Another surprise

You remember the Tassimo coffee maker Tassimo sent for Dan ?

It works great and makes delicious coffee, the cappucino is unreal!

So after we received it I got another email from the PR company thanking me for participating and they wanted to send me a surprise. Heck I love surprises!

On December 24th when I came hom from work there was a big box on my balcony....and wouldn't you know it was a Tassimo coffee maker! SWEET!!!

I couldn't keep 2 , right? right! For one micro second I tought about having a giveaway for a lucky reader....

But when we mentionned that I got a Tassimo to my step daughter, her face light up, she got all excited, so of course I had to give it to her!

So don't worry dear readers I'll figure out a way to have a fab giveaway!

Now for today's picture....

Now who knew that a cartoon character had favorite Jelly Belly flavors?

Really?

 

Are you surprised they all are pinkish?

 

 

A Seasonal Surprise

I got an email a couple of weeks ago about the Tassimo Nice List; I was asked to name a deserving person to receive  a Tassimo coffee maker.

Well I was skeptical for sure, so I did some research. I found out that the PR company representing Tassimo was in fact the same company that represented Clamato!

And last year I was a Clamato Embassador! So I said to Dan; why not let's give them a whirl.

So who was deserving more than Dan? A really good, generous person who had to pay more than his share of bills since I was getting a smaller paycheck and still managed to spoil me!

So I gave Dan's name and let's face it we weren't really expecting anything because almost half the time someone from the internet tell you:I will send you something, well they don't come through which is a shame.

Well lo and behold, 2 days after there was a big ass box at my front door and there was Dan's new Tassimo.

If you are a regular reader you know that I don't like these things as they are expensive to run and not really eco-friendly.

But we got one and Dan was really excited about it and we went and got disks for it....

And the coffee is excellent! Now it won't be our main coffee maker, but our late night decaf weekend coffee maker.

And I'm really grateful that they choose me. By the way no one asked me to review it or blog about it.

Now while I was in Massena NY , I tried to find funky Tassimo disks

and couldn't find any.

 

Is the U.S a Keuring nation?

 

Have a great night!

 

I can't believe I have to go to work tomorrow! 

 

LAST GIVEAWAY TEASER AND IT'S A GOOD ONE!

What a week! A bit of advice of ALL employers in Canada: Give your employees more than one week of vacation the first year please!!!!!

Even if I go t bed early I'm still tired! I was on vacation on August 29th last year....and my body is  feeling  it. I only got a week because I became permanent in January 2012.

Next year I get 3 weeks paid vacation, yay!

This year will be a staycation  because we need to TCB (take care of business) all outside around the house because we have the big dig in September. Our ciment block foundation is leaking so we hired a company to dig out the foundation ,install 2 membranes, a french drain.....

I need to move some perrenials....

Now for the giveaway....

This little guy need a home....

A lonely shaker...

He is totally adorable!

And this is the piece the resistance that I kept for last!

Yes you saw that right.

A Delphite 502 fridgie complete with a Delphite lid.

There is a small chip on the lid. But a great piece nevertheless!

Is a recap necessary?

Here it goes!

Now remember this giveaway is only opened to my existing followers.

 You have until August 21st 2012 12:00 pm to leave a comment

RIGHT HERE!!! 

Have a great day folks

and

Happy Thrifting!

More?

Well I'm happy to say that so far I've had a great week at work and at home.

I'm slowly but surely starting to understand the ins and outs of the insurance biz....

I'm in a great place mentaly. I feel strong, steady and eager.

I've joined the gym at work and just signed up for yoga classes; at work too.

I feel creative, crafty and thrifty!

So I feel this is a great place to be a couple of weeks before my 47th B-Day!

YIKES! 47? Well dahlin' it's the new 30!

Now you know where I'm going....Don't you?

It's time for another teaser! For my giveaway of course!

Now you've seen this fab critter....

And this beautiful restaurant ware Pyrex plater....

So what will be next?

How about....

Sorry for the glare in the picture.

A brand new Tupperware microwave steamer casserole and a Good Seasons vintage

dressing shaker.

Now is the time to say goodnight and sleep tight,

See you soon with more vintage goodies....

I hope!

Can you say ROADTRIP?

WOOHOO!

This is a different kind of road trip

1)It will be in Quebec

2) I will be seeing family on my Dad's side

3) I hope there will be yard sales/fleas/church basements....

 

Sunshiny Thrifty Finds

10 years ago, no make that 7 years ago I would have never looked twice at anything orange, or brown for that matter.

I'm a child of the 60's and my super thrifty mom would transform my dad's sweaters in outfits for me...brown,brown and more brown!

My aunt (the one that yelled at me about the will) crocheted a spider web sweater for me in brown,orange and yellow and it haunted me for years...

So now I love orange! Don't love brown yet but I'm getting there....

So here are my latest orangey finds!

A Seashore Trolley Museum Federal Glass mug

This brings back memories of my summer in Maine as a child with my parents.

 I got this in Hudson last saturday at the street fair.

Dan and I reached for it at the same time. This is barely used and will look fab in my house.

BTW we are already filling it with iced water!

And the best part is that it was made in Montreal, sweet!

I love my beautiful orange thermos carafe! 

And last but not least....and not orange but to die for nevertheless....

No this is not the franciscans stuff, to me it's even better!

It is made in France! OOOOOHHHH LALA!

It is called 'Les Étoiles' (the stars) and manufactured by Les Faienceries Continentales.

It came from the Salvation Army. Beautiful!

Well that's it for now.

If you are a follower be sure to enter my super duper birthday giveaway

RIGHT HERE! 

Sleep tight, stay cool

Drumroll please! LOL

Finally I was able to finaggle and now I'm able to download my pictures from the IPhone.

I'd like to begin my last saturday's lunch...We had read in the local newspaper that on the Vaudreuil/Hudson border was a BBQ luminary that would park his rig in a mall parking and do some real Q.

This is so rare in Quebec that we nearly couldn't wait to jump in our car and stuff our faces in BBQ heaven!

A juicy smoked beef brisket sandwhich with homemade slaw.

The sauces (homemade) were fantastic. I tried the medium bbq sauce and the creole mustard.

Major Yum!

To top it all off these folks were the friendliest.

They cater, weddings ,parties etc....

Now I'm looking for an excuse to book them!

They only use antibiotic and artificial growth hormone free meats from farms that

treat animals humanly. Another plus!

I was really impressed my the size of the rig....

Compared to my little dinky smoker!

Here's the chef Michael Phillips with the monster!

Check out their web site and phone them to see if they'll be in the parking on the saturday

you want to sample Q joy.

I was told that the pulled chicken was to die for and that is what I'll have next time

I'll stop by

(which might be tomorrow)

http://www.zeegrub.com/

By the way I was not paid for this post. I just bloged about it because it is delicious and they are super friendly!
The pulled pork looked amazing and the ribs too. I saw lucky folks buying sauces and racks of ribs to bring home!

not the same caliber!

This is the first time I used it.

You need to buit a fire to season it.

But this is for another post!

Now for the drumroll.....

This is the first thing to go in the giveaway

A cool bird vegetable peeler

A Pyrex RW Laurel serving plater.

The picture is a bit fuzzy. The paint is bright and shiny.

Of course you are aware that I can't show you everything all at once!

I will show you more another day!

Yarnstorming and a teaser

I,m so glad you liked the crazy crochet scupture! And this morning I typed artist who crochet and came to Montreal and I got this....

I would've loved to see the Wall street bull covered in pink and purple!

The name of the artist is Agata Olek and is based out of NY city.

Here's a link to her website, go visit her work will blow your mind!

http://agataolek.com/home.html

Now for the teaser....

Actually there isn't one because of technical difficulties and I feel bad about it!

I took pictures of some of the items included in my birthday giveaway and I can't seem to download them from my IPhone!

RATS!

I'll work on it so I can tease you over the weekend.

I want to thank everybody for signing up to the giveaway. It will be soooo much fun!

Gotta go! The crazy girls from Absolutely Fabulous did an Olympic episode!

Check them out on YouTube!

TATA!

A little bird told me....

That is was high time for a giveaway!

Mind you this is a special giveaway for my present followers****NO NEW FOLLOWERS PLEASE***

Why a giveaway? Well it has been a while and August is my birthday month so let's celebrate!

This scupture is near where I work on Sherbrooke st.

in downtown Montreal.

There's this performance artist (I will try to find her name)

who was on visit in Montreal and she crocheted clothes to enhance pieces of art

I totally love what she did for these guys because it is quite ordinary in real life.

But I digress!

About the giveaway....I took some pics to tempt you but didn't download them.

There will be usueful stuff, cool stuff, funky stuff and Pyrex of course!

Now you need to be a follower and you need to leave a comment before August 22nd.

Easy peasy!

Night night!

Clamato WINNER!

Well folks, this is it!

Time for the draw of my super duper Clamato giveaway!

Since I only had 3 eligible participants I didn't rely on a random number generator (why use technology for such a small number?), so I asked the Danmeister to pick a number between 1 and 3....and the result was......

Number 2!

SixBalloons you're the winner! YIPPEE! I'm emailing you right now!

Thanks to De Tout, De Rien and Yutha for commenting. I just wish I could send some Clamato love your way too!

Thanks again to everyone who commented and Mom Wald I can't wait to see your clammy tomato costume!

Clamato Canada Day SWEET GIVEAWAY!

Great news faithful Canadian readers! My friends @ Clamato have contacted me to see if I would like to host a giveaway for Canada Day!

You could win this....

Isn't it to die for! You'll be the life of the party!

You just need to add spitits!

Do you want a chance to win this?

Well it is easy!

1) you must be a follower or become one

2) Leave a comment on this post

3) contest is opened to Canadian residents only (sorry about that, you know I don't make the rules)

4) contest will close on Monday July 4th midnight

Just a reminder I'm 5 followers shy of 200.....lol

Get your Ceasar on! I'm off to make myself one!  Yeah baby!

When life gives you lemons....And the winner is.....

What do you do? Sometimes you have a bad day….you must deal with unpleasentness (your mother's will) and it’s not going to good at your job(i.e you’re making mistakes like a diner dishes out blue plates specials!)


So you go out for a walk and see this....

OMG a new to me thrift shop! a stone throw away from my new job!

How cool is that? Pyrex dinnerware in Flamingo with the gold band! Too bad I'm not collecting this one (I collect the one WITHOUT the gold band). It was 7$ for the lot....hum if they're still there next week....
Actually I just got a super kitschy book  Treasury of Christmas ideas by Better Homes & Garden. It's tackylicious!

And you think thank you Thrifting Gods, thank you for making me feel sunny inside!!!
 
 Without further delay the winner's name....The draw was made courtesy of random.org.

Here we go!

The winner is comment no 25! Annalene congratulations! I'm sending an email your way with your prize!

Have a great night everyone! :)

Don't forget my CSN giveaway!

Still having a tough time on the 'I have a job now' adjustments!!! Besides the tights incident last week, the wardrobe thing is going great. I feel I need to inject more color into it. The office I work at is without color. Everyone dresses in grey and black, what up people?

Where is the color?
 Yesterday we stopped @ Maxi & Cie (Canada's Superstore) and I innocently said: Let's go check out the clothes....We both got super cute trench coats, sweaters and jeans. The damage? less than 100$ for everything! I really like Joe Fresh clothes, affordable and stylish!

We are so tired all the time, it's crazy! We have been putting off cleaning the house since I began work! That is crazy! There's soooooo much cat hair I could collect it and knit ugly stuff i could sell on Etsy and maybe I would be featured on Regretsy!

Did I ever mention I LOVE Regretsy? This is a laugh out loud web site. Who knew there was so many tacky,ugly and tasteless things on Etsy? And I learned a new word! Steampunk. Check it out!

I also wanted to share this restaurant sign I caught in Cornwall, Ont last week. Again just what is canadian cuisine? I'm baffled.

A reminder to enter my 45$ CSN giveaway, it ends on the 22nd. Click right HERE to enter!

  Good luck to all! My cats are not promising a hairball draw, but they are working on it! Hang in there! :)

Let's get this SHOW on the road before it's too late for Retro Tuesday!

I had a weird day...not bad just weird. It all started around 6 am when I was getting dressed. I pulled on a pair of black tights and SURPRISE! They were low rise ??? I had a huge amount of muffin top action going on! This is going to look soooo wrong with the skirt!

I tried another one and there was a HUGE hole in the crotch, might be a propos for triple X movies but not for the insureance biz. Last pair I put on was PERFECT! Good let's get down to business and get to work. I took a gander at my outfit...black and white polka dot shirt (very cute), black skirt and NAVY TIGHTS! I should have given me an idea of the day!

now on to more urgent matters! Retro Tuesday! So today the subject is BUN WARMERS!

To be more precise my BUN WARMER! I am pleased to announce that all our buns shall be warmed from now on!

I like to do some fact finding before I post for Retro Tuesday, this time I found nothing on the Cornwall Corporation from Boston Mass, zilch,nada,sprouten,bouten.

It work, i plugged it in. It's brand new, come on look at that cord! Never been unrolled. The box says avocado, but with the flash...looks sage green.

Don't these people look happy and fulfilled? It's because their buns are toasty warm and crusty; because the lid is vented! I wish my lid was vented!

                                     How chic! Warm rolls and perfect lives...                        

Turns out you can use it for much more than warm buns! Ideal for baked potatoes, spaghetti, rice dishes, vegetables, stews,popcorn,french bread, rolls and muffins, toast,

fried chicken,chops and hamburgers. See? it's good for everything! No more soggy rolls!

If you have any info on this piece of pure joy (just looking at the box makes me smile!) please comment or write!

Happy Retro Tuesday everyone!

Don't forget to enter my CSN 45$ giveaway right HERE!

CSN GIVE AWAY YAY!

Why did we fall in love with that fabulous credenza? To tell you the truth we are looking for a TV stand and lo and behold my friends @ CSN stores emailed me about having a giveaway for my readers! Head on to LCD TV Stands to see their fabulous selection!

                                                                    I really like that one!

So you wanna win a 45$ gift certificate to shop @ CSN? Very simple! Just leave a comment on this post with your email address. You have until March 22nd midnight to enter.

Good Luck!

Kimybee where are you?

I announced the winner on wednesday and still no news from the winner. Kimybee woohoo, where are you?

Please contact me before sunday night if you still want you prize, otherwise I'll pick another winner.

A word of advice....I know times are scary and the internet is full of wackos but please people an email in your profile is the way to go. Most people are good and honest.

Still loving the job but not loving the lack of time to do other things. My eyes feel like they are on slinkys, I swear.

I'm not used to be seated all the time so I'm full of those terrible gassy cramps that hurt like HELL. I'm bloated but thank god it's friday and I have 2 glorious days with Dan and the cats.

My legs hurt because I'm wearing heels for the first time in 3 years....lol. I'm staying in slippers and sweat pants ALL weekend!

The Winner of my Fab Spring Giveaway!

First of all let's talk about the new job!

I'm still on cloud nine, I'm excited to get up in the morning,to learn all about insurance, to meet my new co-workers and  to explore my new lunch hour neighborhood!

It's a lot to learn and I have problems keeping my eyes opened around 2 o'clock every afternoon....If you recall I used to enjoy a delightful nap with Bob in my arms!

Such a sweetie!

But even if I have the urge to snooze in my instructor's face, I have the energy to cook supper and do a bit of housework.

Ok now for the winner! None of my cats were available for a fur ball so I used the random number generator and the number it gave me was.....

13

So Kimybee come on down you are the winner! Please send me an email with your address so I can send you delicious goodies!

Retro Tuesday: Pickle Sickles and Mid-Century Joy

First off a quick reminder for those who haven't entered my super Spring GIVEAWAY! Click HERE to enter. You could win this....

And other goodies....

Now for Retro Tuesday!

Last Thrusday I stopped @ the Sally Ann and

I found this....

When I saw this lamp I definitely had a OMG, START THE CAR moment and a DON'T EVEN LOOK AT MY LAMP LADY!

 

I also brought home this beautiful piece of fabric. It's linen and it's never been used and it's all crisp. It is finished as a tablecloth.....Still on the fence about keeping it or listing it....

And this....

I simply can't resist those cookbooks! But I never make their recipes....I just look at the pics and laugh! 

Like this one...it's an informal teen record party. The sandwiches are tamale heroes....the tamales are from a can ( ? ) and you can serve them with pickle sickles (I bet Snooki would LOVE those).

And a full page on the Perfection Salad! A big mess of gelatin and canned sauerkraut!

 Save me some!

I picked up 3 of those posters for .99 cents. They're from 1961. I couldn't scan the entire thing so I cut the little girl and I kept the dad fixing the lawn chair...Much more interesting.

Check out the see-through house! You can bet I won't be watching tv in my pj's. And yes you can see the shape of my hands in the background. That poster had been rolled up for sooo long that I couldn't get it to stay put on the scanner! Maybe I'll frame one to go in my living room after it's painted!

Have a happy Retro Tuesday everyone! Keep on thrifting :)

Drop by for a visit @ Crazy Suburban Mom for more Retro Tuesday fun. 

Retro Tuesday: Smells like SPRING!

That's just wishfull thinking! I wish Spring was here, but it's probably at least one month away...

We had another 6 inches of snow Sunday night so I went shovelling yesterday and it was raining and the snow was wet and heavy and I nearly cried....Later in the afternoon the temp started dipping and it started snowing again....Guess what? I nearly cried...Over night everything froze and now it's around 3F (minus 18 C); needless to say that even if I wanted to I couldn't shovel and anyways I strained my back so I took happy pills and I'm resting.

Since I'm lomging for Spring and I guess I'm not the only one....I decided to have a spring themed giveaway!

Here's what one lucky winner will get:

4 delicious Spring Blossom Green Corelle cups, a cream and sugar set from the same pattern,

A Pyrex cinderella Spring Blossom Green 441 bowl, a S&P  miniature Ball jar set (new in box) form the 70's, a Pyrex spice shaker and a package of paper napkings with snowdrops on it-one of the first flowers to bloom in Spring.

Contest is open to everyone.

Here's what you have to do!

1) Be a follower

2) Leave a comment telling me what you prefer about Spring

and for an additionnal chance....Blog about my giveaway and tell me about it.

Now this is really important....You must be a follower and leave a comment in order to be eligible.

Contest is open until  February 28th 12:00 pm

My cats will randomly select a winner by hacking a fur ball on a printed comment (hihihi)

Good luck!

No Santa I don't want that!

It seems that every flyer I look at ,has at least one of it in it. It is one of the 'MUST HAVE' gift of the season! And it is very chic!

The one cup at a time coffee machine. I think there's basically 2 kinds. The Keurig and the Tassimo.

Keurig

Tassimo

So they brew a perfect cup of coffee each time, that is what their commercials tell us. They run between 99$ and 200$.YIKES! Remember when you could buy at coffee maker for 25$ ?

Maybe the coffee they produce is totally addictive....I can't judge, I had only one cup of coffee from a machine like that, it was good and strong.

What really gets me is the price of these little darlings....the K-cups....They come in a gazillion of flavors, tea and hot cocoa too! I bet you could find some hot buttered rhum too!

   I have seen them in stores for 8.99 for a dozen. It's perfectly fine if you drink one cup of coffee a day and you're single. So we got thinking, and that is always dangerous! lol
We drink 4 cups of coffee each a day, that is 8 a day; multiply that by 7 days and you get 56 cups of glorious java (and that is not counting the extra celebratory , this is the weekend,I love you, it's Xmas cups of coffee).
Ok so let's be conservative and say 56 cups per week. That means I would have to buy 5 boxes of K-Cups a week. That is 44.95$ plus taxes.

You can buy a caroussel to store your K-cups for 24.95$

Now back to the math! Ok so for a week it would cost us roughly 45$, which means that for a month it would be 180$. So for a year it would be 2160$, holy moly! That is a lot of moolah! We could go on vacation with that money! Now the coffee we drink costs 14.49$ a big can, sometimes less if on sale. It lasts for a month, here goes the math again! So for a year of perfectly acceptable coffee it costs  173.88$.

Ok, ok let's say 200$ because once in a while I buy flavored coffee on vacation to drink here. Like New England Coffee (Pumpkin Spice), guess what? They don't ship to Canada! !"/$%?&*(

And that is why I don't want Santa to put one under the tree!

Oh  before I forget! One of my bloggy pals the very thrifty Missouri Michael from Cul De Sac Shack is having a 100th follower giveaway; so just click on the link to participate!

Have a great day!

Winter is here!

Yes it's definitely wintry this morning! Light snow,coldish wind....I just want to curl up with a good book, a cup of tea and a warm kitty....

I'm just finishing the giveaway box that I'll send tomorrow to Gail.

I had a full weekend. Saturday we worked on the dinning room set ,the one I couldn't stand, so it's ready to ship to dear Step Daughter. Why didn't we think to paint it before? It's gorgeous in white. The table is almost done, one chair needs a new rush seat and another had 2 coats of primer. Next saturday we will go i the city to buy black vinyl to recover the seats of our new free chairs....

I can't wait! I know I'll spend Xmas with a folding table, but after the Holidays we will have a wood working shop make and turn some legs for the table. Now just who throws away a table and chairs but not the table's legs??? Go figure!

 We had our dance lesson Sunday afternoon, then rushed home changed and went to meet our friends Pierre and Johanne for a nice super at Crescendo an italian reaturant near the river in Verdun. It was a very nice evening, with good food and good company. Of course I ate too much and was up part of the night, so this is probably why I'm bone tired this morning!LOL

 Now you know I love Xmas and I love giveaways! My friend Mick over @ Everyone Goes To Mick's is having a celebratory giveaway. Is blog is one year old! So hurry and participate by clicking right HERE!

Have a great day!