After yesterday's post about trying to have a Christmas that is filled with balance and peace, I headed out shopping last night with my friend, Carol. She is the wonder of wonders when it comes to homemade gifts and I enlisted her help with a project I wanted to make for my grandmother. Where she is the wonder of wonders, I am the 'crafts for dummies' kinda girl!
We were walking though Michael's and you could just see her brain working and creating projects with everything she saw! I look at all those pretty, shiny things and feel overwhelmed with no idea what to do with anything!
We had so much fun, though, and I loved listening to her ideas. She helped me pick out yarn for my crocheting project and I love the color combination that I found. She is in a hat making mode right now and picked up lots of great yarn that was all on sale to make hats for her son and his college friends for Christmas. (Talented and generous!)
Then, we spent another hour just looking around the store finding awesome stocking stuffers for our daughters. Ellie and Sarah are going to love them. Fun stuff!
Today, I found myself with a morning with nothing scheduled. Usually I have a book club, but I pushed it off until next week because a couple of moms couldn't make it. We are reading Sex, Style and Substance, which contains 10 fairly short chapters by Catholic bloggers on real life subjects. We are on chapter 2, which I read before I realized we would be rescheduling the meeting. In Chapter 2, one of the subjects Halli Lord talks about is taking time to do something for yourself everyday. I'm not good at doing that. It did inspire me though. So, when I found myself with a free morning, I decided to venture out with Kate and do some shopping.(Because I love to shop!)
I started at Kohl's because I had a gift card and needed black "comfy" pants and a black long sleeve shirt for the Variety Show dance I'm in at the end of November. I also found a cute black sweater:)
Sarah is in need of a winter coat and vest. I was looking for a vest but found a Columbia jacket on super sale and I had a 30% off coupon on top of that! Score!
Kate did great in her carriage and then played in the dressing room while I tried the clothes on. She loved the mirrors!
Kate did so great that we headed to the Christmas Tree shop a couple of stores down. I found some cool star lights! I think lights are by far my favorite way to decorate for Christmas! Lights and jingle bells make me happy:) Christmas Tree Shop is one of those stores where you walk in and buy a bunch of random stuff that equals $60 withut even trying!
Kate did great again and loved looking at all the snowmen and Christmas decorations! She was only 6 days shy of being a Christmas baby, so she should love this season in a special way!
I still had 45 minutes to kill before getting Luke, so we headed to Lowe's to look at backsplashes. Two years ago, we did some renovations in our house. The contractors finished 4 days before Kate was born. With a toddler and a baby...and all the other kids thrown in....we have not gotten much accomplished in the house since then. That includes painting the family room, which before the renovation was 2 bedrooms and it is still painted 2 different colors!
So, my goal for Christmas, (which I am hosting), is to put up a back splash in the kitchen, paint the kitchen cabinets, and paint the family room.(including a feature wall that will be either painted with stencil or wall papered.) Hence, my trip to Lowes! Kate was done sitting in the carriage so she "helped" me push. I ended up finding the shade of green that I want in the back splash (and on the kitchen island) on some Christmas ornaments and throw pillows. I bought them and a sample piece of back splash to try against our kitchen counters.
Hopefully it works! On the way home, I picked up some hash browns at Dunkin as a treat for Kate and Luke with lunch and a small salted caramel hot cocoa for me. The cocoa is incredible! Of course, chocolate and caramel are my favorite combination!
It was so much fun shopping, Kate fell asleep on the way home, and I got to sit and sip my cocoa while I waited outside of school to get Luke! It was such a great morning!
