Black Friday Haul

Its kind of tradition now to share some of my hauls. To be honest, this year I went into Black Friday with only one specific thing in my mind and it was to get necessities. Of course, what I think and what I end up doing is completely different but I’d like to think that I kept to my budget fairly well. Its been a tough year but we’re working through stuff. Consider this my annual retail therapy as early this year, I cut that part of my lifestyle out. Its been an uphill climb but I’ve been pretty good about it.

Either way, enough about my mini reality check! Let’s check out what I managed to pick up.

Dynamite – Pants

Let’s get priorities out of the way first. I kid you not that I haven’t bought new pants for at least 3 to 4 years. I have proof on this blog because I talked about buying my previous pants and leggings in another haul, possibly Black Friday also. I also happen to not have a ton of pants so I honestly have been needing to get new pants so here we are, Dynamite Clothing is my go-to place for work clothes mostly and they had a 40% sale and free shipping online so I bought 2 pairs of the same design but different colors.

Zulily – Clothes and Accessories

In the same desperate situation for myself is getting some new clothes suitable for work. I bought 2 shirts (suitable for winter) for myself, 1 zip-up hoodie for my husband and a new pair of mittens. For those unfamiliar with Zulily, there is never ever free shipping because of whatever rules and such. I’m not sure if its a Canada thing and the duties that has to be paid. Either way, free shipping was available for any orders over $49 which is easily achievable on Zulily so yay, free shipping and handling. The order is taking a while to get there so I have nothing to show for those purchases.

Cineplex – $1 Movie Rentals

• Ready Player One
• John Wick: Chapter 2

I have completely stopped buying movies unless I know that I’ll rewatch it at some point. With that said, my main source of films are now Netflix or $1 rentals. The $1 rental choices on Cineplex vary quite a bit but with a little bit of patience, just like this Black Friday deals, I managed to rent  two films I’ve wanted to see this year. Pretty excited about that. I’ve heard good things about both of these films so they will have to be watched before the end of the year.

Michael’s – Christmas Decorations and Frames

The original plan for Michael’s was to just get the frames. It was buy one, get one free, which works well. Not quite last year’s Boxing Day sale but we had an art that we bought from this year’s Montreal Comiccon that we wanted to frame for Christmas so I bought two. Michael’s is my death especially when they have the 60% off sale. Either way, I tried to reel in my crazy and bought these new decorations for the tree and floral. The picture doesn’t do justice to the fake poinsettia decoration because it is just gorgeous.

David’s Tea – Tea

David’s Tea

• Sticky Rice Oolong

I love a lot of green teas. Dragonwell is possibly absolute favorite one. However, the year before I found Sticky Rice Oolong at David’s Tea, just before it was taken off because I never found it again. This tea is divine. I mean, it is divine and that probably has to do with the fact that I love sticky rice. So when I saw that they had it as online exclusive and there was the cyber monday sale, I was in. Even if it wasn’t originally intended and I have more than enough tea at home to get through. Let’s just hope it wasn’t fake hope and it turns out they don’t have stock. I’m having that fear as I wait for it to arrive.

Games

• The Room: Old Sins (Google Play)
• She Remembered Caterpillars (Steam)
• Life is Strange: Before the Storm – DLC Episode (Steam)

The original plan was to not get any games but some of the games or DLC episode was one that I hadn’t seen on such a discount ever so I decided to pick it up. It honestly cost like $10 all three together so I’m pretty happy with these purchases. Plus, a dive back into Life is Strange: Before the Storm to round out that playthrough and The Room is incredibly overdue.

 

Summer Fun Keeps Going On! :)

I can’t think of creative titles for summer anymore.  There’s only so many ways I can say that this summer is totally awesome.  The weather is beautiful and I’ve had some nice activities and some cool stuff coming up.  I’ve been totally loving the festivals and I think the autumn round of festivals in Montreal are the next ones I’m looking at now. Life’s been really treating me nice.  I’ve thought a few things through, set a few priorities straight and learned a whole lot about myself.  Really? That revelation in the last week made me extremely grateful to be alive and breathing. Sure, things don’t go perfect everyday but I also learned that with the bad comes the good and thats how things balance out.  I’m absolutely fine with that because at the end of the day, its the good stuff that sticks in my mind. I think back and I smile before I go to bed to welcome the next day.

Yes, rambling again..I know.  Still, lets check out some nice stuff that happened this week 🙂

1) Planning Weekend Getaways

On the way to Saguenay Lac St Jean, 2012

I used this picture for last week’s photo challenge but its relevant to what I’m about to say.  I actually have a weekend getaway coming up soon (*ahem* like this weekend).  My boyfriend and I have been obsessing over our house so much that we just thought it would be a good idea to go away for a weekend since this is his last week of vacation this year.  So, we’re heading back to the beautiful and scenic Saguenay Lac St Jean area of Quebec.  Thats the road we probably will be travelling again through a fauna reserve/park. We have some hiking planned and a festival and perhaps some shopping if there are some good deals.  Maybe some waterfront walking.  In general, just time to relax.

I may have another weekend getaway coming up with my girl friends but thats still in discussion 😉

Some people save money for luxury products/makeup/clothes, etc. I like to save it up for my house and going away (and movies).  What can I say? We all have our little pleasures.

2) Sweet Potato Flowers

Sweet potato flower

I didn’t really know that sweet potatoes had flowers but apparently this one does and they have this cute light hue of purple.  It was hidden under the crazy amount of leaves but I saw it this past weekend and snapped a quick photo of it.

3) Raspberries!

Raspberries growing

They aren’t quite red and ripe yet but my raspberries are quite abundant.  They are drinking water like crazy and I’m actually struggling to keep them hydrated with the intense heat that took over last week.  I filled up two bottles and 24 hours later it was all gone.  Maybe its time for a 3rd bottle or just soak the soil through before inserting another bottle.  I’ll probably have to check that out tonight.

4) Into the Storm Advanced Screening!

If you follow my blog, you already know that I’ve been increasing the whole output of movie reviews and who knows, maybe I’ll change it to Tranquil Dreams Reviews one day. Its definitely something rolling around in my head since I do reviews of movies among other things.  Or I’ll expand it a little.  Whatever it is, I’m passionate about movies and Fantasia Festival this year has given me a few revelations.  One is that I’ve become more confident in my opinion of movies because when I sit in the Q&A and I listen to the questions, I realize that a lot of people actually have similar overanalytical personalities.  Like, although I’m scared to talk about it sometimes like ask about it during Q&A, I secretly have thought that.  Just a few movies have made me feel like, I’m not totally crazy..haha! Thats already pretty good and its a nice feeling.

Anyways, we’re not here to talk about that..  My FIRST advanced screening, my friends.  I may have not gotten the special screening of Guardians of the Galaxy but man, this was a completely different experience just being at the advanced screening and for a movie I wanted to see, Into the Storm 🙂

Review for that coming up with the next 24 hours 😉 I’m a tad behind on reviews but I’m trying to write the best I can for them so I’m giving each movie a few days to sink in a little.

5) Shopping spree!

I’ve been really trying to change my wardrobe a little since my style has slightly changed as well and its been a while that I’ve stocked up on summer clothes, especially  not that I’m a tad more comfortable with my physical appearance.  I need to get back to working out and toning but point is, I’ve been more comfortable with everything and well, the initial idea was to go groceries and to look for new shoes for work.  I usually go in running shoes but then when I want to wear summer dresses, I need flats.  I ended up coming home with some wedge sandals which look pretty good and are rather adorable. You can see them up there.  I got the beige ones.  I also got some clothes on sale at Dynamite and for those who don’t know, Jacob is bankrupt so everything is on sale right now 40-60% off and I got that dress which still cost me quite a bit but the quality was worth it 🙂

6) Date Night

Date Night with my boyfriend is a rarity nowadays, especially when it means moving our butts from our place.  This weekend, it was a date afternoon till night.  I had scheduled in two movies: The Drownsman and Time Lapse and we were out from 4pm till midnight.  The two movies weren’t disappointing and one totally exceeded my expectations.  Plus, both was hosted by people involved in the movie.  The Drownsman, which is the picture you see up there had almost its whole cast there and a bunch of people involved from director, producers, editors, sounds, etc. It filled up the whole stage.  Time Lapse also had it too with their producers and screenwriters.  It was very awesome.

Then we actually discovered in between the movies, a restaurant called Charcos Rotisseries, a chicken place.  We stopped there for dinner.

This place makes some pretty delicious fries.  I found the Chicken fingers a bit dry but the grilled vegetables were done really well. My boyfriend at the chicken burger and he said it was heavenly.  We followed up with iced tea lemonades at Starbucks and then a little bit of arcades in between the two movies.

7) At home Brunch

Brunch

My boyfriend started his last week of vacation so on Sunday morning, we went for early groceries and he was super awesome and made us a complete hearty breakfast with scrambled eggs, hash browns and bacon.  Yummy! 🙂

8) ONE FINAL REVELATION

Yup, right on! I made a lot of revelations this year about myself: blogging, movies, analysis, life, work, positive outlook and the final one I had just last night was fully accepting this. I’m completely okay with this but I saw something last night and reminded me that there are some things thats really worth it to let go of. Not a frequent occurrence so I won’t say too much.

Now, before I leave you, how about some music to loosen up the mood a little?

Super fun video for Sam Tsui’s Wildfire.  Love it! 🙂

Now that overtime is over and Fantasia is rolling to its end with one more movie left, I’m all yours…well, until I go on my getaways, that is 😉

Happy Monday my lovelies! 🙂