Replaying our Columbus trip

Girl weekend was a blast, but also a sad reminder of how little self control I have in crafty stores! We were pretty much able to stick to our plan of attack, although Trina decided she against going to any clothes stores. I won't tell you how much I spent but let's just say there is a reason I don't do this kind of trip very often.

Friday: Our 1st stop was an independent scrapbooking store called Scrapbook Groupies & I didn't spend too much there - got some really pretty Bo Bunny papers that I haven't seen in WV. Trina kept commenting on how much "cool stuff" they had - I think she could be converted into a scrapbooker/card maker without too much effort. Next we went to Blockbuster to redeem my coupon for 2 free movies. By that point it was after 8pm, so we grabbed dinner (Taco Bell for me & Wendy's for Trina) & headed back to the hotel to vegetate in front of the TV. Oh....and we got Graeter's pints for dessert.....YUM!

Saturday: We got up early enough to leave the hotel by 9am - would've liked to sleep in but decided we'd rather get going & make sure we could squeeze in everything we wanted. We got breakfast - can't remember where but it was probably McDonald's as we were trying to eat cheap so we could spend more elsewhere - and ate it in the parking lot at Hobby Lobby. As I said before I'd never been to a Hobby Lobby before but this definitely won't be my last visit. I was pretty pleased with their rubber stamp selection & picked up a few cute ones. They had some nursery rhyme stamps on clearance but I wasn't sure if I'd actually use them so I exercised some restraint & left them on the shelf.

Our next stop, Achievers, was the place I REALLY wanted to go to & also the place that hurt my bank account the most. They had a bunch of stuff on sale/clearance & that's where I get in the most trouble - I have a tendency to pick up 10 things that are $1/ea rather than one thing that is $8, does anyone else do that?? I actually put back about 1/3 of the items in my basket & still spent more than I had planned.

By the time we got done with those 2 stores, it was around 2 p.m. so we decided to get lunch. Before we ate though, we ran in to The Cheesecake Factory & each got a slice of cheesecake for later. We dropped our cheesecake in the refrigerator in our hotel room & headed for food.... One good thing about eating lunch that late - no wait at Olive Garden! I had chicken w/ broccoli & pasta in a garlic sauce - mmmm....it was good. After lunch we saw The Proposal which was actually pretty funny. I'm the first to admit that I like romantic comedies - despite the predictability - and this one actually had some laugh out loud moments. Betty White was pretty hilarious. After my shopping spree that morning, we decided we'd spent enough so we grabbed Taco Bell (again) & lounged around the hotel. I think we'd both kind of forgotten we had Cheesecake in the fridge & were quite pleased when we remembered it. Mine was White Chocolate Caramel Macadamia & I whole-heartedly recommend you try it the next time you go to The Cheesecake Factory.

Sunday: We slept in!! Our plan was just to head back in the late morning/early afternoon but....Michael's & Jo-Ann's were calling me & I had to make stops there before we could leave. Yes, I know, it's sad. Basically I rationalized it by telling myself that it made more sense to stop while I was so close than to wait till I got home & drive an hour each way [the next time I wanted to go]. I reined myself in a little bit at those 2 stores since I'd already spent more than enough, so it wasn't as bad as it could have been! Since our closest Starbucks is an hour away we had to stop there too. After breakfast at Tim Horton's (love their chocolate chip muffins!), stops at Michael's & Jo-Ann's, & a Mocha Frappucino run, we were ready to leave for home.

Reflecting.....I spent way too much (& ate way too much!) but I had a great time! With work schedules & just the busyness of everyday life it can be hard to spend as much time with friends & family as I would like so I'm glad Trina was able to make the trip with me - it was a lot of fun just hanging out & goofing off. Realistically speaking I probably won't be able to do another trip like this for a while but I'll be in Columbus for a couple of games during the upcoming hockey season so I'll probably do it on a smaller scale when I'm up there for a game. Now I'm just trying to get all my new stuff organized so I can play with it! I did make my parents an anniversary card last week & wanted to post a picture but my camera battery is dead & I haven't bothered to charge it. Not to mention the fact that I'm not entirely sure how to get the pictures from my camera to my computer! Oh well, there's something else to add to my list!