Time to Shop!

Anyone who is jealous of us having to go to LA on a hot, muggy, summer day to shop for the store, needs to rethink that!  Nevertheless, it was time...and we HAD to  go!  So on a blazing hot Thursday morning, Sarah (our little fashionista) and I, set out on our treasure hunt...

First stop...liquid-gold-in-a-cup...go-juice...the-only-reason-to-wake-up-today-and-leave-air-conditioning...come to mama...

And we're off...
Planned departure time - 8:30am.
Actual departure time - 10:00 am.  Hmmm....

Oooh...LA Fashion District...

akaTijuana...bleh (I'm just NOT a city girl).  

But, I was getting excited at the prospects, anyway.

OK, now to find a parking place...shoot!...I forgot change for the meters...wait a second...I forgot ALL the cash!  OK, find an ATM... (apparently two sleepy girls should NOT be trying to shop today...)  ATM, ATM...where are you ATM?  

and a bathroom, a bathroom and an ATM...dang go-juice!  OK, bathroom first, then an ATM, then a parking place...what time is it?  11:15?!!  ugh... 

Alrighty...accomplished.  Ready to shop.  We have a budget Sarah, ok?...ok!

Let's start in one corner and work our way across...oooh...cute!  Grab a cart!

I think we're doing good on our budget, don't you?  Yeah, this is going to be good.

Let's have him ring up the smaller items first and see where we're at and then we can weed out some of the big ones if we went over budget.  Alrighty, good idea.

0-0   Huh?!  How much?!  Well, THAT budget just went out the window.  (see previous comment where "two sleepy girls should not be...")

OK, so we went a little over budget...alright, A LOT over budget, but we found some great scarves...

...and even greater jewelry

 

...and some beautiful bags!

Best of all, we've honed our shopping skills...and found an ATM...and most importantly...a usable bathroom!  Now, just to work on that budget thing...

Hope to see you soon!

~Mary

(& Sarah)

Secret Sale

25% OFF 

ALL SILK GREENERY & FLORALS

(Mention our Blog for the discount...

because it's a secret!)

Offer expires 8/31/12

Viva Las Vegas!

It's Market time at the Las Vegas Mart.  Summer is always fun because the husbands can come along.  So off we go...

Are we there yet?

First stop...The Wynn - The husbands were thoroughly impressed with their parking system.  If the space is occupied, the light is red...if it's available, it's green.  Genius!  No more wandering up and down aisles.  They should have these in every parking garage.

I can't even express to you in words how hot it was in the parking structure...demonstrated by Laurie, here...but think your-entire-body-in-a-400-degree-oven hot...you-can't-walk-fast-enough hot...hotter-than-hot...did I mention that it was hot?!

Love, love, love their Esplanade.  Love it!

Silly, happy, girls...who haven't started shopping yet.  There will not be smiles like this later in the trip...just sore feet, aching backs and cross eyed looks...

Laurie & her hubby Chris

Me & my hubby John

This is my son and his beautiful wife who happened to be there at the same time for a different event...do not be confused by the ocean in the background...you are correct, there is no ocean in Vegas...there was also no picture taking of my son and his beautiful wife in Vegas...hence the ocean in the background.  ANYWAY...he won a little moola in the poker room...

...so he treated us all to the buffet for dinner.  He was very pleased with himself.  We were too, since it allowed us to gorge ourselves on unlimited shrimp and crab legs...until we could hardly walk to the room.  Thank you son.

Alrighty...let's get our shopping on!

Oooh...treats!  (Delicious & beautiful Caprese kabobs...you WILL see these at one of our events!)

Cheers!  (after-all you need a little beverage after the Caprese kabobs!)  Well, there were a few "little beverages"...do you think they want you slap happy so you'll spend more?

After a few "little beverages", these squirrels had a life of their own...mostly in Joe Pesci voices (it was hilarious...really!)

Part Pekingese or Wookie?  You decide...(again, hilarious)

Isn't that the truth!

mmmm...desserts were consumed

and consumed...

 oh yeah...and consumed...

How much did we order???!!

How many more showrooms do we have to do?!

(Or maybe that was...How many margaritas did I have?!) jk

Here's to a good Market and glad we're heading home!

(OK - it was our husband's beer - we don't do beer...but where's the Merlot?)

We hope you have as much fun buying it as we did picking it out!

Until next time,

~Mary

Meet Grace

So, as many of you know, we've added a little section of fun fashion accessories aimed mainly for the college girls, purchased and displayed by our own little Miss Sarah (check out Sarah's blog).  I've been wanting to find some funky display pieces for her to use in her little corner.  Thanks to our friend and neighbor Donna of The Grove Vintage for this great idea.  I had a blast making her so I thought I'd share!

I found this torso mannequin at a local second hand store.  I think she'll be great for Sarah's scarves, jewelry and whatever else she wants to put on her, but she's ugly!

Gotta love Target's back to school sales - White glue for 25 cents! and a couple foam brushes...

Thanks again to Donna for scoring a 1930's hymnal from a church rummage sale for me!  So I cut up the pages in random squares...(can you guess yet what I'm gonna do?)

...and started gluing!  (If you said decoupage, you'd be correct!)

...and gluing...and gluing...phew!...all the way around.

The curves were a little tricky to get completely flat, but small pieces help.

I finished with a final coat of glue to seal it all.

So this is Grace.  I really love the way she turned out...

...so much that I'm making her a friend.  Hmmm...she's gonna need a name!

Get your preschool creativeness going, play with some glue and start decoupaging!  Next thing you know I'll be making tissue paper twisties! jk

Have a great one,

Mary

Hi! It's been a while!

OK, so the latter part of 2011 and the beginning of 2012 was a little crazy...you haven't seen us around the blog much...why, you ask?  In a nutshell...

We got a wild hair...

   OK, I got a wild hair...(sheesh!  the look!)
   

Me...I got a wild hair...(Laurie never has a wild hair...literally...she uses really great hair products...anywho...)

 We found a neglected space that needed some Hen lovin...

 Could we do it?

 Would we be biting off too much?

 

 We took a gamble before...so what the heck?

 

 Kinda sentimental leaving our little spot...but excited to decorate the new one!

Packing was fun....

 Yeah...NOT so much! 
 (Laurie's gonna be sure she holds the camera more after she sees these beauties!)

So we signed the lease in January (that's my man...he's not really signing the lease...he's drawing a floor plan - the dressing rooms behind his head need to come down)

 Honey...come out of the closet...

That's better...no more dressing rooms!  We need a stockroom!

Boys will be boys...they still like to break things...and tear things apart...and make noise.  And they made lots of noise!

The stockroom takes shape...with a little help from our friends.  We fed them.  They'd do anything.

Laurie couldn't wait to try the new paint color. (see what I mean, still good hair...)

Just so there's proof I was there...note: not so good hair...yikes!  We look like we're having so much fun, don't we?  I neglected to have the camera the day we were curled up in a ball in the corner sobbing..."What were we THINKING?!"

My church moved us...God love 'em.  They were like little army ants...aaand by that evening everything was unpacked and put in beautiful displays...wait...that's not right...oh yeah, remember that curled-up-in-a-ball thing?  Yep, this is where it comes in.  Note the lumber?  That's right, construction wasn't done yet...product & displays were stacked everywhere...utter chaos.

The City wouldn't let us hang the awning outside...go figure...so we put it over the counter.  We like it better anyway!

It took almost 2 months but we re-opened the end of March, and we love it here!
So there you have it...that's what we've been up to.

Stay tuned for more blogging!

See you soon,
Mary