Monday, March 28, 2011

Blanding Oddity #27

I picked up my dry cleaning, some mouse traps, and sewing supplies at the same store.

Friday, March 25, 2011

I was busy while I was away

This month, I took a much anticipated birthday trip to CA to visit my parents.  This means that I had to drive to Provo/SLC so I could fly to San Jose. SLC (5 hours away) is the closest major airport to my house. Really.  But you should still come visit!  It's not that long of a trip.
If you have talked to me recently or read my blog, you know that Blanding is not a place to shop.  As soon as I got to the bay area I took advantage of the specialty stores and non-specialty stores in the area.  Thai Silks, the Lace Museum, Domus (kitchen wares), Williams-Sonoma, 3 different Ross stores, 2 Motherhood Maternity stores, Kohl's, Converse, Clarks outlet, Burlington, Kitchen Gadget outlet, Joanne's, Fabric's R Us, and various other stores and outlets. Don't worry, there was a lot of window shopping.  But I wish I could have bought things at every store :-)
One of my major tasks while in CA was to use the birthday money my mom-in-law sent me to buy maternity clothes for the next six months.  My jeans were getting awfully uncomfortable.  Turns out that Ross was the best place to buy maternity clothes.  Had a better selection that the other places I tried and you cannot beat the prices.  I've heard that despite the $40-$60 price tags at motherhood, the quality is not really better. Independent of that, there wasn't that much there that I was really digging.  My birthday money went much further at Ross.  Now I am sitting on my couch happily wearing stretch panel pants with several more pairs in my dresser.
I went to CA with one large suit case (not fully packed), an empty duffel, and a carry on.  I came back with 2 large suit cases (weighing in at 49.5 and 50 pounds), a full duffel (as a carry on), and my very full carry on.  A lot of the stuff was hand-me-downs from my mom (which I love).  I needed new potholders anyway and who doesn't need a tart pan with a removable bottom?  Not to mention the stack of craft and cookbooks that I couldn't let be sent to DI.  The books and a small, but particularly dense, appliance brought me to my weight limit very fast. It was quite the challenge to for me and my parents to get the weight distributed around and keep my carry ons light enough for me to handle.  In the end, I didn't even have to leave very many of the books.  I decided that I really don't need a smocking book until I have a smocking machine anyway.
This shopping with a few other activities took up most of my scheduled trip, with hardly touching the craft and sewing projects I had planned.  Tragic.  That is, it was tragic until I extended my trip an extra week!  I'll have to do another post on all the wonderful things that my mom and I did.  Is it weird that I have so many hobbies in common with my 50 something year old mother?
Other highlights of my CA trip:
- Hiking and pick nick lunch in Big Basin with mom, dad, Nate, and Julia
- Dinner with the above mentioned family
- Seafood lunch with dad and Nate (fresh crab!)
- Visiting with Marie Pitts, Ellie Wilhelmsen, and other friends
- Playing "old lady" volleyball
- Seeing trees in blossom
Mom and dad, is there anything I forgot that just has to be mentioned?