Bargain Days

Today is Slice of Life Tuesday, a day of the week that connects us with other writers and authors who post in the like named forum hosted  by Two Writing Teachers! Today, I offer a true slice of my world from this morning! 

As many know, retail establishments run bargain days, sidewalk sales, and other types of clearance in the summer. Today, I unexpectedly ran into one of those unadvertised sales! Running into Michael’s craft store early this morning, I hit some road construction that prevented me from getting to the store the way I had planned. So, I took a detour and ended up by Hobby Lobby. Knowing I might find what I was looking for there as well, I decided to go there first. With a little looking, I found a BONANZA of clearance items!

Going there, I was hunting for supplies to make earrings. A previous customer had contacted me about purchasing a custom pair of earrings for her daughter’s birthday. She had an odd request, however. She wanted them to be triangular-shaped! She also told me that pink was her favorite color but she also wore a lot of black. Well, my problem was this: most of my jewelry is on display at two galleries this summer. My ready-made stock is low. So, I went on a hunt this morning to see if I could fulfill her request and make a few new pair of earrings from which she could choose.

At Hobby Lobby, I ran unexpectedly into a sale on the Vintaj Brass brand – a brand of earring findings made in the U.S. that are lead and nickel free. Having a nickel allergy myself, this is important to note for some customers. I picked up a bunch of items I regularly use from that brand to make earrings. But, no triangles! I always check the end caps at Hobby Lobby because that is where the clearance items are. And, way down at the bottom of the display was a group of sterling silver clasps and beads marked down for clearance. Still, there were not any triangles, but I could not resist the prices. For example, on clasp was $11.99 regularly priced, now on sale for $2.49! By the time I left, I paid $23.00 for $99.00 of merchandise! Talk about hitting the jackpot! Yippee!

But, alas, still no triangles!  So, off to Michael’s I went. At Michaels, I found what I was looking for and more. Tiny, crystal, equilateral triangles that were exquisite but only came in Bermuda Blue, and larger, scalene, crystal triangles in Vitrial which is a mixed color, reflecting hat the light bounces off, usually in deep greens, blues, reds, and pinks. At check out, I realized that I left my coupon for Michael’s in the car, and I had recently deleted their app from my phone, but I figured with what I saved at Hobby Lobby, I could well afford to spend an extra $4.00 at Michaels.  So, I did!

Buzzing home, I made up the new earrings, shot photographs, and emailed my potential customer. Hopefully, she’ll be pleased with her choice of triangular-shaped earrings for her daughter majoring in math! In any case, I made out like a bandit! You’ve got to love those summer sales!

Post Note: Usually I do not write a typical slice from my life as I did today. If you are after a more in-depth, contemplative, self-reflective post like you usually find on my blog, you can check out my blog from yesterday on my Joyfulness Journey.