Date night can`t get any better

My DH out did himself this evening for date night! He accompanied me to the opening day of Guy`s Frenchy.

$52.00 later, we left the store with (for him) 2 pairs of Eddy Bauer jeans, 3 pairs of khakis, and 2 shirts (one a Land`s End). For moi, we found a pair of pants with embroidery on the legs, and a pair of Old Navy yoga pants with price tags and labels still intact. Last week I paid $20.00 for a similar pair of yoga pants at Mark`s Work Wear house.

Being an avid reader, I also picked 4 novels.  At $1.35 a novel, I will have plenty to read.

For the sewing room I found  J C Penney stagecoach  style cotton blinds in this  butterfly print .

The fun did not end with the shopping.  We then went to Subway! No small wonder I love that man.

Guy`s is about 1 km from my home.  My new exercise regime will include a nightly walk with my exercise buddy Win to and from the store.  We have made a pact that we  can only buy what  we can carry home.   If you see either one of us  pushing a shopping cart along the main drag some evening, then we are  either considering being  bag ladies or buying too much.

I love a bargain

During the summer months, I spend Saturday mornings going to yard sales.  Best selling books from 2 years ago I buy at the Great Canadian Dollars store for $3.00.  When I finish reading these, I trade them at Reads in Fredericton towards other books.   Most of my clothing comes from Value Village or other type of reassigned clothing stores.  I shop for the best price and rarely buy anything that has not been discounted.  Groceries shopping is no exception.    Today was an exceptionally  good discount day at the local Sobeys, including 10x the Air mile points on orders over $50.00.

I am a big fan of the Europe`s Best Frozen Fruit and vegetables line, especially the frozen raspberries.   This past summer I found coupons for $2.00 off a bag of frozen fruit.   This morning I came across a coupon for a free bag of vegetables with every purchase of two bags of frozen fruit.   Not only did I get a bag of vegetables free, I also received $2.00 off each bag of fruit I purchased.  For a total of $12.00, I purchased $27.00 in frozen fruits and vegetables.   I prefer fresh fruit and vegetables, but during the cold months of winter frozen taste better than  produce trucked in from California.  Besides deep dish berry pie or Pavlova will help warm these dark winter days.

My china collection

Remember the blue and white china dish fabric I showed a few weeks back?  Here is the same dish pattern in a brand new style.  The dress is entitled `Memories of Beijing`.  Talk about recycling.

I`ve been saving my broken dishes to make a collage, never thought of a dress.

To see more of the artist`s work, go here

Another sign

This morning at the local mall I noticed a huge sign announcing `Coming Soon! Guy`s Frenchy.   Now that sign brought joy to my heart.  The highlight of my trips to Fredericton, Moncton and Saint John is always a shopping spree at Guy`s.

Sometimes when I digging through a bin of clothing, looking for brand names, I ponder why I don`t shop at the malls.   For $5.00 I can buy a Coldwater Creek blazer (often with the original price tag still attached) compared to buying one for 20 x the price at the mall or on-line.  Whether I pay $5.00 or $100.00 for an article of clothing when someone compliments me on my clothes, the compliment is just as sincere.

Still having problem with pictures, but I`m sure it should be resolved soon (hint, hint, Andrea).

Raise a glass to planet earth -throw away the plastic

Due to the controversy on the use of plastic containers I decided to throw away the Tupperware, and zip-lock plastic storage bins.   Every time I opened the cupboard an avalanche of plastic would land at my feet.

Luckily I found the Anchor Hocking glass storage set at Canadian Tire.   The sets cost about $20.00 but I was lucky to hit a half price sale and purchased two sets for the price of one.

These handy BPA-free glass containers are stackable as each one fits snugly into the other.  They  are perfect for storing leftovers as you can see at a glance what is in the container.  No more wondering if the green lid is the container or something past its prime.  Plus you can reheat the food right in the dish. The tempered glass is freezer, microwave, oven and dishwasher safe.

Growing up any leftovers were stored in glass bowls or mason jars.  Isn’t funny how everything old is new again?

November cottage block

This has to be the prettiest block yet! I love how Yvette used the tone on tone fabric, reminds me of the brown maples carpeting my yard.  Or should I say our leaves which are now carpeting the neighbour’s yards.  Our house is surrounded by maple trees on three sides.   Each wind storm leaves less in our yard and more scattered through the neigbourhood.

We mulch any leaves left, but our neighbours dutifully sweep their lawns and bag the debris.  I keep urging my husband to go over and ask for the leaves back to use as compost.  Sometimes my DH just doesn’t get my sense of humour.

To see more of her talent, check out Yvette’s BOM blog.

Paper or cloth?

For the last while I’ve been debating with myself  whether or not to replace our cloth napkins with paper.  With the upcoming flu season and the H1N1 threat, paper had a slight lead, though I found it difficult to justify the waste of paper and the expense.  Today cloth won hands down when I came across this incredible scrap buster project for cloth napkins

The very talented Ashley from Film in the Fridge has shared two patterns for making cloth napkins. Imagine how sweet these would made from Christmas scraps.

What do you think is best – paper or cloth?

Pumpkin coasters

Quilter’s connection magazine is the magazine for Canadian quilters.  When I received this month’s electronic newsletter, I was very pleased to see the main article titled  “Quilt Labels -why bother?”.

Along with this great article was a free Pumpkin coasters pattern to download  The only difficult part of making these coasters was finding buttons.

Apparently when I was house cleaning this spring I packed away my button bottle.   I don’t have a clue where it might be.   I’m hoping it is in the same box which contains my large glass bottle of selvage edges.

A quick trip to the local thrift shop and I had four leather buttons at a cost of 35 cents.

This pattern is very easy and a great way to use scraps and small pieces of batting.   I used a piece of white wool blanket for the batting.  The ribbons were recycled from a wedding invitation.

Here’s the pattern to download.

Remember vinyl?

August 12th is  Vinyl Record day in commemoration of Thomas Edison’s invention of the phonograph on August 12th, 1877.

The first vinyl I purchased was a 45 of Sonny & Cher’s The Beat goes On.   My DH’s first vinyl was Chuck Berry’s School Days.

What was your first vinyl?

Shopping with Miss Sarah

My DH and I spent last evening flaked out on the chesterfield after a busy day of shopping in Fredericton with Sarah.  Besides school supplies, we hit my favourite stores including a new one a friend told me about, the consignment shop  “Changes” .

Even though the Bank of Mam was paying for the shopping spree, Sarah was very frugal in her purchases.     We have a date to shop for new clothes in Moncton before the term begins, but with Sarah’s busy life we will need to do a bit of juggling.

The web page and the building of the New Brunswick College of Craft and Design are both undergoing renovations but still the building was bustling with activities.   As the front stairs were being repaired we had to go through the art gallery and ended up in the pottery section.  I was so busy gawking I forgot to neglected to take pictures.    I plan to spend a day in Fredericton soon exploring the gallery and nearby shops at my leisure.

Mitch, the book store guy was both helpful and jovial.   He answered Sarah’s questions, and made suggestions of items she could purchase later.    The bookstore has an incredible array of art supplies arranged by colour.   I was particularly interested in the large spool of colour thread, which would be perfect for machine quilting.   Half an hour and just over $400. later Sarah was one step closer to starting college.