People Are Nice.

How sa-weet is this little story?

Some of you have been on the receiving end of my emails inquiring about "where can I get that skinny word stamp Donna Downey uses on her canvases?!" And Cameron told me the one I wanted was by 7Gypsies but it is DISCONTINUED WHA? No way. No fair.

So the QUEST began (oh yeah. obsessive. remind me to tell you the one about the Red Rose Tea.....right. Again I digress...)

ANYWAY...I start looking online (remember - NO BUDGET for spending on frivolities!) and I see it on eBay - IN THE UK! (not that I am patient enough to wait for it to SHIP TO ME or anything)...yada yada ya...

...and then on Friday, I went to The Cropping Station for cropnight with Aimee and her daughter Katie. (Ohhh we had fun! Can't wait to do it again!)

So, well into the night....I wander over to the "tools" shelf and start browsing through the stamps....(you see where this is going, right?)....and it isn't a huge selection....but sure enough! There! In the stamp basket! Was! The! 7Gypsies! Stamp! NOWAYSHUTUP!

I snag it and head back to my table. Aimee and Katie are shopping so I don't even have a chance to tell her about my find right away! I immediately grab some white cardstock and start stampin away. WISHING I HAD MY CANVAS WITH ME. And then I go back to workin' my page (oh yeah. A 6hr crop and I did ONE PAGE. ONE. Just ONE. And didn't even finish the JOURNALING that night! But again....we had FUN. We chatted and Katie let me play with her colored pencils Santa brought her (that's my scribbling in the photo of all the colors in her set!) and we shopped the 65% off racks (three times!) and ate Fritos and eavesdropped on the ladies at the table behind us and Katie's mad skills were impressing the heck out of me and the store owner...I love crafty/creative kids!

OK...so back to the story....all night that stamp is sitting next to me. And as midnight is approaching, and we are packing up and getting ready to go...I say to Aimee "I WANT THIS STAMP! Do you think they have more and I just didn't see it?" No. "Do you think she will sell me this one?" (Aimee knows the store...used to teach there....) And of course, my Snow White friend says "Want me to ask for you? I will!" (seriously. Birds circle around her and I have SEEN A HALO ABOVE HER HEAD.) You know I was afraid to ask because if the answer was "NO" I'd have to PUT.IT.BACK!

So I call over to the very nice shop lady (Sandi)....

ME: "Do you have any more of these stamps?"

NSL(S):"oh, no, sorry."

ME: "Will you sell this one to me?" (I am sure my voice cracked and the fear of rejection was all over my face! Picture the "Please, sir, may I have some more?" scene in OLIVER!)

NSL(S): "Sure."

ME: "Oh goodie!!! HOW MUCH!?!!?!?" (As if it mattered? Like I wouldn't have willed her my retinas for the thing at this point?)

...and she says "oh just take it."

NOWAYSHUTUP! THANK YOU NICE SHOP LADY SANDI!

How nice are people? She also gave another lady at the crop something and said "if you are going to use it and love it that is what matters." HOW NICE IS THAT?

So, thank you, Sandi at The Cropping Station. I owe you big time. And I will SO be back!