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Sasmart goodies

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Last weekend I dropped off three pairs of shoes at my lady cobbler in Kensington Market (she’s great by the way. Great turnaround times, affordable, salvaged a pair of boots I thought were dunzo). Since it was Saturday and it was open, we paid a trip to Sasmart, which I actually hadn’t been to since I bought Dave a pasta maker over five years ago.

Spring time gives me the thrifting bug (but hopefully not bed bugs) because there are so many garage sales, flea markets, etc. so I kinda went berserk and grabbed a bunch of stuff I totally didn’t need. Luckily Sasmart is awesomely cheap: I spent a grand total of $8.

From the top: set of three yellow kitchen containers, I assume are for flour and sugar and . . . ? Set for $4; Japanese-made “fondue plates”. Not sure what a fondue plate is, but I figure we can do some sort of bento-box/TV-dinner mashup at some point. I couldn’t resist the colours. Plus! Two for $1!; Silver plated napkin holder, before and after cleaning with toothpaste. Yes! You can clean silver tarnish with toothpaste! I cut myself on a sharp edge though. $2.

Succulents, pt 1

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I’m not really sure why, maybe it was the frigid winter, or maybe it’s my maternal instincts kicking in (ha!), but I’ve been kind of obsessive about plants lately. It probably started with me finally filling my silly aquaponic aquarium with fish and plants this year (back in January of last year I ordered a Back To The Roots Aquafarm from Kickstarter). We got some Neon Tetras from Chinatown and my mom gave me some spider plant babies.

What fascinated me is that the spider plant babies are offshoots from a plant I gave my mom for Mother’s Day in seventh grade… so 17 years ago. I guess the spider plant is super easy to take care of, and each time it grew runners and offshoots, she’d plant them too. She gave me a bunch and they’re doing great, so I decided I wanted even more plants.

I got a succulent from IKEA, an aloe from Canadian Tire, and now I’m trying to revive the lemon balm and the Flaming Katy we had from before. Ever since I learned that you can start new plants by snipping a part off and leaving the clipping in water, I’ve been seeing what I can do. Propagating plants appeals to the cheapskate part of me because it’s like I’m making more plants out of nothing 🙂

Anyway, two weekends ago I ordered some succulents from Grow Something. I got around to potting them in cactus soil last night! That’s the photo above. The glass jars are drinking glasses I stole from Thai Air and Air France flights, the clay pots were a dollar for three from Dollarama, and the pitcher was from Value Village (as I’ve mentioned in a previous post). The only thing that sucks is that our condo faces north, so we don’t really get too much light. I hope the weather warms up so I can put them on the balcony.

Today’s gonna be a great day

 

Dough by RachelleValue Village haul

(Disclaimer: I’m sick so this post is going to pretty lazily written and probably not even spell-checked)

Saturdays are pretty awesome. I got to sleep in a bit, had a Dough by Rachelle brown butter glazed donut and a macchiato from Sam James, and bought a bunch of junk.

Dave and I were in The Junction on a failed secret mission. We ran out our parking meter time at a used book store that reminded me of an episode of Hoarding: Buried Alive. We didn’t buy any books but we did enough pack-ratting at the Value Village on Bloor.

Above is part of our haul. In the housewares department I picked up: a weird “Good Morning FATHER” mug ($0.69), a Dynaware brown floral dish ($2.99), a patterned milk creamer ($3.99) that I’m going to use as a planter for a small jade plant,  four small plates with a blue wheat field pattern ($2.49 for four), a beige mug with blue rim ($0.69) and a little yellow glass pitcher thing ($2.49) that I find adorable.

Not pictured: 24 books from the 28 book Time-Life Good Cook series. Dave will probably do a post over on his blog, but each book was $2.99 with every 5th book free (though the cashier forgot to account for this, so we’re gonna go back next week and get our $12 back). The books we’re missing are Candy, Dried Beans and Grains, Preserving, and Wine.

Dave and I mulled over whether or not to buy all the available books for about 20 minutes (mostly because we weren’t sure where to put them in our tiny apartment). We obviously bought them anyway, but whenever I buy things like books I can’t help feeling a little weird inside. There’s something about buying more stuff that gives me a tiny existential crisis—I can’t help feeling bad for whoever has to clear out all my stuff after I die.

I don’t like being attached to stuff (but I am) and hoarding stuff (but I do). It’s an icky combination of feeling bad about my attachment to mortal things and being scared of dying. Oddly enough, buying housewares doesn’t phase me!

On a lighter note, I think I figured out the Hoarding Life Cycle: Hoarder buys junk from Value Village, hoarder dies amongst their junk, relatives find hoarder’s body weeks later and then donate all the junk to Value Village, cycle repeats.