Ralph Lauren....Stella McCartney...Versace...Value Village?! Yes, Value Village! The hottest name in haute couture! Ok..maybe not..but definitely the hottest name in pretty cool fashions that cost under ten bucks. I was at a party last night where my friends Erin and Claire were both dressed super cool, casual chic, looked great. Here's the best part: they were both wearing clothes that were 'fabulous finds' from the store 'Value Village'. From head to toe, boots, jeans, tops, jackets, Erin and Claire were dressed for about 20 bucks each! Gotta love that!! Its an adventure to go to Value Village and scour the racks of used clothing. Just take 'em home, throw in the wash and step out with your 'vintage look' for 10 or 20 bucks. I have donated bags and bags of clothing to Value Village, but never actually went inside to shop. But thats about to change! I just have to make sure that I don't buy a sweater that I already owned once before.
Speaking of which, its garage sale season again!! Yay!! Here's my garage sale story. Many years ago, I donated a 24-volume set of Wildlife Enclyclopedias to charity. I'd poured over these books for hours when I was a kid...eventually they ended up in boxes and moved from house to house, and it was finally time to give them up. So I gave them to the Salvation Army. Years later, I was making the rounds at neighbourhood garage sales, and someone was selling some Wildlife Enclyclopedias. I couldn't resist, I think they were $5.00 for the set. I took them home, opened one of the books, and there it was, written on the inside cover. 'Sandra Sharkey, Grade 7, St Peters Junior High School'.
Now that the snow is finally gone, we're back outside doing spring clean-up, gardening, getting the lawn back in shape. This is the time of year when grubs rear their ugly heads (and I don't feel bad saying that, grubs have really ugly heads), and your lawn has big patches of nothing but dead grass. I wish I had grubs. Because grubs are not as bad as what I have. 'Voles'. Voles have moved in, I guess late last fall, because as soon as the snow melted, I saw their handiwork. My lawn is a series of above-ground tunnels. The tunnels are about 2 inches high, but go as long as twenty feet in all directions. Voles are like mice but they live underground. At my place. Walking across my lawn has become a bit of a sport. My lawn is now hilly. I feel like getting one of those big alp-horns and singing songs from 'The Sound of Music'. So, if you have grubs and are complaining about it, it could be worse. You could have voles and require hiking boots to walk across the lawn.
