to be outdoors for most of tomorrow…and during the hottest part of the day too…ugh!  So to escape nasty thoughts of surface-of-the-sun temps and hurricanes, let’s turn our attention to something much more pleasant…

In keeping with my Summer List that I have been working on these past few months, I have decided to publish an Autumn List, which you should see as a new tab at the top of my blog.  I plan to add to it as I go, but I think what I have so far is a good start.  It’s my favorite season, so every year I try to pack in as much fall seasonal stuff as possible and really savor all the little fun and extra-special things that I can this time of year.

Here is what I have so far:

  • Corn maze
  • Carve/decorate pumpkins.
  • Epcot Food & Wine Festival
  • Bake something with pumpkin.
  • Haunted Hayride @ Ft Wilderness
  • Ghost tour
  • Try making mulled wine
  • Do some fall/Halloween crafting
  • Decorate for Thanksgiving.
  • Go on a mini-shopping spree for fall stuff; hand soap, candles, decorations, etc.

What fall traditions do you have?  Any ideas for my list?  Unfortunately since I live in the sub-tropics, we don’t really have an authentic autumn…the leaves don’t change, we can’t go apple-picking, and all of our pumpkins have to be shipped in from elsewhere.  It’s a little bit of a bummer, but we do what we can to recreate the same feeling where we are able.  Maybe it’s one of the reasons I like decorating for it so much.

Anyways, TGIF and have a great weekend!

An Update on this “No Spend” thing.

Posted by sunshineandsometea in Weekend Update and tagged with , , , , , , , , , ,

So I am officially 1 week into my No Spend August challenge.  We are doing quite well, as we have only spent money 2 days so far in August.

We had made prior plans for a friend’s birthday celebration already and knew we would be spending on Saturday, so Tadd also went ahead and got his haircut and we gassed up the car on Saturday.  Then we went down to a new place in downtown Orlando called Frank & Steins.  As the name suggests, they specialize in hot dogs and beer, and the whole place has a sort of sports bar feel, with board games and video games (even skiball) to play while you are eating and drinking.  Being that I am not a huge fan of hot dogs, I had a pretzel with queso and started out with a La Fin Du Monde…one of my all time favorite beers!  I was delighted to see it on the menu, as not too many bars carry it around here.  After that I switched to a witbier that I had never tried before called Blanch de Bruxelles.  Loved it!

So we got ALL of our spending done within the confines of Saturday.  The rest of the weekend, we did not spend a DIME.  I also overcame a huge temptation Saturday morning.  Confession: I really like the Boney Bunch at Yankee Candle.  In case you don’t already know, Boney Bunch is a line of really cute and extremely popular Halloween decorations and candle holders that Yankee has put out every year for the past few years.  They have the big preview event the first weekend in August, which means this year it fell on this past Saturday, and many of the more popular items sell out really really quickly.  Before we had implemented the challenge, I had told Tadd that I would definitely be going to the Boney Bunch preview event and purchasing ONE item.  BUT, I did the same thing last year (promised Tadd and myself that I would only buy ONE item) and ended up with all of this:

They always end up having a lot of those “Spend $XX, get this free!” and “Spend $XX, get this super-fun extra thing for only $10 more!” deals, which I end up getting suckered into.  Because instead of just getting one item for $20, I ended up with all of this for $60-something!  But seriously, aren’t they adorable!?!  Just look at that salt & pepper shaker set!  So cute!  I could not resist…

I was quite excited about this event, but in the end I decided that succeeding in this challenge meant sacrificing stuff like this.  So I did the right thing and decided to stay home.  I already have Boney Bunch stuff from the past 2 years to decorate my house with, so I will be good.

I also heard that Dollar Tree put out their fall and Halloween stuff and that is KILLING me!  I so want to go check it out, but I won’t.  It doesn’t help that a bunch of my downtime this weekend was spent perusing blogs for fall decorating tips and craft ideas.  This challenge is NO FUN, I tell you!  I am going to be going NUTS with fall decor shopping on Sept 1st, no question.

I did come up with some no-spend projects that I want to get done around the house.  Hopefully we can work on some of it next weekend.  The main one I am looking forward to is moving the desk that is currently sitting in our loft collecting dust (because we never use our loft), into our living room.  I want to set up a laptop station for myself so I can blog at a proper desk, but still be in the middle of all the action in the house.  We are going to move it to that huge empty space that has been bugging me in our living room since we moved in.  This is one of those things that I’m really not sure why I didn’t think of it sooner.  But I can’t wait!  Hopefully it ends up the way I picture it in my head.

Hope everyone has a great week!

Tuesday’s Tip: No Spend August

Posted by sunshineandsometea in Uncategorized and tagged with , , , , ,

I know usually I use Tuesday’s Tip to talk about a product that I love and want to share.  But today I am going to talk about a personal challenge that I have taken on for the month of August.  Maybe you will be inspired to use this tip for yourself!

“No Spend” August!

Basically the challenge is as simple as the name suggests…Don’t spend money!  I have seen monthly message board threads on this for YEARS in the budget section of the DisBoards.com website.  As a matter of fact, HERE is a link to their thread for this month’s challenge.  I also heard a “No Spend” challenge discussed on the 7/15 episode of the Dis Unplugged podcast.  Sarah over at Thrifty Decor Chick did a similar challenge last month where she vowed to not spend any money on DIY or decor items during the month of July.

The “No Spend” challenge can be different things to different people.  You can make up your own rules.  The only unifying rule is that you push yourself to not spend where you would have otherwise spent, and to stop and think before you do spend.  Isn’t it so true that, with debit cards readily available and accepted everywhere, it’s so easy to just spend without thinking?  This challenge will make you stop and think: “Do I REALLY need that thingamabob?” or “Can I wait awhile to get that whatchacallit?”  Mindless daily spending can really add up!

Our goal is that we are going to try not to spend any money on at least 18 out of the 31 days in August.  We are trying to be realistic based on the fact that I am going on a trip during August, and we have a few events that we are scheduled to attend that require spending money.  Plus, of course we need groceries and gas, although we are going to do our best to spend wisely on the days where we do have to spend money.  We have also decided that paying bills and highway tolls do not count as spending for the purpose of this particular challenge.

Lately our biggest culprit has been going to the grocery store too much.  We have been going several times each week with a specific item or set of items in mind, and every single time we end up with way more than we intended on getting.  Spending $30-$50 a few times per week can really add up!  Before we started the challenge, we went on a big grocery shopping trip with the intention of making it last two weeks without having to go back.  I used coupons, purchased carefully, and we ended up with an overflowing cart-full of groceries for $98.95.  Whatever we ended up with is all we are getting for two weeks!

Wish us luck as we embark on this challenge.  I hope we each learn something from it, and save a significant amount of money while we are at it.  If you do a challenge, let me know!  Maybe we can keep each other accountable.

Weekend Update

Posted by sunshineandsometea in Weekend Update and tagged with , , , , , , , ,

Friday night was very much like the previous Friday night.  Very low key.  We had grilled brats with spicy mustard and pierogies for dinner, and  I mixed up a small pitcher of simple rum punch (light rum, orange juice, and a little grenadine) for Tadd and I to share, and we watched some TV and vegged a bit.  By 10:30 I was sleepy and went to bed (pathetic, huh?).

Kodak Moment: Tadd teaching Keith how to tie a tie.

Saturday morning, we started to work on the powder room a bit, but ran into the aforementioned snag, when Tadd accidentally tried to install the toilet paper holder over a stud.  Then we took Keith to a job interview in the early afternoon.  While he was busy with that, Tadd and I headed over to check out the lighting clearance at Lowes.  Unfortunately, the one light we liked (which was originally $80, marked down to $20!) was sold out.  Early bird gets the worm, indeed.  Luckily Tadd was able to pick up a stud finder while we were there, to prevent future problems with the powder room, so the trip wasn’t totally wasted.

As we were checking out, Keith texted Tadd to say his interview was done.  The place he interviewed for is a new place which doesn’t actually open for another month or so.  So unfortunately the current interviews are more of a screening process and he wouldn’t start actually working for awhile yet.  He thinks it went well, though, and they stated he would get a call back in 2 weeks for a 2nd interview.  Who knows if Keith will still be around then, but aside from that it sounds promising.  He has 2 more interviews this week with 2 other companies.  Because things seemed to go well for him, and he really made the effort to prepare for this interview, we decided to treat Keith to lunch at Tijuana Flats, where he promptly told us that the only Mexican (errr..Tex/Mex, really) food he had ever had was Taco Bell!  The kid continues to amaze me with the stuff he hasn’t heard of, tried, or experienced.  Tijuana Flats was a big hit with him.

We headed home to relax for awhile before Tadd and I left Keith behind to meet up with another couple down at Disney World on Saturday night.  Read about our lovely evening here if you haven’t already!

Sunday morning, we were on a mission to spend some quality time at our local IKEA store, which I am sure most of you know is always an epic event.  We started with breakfast, because you always need to fuel up before a jaunt through any IKEA, which can sometimes last several hours, because it literally goes on and on, seemingly without end.  Only $8 total for 2 large breakfasts (bacon, eggs, french toast sticks, and hash browns), a couple small pastries, and 3 coffees.  Bargain!

The only things I knew for sure I wanted to get here were my 2 $9 porch planters, which we did get.  But I also wanted to browse around for a couple of furniture pieces to buy sometime in the near future.  I want some kind of shelf/hutch type of piece for the living room, and I wanted to look at buffets for the dining room.  I already pretty much know which buffet I want, which matches my dining room set (I know, it’s bad to go too matchy, but I love this furniture line!):

LEKSVIK Sideboard, $225

And this is what we are looking at for the living room, but we would get glass doors to go over the shelves (for an extra $50).  Still not sure if we want to get it in white or black…

SMÅDAL Bookcase with drawer, white $99.00

AND…Now I find myself wanting to swap out our cheapie little entryway table/shelf with something prettier (and with more storage!) like this:

EDLAND Chest with 2 drawers, gray $199.00

Anyways, by the time we got to the art/decor/candles/garden/patio portion of our trek through IKEA, Tadd had just about had it with my slow, careful meandering and Keith was complaining that his feet hurt.  So I relented and we rushed through the last part of the store, grabbed the planters in the gardening section, and got in line to check out.

Once we finally got to the car, Tadd softened a bit and graciously suggested that we check out what looked like a fairly large Dollar Tree in a shopping plaza near IKEA.  I love Dollar Tree!  Especially the big ones…the location closest to my house is tiny, so I love any opportunity to check out other locations.  While we were there, I finally (FINALLY!) bought the supplies to make those $2 hurricane candle holders that were so popular in the DIY blog world last winter.  Once I get the right kind of adhesive for the project, I will show you exactly what I mean.  Super easy and very cute.  It’s like something straight out of Pottery Barn, but it will only cost you $2 to make with very little effort or skill.  So stay tuned for that!

After shopping, we came home and the boys started priming the vanity cabinets.  One coat of primer is as far as we got, but it’s a start!  We pretty much relaxed the rest of the day and enjoyed what little was left of the weekend.

Weekend Update

Posted by sunshineandsometea in Weekend Update and tagged with , , , , ,

We should have 3 day weekends every weekend.  Seriously!  I am all for switching to a 10 hour/4 days per week schedule.

As mentioned previously, we purposefully stayed low key this weekend and it was wonderful.

Friday night I met a bunch of my girlfriends at Olive Garden for a final farewell to one of our besties.  She has made the move to South Carolina and we are all so sad!  It was so nice to have one last meal together to wish her well on her journey.

Speaking of Journey…Journey’s song “Don’t Stop Believin” is the unofficial theme song for our group of friends.  So our last evening with our friend would not have been complete without it.  Much to our fellow diners chagrin, we played it on a cell phone right there in the Olive Garden dining room (albeit, at a low-ish volume) and we all (fairly quietly) sang the song together and danced a bit in our chairs.  Our waitress even got into it!  It was a subdued but fitting send off.  Now whenever I hear that song I get a little misty-eyed.  We concluded our evening with a good cry together in the parking lot and some big group hugs.  Goodbyes are so hard sometimes!  Of course we will all see each other soon, as we have plans to meet in Savannah this fall for a big girls only reunion weekend!

Birthday gift to me.

Saturday afternoon, two of my friends and I went shopping.  I had some birthday money burning a hole in my pocket, so we went to our favorite purse purveyor and I got myself a really cute summer handbag.  Actually we each got one.  And then we each got a new piece of jewelry.  And then we proceeded to my favorite wine store, Total Wine, and we each bought at least 1 bottle of wine (*ahem* I got 3!).  I realized that as fun as it is to shop together, we really egg each other on in spending money, which is both awesome and not awesome at the same time.  So we ended our shopping spree with three new purses, several new jewelry items, and I think 6 or 7 bottles of wine between the three of us.  We got some good bargains, so it’s not so bad.

After shopping, we went to Houlihans and proceeded to over order off of their “small bites” menu so badly that our waiter was laughing at us.  Seriously, we saw “small bites” and figured if we each got 2 items, it would be just enough to share everything and be full at the end (did I mention we were all starving at this point?).  We also each got the Foursquare check-in deal where we each got a free order of “frites”.  Holy crap was that a lot of food!!!  We had just enough room on the surface of our huge booth to fit everything.  SO embarrassing but so funny too.

I wear my heart in my beer.

I wear my heart in my beer.

We concluded our evening at a local beer/wine bar, Redlight Redlight.  I am trying to get more of my girlfriends into beer, especially craft beer, so I thought this would be a good place for them to try some interesting varieties.  We tried a Cream Ale, a couple of Left Hand Sawtooths, and a Terrapin Sunray Wheat.  Sunray was my favorite, but I am usually a big fan of wheat beers.  Oh, and a glass of mead, which is definitely not my thing.  Too sweet!  I love that the bartenders draw pictures in your foam.  I got a heart!

The rest of the weekend was ALL downtime, which was much needed.  Tadd cobbled together a PC for me to play Sims 3 on, so I started over with a new town.  I love that game, but I always feel like I get sucked into a time warp when I play.  Hours go by way too quickly!  We ordered chinese on Sunday afternoon, leftovers for dinner, and made brats and pierogies on Monday, watched a lot of TV, cuddled with our kitties on the couch, and just did a whole lot of nothing.  I stayed in my PJs all day yesterday, which made me feel like a slob but was really nice at the same time.

And thus ends my glorious 3 day weekend.  But even though it’s over, we now have a short week to look forward to.  It’s the gift that keeps on giving.  How much longer until Fourth of July weekend???