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.

Happy Birthday To Me!!!

I'm 39!  Again!  Today is going to be a fun day.  My DH is taking me to Hobby Lobby to go shopping with the money my wonderful daddy put in my bank account today.  I am going to get polymer clay supplies, and I'm going to check out their beads.  I know there are those out there who would never dream of using "cheap" beads from places like Hobby Lobby, Michael's, etc.  But you know what?  For those of us on a budget, we can stretch our money and use our creativity to make those "cheap" beads into some pretty nice things.  What is wrong with some inexpensive things as long as they're pretty and you like them?  That would be like saying no clothes are worth buying unless they come from Nieman Marcus.  That would just be ridiculous.  When I get home I'll take some pics of what I get and post them in a day or two.

I also had a hard time deciding where I want to go for my birthday dinner with my family. Damned if I'm cooking on my day!  I was thinking Panda Express, but my DH says that adds up awful darn quick, and they don't have anything vegetarian for my daughter, Samantha.  Came up with a great idea!  Souper Salad!  What is better than a buffet for a family with kids?  They don't have to wait to eat, they can eat as much as they want, they get to make their own desserts, AND Sami can have her vegetarian food.  Win win win!

At tonight's baseball game my daughter, Sara, hit a HOME RUN!!!  She's the only girl on her team in the boys' league and one of the youngest on the team to boot.  She sure showed those boys!  Way to go Sara!!!

AND to celebrate my birthday with all of my readers, everything in my Etsy shop is 20% off today with coupon code happybday2011!

I Escaped My Kidnappers!

I have been kidnapped, bound and gagged, oh since maybe July 31st...strangely right after my last post.  However, I am wily and outwitted my attackers and have escaped, free to blog again!  That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

I am very excited to say that I have an order in for some beads from Artbeads.com and am anxiously awaiting their arrival.  More to come on that!  I am not so happy to say, though, that I have fallen terribly behind on the BJP, since I was kidnapped, of course.  I have 2 or 3 ufo's that I hope to finish in the near future.  Still waiting for a break in the weather (up to about 104 today still) because my beading area is incredibly hot.  When the weather cools a little it will be so much more pleasant.

On the personal front, things are in full fall swing.  Sara is going to be a star soccer player again this year.  There are only 2 girls on her team, and Sara is hanging in there with the best of those boys.  Matthew is playing football, and of course hubby Jeff is coaching again.  This year though he brought his dad out of coaching retirement and grandpa is assistant coach.  How fun!  Matthew has a game tonight, and they have been practicing hard.  We'll see what happens.

My daughter, Samantha, is what I would consider to be typical for a teenage girl...moody, grumpy, hiding in her cave (I mean bedroom) and listening to music while on her computer and texting.  She acts like she is being tortured when she has to sit with the family for dinner, and gets up and leaves as soon as she has scooped the last bite into her mouth.  I mean, the fork hasn't even hit her lips and her ass is getting up already. 

Starting in about August she was asked what she wanted to do for her birthday and what she wanted to get.  She kept saying, "Nothing.  It's just another day."  Bah humbug!!!  No child of mine will go without a special birthday!  Jeff had the idea of getting her a new, good quality speaker sound system for her computer since she is always listening to her music on it.  Her music is very important to her.  I had the idea of making her a special dinner.  Sami became a vegetarian when she was just turning 12, I think.  This birthday she's 15.  One of the things that she had to give up that was one of her absolute favorites was Panda Express's orange chicken.  She looooooooooved orange chicken!!!  Sara, my 8 year old, is a super kitchen helper!  So I enlisted Sara to help me make vegetarian orange chicken.  There were lots of smells and things coming from our kitchen that we don't usually have (asian is not typical for us), and she kept coming in with a concerned look on her face asking what we were making.  But we just smiled with flour and corstarch covering us and said, "It's a surprise!"  Let me tell you.  Orange chicken is NOT easy!!!  Especially when preparing two separate batches, pots, pans, etc of everything...one for us meat eaters and one for the vegetarian.  And I have a VERY tiny kitcen.  It took us 2 1/2 hours, but we did it!  Orange chicken and fried rice.  (Just an FYI in case anyone is wondering...I buy a brand of vegetarian meat called Quorn.  It has meat texture, tastes like meat and does not contain any soy.  Look them up on the 'net for a store near you.) 

Sami came to the table and looked at her plate.  She was sooooooooooo excited!!!  You should have seen the look on her face when she took her first bite.  It was pure pleasure and bliss, let me tell you.  Later that night she hooked up her new speakers.  She heard the music and sat back and said, "Whoa!"  They sounded soooo good!  Another winner!

Earlier in the day Matthew helped me bake two pans of brownies (no cake...she prefers brownies).  We had my in-laws come over for brownies and ice cream after dinner.  She got a new very nice printer for her computer so she doesn't have to use Jeff's anymore for her school work.  She was pretty darned happy about that.  She also got a gift card to go shopping at one of her favorite stores...Hot Topic.  But the best part?  Samantha was happy, smiling, talking, and visiting...and seemed to be enjoying it!!!  It was so good to see her visibly happy.  She usually saves that for her friends.  She even said thank you and that she really appreciated it all.  She may have said, "It's just another day."  But I knew better.

After my kidnappers kept me tied for so long, I'm wondering...do I still have any readers left out there?