Last Minute Madness

I really only meant to pick-up the firecrackers I ordered from Joyleen. But somehow, last December 31, through a force much powerful than my resolve, I ended up at Helen's Memory Lane store. My mantra was "get in, get out" but seeing all the scrapbooking goodies at the shop, it became "get in, spend, get out."

I have only been to Helen's store once in 2006, and I was pleasantly surprised to see that she has expanded her space. She has more items in her inventory, too. It was much easier to browse and therefore easier to be tempted by all she has in store (pun intended). I also didn't know that she has a wide selection of the latest scrapbooking books and magazines. She has some titles that I have in my Amazon cart and I don't even have to wait for the items to be shipped to me. She also allowed us to open the books and magazines from their plastic covers so we can actually browse them. Nothing turns me off more than a book wrapped in plastic telling me "off limits." I need to see what I am buying into.

This had a heady effect on Nita, Joyleen and I, and as against all resistance from our respective conscience, we purchased at least eight books between us. And these were not planned purchases at all. Truly, there is something about the pull of being able to preview a book to make you decide that you want it. While Amazon has this nifty feature that allows you to "search inside" a book, nothing beats seeing all those wonderful layouts up close and personal.

We did our darndest to ignore the call of the scrabooking items begging us to take them home, but Helen's cajoling and discounts made us go for broke. Pun intended again, broke being the operative word.

I spent more than the cash I had in my wallet. Helen accepts credit card payments but at a lesser discount and even if that was just a minimal amount, I couldn't justify that extra expense to myself anymore. Then I made the mistake of asking if she accepts EPS payments. She wasn't sure but after much trial and error, we were able to complete a transaction. Hurray for cashless shopping. Cashless being...never mind. :-)

Anyway, that was definitely my last scrapbooking purchase for the year 2007. I hope I get to put them all to good use.