Ben Franklin's, Hobby Lobby, and Michael's!

4-6 inches of snow isn't enough to keep me home.  Although it was snowing (and damn cold) outside today I journeyed out with my Mother.  I needed to get more paper for the V-day card swap and plus I was in the mood to see what kind of new minis I might find.  So off we went through the winter wonderland.  This was the first time I have ever visited Ben Franklin's and I can definitely say I will be going back.  My Mother (who said, "I told you so") has been trying to get me to visit for months now.  On one hand it's similar to Hobby Lobby and Michael's and on the other hand it has food and clothing and other items sort of like the Dollar Store.  Odd combination, right?  But anyway, on to the good part, here's what I got:

This is a clay gun set and it includes 19 different shaped discs.  I would really like to get into making mini food with polymer clay and I thought this might be useful.  I was playing around with the different shapes when I took this pic.  I made a tiny "dessert" that you can see on the side using a piece of chocolate brown clay and the red clay as icing.  I think I'll check out a few tutorials before I try again!

Next I got these awesome brown felt cowboy hats!  One is missing the brown ribbon, but that can be fixed easily enough.  I loved the look of the rusted pots as well.  I got the mini birdhouse to go in my Jade plant and I've got a better pic of it for a later post.  The four mini tankards will go great in the saloon and I've been wanting another set of corked glass bottles for a while now.

Next I found some great beads for 99 cents each!!!  I've been wanting some longer thin beads to put together some nail polish bottles like Tanya has in her albums.  I got the round white beads because I'd like to make a pearl necklace / choker for Kitty using Casey's tutorial.  Kitty is very excited btw!

Afterwards we journeyed on to Hobby Lobby.  Actually, that isn't right - next we made a pit stop at Krispy Kreme Doughnuts (lol) and then went on to Hobby Lobby ;)  There I found some great scrapbook paper to use for the V-day card that I'm making for Melly Kay's swap.  Don't you just love it?!

And also my Mom found some great V-day doily's that's she going to use in some of her scrapbooking.  But when I saw them I immediately thought, "mini doilies"!!!  In this pic I cut one out to show you the size.  These will be great if I can practice and get good at making mini food.  Too cute!

And finally today my Mom and I drove on to Michael's because I wanted to get a couple of hutches and spend the rest of my gift card.  And guess what?  We get there and they closed at 1 pm due to inclement weather!  Seriously?  I was so disappointed!  Anyway, maybe I'll be able to go tomorrow or Monday, I hope they send out a new email with a new coupon b/c the one I have was only good through Saturday 01/30!