Laume's Studio

I'm not really posting this at just before midnight. I didn't even get home until after midnight. It's actually 1:30 am. But by the magic of "post options", I'm able to make the date make sense since my "day" isn't over yet.

Let's just say, it truly is possible to SHOP 'TIL YOU DROP. Or at least, shop until you're exhausted and all the stores are closed and your feet hurt and you're completed dehydrated, and there's nothing left on your list undone. I had a very successful shopping day.

Since gas costs a fortune, I try to combine as many tasks as possible into one trip. I wanted to do some flea market treasure hunting and I wanted to finish as many possible things on my "to do" or "to buy" list that required out of town shopping as possible. So I split the day. The first half was the just for fun part and the second part was, well, still fun, but things I needed at Home Depot and Target and Trader Joes and Old Navy and Michaels and Penneys and Sears and Ross and Barnes and Noble and so on.

I hit the thrift stores first as they don't stay open late like the chain stores I needed to visit. I was bored of the same two thrift stores in our town. It was great fun to visit these new ones, new to me that is. I scored big time. And I not only stayed within the spending limit I set for myself, I spent less. I was a little annoyed at how a table I bought was treated by the fellows who brought it out to my car, they scraped what was otherwise a perfectly fine table top. But since they worked hard to help me out, to take the table apart so I could fit it in my car, and I got it for a steal of a price, I'm trying hard not to sweat it. I'm sure I can fix it.

I made up for my frugality by the spending I did later in the day although surprisingly, I didn't do a lot of impulse buying. Most of what I got was ON the list. I'm rather amazed that I managed to get to all the places on my list and I was able to FIND all the things I wanted to purchase. I did it by being pretty efficient with my latter shopping and by not stopping to eat all day. Except for a sample of soup at Trader Joes. By the time the shops closed up and I could finally stop for a meal, I was ravenous. I told the waiter at Marie Callenders, when he asked "How are you tonight?", I said "Ravenous." So while I was looking at the menu he brought me a plate of their famous sweet cornbread that was literally the size of an entire cake! I only managed to eat a corner of it. So I brought it home. Yum.

By the time I was through, there wasn't an inch of space left to put any more packages in my entire little Subaru. And that was with the back seat folded down! (Of course three pieces of furniture took up a lot of space.) I was too tired to unload it tonight when I got home. The weather is oddly warm, almost like a summer night. When I passed by the time/temperature sign on Main Street tonight around midnight it said it was still 50 degrees out. So I have to get out there early tomorrow before it heats up to unload the car so the chocolate doesn't melt. There was MAJOR chocolate purchasing. MAJOR. The only one I sampled so far was a lavender milk chocolate and to say it was delicious is like saying the ocean is a little wet.

There was also major glitter purchasing. What can I say. It seems everyone is glittering everything this year. Glitter on the blogs, glitter on the holiday decorations, glitter on cards and tiaras and shoes and trees and pretty much anything that can't run away. So now I have this overwhelming need to glitter things. I bought a bunch of different colors. Every color they had on the rack. They were out of purple and pink so I missed out on those. But I think I've managed to cover the rest of the color wheel. Now when I look at things I think "Could it be glittered?" This might get out of hand.

So first things first. Early tomorrow, unloading must happen. Then, even before I glitter anything (but probably not before I eat more chocolate), I'll try to take photos. And share them. Stay tuned.

Oh, and thank you to those of you who answered by creativity post question. Hopefully more of you will join in with some insights. I'll keep checking back all weekend for more comments.