Saturday was Awesome!

Almost forgot to say...Saturday was amazing!

I'm still working as a local temp for CK, calling on all the local sb stores, reminding them about the convention in April. As if they could forget.

So, Saturday morning I had planned to head out early and make the southern loop. Unfortunately, here lately I've been having these odd "momentary personal vacations to the tropics" complete with waves of greeness...so J was concerned about sending me out all day alone. My little episodes come and go quickly (thankfully) but he decided to pack up the boys and come along as the driver for my trek. Sweet man.

We had a really cool time. We drove down to Smyrna first where we stopped at Scrapbook Nook. This is a really small store with limited merchandise but very friendly. Owner Chasity is in college...can't imagine running a store and being in school, but she does it. She offers classes and crops and if it was closer, I would visit more often.

Next we went to The Sassy Scrapper 2 in Murfreesboro. All I can say is WOW! This was my first visit to their M'boro location and it was awesome. Tons of product and beautiful sample layouts. While I was there, they were having a photography event--they had a professional photographer taking sepia shots. The work displayed was really nice. I wish I had been prepared to take advantage of that. (The boys were not dressed appropriately for pictures...trust me.) Owner Mary is very nice and helpful. She told me about the bus tour that's coming up in a few weeks. Three stores have gotten together to do a bus tour for the clients...how cool is that? Definately want to go back there soon.

I bought some BoBunny paper there that I have been wanting to get more of. It's the Boys to Men and Backyard Bubbles that is so pretty. I didn't buy enough of it the first time around and have been craving more. Backyard Bubbles is really cool and versitile. I feel in love with it the first time I saw it used in a LO by Doris displayed at Scrap It! (The layout is the one on the left called Gratitude. The flowers are punched from the BoBunny paper. What a smart woman Miss Doris is!!) And this awesome LO by the awesome Dee Gallimore-Perry. I'm glad to have more of it now.

I also picked up some beautiful pink cardstock and a sweet baby girl-ish pattern for a baby girl card I have to make ASAP. I think I need more baby girls in my life. Pink is just so pretty!

Our third stop was Scrappin' USA Superstore, also in Murfreesboro. This store has been around for several years and has always been very nice. Their expanded location is super spacious and comfortable. Their crop space is remarkable--always has been. This is one of the only places I have seen with high-back rolling office chairs in their crop space. How posh is that?

While I was browsing, I overheard an interesting conversation between a customer and an employee. The customer said something like "I see all these sample pages you have hanging up. Do people really take the time to 'do up' all their photos like this?" It was all I could do not to snort! The employee handled it pretty well. I'm not sure the potential customer was convinced that yes, some folks 'do up' things for fun...I think perhaps she was going to be buying an album for storage. Scrap the best, store the rest!! Her voice just gave away so much dread. You could tell she must have tons of photos and was fast on her way to thinking of scrapbooking as a never-ending chore.

I was thrilled to find refills for my Mrs. Grossman's album (8x8) there. I picked up three packs--that the album I'm doing for the cruise.

Our final stop was Creation Station in Franklin. Creation Station is located inside The Factory at Franklin, a swanky little place that is, to me, the very essence of "shabby Chic". My friend Sabrina says "it's where ladies who lunch, lunch". :) She's right. It's a high class collection of wonderful ecclectic stores and eateries and such. I could wander there for hours...and someday we should all go there for a day out, I think.

Creation Station has a remarkable selection of character scrapbook stuff...Disney, UT, etc and a large selection of albums...some I have never seen. The owner of CS wasn't available and the young woman working there wasn't exactly thrilled to be there. I didn't hang there too long and (gasp) didn't buy anything.

But...on the way in to The Factory Shoppes two things caught my attention:

1--I entered the shoppes behind the very naturally beautiful Kimberly Williams, an actress who may be best known for her role in the movie "Father of the Bride", (although she's held plenty of other roles) also known as Mrs. Brad Paisley. Isn't that cool? She's positively adorable. One thing is for sure...the Williams-Paisley children (should they have some) won't be NBA stars. I didn't bother her, just noticed. (Franklin has a law about bothering celebrity types.)

2--The Smocking Loft. You know I am always drawn in to textiles...they have fabrics and ribbons...I was so there. Didn't even think. Just went on in. Smocking is a fading art but they had some beautiful pieces on display. Again, baby girl need here. Dresses, frills and smocking--just wouldn't look right on a grown woman. :) Anyway, you know I collected a little ribbon while I was there...a couple styles that I've been admiring at Strano, The Smocking Loft had in stock. I even bought some pink.

What fun visiting all these stores. I haven't done this much shopping in ages. Can I just say I loved having a cheauffuer too?!

This is getting long (sorry)...so just one last thing: I posted a query on 2Peas about Bazzill matches for the new Basic Grey Color Me Silly and a helpful pea sent me a link to this page at Embellish It! Online. How cool is this?

It was a great Saturday.