By the time Friday night rolled around, I was way too tired to blog so I'm catching up now. Warning: This may be a long post.
Friday started out with breakfast from Starbucks. I had some delicious hot chocolate and a zuchinni walnut muffin. I do love me some Starbucks. We then drove past FIDM so I could take a picture of the Project Runway billboard. We'd seen it the first day we went to the fashion district but hadn't had a chance to snap a picture until then. The first order of business, once we got to the district, was to drop Patti off in children's land again. Then mom, Tommy, and I headed back to our preferred parking area and dropped off the car. First we went to one of the dress stores we'd visited a couple of times and bought a dress and then the rest of the morning was spent shopping for fabric, jewelry (which we bought tons of), scarves, and a dress for Violetta (the lead). Patti met up with us as we were busily purchasing yards upon yards of laces and other fabrics. After we left that store, we took our goods back to the car and then headed to the Subway for lunch. It turned out to be pretty good. Maybe it was just that we were so hungry but I was pleased. Following our lunch, we headed back out into the district to make our final purchases. We went to a trim store and then Patti and Tommy went across the street to an upholstery store where they both picked up some great pieces. With our shopping in the district pretty much completed, we headed back to the car and set out on a journey to find Mood. Mood is the store that the designers go to on Project Runway and since becoming hooked on the show, I just had to try and make it there while in LA. So, we drove to Mood and when we finally got there, I was super-excited. I had mom take my picture outside of it and everything! Going in the store was a little overwhelming. There was so much beautiful fabric; I just had to touch it all. Before heading to LA, I'd made up my mind that I would try and buy some fabric from Mood, just to say that I had done so. So in the midst of being overwhelmed by the beauty of it all, I picked out a fun piece of fabric. It's not something I would probably have picked right off hand but the more I looked at it, the more I loved it. I picked up 2 yards of it and now I just have to find the perfect pattern to use. I'm torn between a skirt and a blouse; I guess I'll see what inspires me in my search for a pattern. After Mood, we had enough time to go to another store that Patti had heard about called F and S Fabrics. It turned out to be great as well. We were able to get some fabric to redo the kids' uniforms with for Sound of Music, which was really good. There were so many fun fabrics there that it made me want to make even more bags. Plus, they have a whole section dedicated to 1940s neckware. Apparently movie designers use the store a lot which is cool in and of itself. Then there was the button section. Oh my were there some cool buttons! Mood + F and S= FABRIC and EMBELLISHMENT HEAVEN!!! By the time we left F and S, we were getting hungry. Our food goal for the night was to eat at a nice sit-down restaurant and things kind of went that way. It did take a nearly 2-hour drive through parts of LA and Beverly Hills just to wind up at Marie Callenders, which was actually kind of close to our hotel, to accomplish that goal, but we did nonetheless. The food was pretty good and the building was really cool--nothing like the Marie Callenders we have here in Utah. Our last stop of the night was the Fed Ex store where we shipped three or four more boxes of fabric back to the Opera. It was a long day but so much fun. That night we also said good-bye to Tommy as he was leaving at quarter to seven the next morning. I'm excited to see him again in a few months.
Saturday, we got up, got everything packed, stopped at McDonald's for breakfast, and headed to the car rental place. We finally found it and got on the airport shuttle. There were five other people on the shuttle, two of which spoke German. They were carrying on a conversation, in German, and I have to confess that I eavesdropped. Well, I eavesdropped as much as I could with my limited German speaking skills. From what I gathered, the woman was telling the man about times she had been late to the airport and one time in New York specifically--nothing super exciting. It's not like they were spies or anything. Or maybe they were and the story about being late to the airport was a ruse...just a thought! (Lol ;o) ) Anywho, when we got to the airport we attempted to check in at the curbside kiosk. My mom gave the dude our information, he issued us our boarding passes, tagged my suitcase, took it in to the airport and then disappeared. So there we stood with two more suitcases waiting to be tagged and no one to help us. We waited, tried to get some help from another airport worker who was rude to us, and waited some more. Finally Mr. Rude Airport Worker decided we weren't complete idiots and decided he'd try and help us. My mom figured out the original airport worker hadn't paid attention and believed that we'd only had one suitcase between the three of us instead of one suitcase each. After sorting that mess out we made our journey through security where Patti was cut-off by a rude Asian woman which more than filled our quota of rude Asian women for the week She then had to be wanded with the metal detector because of her knees. (She's had them both replaced). In Salt Lake they have some type of booth thing to go through which is super fast but apparently Salt Lake is more high-tech than LAX because they're still doing things old school. By the time we got checked in we had about 45 minutes to wait. Mom and I found a souvenir shop where I picked up my customary postcards, keychain(s), and pen(s) to add to my collection. As we waited to get on the plane, I saw a women that I swear was Cloris Leachman (think Young Frankenstein) in an airport wheel chair while my mom discovered, after a phone call to Logan, that it was SNOWING in Utah. Great! I thought as I looked at my outfit which was not appropriate for snowy weather. It came time to board and as we walked through first class, guess who we saw??? Yep, Cloris Leachman. I am certain it was her. I have no idea where she was going but I know she wasn't staying in Utah because someone pushed her rapidly through the Salt Lake airport in the wheelchair after we landed. The flight wasn't as great this time because of the weather. We ended up circling the airport for a half hour or so and then had to wait before we could taxi to the gait. I got a wee bit airsick as well but it wasn't anything I hadn't experienced before. It felt great to back on familiar soil though, and we even saw some Loganites waiting at the baggage claim! The drive home made me a bit sicker but stopping at Maddox for take-out cheered me up and by the time we pulled in the driveway, I was pretty good. We ate our shrimp stakes, I unpacked, started some laundry, and waited for Bergs to come get me. Since my flight got in early enough, Bergs, Michelle, and I got together at Starbucks so we could see each other before Michelle's trip to Disneyland. It was a great way to top off the week.
I had a blast in LA and am so thankful that my mom let me tag along with them. I learned a lot, realized how much of a Utah girl I am, and just recognized how truly blessed I am to have what I have. It was so great seeing Tommy again as well. I'm excited about the eight (8) pieces of fabric I got and the skirts which I'll be making in the near future. I'm a little sad that we weren't able to make it to Disneyland like we'd hoped but I had so much fun anyway that it's ok. There were so many fun adventures that it would be hard to pick a favorite. It was just a great vacation all around!
Fun stores: Mood, F and S, Jasmine Jewelry
Interesting experience: Trying to check into LAX
Really cool tourist-type attraction that I wish I could have seen in the daylight: the La Brea Tar Pits
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