3 Hours, 2 Days, 1 Store

$50 plus 50 miles R/T.

Worthington, Columbia, Brooks Brothers, Coldwater Creek - the list goes on! I spent about 90 minutes in the Salvation Army two Wednesdays in a row and the photos tell the story! The top photo was a $23.00 day and the second was a $26.00 day.

For $23.00, I brought home three tanks - cream cable, an ocean blue knit, and a ribbed brown, a long-sleeve (with tags still on) white dress shirt, a linen short sleeve top, a coral shirred dressy top, a dri-weave zip top polo, my new favorite summer pajamas (mid-century modern house, push-lawn mower and FLAMINGO-print bottoms, I mean come ON!) and a pretty bowl, MADE IN THE USA, that cost me $1.99, listed on eBay for $25. I was thrilled and had everything washed and in my closet by dinner time!

The following week I hauled in this $26.00 score: brown dress chinos, a sweater tank, 3 versatile scarves, two skorts in aqua & denim, pink plaid shorts, a fun embroidered skirt, an aqua tank, purple linen 3/4 sleeve shirt and my find of the day - a french cuff Brooks Brothers wrinkle-free dress shirt for $2.50.

What did $50 buy you on your last shopping trip?

Plant Sharing

Here we are in the middle of summer and the garden centers at your local home improvement stores are packed with people, money pouring from their wallets. Now, for the Annuals Set of people, it is what it is, but for perennial lovers? Don't buy, share!

When I first started gardening, I actually had to BUY hosta - the plant you can divide into 6-10 plants every 2 or 3 years. None of my friends gardened, so there I was. Buying hosta, (head shaking).

Finally met some local gardeners and we started giving plants to each other. I still remember my friend Sandy helping me unload all of the plants I had brought her, and that she gave me a back-seat-full of cone flowers. I was smiling the whole way home as I saw them in my rear-view blowing in the breeze of the open windows...

After my joyous afternoon, I decided to expand the sharing and started a Garden Share group page on facebook. I love seeing a new member request pop up and I feel so much hope that the new member will actually participate in the group by at least posting some photos of his/her garden. My garden has grown from the gifts of people in the group and their gardens have grown because of me. The photo above includes (l-r) hairy onions from one friend and foxglove from another.

So before you go out and spend your hard-earned money, take a few minutes to look up the local garden groups in your area. Many have scheduled meetings, but you might just get lucky and find a Garden Share site like mine online, so get growing!