black friday

joe's italian ice
Originally uploaded by bluepupae.

crowds make me crazy, so i usually avoid black friday. since there are fewer shopping days between thanksgiving and xmas this year and we're doing an early xmas with mike's family in montreal and our shopping is not yet done and i needed a tart pan & pie weights for a fruit tart i plan on baking, i decided to drive to LA today for some errands. of course, i'm not that much of a glutton for punishment, at least not today, so we didn't hit the deep discount places but instead went to a couple boutiques and small shops.

we were up early, but didn't leave until relatively late so i was surprised when we showed up at atmosphere to find out they hadn't opened yet even though clearly their hours showed they were supposed to be open 45 minutes earlier. same thing happened when we showed up at jitlada for lunch. after a nice lunch we hit a couple shops in los feliz, only managing to find one gift that was within our budget before heading off to wild fiber where i picked up yarn for a couple projects.

our last stop was at surfas for a few gifts before heading home. i had been craving crabs all week, so we shared one at claws. very satisfying. our night ended with my introduction of joe's italian ice to mike. he had a joe's latte with rootbeer...mine had pina colada. yum. the roof of my mouth was slightly numb, and i was shivering slightly, but it was so worth it.

i have a big family, and mike's family has three birthdays and an anniversary coinciding with xmas, so we still have some more shopping, but i'm going to try to limit it to online and local shops. i'm glad i had the foresight to pick up gifts during our various excursions to craft fairs, food outings and whatnot, so it's not a huge and sudden onslaught to time and pocketbook.