Freebie Friday - March 15

After a quiet week last week, the flood gates broke and I got all kinds of free stuff this week.

First to arrive was a package full of all occasion cards, some stickers, a notepad and a pen, all from the Heart and Stroke Foundation. They hope for a donation, of course, but I've done that already recently, so I count this stuff as freebies.

Next came a sample of Cream of Wheat.  Since I tend to keep a box of the regular stuff around for one of my pancake recipes, I chose to sample a new one called Cinnamon Swirl. I'm not sure why I picked that. Cinnamon seems to be giving me a bit of a problem these days so I have not tried it yet. The sample came with a 75 cent off coupon for a variety pack. I guess that's to encourage us to try other new flavours too, but I wish they would take a cue from some other companies, like Kashi, that sometimes offer $2 off.

Then I got a free copy of Kraft's What's Cooking and a catalogue from Herrschners. I've never heard of them before, so this catalogue is new to me.  It has a lot of different crafts in it, and while there is something I've been meaning go purchase, adding the shipping costs on top of that will just make me look harder for it in the shops.  If all else fails, I now know where to get it.

And lastly, my latest Yves Rocher order arrived, and, as usual, there were plenty of gifts to make up for the shipping costs of that.  Not only did they send 3 little samples, but also a full sized lipstick. I even got to pick the colour when I placed the order.  The gift for ordering within 10 days was a cute little clock.  It not only tells the time, but the temperature too. It has an alarm, and a "snooze" function, which will cycle the white part of the clock though a series of colours, lit from within. And while it does that, it plays your pick of several nature sounds.  Very cute.  I just wish the face also had some light as it's impossible to see the time in the dark.

It's been a very good week for freebies, if nothing else.  See my previous post for more on that.

Freebie Friday - Jan 18

 There are several ways free things find their way to my house. Sometimes I win them. Sometimes I ask for them, and sometimes I use coupons to acquire them. This week I got something each of these ways.

Not everything that I get for free comes in the mail. Some of it comes from the grocery store.  Two different kinds of cereal had coupons for freebies recently. One coupon was printed on the inside of the cereal box, while the other coupon was the kind that required me to buy the cereal in order to get the other item for free.  In fact, it was a freebie sample a couple of years ago that first introduced me to the Kashi line. I find their products in the natural food section of the grocery store, and I had a choice of crackers or chewy granola bars with the purchase of a box of their cereal.  I've had many of their products since that first free sample, and really like them, so for them it was a good investment.  I chose the Cherry Chocolate bars this time because I remember them to be a great treat.

As for the Yoplait yogurt tubes, well, I chose them from the other options because I thought my grandchildren might enjoy them if they come for a visit before I eat them all.  They are always looking for a snack when they are here. I had never tried these before, and now that I have, I doubt I'd let the little guy get his hands on one. He'd likely get it all over himself and the room rather than in his tummy.  They are creamy, but runnier than the usual yogurt I buy, so I didn't find them as filling either.

I saved $6.58  by not having to pay for these two items and though I did buy a box of cereal at full price, at least it was one I already know I will enjoy.

In the mail this week, I received a pendant that I won on a blog contest.  I've come to find that blogs are a great place to enter contests because there is not nearly as much competition.  I think I've won 3 or 4 such contests so far.  The pendant apparently has a lot of meaning behind it.  Check out Bonnie's blog to learn more.




 

And lastly, I got a pastel pencil from a company called Conte a Paris that offered a sample of  their brand.  I have never done much with pastels, but I may be inspired to try something now that I have a sample to test out along with the ones I have here.

Sometimes, as I said, all you have to do is ask for a sample, and you get it.

Pleasant Surprises are in the Stars for Me

There must be something special in the way the stars are arranged lately. Something strange is going on around here.

Remember I told you, in May that my next door neighbour brought me her glass pot and one of her blooming tea balls?  I invited an old friend over to enjoy the experience and quickly ordered my own blooming

teas from China.  They have now arrived safely, and I also now have my own
glass teapot and am ready to start sharing this experience with 16 more
people.

Anyway, that was just the first incident of a sudden pleasant surprise. There have been many more since then.

Friday one of my neighbours called to say she was going to Kemptville to
pick up this weeks specials.  While in the grocery store, she found this display of miniature roses that
were just being marked down. She started loading her cart with them.  There
were a couple of larger pots that were not being marked down, but she liked
the colour of one of them too, as it was an unusual shade of purple she had
never seen before, and there was just one so she grabbed it too.  Then she
picked up a pretty pink one and said that one was for me and she was buying it because I'm a good friend. 

Then we were in the meat department as she wanted some kabobs that were on sale.  They weren't on the shelf, so she asked about them.  The clerk went and fetched a box, but they were souvlaki as opposed to kabobs.  She wasn't interested in them but I sure was.  There were four in a package for just $2.79.  The clerk went back and got what she wanted, and I grabbed the 2 package per customer limit on the ones that were originally brought out.  My friend bought six packages of the ones she wanted, and then decided to get two of the other ones as well.  When we got home she took them out of her bag and plopped them into mine.  She said she bought them for me since there was that 2 per person limit.  We put our groceries away and I invited her for lunch.  I paid her for the meat, which she wasn't expecting, but I did accept the gift of the rose.  It's now planted out under my kitchen window and I sure hope it lives through the current heat spell.

Recently a local church held a Fashion Show and Tea, and I was one of the models. Yesterday I went to Doree's Habit, with plans to spend the $20 gift certificate I was given for having done the job.  That was totally unexpected too, since I was already able to enjoy the tea party without

paying the $10 admittance just for having taken part in the show.  I looked around the shop and  found this cute little black hat that turned out to be the an even swap for the gift certificate.

Last month a cyber buddy of mine finally took up geocaching after listening to my stories for the past several years. He wrote about his first geocaching experience, and blamed me for the whole thing.  Since then he seems to have become hooked on these little adventures, and this morning I discovered he had gifted me a full year's Premium Membership at geocaching.com . This was totally out of the blue, and a great surprise, since I think about upgrading my membership every year, but have never done it.

All this got me thinking and I realized that within the past week I have also received fresh lettuce when I walked by the home of friend who had just picked some from her garden. Another friend had been cleaning out her closet and was taking some things to the Salvation Army, but she saved a couple of red and purple garments for me to use in my Red Hatter outings. And yesterday my daughter-in-law brought me some rhubarb from the cottage. I had not managed to get any rhubarb this year, until now, so that was greatly appreciated.   

Businesses are getting in on this gifting thing this week too.  Last week I received a nice mug from Harper Collins just for "liking" them on Facebook and today Kashi sent me a new product. It's soft baked bar in an apple strawberry flavour. They also sent a $2 off coupon so I could by some more, or try the blackberry ones. 

I don't know what's going on, but I'm starting to really enjoy all these pleasant surprises.