Mother's Day and Visiting A Friend

I can't believe it's been a week since I posted. You would think since I'm not working right now I would be posting more. I guess last week got away from me.

I have a wonderful Mother's Day Weekend. On Saturday DH wanted to go clothes shopping so off we went on an adventure to a new mall. Before we got there we stopped for lunch and found a second hand thrift store near the restaurant. The store had lots and lots of cool items, among them was set of French Casseroles just like my grandma used to have. I wanted them and I wasn’t sure about getting them. While DH was looking around he found two butterfly shaped serving dishes that match a big green bowl we have and he wanted to get those. Lucky for me the woman who is selling the casseroles was in the store. They were priced at $10 each, but she said I could get all five for $35. Sold! DH offered to pay for them as part of my Mother’s Day gift (he had bought me Randy Moss Patriots jersey earlier in the week). How cool! I did some researching and learned they are Fire King Gay Fad French Casseroles. I may have to start buying more of those kitchen pieces. They are all adorable and I can't wait to use them.
On Sunday DS and DIL dropped by around lunchtime and gave me a gift card for Barnes and Noble, plus they have ordered Barbara Walter’s new book for me. They offered to take us out for lunch so off we went to Texas Roadhouse for steak and ribs. Then I made them go to B&N so I could use my gift card. I bought The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch; 40 Days and 40 Nights – Taking Time Out for Self-Discovery A Guided Journal; and a Cath Kidston notebook. I also picked up Better Homes and Gardens Quilts and More summer issue. This magazine has Happy Zombie's Bay Breeze Pattern in it and I've already pulled fabric to make one for me.

Sunday night I had to take DH to the airport for his business trip to Las Vegas. After I dropped him off I drove to Cape Cod to spend the evening and all day Monday with a friend. Yesterday she took me on a tour of the Cape from her house in Eastham to Provincetown at the end of the Cape. The winds were ferocious and the waves were high and gorgeous, but it was too cold to stay on the beach for too long.

Our first stop in Provincetown was a small food shop, Angel Foods, a specialty food store with a deli and bakery. We decided to buy dessert before having lunch. She bought a double chocolate mousse and I bought a chocolate raspberry cake. We parked in the public lot and ate our desserts before shopping. They were yummy!
As we were walking down Commercial Street I told my friend that over the last few days I felt as if a new me was getting ready to emerge and I needed some new items for the new me. Our first stop was Galadriels Mirror, a jewelry and gem store. When we walked in the salesperson told us everything in the store was half price! Woohoo! I walked around the store and found a purple heart shaped gem, a milky white tear drop gem, an 18 inch silver chain and a 36 inch strand of dyed pearls!

We stopped in several other stores, but didn’t find anything exciting. Lots of ideas for my dining room “wow” item; but that’s purchase I won’t make without DH around. We ate at Bubala’s by the Bay for lunch. I had a cup of butternut squash and apple soup and a salad of mixed greens, walnuts, dried cranberries, Gorgonzola cheese and walnut vinaigrette.

Then we stopped at Impulse Arts Gallery. They had lots of neat kaleidoscopes and items made with dichroic glass (a glass containing multiple micro-layers of metal oxides, with a total thickness of three to five millionths of an inch, which make the glass take on the colors it’s reflecting). I bought a necklace cross made of the glass. I also bought three strips of the glass that I’m going to make a mobile out of to hang either in our bay window or in the kitchen window.
The final stop of our shopping adventure was Atlantic Spice Company, a wholesale store for gourmet spices,herbs, tea, essential and potpourri. I can’t believe my friend had never been there. They have bins and bins of bagged spices and teas, all kinds of kitchen accessories and a wide variety of specialty item cookbooks such as the Balsamic Vinegar Cookbook. I bought a bag of Ambrosia tea, an in-house blend of apricot tea, black currant tea, mango tea, rose hips, orange peel & cinnamon chips; a tea tin for the tea and a bag of four pepper mix peppercorns. If you like to buy spices, teas or potpourri items in bulk you should check their web site. Just to give you an idea of the great prices the store has my friend saw single vanilla beans for $2.50. At the grocery store where she works they charge $12 for two vanilla beans.

As we were driving back to her house I told my friend I probably spent more money buying jewelry and spices than I usually do on a quilt store shop hop! LOL!

Now I'm back home and I'm alone until Sunday night. On Friday DS, DIL and I are going to see the new Narnia movie and I'll be spending Saturday with quilting friends. Between now and then I need to some housework and hopefully get some quilting time in.