Saturday and Sunday in my world

My dear friend Kathy called me early Saturday morning, just as I was going to sleep, and told me she would be at my house in a little over an hour. She was looking for mauve colored fresh water pearls and wanted to hit a bead store or two. After watching a couple of segments from PBS sponsored "Quilting Arts," we were off and running. I was hoping that the day wouldn't be an all I could spend blowout, like the day before with Dana.

As we drove downtown in the bleak, overcast day, I couldn't help noticing that the statue was pointing the way.


Kathy was intent on getting to the bead store and barely took her eyes off the road to see the peeling paint on the signs to her left.


We had made it, but couldn't find a spot on the busy street.


Has anyone heard of Big Dog? It's a motorcycle and you are seeing the WORLD Headquarters in the background.


Guess I'd better quit gawking and catch up to Kathy before she leaves me in the dust.


Once inside, I saw more ribbons and bows than I knew existed.


It looked more like a party store than a bead store, but the beads were behind the racks and racks of ribbons in the first picture above. I forgot to take photos back on that side.


You name it, they had it. However, even Kathy, who can drop more money than a compulsive gambler can in twenty minutes in any store we visit, thought the prices were high. As an example, one tiny 2mm cut glass bead was going for $2.25 and the prices went up from there. They had some Asian inspired beads that were $15.00. I have a couple that look similar to the ones I saw and I can assure you they didn't cost that much.

Kathy bought some ribbon roses and I carried a package of rocking horse stickers around throughout our shopping experience. I just wasn't committed, but I may have to go back one of these days, because I think they would go well in an AB spread in my rocking horse book. Sadly (or maybe thankfully), Kathy didn't find her pearls, either.


Next we went to Mrs. O'Leary's and both Kathy and I stopped in the "clearance" room. I spent most of my time there, while Kathy had a brief look around, then headed for the new stuff. Neither Joanie (the owner of the store), nor Kathy had heard of grunge paper. I wanted to either get a piece or see what it was like in case I had something similar I could use instead. Joanie promised to check out the Tim Holtz roses from the 12th day of the 12 Tags of Christmas.


Looks like Kathy has gotten distracted by shiny things, or possibly the rescue kitty that now owns the store. At least SHE's not camera shy like my guy.


I took about a dozen pictures in the main room (not the clearance room), but none turned out worth a hoot. I must have been really shaky, because everything looked like a drunk was walking through translucent fabric. I could have shown them, but then you'd have had to kill me.


We left my home shortly after 10 am and by the time we hit the Asian Market, it was well after 2 pm. I was looking for anything that had "Year of the Tiger" on it. Sadly, we left empty handed.


Next it was a stop at Home Town Buffet, where I ate really light considering I love to graze in those places.

After that I forgot to take out my camera when we went to Michaels, where we spent about two hours. The good news is, Kathy found the pearls she was looking for and I found a Jolee's sticker of a tiger that I can only classify as "cutsie." But at this point, I was desperate, tired, didn't care, and didn't want to deal.

About the time I got home, I had blog duties to attend to, internet friends to visit, and an ATC I wanted to make. By about 7 am, I was not only tired, I was mentally and physically exhausted. However, I had a long and busy day ahead and was hoping to get some art finished. After all, I still have two collages to make for my OWOH giveaway. I did manage to get the pattern cut out for the dress I'll be making in a day or two.


After spending the rest of Sunday morning trying to put out some fires of my own doing, it was off to pull the "Unrequited Love" Valentine swap boxes and envelopes out of their safe haven (nice term for dresser drawer). By this time it was early afternoon, but you wouldn't know it from this photo. This photo was taken (unwittingly) with a flash. Note how clean and white the table covering is, and how dark the background is. The tablecloth really IS this color, and the unopened packages' colors are relatively true to form.


However, when I turn off the flash, the top of the table is decent, the scene outside is comparable, and the craft items on the table and in the shoe holder on the door look about right. The sides of the table and tablecloth, however, don't look white at all. Just couldn't decide which photo to post, so decided to let you decide. I'm too tired to make decisions about now. Before I began the swap, I had to raise the leaves on the table so I'd have enough room to spread everything out.

I spent about four hours looking for a suitable blog for today and I'm wiped out. I finally found a colorful blog that is not part of OWOH. The owner's name is Lynn, and I will get some information later today. Right now, I've dozed at least six times, so I leave you with my weekend and Lynn over at the No Name blog. I bet you'll like her work and I'll notify her of my blog with a blog comment once I've had some sleep. Right now my everything is numb and disoriented.

Update: After a few hours of sleep, I am feeling much better. If you clicked on Lynn's name to her blog, you saw her blog banner has "journal, art quilts, photography, mixed media" Wow, what more can you ask for?