Thrfity Tuesday ~ January 29th, 2008

Today was defiantly an adventure! We started at the Goose, then made our way to where her husband works at Reflections of the Buttes. It was the first time meeting Joel her husband! What a nice guy! I think my hubby and he would get along nicely. From there we got a bite to eat at La Salsa and then off to deep Tucson for some new thrifting adventures. I had never been to the Salvation Army in that part of town ~ all I can say is WAY over priced! Jenny Found a cute huge Richard Scary book and a couple of pillow cases to make bags out of. I walked out empty handed : ( Next stop was Desert Industries where it proved to be a good day! I spent a whopping $1.00 and walked out with a basket and bag full of Shiny Brites - only 2 were broken! Not bad!
Then we went to an Antique strip mall ( I can't remember the exact name of it but I found a McCalls pattern intact dated June 15th, 1940! It's the cutest pattern for children's toys - all shaped like different fruits! Jenny got a cute match book with a black birdie on it ~ the lady just gave it to her for free!
We then stopped at ABC which was having a liquidation sale! Jenny got a cute vintage children's book with Brown fuzzy bears on it, an old Bambi Golden Book, some old Asian paper she's going to use for wrapping gifts and some cute chachkies of little animals! I got some flower rub on transfers, a children's song book and a nice hinged wooden box I'm going to attempt to turn into a vintage Enid Collins-esq wooden purse! We'll see, I've never really worked with wood to much or leather straps either. The decorating part should be pretty fun though! Our last stop was the Pink Elephant and another shop I can't remember the name of that left us both empty handed but all in all we found some really good finds!
I forgot to mention how many wonderful linens I found at the Goose! I came straight home and washed and pressed all of them! I got the stains out and they are all so beautiful!I will post pix a bit later today when I get home from grocery shopping!

The Golden Goose ~ January 8th, 2008

Haven't posted in a while but this is the first time Jenny and I have seen eachother since my last post! It was so hectic for both of us over the holidays - we're both glad the craze is over! She was in New York - I was in California! Whew!
She met me up at the Goose today and we both found some cute stuff. She found and exact replica of a little wooden scene her grandmother has so that was exciting for her. I of course found tons of stuff. My favorite were the 2 German gingerbread tins, a Klockspel, a tin plate that has scenes from Los Angeles on it and a destination tea towel from New Zealand! Another fun day with my cupcake gal! Jenny treated to lunch at La Salsa too! Their grilled chicken burrito with black beans and all the fixins' is my favorite!

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!