A Road Trip - A Warehouse Sale - A Great Public Restroom

Every couple of years my friend and I will take a two day road trip to the Vera Bradley outlet sale in Fort Wayne, Indiana. This sale is held inside of the Allen County War Memorial Coliseum, and it is a massive sale.

Vera Bradley is a leader in fashionable, colorful, cotton quilted handbags, accessories, luggage, and gift items for women of every age. The Vera Bradley company is located in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

The Vera Bradley outlet sales are six day events, the first three days of the sale require you to purchase a ticket for a two and a half hour shopping sessions. The cost of the tickets were $5.00.  There were four ticketed events on Tuesday through Thursday. On Friday, Saturday and Sunday no tickets are required, but often times there are long lines.

Friday morning we arrived to no lines and no waiting. We went inside and started to shop.

As you walk in, a Vera Bradley employee clad in one of Veras aprons, hands you a pink plastic bag to carry your selections, and a guide that will direct you to the area where your favorite Vera products can be found.

Purse of many different styles were available.

Luggage in colorful patterns

Pillows

Comforters

Towels

Tea Towels

Slippers

Flip Flops

Roll Bags

Lunch Bags

Wallets

The sales floor was exploding with color. 

My friend is a fan of Vera Bradley products, she uses Vera wallets, purses, totes, travel bags and has a Vera Bradley suit case. I, however, am not a fan of the quilted colorful Vera line nor the prices. 

As I walked around the sales floor, I found a few items that were reasonably priced that were placed inside my pink bag for purchase.

The $1.99 price point got my attention.

I admired these young men for wearing these extremely colorful aprons.

Even royalty shops warehouse sales.

I purchased a few items for gifts and for a give away for my two year blog anniversary coming up in May, so stay tuned for that. 

My favorite part of our road trip was in the heart of Amish Country in Shipshewana, Indiana when we stopped to have lunch at the Blue Gate Restaurant. The food was good, but the restroom will remain in my memory as one of the best public facilities that I have ever been in.

Beautiful oak cabinets, wainscoting panels, and furniture. 

Cleanest and most attractive public restroom I've ever been in.

Fresh flowers line the sinks.

It was an enjoyable road trip, spending time with my friend, shopping, a beautiful lunch with the best public restroom I've ever seen, but I never saw one thrift shop while we were driving, and believe me I looked.

Watching Music

 My grandson Elliott sat down to play the piano.

I noticed that he wasn't sitting up straight.

Soon his little head was pressed against the piano.

Elliott, what are you doing?

"I watchin them pound music."

Through the narrow crack of the piano, he was just the 

right height to see the hammers hitting the strings.

Another grandma moment that filled my heart with joy!

Read Digital Magazines Free Through Your Local Library

I enjoy flipping through a glossy magazine with all of the spectacular photos and fascinating articles, but I don't like the prices of the magazines. I recently gave up my subscription to Better Homes and Gardens, and HGTV magazine. I remember when my mother would send me to the store for the magazines, Family Circle, and Woman's Day, at that time the price was 29¢.

I recently picked up a magazine at a store, and it was priced at $9.99! I could make a tasty dinner for that price and have food left over for lunch the next day.

For my retirement, two years ago the staff gave me an iPad. I was reluctant to use the apps that would allow me to read books on my iPad because I like the feel of a book in my hand.

Several months ago, I logged on to my local libraries webpage, to reserve a book, and noticed a tab titled eContent, so I clicked on it. I was informed that I could enjoy popular materials from the comfort of my home. The library was offering eBooks, audiobooks, music and videos from the Wisconsin Digital Collection aka OverDrive, and popular magazines through Zinio.

I quickly explored OverDrive and found that many people must enjoy reading books on their Kindles, Nooks, iPads or computers, because any book I was interested in reading had several people ahead of me on the reserve list.

I decided to explore Zinio and see what magazines were offered, but first I had to set up an account through the library and Zinio. I will tell you that the process was toilsome but well worth the effort.

For the past few months, I have been enjoying magazines through my local public library that I read on my iPad for free.

Here is a list of magazines that I am able to access from my local library ...

Country Living
Every Day with Rachael Ray
Family Circle
Food Network Magazine
Good Housekeeping
House Beautiful
Ladies Home Journal
Martha Stewart Living
O, The Oprah Magazine
Redbook
Traditional Home
Us
Woman's Day

I still prefer  holding a magazine and turning the pages, but my budget would not allow me to subscribe to all of the above magazines, so I am learning to enjoy these publications on my iPad. I can tell you one thing, I don't miss are those annoying advertising cards that are stuck inside of the magazines.

Several of my friends are now accessing their favorite magazines for free from the library, they are reading articles from laptops, desktops, PC and Macintosh computers, Kindles, Nooks, iPads and on their cell phones.

I encourage you to check out your local public library and see if they offer magazines at no cost to you through Zinio.

If you are interested in setting up a Zinio account through your local library, there is a terrific, Zinio Library Patron Setup Step-By-Step instruction page, just click here.

My Destination Wedding Favors Arrived

Weddings are fun events to attend, but when it's a family members wedding it's exciting. I have such good memories of attending weddings with my parents when I was young. Putting on my fancy girl dress, the laced rimmed socks with my black or white, depending on the season, patten leather strapped shoes, and twirling around and around the dance floor with my full skirt feeling like a star.

Someone snapped this photo of my dad and me
at a family wedding reception in the late '50's.

Today young couples have several options when it comes to planning their weddings, one is not better than the other, but they have choices when planning their memorable day. Such is the case for my great nephew and his fiancee, in just ten short days we will all be attending their destination wedding in the Dominican Republic, Punta Cana.

This is a map of the resort where the wedding will take place and where we all will be staying for five days, The Grand Bahia Principe Bavaro Resort.

The doorbell rang one day last week and I found a small brown box resting on my doorstep. I love mail, and I especially love little boxes that arrive in the mail. The box was from, the soon to be married couple, and contained gifts/favors for their up coming wedding.

Inside the box was a thermal cup, it reads, TO HAVE AND TO HOLD AN TO KEEP MY DRINK COLD, PUNTA CANA 2013, a can coozie, a fan mister to keep cool during the ceremony, a resort map and the itinerary of the wedding events. Such fun wedding favors.

Along with the itinerary came some helpful tips to make our experience more enjoyable.

"Spanish is the national language of the Dominican Republic, so we want to make sure you know these important words/phrases."

They are. . .

Hi - Hola (say this to anyone you see, especially the staff working at the hotel, they love friendly guests)

Peanuts - Cacahuates (they serve peanuts at the lobby bar so it's important to know how to order your snacks and it's just a fun to say)

Where is the bathroom? - Donde esta el bano? (drinking all day makes you have to use this important room)

Please - Por favor (because your parent's taught you to be polite)

Thank you - Gracias (again your partent' taught you to be polite)

One more please - Uno mas por favor (so you know how to oder an other cocktail)

They left out a very important phrase, I will have to find out on my own how to ask where the nearest thrift store is :))

How Time Flies

The clocks second hand swept the seconds, the seconds turned into minutes, the minutes into hours, hours into days and days turned into me being absent from blogging, for over a week. In my life the adage of "Time Flies" is very true.

I've missed reading my favorite blogs and this afternoon I will sit down and catch on all of my favorites.

Cheerfully,

Paulette

Dyngus Day a Fun and Silly Polish Celebration

Dyngus Day is a Polish tradition that is celebrated on Easter Monday and is a fun, light hearted celebration.

On Dyngus Day, (pronounced dingus), tradition has it that men would toss water on girls that they liked, and the girls playfully would  hit the boys on the back of their legs with pussy willow branches if they returned their affections.

Photo Source: Wilson's Almanac free daily ezine 

Circa 1910 Dyngus Day, Detroit, MIchigan

Photo Source: Wayne State University

The history of Dyngus Day dates back to the Easter Monday 966 A.D.  baptism of the Polish prince Mieszko I. This was a significant baptism because it was taken by the Polish people to mean that all of Poland was Christian. Since baptism is thought to relate to purification, cleansing and fertility, the idea somehow adapted into Dyngus Day and boys soaking girls with water. Dyngus Day water traditions also relate to the mass Lithuanian baptisms that took place after the Lithuanian Duke, Jagiello, and the Polish Queen, Jadwiga were married.

Buffalo, New York is the unofficial Dyngus Day capital with the most festival locations and parades. Smaller festivals can be found in many areas where there is a sizable amount of Polish Americans.

Last year Anderson Cooper included Dyngus Day on his television segment known as "The Ridiculist." Anderson Cooper's 70 second giggle fit about Buffalo's Dyngus Day festival caused local and national controversy. 

Thanks to You Tube, if you are interested you can watch that segment of Anderson Coopers, "The Ridiculist" from April 2012.

The next evening Anderson Cooper explains and apologized for his on air laughing jag. 

Anderson Cooper was invited to attend the 2013 Dyngus Day celebration in Buffalo New York, and would be given the honor of becoming the first Pussy Willow Prince. It has been announced that Mr. Cooper will be unable to attend Dyngus Day because of scheduling conflicts.

My family did not participate in this particular Polish tradition. Dyngus Day is a silly, fun filled celebration that gives people a reason to watch a parade, drink piwo (Polish for beer), eat kielbasa and pierogis, listen to  music, and dance the polka. 

Happy Dyngus Day! Na zdrowie (Naz-droh-vee-ay) Cheers,

Paulette

Easter Blessings