hob lob and party prep

the two go hand in hand-

yes?

Yes.

Happy to report that our brandspankingnew hob lob is bright and shiny and fully stocked with all of your crafting/party planning/general happy place needs. I'm currently prepping for a baby shower on Saturday and hob lob opened not a moment too soon and, of course, had everything on my list. Not to mention items that I could find NO WHERE ELSE in town. While I wasn't able to locate my iron-ons in time to make an 'I heart Hob Lob' t-shirt, I decided Elmo would suffice as he is almost always happy and giggly. Perfect for the opening of hob lob occasion if ya ask me.

Thank you hob lob.

From the bottom of my heart.

I'll be sharing all of the party deets with you this weekend, but for now I'll give ya this sneak peek at the direction I'm going:

Happy Thursday Friends!



hello lover

Because,

sometimes you wanna go where everybody knows your name.

And, well...

they're always glad you came.

Yup.

It's back.

Different location, same fabulousness.

many thanks to my friend Lisa for tweeting this pic and making me pee my pants with excitement.

As most of you know, our beloved Hob Lob was blown off the map last April and we've had to 'make do' with a stand-in which shall remain nameless to protect the semi-innocent. For this post's sake, we'll call this stand-in Shmichael's, mmmkay?

Things I WON'T miss about having to get my craft fix at Shmichael's:

1. Employees who look 16 and know nothing, and I mean NOTHING about crafting, craft supplies, things to do with crafts and general craftiness altogether. They also have no idea where anything is in the store in which they are employed.

2. Employees who have no idea what a Cricut machine is and tried to sell me a cutting mat for a Slice. To go in my Cricut. That ain't the same thing folks, but the leetle gal at Shmichael's tried to tell me it was. She be wrong. She be real wrong.

3. Although this could've happened in any parking lot, it didn't. It happened at Shmichael's. 

It was raining.

I couldn't get in my hotmomvan.

I took pictures of the idiot parking job by the driver of the VW until that idiot driver came out of Shmichael's and saw me taking pictures of her car. I explained to her that I couldn't get in, which was obvious.

She made no apologies, but only looked at me as if I were the crazy one at fault. Again, this could've happened anywhere,

but it didn't.

It happened at Shmichael's.

4. On my last visit to Shmichael's, I found a lovely rotating rack on which to hang my flower pins. After searching through the store while pushing a double stroller with two antsy little gals and having no luck even finding an employee to help me, I took said rack up to the check-out counter to ask my question.

"Could the two hanging bars be adjusted on this rack or are they stationary?"

That was my question.

The response I received from the 16 year-old behind the counter:

"Well it probably has instructions inside".

That was it.

That was her entire response.

And then she just stood there and looked at me.

Nothing else.

"So, should I just take it back to the aisle and bust it open or should I do that up here on the counter?" was my response.

Again, she just looked at me, dumbfounded.

After waiting a few seconds and realizing she really had no idea how to solve the problem and after hearing the whines of my babes in the stroller growing louder by the second and after the frustration inside me had risen to a boiling point, I tore open the box, read the instructions myself while others waited behind me in line, because at this point I didn't really care. I found that, yes, the height of the racks could in fact be adjusted to your desired height. I crammed the pieces and the instructions back into the box as best I could in a hurried, frustrated state and through clenched teeth said,

"I'll take it."

It really is quite a cool little contraption and works exactly how I hoped it would, however, every time I look at it I'm reminded of the stupidity in which I had to deal with upon its purchase.

5. I'd also like to mention that on this same trip to Shmichael's, an employee of the store was there for a visit. On her off-day. With her dog. Behind the counter. Perhaps the reason that the gal from behind the counter didn't want to deal with me and my spinning-rack questions was because she was more interested in the dog running around. Behind the counter.

6. Shmichael's does not carry clothespins nor have they had bar pins in stock for the last 3 months. When I asked an employee where the clothespins were and after we both searched the store for a good 7 minutes, and then after she realized that they don't, in fact, carry them- she tells me to phone corporate and request that they sell them in their stores. Again, true story. I can't make this stuff up nor do I have the time. This same employee also had no clue what a bar pin was.

"You know, the thing you put on the back of a pin. To wear on your clothes. A thing to pin to your clothing- like a scarf or a shirt. Like the pin on the back a brooch." I had to say all of that for it to register with her. All of it.

7. The past two times I've been, they've been out of 1-inch grosgrain ribbon in black, red, and white.

8. They only carry photo storage boxes with nasty flowers on them. At hob lob, they have a plethora of photo storage boxes in all manners of color and patterns for you to choose from, including plain-jane black and white which is my preference.

9. I know the employees at our hob lob and I hope most of them will still be at the new location. I do not, nor do I care to know any of the employees at Shmichael's who again, know nothing of the things they are employed to sell.

10. I will not miss the occasional 25%-40% off sales of Shmichael's but look forward to once again enjoying 50% off entire departments for weeks at a time at hob lob.

Have I made myself clear?

To summarize, Hob Lob is back and Shmichael's stinks.

Can't wait to show you what I bring home on my first visit to the new store.

Also can't wait to show you my I heart hob lob shirt that I designed last night. Because I do.

I heart it.

Happy Tuesday y'all!

a few things you should know

Good morning friends!

Just wanted to share a few quick things with you today.

First....

I found this via Pinterest a few weeks ago.

I pinned it. I loved it. I ordered it. And I waited.

And waited.

And waited.

And then I realized the etsy seller that makes it is based in Hawaii.

And then, yesterday, our postman left it in my mailbox.

It's true.

They do.

I opened my e-mail yesterday morning to find this:

I knew it was coming, but this e-mail was like opening a golden ticket.

Might just have to take the day off to spend some quality time perusing the aisles. It needs a proper welcome. The STORE needs to know how much we appreciate them being here.

I feel it is my duty.

I enrolled E in ballet class yesterday.

She's ecstatic, and if there was a word to describe being 1000 times happier than ecstatic, she'd be that. The only downer is that she thinks she gets to go to ballet whenever she tees or poos in the potty now. As in, every single time. It's going to be excrutiating for her to have to wait until Thursday rolls around each week, and I must say....

I'm as happy as she is.

A child of mine? Performing on the stage of the Bama?

Twirling and whirling and pointing toes and wearing a COSTUME?

Yes.

Ecstatic.

SO ecstatic I could pee my pants.

But I won't.

Because then I wouldn't allow myself to go with her.

Oliver got a video camera from my parents for Christmas.

It's his new favorite toy.

He takes it everywhere, and I mean everywhere.

He snuck it to school last week in his pocket.

I've got the video footage to prove it.

I'll have to share some of his cinematic genius soon-

it's quite entertaining to see what he deems 'video worthy'.

MM wore pigtails last night.

She's growing up.

I don't care for it.

She's growing up so much, in fact, that she teed in the potty last night.

Did you hear that, internets?

My precious little wee babe teed in the big girl potty and wants to be a 'rina' too.

Turns out she's been watching and listening and knows the deal.

Teetee in the potty = get to go to ballet class & be a ballerina

Done.

"I can do that", she says.

I can't handle it.

She's my babe.

Although...

If she does start using the potty NOW, and we've just said buh-bye to diapers for E, just think of all the extra money I'd have to spend on shoes/ finishing the kitchen/ getting my hair done/ gas/ bills/ clothes.

you get the picture...



Fall is in the air and on the front door

Not to be confused with its prequel,

"Fall is in the air and on the mantel".

A few weekends ago, when I crafted the wreath out of kazoos, I also put together a Fall-ish slash Halloween-ish wreath for the front door.

Two wreaths in one day?

Absobloominlutely.

Here she blows:

Okay, so a little more Halloween-ish than Fall-ish, but not all that

 scary spooky-ish either.

A Falloween wreath, if you will.

What did I use to make this Falloween wreath?

I'm so glad you asked...

An extra large grapevine wreath salvaged from our hob lob,

2 floral stems + 2 berry twigs from Michael's,

2 black birds from the Dollar Tree,

1 1/2 packages of black creepy cloth, also from Dollar Tree,

1 roll of purty orange ribbon from Hancock,

and 1 extremely fake looking spider from the dollar spot at Target

And if you haven't met yet, allow me to introduce you to creepy cloth-

This stuff is amazeballs.

See?

Creepy Cloth will most definitely be making an appearance in my Halloween decor.

Sorry.

Back to the wreath.

I wrapped the creepy cloth around the wreath, and, .....well,

that was it.

No glue.

No tape.

No nuthin'.

The twigs of the wreath were perfect for 'pinning' the cloth in place.

Love me some lazy craftin'.

As for the birds,

they had these brilliant little built-in wires.

Thanks Dollar Tree.

Thanks for selling such awesomesauce goods.

All I had to do was stick them in place where I wanted and twist.

After cutting a bit of stem off the florals, I secured them with the last little bit of picture-hanging-wire from the toolbox

Forgot to mention that earlier.

I used a bit of picture-hanging-wire.

And then covered the wire with my purty orange ribbon-

And since you know I loves my monogram, I thought I'd stick an 'M' in the creepy cloth, along with Mr. Dollar Spot Spider.

Interesting side note about this particular M-

it's actually another bit of tornado debris.

While it's entirely possible that it blew from another sign, I'd like to believe that it came from the marquee of my church building since that's where my mum found it.

hello little birdies

And since no Falloween entryway would be complete without a punkin',

I went a step further

and put

TWO

on my front steps.

So there ya have it.

A Falloween wreath, with a couple of cute punkin' on the side.

I'm linking with:

 

The Pink Hippo Party at Pinkopotamus,

Nifty Thrifty Tuesday at Coastal Charm,

Thrifty Decor Chick's Before and After Party,

Categorically Crafting at Someday Crafts,

A winner and some salvaged goods

Just picked a winner via random.org

AND...

Congrats to commenter #2-

Jessica

I've sent you an e-mail, Jessica!

CONGRATS!

And- since the giveaway was to celebrate 100,000 pageviews (currently at 105,443) I have to once again thank YOU, the readers, for continuing to tune in. I am truly grateful!

***

I have to share with you locals something that's going on at one of my fave places. All of you may recall me mourning the loss of our town's Hobby Lobby after it was destroyed by a tornado. Both businesses beside the hob lob (Big Lots & Tuesday Morning) were also destroyed. Today, all of the items that weren't completely ruined in the storm were sold in the parking lot of hob lob for 75% off. After a call from my mum telling me about it, I drove as fast as the speed limit would allow (which is 5 over, right?) and I began looking through the

HUGE MOUNDS OF STUFF.

I didn't take many pictures as I was so busy trying to grab anything & everything I thought I could use, but here's a few to give you some kind of idea-

books from Tuesday Morning,

quilts, comforters, sheets sets from Tuesday Morning,

Kitchen stuff, and...

more kitchen stuff.

As you can see, the Tuesday Morning stuff was in the front.

Hob Lob's stuff was in the center and very hard to get to as there were no aisles.

Just piles and piles and piles...

Here's what I came home with:

3 pretty silver sparkly vase/candle thingies that will look great in our new master bedroom.

(how's that for a description?)

a cool vintage looking glass bottle or vase & some glass prep bowls with lids

To give you an idea of how much these items were-

The Tuesday Morning price had been $4.99, so at 75% off, it was just $1.25.

I'm so good at math.

A Tommy Bahama quilt ($15), a set of 600 thread count Queen sheets ($15) & a t-shirt for O ($1.75)

A drum shade light fixture that's gonna look hawt hangin' above our new kitchen table.

The price?

It started out at $200, which is exactly what we paid for the drum shade fixture in the girls' nursery,

BUT,

take 75% off of  $80 and what you have, my friends, is a drum shade fixture that costs $20.

Boom.

Yes, the box was pretty disgusting...

But the shade itself?

It was perfect!

All the hardware & instructions were still there as well!

Plus a little dirt and debri and whatnot.

Also got a honkin huge grapevine wreath.

Shout-out to the friend I made in the parking lot who climbed on top of mountains of stuff to grab us both some wreaths!

And while all of those deals were great, none can compare to this-

That, my friends, is a patookis-load of fabric.

On the roll.

Yards and yards and yards of cowboy goodness.

I mean,

yards and yards and yards...

That cowboy awesomeness will soon be adorning the windows in our dining room. I've been looking for drapes/fabric since we moved in almost 3 years ago, and this? Never woulda thought I'd pick cowboys, but it was love at first sight.

In a parking lot surrounded by mounds of dusty goods and debri-

I saw the cowboys.

They happen to have the exact shade of green in them as the walls in the room (Behr asparagus) AND, those horses look to be the same shade as our dark furniture.

See?

Pay no attention to that hamper in the dining room please.

Kitchen renovation still going strong...

Well that's the news that is the news for now I guess. They'd planned to reopen the parking lot at 9:00 this morning, BUT,

it poured rain last night which means there's now a parking lot of SAGGY DRENCHED goods that may never go to a good home now.

If you DO go to see, if perhaps, not ALL of it's soggy and ruined, you must have cash and cash only. There are no registers, or credit card sliders or bags. Just people with solo cups who are there to locate price tags and collect your money.

Who knows, I may go back out there myself just to see what's left.

Today also happens to be my first day back to school (just teachers, no students) so hopefully I'll have some pictures of my newly decorated classroom to show you soon.

Hope all of you have a wonderful Friday!