Thrifting day with Julia!

today, julia and i had our second thrifting adventure! we decided we would look up a few thrifts local to goodwill and see what we could find. we had a pretty good day overall. it's been awhile since ive blogged but i thought it would be fun to share our adventure!! we planned to hit up smithfield, ri area...but we saw a facebook post from co-op consignment in putnam, ct and knew that HAD to be our first stop! they got some stunning vintage glass pieces in. we ended up picking up this adorable clear fairy light for our good friend (they have the most amazing indiana glass pieces in that we were drooling over!!) this is always one of my favorite places to shop--the owners and employees are all great, the store is clean, and there is always something new! i go there at least once a week and almost always pick something up!!

next stop brought up into chepatchet, ri to the twice blessed thrift shop at the union church. it was clean and well organzied. it was a super cute little building that was easy to navigate. prices were very good. Julia got a cute little basket and i got a victoria secret pj set. lady running the show was very lovely!

stop number three was another church...the church mouse thrift shop at the episcal church in smithfield. this one was a bit smaller and had mostly clothing but did have some super cute kitchen items and a little gift like section where the employees were with some gorgeous mouse cards that the lady who was there made herself! staff was friendly and were happy to explain anything we had questions on! julia got a uconn shirt...i picked up several cute items including some toms shoes and a pampered chef stoneware but im in the middle of a giant clean out and i didnt want to pick up to much today. prices were decent, a bit higher than a typical church thrift but very reasonable (i think shirts were $4 and dressy jackets $8)

from there we headed further into smithfield stopping at the pal humane society thrift...they closed in 15 minutes, we looked around the frist few aisles but the lady told us she wanted to close early because it was going to rain and not so kindly asked us to leave (just as i was picking up some books to buy!) so we liekly wont be back...got some quick lunch at mcds ($6 value menu for the win!) then headed to our main event, which was goodwill. i like this goodwill because it feels cleaner than the others (maybe its because its newer??) it tends to be hit or miss for finding goodies, but we did good today! julia found a few nice tops and a photo frame and i hit the toy motherload (and couldnt pass up an adorable rae dunn canister set!)

overall, we had a great day! we found a few new places to visit and got some fun items to enjoy!

Happy birthday, Grimace!!

 Today Boss babies number 3 & 4 had dentist appointments. number 4 has some funky dental stuff going on--but took all the poking and prodding (and removal of his spacer and bar) like a champ & number 3 had a clean dental bill of health so I took them to mcds in sturbridge for a treat. Both boys got a grimace meal with the promise that they will share their shakes with their mother. I liked that you get to choose between a big mac and nuggets (my kiddos are....well, kids...so they got nuggets). In addition, you get a french fry & a grimace shake. The shake is SO good. It's like a berry vanilla and a fun shade of purple! It was lunch time on a summer weekday so the place was SLAMMED--the manager running around like crazy was wonderful. She was jumping back and forth and making sure people were being taken care of. The young guy taking order was customer driven--he was very nice to the grouchy man who yelled at him because his food was taking 15 minutes--and then hand delivered it to his table when it was ready. he also came out to the lobby to make sure everyone who was waiting was good. We waited a bit but had a really good experience. side note--i filled up my SUV for $3.19 a gallon at that newer station on 131! there was one cheaper one--the older getty station near big bunny--but its a harder in and out. It's worth nothing since gas in my town is currently $3.79. 

baby boss #3 gives his shake feedback! 👍

waiting for food :) 

excellent ebay buyers

 Update on the usps case...I opened it on the day they instructed...the item started tracking again the very next day!! I guess it was found and sent along. I had JUST refunded the buyer (you have to have either sent a refund or a new item if filing a claim....). I was a bit stressed as it was a pricey item. I messaged the buyer right away to let her know it was en route...and the first thing she asked was "how do i pay you!" she was possibly the sweetest customer I've dealt with! I told her to wait until it arrived safe and sound (which was today!). With in 20 minutes of the delivery notification I got, she had messaged me, gotten my paypal, AND paid back the refund! She went above and beyond to make sure I didn't end up with nothing from the sale & im so grateful! great buyers are worth their weight in gold--this transaction could have easily been a disaster for me (and the amount covered lunch for Chantelle & I at olive garden!). 

first usps claim

 Today I had to place my first USPS claim for an item lost in transit. It's giving me flash backs to when I had to do a UPS claim for a damaged item. OH THE HOOPS. It was an expensive item I was selling with my partner (business partner yall chill) so both of us had money just sitting. My label came with $100 protection--but it was a facebook label. And facebook marketplace has ZERO seller support. nada. nothing. zilch. I sent so many messaged that the bot that was replying to them refused to reply any more. I broke the bot....no human to be found. So I called UPS and they said open the claim anyway so I did...but they sent the claim paperwork to facebook and it HAD to get filled out...so call back I did...and got them to send it to me directly...lots of back and forth (I needed a UPS account...so I made one...then the system said my number wasnt valid so I couldn't file...then the CS rep gave me an email to send it to....) back and forth for months...I FINALLY get confirmation than my claim is approved and the check is getting sent....TO FACEBOOK! I've never gotten on the phone so fast. I got ahold of someone who was able to cancel it and get it sent to me. I wait two weeks...no check....so I call back...the very nice guy had changed all the info....but NEVER SENT THE CHECK!! So finally finally...this other very nice guy promises it'll be sent tomorrow...swears on his life and invited me to call to check up on him the next day. I did not do that...but a week later I had my check...claim filed before Christmas....check received in APRIL. So the motto when dealing with the UPS is dont give up! (and I'll still use them over fedex any day!). So the point of this little story...pray that the USPS is more efficient. The paperwork was easier anyway...long reign the united state postal service. 

Todays yard sale adventures

 I've been excited about today for weeks--Woodstock town wide yard sale. Unfortunately Mother Nature had other plans--rain starting around 10. So it's moved to next week, but the southern Baptist church was still having one, along with the church on main st in Danielson so we headed out. Got a few neat odds and ends at each (including some Boy Scout stuff for my troop leader friend who is always looking for pieces for both his collection & to give out to troop families who can't afford uniforms). We decided to drive around and see if we could find some yard sale signs--and signs we found! We ended up finding about 4 other yard sales...an unlikely occurrence, but I purchased items at every sale! Found some of my favorite things to find (princess house heritage for my mama, brand name clothes at great prices, books, & Disney!). As we were headed home the sky opened up and the rain came down--so we had some good luck all around. Very pleased with the day! 

Life update (years later...)

 So I was chatting as I do most days with my friend Link (shout out to one of the literal best line buddies!). And he was like "hey you should blog" and I remembered I have a blog...so a lot has changed. I no longer work at McDonald's. I stay home with my kiddos & sell on Facebook eBay poshmark & mercari. Hubby has been kicking butt at work, giving me a little freedom to learn and explore. And the ability to do all the concerts (upcoming: pop 2k tour, hanson at Foxwoods, and 6-yes 6!-pentatonix shows). I have a lot of projects going on at all times (my business partners aka Earl & Troy and I love storage unit auctions--a lot of work but always unique!). My current project is a huge lot of vintage strawberry shortcake & barbie & the last of a storage unit of books. First two were yard sale scores, last one was a gift from an awesome lady who is always saving me bubble wrap & boxes! I've sorted the books into list yard sale & donate and sorted strawberry shortcake into little lots for eBay. I need to photograph and list the books and sort barbie stuff still--it's a lot of work but it's fun & interesting. Beats flipping burgers anyway! 

Update to my whirlwind life

 

Hey all you cool cats & kittens!!!

So its been a hot minute. 5 years actually. A lot's changed, a lot's stayed the same (I still do influenster!). My wonderful new-ish friend reminded me I had this blog. And I thought it'd be fun to jump back in. I like to write (am I good at it? debatable....). So what's changed: I still love a good deal. I don't coupon as much (I'm getting lazier as I get older it seems...), but I love to find clearance and sales. I'm still a sucker for trying new products. Influenster remains one of my favorite ways to do that. I've started focusing on selling online--I'm digging ebay, poshmark, and mercari. Starting to get into shipping with facebook market place. I've been able to grow that enough that I've been able to switch to part time at work and be home more with my kids (still four boys--no, we aren't trying for a girl). I've started collecting my little ponies again. Still a concert fiend--this past year has been awful for that. I've made some amazing friends in some unique ways. This blog will still be very random--it's been suggested I write pieces on reselling, on ponies, on music...I have lots of ideas but no idea where I want to take them just yet. If there's anything you'd love to read about, please comment and I'll get to it! For now...hang tight & stream Pentatonix's the lucky ones! 

influenster bloom voxbox: Sunbelt bakery granola bar

Bloom VoxBox

I literally got my bloom VoxBox (free from influenster!) out of my mailbox just over a half hour ago. I was super excited to find a granola bar from Sunbelt Bakery inside. Mostly because I love snacks and I just got out of work and was super hungry! So right away, I took photos and ate it! Now, I've got four little boys. I buy so many granola bars I should have stock in them. This was literally the best granola bar I've tasted in my life. I've never bough sunbelt bakery brand before--I usually grab whatever is cheap not even looking for a certain brand. Now I need to go find all the sunbelt varieties! The one I tried is fudge dipped chocolate chip (scroll down for my artistic photos!). It was soft and chewy (I HATE hard granola bars) with a great texture. The taste was sweet enough to be considered a treat, but not so much that I felt bad eating it. The wrapper boasts "no preservatives", which makes me happy, as well as "bakery-fresh taste" which is true. This weekend, I'll be hunting down the oatmeal raisin bars. Overall, a great product. At $2.69 for a 10 count box, it's not much more than the "cheap" bars. The quality if definitely worth the extra $0.69!

sample share: mr. sketch scented markers

crowdkit!

 

 

 

 As a kid, I was always wicked jealous of any kid that came to school with Mr. Sketch markers. There was something really neat about sticking those marker practically up your nose and smelling them. Only the cool kids got to bring them in with their school supplies. Fast forward to now: I didn't even realize Mr. Sketch was still around. My ever-lasting 90s nostalgia made these a "I need to own these RIGHT NOW" product. I joined the crowdtap Mr. Sketch crowd the second I saw it and crossed my fingers for a sample share. I applied right away and was stoked to get in. When they came in, I was barely about to get a photo of the package before my four kids grabbed them and went right to coloring. The scents are shown on the packaging, which got passed around any time one of the boys opened up a new color. Many of them are just as I remembered--the one notable exception is cinnamon as the brown scent. I miss the chocolate scented marker! The only thing I could say that isn't overly positive is that the markers were a bit hard to remove the caps the first time they were used (it was less difficult after the initial cap removal) and that, as I thought when I was 10, licorice is still an awful scent. The colors are all bright and smell fun (except black, of course) and the kids had a blast coloring with them. Most of the colors even had a hint of scent after a week of the drawing sitting on the counter. True to the packaging, they are washable and came off my kids hands (and from under their noses...) super easily. Over all, super happy with this blast from my past! Check out the photos below to see how much fun my boys had sampling:

smells good!

clean hands!

Influenster Glam VoxBox #ChooseToSmooth Gillette Venus

ready for sampling!

Hello again, my lovely readers! Two posts in one day. I've just gotten out of the shower and couldn't wait to write about my sampling with Venus (thanks to the influenster glam voxbox). I've always been partial to venus razors, ever since I first started shaving (plus, that jingle!). They seemed to work better than most other razors I've tried. The ones I sampled today are Venus embrace sensitive disposables. Normally when I hear the word disposable I think cheaply made awful razors (in my extreme coupon days I had stock piles of such razors. All of which I've since donated or given away to friends). These razors are not those kind of disposables. They look just like the regular product (minus the little switch to change out blades) and work just as well. This particular razor has 5 blades and a touch of aloe on the protective moisture ribbon around the blades. It glides smoothly with out inflicting any nicks or cuts when I used it (I've only gotten nicked by a venus razor a couple of times in my life). It felt comfortable in my hand.

The part of the sample I'm really excited to talk about is the Venus violet swirl shave gel. I was intrigued when I got it in the mail (after all, what exactly is a violet swirl and what does it smell like?) and I had to open it right away. It smells AMAZING. It is probably the best smelling shave gel I've had to date. It smells like the violet jelly I make in the summer (think: violet flowers and sugar). It's a pretty purple color and lathers nicely (the most important aspect of a shave gel for me) and the touch of olay helps the moisturizing. I literally love this shave gel.

Despite the danger to my IPhone (which made it through with out water damage. YAY!) I took a few photos during the sampling. Check those out below.

showing off the goods

comparing to my regular razor (also venus)

pretty purple color!

lathered up (love the toys?)

nice shave!

Bzzagent sample share: swiffer duster starter kit

bzz kit!

Hello my lovely readers! Can you believe it's MARCH already?? Time for spring cleaning! One of the least fun things for me to clean this time of year is our ceiling fans. I have to climb up on a chair and wipe down the blades while dust flies everywhere. Luckily, this year bzzagent had me covered. They sent me a cool swiffer duster starter kit. (pst--get your own coupons for a kit here!) I've used a few swiffer products in the past--the sweeper hung around for a brief time and I loved the wet jets. I've bought regular swiffer dusters before to clean the blinds at my work (we have these huge wooden blinds covering the centers of all the windows), but never got around to trying out the 360 duster. I'm very glad I did--it made my life a whole lot easier (and took just minutes)! It had an adjustable handle that extends--no more climbing chairs for me--and you can more the duster head to the angle you want. The duster head traps the dust so you don't get a dust shower while trying to clean (or in my case, no sweeping up a year's worth of ceiling fan dust when you are done). I took a few photos as I worked (as well as a short video), so check those out below. Leave some comments if you've tried swiffer products: I want to know what you think & what your favorite swiffer product is!

traps dust like a pro

before and after shot

Reynolds slow cooker liners

slow cooker liners

A few days ago, I blogged about Reynolds cookie baking sheets parchment paper. The same day, I received the slow cooker liners to try out (thanks again, crowdtap!). I've always been intrigued with the idea of using a crock pot to cook with, but have only actually done it a handful of times (crock pot lasagna and sweet & sour meat balls are my specialty!) So for some inspiration I headed over to the Reynolds slow cooker recipe page and fell in love with the Italian meatball soup recipe (I'll be attempting this one friday!). My kiddos, of course, all voted for the peppermint hot chocolate. Since winter is winding down here in New England, I decided to make that as a treat for the kids. It was super easy (less than an hour and a half from start to finish), tastes amazing, and was wicked easy to clean up, thanks to Reynolds slow cooker liners! I literally just had to remove the liner and toss. The liner held up well with no leaks, even after the whisking and scooping. I was able to get all the leftover drink out of the crock pot with out fear of breaking the bag. The heat of the crock pot seemed to have no effect on the quality of the bag as well. Overall, I'm very happy with these liners. I can't wait to use my crock pot more now that I don't need to worry about soaking and scrubbing to get it clean! As always, scroll down to see some photos of my liner in action!

step 1: line step 2: mix ingredients step 3: cook step 4: remove liner

kids enjoying their slow cooker peppermint hot chocolate!

crushed peppermint ready to be whisked in!

clean pot--easy as removing the liner!

Reynolds cookie baking sheets parchment paper

This month, I got to sample Reynolds cookie baking sheets for free from crowdtap (they've just re-imaged their site--check it out!). I've used Reynolds product my whole life, so I'm familiar with the brand. I've just recently discovered the joy of baking with parchment this past holiday season (I used to use aluminum foil) and have a roll of generic parchment in my drawer (hey, it was free! Thanks, mom!). I was excited to try the Reynolds brand parchment and I was not disappointed. The quality was much better than the generic roll I've got and my cookies slid off like a dream and clean up was super easy. One of my favorite things about this package is that the sheets are precut and fit my pans perfectly. No fumbling with those metal cutters and getting bummed out when you cut the wrong size! Another fun thing: I laid the parchment paper on top of my stove and put raw cookies on it and just slid the paper off the pan that I removed from the oven and slid the raw cookie paper on it. Very helpful if you only have one pan (or make cookies faster than they bake!). You can check out the Reynolds website for some great cookie recipes (caramel apple cookies are on my must-bake list). The only negative part of my sampling: those wonderful looking cookies on the box! My kiddos thought the package was a box of cookies and ripped it open trying to get some cookies. Silly kids. If you don't have snack-sneaking kiddos like mine, the packaging is great because the sheets are folded into a nice sized box for storage and have a tab thing on the side of the box to keep it shut. A non-sampling related plus for me: Reynolds brand is a box top brand. My kiddos all collect those box tops for their school, and it's one of the easier ways for us to help out. Scroll down below for some photos of the parchment paper in action.

a perfect fit!

two sheets of cookies ready to go--they slide on and off smoothly

perfect cookies!