A girlfriends’ weekend

Andrea Singarella, Jenn Hayslip, and Lori Oles came to visit over the weekend for some relaxation…

Craft time…

Shopping in the West Bottoms antique district…

Boating…

Girlfriend time…

And lots of laughs!

I'd asked my family to demonstrate the circus apparatus in our new room, and was happily surprised when they generously showed up with costumes, music, and an entire performance for my guests.  

We even got lessons on doing some tricks ourselves.

Kia showed me how to do this move.

And Sugarwings taught me her favorite one, "Man in the Moon."  More like, "Crazy Old Grammie Who Will Have a Stiff Neck the Next Day".

On our first evening, Beth joined us and Angie invited our group to her deluxe apartment in the sky on the Plaza "for a glass of wine" and this is the beautiful spread we found when we got there.  

Afterwards, we had dinner at the museum across the street from Angie's apartment.

We squeezed a lot into the few days they were here, and most important for me, we had some studio time.  I feel like I've been away from creating time too long because of the renovations we've been doing to the cottage. Now that those are behind me, I'm looking forward to being out there beading, painting, cutting, and gluing a LOT.  It was great to be in the workroom with a few friends and a glass of wine.  While I often have the grand fairies as company while making things, the wine was a rare treat.  Hmm, I wonder if I should keep some stashed in the treat cabinet on a regular basis?

Our weather was ideal for boating on Saturday, but cool enough on Friday that a soak in the hot tub was refreshing.  More wine –of course- and steam rising as the heat from the water met the chilled air was a relaxing way to end a day spent finding treasures at Good JuJu, Top Hat, and Bottoms Up. We had trudged from one end of the antique warehouse district to the other and the jacuzzi was appreciated afterward.  Shopping there is practically an endurance sport and we needed the pt after it was over!

Here is what I bought.  Now that I am a full fledged circus performer like  my kids, I'll probably need it, huh?

Our time flew by too quickly, like fun times seem to do.  

I'm lucky to have found such nice friends to get together with, even though it is not for as long as I'd like.  

And to know that even if we aren't together often, when we are, we take off right where we left off, with lots to laugh about, family stories to share, and arty interests to talk about.  We spent over an hour in Michaels discussing beads, favorite supplies, and resources for them on our way to the airport.  It is good to have someone to share complaints with about too small holes in pearls.  Who else would listen to me go on about that?

(We came across Jenn's cover story in Romantic Homes at Michaels too!)

And it was nice to have my family get to know some of my favorite people.  And for my friends to hang out with my loved ones.