I am not a morning person. I prefer night. I stay up late, and getting up early is one of those necessary evils I can only tolerate with a full cup of good coffee perpetually in my hand for the first, oh, three hours I'm out of bed.
Most days, I'm finally fully awake at 2:00 p.m.
Five o'clock a.m. is not morning for me, people. It's the middle of the freakin' night.
So...be interested to know that I was up and dressed and mostly functional by 5:30 a.m. on Saturday morning.
Under normal circumstances, I'd wager such an event is beyond all violation, given my personal proclivity for sleeping in until at least 9:00 a.m., especially on Saturday, the day for staying in bed until you're ready to get up, the day for relaxing and recovery from the week, the day for a slower pace.
But...there was a sale at a scrapbook store, and scrap goodies for less trumps even sleep. Even on Saturday.
My friends, who I should really start calling "the AW's," as both their first initials are A, and both their last initials are W, kindly picked me up at 5:30 from my house, and we headed for Canton, where there is a lovely little scrapbook store having an annual bag sale. One of the A's picked up the bags on Friday, and the gig was, each customer got 35% off everything that would fit in the bag for one hour after the store opened at 8:30, plus one item at 50% off.
Sweet!
There was strong encouragement from one of the employees of the store, who A knows from working a few doors down awhile back, to arrive early, be the first in line.
Thus, getting up and out at the unholy hour.
We did arrive at the shopping center at 6:00 a.m. Nobody was there yet. We went to Tim Horton's for a bit of breakfast and my first cup of coffee. My hand was curving into its cup holding shape out of pure longing. One of the A's said to me, "You're actually going to drink Tim Horton's coffee?" I'm like, "Dude, does it have caffeine in it?" Point taken.
Breakfast for me was a yogurt and a whole grain raspberry muffin, plus the coffee which tasted like freakin' heaven in a cup to me. Hot, strong, full of caffeine--yep, that about sums it up. No coffee snobbery at 6:00 a.m. on Saturday morning, no ma'am. We took our food back to the parking lot and ate in the car, chatting about politics and scrapping and what we were looking to buy.
As the sun began to inch its way into the sky, we got out, got our chairs and set up to wait for the door to open. We chatted, relaxed, fought the urge to nap, visited with other crazy women in line with us. There was a slight chill in the air, but I soaked in it, loving even the hint of Autumn.
One of the other ladies waiting in line was kind enough to take this shot for us:
Just before 8:30, the employees came out to stamp our hands for the hour-long sale, and they passed out goodie bags to the lucky few who were first in line. I got a package of 4th of July paper and stickers. The AW's also got packages of paper. Once we were let inside to shop, everything became a bit of a blur. The store is lovely, though small, and with everyone crowded, on the hunt for the perfect this or that, it was challenging to get where I needed to get, see what I needed to see.
But I got a lot of cool stuff for a great price, including an acrylic stamp set by Technique Tuesday that I've been drooling over for quite awhile. Got great Autumn paper, some Slick Writer pens from American Crafts in fine point, flowers, chipboard, all in all about $35 worth of scrapping goodness.
Gotta love it!
After that adventure, the AW's and I went to Target, JC Penney, where I bought a luscious lavender hoodie sweatshirt jacket and a delectable purple paisley top. Our next stop was Ikea, where I've only been once. We ate a bit more breakfast, needing to refuel after the exertion of shopping, and then we walked through the whole store, oohing and ahhing over all that Ikea has to offer. So much cool stuff there, and it really generates creativity and that urge to organize and decorate. I got a package of cardboard magazine holders to try out. If I like them, I'll go back and get more so I can finally get those dozens of Victoria back issues into a more convenient storage option.
We also went to downtown Plymouth, where an Autumn festival was in full swing. Shopped at a couple stores, bought some loose tea. Our last stop was the Target near me where we took advantage of the $1 scrapbooking bargains. Gotta love Target, and oh, I DO!
Getting up before dawn? I gotta admit it's a bit of a challenge for me. But spending time shopping with good friends? Totally worth it.
Copyright 2008 Melissa LaFavers