I'm back! Phoenix weeked highlights

See, now this is why I didn't sign myself up for NaBloPoMo. Last week was rotten and I'm glad it's over. It featured such joys as waking up in the middle of the night sick, having a sick kid, kicking my own front door in, nearly murdering my dog, cleaning fingerpaint off the walls and ballpoint pen off the leather car upholstery, no naps, late bedtimes, snow, major stress-out panic attacks at 11:30 pm and a husband who is out of town so I get to deal with this all by myself. I think you can imagine why I didn't feel much like blogging! Now it's Monday morning and I'm determined to make this new week better. I still have lots of things to stress about and my husband is still gone but I'm hopeful that things will improve and I'm going to start off on the right foot by blogging!

Saturday Maren and I drove an hour south to the Air Force Academy to watch my alma mater BYU beat Air Force on their own turf! We purchased the tickets before we knew that Quin would be out of town and I'll admit that I was not excited at the prospect of going by myself. Luckily, the weather was nice (if a bit chilly) and it was much easier than I imagined to get down there and deal with Maren on my own. We sat with friends, which made the whole thing much more fun! Maren loved cheering and running around on the empty benches with the other kids.
She even fell asleep in my arms during halftime, if you can imagine! It was a long day (left the house at 10:00 am and didn't get home until well after 6:00 pm) but it ended up being really fun and I'm glad I didn't chicken out.

I still haven't talked about my girls' weekend to Phoenix--that was such fun! Some highlights:
*visiting Melrose Vintage. Oh my golly, what a store! I had somehow forgotten that it was also a scrapbook store and was absolutely overwhelmed by the gorgeous papers and crafting supplies they sold. They only carry items that fit their shabby, vintage, romantic aesthetic and they stocked a lot of really neat things that I've been unable to find in my local stores. Add Melrose Vintage to the list of My All-Time Favorite Places to Shop!*The divine crab cake salad at My Florist. The perfect lunch to refuel us after shopping at Melrose Vintage! There's a great story about how rather than tear down the gorgeous old sign that once advertised an actual flower store, the cafe took its name instead. The crab cakes were absolutely the best I've ever had.
*The classes we took at Blissful Living Studio. First was the beeswax collage class with the lovely and fun Tricia. I've never worked with beeswax before but it was so easy and so fun and I've already bought my supplies so that I can do more! We made the cutest vintage-style Christmas canvases.Next was the soldering class with the very talented Beth Quinn. Somehow I was hoping that between now and the last time I put down my soldering iron in July that I would have magically gotten better at it, but alas that wasn't the case. ;) It was still really hard for me, although I did learn a new technique from Beth that I think will make things easier once I get the hang of it. No pictures of me smiling with my final products from this class because I'm still not very happy with them, although I think with a little fiddling I can make them better. Still, it was a great class and I really enjoyed it. After our classes at Blissful Living we walked across the street to Mystic Paper, another amazing papercrafting store that I wish I could pick up and plop down in Denver so I could shop there and take classes all the time!*No girls' weekend would be complete without cupcakes! We went to the Scottsdale branch of the famous Sprinkles to see if they really lived up to the hype. My milk chocolate cuppycake was absolutely scrumptious--moist cake, rich chocolate flavor and yummy frosting! The lemon cupcake I bought for Maren was not nearly as good, but the only reason I chose it was because of the pink dot (like many 3-year-olds, Maren chooses food by color and not necessarily flavor). Sprinkles' website says that a Denver store is in the works so I anticipate more taste testing in our future!

*Undoubtedly the funniest thing from the weekend happened on our very first stop after we left the airport. We spotted a shopping plaza with both a Goodwill and an antique mall and decided to stop for a look. The antique mall was the usual booths full of tchotchkes and old china but in the back there was an entire room devoted to long sparkly gowns, wigs, and the biggest selection of size 13 stiletto heels I've ever seen...FOR DUDES! Once the realization dawned on us, we were overcome with the giggles! I'm sure those in "the community" know that is the place to go but for the average shopper or tourist, looking for vintage Christmas ornaments and finding drag queen paraphenalia was seriously unexpected!In all it was a great weekend! The weather was gorgeous, the shopping plentiful, the food delicious and the company was superb. Can't wait for the next one, Mom! :)