Craft Store #1- Stamp and Scrap Nest

http://www.stampandscrapnest.com 
Our next stop was this store in Simsbury, CT. The ladies in the store were very friendly. I told them my story about following in Dave's footsteps. They thought that was great.
The store had a nice mix of stamps, paper and other supplies.I bought a few stamps, some Tim Holtz tissue tape and a tape dispenser. I also got a Karen Foster Design It Drawers, which I plan to decorate and give myself for Christmas. This store would be close enough to visit if I would like to take a class on a Saturday or Sunday. I didn't take my camera in with me so there aren't any extra photos. Sorry.

Taken from the website.

First Stop, White Flower Farm...

http://www.whiteflowerfarm.com

 We have received White Flower Farm catalogs for many years. Since the farm, or more accurately the retail store was on our circular route of Connecticut, we stopped in for a visit. The store was having a sale on spring bulbs so we purchased several bags of daffs and tulips. As I type, it is about 3 weeks later, we haven't had time to plant them yet and we now have about 6'' of snow on the ground. Hhhhmmm, what's wrong with this picture.
Since it was the end of the season, most of their stock had been put away, but we liked what we could see.

 We are making plans to go back in the spring when they have big sales. One of them features tomato plants. And, of course, there is always their catalog to droll over during the winter.

A Short Fall Vacation...

Roundabout story.

I had some vacation time to use up. Gary and I decided a trip to Mystic, CT might be just what we needed. Mystic is one of our go to places, along with Newport, RI and Ogunquit, Maine.To round out our trip, we decided to combine some shopping along with our sightseeing.

Segue....

Alison is surprising me with birthday cake and a balloon.

Dave uses a lot of watercolor paper for his creations.

Delicious cake and I got to share my day with the staff @ BS&S.

I really like Dave Brethauer and Memory Box stamps, papers and dies for card making. Last summer, I traveled to Buffalo Stamps & Stuff, just outside of Buffalo, NY to take classes with Dave, about a 6 1/2 hour trip. My sister, Alison, and I take alot of classes at her local store. I don't mind the drive- I listen to books on CD, sing with my favorite albums, talk to relatives on my hands free phone. The time goes fast.

Dave has a very laid back teaching style and we learned about different weights of watercolor paper, worked with twinkling H2O's, watercolor pencils. A very informative class. He is so talented.

One of the things Dave likes to emphasize- we need to support our local stores. In fact, most of his business is with the local stamp stores, I don't think he sells to big box stores at all.

Retuning to roundabout story...
Dave was on tour with his whole family this summer and visited 4 stores in Connecticut. Since we were going to CT for vacation and since CT isn't a huge state, Gary agreed that I could visit these same stores, sort of following in Dav's footprints. We also decided on some places that Gary wanted to visit and some joint things we wanted to do together.

Stay tuned for the next installment of our CT vacation.