Shopping til you drop...

I'm surrounded by shoppers, at home and at work - shoppers, shoppers everwhere! The funny thing is they all fall into different categories, let me explain.



The Shopaholic Diva: One guess as to who this is...Alexa, duh! She loves to shop, so much so that she keeps the shopping bags (only the cool stores, of course) as souvenirs. When she gets home she shows us everything she bought, emphasizes the items on sale and then she goes up to her room and photographs her buys! I kid you not. She's got a ton of pictures on her camera of her clothes - oh, to reminisce about the good times!



The Vegas High Roller: This one might be a little harder to guess. It's my MIL (mother-in-law) Joyce. Joyce is on a fixed budget and her one really big joy is the equivalent to hitting it big at the craps table in Vegas - using coupons! She grabs the Sunday paper, takes the circulars with her and goes over them the same way Phil Ivey sizes up the other players at the featured table at the World Series of Poker! Very often at dinner she'll announce how much money she saved that day (along with how many cute babies she saw during her travels!)



The Secret Shopper: Who's left - Norman. Norm will just run out to Dash's after dinner...and come back with all kinds groceries for I don't know what! Or, he'll just go out to run a few errands and come home from BJ's with more stuff for the freezer and paper goods than we need for a few months! My favorite is his favorite Friday evening, after dinner exercise, perusing the aisles of Barnes & Nobles - and coming home with a pile of books whose cost will not be mentioned...



The Lucky Shopper: no, not Abby, Sharon, my boss. She has the most amazing luck when she shops garage sales, antique stores, flea markets and estate sales. The store is decorated with many of her finds. Last weekend I got to go along with Sharon and Dimitra on a shopping adventure down to Caledonia. A story too long to repeat so check it out here.



Now, don't get me wrong, I love to shop but I usually don't take pictures of my finds. How excited can you get over Tylenol sinus and knee highs? I've never been the one for coupons. I'll be sure I won't need the Michael's or JoAnn's 40% off because I'M NOT SHOPPING THERE THIS WEEK AND I DON'T NEED ANYTHING!!! and sure enough I end up at either one or the other. Same with those never ending coupon cards from Macy's - 20% shopping pass! - You pick the date! The weeks I bring them - I don't go. The weeks I go, I forget them or don't bring because (refer to the bold print above).



I go food shopping and find my husband has already bought what we need and not told me, or he comes home the same night with the same thing!



Clothing - I don't even want to go there. Even when I do buy something new, Alexa gives it the once over and I get,"New top? I wouldn't wear that!" Duh! "How much did it cost?" and the twenty questions go on and on...



Wonder finds? - I'm the kind that likes nice even aisles, coordinated displays and everything out in the open. Half the time I walk past the best stuff! I have to know exactly what I'm looking for and I was never good at haggling over a price.



That said, I did come across something at an estate sale and went wild an woolly and got it because it was 30% off. Want to see?
I found these at an estate sale. The couple selling the house had lived in China for a number of years and the house had a lot of Chinese art, pictures and furniture. This is Chinese embroidery. It is just lovely. Brilliant vibrant colors and the artist's chop (signature) in the lower right corner. In front of it is a jade bowl with silver lattice work around it. Don't know if either is worth much, don't care - I just like them!

Oh, and the Shopping Diva - she left earlier this evening for a horse riding, sleep-over, shopping trip with her friend Brenda. She also asked for the Macy's charge before she left because she had both the 20% shopping coupon and $20 off coupon ready to go!