The Weekend Wrap-up

This has been quite a productive weekend, and I'm so glad for it! For the first time since September, you can see the entire dining room floor. Now, I'm not normally that messy, but throw in wedding showers and merging two households, and you have a lot of stuff. Good stuff, mostly, but stuff nonetheless.

On Friday after work, my mother-in-law and I made a trip to Mistletoe & Magic, aka Heaven in November. Our local convention center is decked out with Christmas decorations and houses hundreds of vendors selling their goods: jewelry, clothes, food, home decor. It's just wonderful.

I restricted myself to just a few purchases. I think my absolute fave store is Turquoise Haven. I bought a super duper cute necklace that has a slab of turquoise. It's fa-bu-lous. I wanted about 14 other things in their booth, but didn't think it wise to spend $873 without the approval of Husby. Restraint. I used it.

(Even though I thought about buying a couple of pieces for him to give me for Christmas. But I did that in August, and I'd like something more for Christmas than jewelry I bought for him to give me.)

(Did I mention that they have a shop at First Monday in Canton? Maybe I could transfer funds from the grocery budget to the miscellaneous budget. At least I'd be well-accessorized while eating our budget-friendly meals!)

Another great stop was The Gypsy Wagon. Y'all, they have super cute stuff! It was so cute that we couldn't see all of their booth because so many people loved their things. Luckily, they have a shop in Dallas--a shop that I plan to visit very soon!

We ran into Husby's cousin who made the best food find: frozen toffee by Susie's South Forty. Oh. my. goodness. I sampled about ten of her pieces, then four more while I bought a box. Normally I'm not that impressed by non-chocolate candy, but this was terrific.

Probably the cutest food find was from Lindale Candy Company. Their homemade candy canes were about an inch in diameter and 7-9 inches tall. But my all-time favorite was the candy cane bowls. Oh, too cute!

Mistletoe & Magic was a blast! Followed by lunch and a bit of Christmas shopping with a friend on Saturday, I had a nice step into the crazy Christmas shopping season.

Then the real work began. Husby and I planned from the day we packed the first box that we'd have an ultimate garage sale. Well, that changed when we decided we just wanted the stuff out of our house! We loaded about ten trash bags of clothes and the same amount of boxes filled with kitchen things, and an assortment of electronics and headed to Goodwill. We couldn't bear the thought of having it take up room in our house until after the holidays.

With that space cleared, we were able to store wedding gifts that will be used once we have a house with more than three kitchen cabinets. Then I was able to clear out the rest of the stuff in the dining room while he vaccumed the entire house. And it's not a small house.

I feel like our house is on it's way to being a home. Finally.

Now, if I could only find time to finish writing thank you notes; I'd be totally caught up and ready to decorate for Christmas.

Well, after I finish the four loads of laundry downstairs.