Old Friends, New Friends!!!

What a wonderful afternoon we had today! And I just couldn't wait to share all about it, so I am posting twice today!!! Now this is going to be a long post, I'm warning you now, so either skip on to the next blog or settle back with your cup of coffee.....or glass of wine, depending on the time of day where you are!!!

So I set off from home about 10:45am, aiming to be in Petrolia around noon. As it stood, there would be myself and Phebe, (the owner of The Town Scrapper), Bonnie (The Lucky Clucker) and Ellen (the owner of Actors, the restaurant we were having lunch at)! Most of you know that my Mom (NanaDiana on Splitcoast) is a happy stamper too and we LOVE to stamp shop together! Well, Mom was unable to come as she had to babysit my nephew later in the afternoon and didn't think she would have enough time to eat, shop, yak and then get home again. I tried to talk her into it but she didn't think it would work. Well, I decided to leave for Petrolia a little early and thought maybe Mom could meet up at the store with me early, do her shopping first, have lunch with us and then drive home....she should have enough time if we did it that way. So I called her on her cell phone and she sounded kind of funny and when I asked her where she was, she just said 'in the car'. And when I suggested my idea, she just said it wouldn't work and she'd talk to me later. Well, let's put it this way....my Mom is a BAD liar. I knew right away that she was planning to surprise me and meet me in Petrolia and when I pulled into the parking lot, I immediately spotted her car!! What I didn't expect was that she had also brought our mutual friend Connie with her! They jumped out from behind another vehicle and surprised me!!! It was SO funny!



PHEBE, DIANA AND CONNIE

So we went over to The Town Scrapper and Phebe was right there to greet us at the door! We took off our coats and put down our purses right away and started shopping!!! This picture was taken about 10 minutes after we arrived and you can see that my Mom and Connie have their hands and armpits full of stuff already!!! Look at that stack in my Mom's hands!!! Good grief!



PHEBE, MOI AND CONNIE

We were having so much fun ooooooing and aaaahhing over the adorable stamps and papers, that we lost track of time and realized it was 12:30pm and time for our lunch at Actors!!! Thankfully the restaurant is right on the other side of the parking lot!! So we left our piles of loot at the store and made our way over.



RESERVED FOR THE FUN CROWD!!

There was a table all reserved for our special party!! Ellen and Bonnie were already waiting for us at the table and there were hugs all around!! It was SO much fun to meet everyone and yak and gab with gals that have the same passion for paper and stamps that I do!! There was lots of talkin', sharin' and laughin' going on at our table, let me tell ya!



CONNIE, THE BIRTHDAY GIRL (that's me) AND BONNIE (Note the Copics on the table!!)

We had the most wonderful food for lunch too!!! I had the same thing I had last time because it was just so good!! One of the fun things about Actors is that the dishes all have actors' names!! We had a Sally Field, a Flip Wilson and a couple of Danny DeVitos!! It was a riot! We'd barely gotten lunch finished and cleared away and out came the Copic markers. Ellen had asked me to bring them for her to look at as she was considering buying some.....I think she's sold on them!! heehee!! Then out of the blue, the waitress came over carrying a luscious piece of chocolate cake and ice cream with a sparkler on top!!! They all sang Happy Birthday to me and I had a yummy DEE-licious Betty Boop dessert!!! Such fun!!



ELLEN, MOM AND PHEBE

After we were all stuffed full of a fabulous lunch, we headed back over to The Town Scrapper and we each picked out some wonderful stamps, paper and embellishments!! Nothin' like shoppin' for stamps, I tell ya!!! And Phebe has Whipper Snappers and High Hopes and Magnolias and My Favorite Things and Sunshine Designs....and so many nice papers and embellies to go with them!!! Aaaaaghhhhh! We had a real hoot!!

So I just wanted to thank the gals for meeting me and sharing such a fun day! There's nothin' like hangin' with old friends and making new ones (and no Mom, that's not a crack about your age!!! *giggle*). Thanks ladies for a fun afternoon and I can't wait to do it again soon!!!