A Nice Little “Ooops!” (sort of a “Doll Sized Finds”)

In November of 2019 my husband bought a new car.  He wanted a set of Weathertech floor mats for the front since he is on the road a lot with his job and wanted to be sure the floor was well protected.  Unfortunately because his car was a new body style, they weren’t available.  Ugh!  We’d kind of forgotten about them until I saw an ad on TV for them, so I decided to check and see if they were available yet, and lo and behold, they were!  His birthday was coming up soon and he is just about the hardest person in the world to buy for.  Score!

They don’t just make floor mats though, they have a nice assortment of different things, ranging from coasters for your car to dog bowl stands, so I decided to look around a bit.  I needed some other fun things, not just for his birthday, so I decided to look around.  In the process of looking around, I found a perfect and amusing stocking stuffer–beverage coasters shaped like floor mats!  He has never been a fan of the Irish marble ones we have to begin with and these made me chuckle, so I ordered a set for him, along with some other stuff for gifts.

I started getting shipping notifications within a day or so of the order, and the coasters were on their way along with something else I ordered.  Unfortunately, they arrived on a Saturday when he was home, so I couldn’t even open them.  I took the two boxes I’d received (assuming there was an item in each) and stuck them in my office.  Monday rolled around, he left for work and I decided to check them out.  This is where things get confusing…I got TWO of each item I ordered, both boxes had one of each item.  I’m not sure what happened, and I’m not going to ask any further questions because I don’t think anyone knows the answer.  All I knew was now I had two sets of mini Weathertech coaster floormats.  Hmmm…

Here’s what they look like:

They actually work really well too!  My husband got a kick out of them when he pulled them out of his stocking, so they were a hit.  But now…what to do with the second set?  I thought about putting them away and saving them for another male family member as a fun gift, or just hang on to them.  And then as I was looking at them, it dawned on me…

These are the perfect size for an AG vehicle!!!!  To the Surf Van!!!

If anyone had seen me doing this, they would have thought I was totally off my rocker, I was giggling.  And then after messing around a bit, I had success.  Now, they don’t fit the standard way a floor mat would in a normal automobile, but hey, they work!!!

Now I’m curious if they fit in an AG or other car the right way–but I don’t have one, so I guess I won’t know since I really don’t plan on buying one just to find out.  But Alex and Wendy now have a van complete with high end floor mats.  Top that!

Christmas Loot!

Belated Happy New Year everybody!  Hope you all had a wonderful holiday, even if it was a little bit messed up.  I got some really cool stuff for Christmas, would you like to see?

I got my very own pie iron for using at campfires, how cool is this?  My favorite is one made with peanut butter and jelly, and my other is one with apple pie filling in it.  Do you have a favorite?

I also got a new sleeping bag!!  It is very comfy, I like that it has a built in pillow.

All this camping stuff was exciting, but here’s my favorite present–my very own tent!!!

I can’t wait to go camping now!  I’ve been talking about a backyard campout with Allie, Wendy and Christine, now we have enough spaces for all four of us to sleep.  If Alex wants to join us, he has his own tent too.

I also got a very pretty coat and a cute t-shirt.

What did you get for Christmas?

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In case you are wondering where the tent and camping supplies came from, this was an American Girl set that was sold at Costco.  I managed to get one online (that’s a first for Costco), it sold out not too long after I got mine.  It’s not a huge set, but had things I was really hoping to get somehow.

The set includes the pie iron with a pie split in two, toasted marshmallows on a stick, a smore and two (yes two!) plates.  Also a camp fire which lights up and makes fire noises.  I haven’t tried it out yet because I didn’t feel like putting batteries in it only to have to take them out later.  I’m assuming it’s cool.

The sleeping bag is really cute, I do wish though they’d make these with a zipper in them so they were more realistic.   It’s long enough for the doll though.

The tent is well thought out in it’s assembly, the poles are self contained, you just have to adjust them so it stands up on it’s own. (It also gets the Sophie seal of approval.)

There is ample room for two sleeping bags, I took the one from the surf van and put it in beside the one included in the set.

The main entrance zips closed along with some velcro at the bottom.  There are built in elastics to hold it back when you want it open.  On the sides are vented windows that can be open or closed as well.

The back is netting, much like previous versions of this tent style.

There was also a coupon for a free book!  I need to look and see if the selection has changed since I first looked, it was almost sold out.

A cute set and I like the colors in it, they match both the surf van and the pop up camper!  I was never a big fan of the two My Life As tents I already had and passed them on to a young girl I knew who was just getting into 18 inch dolls.

One last thing…Mimi’s shirt.  As I was shooting these pics, I noticed something…

Do you see what’s wrong????  Weird.

Resolutions Anybody?

I don’t know about you, but I quit doing resolutions years ago.  Instead I generally would just sort of pick a theme that I wanted to carry on through the year.  Organize or something similar has been a recurrent theme off and on.  Unfortunately I didn’t get as much done in that area as I would have liked due to other commitments.  Then Covid hit and we were all in lockdown.  Everyone seemed to be in clean out mode except me.  Partially because I was dealing with a ton of joint pain at the time (which I’m happy to say, I think I’ve finally pinpointed the source), but also because my hubby was working (and still is) like crazy through all of that.  I think a little bit of it was denial too, hoping that everything would just magically go back to normal quickly.  We all know that’s not happening now!

One thing about being stuck at home when you aren’t used to it, you do tend to look around at what you have and come to some serious realizations.  Mainly, if you haven’t used something in a few years, chances are pretty good you aren’t going to any time soon either.  A number of years ago a friend of mine decided to do a full on clean out of her house.  Her attitude was if it hadn’t been used in 2 years, it was going, the space (and not having to dust it) was more valuable to her than the item.  Worst case scenario was if she found she needed it again, she’d have to go buy it again, but what are the chances of that happening?  I was really impressed with her attitude and self-honesty with the situation and I’ve tried to adapt that kind of thinking to my own home a bit.

That said, I’m posting this to let you all know that in the coming months, posts may be a bit erratic.  I’m around and I’m going to try and do a couple every month, but if by chance I don’t, just wanted to let you all know that everything is fine, I’m just focusing my time and energy on something else at the moment.  We had a discussion this morning about this being a full on, large scale clean out, we have way too much stuff just not being utilized how it should be and things we just don’t care for anymore.  We are currently debating on having a yard sale or just donating all the stuff to charity.  Regardless, it’s going to be a clean out of epic proportions!

The upside of all of this is huge for me.  While I don’t consider myself OCD, I do feel uncomfortable when things get past a certain stage with clutter.  And we aren’t getting any younger, taking care of possessions can end up being a full time job if you aren’t careful.  Interests change as do habits and something that seemed like a great idea 5 years ago is now just “meh”.  Plus, if I can get things cleaned up and organized the way I’m hoping, it will leave me much more time for the things I currently enjoy greatly–my music and my dolls being at the top of the list!  I’d also kind of like to have my spare bedroom back…

As I stood in my basement, contemplating on what needed to go and what was going to stay, I have to admit, I got kind of excited at this idea of having some new space in our house!!!  And what I could do with that new space.  Still tossing around some ideas, but I have something in mind that will give me not only new storage space for a bunch of my doll things, but also maybe a new “shoot” area before it’s over with.  Wheels are turning, brain is in overdrive now.  Stay tuned!