TheSnackHound

Next weekend, the Fiesta Factory tent sale Sale will occur at the Flatwoods outlet mall.  The dates are Thursday, August 12 through Saturday, August 14th.  Times on each day are 10 A.M. until 7 P.M.  Tickets will be distributed starting at 9 A.M. on each day, so you can get in line then.

Typically, there will be first quality as well as factory seconds.  Some factory seconds merely have an air bubble or other small production blemish and are perfect for daily use, so don’t let it discourage you if you are primarily looking to complete or compliment your set, versus looking to ferret away pieces for collecting posterity. This is a great opportunity to buy one of the more expensive pieces, like a pitcher or mixing bowl set that you intend to use daily.

For etiquette tips on going to the Factory Sale, check out this post from 2008 and here.

As of this moment, I do not know if the new Paprika color will be in the mix as far as 1st quality pieces, but you are sure to find decorated pieces that wouldn’t have been available at a standard department store, or get a chance to mix and match with older colors.

The store is located at 70 miles west of Charleston at :

Everything Fiesta®
52 Skidmore Lane
Sutton, WV 26601

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This is a very serious chocolate matter.  Firstly, Kroger has Endangered Species Chocolate bars on sale two for one or half off.  The exception is the Blueberry flavor with the turtle on the front. You have to pay over $4.25 for one of those bars.  I thought they excluded the turtle flavored bars because they were new. Oh no. That theory was blown out of the water when I found myself at Whole Foods.  The aroma from the candy aisle was like a siren song.  My car went on autopilot and drove out of the Kroger’s parking lot a few miles down the road to Whole Foods.  A bomb had went off in the candy aisle and there were only a few scattered Endangered candy bars to be had.  Yes, they too had a 2 for one sale but there 2 for one sale was BETTER, because the candy bars turned out to be $2 each instead of 2.50 or something like that on sale each AND the blueberry turtle bars were included.  I snapped up the very last one.

Three days later, the candy aisle at Whole Foods still is pilfered.  The only bar to be had, if the chocolate scanner picked things up correctly, is the Milk Chocolate variety.  That is just plain boresville to a dark chocolate aficionado. My worse fear was momentarily toyed with: what if Endangered Species bars were being discontinued and this was there way of giving us our last fix?  I don’t think so, based on the empty slots remaining on the shelf. If they were truly gone, the whole area would have been remerchandised.   I don’t buy these bars every day or week as it would appear, but since I can’t have them, it makes me want them even more, especially the Goji Berry bar.  I can’t remember what it tasted like.

In the meantime, I guess I will have to be happy with the Kroger sale, but I don’t want to be. They have a limited variety of varieties and they are more expensive.  Sure, its time versus money but perhaps the thrill of the hunt is worth more to me. Perhaps the true answer is that I am just somewhat insane.  Ascribing this task as a worthy pursuit just makes me feel a bit better about my condition.

The moral of the story? If you see said dark chocolate varieties of candy bar, just clean off the shelf.  It may be more chocolate than you need right now but its cheaper than paying full price in the long run. Get thee to a Whole Foods or Kroger’s.  Just stay away from mine.

I have patiently been waiting for tomorrow for a long time. Actually, I have only been waiting a few minutes because I just found out about it, but since tomorrow has not happened yet, I didn’t just “wait a few minutes” and it happened.   What is the significance of tomorrow aside from it being Tuesday?  It’s Ben and Jerry’s Free Cone Day.  At participating Ben and Jerry’s shops, you can burst through the door between 12:00 Noon and 8:00 P.M. (March 23, 2010) and have your day made.

Select from new flavors such as Cookies and Milk, Maple Blondie, or Peanut Brittle, or choose any other variety on the menu. There is much sorrow in the land.  Alas, it appears that they have discontinued Bovinity Divinity. It is chalk full of large pieces of chocolate shaped like happy cows.  It brought joy to my heart.  It was discontinued nine whole years ago, but I still haven’t quite gotten over it.

Enjoy your ice cream, just knowing that I may be weeping in my dish, reminiscing on how the world was once full of small (but large compared to an ice cream cone) benevolent bovine.  Also, the nearest Ben and Jerry’s shop or even counter is at least a forty minute drive away and they don’t even have all the flavors because I think it is just a counter in a hospital cafeteria.

I have a confession to make. I did NOT watch the Superbowl. There. I said it. I boycotted it. No, I didn’t boycott it intentionally. I simply did not watch it. How can I be such an important abriter of food related promotional tie-ins? Of course, the commercials are all over the internet. Last year, I was a bit flabbergasted by Denny’s bizarre low tech SuperBowl ad. This year, they have erred on the side of the unusual “what do I make of it?” once again to promote their Tuesday morning Grand Slam breakfast giveaway.

To me, it does not even hold a half melted birthday candle to the genius that is Nannerpuss from 2009. It has the charm of a 1983 5th grader created stop action film. You may disagree, but I am hard pressed to find anything that compares.

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of Dirt Devil. All opinions are 100% mine.

This year, Dirt Devil is helping us all out by providing the world with the 2009 Dirt Devil Shopping Shortcuts guide.   There are some photos of some great Christmas gift ideas for both ladies and gents this year from Dirt Devil. There are small hand vacuums you can stow in the car for those emergency cleanups, or keep one handy behind the bedroom door for when guests unexpectedly show up.   However, if you were expecting a long winded ad about the virtues of Dirt Devil that will just end up in the circular file, think again. From page one, the company gives you all the different coupon and discount websites that are out there that offer promotion codes. They actually WANT you to find every code to save money on Dirt Devil products.

Well, that might be expected, but I had no idea that they wanted you to save on other stuff too.  They just want you to get out there on the computer and shop, period.   They give you all of the best Black Friday and coupon sites out there, plus sites where you can swap your stuff as well.

Of course, I knew all about the Black Friday websites, but “Free Shipping Day,” which is December 17th took me by surprise.  Maybe a bunch of retailers just made it up this year. Freeshipping.org is one place that they give to check out all the deals. I won’t give away all the tips and tricks.  Where can you get this bounteous find for yourself?  It is available for pdf download.  You don’t have to move your rear from your chair. But you should.  Once in awhile.  Remember, you have yo vaccuum before I get there.

I spotted this skirt online recently, and it made my imagination run wild like things usually do. First I had a rather unpleasant flashback to when I was fourteen years old. I was completely mortified when my dad bought my little sister a Happy Meal.  That doesn’t seem so bad does it?  Well, some may argue that it was terrible because it was years before the “healthier options” at Mickey D’s and she was probably getting well filled with preservatives.  The really bad thing was that she ate it at PIZZA HUT!  That was the time frame when the Hut was still using red and white tablecloths, hence the tie in with my memory.

I tried to point out a sign that said “No Outside Food or Beverage,” but I could only find a sign about taking a fresh plate up to the salad bar.  Drat, not even the Law could help me.   Being a teenager is hard enough, but having your baby sister eat something from one restaurant at a completely different restaurant is the equivalent of being put in the stocks, 18th century style, in the town square, or dying right then and there.

Of course, there are much happier thoughts and memories.  Fashion wise it reminds me of the large scale flannel shirt I had in the late 80s.  I loved that shirt, except for some reason it was made to tie.  Why would you want your midriff showing in the fall and winter?  I have no clue.

I think that I should buy some of these and it should be my signature look for the whole theme of this blog.  However, I will have to stop wearing it when I get into the Cougar years of life.  I have a ways to go, so maybe the term will be thankfully gone by then.  I could be walking my dog in the park, and see some young men having a picnic.  I could lay on some really creepy pick up like like, “Hey boys, the picnic’s over here…”

Thankfully, I am in love with a great guy who is of an age corresponding to my own, and I really feel that when the time comes, I will bypass the whole Cougar experience because I don’t need to meet anyone.

This skirt is available at Talbots. Not sure if it is in their store, but it is online. I have a shirt that has a similar pattern. No, I would not wear them together. That would be a bit much.   I just was surfing around in my spare time and pretending I had won a shopping spree.   Actually, that is not quite true.  I didn’t have any spare time at all.  I am totally ADD and have way too much to do, but was distracted by bright objects.

In fact, I was very surprised it was from Talbot’s.  There was a freestanding store in Marblehead, Massachusetts, which is a very “old money” water side town in the Boston area.  Ever since I popped into that store, I always got the impression that the shop had classic clothing for sure, but it mostly appealed to the well heeled slightly older woman.   I really have been changing my tune lately.

Recently, they launched a campaign based on a cliffhanger video where a young woman confesses her unnamed indulgence in a church confessional. It was recently revealed that the woman’s red chair confessions were her new found addictions to Talbots. They have long seemed to be a fairly conservative company that took few risks, but they seem to be working on capturing a younger demographic. I am all for more young ladies wearing classic lines rather than doing the whole trollopy look. It took me a couple years to know that is how I looked.  That was when I thought “curve flattering” meant wearing something so tight you would have thought you were wearing a space bag.

Can you believe that the spike heeled boots are something they have there?  I would expect to see some sensible loafers and basic pumps, but they have me surprised here.  I am going to have to get out more often.  Oh, yeah, they have a website.  I am going to have to stay in more often.