To Say the Least...

This weekend was a busy one...but, busy in a fun exhausting sort of way. It started long before the fun of the weekend on my end...which was a mad dash to clean and scrub up the house, change sheets on the guest bed, and air everything out (so one won't be accused of living in absolute squalor) You see...a new friend came into town to visit...

I met her through Rich...as she is a friend of his for a while now, and was coveting a vintage baking pan I pictured on the blog...and asked him if she should write? He said certainly, that I don't bite (much) and we've been emailing and sending packages and having long chats on the phone ever since...

Shari was coming all the way down here by herself, so I decided that some girlie things were indeed in order, and ran to Target to grab some fun things for Pedis and ran across this lovely gnome welcome mat (I have a thing about welcome mats...which used to throw my EX into a tizzy where he threatened divorce if I bought another one...but, honestly that wasn't he last straw)

Shari and I unfortunately, couldn't stop talking by the half of it (staying up until the wee hours of the morning, causing the cat to sit on the bed and give us dirty looks because she was tired...and didn't that mean we were tired?) and didn't get to too much girlie things...other than the giggles. I tell you, get a couple of gigglers together...and see if you can stop...plus, lately I feel a little starved for girlie moments...

We even joined Rich for a little hike in The Dells on Saturday afternoon, in between the local pastries and coffee downtown...




We were all invited to a Halloween/cocktail party at Megan's house this Saturday...we enjoyed lovely company and drinks...as well as the amazing Megan food spread that usually shows up at these things...And, I even won a door prize!

As you can see, I went as a deranged fairy (you can't see, but I am wearing my white and black striped stockings)


Shari also came bearing purprises (but not to worry...I made her one of my handbags stuffed with pink lip gloss and nail polish...chenille footies and some yummy smelling lotion) She crochet this amazing kitty afghan for Meena...As you can plainly see...it is Meena colored, causing Meena to leap on it and snuggle up...only getting down to feed and water herself...I later moved it to the back of my chair, because that's where she usually sits, and I was tired of the sad looks she kept giving me from across the room because she was torn between laying on it, and laying near me...

Shari brought me 2 bottles of the local wine in her area...one a local specialty with chocolate as the main ingredient (woo0hoo! I'll let you know how that tastes) and a jar of home made chili (she'd made a big batch to bring to Rich because he liked the chili they made for him when he was last visiting so much)

We all went early for coffee on Sunday morning so that Shari could get a jump on the day...but spent the last moments soaking up each other's company...watching the clock and feeling a bit sad...trying to draw out each little minute leading up to getting in the car to make the long drive home...It's been a while since I've felt this sad about seeing someone head home...I have my girlie moments here in town, but they are getting far and few between...so I was really needing to soak up every little bit of this visit...It is so fun to make a new friend and feel so comfortable around them, have so much fun...and feel so sad when they leave. We were both teary eyed at the end, but I am so happy to have had the opportunity to have such a fun weekend...

even if we didn't get to do everything we wanted (do you ever get that?)

even if it went by so fast...

Thank you Shari for your new friendship...Thank you for coming to visit...and for interjecting some girlie giggles into my life...It meant a lot...

I was also invited to be the Business Of The Week at National Bank downtown...so, I'm doing a lobby display for them and changing mannequin costumes every day this week...I will be showing those to you on a daily basis...This bank just bought out my other bank not too long ago (and I admit that I sometimes have a hard time with change) So, I was both excited and honored when they requested that I do the display for the week of Halloween!

That is Clay, my banker (and now very good friend) and helper for this project...







In addition to the many costume changes I will be implementing, I also designed some little lobby cards for each teller window that look like my Halloween cards this year (closeups to come) with the business cards for Snap Snap sitting by them, a larger sign next to the mannequin describing the shop a little bit and they made me re-do the Business Of The Week sign as well...


Phew.

I told you...it was a busy one...