Shopping Blob

My kitchen has always had a traditional look, filled with old wood and dark varnish, and hardly a piece of metal in sight except for the cutlery and the other kitchen implements. But when I came to refurbish the kitchen last year, I need you to buy a new set of barstools, and after looking at the various wooden types I decided to do something different for a change and buy a set of metal bar stools. They had a really shiny chrome finish, and I wasn’t sure at first whether they would fit in with the overall decor of the kitchen. But after they had been there for a few months I began to see that the contrast of the shiny metal and a dark wood really makes for a great design element.

Everytime you turn around a new designer joins the ranks of the manufacturers of designer handbags and purses. You’d think that the market would be saturated. Evidently not. If you Google search “designer handbags,” you’ll be inundated with so many web sites selling these things that you’ll be at a loss to determine which one is the best site. According to the information web site that includes the the competition in the handbag industrypages, “Not all is gold and glamour in the fashion business. As a matter-of-fact, the competition in this industry is gut-wrenching and dog-eat-dog.” The reason, it appears, is that there is so much money in selling these tremendously expensive bags that it’s hard NOT to be in the game, especially if you’re already in the designer fashion biz. Lots of interesting info on this industry. I wonder if these already expensive bags are going to be even more expensive in the future when they’re considered “collector” bags. I wonder if they’d be a good investment? Hmmmm…..

My three teenaged daughters made the cheerleading squad. Between uniforms, shoes, socks, warm-ups, camp, and camp clothes, it was quite expensive. I was raising the girls on my own. Their father left when they were very young, and he was not making regular support payments. Their sport of choice was causing a financial strain, but I did not want them to get jobs. Cheerleading practice and events took up a lot of their time, and I did not want their grades to suffer. I started working a second job. This did not leave much time for me to clean the house or do the laundry. The girls knew that I was working hard to allow them to do what they had desired to do since they were very young, so they began cleaning the house and doing the laundry to help me out and to give me time to relax when I wasn’t working. I came home from work one day and found my youngest daughter in tears. My two older daughters were nowhere to be found. I asked my youngest daughter what was wrong, but all she would say was that she ruined them. The two oldest girls were not aware that I had returned home. They came running down the stairs, announcing to my youngest daughter that they had fixed them. I have a Betsy McCall doll collection. The collection is displayed in a curio cabinet in the livingroom. My youngest daughter, not aware that the clothes are put together with glue, decided to throw the clothes in the washing machine while she was dusting the livingroom. The Betsy McCall doll clothes fell apart. She was so upset. The two older girls, both very good with thread and a needle, sewed all of the clothes back together and redressed the dolls. I couldn’t be upset with them. My youngest daughter was just trying to help out, and my two oldest daughters fixed the problem promptly. Had I arrived home ten minutes later, I would have never known. At least they were honest with me.