Hello Dolly

Two gold stars for Lizzie. I finished everything on my list despite a few hiccups *I'll get to that later* but most importantly, the dolly is finished!

Toc Toc by The Lovers

Inspired by this doll by Jess Brown

She is still nameless but Liv has been throwing out a few possibilities...Gee-hah, Shuue, Paatah. So yesterday was quite adventurous. I found a balloon party store in downtown LA that carries what I wanted but it wasn't as easy as I expected it to be. The place turned out to be deep down in the dirty, dirty, really scary section of downtown. I affectionately refer to it as "Zombieland". Apparently Isabella Cruise has no problem hanging out with the tweakers and crackheads but me, I was holding my breath and not making eye contact the entire time I was there. I literally told Aimee where I was in case she had to file a missing persons report later that day. I parked across the street from the lovely shop.

I was lucky enough to find 35 cents in the bottom of my purse for the meter but I haven't carried cash on me since 2006 so I was relieved to see the visa emblem on the door of the shop. When I walked in I was overwhelmed by the thousands of balloons but my feeling of overwhelm was more of how tacky the balloons were displayed. I have never seen more Tweety bird, Feliz Quinceanera and Spongebob mylar balloons in my life. Sadly my phone was too grossed out to get any photos but let me assure you, it was a gaudy balloon nightmare.  I waited patiently while several ladies purchased graduation balloons and attempted to get the owner's attention since there was no semblance of customer service. When I heard a woman request the same balloon I needed I piped in, "me too!" The dude threw the balloon on the counter and grunted "$5 dollahs at me." I pull out my visa when he rolled his eyes and said "$30 dollah min-ne-mum!" Ummm, what? Lame! I then calculated the odds of finding a ATM in the vicinity and losing my parking spot with the 7 minutes of time my 35 cents paid for so I disparagingly began to look for $25 worth of balloons in the tacky balloon paradise. Everything I was remotely interested in was on display yet the grumpy owner would tell me, "no have." So luckily Olivia saw a sticker of Yo Gabba Gabba mylar balloons but it was close to impossible to ask this guy for a Brobee balloon. At first I said, could I have a green Yo Gabba Gabba balloon? this was received with a crazy look of Bro-blee? Then I choose sign language as means of communication, pointing to the sticker and smiling, see, green balloon? Uhh, he shakes his head again and sort of shrugs like, look lady, you better hurry up, I've got a cigarette that needs smoking. Okay, finally I start looking myself and as soon as I touch the hundreds of boxes of balloons he magically found it. I managed to get to $19.99 so I grabbed some ribbon spools that weren't horrible. I ended up spending $35 on balloons but I was more concerned about finding my car on cement blocks with a nice parking ticket on it. I somehow got out of there without a ticket and with all my tires intact. I felt pretty brave after surviving that mess. So I got my car washed, went to Target, *spent more than I should* tried to exchange her clothes at BabyGap but I was told the rompers I bought aren't available in stores yet. Anthropologie was completely sold out of the chiffon bow but I did buy a new bathmat *cause I needed it, right?* I got mine in blue.

I left the house at 11 am and didn't get home until 4:30 so I was pretty tired when I got home. Driving home I finally remembered to get cash for Palm Springs *cause folks don't appreciate IOU tips* Please tell me when will the world get on a cashless system? Every thing is digital! They don't even use coins at the slot machines in Vegas anymore. Tell me what's the point of cash? The only time I ever use cash is when I get a birthday card with $20 in it and then I blow it on the ice cream truck at my Mother-in-law's house. Today will be just as busy and I still have projects to work on.