The Day After

Wow!  I had an amazing day yesterday!!!  It all started with all of you who sent me such thoughtful birthday wishes.  Thank you all!!!  In reading the comments, I was so pleasantly surprised to find that so many of you agree with me that inexpensive beads are NOT a bad thing.  I have read some blogs where they really bash those types of beads.  Not my friends!  Nope...we're all on the same page!!!  :)

I'm going to give you a run down of my day and show you some pics of my haul.  First, after dh dropped the kiddos off at school he brought me breakfast in bed...a sausage egg mcmuffin with cheese.  i just love those things.  We started out at mid-morning and drove across town to Hobby Lobby.  Remember how excited I was about going there?  It turned out to be a big disappointment.  First off, their weekly coupon was for 50% off...sharpie markers.  That's it???  That's the coupon of the week???  AND they DON'T take competitors' coupons.  I have a hard time paying full price for anything when I don't have to.  I specifically went to Hobby Lobby, though, because they had the pasta machine I wanted.  I read reviews of lots of different ones, and this one seemed to have the best feedback.  Therefore, I ended up paying the full $24.99 for it.  Ouch.  That kills me.  I got 2 little packages of basic cutters in squares and circles and an extruder.  Other than that, they didn't get my money.  Very little to choose from.  And the bead section?  Disappointing.  Michael's and JoAnn's are much better.

On the way home we went to JoAnn's.  I went crazy in there!!!  Just look here at everything I got!

Ok, maybe it doesn't seem so impressive when I lay everything out, but I felt like I hit the jackpot of goodies.  I'm so dumb, though!  I got to the register and realized I brought the WRONG Michael's coupon and I could only use the one JoAnn's coupon.  Bummer!  I still saved over $25 with that one coupon!!!

By the time I got home I was exhausted.  I have a terrible time getting good, solid sleep, so I always sleep during the day for a while.  My usual sleep time was past due, and I was ready to hit the pillow.  After a good, long nap I woke up to do more shopping...online.  I went to Mad About Molds and bought about 6 different molds for my clays to make different sizes and shapes of cabochons.  That was fun!

THEN we went out to dinner.  I just realized as I started typing this post that I should have taken pics of our outing...dummy me!   We went to Souper Salad for a buffet dinner.  Was it ever good!  My son, Matthew, hit that buffet hard!  lol.  Sami had lots of vegetarian things to choose from, and they even had her favorite food group...fishy crackers!  You know those little fish-shaped yellow/orange crackers, right?  She looooooves those!  Sara didn't eat a ton, but she got her chocolate milk and had fun getting up and making all the kids strawberry shortcakes with whipped cream on top.  Jeff had loads of pasta, which he loves.  We had such a fun, happy time at dinner.  It was really wonderful.

When I got home I got ready to go out AGAIN.  This time I went to Michael's...with the right coupon this time!  I splurged on something I wanted but would not normally buy because it was really expensive.  But it was my birthday and I had that 40% off one item coupon.  I got a 12 jar set of pigment powder for my clay!!!  I saw this being used in a You Tube video once, and ever since then I wanted some, but I could never find any.  It was my lucky day though.  12 jars for just $14!!!  That was the deal of the day for sure.  I looooove the bright, beautiful colors and the way they totally shimmer in the light.  I can't wait to try them!  The colors don't show up nearly as vivid as they really are.  You'll have to take my word for it.  They're awesome!

I also picked up a few odds and ends...

In addition to the stuff in the pics, I also got a couple jewelry display forms for photographing my necklaces.  And the best part?  I still have a little bit of money left after all this shopping!!!  I am going to have a LOT of fun this weekend, that's for sure!

After all that shopping I then sat down quietly by myself and opened up my birthday cards...one from my kids and one from my husband.  The kids' messages inside were so sweet!  Even though the card made fun of my big milestone birthday number, it was still a great card.  The card from my dh brought tears to my eyes.  For real.  It was so sentimental and spot on.  I know he spent some time looking for this card because it was absolutely perfect.

And they bought me a giant Symphony chocolate bar with almonds and toffee bits!  So after everyone was sleeping I got into bed, turned on the tv and savored a few squares of that decadent, delicious chocolate.  What a way to end a fabulous day.