Why I Oughta...

I make about 4 trips to Trader Joe's every year.  About once a quarter, I'll head there with Nat and the girls on one of their bi-weekly trips.  Sometime last year, I found this sauce on one of the end caps.  I grabbed a bottle and fell in love.  Now, my experience with Trader Joe's is that they don't keep products on their shelves very long if they don't sell well, so I was concerned that when we went back a week or two later, it would be gone. But, much to my surprise, we've been able to buy the stuff at regular intervals over the last six months.  I've been using it on a Detroit-style BBQ Chicken Pizza that I've been making and - for my money - the sauce is the boss.  I have 2 bottles sitting on the shelf in the pantry and I've just added it to the list for our next trip to TJs. I better stock up in case the fine folks at Trader Joe's change their mind and stop carrying the stuff.

Walking by the storefront of Gur Sweets on York in the Elmhurst City Centre, you'll see this sign.  They're closing their store but will continue to take orders. I first covered Gur Sweets back in October of 2012 .  They tried to ride the Cronut craze this past summer.  But, unfortunately for all of us in Elmhurst, it appears it wasn't enough. Add this to the other vacant storefronts on York Street:  Jamba Juice (gone), Plass Appliances ( gone ), My Favorite Toy Store (gone), Cash for Gold ( gone ..thankfully!). The City Council is talking about building a huge parking deck on Addison Street.  Some think that *might* help with the vacancies and it will make it easier to park and shop.  That's probably a good first step, but the government can only do so much.  These businesses operate in a free economy, so it is up to us - the residents of Elmhurst - to decided which businesses we want to support and keep in town.   We have a vote.  We cast that vote with our

Just like the KneeKnockers from earlier this week , this little Angel isn't ceramic, so it falls outside my normal vintage Christmas purchase criteria.  But, with her little "Made in Japan" mark on her back and her price tag, I couldn't pass her up.  She'll find a place next to the rest of our Angels on the piano next year, I'm thinking.

All that chatter about there being a Velveeta shortage during the critical 'dip season' surrounding the Super Bowl? We found the motherload at the Oak Brook Costco yesterday.  Go get yourself a brick before it is gone.

My interest in Spaghetti Trim Christmas stuff is well documented.   Here's a post of a sleigh piece we got in November of 2012.   Here's a post of a little Santa lady that we bought in September of 2013 . And here's a photo of the first two Spaghetti Trim pieces we picked up back in 2011. If we were ever going to narrow the collecting of this Vintage Christmas stuff, it would probably be narrowed down to Spaghetti Trim.  The stuff is hard to find, but really easily to recognize.  Let's hope Nat doesn't force me to make those choices.

As we've done in the past, we shopped a bit for vintage Christmas finds when we were up in Michigan for the New Year.  There's usually some great deals on the Christmas stuff as the dealers don't really want to pack their goods up and wait a whole calendar year to try to sell it. We saw these two kneeknockers and while they're NOT what we typically buy (pottery), I couldn't pass them up.  Best part?  Just like a Cabbage Patch Kid, these guys have a mark on their tuckus. I'm going to take the next few days to show-off a few more of these vintage Christmas finds we scored.

We now have 2 'change jars' that sit on my desk at home every day.  One for the Babe.  One for the Bird.  This is made up of what I pull out of my pockets most every day.  Sometimes it is change.  Sometimes it is cash.  Some of it in the form of $2 bills from holidays like Easter.  $52.12 for the Babe.  $46.92 for the Bird.  Interesting how it worked out.  I tried to put even amounts of coins in each jar each day.  Guess I was off a bit.  The Bird is younger, so she has time on her side for the interest to catch up! Here's the history: 2012 Total:  $74.02 2011 Total:  $181.15 2010 Total:  $19.60 2009 Total: $53.51 Across those five years, the new average is $85.46.  This year, we were above the average.  Last year, we were below.