Michael's is responsible for over half of any set I've ever decorated. (The other half came from thrift stores and my own home. Theater people aren't packrats without reason - we know we're going to have to use that ugly mustard-yellow dish set in one production or another.)

I hadn't heard of this chain, but it looks like they have stores in nearby suburbs.

I can't be inside a Michael's too long. Or Bath & Body Works. Or Yankee Candle Company. Too smelly. Eyes water. Can't breathe.

I am one of the few and proud who love to move. love to pack, love to unpack.

of course, now with mac, the thought of doing so exhausts me, so we will probably stay put for a good long while.

You and mac can come help me!

I went through the craft stuff drawer yesterday and got rid of any stickers not immediately needed (immediate and need being defined as needed today at work) as well as unwritten in journals and other stuff. Liberation!

I was annoyed with my framing experience at Michael's, but part of it was my own ignorance -- so make sure to ask enough questions to know what you're really getting. (I didn't know how wide the "standard" matting was, so figured it would look like it looked when they held the pieces together to show me.)

I have that problem, too, shrift, but oddly not with Michaels. Which I too have used to decorate sets. In fact, I sort of miss decorating sets, but I am stuck with all this nasty sewing.

My cheap framing solution is buying frames at thrift stores, and learning to cut mattes myself. I paint all my fames the same color, so it works for me. But I think Michael's is best for tommy, as he is trying to be reasonable, not crafty and inexpensive.

I guess I just have an overly sensitive snoot. Or perhaps an allergy to craft stores.

Someone once tried to convince me that the folks who owned Michaels were avid George W Bush supporters. I figured they usually have what I want for cheap.

nearly half of Americans between ages 18 and 24 do not think it necessary to know the location of other countries in which important news is being made. More than a third consider it "not at all important" to know a foreign language, and only 14 percent consider it "very important."

Good news is, I have figured how to use block quotes. Bad news is I have a sneaking suspicion this statistic might actually be close to valid. As a teacher of college freshmen and sophomores (mostly) in our rhetoric and composition program I am continually amazed at what my students don't know when they come into my classroom. I know I am only a child of the 80s-90s but "back in my day" we took geography. . .right?

Kat, if we come westward it couldn't be until April.

My MiL is obsessed with getting things framed, but I have to say she's right. A good frame is KEY. It can make all the difference. Of course my big problem is getting all the pretty framed things UP ON THE WALL. It's a shame I'm so damn lazy.

Okay, why is it so friggin' cold today? I can't take the kids to the park, they'll freeze their asses off.