The Bus is Leaving...

A great friend and fellow estate sale enthusiast recently moved back from California... she needs a few additional feathers to plump her nest and, fortunately, the heat and humidity abated just a bit... allowing us a small window to hit some local estate sales with a vengeance... since my nest is over plumped, I concentrated on practical purchases...

...for the most part anyway... you like?

Do Bees Have Knees?

My favorite time to shop at the mall is when it's as deserted as possible... last weekend presented just such an opportunity... a sunny day... glorious blue skies... still a bit on the humid side for my taste (but apparently not for most others)... I got a tall coffee and had a nice leisurely amble through my favorite stores... I always stop into Williams-Sonoma and make a beeline to the back of the store where they display their SALE merchandise... I rarely come away empty-handed and this time was no exception... I found a gorgeous set of botanical bee towels for a tiny fraction of their original price... YUM! Always become familiar with sales and clearance areas in your favorite shops and make it a point to see what little treasure might be lurking there...

We Need a Little Christmas...in July...

It seems especially appropriate to celebrate Christmas in July with the unending string of 90 degree, humid misery we've been experiencing this year... so pop in a holiday movie... read a holiday novel... shop a holiday sale... just skip the hot cocoa...

Can I Have Your Autograph??

Congratulations to two of the sweetest "things" to ever grace a Seussical stage!

Employee of the Month...

I shopped for new clothes dryer this weekend. My old dryer tumbled its last towel some days before. I went to a department store, found its replacement on my own within five minutes of entering the appliance floor and spent the next twenty minutes being harangued by a sales associate about extended warranties... a concept I loathe and do not participate in ...ever

My odd consumer point of view being... I am buying a not inexpensive, branded product from a nationally recognized and long established company... who in turn is making a comfortable profit on the sale itself... and whom I expect, as extraordinary as it may seem, to Stand.Behind.Their.Product.

Obviously, I would not expect this courtesy had I purchased an appliance from the back of a pickup truck in some out-of-the-way alley in Tijuana...

Apparently, my sales associate and I did not see eye-to-eye on this concept and was quite put out that I was unwilling to spend an additional ninety dollars to insure my dryer past its first year of service... as he went on to let me know in no uncertain terms that I would be facing a one hundred and ten dollar service charge each and every time something went wrong after the first year. I assured him that if this expensive behemoth kicked up its heels after a mere twelve months' of service, it would be residing prominently back on the same department floor we were currently occupying... as punishment, all other comments to me necessary to complete the transaction were directed to some distant point over my left shoulder...

...the customer is always right... ...right?

Express Yourself...

Find these cards...

they're GROOVY man...

sorry...

...but they are...

I first encountered them at my local Borders...

maybe you can too...

that would be extra GROOVY...

and no...I'm obviously not sorry at all...

I'm too GROOVY for that...

man.

A Little Morning Munch...

I like making my own granola... when it's cool enough to fire up the oven that is... but since this Summer has been beastly hot, I've had to experiment with readymade granola in order to get my weekday morning yogurt and granola fix... After many frogs... I've found a prince... great taste... and surprisingly low on the carb and sugar meter... for granola. It comes in many varieties... but the fruit and nut is my tried and true... and its resealable bag makes it perfect for desk drawer storage... what more could you ask for? (Well, other than George Clooney serving you your bowl of granola maybe...)