After Christmas Shopping

You might realize I’m not much of a shopper – going into stores, that is.  But.  I do love a good bargain.  And tis the season for after Christmas shopping!

I’ll share with you a couple of things I’m purchasing this week.

Print Magazines

I’m not sure if it’s a one-day deal or not, but Amazon has their print magazine subscriptions super cheap and I’m going to get a few treats for myself and enjoy some eye candy this winter. 

I scored Better Homes and Gardens for $5 for an annual subscription.

For some reason I always find myself feeling abundantly wealthy when a magazine comes in the mail.

And then. I find myself anxiously throwing it away for the clutter it makes a week later.  Oh, my little anxiety disorder. Or whatever it is.

Nordstrom Half Yearly Sale

This sale used to be such a crazy thing and bloggers would spend weeks putting together posts linking their favorite finds.  I don’t see that anymore.

But I do think this is a good time to stock up on underclothes.  And Nordstrom’s free shipping and easy peasy return policy means it’s a no-lose.

Sketchers

January is when all the “fitness” specials appear at Costco – and everywhere else.  Of course, I’m into fitness all year, but they do have their comfy Sketchers available for around $30.  I use them for house shoes.  I don’t need a ton of support or a lot of style, I just need something for kicking around on our hard floors.

Bedding

I’ve had the same comforter on our bed for around 100 years (have you ever noticed how many things in our home are that old?!) and I’m in the market for something new.  Any suggestions?  I was thinking of looking into the Anthroplogie 40% off sale. 

Or I might just wait until the spring looks come in.  I’m really tired of neutral but I don’t want to make a mistake on a large purchase with too much pattern or color.

What I’m Reading

DF Jill recommended The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab.  Schwab is a YA writer, but this is an adult novel.  The dead giveaway for a YA-turned-adult author is lots of unattached sex.  Or cussing.  This wasn’t too overboard, but I would say it’s noticeable.

This book has a lot of my favorite elements like fantasy and scifi and history and a few twists.  It’s super creative and pretty clever.  The characters and dialog are good.  It drags a bit here and there, but all in all, it’s a recommend.

On audio I’m listening to DF Barb’s recommendation of Virgin River by Robyn Carr.  This is also a Netflix series.  What I like:  The narrator – Therese Plummer.  The setting – Northern California.  Otherwise, it’s pretty much a heavy-duty romance and not really my genre.  It’s not a bad book by any means, but I’m done with this series after book #1. I’m probably eating humble pie because it gets great reviews and, after all, Netflix bought it.

What’s Going On

I took a leisurely walk Sunday morning. It started a bit nippy and then turned warm and then got a little cool again.  Lest you think this is a post about the weather, it’s not.  When it unexpectedly turned cool, I looked up at the sun and I cannot even describe the clouds I saw.  And I certainly did not do the sky any justice with my iPhone camera but I took a couple pics to share here.

The clouds that came from nowhere looks like wings on angels.  Or birds’ magnificent tail feathers.  I was literally in awe.  Having a moment right there on the trail.  Ahh, nothing like attending church in nature.  There goes that beautiful God showing off again.  Making me smile.

I had five days off in a row with the Christmas holiday last week and wanted to do a few things.  But guess what? We had so much wind I didn’t even want to leave the house.  Ugh, the one day I walked in it, I had allergy problems the rest of the day. 

Adding on to the stuff I didn’t get done, the wind knocked down most of the leaves on our desert elm and our front porch and driveway were a mess.  John blew it into a pile and I took a dustpan the emptied it into the trash.  About 10 times.  And then our autumn leaf “raking” job was over.  Phew.

I’ve shared before the havoc javalinas will wreak when neighbors put out their trash the night before pick up.  Yep, they visited our block Sunday night and had quite a feast.  I took a pic while I was walking to the gym the next morning and it wasn’t quite light out, but you get the picture.  The block was littered and oooh, the smell.

We don’t put our trash out until trash day, and we really looked intelligent Monday morning.

That’s it from here.  Any big New Year’s plans to share?  Have a wonderful week.