My Love Affair With Michael(s)!

Oh how I {heart} Michaels! (or pretty much any big gigantic stuffed-full-of-creative-goodies store!) The possibilities among the thousands of supplies to create with is just magical to me! To think you can buy this, and that and one of these and a little of that...and it becomes ~*gasp*~ something beautiful and unique and brought forth from someones imagination and talented hands...! ~*sigh*~ What a lovely concept!

Another of my favorite craft supply, fabric and decor shops is the ever-expanding Jo Anns (which I remember from my kid-hood as just having material & notions-boy, have they jumped on the handmade bandwagon over the past few years!) and also, “back home” (in St. Louis), I adore the amazing Hobby Lobby…which of course I plan to spend much time (& $$!) in on my upcoming visit there (18 days & counting!).

Because I currently (and usually!) have quite a few art endeavors in various stages of completion, I needed one or two specific things and hadn’t been to Michaels since a few days before Christmas, so off we went!

They still had a surprising amount of holiday items left, but it was mostly random things which just exhausted me to even look at---I am pretty much over the red & green for awhile. We were quite amused, however, by two long aisles which basically consisted of fallen-off glitter from whatever sparkly holiday items had been displayed there for the past few months…it seemed like inches of it, in every color, covering every shelf and all over the floor. It was fascinating to look at, yet disconcerting to think that likely very soon, someone, some poor someone, probably making minimum wage, had to clean it all up. I mean, I am kinda ***glitter crazy*** myself but everyone knows that the downfall of glitter is…well, that it falls down…everywhere…on everything, and is beyond annoying to try to clean up. I even have some glittery eye shadow which I adore wearing but whenever I do, I inevitably end up seeing something shiny out of the corner of my eye for the next week and a half after applying it! So believe me when I say that I feel for that poor pixie-dust-picking-up employee!

So I went in for, what did I say…two things? Hmmm...according to my receipt, I somehow ended up purchasing THIRTY NINE ITEMS!  But my total -including $3.41 in tax- came to just $39.32!      So that means I paid less than a buck for each item! Whoo-hoo! Better than Dollar Tree! (which I also have to make a run to before Valentines Day!)

My current obsession seems to be rubber stamps. Even though I am like a 6 year old using them. Meaning more ink on me than the desired object…and ink all over the stamper, which messes up the stamped image. But hey, practice makes perfect…and since I got 24 new ones today, I will be getting lots of practice real soon! I have recently started to really enjoy creating pretty tags using different mediums-including stamping, and am also making some stamped ribbon for an art swap (and my own use!). Just look at the luscious holiday ribbon I scored for 60% off! 

(glittery, of course!)

So thank you Michaels, for making it possible for this wanna-be crafty diva  to indulge her ever-changing artsy whims at an affordable price. 

AND a great big smoochy thank you to my sweetly tolerant BF for taking me there(on a practically weekly basis!), occupying himself for the almost hour I browsed (even with no more Christmas Village to manipulate the inhabitants into goofy scenarios!), not making me put anything back, paying for it all, supporting my creative wanderings and above all, not minding our that our home consistently has a little glitter here and there…and there…and here…and over there…and over here too…!!!

But he knows me well, and knows that a little bit of glitter here and there makes for a very

Happy Me-LaurieZ!