fun finds.

I took the girls with me today for a lil retail therapy at Hobby Lobby and Michaels... mostly visual retail therapy, but we did leave with a few fun things.  And I'm honing my shopping skills with two little girls, slowly but surely... Anyway, thought you might want to see what caught our attention today.

First up, some eye candy for those of you who haven't been to Hobby Lobby lately. {I kind of feel like I just had 5 cups of coffee when I go here, because I'm excitedly trying to look at 50 things at once and process what I'm looking at, all at the same time...} Anyway, I saw these and would've loved to drop one in my cart, but at $50 a pop that was a no go:

Still, awesome to find. I'm telling you, hexagons are seriously making their way into the mainstream... I'm lovin' it.

Later on, I found a whole wall of lanterns with different shapes. Would be so cute on a deck.

I also found some adorable mirrors--I loved the little yellow one. So colorful. (Look at that big girl, sitting in the front of the cart now... aww.)

Over at Michaels, I thought this was cute: a little crocheted apple coaster sample hanging in the knitting aisle (crochet aisle, if you prefer :)...

We made our way to the "dollar" section, and I found some adorable Paula Deen cupcake holders for $1.50--I'm making a cupcake kit as a birthday gift and these will fit nicely:

The turquoise one says "You brighten my life." Aw. Tis true of the recipient.

I finally decided on a box to hold crafty stuff of Liv's--on sale for $6.59. Love the magnetic flap.

We're keeping construction paper, crayons and markers (need to add), watercolors, scissors, pompoms, foam shapes, glue, and beads in here. Now Liv knows what box to look for when it's artsy time.

 Here's Natalie, just smiling away, urging me to check out the clearance section. "You know you wanna look, mom." So we did.

We found some cute felt activity boards for $5--how cute is this. I would've chosen the astronaut or the dinosaur board, but I let Liv choose... she liked the castle the most. (She's really into building with legos right now, castles in particular...)

I also randomly bought a ceramic number 5.

It was $3, marked down from $8.99. It was one of those things where I saw it a couple of months ago, and I thought to myself, "Hey, if those are ever super on sale, maybe I'll get one." And then Nat forced me to look through the stuff, and there it was, soo... They had all sorts of numbers, so why the 5? What does the 5 represent? I don't know, but I like how it looks. We have five in our family: R & I, Liv, Nat, and Dex the dog. I was also thinking of 05, the year we got married. Hopefully more 5-inspired memories come to mind so I have a better story for it down the line. :) Five 5Ks we've run? Five families who have lived in this house before us? Five years in this house? Yes, actually, this year. So there you go. Here it is on our mantle (which, I'm realizing, is oddly spaced out... must condense...) :)

Window shopping is one of my favorite things; it's fun to get ideas, fun to pick up stuff and put it back (I tell Liv to say "bye!" to things she wants to hold as they live at the store... totally works), and then fun to see how much money you can save and not spend when you really do want to purchase little somethings for your home, or your kids.

Anyway, that's all from here... Hope you're well!