Christmas and bargains!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas!!! Hard to believe it's already come and gone, isn't it?

We spent Christmas Eve at the Bueschers, then Christmas Day at grandma's and my parents' house. Mom made me open a gift from her in front of everyone at grandma's, and I almost cried...

"So what is it?", you ask. It is a Wizard of Oz quilt. The left picture is the front, the right picture is the back. These are just the pieces, it hasn't been quilted yet. But my mom MADE THIS for me. She's so incredibly talented and thoughtful - I couldn't believe it when I opened the box! I generally go to quilt shows with her, so she doesn't have to go by herself, and I always jokingly give her a hard time: "When are you going to make a quilt for your daughter? Aren't you ever going to make a quilt for me??" She's made quilts of varying sizes for one of my uncles, BOTH of my cousin's sons, and several other people. And now I have one. And I LOVE it.

So on to bargains. I went shopping today, gift cards & cash burning a hole in my pocket. Plus, I wanted to see what kinds of deals were actually out there. There were some pretty good ones, too. I mostly only took advantage of deals at stores where I had gift cards, but I didn't do too badly. After a return and gift card, I paid only $17 out of pocket at Borders for $50 worth of items. (Including some $2.99 books and a mini black Christmas tree.)

My favorite was Hallmark. I had two returns, which gave me a store credit. They didn't have what I was looking for on the shelves, but one of the employees was nice enough to search the back room and top bins. She found the 3 items I needed to complete a set, and I walked out of there with $75 worth of Jim Shore items...for ONLY $13 out of my own pocket!!!

I now have the complete set of Jim Shore...WIZARD OF OZ pieces!!! Well, except the Yellow Brick Road display stand. (It's safe to say it's a LITTLE bit of an addiction.)

Follow this link and check out his work. That's the link to just the Wizard of Oz pieces, but browse around his site and see everything he has to offer. I believe you can order directly from his website, but some of the items can also be found at Hallmark stores - though I've had the most luck at Jan's Hallmarks. They're so fun, and you can even search his website by price range.

All in all, it was a wonderful Christmas. And I'm not talking about the "stuff" we got - although it's all great. I enjoy spending time with family, and soon friends, around the holidays, and just in general. I hope everyone had as joyous a Christmas as we did. :-)