There’s a lot of contractors going door to door since the hail storm so we put up a sign. So far it’s been pretty effective.
Here is the full size version of the Grumpy Cat No Soliciting Sign if you want a copy.
It’s good to note that I didn’t create this, I found it on the inter webs and I’m not sure who created it in the first place.
Everyone has to start at day one, and day one is just to make some sound. I think we have that down.
Give it a year or two and she’ll be rockin’ that clarinet.
Hard to believe this is required for 5th grade.
For Father’s Day, my daughter made me a super gift. Six jars, all super hero themed and filled with different items.
It was a very cool idea and had a great super hero card to go with it. ❤️
There’s a lot of parks in our old town and we visited one of our favorites tonight. The “castle park” at Bayview Elementary in Waconia is always fun even if we’re a bit bigger now.
Today I finished building an owl box and I’m pretty happy with how it turned out. I followed instructions from Four Oaks Crafts and they were pretty good. I’m not the most skilled when it comes to building things, so I’m excited it turned out.
Why did I create an owl box? Well, I hear that owls like to eat chipmunks and we have chipmunks that we haven’t been able to get rid of. We’ve tried live trapping them which worked well but after about 8, I got tired of driving them out of town. We’ve tried plugging all the holes so they can’t go home, and they just dig new ones. We’ve tried pepper and other plants/smells but nothing is working well. So now I’m inviting an owl in to eat them. What could go wrong?!
Now, I’m waiting on an owl.
If you’d like to build an owl box, here’s the tutorial I followed.
On a whim, I picked up one pack of Mystical Fire that said it’d change the color of the flames on our bonfires. Turns out, it works!
The item I bought was from Wish (my review of Wish) and costs me two whole dollars. I threw in one pack and I didn’t have very high expectations, but it worked great. The package suggested I toss in more than one packet for better colors but I didn’t have more. Turns out I could have bought more, for less per pack, on Amazon. Now I know.
You can get 12 packs of Mystical Fire for about $8 on Amazon if you want to try it out for yourself. These work great and actually change the colors of your flames.
I recently found out about Wish and I’ve actually found myself window shopping quite often. The deals seem too good to be true, but yet my research says they are a legit site. So I decided to give it a try and see how well Wish fulfills on the major discounts.
For those of you who haven’t heard of Wish before, let me give you a quick introduction. Wish is an e-commerce site that sells goods super cheap. It’s an American company (located in San Francisco) but the majority of what it sells is direct from China. Being direct from China, there is little markup. Most are not name brand.
The question I wondered a lot when I first opened the Wish app, was how cheap was this stuff? Shoes for $13, Bluetooth headphones for $5, and Groot flower pots for $2. Some goods are even free and you just pay shipping. Overall, you can get a lot of stuff for little money.
First, none of what I’ve seen I’d consider high quality. Don’t go in thinking you’re getting the same quality as you would at Target or Amazon; usually. This is more like dollar store quality. Yes, it’s cheap, but, some things are perfectly fine to get at dollar stores.
The other catch is shipping. Shipping can be 2-3x the price of the item, but when things are only a few dollars, it’s easy to get drawn in. Before buying, always take the total and use that to compare items on Amazon or at the store. Don’t get caught up in the item price alone. Also, it can take a month or more to get your stuff. Unless you pay a lot for fast shipping, don’t expect it anytime soon. Plan ahead.
Like most, I wondered if this was too good to be true. So I decided to test it. I figured I’d pick a few lost cost items and see how it goes. So I did.
The first thing I got was a replacement bracelet for my MiBand 2. It only costs $2 and $2 shipping so it was a small risk. A few weeks later it showed up and it’s exactly as I’d expect. Same bands go for about $9 on Amazon and are the same quality. This was a win.
The second thing I got was Lego tape. I’ve seen these at the store and thought it’d be neat to have. It costs $1 with $3 shipping. The quality was fine even though it’s super generic and it does work with real Lego people so I’m considering that a win too.
Now, about electronics. This area I’m very skeptical about. Some plastic items are one thing, but electronics? I’m worried as electrics are more complex, could cause fires if done wrong, typically more expensive, plus I don’t need anything coming pre-installed with malware.
To give electronics a try, I went for a Bluetooth receiver as it was free with $4 shipping. I’ve been looking at these as I thought they were a neat idea, but they typically run $15 on Amazon. With a Bluetooth receiver, I connect my headphones to the receiver and connect the receiver to my phone via Bluetooth. Boom, Bluetooth Headphones.
Again, I had low expectations, but it’s working just as described. I plugged my Apple headphones into it and used it for hours at work. I find it hard to believe it actually works well. Not sure how long it’ll last, but my initial results are very positive.
At the end of the day, Wish does guarantee your items are what they say they are and that they will arrive. If something’s wrong, they say they’ll refund your money. Luckily I haven’t had to deal with that yet.
Additionally, shop around for similar products on Wish itself. One store will sell items for $0 with $5 shipping while other stores may sell the same item for $2 with $2 shipping. Chances are there are many stores with the same stuff.
I’ve been happy with what I ordered and I’ve spent $6 on all the items; plus shipping.
After my initial tests, I’ve ordered a few more things. Mainly stickers, some magic color changing wood for bonfires, and some no tie shoelaces. Overall, things that were extremely cheap and yet stuff I thought would be fun to have. I didn’t take any big risks. I’m still waiting on those items to arrive.
I haven’t bought any big ticket items on Wish and I don’t plan to anytime soon. I still have some concerns with Wish, but it’s worth a try. There’s a lot to choose from and some items are pretty darn cheap. It can be fun to look around and take a chance. As long as you realize the stuff may not last forever, it can be fun to go shopping.
Download the Wish app or visit Wish.com and use promo code ttystdv on your first order to get up to 50% off!
