What happened to Xmas lights???

When LED lights came on the market I was all excited! They took less energy,lasted forever, better for the environment, yaddayaddayadda.

Now today I find them boring and un-inpired, and you can't customize them.I have some at home but I'm not about to throw out all the other lights....In my back yard I installed some good old fashionned light bulbs but as you well know you need to change a bunch of bulbs when you install them...So I completely depleated my bulb stash.

This morning I hopped on a local bus that dropped me off the shopping center...I was looking for stocking stuffer and bulbs...I found some at Canadain Tire but at 2.49$ a pack of 4, i left them there thinking that I would find cheaper at the Dollar store. I couldn't find a single one at the Dollar store, rats! I ran to Zellers and only found some transparent ones.....I got a pack.

Don't tell me they're going to be the next HOT collectable? It seems they pretty much killed the Xmas light market with the LED lights because they last forever, so people don't need to buy some every few years...

Now thank god I need to go to Montreal on friday for a some kind of happy hour reunion...I'll be sure to stop by the Salvation Army before...

I often meet friends after Salvation Army trip and they often laugh at my finds....But what can I say but: Variety is the spice of life!

My father offered to look for replacement bulbs at his neighborhood old fashionned hardware store and my friend Josée is going to check to see if she still has her old lights, if so she'll give them to me...Yay!

When I did a search on Google images on vintage Xmas lights, my own pic came up! I use to have these lights in Etsy, but no one adopted them, sniff, so I kept the bulbs and threw away the cords. Unfortunately these bulbs are smaller.

Retro Tuesday: Oooh La La from Paris

So yesterday morning when the snow started, I turned on the weather channel. The verdict was-snowflakes. So I asked Dan what was the difference between snowflakes and flurries and I was told that in the case of snowflakes there is no accumulation. Well Mr. Weatherman certainly had it wrong! What we got was a full blown snowstorm!

Boy oh boy! I'm so glad I put up the Xmas lights outside! LOL

But of course I still had stuff lying around the yard....a soaker hose, watering can, lanterns....

And my bike! so I had to shovel to my bike and bring it inside to thaw! I was so sure I would pedal at least 'til New Year! Oh well! this is out of my hands, right God?

Ok time for Retro Tuesday! I wanted to do something on vintage hors d'oeuvres recipes, but didn't find anything that inspired me. Until I went to the bathroom....and saw these.

Nearly 30 years ago my dad had a contract at the Opera in Paris and he brought me along for the ride. I fell in love with everything Eiffel Tower. And of course I had to bring it home too!

I got them all at little souvenir shops, you know the kind, those little shops barely more than a table outside with really tacky,kitschy souvenirs. 

I remember that the small one had really stinky perfume and the bigger one had bubble bath which I replaced with a mix of water and food coloring! The last one still has it's original contents, red,white and blue bath salts....Oooh Lala!

 And yes it's a collection, I have more in the house....not a lot but some more. It's an inactive collection. I'm not getting rid of them and I'm not adding. But I can tell you my bathroom decor wouldn't be the same without those kitschy french souvenirs!

Happy Retro Tuesday everyone!

For more Retro Tuesday or in this case Toesday, head on to my pal Tracy's blog Crazy Suburban Mom

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! 

Giveaway Winner!

What a wonderful ride! I now have 156 followers, that means that I gained 59 followers. That is so cool!

So I used the random number generator at Random dot org. The winning comment is.....is.....is.......Ok enough with the suspense!

The winning comment is number 42! That comment was left by Gail @ Big Horn Mountain Creations .

Congratulations Gail! Woohoo! An email is on it's way.

Peanut (Pinotte) ia so excited you won!

Last night to celebrate the daness of Dan, we went to a comedy club- a small, dark,cramped space where you have the comedians right in your face! It was so fun, totally hilarious. We went to see one of our faves the super crazy Vanessa Hollingshead. Here's a taste:

Have a great weekend!

Wrapping Situation!

Every year it's the same scenario; when I go to my wrapping paper stash, I find it boring and uninspiring....So when I saw a sale at .59 cents a roll in a drugstore flyer,  I couldn't help myself.
So yesterday I hop on my bike and head to the drugstore. It's a new drugstore and there's hardly ever any customers. Since I discovered Shopper's has crazy high prices; trust me I had time to check...I've decided to shop at the little new drugstore.
So I find one roll advertised at .59c with big shiny red & green ornements and then I see the same patterns as in the ad...little snowmen on a lime green background and another with red,green & white stripes. I grab one of each. So I'm at the cash and the same 2 patterns as advertised scan for 1.99 each, I pulled out my flyer and pointed the ad to the cashier. She called the assistant manager who proceeded to tell me that the patterns were for demonstration purposes only and the rolls I'd picked had twice as much paper...yada,yada,yada she couldn't do anything about it and left.
At that point I turned to the cashier and said: look as a consumer, I see the patterns in the ad they're .59 cents a roll, there's no mention of quantity i want them at .59c! I'm here because I'm boycotting Shopper's Drug Mart! So she called the manager who told me the same crap, and I told her, there's nothing specified in the ad....
So after waiting 30 minutes and thinking I can't believe that a struggling store is willing to loose a potential customer for 2.80$, the manager came back and I got the rolls at .59c! Boy was I tired after that! lol

But not too tired to finish installing Xmas lights outside!

Here's Robbie the Reindeer and a still unnamed snowman that I rescued this summer from my neighbors trash. Hey it works great! You know what they say: If it's free, then it's for me!

This little guy sits near my front door with the metal sign I bought at the Christmas Tree Shop in October.

And i had time to make a speedy chicken pot pie for supper! In Pyrex of course!

I also had time to make a specail batch of B-Day cupcakes for Dan and I even shot a short video but was unable to load it up. Rats!

 I must say that for the 3rd of December I'm pretty up to date on my Xmas tv shows/movies watching. So far I caught Scrooged (how can you not AMC is showing it for 4 days), Hoe the grinch stole Xmas (the original) and Shrek the halls. This weekend I plan to watch A Christmas Story on dvd, it was one of Dan's B-Day gifts....and maybe Home Alone.

Tomorrow I'll be drawing the name of the winner of my Totally Awesome Holiday Giveaway

Good luck to everyone!

Have a great weekend! 

Stocking Stuffer Ideas for Santa....

Good morning everybody! 143 followers is AWESOME! I still can't believe it!
Ok so today it's Stocking Stuffer ideas for Santa because most of this stuff you can't find in Canada and I very much doubt that my family will go south to shop.
Here we go!

An aluminium tree. I'd never dream i'd say this but I want one BAAAAD! With the color wheel of course. I'm a natural tree kinda gal but I'm totally into vintage right now and it would look great with my new sofa!

AAAAAAAAaaaaahhhhh! Baconnaise! I would love to taste this, not available in Canada. They don't even ship to Canada...sigh!

A cool belt buckle, doesn't have to be the Batman sign but a cool one. I'm sick of my plain black belt.

This is my fave lip balm! I have good chances of getting that one because: It is available in Canada and I made quite a production when I finished mine a couple of weeks ago! LOL

The elusive Elf Zit Zapper! Not available in Canada...they do ship but it's like 14.95$. A middle age girl still gets zits aaaarrrrggghhh!

Paige Meadows hand cream. By far my favorite! Not available in Canada either. They don't ship here and last year I was soooo desperate to get some...I enrolled in Borderlinx, which I find is a total scam. Here's how it goes: you set up an account and they give you an address (a fake one in the U.S) so you can order from companies that don't ship to Canada. So you pay regular shipping, let's say 6.95$ after that they ship it from your fake a dress to your real one and that costs an arm and a leg....Last year I ended up paying more than 30$ shipping for amazing hand cream.   If you find some, please try it it is amazing!!! Really I'm not kidding :)

Twiglets! OMG! From the U.K.This addictive snack is not for every body, it's overly salty and crunchy and most eople I know who've tried it find it tastes like sawdust and dirt. But who cares! If I could inhale some right now before breakfast I would!

I first became aware of Twiglets while watching a Mr Bean special.

  Here's a taste of Mr Bean...

And Pyrex of course! Like the small one of this unknown pattern...The unofficial name is Eyes....

Totally Awesome Holiday Giveaway REMINDER!

Just a small reminder that you have until Dec 3rd 12 pm to enter my fantabulous giveaway.

Just click RIGHT HERE to leave a comment and don't forget to become a follower!

Since I've had a lot of comments, the most I've had in my previous giveaways , I've decided that cutting little papers with names and having one of the kitties pick a winner was not going to cut it... So I've gone high tech...So I'll be using a random number generator thing-aimagig , and  all comments will be numbered in the order they were received.

So good luck to everyone who commented!