Invigorated

[wiseheart]

That's what a successful shopping trip does to me: it invigorates me like very few other things do. To be precise, after three fruitless tries today I finally found that leather watch strap I had been looking for... for months, actually. Now I can proudly wear my 80+years-old wrist watch that Mum had gotten from her uncle as a very young girl. It's a reliable Swiss model - not one of the big brands, but I find it pretty, and it has emotional value.

Inspired by this success I also paid the craft shop on my way home a visit and bought some extra thin wax plates and wax borders. I used to decorate Easter candles with my pupils as you can se here. My own creations were a bit more detailed (see this one), but thin wax plates are hard to find, especially as I no longer have the chance to visit Vienna. I have two plain candles, one pale pink, the other one pale turquoise, so I might do some candle decorating again. I used to do that a great deal after I had come back from Germany; unfortunately, there are no pictures of those. I didn't even have a computer back then, not to mention the internet.

Anyway, I also did the grocery shopping, including some baking and preserving ingredients that were in offer and spent an indecent amount of money, which always gives me a heady feeling of freedom. We used to be so poor for so long, it's liberating to splurge a bit from time to time. *g*

Naturally, the shopping excess took the entire morning. We ate instant soup with some leftovers and peanut butter cookies, watched some telly (during which I fell asleep several times), then I called my friend Evie (she got down from her steep hill okay yesterday), after which I wasn't sleepy anymore, so I decided to do some research for a fanfic idea that came to me unexpectedly. So that is what I'm going to do now.

Comments

[meathiel]

Yay for successful shopping!

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Always a good thing! *nodnod*

[adafrog.livejournal.com]

Great find on the watch strap.

Gorgeous candles.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Thank you. Finding the watch strap was pure luck indeed.

[elwenlj.livejournal.com]

A good shopping spree always lifts my day too. I hope the candle decorating goes well.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Candle decorating is very satisfying. When you mess up the pattern you can just remove the wax with minimal effort and try it again.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

An excellent trip.

We used to be so poor for so long, it's liberating to splurge a bit from time to time. *g*

I absolutely agree! As a child we had two grandparents, an invalid father, my mother, my sister and I, all living on the grand-parents state pensions and my dad's small disability allowance — I only really understood how frugally we lived when I looked back. And in the early years of our marriage, living on one income, with a baby, and a mortgage, I used to time my shopping so that if i paid by cheque on a Friday after 3.30pm the money would not leave the account until Wednesday — and so I would not go over the over-draft limit before the pay cheque came in.

Now we are comfortably off — and I love being able to just buy something because I like it — or know someone else who would like it and I can give it to them.

[noadvertising.livejournal.com]

I remember that you'd been searching for this watch strap for quite a while!

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

At least half a year, yes.

[mirasaui.livejournal.com]

Love the decorated candles!

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

They look great and are fairly easy to make.