Road Trip with Phylly

Phylly suggested we go to Tulsa today to buy buttons before the doors of The Cloth Merchants (TCM) close permanently, and while there were still buttons in stock.  Everything was 30% off.  We awoke to pouring down rain this morning, and I was afraid we would have to cancel.  Phylly doesn't mind driving in a downpour, however, and she wasn't about to cancel.  I am SO GLAD because we had the very best time.  The rain was over by the time we headed back home.

It looked like this or WORSE the whole way to Tulsa!  Phylly was as calm as a cucumber.  She said it comes from living in Seattle and Oregon where it rains all the time.

We left home at 9 AM.  We drove an hour and 40 minutes to TCM where we met my sister, Janice, who lives in Tulsa.  I don't get to see her very often, so it was a treat to meet her there.  Here's a pic of Phylly.  Janice asked me not to put her picture in my blog.

Here I am next to Debbie, the owner.  I'm sure she made her pretty outfit.  Notice the button boxes and fabric swatches.  I made up a bunch of 4x6 index cards with pieces of my Edmond fabrics on them.  It is sure a good thing I didn't do it when I was in Kingston.  We would have had to rent a U-Haul!!!

Here is a picture of the button wall.  You can see how many boxes we had to go through.  Phylly and I were in Button Heaven!

That is Debbie on the left.  The other two are customers that we wanted to go home so we could have ALL the buttons to ourselves!  They did leave later, and Phylly and I took their place.  It was raining, so some of the ladies had to kick their shoes off at the door, including Phylly.

It quickly became lunch time, so Janice took us to a great restaurant.  It was called "First Watch", I think.  We all had breakfast, but not just any breakfast.  The choices were wonderful.  I took a picture of Phylly's scrambled eggs on top of potatoes, onions and cheeses.  YUMMO!  Mine was kind of like that but had spinach in it.

We left the restaurant and returned to TCM where Phylly and I immediately went back to perusing buttons.  Janice went back home because she didn't want any buttons, and she had bought some patterns and fabric earlier. 

Since the buttons were between $2 and $20 each, we decided we better quit.  Actually, the really big buttons were the $20 variety, and I didn't buy any single buttons.  Phylly did though.  When it was all over, we had each spent $200 on buttons.  Crazy, huh?  Next time you see me, you better NOTICE my buttons!

I spread mine all out on the table when I got back home, and I took a picture.  I will keep the picture where I can refer to it so I might remember WHAT buttons I bought.  I left all my fabric swatches in Janice's car, so I can't match them up with those.

This is what $200 worth of 30% off buttons looks like:

Maybe they will look more exciting closer up:

Well, maybe not.  I don't know WHY they are so expensive, but I can tell you this.  You won't find ANY of them at Hancock's or JoAnn's.  And since I live in a NON-fabric-button-store town, I am DElighted to have all of these in my stash.  I hope Phylly will post pictures of her buttons in her blog.  HINT, HINT!!! 

Gotta go.  Hubby isn't feeling good.  VERY unusual.  Hope it isn't contagious.  

Hugs, Joy