a new vacuum + Kelly Kilmer class

Last Saturday was the Massachusetts Sales Tax Holiday weekend where basically you could buy things under $2,500 and didn't have to pay the 5% sales tax. Obviously, you can't use it for things like cars, food, or a house, but you can only imagine how every electronic store was fully staffed all weekend. I convinced Renee and Tony that it was a good weekend/time to go out and get a few things that we really needed to get, like a vacuum since we killed ours a few months ago. Yes, I said killed. As in choked it with so much fricken hair that it made awful noises, started smoking, and died.

And after love-at-first-sight in a Best Buy store, we went home with this:

Yes, it's green! Yes, it's glittery! Yes, it's a great vacuum! :)

Let's put it this way folks, this purchase was long overdue. We took it out of the box the next day, did a once around the apartment, and had to empty the filter out. Yuck-o.

What else did we get that day? We bought a Bodum Chambord french press coffee pot to replace the one we recently broke. Renee and I both got the 48-count tins of Prismacolor premier colored pencils and were happily surprised to see that AC Moore was selling them for 40% off retail price. Score! We used them in the Dave Brethauer class we took at Ink About It earlier this month and were waiting for a 40% off coupon to use on them (they're not cheap, let me just say that much). None of us bought clothes which was a little surprising, but we (Massachusetts residents) don't pay tax on clothing anyway so it wasn't a big loss. And as my wise husband says after I tell him how much I saved on a sale item, "You could save 100% by not purchasing it." Touche.

Okay, so then I'm jumping from one Saturday to another. Renee and I took a class at Ink About It yesterday called "My Favorite Things". It was taught by a mixed media artist, Kelly Kilmer, who is a friend of our friend Marissa.

It was such a fun class! She taught us how to use Golden acrylic paints on canvas and paper to create a one-of-a-kind book. I picked a brown, green, turquoise, and golden brown color theme for my book and really like how it turned out. We painted the gesso prepared canvas for our book's binding, our book's canvas panel covers, and then fifteen sheets of paper for our book's pages. I loved how she kept telling us to not get stressed out and to not think about it too much. It was so fun just painting and not worrying about things being precise or if my colors ran into each other.

Then we began filling our pages with ephemera that we've been collecting. I've clipped out inspirational things from magazines and catalogs, and saved things like little notes or old envelopes to include in my book. I think it'll be a little bit like an "about me" type of book and a "things that inspire me" book. I can't wait to add more to it soon.

Renee made hers into a "love/hate" book where she's going to add photos of things she loves and hates. I think it's hilarious and such a cool idea, maybe I'll make my next mixed media book with that theme. She used an orange, turquoise, black, and white color theme for her book and it turned out so neat.

Here's a shot at our messy table. Messy but fun. :) Thanks for being such an awesome teacher, Kelly!!

And this is just a shot of the store's window front. I think it's so cute how they hung up lanterns and these birds made out of decorative paper.

After our five hour class, Renee and I were exhausted and starving so we picked Tony up and checked out this new place in Central Square called Four Burgers. Read about it here.

Hope everyone had a nice weekend! :)