30. March 2010 by Kathy.

 I took Earrings Galore, an evening class, with Emily, my newly turned 15 year old niece.    Great class.  The instructor really thought outside the box – uses a LOT of scrapbook supplies and very well.  Here is a a photo of mine and a photo of Emily wearing one of her EIGHT pairs.  We did sit down the next night and make some more with her sisters.  The last photo is of Laura and Michelle wearing their new earrings – they made themselves.

But before Emily and I took the class, Kim took me to a herb lecture.  Well she sat at the herb lecture, but I shopped.  Great place – I bought the coolest frogs to use with craft supplies (rather than flowers).  And I found cute salt and pepper shakers for my bil’s birthday.  Too cute.  Then some great ribbon from Offray I had never seen with roses (3-d) across the front.  (Oh why didn’t I use on in Jane’s class?)  And some great almost like interfacing runners in green and pale yellow.  Fun place!  Good thing I don’t live LOCAL.   Here are are few fun shots from the garden center:

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11. September 2009 by Kathy.

Friday was my SHOPPING DAY!!!!  I only went to two places because if there is one place HOTTER than Vegas its Phoenix.  Plus they had HUMIDITY.  Ugh.  The storm finally broke the day AFTER I left town of course, so the whole time it was way too hot.  And Las Vegas - well we were having 90 degree weather while I was in Phoenix.  There is just something so WRONG about that!

But this isn’t about the weather (although it comes up again later) so first stop was SAS!  First off - good news (for me).  SAS had a fire last year and when they rebuilt - they put in AIR CONDITIONING!  I had put SAS as my first stop because with ….pumps versus air conditioning - well they don’t work well in humidity so I figured I best do this stop while it might be below 100 degrees.

SAS - hard to describe but fun to shop…this year I stuck to TRIMS and LACES.  And I stuck to DEALS.  So these trim cards - $2 for the CARD.  Yes you heard me right. 10 cards so $20…how could I turn that down?

The laces - 25 cents to 50 cents a yard…

This place is a huge wearhouse FILLED with fabrics and trims and such.  But I don’t NEED anything right now and I DO NOT have a warehouse to STORE things in so - trims and laces were what I got.  Actually I needed something like a chenille in white for a project I wanted to work on while in Phoenix but all I was able to find was burlap (haveI mentioned I have a thing lately for burlap?  Have you seen SILK burlap?  Oh so nice looking and to feel.)  Now this burlap is NOT silk - just plain burlap like.  I even looked at wool but it was too hot to buy wool.

Then I went to a new quilt store called 3DudesQuilting  I had not picked a quilt store to check out so I googled Phoenix quilt stores (because I (thought I ) needed batting for a project while there)   And I thought they might have the chenille I was looking for (oh found that at The Cotton Shop in Redondo Beach CA on my next adventure!).

So why did I pick this quilt store?  Well my luck was great - they were having their grand opening event and if you printed out their coupon and brought it you had 40% off EVERYTHING you bought at that time - good for a one time purchase.

Ok - me and a quilt store and a coupon?  Dangerous!!!

The funny thing - their Air Conditioning was broke.  I should have REVERSED the order of shopping.  Great store, great deal, great staff.  Really made me wish I lived closer.  Sounds like the kind of quilt store you want around the corner.  And they were so apologetic about the AC like they had anything to do with it.  And a fridge full of water for all of us.  Yes by the time I left they had quite a crowd.

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5. February 2009 by Kathy.

I signed up for Robyn’s class this weekend (Sunday) at Piecemakers.  Great class, great store, great teacher!  While I took Sally Jean last fall for soldering you would think I would have confidence but since I managed to burn my hand pretty bad in class (and not on the project or the soldering iron mind you!!!) - I haven’t really worked on soldering jewelry since then.

The best way to get myself going again is to sign up for a class!!!!  And this looked great.  I had high expectations and Robyn surpassed them.  For now here is a photo of the class at work soldeirng outside on a gorgeous day in Southern California…on February 1!

And some not great shots of Robyn’s work but glass is hard to photo because of reflections (at least that is my excuse).   Robyn does really great work with tiny bottles and she enhances them with buttons or such on top!  She explained how she built the box around the Charlotte on the left side also - I am going to try to make it more “fabric” oriented, although I do have some charlottes small enough to do that I think!  And notice those dice on the bottom!!!!

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23. March 2008 by Kathy.

I am lucky to have a friend who runs www.ribbonstore.com that lives close by.  First off, Carole is a FOUNTAIN of information and knowledge.  Just walking through her “store” is enough to inspire anyone.  She has ideas planted throughout to show you what you can do with the ribbon.  And some of the ribbon - oh to die for.  Oh heck, ALL OF THE RIBBON is to die for, lol.

Do you see - Carole is always checking ribbon for “pull” capability.  Its amazing how many you can pull and it gathers itself!  Aren’t those great ribbons too?  I love ribbons that are gradations, give any project great movement.

Of course I shot these photos a long time ago - Carole has since rearranged the store since she has acquired some new antique store cabinets.  (New to her, but definitely antique!)    On the last shot above - don’t you love the heads?  Carole found those at TJMaxx I think - she just has ribbons dripping out like hair.  I think the heads were supposed to be plant holders.  And the cases below are antiques.  So nice to view the ribbons through.

Now - Carole really is an on-line store.  She sells mainly through ebay - at - http://stores.ebay.com/The-Ribbon-Store.

Having said that - if you are ever in Las Vegas its worth asking if you can visit this treasure.  And believe it or not - its her GARAGE.  Ok - so it has its own AC and its a SIX car deep garage, but it blows your mind when you walk through the door.

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