Karen, what a great day! Love that curio, I am so envious. Iwould have to get rid of something else to have room for that, Maybe the stove .... LOL That is a neat tea pot too.So far I only have a couple of tea pots. I"ve got more "collections" now than I have room for, santas, cookbooks,dishes and dishes and more dishes. Today I found a neat small (5 egg) deviled egg dish, just right for us when no one else is here, Dh and DS love deviled eggs. Also I found a lovely large hand painted pasta bowl that sorta od matched some other serving pieces that I already had. My fibro has been making my sholders hurt today, but it is raining too so that may be part of it. I found the nectarines that I wanted to can and freeze so I know what I will be doing Monday.Probably not another chance for "therapy" until after next weekend and the wedding. Say a little prayer for me that I"ll get through next week. Hugs to you, Janet

Candy, your outdoor witch votive holder sounds really neat, hope to see pictures of it. Another 'thrifty' find I presume? ;o) Thank you for kind words on Jas, and watching his speech. Yes, that was last year in Denver, when he was speaking to a cop group there. I only have seen his power point speech one time in real life (here), so I am thrilled someone put it on the web where I can see it whenever I want. And be able to share it. Kind of scary your Mr O. sounds so much like mine, LOL. But since they are keepers, guess that's a good thing! I have to say, mine darn near got served with divorce papers when Jason was born tho. LOL. (I have a son and daughter from an early, short, youthful marriage, but Jason was planned 2 yrs after I married Mr Oblivious.) Anyway, after being in hospital for 3 days...required back then!!...I was so anxious to get home with my little baby boy. And all the warm and fuzzy feelings of our new family being together. So when DH came to take me home at 11 a.m. check-out time, the doc was late coming in to sign me out. DH paced and and paced and was acting so anxious to get us home. I was really touched by him. Till I noticed just how often he was looking at his watch! I asked him about that and he said he had a TEE TIME at 12:30. Luckily for him, I was speechless! Didn't know whether to cry, scream, or throw something at him! All my little thoughts of us going home and being snuggly with our baby son went right into the dump. I wouldn't even speak to him on the way home. He did say he thought I'd want a nap and the baby would be sleeping so he saw no reason to NOT play golf. Arrrggghhhh. (my kids love hearing this story now, but I didn't appreciate being dumped off home while he raced to make his tee time!). But that sure was a 'defining' moment as to how important golf was going to be the rest of our marriage. No wonder I went to the dogs!! LOL. (Jason is a golfer too, started at age 7. And Candy, hope you noticed his hands, that were almost amputated and only saved by drastic measures. He was a 2 handicap before he was burned. No one thought he'd be able to even hold a club again with all the damage and amputations of fingers. He's now a 2 handicap AGAIN!) Jason doesn't make lemonade from lemons, he makes Margaritas! LOL hugs, Karen

Karen, so glad you added to your nutcracker collection with these beauties. That tall one has such a pretty paint job. It must of been so hard trying to decide which ones to buy with such a selection before your eyes. My favorite is your Lenox "Polar Magic" Santa. That is just awesome! It will be beautiful with the rest of your collection. The snowy s & p shakers and booty with cardinal are keepers. All three are just so cute and no wonder you couldn't resist them. Your new purple hurricane is HUGE and you got a great deal on it. It looks marvelous! I'm so happy for you to be able to get out and find so many special things. But so sad to hear those darn legs don't want to play well with your feet after all that shopping. Sounds like you accomplished quite abit tho. Having your lights on the mantel must be a wonderful feeling knowing that's done. Punk

Malls are definitely not on their way out around me, in suburban DC/Baltimore. Where I live, in a large tourist town, we have our downtown/Main Street shopping district with its touristy shops, boutiques and restaurants. Unfortunately high rents and parking issues mean lots of turnover and some businesses fleeing to our huge mall a few miles away, as well as a Towne Center (funny it's called that b/c it's not the center of town!) just down the road from the mall and an additional large strip mall another few blocks from there. Our mall has been around since my childhood and has expanded several times in the last 30 years. The anchor stores are Nordstrom, Lord & Taylor, JCP, Macy's and Sears. It also includes Crate and Barrel and all three Pottery Barns. I almost never go to the mall though my teenagers do. Not to hang out - my dd17 loves to shop and ds16 will meet friends for a movie. Our Towne Center is huge as well with a high rise high end condo complex as well as Whole Foods, Target and stores like lulu lemon, and Anthropologie and numerous restaurants. Kohl's is a stand alone store across the road from there, then TJ MAXX is at another strip mall across from the Towne Center. A couple of blocks from these shopping areas is yet another large strip mall with Nordstrom Rack, Barnes and Noble, Fresh Market and a movie theater as its anchor stores. I used to love shopping but since having kids, it's more of a burden. When I do shop, I tend to hit the strip malls rather than the huge mall b/c I typically just want to go to one or two stores and then flee. ;). I rarely buy shoes or clothes online b/c I need to try them on first. I will if I already have the item and just want a replacement, or it's something where I know the fit won't be an issue. I do often buy my kids clothes online, esp my boys. I do use Amazon Prime but not really for clothes or shoes. I also try to buy from locally owned stores as much as I can. But all that said, I don't see our mall going belly up anytime soon. Our anchor stores never seem to be the ones to close when retailers announce they are closing some of their locations.