Free Time, Me Time!

The girls are at having a sleepover with their cousins, so I get to play! yey!! It so happened that after dropping them off I had to drive right past Ikea, it seemed a shame not to visit. So I enjoyed
- lunch of Swedish meatballs and berry/muesli yoghurt and Ikea chocolate
- poking around looking at things that interested me without anyone saying "Mum you don't need that"
- buying:
fabric storage boxes in green and calico which coordinate with the greens in our house (not sure what to put in them yet!) and a coordinating laundry bag

• Cute star-shaped lights to use for Christmas and parties reduced from $25 to $10


• a new shower curtain which is very modern but will look great with the border tiles, we have had the other curtain for 10 years now.


• a black alarm clock for my computer desk, I have wanted it for a few years now and finally it is ticking away next to me - you have to wind it!!! It looks great with the vintage phone collected at council clean-up,
  


• some "beige" cotton fabric to use with patterned fabric - hoping to make another bag soon


• an artists' dummy - not necessary at all, but fun and adds to the artistic look ;-)



• tealights - essential!

Then, although somewhat exhausted in the shoulders from carrying all that around Ikea for a few hours, I couldn't resist visiting a stamp shop, since I was almost driving right past that, so I dropped in for "a few minutes". $70+ later I came out very happily with lots of Hero Arts stamps, all cheap and I know I will use them all!

Here they are:

The little birds are some I have been admiring at the Hero Arts website, they are from 2 different sets. So cute! And some more to get ready for next Christmas:

Boy am I one happy camper! So of course I have begun to use the new stamps already, and will post the cards during the week (especially an anniversary card which my dear husband may not see in advance). But here is one quick card so as not to keep you in suspense!

Two days ago Emily turned 10, which was a huge milestone for us. Remembering the events as they happened 10 years ago was fun but also scary that time could fly so fast since then. We gave Emily a camera of her own, she is already turning into quite the photographer, wanting to experiment with the different modes. Lots of fun.