Now that my husband has retired, we decided to take a lot of car trips around the Western United States. The only problem was our car situation. I drive a two-door RAV4 that’s wonderful around town since I can easily park it in any postage stamp-sized space. It’s not a road car, however. My husband’s…
I can hardly believe it but I’ve now owned my latest laptop — a Dell Inspiron — for nearly three years. When first purchased, it was all sparkly and new and fast and well, just about everything I wanted. It’s still pretty darn fast and the hard drive has gobs of space on it, but…
The Friday after Thanksgiving in the United States is termed Black Friday, and signals the start of the holiday shopping season. It’s become rather controversial the last few years as stores open earlier and earlier. This year, instead of beginning Black Friday sales at midnight, some stores opened on Thanksgiving evening. My local online paper…
Thrift stores are the land of magical things. On any given day you can luck into such finds as an antique leather pouf from Turkey, sporting fringe and little bells and embroidered all over with camels, or vintage blue and white mixing bowls, or collectible porcelain. I even found a grotesque wallet once, made from…
Once upon a time, in an economy much better than the one we have today, going out of business sales were a gleeful event for me. I would cheerfully scavenge through the picked over aisles looking for hidden treasures and incredible “steals”. I do my Christmas shopping all year long, so many of my finds…
Is it just me, or are outlet deals not as good as they used to be? I went down to Niagara-on-the-Lake this weekend, to catch some Shaw Festival and outlet shopping. “My Fair Lady” wasn’t as good as I’d hoped, but then the Rex Harrison/Audrey Hepburn movie is so firmly engrained in my head that I’m…
I’ve resisted for a number of years, but have finally realized it’s time to do it. Yes, I absolutely, positively must replace my old living room furniture. My sofa and loveseat looked quite nice when I originally purchased them. But they’ve finally started to show their age. No matter how many new pillows I place…
Getting back to Canada in mid-January, after summer in the southern hemisphere, has its disadvantages, but there’s definitely one huge plus: Sales. Sales sales sales. And since all the stores will be trying to get rid of their winter merchandise, it’s the perfect time to shop for boots, right?
I love giving books for Christmas and birthdays, but for some people this is not feasible, as they don’t like reading or don’t like movies, or I just don’t know enough about their tastes to choose just the right gift for them. This leaves me with edibles (excellent gifts! as long as you’re sure about…
Confession time: Sometimes, when I have to do some work I really dislike, I bribe myself with rewards. It’s not very grown-up in me, but what can I say? It often works. So when it’s time to weed the vegetable bed, or tidy my desk, I tell myself, if you finish that now, you may…
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