Is there anything better than a Stampin' Friend???

WARNING: This is a rather long post about stamp shopping with lots of cute little anecdotes and a few fun pictures! If you are averse to any of these things, you may wanna skip today's post. Oh come on, you wanna read it....ya know ya do!!!


Kay, so I told ya how my pal Andrea and I had a morning of stamp shopping planned for Saturday, right???

The plan was:

- meet at Scrappin' Great Deals at 9am
- leave Andrea's car there and drive to Petrolia to The Town Scrapper- spend $$ on wonderful new rubber!
- drive back to London and meet my parents, who are coming all the way from Wallaceburg, at Michaels
- use coupons and spend $$
- take Mom with us to Scrappin' Great Deals, see Sheila and spend more $$
- part ways with Andrea, Mom and Dad come to my house for the afternoon to visit, play games, eat, etc.

Okay well, when I got on the 402 to go to SGD in Kilworth, the highway was a snowin' blowin' mess! It was overcast and whiteout conditions and I was a tad scared. I got to SGD, called the parents, told them not to chance it and called my honey and told him I think I'll just stay in town this time. What's with this weather always blowin' my plans all to....well, never mind.

So Andrea arrived (with two made-from-scratch cinnamon buns, complete with cream cheese frosting made by her wonderful hubby, Jason) and I told her what the highway was like. Obviously we didn't want to risk our lives for stamps......wait a minute, did I just say that??

Anyway, it was 9am and the only crafty store that would be open was Michaels, so off we went. The roads were snow covered and slippery even in town, so we took our time (*code for yakkin' and chattin' it up all the way.....not to mention laughin' and snortin'*)

We were shopping around Michaels with our Timmy's coffee and tea in hand, picking up some deals from the dollar bins and trying to decide what to use our 40% off coupons on. Well, we found some wonderful shaped chipboard books in the $ bins! I got a heart one, a butterfly one, a scalloped square one. There was also some nice ribbon that we picked up. Anyway, we were talking about what to buy with our coupon when Andrea pointed out a storage system that she had been eyeing. It's called the Grab n' Go and it is for storing all our little buttons and brads and charms and such. It's got four cases in it with little dividers and it's just too cute for words. Andrea even did a little play in the middle of the store where she was walking up the street (actually the aisle) to my house with her handy dandy little carrying case, coming over to play. Well, then another shopper in the store reminded me that they have been giving out coupons with your receipts the last few weeks that were more than the regular flyer coupons, so I ran out to my car to check my purse for old receipts. (I only had my wallet with me in my reusable canvas bag...I'm trying to go green....well pink and black actually because it's my MFT bag.)

Well, when I came back in the store and handed a 50% off coupon to Andrea....I'll be honest, I thought she was gonna kiss me!! So we EACH got a Grab n' Go and only paid half price!!! SCORE!!

So then, we decided that since the day had been rearranged and my parent's couldn't come down for a visit, that Andrea should come and play at my house, after the shopping of course! So we went through the Tim Horton's drive-thru to get her husband a coffee (to butter him up) and went over to her house. She took me down to her craft room which is an entire giant room in her basement!! It's more than twice the size of my tiny spare bedroom craft room! So she starts packin' all her Copics and stuff up and I say, 'Um Andrea, don't you think you'd better ask Jason if you can come?? I mean, you're leaving him with the kids all day....with two sleepover friends....again!' (You may recall she did the same thing when she came over to play two weekends ago.) Now, I'm not saying what else she bribed the poor man with, but I was left sitting in the basement for a long few minutes. That's all I'm sayin'! *JUST KIDDING*

So we said cheerio to the Murdock family (the kids barely noticed us come in or leave) and we took off again. We went to the Michaels on the other side of town to use our 40% off coupons...couldnt' let them go to waste, now could we?? THEN, we headed back to Kilworth to Scrappin' Great Deals!!!



Well, I gotta tell ya....I'm always amazed at how busy that place is! I mean, I know of quite a few brick and mortar scrapbooking stores in the area that have closed over the last few years, but SGD is always a rockin'! As soon as you walk in the door, it's just a feast for the eyes!!!


So much beautiful patterned paper....



...and Primas and stamps.....



....and Cuttlebugs and Nesties...oh my!!!

We go in and a SUPER nice lady comes up and introduces herself to us! Her name is Kim too and she is on the Design Team for the store. She is super tall, super slim and SUPER nice!! Another nice gal, Angie was there teaching a class as well, so I got to meet her too! The fun thing is that these girls will be coming to the Copic Certification class in March too!!! We are going to get into SO much trouble!!!



Here's a lovely pic of the two statuesque beauties. Oh and Angie is a hairdresser too....I'm gonna hafta go to that girl!

Then of course we chatted with the wonderful Sheila...honestly she is just the nicest, most generous gal! (Plus she puts up with the over-the-top, rubber obssessive, drama queens that are Andrea and I and doesn't kick us out of the store when we jump up and down with excitement over the latest patterned paper and Prima flowers!) We discussed some possible classes that we might like to teach in the near future...is there anyone close by that wants to come??? We'll try not to scare you off with our enthusiasm!




Here's a great shot of her dancin' around in the middle of her store!! *giggle*

SO we shopped a bit and spent a few more $$ at SGD. OH and I have to tell you about the Kimmie and Andie Shopping Rationale. We made it up and it's gonna crack you up...but you are gonna want to use it!!

1. If it's $3 or less, it's Essentially Free!
2. If it's $6 or less, it's Practically Free!
3. If it's $20 or less, it's Almost Free!
4. If it's more than $20, it's an investment in our business and will eventually pay for itself!!

There ya go......feel free to use it!!



We shopped and shopped until we could shop no more and then we came back to my house. We set up at my kitchen table, complete with Ott-Lites and Copics and stamps and we laughed and giggled and coloured and stamped and playing with our Nesties and dies!! It was such a HOOT! She stayed until 9:30pm but honestly it felt like no time at all! And she would have stayed longer but Jason might have changed the locks on the house by the time she got home!!

So much fun.....can't wait to do it again!!!