Hobby Lobby and Mary Jo’s

We spent Memorial Day weekend in North Carolina visiting some good friends and also attending my little cousin's wedding. Aside from all that fun I was looking forward to going to Mary Jo's again! Mary Jo's is a crafter's dream! 32,000 square feet of fabrics, notions- SO MUCH GOOD STUFF!! This time, I allowed myself to splurge (to an extent!) and came home with a ton of cute stuff!

Mary Jo's Cloth Store- located in Gastonia, NC

I was able to find some really great plush material in a variety of colors. I found this beautiful turquoise rosette type fabric that I thought would go well with either boy or girl fabrics that I had on hand. (I've bought the rose colored version at Joann Fabrics before, but have never seen other colors aside from pink and white! So I definitely had to snag some of the blue while I had a chance!) The boy truck fabric is also very plush and soft- it's definitely not fleece, but I'm not sure what the name of this type of material is called!

Plush fabrics- perfect for blankies and other cuddly baby gifts!

A trip also isn't a success unless I can get my hands on some of my favorite designers! I was able to score some of Amy Butler's Lark print, and some older prints from Heather Bailey's collection! Totally L-O-V-E-ing these something major!

Yay for Amy Butler and Heather Bailey Fabrics!

I also found a handful of children's character fabrics that I thought would be a good addition to my collection. I generally don't buy a lot of themed prints unless I get specific orders for them, but sometimes they just call out to me! I love the comic book one, and was actually planning on making B a super hero cape out of it! The last time I purchased this Dr. Seuss print in green, those baby sets flew off the shelves- they make such great unisex gifts! And the Hello Kitty print was one that I hadn't seen before that I thought would be super cute!

Superheros, Dr. Seuss, Hello Kitty- Oh my!

Mary Jo's also offers a huge variety of notions! I was able to find fold-over elastic in a ton of different colors! NONE of the local craft shops here carry them (at least not the kind to make hairbands out of!) I've always had to order the colored ones online! So I'm happy to announce I'll be able to make and list some new girls headbands pretty soon!

Foldover elastic for hairbands and hair ties!

To cap off my stay in North Carolina, my friend also took me to Hobby Lobby. We don't have any here in the Northern Virginia area, so I had never been to one before! I figured it would be pretty much like a Michaels, or AC Moore, but I was wrong! It was HUGE!! They even had a decent sized fabric section! (I of course didn't buy any more fabric but ONLY because I spent more than I intended to at Mary Jo's!) They also had a ton of home furnishings, which kind of surprised me! I probably could've spent more time there had I actually needed to buy stuff, but just walking around and taking it all in was pretty fun too! I did manage to buy a stainless steel block for metal handstamping! (Hubby was expecting me to come back with a much bigger bag! I think he was quite surprised when I pulled my purchase out of my purse! I'm sure he let out a sigh of relief under his breath, that's for sure!)

First trip to Hobby Lobby! Wish there was one closer to the DC area!