Finally A Real Day Off

Saturday morning we woke up at 345 am so hubby could go to the airport for his 6 am flight to Calgary for business.  Usually his business trips are weekdays but in this case a client asked for training on a Sunday so he had to fly in on Saturday and the later flights got in too late in the day.  I drove him to the airport and went back to bed for an hour and a half and woke up feeling like crud which usually happens when my sleeping pattern is off.  As this was the first day off for me in a long time I had a date with my Mom so I didn't let myself feeling tired stop me.

First stop was to pick up a little plate I had won the bid on our local Facebook bidding site.  At first glance it is a bit weird, not for everyone but I instantly recognized it as an old piece direct from France.  Fortunately the seller is a lady who I know already and she buys neat things at garage sales and sells them for a very small profit to supplement her senior income.  She has very good taste.  This is the third item I have bought from her.  I paid $8.  It is worth much more and she actually knew that but told me she just likes to flip things quickly to make sure she has money coming in.  It is a piece of French pottery made in the Loire Valley between 1929 and 1953, the pottery is named Blois.  I did a bunch of research before I purchased it and the swan with an arrow through it is the symbol of Queen Claude of France.  It is in beautiful shape with one tiny chip on the underside round but the colours are vibrant and it is a nice piece to add to my pottery collection.  I need to display it and have all of my kitchen cupboard tops free so soon I will be looking or stands so I can put up all the pieces I've collected in my travels.  Other pieces from the Blois pottery are worth much more but this is from the last of the 5 potters and not worth as much.  I have a thing for turquoise and this instantly attracted me to it.  FYI my grandfather (Mom's Dad) was from France and he had 17 brothers and sisters (his dad had 8 kids with first wife then she died and he remarried and had 9 more, my grandfather was the second youngest of the second wife).  He emigrated to the USA when he was 20.  Mom has never made it to France but I fully intend to and hopefully can connect with some long lost cousins in both the Nice area and Paris area.

Second stop on our adventure was to a local green house.  This particular one is called Art Knapps and it is usually an extremely expensive place but I wanted some seeds and know they carry many varieties year round and seed prices do not change from store to store.   Garden centers are like crack for people who like to grow things and this particular one also carries beautiful pots and decorations for your yard - all at very high prices.  It is fun to look but we managed to bypass all that stuff.

I also bought a new little rosemary plant as the one I have had for the last two years grew into a beautiful big bush then our abnormally cold and snowy winter did it in.  Usually they have no problem staying alive here over winter.  Fortunately rosemary bushes are cheap and as it is a staple in my cooking I bit the bullet and bought a new one.  Total shopping bill at the garden centre was $10.77 which goes into this month's grocery budget - everything I bought was edible.

Next stop was to pick up a huge box of outdoor Christmas lights that I had bid on as well (no picture) - the starting bid was free and I thought what the hay - I wasn't going to bid any real money on them if someone wanted to outbid me.  No one did so I got them for free! - some are big-bulbed and some are small-bulbed and there are loads of extra bulbs in the box.  Our back yard will be beautifully lit up this year thanks to someone's generosity, although I may limit the times we have them on this year to keep our electricity bills low.  There are probably $50 worth of lights in the box, and if I can't use them all I will do the same and list them for free after I've figured out what we can use in October/November.  

We also visited one thrift store where I found nothing - I tend to find more thrifting when I do it by myself and usually never on a Saturday as things are pretty picked over that day.  Our last stop of the day was our favorite hole in the wall cash only Chinese food restaurant.  Mom treated -  I ate half the meal and took the rest home for lunch today. 

 It was so nice to finally have a day off.  I felt bad for hubby as he is still so busy had to spend part of Saturday doing paperwork on the road to catch up.  Next weekend will be his time off to do whatever he wants and I will make sure he gets a full weekend off as he hasn't had a real day off in at least 4 weeks.  

Today I might do a little housework but the only real thing on my agenda is to take the dog for a walk, do some reading and pick hubby up at the airport on his return late tonight.  I have less work this week so will save finalizing our taxes to a weekday as I finally received the last investment slip in the mail on Friday.  Once I get ours done I have volunteered to do Mom's so would like to get that out of the way as well.

I know I am posting less and less these days but have no intention on stopping and when life slows down a little I will be posting more.  Have a great weekend everyone!