Donating

We're heading to Liam's Christmas Concert at school this evening, and the school is asking for donations of food and/or unwrapped gifts for children.

I decided to find a couple of things for teens as they are hard to buy for.  Went to Michaels and got a couple of painting kits.  Everything is included in the kit, which I liked.

The cashier said, someone else had been in and bought a lot to donate to the Salvation Army.

On reflection though, the painting kits are maybe more for girls than boys?

I bought a couple of things and took some things from my pantry for the food donation

It's not a lot but it's better than nothing.

What the heck?

Not sure what happened to me on Wednesday morning but I had a burst of energy and cleaned out some kitchen cupboards?????  I have been thinking about doing this for a while.  So after I had blown out the bottom of the driveway I set about doing them.

Got rid of some instant coffee with a 2014 (???) expiry date on it, that I found wwwwaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyy back in the cupboard.  Seriously, how did I miss that?  

I now have some bags of things to donate to the charity shop.  Threw out numerous plastic lids that didn't belong to anything. I mean it's like having numerous socks with no partners, right?

I still have more to do, but this was a great start.  I need to be more aggressive with; "If you haven't used it in ages, get rid of it."

Still puzzled though where this burst of energy came from....😄

Such a shame

I am on decluttering at the moment.  Took this little lot to the charity store yesterday:

Now where the title of this post comes in, is that I have also been getting rid of stuff on our local free site.  So basically giving stuff away.  I don't have a problem doing that and was getting along with everything fine.  I then put up some handbags to give away for free.  Now granted they are not the best but they did have a lot of life still left in a couple of them.  One looked new and was this Matt and Natt bag, it looks perfect doesn't it?

Until you turn it around and there is a huge scratch on the back. 

I am fortunate enough that I have other handbags I use and love, so giving it away for free for someone else to restore is fine with me.

So a couple of women want this and another bag and to cut a long annoying story short they mucked me around so much, that in the end I said I was taking them to the charity shop and told them which one so if they wanted the bags they could go and get them from there.

One woman turned around and said, "I live right by that store I could meet you there?"

I ignored her message, which I would normally never do, but I was so fed up with the whole situation.  So from now on, unless it is a high value item, everything is going to the charity shop!  People are going to lose out of getting free things, but I am done with the whole situation.

Have you had this happen to you?

Follow up from yesterday........

I had a comment from Margie that she does not use Facebook, and she is not the only one out there.  So if you would like to donate items to various groups/causes Up North please let me know in a comment what you are willing to donate/where you are willing to donate and give me your email address (I will not publish it) and I will email you addresses and more specifics for you to chose from.

Some things that are requested are as follows:

DVD's for 15 to 18 year olds for movie nights hosted by the RCMP.  Along with popcorn and various snacks.

Craft items, things like needles, yarn, embroidery threads, paints, beads.

Food for various food banks and soup kitchen, for example yeast, flour dried beans, peas.

Clothing items, especially socks, hats & mitts.  For all age groups and both males and females. Underwear for all age groups and pull on bras for the elderly women.

Winter clothing, jackets, boots, snow pants; remember it gets pretty cold where they live.

Books, small dollar store toys, little Hot Wheels cars.

Toiletries of all kinds.

Vegetable seeds for various organizations.

Certain places put together "Kindness Kits" which can include the following depending on what's donated:

Here are some content suggestions:
• Hand warmers
• Batteries
• Flashlights
• Toothbrush/Toothpaste
• Moist wipes
• Neck Warmers
• Hat Gloves
• Scarves
• Indoor or Outdoor socks (Often socks are layered on extremely cold days)
• Soap
• Swiss army knife or a multi tool
• Bandaids/Small first aid kit
• Deck of cards
• Sample size shampoo or deodorant
• Camping utensils spoons, forks, sporks ;-)
• Simple household gadgets like a can opener
• Kleenex packs
• Nail clippers
• Canvas compact shopping bag
• Fishing hooks/lures/line
• Sunglasses
• Small reusable traveling water bottle
• Wash cloth
• Chapstick
• Razors
• Tampons or Feminine Hygiene Products
• Single Use Tide powder to have the opportunity to wash clothes
• Brush/comb
• Envelope/Pen/Stamp—So someone can write home to family
• Hot Chocolate/ Individual Coffee packs
• Snacks—instant oatmeal, dried fruit (Anything with nuts should be clearly marked)

I sewed a number (22) of bookmarks and got them off in the mail on Thursday.  I tried to do a mix of fabrics to suit both boys and girls.

All were made from scraps of fabric I had on hand; same with the ribbon trims.  If you have any questions ask away.

They only need $3 now.........

Will you be the one to donate the $3 to our son's Relay for Life team? Here is the link if you would life to do that: http://convio.cancer.ca/site/TR/RelayForLife/RFL_ON_odd_?team_id=295756&pg=team&fr_id=12391  It will be a good $3 spent!!

Only need $113 to reach their goal.....

Not sure if you remember me asking begging the other week for donations for the Relay For Life Team our son is captain of?  Anyhow they are only $113 short of their goal of $3,750.  Their original goal was $3,000 which they achieved so they thought they would try to raise another $750.

So if cancer has affected you, your family or someone you know, please consider donating a couple of dollars to this worthwhile cause.  Here is the link to their team: http://convio.cancer.ca/site/TR/RelayForLife/RFL_ON_odd_?team_id=295756&pg=team&fr_id=12391

Every little does indeed help.  Thank you.

And the proof is in the photos!!

I posted here I was taking part in Carla's de-cluttering challenge, and for the first week I picked our closets and drawers in our bedroom.  I had planned on being away from home all day Wednesday, but due to an issue with my car that got cancelled, so with that extra time on my hands I decided to make a start on our bedroom by cleaning out our drawers.

Before:

After:

Before:

After:

Before:

After:

Before:

After:

This is our underwear drawers, you are just going to have to believe me when I say I cleaned them all out, as I don't feel I should inflict an image of my underwear on any of you!!!

This is the pile of clothes that will be going to Goodwill or where ever.

Also Carla's mini challenge this week was to donate an item to the Food bank.  As you can see I will be donating personal items as well as food.  Dh has gone of Gillette deodorant and won't use it, so this way it will be put to good use, and I know food banks are always needing personal items.

I will tackle the closet in our bedroom on Thursday as that will take all morning to go through that.  Must say this is the kick up the butt I need!!

I also sorted out a bag of paperwork pertaining to the Church Recipe book I put together in 2010.  I am dropping off all the paperwork at the Vicarage next time I go past which will be later on in the week.

So at this point I have also completed my getting rid of 29 things this month!!!  Mind you I am not stopping as I know I probably have another 229 things that could be tossed!!

Donating Beach Towels and ordered my dress

For those of us in Canada, have you seen the General Mills cereal with the free Beach Towel offer on them?  Personally I am not interested in a free beach towel, but I see you can donate it to the Tim Hortons Childrens Foundation for a child in their programme, what a super idea.  I donated mine from the box of Banana Nut Cheerio's I ate.

Went to Toronto on Saturday to see about getting a dress for the wedding.  Went to Ediths Fashions to see what they had.  Narrowed it down to one dress but the price put me off.  I had wanted to spend less than $500 but knew that wasn't going to happen with what I liked.  So left empty handed and decided to check out this store which wasn't too far away.

To be fair this poor store didn't stand a chance as it was like going from driving a Rolls Royce to driving a Mini.  The quality, the service, the choice was just not there.  So we ended up going back to Edith's and me picking up the dress I liked at the price that I didn't like. 

However it really did look lovely, its a royal blue colour with a beaded top with cap sleeves and a chiffon floaty skirt and it is long.  The good news is that I can shorten the skirt and wear it for a wedding we`re going to next February and I will be able to wear it at Christmas parties or even going out for a special dinner when it is shortened.  The quality and workmanship of the dress is superb, and as everyone said, it`s a once in a lifetime occasion dd getting married.  They are ordering it in, in my size and it will be here by mid-September.  I was able to try the dress on in a size less than I need and so I know how I look in it. The dress I bought is made by this company, but mine isn`t on the site.

So now I have to get shoes, which shouldn't be a hard job.......fingers crossed and a new handbag.  I need to email the lady who is making my fascinator and discuss what we`re going to do with that now I have my dress.

Did I enjoy dress shopping..........NO  I tried on a `bustier,`type top which meant I couldn't breath, but at least it did suck in all my wobbly bits.  I tried a dress on that made me look like a very short barrel.  What was nice on the hanger didn`t mean it looked nice on me.  Of course the hot flashes kicked in and so it was even more uncomfortable.   Overall I was glad to see the back of the store and the dress trying on part.  If anyone in the Toronto area is looking for a dress or an outfit for a special occasion I would say look in Edith`s as it does have a wide collection of outfit`s they are pricy though.

I hope you don`t mind but I won`t be showing you a photo of the dress as I want to keep it as a surprise.

You've got to see what Patty bought for $11 this week.

I am featuring once a week a lady who is buying $11 worth of items to donate to the homeless shelters or foodbanks.  What this lady can buy for $11 is marvellous.  Here is week five's items  I think it is on the second post.  She certainly knows how to use coupons, I wish I could do as well.

Star mentioned on yesterdays post I am "nesting" and I think she is right.  When you are in the house more due to the cold weather, I think it gives you more time to plan.  Dh and I are going to spend some time in the attic today.  We have to get some work done before the guy comes to install the banisters.  I can actually see a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel with this attic.  There is still a lot to do, but it is all coming together.  I will take some photos when we get some more work done.

The Toronto Transit Commission is in the headlines AGAIN, this time a bus driver is caught texting while driving a bus full of people!!  It's against the law to text while driving for everyone, but what makes it worse he is putting a bus load of people at risk...........The TTC is always in trouble with the general public.  The last public relations nightmare for them was when someone took a photo of an employee asleep on the job.  That guy has since passed away.........

All I know is whenever the TTC employee's do something stupid, out pops the Union Guy spouting a whole lot of tripe, I have never seen a man talk a whole lot of nothing for a long period of time.......but hey that's another story for another time!!

Still sick and an update..........

Despite me doing very little yesterday again I still don't feel good.  My throat doesn't feel as bad, but my energy level is ZERO.......mind you I must be feeling a little better as I am feeling like doing a post here?

I don't often get these types of colds, but when I do I generally get a real doozey of a one.  So I guess it's going to be another day of resting up.

Remember the lady who is donating $11 worth of "stuff" to the Homeless Shelter and is posting it on Smart Canucks?  Well she has updated on what she got this week, check it out here

Also for those of you who do Swagbucks make sure you play the games.  All you need to do is play one game, then play another and you will get 2 swagbucks for that.  Just make sure after each game you don't register your score and you then change games.  You don't have to play well.....believe me I suck at them, you just have to play.  You can earn up to 10sb a day doing that and it takes no time at all.

For the first time ever I have maxed out my 5 x Amazon e-cards.  I am going to save my Swagbucks up and then see about swapping Amazon.com e-cards with someone for Amazon.ca e-cards.  Again if anyone wants any tips or wants to join up let me know by leaving your email on a comment, I WON'T PUBLISH IT, and I'll get back to you.

'Tis the season, and they're gone....well as far as I know!

'Tis the season...........for road works. I was in the city yesterday and all the way there and all over the city there were road works everywhere. I have to say one stretch of road reminded me of Britain, where there were mile upon mile of bollards (cones in Britain) and not a workman in site!!! I guess Fall is a great time of year to do roadworks?

Now I am touching wood as I say this, but it's been 10 days since I last caught a mouse? Now does that mean I won't get anymore in the house........somehow or other I don't think so!! Still I live in hope.

Also I saw SNOW on Wednesday........I mean I was quite distressed about the whole situation....I even told the guy in the store, that someone up there hadn't got my memo, about no snow until December 24th!! Now granted it was only snow on a car, but it was snow. Then I went to knitting club and one of the ladies there said they had snow on the ground in the morning. So I am guessing it will be here with us soon, especially if Carol decides not to keep her snow and sends it my way ;0)

Thanks for your opinion on the firefighter donation, we are going to write a cheque. Also made a decision on the Internet and will be changing providers in November. I will sort it out on Thursday, as I have give 30 days notice with Bell, and the new providers are booking appointments for setting up the system for the second week of November. I can then be on the Internet more that I am now, which means I will be able to start and visit everyone's blogs again.

Popped into the library to pick up a book I ordered "The Backyard Homestead" by Carleen Madigan, looks like it will be an interesting read.

I got the door repaired today on the wood stove, and when I was in there I picked up a wood stove steamer and trivet similar to this one I couldn't believe the price of them; granted they are cast iron, but I bought a cheaper one and ended up paying nearly $70 for both the steamer and the trivet to put it on. We are finding it very drying to our skin having the fire on, so we are hoping this will help a bit.

Interesting day on Tuesday............

I had the doctors appointment on Tuesday morning and a dentist appointment. What was interesting is that the dental hygienist's sister is a visual effects person in LA. She was telling me that she was working on promotional material, i.e. promotional video's for Michael Jackson's upcoming tour when he died.

When he died all production shut down, and what was done has been made into the movie "This Is It." She met Michael Jackson and although he looked very sickly and thin, he was very friendly and very, very creative.

I met a friend for lunch and she works as a buyer for a large grocery chain, that sells the PC brand.......

Anyhow, we had lunch in their head office (where she is based) cafeteria. What a lovely place it is, and so bright and modern. You can only eat there if you are with an employee. They had a super selection of items to choose from and of course they are all PC items. They were all well priced and everything looked so good. We had a BLT (bacon, lettuce, tomato) sandwiches, with veggies and chips (crisps), and I had a bottle of water and paid under $12. It was so good also to see "R" and catch up. I really miss her, and we don't see one another often enough. By the way there are 2,500 employees working in this location.

On the way home I called into Tim Hortons, and picked up half a dozen donuts. Anyone else loving the pumpkin spice donuts? They are so yummy I could eat them morning, noon and night.

I had some phone calls to make when I got home. I ordered oil for the heating. We have half a tank still, but I figured we may as well get it in now and then its done with hopefully until after Christmas.

The gasket has started to come off the wood burning stove door. I called in at the store last week, and they gave me some glue, but that didn't do the trick. So now I have to take the door into the store and they will replace the whole of the gasket. Fingers crossed it works then.

Finally, I got a referral to go and see an allergist. The date of my appointment, November 30th.....I think it's a long wait as he only works certain days every week.

Molly's allergies are still as bad. So I need to call the vet to see what she has to say, as I gave her an allergy pill on Tuesday night, to see if she would stop chewing.

So all in all a pretty interesting day. Oh and we had an envelope in the mail box from the local fire department, with their 2010 calendar and a letter and envelope looking for a donation. I am not sure how I feel about donating, or why I should donate.........any thoughts? By the way I donate on a monthly basis to the Canadian Cancer Society, so I am not against donating, I am just not sure WHY I should donate to the fire department?

A super lady with a huge heart......

That is Carol from Scrappy Quilts I have known Carol for a couple of years now, she is one of my Internet Friends. Why I am talking about Carol, is that she does something that makes you proud to know her.

She makes Quilts for young moms and their children in the Reservations in Northern Canada. Here is a little piece she wrote about her quilts:

A little about the quilts:
-each quilt is prayed over as I work on it, praying for the little one who will receive it and their family.
-most of the quilts are baby quilts, however I have sent single quilts. One went to a little boy who was in and out of the hospital all the time. It felt so good to know he had a quilt to cuddle up to.
-the quilts are made in a simple pattern. In that way I can make more, get them finished faster and sent out quicker.
-I have a wonderful friend who has often sent me material to use in these quilts. Thanks Heather, you are indeed a gift to me.
-the quilts often travel by boat or air
-I take a day to cut squares so that when I have a few mins. in my day, I can quickly sew up a few squares. It makes it so much easier that way.

She has posted a lot of photos of her quilts on her blog and they are beautiful. If you have time pop by her blog and leave her some comments. Also if you have any spare material that you would care to donate get in touch with her through her blog. She is such a kind and thoughtful person, who wouldn't dream of asking anyone for anything. I have to say some of her other ideas are also really neat.

Carol does know I am doing this post as I did ask her permission first.

Odds and ends, bits and bobs, that sort of thing.....

At this time of year we get a fair bit of mail, mainly Christmas cards. I got a Christmas card this morning from England and when I saw the envelope I had to laugh to myself, as it had been sliced open, by whom, I have no idea. Why it was sliced open, I do know why. The card was the exact size of the money holder cards you can buy from the card shops to put money gifts in. It wasn't sliced open accidentally, it was sliced open on purpose, as it was such a neat cut. Shame it was only a Christmas card, and not a money holder card!!!!!

I also went to the post office today to mail some things. One of them was an envelope that was going to Ireland. When the lady in the post office came to weigh it, it was 202 grams, and was going to cost me nearly $13 to mail. She said if it was 199 grams or under it would be $6.40, so off I go home to reduce the weight. What a difference a couple of grams can make, don't you think?

At this time of year I think most people probably feel more charitable to others than at other times of the year, don't you think? I know I do, and although we don't have a lot to give monetary wise I do try to do the odd thing. I go to a couple of shows each year and get a pile of samples and freebies from them. So this year I decided to put together two gift baskets and drop them off at the woman's shelter. Here are photos of them:








The shelter that I donated them to, is for women and their children. So with it being cold season, I also picked up a dozen boxes of Kleenex and dropped them off at the same time. It wasn't much, but better than nothing. One of my goals this year, is to get on sale toiletries and keep donating them to the shelter. (on a side note, did you notice the tiny Christmas crackers on the baskets, I buy them in the Boxing Day sales, super cheap, it adds a festive touch don't you think? I add these to all my gift bags)

Last but not least, I am all excited about a present under the tree. My mother and step-father send us gifts every year (thank you both) and we have had those parcels now for a month or so, as she sends them surface back in October. I finally got around to unwrapping them from the brown paper and putting them under the tree. Now being the nosy person that I am, I of course had a good look at my carefully wrapped present, and you know what, part of it looks exactly like the box that my Wedgwood ornament came in last year.



Remember this photo:



So I am now all excited, only 6 more sleeps until Santa comes!!!!!

***BIT OF AN UPDATE, I HAVE THE RECYCLED CHRISTMAS CARD POST DONE, JUST NEED TO ADD PHOTOS, AND IT WILL BE POSTED ON JANUARY 2ND, 2009******

Good Deed's..............

One thing that has happened with putting the house up for sale is that I have done a lot of de-cluttering.

I have a thing for Christmas decorations and over the years have accumulated a ton of them. When we had a finished basement we would put two trees up. One in the living room and one down the basement. Since we have been in this house, we have only ever put up the one tree in the living room.

Both our trees were at least 15 years old and had seen their better days. A friend mentioned she was looking for a tree, so I gave her one of ours. I then decided to buy a new tree which already had the lights on it, as I find that a bind putting the lights on the tree. However I still had the one tree, plus a ton of ornaments and lights, so I gathered them all together along with other Christmas items that we no longer use and took them to the women's shelter (Salvation Army).

There were enough decorations including a small table top tree and a tree for the creatively challenged (it was plastic with slots to put the ornaments in, any one could decorate that one!!) and the regular 6 foot tree, so three households could have some sort of Christmas decorations in the house.

Now the reason I am telling you this story, is that you don't have to give money all the time, if you do have spare Christmas ornaments or a spare tree, this is the time of year to be donating them!!!

This was a big deal for me, as I never ever thought I would part with a lot of my Christmas stuff. We also now have a lot more room in the area in the basement where I keep all the Christmas stuff. Also maybe I was planning ahead, as I know when we moved into this house, dh whined for days about how much Christmas stuff we had!!

I am going to tackle dh's closet this weekend, as CP (cerebral palsy) is coming to pick up used clothing the beginning of December, I donate to them on a regular basis as well. Also for those of you in Canada, Fruits and Passion, have a nice bottle of bubble bath on sale, where part of the proceeds go to Habitat For Humanity.

I am also going to make a point of buying a few extra cans of food this weekend to pop into the food bank boxes, as every little helps.