73 posts tagged “shopping”

i guess you could say that today has so far been all about me.

when your husband is out of town for a good part of the day and your kid is sleeping over at your parents' place, wouldn't you make it all about you? damn right!

after my bodypump class, i did a bit of shopping. mainly - christmas wrapping paper, christmas gift bags and some gift-tissue to go with the bags. but while i was at it, i made a point to stop at the shoe company and winners to finally treat myself to some ankle boots. i'm so happy that i did. the one i got at winners is basic but sleek - fine, black leather, squared-off toes and thick heels (more practical). the one i bought at the shoe company is nice and shiny! and really, just for fun - mainly to wear with jeans:

Shiny_boots

the last thing i did before heading back home was to treat myself to a manicure. it's been way overdue.

i went to one of those drop-in, fast places that only charge $15 for a basic manicure. i've come to the conclusion that the quality isn't any different from some of the more expensive spa's. the extra $10 i have payed for those upscale places have just been that - an upscale place where the ambiance is all very nice and pretty.

the colour? shiny, dark blue, baby. :)

will be sporting them tonight when doug and i head out with friends for some wining and dining.

and i love my boots.

our plans changed for the weekend and ended up being a very quiet one at home. which was just as well - we have so many busy weekends up ahead so a little break won't hurt.

i ended up being the first to be awake on a saturday morning. i quickly packed my gym bag and away i went to my bodypump class. and because the women's gym was on top of the 2nd floor of the superstore, i decided to do some grocery shopping afterwards. convenience at it's finest!

the rest of the afternoon was lazy. after lunch, we were all in the living room... chaeli playing her leapster games, doug reading the paper and me... well, i was reading something. but my eyes were so heavy that after awhile, i just leaned into doug and closed them for a bit.

i think that was my favourite part of the day. sitting on that couch with the two people that i love, just taking in the quietness and peace. but... i couldn't take it much longer. i was just that tired. i ended up going up stairs and napping for almost an hour an a half!

being completely lazy, we ordered in swiss chalet and then watched Up.

sunday wasn't as lazy, though. we got up and went to the zoo for a stroll, and then went shopping. i ended up treating myself to DDR3 for the wii and man... i suck! hopefully, with practice, i'll be a dancing queen but until then, lets just say i'm glad that i'm doing this in the privacy of my basement, away from the public eye.

anyway, it was one of those interesting weekends where nothing significant happened. instead, it was filled with a lot of little things. but for whatever reason, it's those little things that sometimes gives me that exhilerated feeling.

sometimes i wish i had that magical, twitchy nose like that samantha from bewitched. ah - when t.v. shows were a league of their own. in a good way.

and as much as i wished i had powers to make my closet, or any space in my house, either big or small, become instantly organized and clean in matter of a milli-second, the reality is, of course, that i can't do that. and even if i could, would i really be using my powers just to clean closets?

anyway, this is something i have been wanting to do since september but something always came up. and as we had no plans today, i decided to go for it.

two hours later, i am left with just my cd case and one half of a shelf piled of magazines to go through. and i just can't do anymore. two hours in a closet is enough! i will do that half a shelf and cds another day.

most importantly, i organized all the christmas presents that i bought. yes, that's right. you heard me.

not only do i organize my christmas shopping lists into spreadsheets where there is one spreadsheet for each - my familly, doug's family, doug and chaeli and misc. gift... not only do i create another spreadsheet to correlate with the other four, but this one being by store, either online or off, so i don't end up running all over town, hitting stores more then once... but at some point, i organize my gifts so that all the gifts going to thunderbay are in one or two large shopping bags, and i do the same for presents for chaeli, doug and my own side of the familly.

there is a chaotic period where i shop and just pile everything in the corner of my walk-in closet, still in their bags/boxes.

it was driving me crazy. now, they are all organized. all i need to do is pull them out in the order that they need to be wrapped - doug's family being the front in line.

yup.

i'm psychotic.

it' not halloween yet and i've finished my christmas shopping. how crazy is that?

i think ensue asked if i'm finishing it earlier and earlier each year. well, i don't think so. :)

but this year, is a bit different. my MIL is coming first weekend in December which means that she will be exchanging the christmas loot when she's here. i needed to get it all done in time to wrap before she comes. and no, i haven't started on the wrapping. SOME needs to be left until after halloween.

i admit that i was disappointed that i couldn't take part in nuit blanche this year. while chinese moon festival and my uncle's birthday were celebrated at my aunt and uncles home on the same nute as nuit blanche, that wasn't the reason why i couldn't go. after all, the dinner party ended around 10pm which would have allowed us to go until around 1am (since it's an all night event). but doug had to do the practical part of his course this weekend and had to be up fairly early. a part of me wondered if i should have gone on my own but no. i had to take care of chaeli on my own the next day. and man - it is not easy doing that when all you want to do is sleep!

next year. it's something i hope to do for sure.

anyway, despite the disppointment, it was a wonderful weekend. chaeli stayed at my parents' place on friday night so the anal nerd in me spent friday night cleaning the house and reorganizing chaeli's summer to fall/winter wardrobe. just as i suspected, the pile of 'too small' clothes was three times bigger then the pile of clothes that fits her. but most of them were mix-matches of tops and bottoms that didn't all go well together. geez - that kid sprout up big time this year.

i also went through her huge pile of books on her night stand, which was so huge that half of it was on the floor underneath the little table. her usual bookshelf, which is very small and a part of her closet) was jammed pack. i had to put some of the bigger books on the very top shelf. i'm going to have to invest in a kid's book shelf to put her books away in. while i have no issues deciding on toys to give away, ones that she's outgrown, i have a pretty huge issue with getting rid of books. i do have a small pile of maybe 8 books i'm prepared to donate to her school, but that's about it. she's got so much more that i didn't even make 1/8th of a dent.

doug came home just near the end of my organizing and cleaning. we decided to head out for a late dinner at a local vietnamese restaurant. i had the lemongrass, grilled chicken, rice, shredded pork and fried egg. doug has his usuall vermecelli with an assortment of goodies in it - vietnamese spring roll, beef roll and shrimp paste on sugar cane. we shared a cold spring roll appetizer and some spicy, fried squid appetizer. what i love about vietnamese food is that it's so affordable. with all that we ordered, it only came to $35 after tips and tax.

saturday morning, i headed off to another power-pump class, making it the first time i've done three in a week. it was at 9:30am which helped getting my butt out of bed early. as usual, the class was great, though this instructor probably would not be considered my favourite one of those i've tried. she wasn't bad but her program was a bit too repetitive. not enough was mixed up which made it easier, i felt. i compensated by adding more weights to my routine.

afterwards, i headed up too shop for chaeli's fall/winter wardrobe. while i was at the mall, i also bought some stocking stuffer items for christmas. i was able to get everything done before 1pm which was nice - i had a few hours to relax and unwind before going over to my aunt's place.

dinner was great, as usual. my doctor and his wife joined the party as well and we had such a great night laughing and chatting away. the food was fabulous though i wasn't able to really dive into it as my appetite has shrunken. it was good, though. at one point, i was able to stop and remind myself that i was satisfied. that any more eating would have just been out of habit and pleasure. but that i would suffer later by being overly-stuffed. so rather having more steak or pasta, i opted to having a couple more of the grilled portebello mushrooms (which were just amazing, anyway, but light).

it's weird to be happy about something like this. except that it's been well over a year (maybe two?) where i wanted to replace our really ugly napkin holder. it was this tacky, silver holder in a shame of a napkin, folded over with a bow on one side. it didn't even hold the napkins very well because the height was just half the size it was suppose to me. all the napkins, then, would flop over. and then when we would take one out, the whole pile would come out at the same time, for whatever reason. probably because they were all bent over.

it was so ugly that i can't even bother to take a photo of it.

anyway, i finally got around to replacing it yesterday with one that takes up little room, works and is, if i do say so mysefl, very pretty. :)

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• when i went to university for the first time, mom started to give me (as a side gift) a care package for christmas. this would basically cover the 2nd part of my school year in terms of supplies - shampoo, soap, tooth paste, etc. of course, after i moved home, this all stopped. but now that i'm living in my own home with my own family, she still continues to do this. it was a bit strange at first - after all, i'm now taking care of my own family and can afford to buy my own toothpaste. but still, there's something sweet about it. i've come to look forward to my care package. it's not what's inside it that matters - but the symbolic representation it offers from a mother that still looks after her daughter. as we get closer to christmas, i remind doug that we don't have to stock up too much on things that i know we'll be getting from mom soon enough.

• i'm looking forward to fall this year. and i'm hoping that fall will stay a little while before winter hits. it's such a shame that my favourite season of the year is so short. but i do love fall. i love it's smell, the breeze and it's colours. it's also full of fun activities - hiking, apple-picking, farmer's market (during harvest time), thanksgiving and halloween. there's just so much to look forward to but unfortunately, not enough weekends to do them all.

• we're having thanksgiving at my parents' place this year. usually, my aunt and uncle always hosts both thanksgiving and christmas but we've decided that thanksgiving should be at my parents' place. they just bought a deep turkey fryer. i'm excited about that alone! mmm... deep fried turkey. for those who've tried this, you'll agree that it's not at all greasy. the skin is crisp and there's no grease clinging on the outer skin part only, but because it fries up so quickly, it seals the meaty area from getting greasy inside and locking in the juices.

• there is so much to do in the next couple of months, including a live reading-performance from one of my favourite canadian author, stuart mclean. ada got us tickets and i'm psyched to go - especially as her and i have been talking about it for the past two years.

• christmas seems far away but really, it is just around the corner. i've started christmas shopping. in fact, i'm nearly done all my stocking stuffers (except for doug's) and need to focus on just the main gifts. the only person i've finished the main gift shopping is for chaeli. and that's only because when it comes to toys, especially popular ones, there's too much of a risk for it being sold out before christmas. plus, i bought her collector item toys from transformers, revenge of the fallen. some of them are already sold out. anyway, as usual, i plan to finish my shopping by early november so i have time to mail it to my in-laws. i have a great list this year and am excited to see how my ideas are received.

• christmas activities are also really high on my list which is part of the reason why i like to get the shopping done early and out of the way. this year, i'm wondering if i want to do the nutcracker ballet again. i didn't think i would want to do it every year but i feel like it again. it is such a great treat to experience. and of course, especially as this will be ada and hoa's last year in toronto, before moving out west, i do hope to go the the 'sleeping children around the world' charity concert. it's held eary december and kick-starts our christmas holiday season.

shoulder pads? really? is that really coming back? shoulder pads???

i can do with the big, clunky ear rings. i can do with the ankle boots with heels. i might do with the 'boyfriend blazer' though i don't know yet - depends on how it looks on me. oh wait, i won't be able to pull it off because they will have, yes, you guessed it - shoulder pads!

my problem - my shoulders are pretty broad as they are.

and once a trend comes back, good luck in finding a blazer or sweater or blouse without the pads.

ugh.

some things are better left in the past.

aren't we suppose to be learning from our past faux-pas?