Control top undies, helps hold excess skin

I had a flier in the mail that Macy's had all kinds of underwear things on sale.

I needed new underwear, couldn't remember the brand/style, decided it was easier to go in and inquire in person.

My underwear comes in packages of two.

Regular price is $36.

In the store, on sale for $14.99.

I need a medium. There was one package of 2 nude and one package of 2 black. I bought both sets.

At that price, I wanted more. So, I ordered two additional 2 packs of black and 2 packs of nude (order placed at sales counter at store).

So I was originally writing this post to say - if you like these too, great sale in process.

When I looked these up on line (to post the pictures/info for you) I discovered the $14.99 price was in the stores only (copy of my receipt is second picture below). On line sale price (first picture below) is $26.99.

So clerk at store, placing order for my additional sets, gave me the store sale price. And waived the shipping fee.

Naot, dress shoes for middle

 Middle has to be in supportive shoes. And she loves shoes, especially unusual ones.

We discovered Naot a while ago.

They are not quite supportive enough for me for every day  (I have to have major metatarsal support on the top in addition to arch support on the bottom), but for middle they are perfect.

This first pair are flats, she got them about a year ago. They are her go to pair of shoes for many things.  She has worn them to church, to events like an outdoor summer wedding, and just running around town. No high heels to sink in grass/lawn. They are extremely comfortable. Perfect amount of support for her. They go with her slightly unusual dresses. In fact, they go with most anything. 

Once upon a time, about sixth grade for both girls, they each got black, strappy heels.  

They wore them each time they got dressed up. 

Those strappy heels were fine for 6 through maybe 8th grade. They started grating on me about 9th grade. As soon as middle graduated from high school, I could not stand to see her in those shoes. Not enough support, not sophisticated enough. Just ridiculous.

Her pair went to Good Will. 

I just went to look for youngest's to take a picture.

No luck.

They might have gone to Good Will too. . .

Yea!


So on the day we were cleaning out middle's closet and the hated black heels were circling the Good Will bag, we went shoe shopping for great dress shoes WITH support. A tough combination.

We went to our shoe store for ideas. They did not have what she finally ended up liking in stock, we had to order. We confirmed the correct size and then ordered through the store. 

She got two pairs -

The shoe store carried other versions by this same company, so she was able to confirm the size. We were 100% sure the shoes would fit and she would like them when we placed our order (I can't remember if there was a restocking fee or a no return policy, but I remember we had to be sure. In fact, we went home and thought about it, compared styles/colors from their on line site, and then went back and ordered the next day.)

When she saw the similar shoes in the store, the first day we were just looking, she thought these were old lady shoes. Mostly because of the heel. However, when she put them on, she thought they were very chic and modern. And they are. Very sophisticated. 

If I had someone getting married, or was attending weddings, and really needed a dress up shoe, our shoe guy and I would be combing through this company's catalog looking for shoes with enough metatarsal support to hold me. I think he could add a slight arch cookie to give me a little extra support with no problem. And if I chose carefully enough, I would only ever need the one pair to get me through many events. 

Middle has worn her two pair several times now and really loves them. 

Skunk recipe

I am copying the whole thing over, so I am putting it in comments.

No, we did not get skunked. I just happened to see this recipe and wanted to save it.

Photo albums, continuing project

You might remember I had lots of DECLUTTERING to do as part of my straightening out my life process.

I cleaned out my quilting/sewing/crafting stuff in several stages. Garage saling, re homing, donating, organizing.

I What Not To Weared myself/my closet. I continue to sort through my closet regularly.

I have sorted out the kitchen, cupboards under the stairs, closet under the stairs, attic regularly.

In one epic summer I cleaned out a very bad garage, with a very effective 10 items a day method. A couple years later we cleaned out the only slightly messy garage, in one fell swoop.

Middle and I cleaned out her closet earlier this summer. It took several days, but is now REALLY organized (it is a HUGE closet).





Oldest is home for two weeks. He expressed an interest in photos. So, I am back in the photo albums again.

You might remember I do not do creative albums. I do the slip the print in the sleeve kind.

You might remember we have a set of house photo albums and a set of albums for each kid (3).

At whatever point I decided to do the kids' albums I started with pictures from that date and went forward.

To give you an idea of the volume/ratio, we have 6 filled house albums. Each kid has 3 albums in their set. So far.

This week oldest went back through the first two house albums and pulled all the (early years) prints that need copies made for the kids' albums. He did not pull every print. Just key prints that all three kids will want.

Half of those prints (one album's worth) went to photography store today.

Other half (second album) is going in the morning.

And I pulled pictures out of the albums I bought at hobby lobby a couple years ago (when I thought my company was out of business) and HATED. I very happily moved the pictures into my beloved albums (when retailer went out of business, manufacturer decided to sell them directly so available again, yea!!!).

I have a very good helper, because oldest is a very logical worker. He and I CRANK. (If I was doing this project with either one of the girls, we would crank too).

Also hunted for pictures of previous generations to put in the kids' albums (grandparents, greats, etc). These pictures were still in stuff from husband's mother's house, boxes, framed pictures, Etc. Having duplicates of those made too.

For albums, do 4 X 6 matte with no border for most prints. A few are 5 X 7. A very tiny number are 8 X 10.

As oldest was choosing prints, he knew to pull things his sisters would like. But I also suggested he think about the future. What pictures would his (future) wife want when they have a new baby and she wants to see who the baby looks like? What pictures would all the various grand kids want? What key pictures might he and his sisters want in frames for future apartments/houses? We have not yet had those copies made. I will actually look for (sale) frames first.





I feel better, always, when I complete a project that needs done.

Doing what needs done is satisfying to me.

I do not feel better if I try to clean the whole house in one day.

But cleaning bathrooms, doing laundry, keeping up with the kitchen, sorting a drawer, working on a big project over several days, doing one bigger project with someone helping me over a weekend, does wonders for me.

Baby Swaddling Blankets - we are making them again

Okay, this first one, middle had everything wrapped before I remembered I had not taken pictures.

Luckily I had fabric scraps to show -

This box went to the east coast. Oldest sister of one of youngest's best friends had first baby. A girl.

We put an instruction sheet in with each set of blankets. Not sure if swaddling is common knowledge or a lost art.

This second set was for a baby shower middle and I attended last month.

Yes, these are the same style headbands I posted a while ago.

2 new card games, geriatric cards, our favorite games

Middle came home from college loving Fluxx. She and her boy had played it at (freshman year, bonus baby) friends' house. We ordered this game for middle from Amazon. Fun. (This is a game that has to be played around a table where everyone can see cards. The game rules and goals change as players put down cards. Have to be able to see all those cards. So this is an "around the kitchen table with good light and paying attention" game.)



Oldest played Monopoly Card game at his friends' house and loved it. The card game is in keeping with the spirit of the board game, just much faster, simpler, smaller. Bought one set for home and another set for middle. Oldest has his own. We all seriously love this game.




Other card games we play with regular decks -

If there are four of us, we play Euchre. This is a very popular game in Indiana. It is oldest's favorite.

If there are a lot of us, and an even number, we play Canasta in teams. Usually girls against guys. This is played with many decks dumped together. We have a large bag of cards we use for this game. (Picture below) This is my favorite card game. Only four hands, but it takes a while.

If we are at a restaurant, we often play Golf. The games are short. Each person plays with six cards in front of them. Youngest loves this one too. Inevitably someone forgets, turns over their last card, without meaning to end the game.

If there are 5 of us, we often play Hearts. It is a good restaurant game too. We also think of this as our train station game. We played it at the Washington DC train station (in the cafe section) a couple years ago.

We play Tic, a lot. There are 14 hands so it takes a while. We have been known to save score sheets to finish a game later. We have been known to save score sheets to prove who won an epic game.

We play Gin or Gin Rummy if there are just a couple of us.

We also play Crazy 8's. Does not require a lot of room or brain power.

Middle loves Speed if she can find a partner. Most of us will not play her, she is too fast, even if we restrict her to left hand only.

Youngest's favorite is Kings in the Corner. Need a flat surface (table, floor, bed) to play. She has been playing this since age 3-4.

This is our bag of Canasta Cards. These are all old decks which no longer shuffle easily, or cards which have had water spilled on them and no long lay flat, or decks which are difficult to read. Full decks always including wild cards go in this bag. I am not sure how many decks are included.

Middle calls these the geriatric playing cards. We buy them at Walgreens.

Regular playing card on left. Geriatric card is on right. Much easier to see with bifocals, in bad lighting, from a distance. Three decks of geriatric cards live in my glove compartment. Three more live on the kitchen table. The three decks consist of two blue and one red. So then we can (easily) pull out the red for two decks of blue. Or play with all three decks. Or pull out the red for one deck. Because different games, number of people, require a different number of decks. And we are often playing with a lot of different combinations of people over the course of a week/weekend.