I Don't Have a Title For This Post

I haven't posted in a while due to a death in our family.  My nephew, who was 41, had a heart attack.  He was a sweet and good man.  I have the images of him from childhood when my eldest daughter and he spent so much time together.  We had moved away from the family when he was a young boy, which unfortunately, made our visits scarce.  The distance did not stop my heart from loving him.  His death does not either.

I have been keeping busy while digesting this event.  I tend to do this when something happens that is difficult to handle.  When my husband passed I couldn't sit and mourn.  I had to work and mourn.  It's just my way, even if it is a bit south of the norm.

The mantle is complete with a garland and matching candles.  I also went to the dollar store today and bought $8.00 of supplies to try my hand at a fall flower arrangement.  I bought a small metal bucket, 3 sprays of flowers, and three sprays of fillers.  For the bottom of the bucket I bought a floral 'frog' and some moss.  From the smell of the moss when I opened the package it's not the real thing. 

The arrangement doesn't look too bad, but I will ask my daughter to rearrange it to look professional.  Thankfully all four of our children got the creative gene from their dad.




The arrangement I made from Dollar store items.  The lighting is not too great because it's night time, but I hope you can see well enough.

This picture doesn't look as nice as it does in person.  It looks rather sparse here.  Keep in mind the room is small and the fireplace takes up a bit of space.

 
After the Dollar store we hit up a few garage sales.  The weather was nice and we just seemed to run into them.  My daughter found 2 items from Pier One - a side table for $7.00 and a picture frame for $1.00.  A be speckled picture frame, at that.  I found a pair of wrought iron scones that I once saw in the Party Lite catalogue that I paid $3.00 for, tea lights included.   I thought they may look nice near the fire place.  If not, I loose only a few dollars.  Since they are in perfect condition, I could sell them on our local virtual garage sale site. (Most of my décor is from garage sales, gifts, or from thrift shops.)

I'm not sure how I'm going to stage these near the fireplace.  It will come to me soon enough.

I also cleaned out the pantry.  I'm finally satisfied with the results.  My problem was I had too much food in it.  Food I could never eat before the expiration dates.  Food I don't even eat.  I figured out I have a problem with stocking food.  It's my personal hoarding choice.  I will stop buying food because it's on sale.  I need to eat out of the pantry and freezer for a while.  The overflow is going to the food pantry.

The finished pantry project.

Now I have to figure out when to spend money on a sale.  If I can get a can of soup for .23 cents, do I get it no matter how much I have in the pantry?  I'm not sure.  When food goes that low, it's a sure sign that the price is ready to drastically increase.

All of this is being donated.  If I kept it, it would waste.  That's a no no in anyone's book.

If anyone has an idea of how I can look at future purchases, I'm open to comments.