The Old Git

I've had a couple of very busy weeks. The first one involved farm inspections and took me out of town. It was fun, though work related and a nice break. But the real fun was this week!

Some of you may remember my escapade with co-hort Gail Owens back in August of 2009. We kidnapped Jane Eborall and showed her the town! So when the opportunity came up again, we were all primed to say the least.

Unfortunately, Gail had to bow out at the last minute due to work commitments. We missed her. A lot. I'm not from Ohio so I had to do some google scrambling to find some places to take Jane to. She mentioned wanting to go to a Michael's and Hobby Lobby. I found them both as well as some other places to spend our time and attention in!

You won't believe this but I DID have my camera with me. I was just having such a good time that I forgot to take photos and so did Jane! She did snap one of me as I left her off though. So this is from 2009 but truly, she looks the same. I don't think she ever ages!

I was anxious to see her because (one reason) I wanted her to see this bag. She gave it to me in the last visit and the reason it's so special, besides being from Jane, is because it says "Gina Collection" on the front and she brought it all the way from the UK for me!

Oh, here's a better picture of the bag. I haven't put much tatting on it yet, but it's a start. If you check out Jane's blog for 2009, you'll find she initially bought one of these for herself in a different color and decorated it with tatting. I just want motifs that have blue in them so there aren't a lot yet. Plus...they're kind of hard to sew on. The fabric is like heavy nylon and the needle wouldn't always cooperate.

So I picked Jane up at 9:30 a.m. on Wednesday. Last time we did this, my tom-tom had me and Gail in an entirely different place! I got it right this time and she was only 2 1/2 miles from my hotel so I could't get too lost.

The two stores she wanted to go to were less than a half hour away so off we went, after all the proper hello's and promises I would bring her back. Our first stop was at a Michael's Crafts. I'd printed out coupons. Yay! Coupons! These were 25% off the entire purchase, including items already on sale! We spent a good hour there, I think. Jane was looking for some specific jewelry findings. She found some, but not one she had bought before. I managed to find a few good deals myself, even though I have easy access to Michael's at home and what could I possibly need?

The whole week has been well over 90ºF so you can imagine the feel of the Sahara each time we returned to the car! It barely cooled before we got to Hobby Lobby! Again, I had coupons! These were 40% off but didn't include sale items. Hobby Lobby is quite large compared to Michael's so it took us awhile in there too. After we left there, we thought we were stopping at a JoAnn Fabrics but it turned out the store wasn't opening until August 7th! Boo!
I needed a few things (forgot my deoderant when I packed) so we stopped in at a Walmart. Walmarts are usually laid out exactly the same, though the floor plan may be reversed in some stores, but this one was different so it took me awhile to find what I wanted.

I'd seen a Half-Price Bookstore along the same road which is one of my favorite places to go to for used books and even new ones so we stopped there. I got a book on buttons that I will probably use in a program with my lace guild and Jane browsed. This was a smaller store and the area around the "clearance" was congested and hard to see. Not much there in the area of crafts anyway. So we went on.

My purchases!

By this time, between the heat and the shopping, I think we were flagging - and hungry - so we ate lunch at Panera's. Jane graciously bought my lunch, a wonderful strawberry poppyseed salad. Thank you again Jane! She was done shopping, had everything she wanted, so we went to my hotel to really visit. Jane has been a dear friend for a long time and it's really a treat to get to sit down and talk in person instead of emails back and forth.

I brought lots of show and tell, easier to do when you're driving a few hours away compared to flying thousands of miles, but Jane had show and tell too, so we spent a goodly amount of time sharing. It's always even more interesting when you can see something and touch it compared to reading about it on a blog. And we had gifts for each other. The gift of company is enough, absolutely, but it's nice to have a little something to remember the visit by.

Of course, no photos of the wrappings - you really didn't think I'd take the time to find my camera at this point, did you? See this cute little carrying bag Jane stitched? Everything was in the bag but the wrappings are long gone now! The thread is Coates, size 20. We can't get this size of Coates thread here without ordering overseas so I'm especially happy with that. I have a few balls from my previous travels and none are these colors.

See the little British Bobby guarding the thread? There's also a pendant tatted by Jane herself - she was wearing one too and brought others for show and tell. There's a button fob - not for buttons but made of buttons and very clever. Someone else made that and I have the business card if I want more. Then the fob Jane made with my name on it. Guess where it went?

Yep, on the Gina bag!

So then we chit-chatted back and forth for what seemed like not very long but suddenly we realized it was 7:00 p.m.! We gathered things up and I took her back "home". I have to tell you, the dog Buster really really likes me. LOL! I think he would have jumped up in my arms if he hadn't been so short, but instead he jumped up on the sofa next to where I was standing and licked me to death with kisses! He's a cutie.

And so...another grand adventure ended. Pictureless, but not without great memories! I hope the rest of Jane's visitors have as great of a time!