Impulse Buys and Impromptu Dyeing Sessions

Yesterday was Coffee with the Girls Day. Julie was home with a sick little one, but we still had a huge group. The Sock Princess was there (working on super-cool flame socks), as was Miss Carol (who shall now be known as The Mitten Maven, due to the collection of gorgeous mittens she's been knitting up lately). Chandra was there working on her baby sweater. And Aunt Gerry showed up, too! We took over the corner of Caribou where they have the comfy chairs and the fireplace -- and we were having so much fun that people couldn't help but stop by to say hello.

Once the party broke up, I went into the mall to browse around the Franklin Planner store. Last week, I'd walked past the store and had picked up a catalog, and that got me thinking... Back in my ad-agency days, I used to carry around a big ol' Franklin. I have no idea what happened to it, though I'm guessing that it got lost in one of our moves. Or it's in my mom's basement, in a box somewhere with the rest of the stuff that I didn't feel like moving. But I didn't need it then because I'd decided that all I needed was a PalmPilot. I was wrong. I'm a writer. I like to have paper and pens. I like to scribble things. Anyway, I was thinking that it would be nice to have a planner again to keep myself (a little bit) organized. If nothing else, it would be better than the little calendar that I bought at Big Lots for a buck. So I thought I'd go and do a little browsing. Little did I know that I'd end up walking out of the store with a full package -- a new (smaller and less formal) binder, pages for a year, and a few extras. I blame it on the caffeine -- and on the ultra-friendly saleswoman. And on the fact that the binder was on sale, and I'm a sucker for a sale. But I was so happy! I went running home and got myself all set up. And I've already scheduled all of my Coffee with the Girls Days for the rest of the month.

I (heart) my Franklin Planner.

Last night, Julie called to tell me that she'd put her not-quite-so-sick-anymore child to work yesterday afternoon, and they'd dyed some swatches using Julie's new acid dyes. And she asked if I'd like to meet her at the art store today to buy more dyes -- and then grab lunch.

It was going to be lunch. Really, it was. But those swatches were just so gorgeous...and the art store had so many colors that we just had to try. So we decided to reheat some leftover pizza at Julie's place and mix up more dyes.

(I was going to post a picture of our swatches here, but Blogger apparently doesn't want to post it, so you'll just have to take my word for it -- they're gorgeous and vibrant, and I love them.)

It wasn't long, however, before Julie had to pick up the Little One from school -- and I needed to get back to work. And now I'm kicking myself that I left because Julie just sent me this:



Ugh! Julie's dyeing lace yarn!

Stupid work.

We were just discussing (when Julie called to tell me how gorgeous the orange and Project Spectrum-worthy hot pink turned out) how crazed we've become. She likened us to someone who tries pot and ends up hooked on heroin. We just started with a little Kool-Aid. Then some food colorings and icing dyes. But that wasn't permanent enough for us, so we had to try RIT. But that still wasn't good enough, so we had to move on to the acid dyes. I can only imagine what's next...