SHOPAHOLICS: ONE DAY AT A TIME (FRIDAY, 3/27)

For each area of your home, keep in mind this four step process:

1. Declutter: Identify and purge items that don't belong.

2. Decide: Choose what you really need and want to keep.

3. Beautify: Organize the stuff you want to keep and add touches that make your space beautiful and functional.

4. Maintain. Re-evaluate your stuff periodically and set a limit on new items coming into your home.

Your Simple Home Handbook.

Good morning ladies, hope all is well.

Jean - Thank you for starting us today, glad all your goodies fit. Lately I have had no luck with the Q on clothing. I did order a couple of Susan Graver tops to try for travel, we will see if they fit. I need to take a trip to the large mall down the road from me and take a day and really just try clothes on. Of course, I will lose interest about 2 hours into the shopping and end up looking at stuff I really just don't need.

We are putting a couple of the rooms that we painted back together today, we will start painting the dining room on Saturday. This won't be as bad as what we just did. We just painted the Family room, breakfast nook, and kitchen, these three rooms run in on line so if you do one you have to do them all. Of course because of that the rest of the downstairs has all that stuff in it. My house looks like a bomb went off in it now. Have I ever told all of you how much I hate to paint.

Well I need to go run the sweeper and get some pictures hung.. Have a good afternoon everyone.

Susan--I know your home has a fresh look with the painting that you have done. You may not enjoy the process but you will enjoy the new look. Enjoy the trip to the mall when you go. I sometimes enjoy visits to huge malls when I am on trips but the mall in the city is acceptable but not outstanding. I rarely find anything in TJ Maxx across the street. It rarely has the high end brands some people brag about finding in TJ Maxx. If I am able to go to Hawaii in April, I might visit the new TJ Maxx in Waikiki as it is big. Most people that go with me are rarely interested in shopping. The Ala Moana shopping center there is fabulous.

Jean, You hit the jack pot with your clothing purchases. It is so nice when everything fits good. I do great with Denim & Co. size M & the 2 pairs of QF capris that I bought at the outlets also in size M fit me perfectly. I used to love to shop but now fatigue hits me as soon as store number 1 is done. I used to be able to shop from morning til evening & never be tired. My friend that passed away a year ago yesterday used to marvel at how I could shop. She always had walking issues & breathing issues so she did the people watching while I shopped. Now I do the people watching while my DH has fun with his shopping. Our local TV stations aid that the co pilot had an illness but no further info was available. Still a horrible thing to happen.

Susan, I am glad that the worst of the paint job is over. I used to love to paint but now it is harder as I like to do a good job & it takes me much longer. We have open concept so when our kitchen was flooded about 2 1/2 yeas ago & the kitchen had been gutted I painted the kitchen/dining arez without any cupboards. It was easy as there was no flooring down either so I didn't have to do a perfect job. I didn't do the living rm as the color in there matched the new paint perfectly. Maybe some day I will get it all the same color, but for now I am happy with it. We had a huge mess too as all of our furniture was piled in a corner along with boxes of kitchen things etc. It took us about 3 months to get our lives put back together.

It is cold but sunny so the house is heating up nicely. DH is out for his morning walk. Then we need to hit a couple of grocery stores. Not much food in the house right now.

I am tired from the trip so I will be taking it easy for several days. I do have an appt. at the UW-Clinic on Monday for my 6 mo. checkup. It is at 8:50 so we will be hitting the road early. I would like to do a little shopping as I have gift cards from Christmas & my birthday. The idea of shopping is fun for me but the actual shopping is not a pleasure anymore.

Hugs to all of you.

Hi Ladies!

Jean - Glad you found items you like. I recently purchased some Isaac Mizrahi scarves secondhand online. They had been a lunchtime special on QVC but sold out before I could purchase more than one. The price secondhand was in between the full price on QVC and the lunchtime special price. I'm okay with that. I've fallen in love with scarves in the past couple of years. I bought a couple of scarves for me and a couple for my DD. Unfortunately, I had to return some throw rugs to QVC. I had purchased 3 "as-is" Royal Palace rugs in ivory for a good price and was really excited to get them. They arrived in great shape, but they weren't "ivory" at all, they were more like a tan color and didn't come close to matching my carpet or decorating colors. So, I was disappointed and sent them back.

PAlady - it'll look so nice when the painting project is completely done. Hope you're happy with the results! We don't have many shopping choices close by in my town. It's weird though, sometimes I'm in the mood to shop in brick-and-mortar stores, and sometimes I hate it (parking, crowds, waiting in lines, etc.) I kind-of go with the mood I'm in, lol.

twinny - I hope you find something great to use your gift cards on and the shopping is a pleasure instead of a chore.

We have another lovely day here. One of our goats (not one of the pregnant ones, thankfully) got a case of mastitis (infection in her udder). We have to tend to her twice a day with 2 different types of antibiotic treatments. Playing veterinarian doesn't come as easily to me as it does to my DH and DD, but I do my best. Rosie, the sick goat, is very mellow and sweet.

The rest of the day will consist of regular chores: weeding and pruning, making a new batch of clothes detergent, scanning DH's family photos, doing some light housecleaning, and I think I'll make BBQ chicken for dinner.

Have a great Friday everyone! ~ Charlene

Good Morning/Afternoon! Thanks for getting us started Jean. Happy your purchases worked out. I used to enjoy shopping at the stores, but a combination of distance and DH's health issues have diminished the "fun". In truth, I should avoid shopping period since I need to reduce my collection of "stuff" rather than increase it.

I keep promising myself to work on organizing/cleaning the house, but I am very easily distracted. Today will probably not be an exception, but I am holding out hope for early next week.

Our weather is great -- we may have record temperatures tomorrow (92 degrees), and it may reach 90 degrees today. And, sunny as usual.

I'm sure you will be pleased once the house painting, etc., is complete Susan. I used to enjoy painting, but I was so sloppy. DH is perfectly content with plain white paint, which is no fun. And, I am sure I would hire someone rather than try to do any painting on my own. But, before I consider painting, I have other house projects to have done -- particularly the repair/re-building of the wall that broke due to the flooding from the broken pipe. I have to say that every time I get the water bill now, I smile. That one month was awful, but made me appreciate the "regular" cost.

Welcome back twinny! It sounds like you had a great trip. Do take time to get back into the swing of things -- don't push yourself too much. Glad you found some things at the outlet that work so well for you, and hope you are able to use your gift cards on Monday.

Hi Charlene -- sounds like a busy day for you. Good luck with Rosie the goat. Sorry about the rugs that didn't work well for you. I have been very happy with some of the lunchtime specials I have purchased from QVC.

Waves to Kathleen, Arlene, Marijane, pinky ann, Gayle, LindaR, Rosa, Karen, and all of our posters and readers.

DH and I have had our walk, and my plan is to work on the income taxes today as well as pick up a few things at the grocery store and go to Curves this afternoon.

The potluck we were supposed to have tomorrow has been canceled since the lady who was hosting is quite sick, but I was able to sign up for the term end party for my "classes". I'm happy that we will be able to go to the party since it is past the sign-up time, but they made an exception for us.

I think someone asked yesterday if I had ever been to my hs reunions, and I have done so twice. I think the first time was 10 years and the second was 30 years. There are several reasons I will not be attending this time, including DH's health, distance/expense, etc. I also realize that I am just not a person who enjoys living in the past, at least in terms of high school. Although hs was okay, I was very shy and definitely not in the "in crowd". And, when I went to the 30 year reunion, most of the people went back to the groups they had been in high school. While some of the popular people (several who also happened to be from wealthy families) were friendly with people like me, others just were not. Complicated to be sure, but....

There is an internet group for the reunion, and they are putting together a memory book sort of thing which I can buy.

Hope everyone has a nice day!

Hugs,

Linda

Hi girls!

Well, it's a beautiful, sunny day, although chilly, and I was looking forward to my outing. I agreed to pick up my friend because she's letting her loser nephew use hers; he's almost 30, is married (apparently to another loser), and for the past few years she's never had money to do anything because she's been helping him out of one scrape after another...including paying his bail. Well, now she's unemployed, so since he can't get money out of her (at least, not much), he's found another way to take advantage of her...and she stupidly lets him. Well, I went to check my email to get directions to her house, as I hadn't been there in a long time, and guess what? She cancelled....AGAIN! This is about the fourth or fifth time; this time the excuse was, "I had a bad night." Yeah, well...fine. That's one "friend" I'm scratching off the list.

So anyway, I'm headed out by myself, but now I don't have to rush.

I didn't get my closet swapped out yesterday - I only got so far as taking a large garbage bag of sandals out of the upstairs closet they were stored in - but I did get some cleaning done, a big pot of stuffed cabbage and a dozen mini-bundt cakes made, a bag of things put into the garage for the thrift shop. and although I finally got the clock radio set up, it didn't go off this morning - the instructions are utterly useless! The radio had a fairly low rating on Amazon only because of that, but some people did write and give clearer instructions, so I'll have to go back on there and take a look.

Susan, I hear you on the painting! My woodwork needs to be done, and as bad as walls are, that's even worse.

Glad you did well on your QVC clothing purchases, Jean; I haven't bought any clothing from them in probably 3-4 years. I used to love the "old" Quacker Factory back when they had the lovely intarsia sweaters and the pretty shirts with the button covers, but of their current lines the only one I really like is Bob Mackie...but I rarely go anyplace where I have to get dressed up and have a lot of pieces I've never worn. We have so much good shopping here that I'm not willing to pay the higher prices, plus S&H, and take the risk that it won't fit and I'll have to pay more to send it back. The new Marshall's opened yesterday, and I think the new Ross is scheduled to open this week as well (that gives us three of each in the area, as well as two TJ Maxx stores), but there's nothing that I need. Oh, Ala Moana is wonderful! I find, though, that I don't care for big malls like I did when I was younger; too many of the stores are of no interest to me as the clothing is for very young women and girls, and I don't care for the noise and the crowds.

Glad to hear you had a good trip, twinny. I forget - where did you go?

Charlene - I hate weeding; weeds seem to be the only thing I can grow with my black thumb. I have to do some in the front yard; I also need to cut back on the honeysuckle as it's really out of control. The back yard needs cutting too; it's mostly clover back there, but there are patches of weeds that need to be chopped down.

LindaL, I've never been to a school reunion; can't say I have any desire to go either.

Well, I didn't eat breakfast as I figured I'd be having lunch with my "friend," and I'm hungry, so I guess I'll be on my way. Since I don't have to necessarily go for really cheap (I suggested Steak & Shake as she's unemployed and meals are $4), I might go to the family owned Italian restaurant that's so good.

Have a blessed day, everyone!

Good afternoon, everyone! My efforts to do things go sidetracked when I started watching the "Bates Motel" streamed from Netflix. It is excellent and I think I just wanted to relax but at least I did a few things.

Twinny--I'm with you on the exhaustion when shopping. If I do one store and spend a couple of hours there, then I'm ready to head back home unless I stop to eat. I used to enjoy hitting the stores and comparison shop, etc. but now I just want to get what I need and leave.

Linda--I've been to one high school reunion. It just wasn't a big hit with me. High School was fine academically but I never enjoyed it that much except for the academics and band. I live within easy walking distance of my old high school, which is now not used as a new one was built a few miles away.

Charlene--I've started liking the use of scarves, especially the infinity scarves. I've found they make a better accent to a top than a necklace. I've found some great light weight ones on eBay. I have two winter ones I found at WalMart that worked well for me.

Arlene--Sorry your friend cancelled on you again. I think we could handle a trip to the Cheesecake Factory again. I still have fond memories of you chasing down bargains in the mall in Nashville...and us trying to find you. You are correct; Ala Moana is fabulous, especially if you want to drop major dollars. For that reason, I usually just window shop. I was just thinking today of my planned last trips and whether or not, they would happen. I had planned to get rid of my timeshare this Fall not because I don't love it but because it would be a problem if someone had to deal with it other than me as well as the escalating cost of going there.

cerb, sorry to hear about your sick goat. That sounds interesting about making clothes detergent. Our DD has been a stay-at-home mom for 14 years & has a very successful scrub, soap, all kinds of body products that she sells online. She can do every scent that B&B sell. It works out great as she makes everything in her kitchen & can work with the DC's school/vacation schedules. I'll have to see if she makes detergent.

LL, shopping for me is a chore. When we went to Davenport in January for my b'day, we went to a mall that we used to shop at when our DS was going to college there. He graduated 18 years ago & we hadn't been back since. I was so tired from trying to figure out where I wanted to go. I think I went into 3 stores total & a break in between each one. It used to be fun to shop there.

FHG, I hope you have a great lunch today. It is maddening when friends want to go for lunch & then repeatedly cancel out. We went to Riviera Maya, Mexico for 8 days. It sounds like you have many nice shopping choices right now.

DH & I got groceries then had a nice lunch at Culver's. We went to the bank to get things out of the lock box & put our passports back in. Came home & enjoyed the hot tub. DH is sleeping as the trip wore him out too, but it was worth every minute of it. It is my nap time now too.

Our snow is almost all gone. We needed the snow & I actually hope we get more. We didn't get much snow this winter & are several inches below what we need. They are saying we are at least 2" below normal now.