It's not often I go to the mall, but I went to two last week and the one thing I noticed was how along with the back to school stuff being in the stores; there was also Fall, Halloween and Christmas stuff in the stores.
In Homesense all the Fall things were in the windows. I do love Fall it's my favourite time of year. I also am a big fan of glass and mushrooms, so they caught my eye, but I didn't buy!
My weekly crafting, reading and puzzle making post.
It was flipping hot last week and this week is not looking any better with temperatures in the 30's all week....BOO!!!!! Therefore it's all in the red this past week.
What have you been up to in your spare time?
If you're a regular reader, you know our doctor's office is over an hour's drive away from where we live. However hubby needed to go and so I made an appointment for both of us.
The reason I needed to see him was to get a prescription for a Shingles vaccination. I have had shingles three times in my life, the last time being a year ago. However, I have never seen our family doctor regarding this.
The first time was when I was 20 and had shingles when I gave birth to our son. The second time was in the Fall of 2022, and the third time was in the Spring of 2023. When I explained this to our doctor, he actually asked me if I was sure if I had, had shingles!! How could three doctors be wrong!!!!
Anyhow I got my prescription and went to our pharmacy by our home. Thankfully our insurance covered the cost of the vaccination, which was $165; but had to pay $15 out of pocket for the pharmacist to administer the injection. It will cost another $165 for the second one in October and $15 for the pharmacist to administer the injection.
Have any of you had the shingles vaccination?
It was hot and very humid yesterday, so as hubby is off and cannot sit down for any length of time(!!) I decided we'd have a drive to Vaughan Mills mall, to have a walk around in an air conditioned area, so hubby couldn't work outside in the garden and then complain to me how hot and tired he was!!! I know, I tell him to sit down but he doesn't listen...LOL
Anyhow, other than buying a couple of things in the Tommy Hilfiger store, as there was a super good sale, we didn't buy much of anything. I did however call in at the Kate Spade store, and had a look around. I saw these the last time I was in there and decided to take some photos to share with you. The first two bags are more collector's items than anything, as honestly they hold very little. Your phone and a couple of small items maybe; but I do love the look of them.
The peacock had a long strap and should be over $400 as per the Kate Spade site, here. I thought it was neat but not practical.
We had lunch in the food court and had enough left overs for our supper. Hubby of course went outside when he got back home to do some more work on a project outside, until it started raining!! No wonder he is tired.
Another day out today, as hubby has doctors appointments in the morning and afternoon. He is dropping me off at the mall in the morning while he goes for his morning appointment. I don't enjoy either the doctor, or the office of his morning appointment, so he can get on with that. The afternoon one though, both of us are seeing our family doctor. I will fill you in on that tomorrow.
Hubby takes a packed lunch every day for his lunch at work. As he is retiring soon, I thought I'd record what he took for lunch for one week at work, so I could look back and remember what I used to pack.
I will say for many years he took sandwiches, but he wanted to change it up a couple of years ago, so change it up I did. Then we got one of the divided lunch boxes, so changed it up again.
He takes lunch four days a week, and on the fifth as he works only until lunch time, he just takes a couple of snacks/breakfast and has lunch at home.
So here is what he took one week for his breakfast and lunch.
Monday: He had, a wedge of cheese, a boiled egg. Two cooked sausages, sliced up with a small container of mustard. A bag of crackers, cut up cucumber and dip. Melon, a pudding and a yogurt. He did not eat it all.
Just got caught up with my temperature cross stitch.
We are more than half way through July, and honestly I am over Summer. I am not a fan of the heat and the humidity. The humidity really drags me down. We did get a couple of "cooler" days last week, but still too warm for me.
I have just got this book from the library, so far, so good.
I have also started this puzzle:
This one is a bit bigger than my usual 1,000 pieces. I got it on clearance at HomeSense for $11. When I get a puzzle, I sort out the edge pieces from the inside pieces. Then put the outside edges together and then start on the inside. My table is just big enough to hold the 1,500 pieces.
Is that how you start a puzzle?
Went to the passport office last Wednesday, and it was delivered by Canada Post the following Tuesday.
When God was handing out talents, I skipped a few lines; how to mend a car, how to use power tools, you know that sort of thing. However, I was front and centre when in the "shop until you drop," line😁
The other day I met up with daughter and grand daughters at the mall around 40 minutes from home. I rather enjoy that mall, Vaughan Mills. Got a variety of stores and a pretty good food court. Plus it's a straight drive for me, no going on Highway 401, which is a nightmare I find.
Any how, we got there for 10am and fueled up at Tim Hortons, before we started. We all had things we wanted/needed to do and I will say we all were in a great mood.
I came to the store I needed to go into, Kate Spade first. I have splashed something; coffee maybe, onto my suede handbag. I am not happy, so wanted advice on the best way to clean it. Their advice; google it????? We had a look around, admiring all the bags and deciding, I would drag hubby back there when he is off next to see if he feels like buying me another handbag 😉
We carried on and got more shopping and more shopping, and more shopping!!! By 12:15pm, my feet were killing me and I left the others in a store to go and find a chair to sit down on. They came and found me and said lets go to HomeSense. I said no we're going to eat and dragged them to the food court, so I could sit down for a bit.
After lunch we went to HomeSense and bought a pile of stuff, and headed towards Bass Pro to look at the fish; but after that I was done. I could walk no more. I left the mall at 1:45 pm and was home by 2:30pm. Which means I was shopping for only 3 + hours, but I was pooped.
So I am now officially handing over the shopping baton to daughter and grand daughters, they can get on with it now; I'm getting too old for all this wandering around!! But let me add, despite how tired I was I thoroughly enjoyed my day, the girls are great to shop with, especially when they have there own money!!
I sold our push lawn mower this week; got $50 for it. We have had it years, and honestly haven't used it in a few years. Daughter and son-in-law used it also for a few years at their house. So it has paid for itself, time and time again.
I finally gave in and got one. I actually bought one the other week but when I got it home it was way too small, so returned it. Canadian Tire had this one on sale for $175.00 As you can see it's the big one, but what I liked most about this one it has two baskets, so you can cook more than one thing at once.
Our passports expire February 2025. As you can't travel with a passport that has less than six months on it before it expires, figured we may as well get them renewed well ahead of time, in case there was a delay.
As we have a CAA membership we got our photo's taken there. Mine was free and hubby's was just over $10. So if you have a CAA membership make sure you take advantage of that.
We completed hubby's Canadian pension application online and the CPP was easy peasy!! The OAS though, was another matter. The word that comes to mind with that form was "ambiguous." The way they worded some of the questions was confusing. They also required copies of our marriage certificate and immigration papers.
Both the pension and passports applications required a visit to the dreaded Service Canada office. Now depending on where you live this could be an all day job. However we were warned ahead of time not to visit our local office due to the long lines, and go to another office a 50 minute drive from the house.
Believe me when I say it was well worth the 50 minute drive, as we were in and out in under half an hour. The person we dealt with was so nice and very thorough. It helped that we had all our paperwork filled out and we brought with us exactly what they needed.
I will say though I felt that $160 CDN each for a 10 year passport was a little pricy; but it's a need not a want in our case. They told us it would be back within the month; but it will probably be back sooner, or so I have been told by other people.
As for the pensions; we'll hear back hopefully in the next month or two is everything is good with the paperwork. As we don't need either of them to start until January of 2025, there is plenty of time to fix any issues that may arise.
Oh and a funny story about the passport photos. We were going to get our photos taken the week before, but I ended up with a spot/zit on the middle of my forehead for some reason. I took one look at it and told hubby there was no way on earth I was having a passport photo taken with that huge zit on my face, and having to look at my passport photo for the next 10 years and seeing that zit!!!
As it happened the photo I took is actually a good photo. Meanwhile hubby looks like an escaped convict. As I said to the lady, oh no, he's going to get stopped going through customs with that photo!! She just laughed and said yes!!
We have had our Patio set for many years and it has served us well. The only issue we had with it, is storing it and how big the table is. It seats six.
We're already half way through 2024, where has the first half of the year gone too? For me time is flying by this year. Hubby took this week off from work, so we have been busy catching up on bits and bobs, trying to get some jobs out of the way. However, poor hubby has been sick with a head cold. However, when he catches a cold, it also goes straight to his chest, so he has been coughing up a lung and thankfully coughing up green ick. He has turned a corner and is finally feeling a bit better.
As the Euro's is on, we have been watching a bit of soccer/football. I caught up with my temperature cross stitch today, and I am up to date with it. It's still hot and humid. I try and get anything I need done outside done in a morning and then hibernate in the afternoon.
What makes it hard is it's clear perspex which changes colour depending on the light. It was hard I will admit, and hubby helped me with this. There is a method to completing this, and once we got into the swing of it; it was pretty straight forward. However, I totally understand how it could be impossible to do.
