What's Up, Wednesday?

I finally gave in and bought a subscription to the flowers I buy every week at the Farmer's Market.  This way, I don't have to rush out of bed first thing in the morning.  It reserves a bouquet for me that I can pick up there before noon and is actually cheaper than buying an arrangement each week.  Flowers are good for my soul, so this is a smart investment for me.  These are some of the arrangements I've gotten so far this summer.  If you're local and interested in gorgeous, affordable flowers, check out the website of this local couple who grow these beauties at Bushel and Peck Wildfowers. 

P.S., I love subscriptions.  I've had a monthly jewelry subscription from Rocksbox for $19 for over a year now.  They send you 3 pieces of jewelry with each box.  You set up a "Wish List" from pieces they have, so they know what kind of pieces to send you. There is NO shipping and handling either way on the box. It is included in your monthly $19 fee. Your pieces come in a pretty box with the description and price for each piece. It's like Christmas when this shows up in my mailbox every four weeks or so.  Here's what I love about this service: You can either choose to purchase a piece (minus $10 of your monthly $19), or wear it for a few weeks and send it back.  I feel like $19 is reasonable if you're a jewelry person because you could easily spend MUCH MORE than that if you buy jewelry every month that you'll probably eventually get bored with anyway.  I love new jewelry, but I get bored with a lot of pieces I buy so this is perfect for me.  I received a new box this week and am loving the new pieces I've received. When I'm ready for different ones, I'll send these back FREE OF CHARGE using the prepaid label they send with the box.   If you'd like to give it a try, use the code KIMBFF226 to try it FREE FOR A MONTH!!!!  You can cancel after the free month easily or you can choose to keep getting boxes. I'll get a credit if you sign up using my code, you'll get a free month to try Rocksbox.  Everyone wins.

                                    All tied up with a bow, like a little present for me each month!

                              

                                This necklace came in my most recent box.  I can't wait to wear it!

In the picture above, I'm wearing a necklace that is one of the two pieces I've actually purchased from my Rocksbox.  It was so different from anything I own (and I own a LOT!).  I had a credit from a friend who joined plus my monthly $10 credit from the $19 monthly fee.

I'm also wearing a Rocksbox necklace in this picture.  I LOVED this piece, but it costs almost $200, so I just wore it several times for about 4 weeks for $19 and sent it back.  Oh, and you can request pieces to be sent again if you liked them!

In other big news, Dan got a "new" truck this week.  He does have a brand new truck for work, but he can't use that for personal things.  The truck he currently has is circa 1989, so no power anything/the a/c hasn't worked in years/no cruise control/etc.  He bought it right before we got married, so it also is not large enough for all four of use to ride in it.  We have been in talks about buying a pull behind camper, so we decided that rather than putting the cart in front of the horse (as we normally do), he should buy a different truck to pull a camper and that all four of us can fit in, should we decide to purchase a camper later.  I've been working on saving money the past three years, in addition to our normal savings.  In this post I talked about how I made effort to save money from a Pinterest plan I had seen.  After I did this, I stepped it up in 2015 and saved more than twice that amount.  In 2016, I'm working on doubling the amount from 2015.  All this said means that we were able to pay cash for a "new" 2004 Chevy Avalanche that can tow just about anything we put behind it.  No car payment!  Now we just have to sell the old truck.

                       He looks happy to have a truck with functioning air conditioning, doesn't he?

What else?  We went to see The Secret Life of Pets this week.  We've been seeing previews of this for a looooong time.  It was cute, especially if you are a "pets" person. (We have five.  Don't judge.)

I feel like I haven't been super productive the last two weeks, but that's kind of the point of summer, right?  In the meantime, we've had a lot of this.  Productivity can wait.  Right now is time for ice cream in the middle of the afternoon.

Kim