Birthday and so on

Sitting here enjoying the gratis little lipglosses I received from Sephora for my birthday.  Nice generous mini tubes in 3 colors.  Boy, was the variety of makeup and skin care at the Sephora store overwhelming!  I noticed the dry shampoo from Bumble & Bumble - I use scented bath powder myself!

I do save $ on skin care and makeup by supplementing my stash with samples - and by keeping a lookout at the Dollar Tree and the 99 Cent Store for national brands like Revlon and Maybelline. (I got a nice makeup selection at Big Lots, too...) To me, even $8 for a lipstick is a LOT - and at Sephora they have $20 ones.  I pointed that out to my astounded husband. (Check out freestufftimes.com for free samples - there's one of mascara now....)

In fact, all through our mall walk, I pointed out to my husband  the mall prices of items I have - like costume jewelry - which in retail stores cost a bundle.  Who can afford this stuff? (I have a silver cuff I bought at a thrift store for $1 because it was black with tarnish!)

I don't want to pay more than $20 for a dress!  (And just got one on sale at overstock.com - Their shopping is $2.95, very cheap as those things go.)

A lady at one of those freestanding kiosks at the mall tried to sell me $35 handcream - but in the process buffed up one of my nails with one of those modern 4-sided buffers.  And yes, my nails did look shiny - (I can't wear nail polish due to allergies!) I dropped into the drugstore later

that same day and found I could buy a buffer for $4!  So I did learn something....And saved $, as I have all sorts of handcream which works just fine.  Just got a new big tube that's scented lavender from hubby for my birthday...And there is some free cuticle cream I got from a promotion around here somewhere...

We also went to the Hollywood Bowl last week.  They used to have $1 seats way up in the back - but I paid $8 for ours & ended up way up there anyway.  The place is never full for the classical concerts, though - so we just moved down to an empty section.  We brought a picnick dinner & and only extra was PARKING.  Still an inexpensive evening for an orchestral concert!

Otherwise knitting like mad - only scarves for Xmas, tho - I find the simple knitting very relaxing in front of the tube (while I hopefully am watching old classic movies on Turner Classic Movies)....Using up yarn from my thrift shop stash & I have found that I can even use little extra bits for accents.  I like coordinating the yarn colors to produce a tweedy effect, and I can use big needles to make them FAST by combining several yarns together into one strand to knit....I think it's an interesting "wabi-sabi" look - sort of  rough but pleasing.  Machines can knit very regularly - so I think handwork should look, well, made by hand...

SO grateful for our thriftshop portable AC we got a few weeks ago, as it is VERY hot here....With the 2 units going in the windows & some fans, at least the living room area is nice and cool., I also have a bowl of water in front of one of the fans on the desk & I do believe it helps, too... We have a pocket door, so we can isolate the main area from the bathroom/hall/bedroom.  And at night we put on the bedroom AC & I put on the window fans to cool off the rest of the apartment - Luckily in S. California we have cool nights, unlike the East where I grew up.

 UPS just delivered a set of 6 steak knives I ordered on line from Oneida - (the ones we have are cheap ones) - They were about $4 & the shipping was more than the knives - really nice ones,

I see how one could get hooked on ordering online - but I only go for rockbottom bargains.  AS I do elsewhere, too! But it seems a bit silly when the shipping is more than the items??!!

How are you doing?  Any great deals lately??  Remember that there are all sorts of goodies for one's birthday out there....

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Birthday goodies

Everything's coming up goodies!