A Case Of The Mondays? Not Here, TYVM!

Have you ever had a weekend that seems to flow seamlessly from Friday to Saturday to Sunday and back around to Monday without flaw, without stress, and without that crappy well-shit-my-weekend's-over feeling?  For us, that was this past weekend.  Scott and I had some plans, but not so much that we were overbooked, we had fun with friends and family, and it was awesome to just hang out and have an easy, stress free weekend.

Saturday, we were going to go over to our friend's place to play Killer Bunnies (an awesome game that you should all play because it's fun and awesome).  They've just bought a new house, and I gotta say, I'm in love with their kitchen.  It's the size of my living room, but more than that, it's set up very well for someone who cooks a lot.  That's not to say that I'm not happy with my own kitchen.  It's also set up very well for an avid cook/baker, it's compact and everything's easy to get to and there's plenty of storage, but I did really like their kitchen.  Killer Bunnies was a good time, there was lots of bunny carnage and mayhem, and revealing the winner got down to the last two carrot cards (it very often does, for some reason...laws of statistics be damned!), and there was a big dramatic flourish to reveal the winner at the very end, which is always fun.  Aurora decided that she just wasn't going to sleep, no matter what.  She stayed up until well after 11 PM.  She didn't sit and scream or anything, just sat and played with our friend's daughter's toys, but she just didn't want to go to sleep.

Sunday, we had a barbecue with my mom and sister.  We went and cooked down by the pool so that Aurora and her Grandma could go in the water.  I don't know what this kid's issue is, but while she hates baths (screams like we're stabbing her every time we give her one), she doesn't mind the pool too much.  She has this little boat that Scott's mom found for her, and she'll sit and float in that for awhile, and she's fine.  But baths?  Not so much.  My theory is that she picked up my claustrophobia, and she just doesn't like the little baby tub that we put her in, so tonight I'm gonna try without it and see how she does.  My mom also suggested it might be the water temperature, so I'll have to play with that too.

Anyway, adding to the fun of the weekend was that I got to go craft store shopping!  I have had a love of creating things since I was little, I still have art projects dating back to when I was in Kindergarten (holy hell, that's 20 years ago now), and possibly from before then.  I love crayons, colored pencils, yarn, string, fabric, sewing machines, sketch paper, charcoal, coloring books, paint, and many other arts and crafts supplies.  You name it, I've probably used it.  Going into craft stores brings back fond memories of projects, assigned and voluntary, that I've taken up over the years.  I've scrapbooked, crocheted, knitted, loom-woven, sketched (though I was terrible at it), decorated cakes, painted, cross stitched, sewn, worked with wood, constructed dioramas, made jewelry, designed flowers...I love making things.  I love the process of watching something go from a few raw materials to a completed work of art, and being proud of what I've accomplished.  It's very much something I hope to instill in my daughter.  Recently, I've been bitten by the sewing bug.  I've had my sewing machine for several years now, I made the curtains that now hang in my home, and I've dabbled with sewing in the past.  A couple of weeks ago, however, my mom took the baby for the weekend, and I got to finish a skirt that I bought supplies for over 2 years ago and never finished, and reminded myself of how much I enjoy it.  So this weekend, I dragged Scott to a discount fabric store near us that I'd heard of but never been to, and wow did we have a good time!  I found fabric for $1.98/yard!  And patterns for $3.

What I'm really proud of, though, is our trip to our local Joann Fabric yesterday.  We went in because I had a couple of coupons, and they wound up having Simplicity patterns on sale for $1.99 each, regardless of their original price.  Their usual prices run anywhere from $10.99-$19.99.  Each.  And they were all on sale for $2.  So many of them are far beyond my skill level right now, but I plan on getting to that level soon.  Here's the stack of patterns that I picked, containing clothes for all three of us, and quite a few costume patterns (even some vintage lingerie!):

And here's the "You Saved..." part of the receipt:

I was blown away!  25 patterns for $55.14, with a savings of over $300.  Wow.

I now have some serious clothing manufacturing to do (as well as a house to clean), so I'm gonna get to it!