Thanks for joining me today to celebrate exceeding 5,000+ blog hits on Thoughts, Tips and Tales in the first three months!
I truly appreciate everyone who’s visited the site, read posts, left comments and “liked” specific messages. Personal blogging is definitely addictive!
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Came across a great graphics website today. You know the “Keep Calm and Carry on” signs that you see on Pinterest and everywhere? And the takeoffs on them? (“Keep Calm and Kayak On,” etc.)
You can create your own unique “Keep Calm” signs in less than a minute — and at no cost –using the Keep Calm-o-Matic website at http://www.keepcalm-o-matic.co.uk/.
Simply fill in the blank with a word of your choice, select foreground and background colors, decide if you want the original crown or a different design at the top of the graphic, and click. It couldn’t be easier!
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Posted on The Shabby Nest Frugal Friday linky
Submitted to Think Tank Thursday linky
Thought I’d start a regular feature about the great things I find at thrift stores – starting with today’s treasures.
For $17.09, I got the following items at Goodwill:
1) Two, brand new-in-the-original-package round silver towel bars (to replace the old-fashioned square-ish ones on my bathroom wall) — $3.93 each ($3.93 x 2 = $7.86). I’m guessing the original price would be about $15 each ($30).
2) A new-in-the-original-package set of pink, 440 thread count king-sized pillowcases from Bed, Bath and Beyond (the original price was $16.99) — $5.95
3) One small basket (to stash all the printed info I collect about blogging!) — $1.99
4) One hardback book — “I’d Rather Be Writing” by Marcia Golub (to generate blog post ideas). The sale price tag from Barnes and Noble on it says $3.98 — $1.29
By my conservative calculations, the retail price for these items would’ve been about $59, resulting in a savings of approximately $42. Pretty good for a stop on the way home from work. 🙂
If you locate some thrift store bargains this week, share the joy! Write and let us know.
Related blog posts:
Thrift Store Treasures #2: Bare Trap Sandals — Love Them!
20 of the Best Bargains of my Life
The Sisterhood of Thrift Store Shoppers
Thrift Store Treasures: What I Did NOT Buy
Thrift Store Adventures Save Big Bucks and Count as Retail Therapy, Too
Things NOT to Sell at a Yard Sale
Great Fundraising Idea: Community Yard Sale
Other money-saving blog posts:
How to Get the Best Price Ever on Cottonelle TP
Save Money by Doing Your Own Pest Control
Make an Inexpensive Christmas Gift for Less Than $5
Money Saving Christmas Gift Idea #2 – Zip it Drain Cleaner
Money Saving Christmas Gift Idea #1 – Extend Your Beauty Tool
You Can Make Someone You Love the Best Gift Ever — at No Cost
Cute Halloween Window Decorations for Only $1
I Adore the Dollar Store
How to Add a Low-Cost Reading Rack to a Treadmill to Make Walking More Fun
Decorating Your Home with Extremely Low Cost Framed Prints – Part #2
How to Decorate Your Home with Extremely Low-Cost Framed Prints
Zip It Drain Cleaner – a Product to Love
If you live in the Charleston, S.C., area and want to get together to share tips and network with other area bloggers, please plan to attend the kickoff Charleston-Area Bloggers meeting Thurs., Aug. 18 at 7 p.m. at Publix cafe in Queensboro Shopping Center in Mt. Pleasant.
Please contact me at blogqueendiane@comcast.net for more info and to RSVP.
When I lived “Up North” everybody knew that Southerns always said “Y’all” instead of “You all” and dropped the letter “g” on the end of lots of words. My sister and I used to pretend to be Southern belles (Scarlet O’Hara wanna-bes), fluttering our hands and whispering “Y’all hush now!” to each other. (Our grandma lived in Florida and we picked up a few expressions from her.)
After quite a few years living on the South Carolina coast — the “garden spot of the earth” — I’ve discovered a couple more distinctly Southern phrases that Northers don’t commonly use.
1) “Cut off the light” — translation: “Turn off the light”
2) “I’m fixin’ to…” — translation: “I plan to…” or “I’m going to…”
3) “Quit bein’ ugly” — translation: “You’re being mean”
4) “Mash the button” — translation: “Press the button”
5) “Hey” — translation: “Hi” (Can’t believe I say this now: When these words come out of my mouth, I always think of Gomer Pyle or Barney Fife on the old Andy Griffith show!)
6) “She’s lookin’ to…” — translation: “She wants to…”
7) “He’s showing his behind” –translation: “He’s making an ass out of himself.”
8) “Mama” — translation: Mom
9) “Bubba” — translation: A good ol’ Southern boy or a commonly used nickname
10) “Hush” — translation: Be quiet
Do you have other Southern-isms to add to the list?
When the heat index is 110, and the first breath of fresh air in the morning makes you gasp and feel like you stepped into a 400 degree oven — it’s time to pull out all the stops in dressing for sizzling weather.
Here are some tips I’ve picked up while living in the steamy South: Continue reading
This woman was standing in front of me in line at the thrift store yesterday. (My friend J and I hit five thrift stores in a row and found some good buys!)
She was about 5’2″ and her hair actually touched the floor. It was truly amazing, and I had to sneak a photo.
Wonder how long it took someone to braid it?
Mother-daughter photos from www.viralblasts.com
Aren’t these great mother-daughter photos?
I wrote a post recently about the stand-up paddleboarding class I took this summer and how, although my legs quivered the whole time, I finally was able to paddle for an hour without plunging into the water.
My friend C’s dad, Mr. D., who has always been an amazing extreme athlete (a bungee-jumping, rafting-in-the-rapids, jumping-out-of-an-airplane type of guy), enjoyed paddleboarding an easier way this summer. His grandsons attached a rocking chair to the board, and the octogenarian paddled away!
Looks like fun, doesn’t it?
— Other fitness-related posts:
Nothing Makes You Feel Better than a BODY PUMP Workout
Stand Up Paddleboarding: Testing the Water
How to Add a Low-Cost Reading Rack to a Treadmill to Make Walking More Fun
Yesterday I was a featured blogger on the In the Next 30 Days blog at http://inthenext30days.net/bloggers-day-5-blog-queen-diane-thoughts-tips-tales/, which was very cool!
But I’m kind of embarrassed because it sounded like Anna, who very kindly wrote the blog post to feature me, might have thought I was being egotistical to use the screen name “blogqueendiane.”
The only reason I chose it (and now I wish I’d picked another, more humble-sounding name!) is because I manage the corporate communications blog at work (that our employees around the world read) and quite a few people laugh and call me the “blog queen.” (I wrote a comment on her blog to try to explain that.)
Oh well…it was really nice of her to have featured me and to have a moment in the limelight… even if readers think I have a big head! 🙂
