This month is birthday heavy for me (my mom, my friends Trisha and Nan, my grandma…). And they're not the only ones!

My friend April organized a big birthday weekend for herself and invited me and a few of her other friends along for the ride. Let's just start by saying I put a good 1000 miles on my car in 3 days! I am tired, broke, and excited to play with all the new goodies I picked up. It was a major blast and memories were made for sure. Here's a little run down:

THURSDAY JULY 8
Meet at Jennifer Priest's House at 5am.
Go to Starbuck's.

Jennifer receives mobile “potty in a cup” gag gift (long story, you don't wanna know!)


Arrive at Fabric Barn 7am. Depart Fabric Barn at 830am.
Arrive at Phillipe's in Los Angeles at 9AMish.

Depart Phillipe's at 1030AM.

Arrive in Los Angeles Fashion District 11AM.

Depart Los Angeles Fashion District 2PM.

Now, at this point we are hot and tired and have spent well over a $1000 between all of us in the car. Oh, and Matthew, my 2 year old son, was with us. Yikes! As we get into the car, we realize that a) we're going to be passing some scrap stores not everyone has been to on our way home and b) none of us really have to be home very quickly.

So we stop at:
Scraparazzi, Whittier
Scrapbook Land, Hacienda Heights
The Scrappin' Table, Placentia
Tall Mouse, Yorba Linda

Fortunately we were trying to meet a friend for dinner so we had to stop shopping. We had dinner at Cheescake Factory in Rancho Cucamonga and then headed home, arriving back at my house after 9PM.

FRIDAY JULY 10
April arranged a birthday crop this day, all day. I got there early, at about 10AM to mark my spot. Then I spent all day trying to get back to the crop so I could actually crop! LOL

I got the kids all arranged (Matt off to join Katie at grandma's), got my BIL settled on working on the fence again, cleaned Xaver's car and dropped it off at the mechanic's, and borrowed my mom's car so I could finally get to the crop at 3PM. We had cake and snacks and root beer floats…I am never going to lose weight aroudn this group!!

I stayed until 8PM. I know, not long but boy, I was still pooped from the day before!

SATURDAY JULY 11
We got a late start this day;)

Meet at Jennifer Priest's House 730am. Arrive at Pine Cone Press , Santa Ana at 915AM. Store does not open until 10AM.
Get a wild hair, look up Shinoda and go there.
Depart Shinoda at 1040AM.

Arrive at Pine Cone Press 11AM.

Depart Pine Cone Press 12PM. 100 Degrees outside.

Arrive at Costco to get party snacks.
Arrive at Christmas in July Party at my friend Pat's house in San Bernardino at 2PM.

Depart Christmas in July Party at 630PM.
Realize we can't yet drop off one of the ladies riding in the car.

Figure we'll waste time at Michael's in Rancho Cucamonga.

Depart Michael's at 7PM.

Arrive at Jennifer Priest's House at 740PM.

I spent most of last night and today cleaning up the aftermath in my front room, scrap room, and the garage but this is what it looks like right at this very moment:

You can kind of see my new cropping tables under that giant mess in the first pic–I have room for 12 – 17 people for cropping now, on wood tables. Wooohooo!! Matt's crib and furniture are shove din there because X just put wood flooring in Matt's room over the weekend.

I created a few cards during the Christmas in July party, coloring in stamped images with my Copics plus I have the coolest idea from my friend Pat for homemade ribbon rings to share! So check back this week.

There's a new summer challenge up at the Bind It All Blog–be sure to enter for your chance to win!! Also, you can always submit your projects to be featured in the Inspiration Station gallery. Just go to ZutterZisters.com and follow the directions for submitting your projects. If you need inspiration, every month there are new projects from the Design Team as well as instructions and supply lists.

My friend Nan just posted a new page to the Lucky 13 blog so check it out HERE. It's fun and happy! Sign up to be a follower on the Lucky 13 blog, then leave me a comment here about it, and I will send you a RAK! I have made up a few RAK envies here so they are ready to go ;) No deadline for this.

I did not make it to the Renegade Craft Fair–I saw someone from Red Velvet Art went and blogged about it. It seemed to be much like Felt Club last year so I feel that I did not miss much. Plus I don't have any money left after April's Birthday Shop Hop! LOL

Katie goes to camp this week so things should be quiet and productive around here, I hope! She is going to scrapbook at camp — it's an art camp. She is so silly. Thanks everyone for giving me some love about my wah post a few days back. I meant to post something in between now and then but I was too busy shopping – hehe. I just saw a few more DT calls and will try again…you never know!

Happy Creating.

Author: Jennifer Priest

It started with jewelry, beading, sewing, home decor, painting, basket weaving, pottery, and cross-stitch. Marry that to an entrepreneurial spirit & at 9 years old a girl is selling her wares at craft fairs as far as her parents and grandparents would drive her. These days, Jennifer enjoys crafts of all genres from sewing to scrapbooking to jewelry with a little dabbling in the mixed media world. Her style is approachable and she wants everyone who sees her work to feel that they too can embrace creativity and make their home and life beautiful.

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3 thoughts on “April’s Birthday Shop Hop

  1. Monday July 13. Okay after the rotten day that I had at work today. You have made me laugh. April’s Birthday Shop Hop and broke we are.:-)
    I hope you youngster enjoyed hanging with all of us old ladies. lol
    Love ya
    Aprile of the Aprile shopHop

    Posted on July 14, 2009 at 2:20 am
  2. Ok, I just had to chug a coke to get my energy up after reading what you have been upto lately. Seriously don’t know how you did it!! I’ll call you tomorrow though about getting together :)

    And I am also now a new follower of the Lucky 13 such a fun blog, thanks for sharing it!!!

    Posted on July 14, 2009 at 2:48 am