Note to self: do not go to Target on a Saturday remotely near the "holiday season." Yikes. The one nearest me has "hipped itself up" lately (bigger, fancier cosmetics section, more modern displays in some areas) and apparently that includes playing the ambient rock music 10 to 15 decibels too loud for my comfort. It was hard to hear myself think while shopping.
Also, they were demoing the "Poo-purri" product (a sort of deodorizer designed to be used before you go #2, allegedly to cover it up). It is VERY strong and VERY harshly floral and it is sort of headache inducing, even just being in the same vicinity as it.
And finally, it was crowded. And worst of all, when I went to the toy section, there was a little girl having an absolute screaming meltdown because her mother was not going to buy her a doll. (I have mentioned before, when my brother and I were kids? If we saw a toy we "wanted" any time after about October 15, our parents would say "Okay, if you want it that much, put it on your Christmas list and you might get it." The only other option was saving up our allowance. And at any rate: we generally didn't do a whole lot of shopping in stores that had toy sections - there wasn't a Target in our town and the grocery stores were pretty much that - just grocery stores, though they did sometimes have a aisle of those cheap "rack toys" which usually weren't very appealing)
But I did buy the things I intended to, plus a couple others:
Not all of these were bought at Target. The purple unicorn is from JoAnn's. That's my AAUW "small toy for the Lion's Club toy drive" toy. I grabbed it from the rack of Ty items while waiting the 10 minutes on line (one cashier, the person at the head of the line had dozens of those floral picks, and they also argued with the cashier about the prices of a couple items).
The tiny Grumpy Bear is also from there, but he is for me (Or rather, my Gabby Douglas Barbie doll.) But the rest of the things came from Target - the vintage-repro care bear and the Fingerlings panda bear are for Toys for Tots (maybe I was a little bit generous this year but whatever, I hate the thought of a kid not getting to have a Christmas maybe because of bad luck of their parents, or poor choices their parents made). The reproduction My Little Pony G3 Fluttershy is for me - I had been wanting one, they didn't have any the last time I was there.
The Simon game is a family gift for my brother and his family. I hope I can fit everything in my suitcase. I didn't intend on buying it but my brother and I had one when we were kids and it was a lot of fun, and I like the idea of giving a reproduction of a favorite toy. (I hope they don't already have one).
I also hit the bookstore and FINALLY found a more recent issue of Simply Knitting (so maybe their hangup in getting issues to the US has resolved) and a couple other magazines I wanted. And the JoAnn's, and got the couple things I noted, plus a couple skeins of sprinkle-colored yarn and a plain cream color (mane and tail) so Ranibow Sprimkle is going to be a thing - hopefully I get my Christmas knitting done by the end of Thanksgiving week, and I could maybe make Ranibow once I get back.
And the Ulta, and they were handing out coupons, and I got VERY lucky - I got a "$25 off any purchase of $25 or more" (I was planning on spending a bit, between the little trimmer for my hairline and more of the pore-corrector I use and the like) but $25 off is $25 off. And the cashier, it was so funny, she got so excited and was like "THAT'S THE BEST COUPON I'VE SEEN ALL DAY"
I kind of like some of the women who work at Ulta. It's probably not the most fun job ever, but a lot of the women at the one near me seem to have a lot of fun with it.
I also went to Five Below, found a couple funny Christmas cards that a couple people will get, and a couple of ornaments for my tree:
Dumbo, which is cute because he looks like he's flying. (Even with the....crow scene...and the pink elephants scene, I prefer the animated movie to the more-recent live-action one. And animated Dumbo is just a cute character design)
And Stitch, a newer favorite of mine. (Again, I just like the movie. It is a nice movie. In the right mood, Stitch's speech near the end - about how the family he has become a part of is "Little, and broken, but...still good. Yes, still good." can make me tear up a little.)
Yes, my tree ornaments are mostly toys or cartoon characters and I am absolutely fine with that.
I did also go to the antiques mall in Sherman (ran out of steam to consider going to the Denison stores). I don't know if they're closing down or if there's just a lot of dealer turnover right now but a lot of the booths were emptying out and a lot were having big sales. There's nothing on their facebook page about "closing down" so maybe it's just dealer turnover? I know one dealer had a sign saying they were retiring and that was why the big sale.
I found one tree ornament, probably newer (from the 80s or so) but it was a good price and I liked it:
It's a Victorian-style toy store. (I say I think it's newer because it's a much thicker glass - which means less fragile - than the old type of glass ornaments). And again, it's pink - pink is definitely one of the more common colors on my tree.
I also bought this. It's an old feed sack and it's a little over a yard in size (36" by about 44"). There is one section that has a little stain, but it's only a little section, and I am going to try washing it to see if maybe the stain will lighten. I'm not sure if I will cut it up to use it, or maybe use it entire as the backing on a miniature quilt:
It was $10.99, which is less than the price-per-yard of many modern quilting fabrics.
And some more tree photos; I realized I had forgot to put my Giant Microbes Do Christmas that an ITFF friend sent me, so I put them up:
Also, my vintage ornaments came. This is my favorite, probably from the 1960s:
It's a faceted plastic teardrop shape with a tiny Santa figure (very much in the weird, fairylike interpretation that some of the early Japanese/Korean made-for-the-US-market ornaments had). It's kind of weird and twee and that's why I like it. (You can also see another of the giant microbes there)
And a 1970s era plastic ball with a cardinal on one side, and a pair of English sparrows on the other:
And another pink ornament, one of those satin balls that has been "enhanced" with some sequins and beads:
And the sequinned bell, which was the first thing I saw and got me ordering vintage ornaments from the seller:
And a couple of the die-cut cardboard Santas:
I also got a clip-on glittery bird at Target, these are reproductions of old ornaments (clip on ornaments used to be a thing)
But still. It turned out to be kind of a tiring day and I hope I remember how unpleasant "bigger" shopping areas are during this season....
No comments:
Post a Comment