Jenny & Gigi's East Side Adventure

Yep, lived here for going on 3 years and I don't know squat about Tucson! So sad but true. Jenny called me up Thursday and invited me to go with her to deliver a wedding cake out on the East side of town Friday afternoon! The cake by the way was gorgeous ~ covered in Fondant and Sugar Paste Sunflowers! Bee-utiful! So just to fill you in... the EAST side of town is like a different planet! My life in Tucson mainly consists of a 10-15 mile radius of all the one stop shops a girl needs: Wal~Mart, Target, Ross etc. I really haven't had a need to venture out much beyond that considering I'm a total home body who suffers from many craft addictions. In other words, I'm totally content staying at home keeping busy with baking, crafting and playing with my pets. I seem to always find what I'm looking for at any of my core stores and if I don't ~ I'll either totally "wing it" or drive West to Phoenix in the opposite direction. So glad she picked me up to go somewhere new! We drove about an hour or so out in the middle of nowhere to a "church" called Saghuaro Buttes ~ beautiful place to get married but nothing around there at all. If they didn't advertise I can't imagine anyone would ever find this place tucked up on a hillside close to Paul McCartney's ginormus Mansion slash Horse Ranch. We dropped off the cake, Jenny took lots of pictures and then we ventured on over to to Home Goods! I had only been there once when I first had moved to town. Cool place to buy overstock nice quality retail items. I mean ITEMS galore! That place is busting at the seams and right now ~ the holiday section is over flowing with do-hickys, do-dads, do-you-really-need-that? kind of stuff! Well apparently the answer was "Yes" for the two of us! I found the sweetest surprise! A small book in a very cool keep~sake sleeve dedicated to all of Andy Warhol's holiday paintings he did for Tiffany's New York. First of all I'm a huge fan of Andy Warhol and secondly I had no idea until I looked through the book this morning that these are all paintings he did for their store windows! Ok for those of you that don't know me yet ~ I'm in awe of painted store windows! I paint mine at my house every year with a different theme! Also I had just blogged about painted windows that afternoon! So needless to say I was just thrilled to find such a special book. Jenny found some cute Christmas mugs, a sugar/creamer set and other fun whimsical items. On the way out we happend upon the cutest tea cups with Cupcakes all over them so we each snagged those and we were out the door headed to "THE BIG JOANN's". My first time there proved to be much needed! I bought some polka dots, chickens and butterfly fabric for a few upcoming swaps I'm doing and the cutest pins for my pin cushions. They have hearts, feathers and flowers at the top! Adorable! Oh ya, Jenny got some too! She bought some really cute shabby chic~esque fabric for some chairs she's recovering ~ can't wait to see how those turn out! Well once again we chatted it up and down for a few hours and then headed back to my house so she could meet Chester and the kitties. She couldn't stay long because Joel, her ever so understanding hubby, was cooking dinner for the two of them so it was a quick tour of our "Monster House" and then it was goodbye. Another fun filled day for the Cowgirl Cupcake Gals. We're making plans to bake cookies next week and perhaps talk about our Halloween cupcake ideas! Really looking forward to that! Until then...

An East Coastie & West Coastie Meet in the Desert

I'll admit it ~ I was excited! I had never met anyone for lunch that I had met on the internet before. Feelings of anticipation like a blind date ~ (no, no, no not like that)...I was happily married and so was she but it still felt exhilarating because at this point in time we had only conversed through the Flickr community and email ~ now we were about to meet face to face for the first time in the town where we both reside ~ of all places on earth Tucson, Arizona! A love for Cake & Crafties was our common thread. All I knew about her was that she kicked butt in the Cake Department ~ and all she knew about me was that I was a Craft Addict ! A meeting for lunch and what would prove to be hours of splendid conversation was set in motion.
Both of us knew we had many things in common but after 5 1/2 hours of chit chatting we had no idea just how much! It was so much fun to meet someone that loved what I love ...Cake, Kitschy, Vintage, Cookies, Retro, Dogs, Husbands, Cupcakes, Cherries...the list is miles long!
As afternoon turned to evening and the wait staff at the Mexican restraunt where we met changed shifts ~ shared thoughts and ideas were slowly melding into the idea of... joining forces ~ nothing could stop us now from putting Tucson on the map for more than Monsoon Weather and The U of A! What could be better than two gals who share the same passions in life and who are both antsy to take the plunge into the world of Confection and Craft ~
Ready set go is how I'm feeling! We shall see where this leads...as of now our wheels are turning and the Oven and Sewing Machine are HOT! Looking forward to seeing what happens next!