image by http://www.theroguenews.com
Some good friends of mine were watching the news two years ago during a feature on Black Friday shoppers. They were commenting to each other “who in their right mind does that!?” When who splashes across the screen cheering and laughing and waving to cameras? Me. It was a proud moment. My sister and I were some of the first through the doors at Target, I was jumping with happy excitement, she was doing high kicks for the camera. It was fun.
A lot of people despise the whole idea of Black Friday (my husband is in this category). My family and I happen to love it. It is a way to stretch your dollar. We strategize, plan, and really get into it. Often we each make our lists and then assign one adult to each store, then we meet and exchange purchases. It’s our very own running of the bulls if you will and we are veterans of the sport. During the past few years however, even the die hards like us feel it is becoming tainted. Two things kinda take the fun out of it for me: early openings, on Thanksgiving, and I do not like the greediness aspect of it all. So, this year I decided to share some secrets and give you my Top 10 Survival Guide tips. enjoy and be careful out there!
image by http://www.blairphillipsphotographyblog.com
10. If you can buy it online, buy it online.
9. Go in pairs. One of you saves a place in the check out line, the other gets the stuff. The check out lines are the most time consuming part of Black Friday. Grab it, buy it, and move on!
8. Prioritize your shopping. Scour the ads if you have to, but be ready.
7. Remember your neighbor and teacher gifts. Neighbors, if you are reading this, yes I buy your gifts on Black Friday every. year. (But you already knew I like a bargain!)
6. Plan beyond Christmas morning. I buy all the pants my kids will need for an entire year. I also buy 20 or so birthday gifts– it’s fun to show up to a party with a $20 gift that actually cost $6 and I didn’t have to run to the store to get!
5. Bring your own shopping bag. Carts are time consuming and cumbersome. It’s about time people! Big blue IKEA bags are my personal favorite.
4. Remember the rebates! Mail in your rebates the SAME day so you don’t forget! Also, usually you can not receive more than one rebate per receipt, per household. So, if you have to buy two of the same rebated item make sure it’s on a separate receipt and you have another address that it can be mailed to.
3. If there is something you really need go to the store the day before and scout it out. One year I was in charge of Kohls, with seven peoples shopping lists. My sister and I went on Wednesday night and made a map. Ha! Besides getting everything we needed, we could help other shoppers too!
2. Do you really need/want it? I mean, really? If you don’t, don’t grab it. If you are saving $10 go home and get some sleep… if you’re saving $1000 I’ll save you a place in line friend.
1. Play nice. Be kind to the fellow shoppers and be kind to the employees! Pushing, shouting, stealing from carts or being rude to store employees will get you a first class ticket to the naughty list. Stay calm and shop on.
Are you starting to feel the Christmas rush? I am… as I pull out the boxes I get a little more excited (and a little more anxious) with each decoration.
Lately I have seen pom pom garlands everywhere. Being the shameless cheapie that I am there is now way I am going to pay $19 for a 5 foot garland! That is the going rate at Pottery Barn, Land of Nod, even online boutiques. Turns our they are sooooooooo easy and soooooooo cheap, so basically it’s a perfect project. I used Christmas colors, because ’tis the season, but you can make it out of any color for any room.
Materials needed:
- Pack of pom poms, I bought a pack of 90 from the dollar store!
- Embroidery floss, from Michael’s for $.50 (if you don’t know what it is, it looks like this)
- Quilting needle (a normal needle will be fine, but it’s hard to thread the embroidery floss into a small eye)
- An empty paper towel roll for storage
Unravel your floss, I made a 10 foot garland with 90 pom poms of various sizes by spacing the pom poms about 2 or 3 inches apart. Thread the needle with your floss and poke through the center of each pom pom.
It’s that easy, seriously. I wanted my garland to be random. Super easy when there is an eager four-year-old (dirty fingernails and all) to help.
Space the pom poms down the floss until you’re happy.
I might just use this on my mantle, so easy and so festive. When you’re ready to store your garland, use an empty paper towel roll, they tangle easily.
I hope you make one! Happy Creating!
Happy Friday! This might be my last Fix It Friday post because, well, it’s more fun to make a new project than fix an old one! We had a huge windstorm/rainstorm blow threw a little bit ago (okay, not hurricane big, just desert big) and it left our drain pipe looking like this:
With winter creeping up, making sure your drainpipes are clean from leaves and debris and working well is vital. Plus, let’s keep the water in our showers and pools, not in the foundation!
A disclaimer before I start, water can be a beast on homes. I’m talking a little bit over a long period of time can bring the whole thing down. You probably knew that already, make sure you patch and direct water well and if you doubt your ability, ask a professional first!
Materials:
- stucco patch (or a patch for your specific exterior)
- drill
- ladder
- rain gutter brackets
The first step was to patch the stucco exterior where the previous screws ripped out. Don’t skip this step, you really don’t want water in your walls!
I used stucco patch from the hardware store. You can tint it to match your walls, but I knew mine wouldn’t show, so I just went cheapy white. After applying allow it to dry well, check the instructions of your specific product. A second coat may be needed, take your time and do this step correctly to avoid water damage.
The final step is a two-person job, one to hold the drainpipe and one to drill. We re-positioned and reused the drainpipe brackets that were used before by moving the bracket about two inches, drilling, and reattaching it, then adding additional brackets for extra stability. You can purchase the brackets at a hardware store, they catch on each side of the drainpipe and drill into the exterior wall:
This is a necessary project, but not necessarily fun… I hope the info above helps.
Have a great weekend… go fix something!
Yesterday was a great day! The featured post on Remodleaholic was awesome and I was busy celebrating daughter’s 1st birthday… so this printable has perfect timing.
Allow me to explain. During my girl trip last weekend my older sister Lisa had a birthday. It was all fun and games until a different sister Stacy got hungry, and when she gets hungry she drops a little on the nice totem pole if you know what I mean. So there we were, all eight of us slammed into a minivan while Lisa decided on the dinner venue, then a beautiful conversation graced the universe. Stacy said something like (actually exactly like), “stop! birthday’s are stupid, I’m sick of celebrating yours” Lisa’s reply was complete genius, “Stacy, studies have shown… the more birthdays you have, the longer you’ll live.”
I’m still laughing. Enjoy all!
