Unexpected joy

This year I asked my father-in-law for Lisa Bearnson's Kit of the Month. Unfortunately for me, they sold out before he was able to order it. BUT! Fortunately for me, he remembered something I had said at Thanksgiving about wanting to buy fabric at JoAnn's. I've been itching to make a quilt for my bed for quite a while now but have never had the money to go and buy all the fabric required for such an undertaking.
SO - I received something for Christmas this year that typically I don't ask for.
A gift certificate.
I've never liked gift certificates because I have a hard time deciding on what I want to buy. I always find something that I just can't live without, or something that would be great to add to my stash, or something that I've been wanting for awhile but have gone without it for this long - do I really need it? You see my dilemma?
So when I received my gift card to JoAnn's to start buying my fabric, I had some mixed emotions. FINALLY! I can start on my quilt. I can pick out the fabrics I want & spend hours at my table sewing while some version of "Cinderella" plays on the tv behind me (because that's what I "watch" while I craft). But then I started thinking about what KIND of quilt I wanted to make. I want Popeye to love it, too! I don't want it to seem too "girly". I don't want it to be too plain. I don't want it to be too easy. I don't want it to be too difficult. I just want it perfect. Is that too much to ask? I want to be able to learn something new while I sew but I also don't want to have to practice too many times to get it right. So many emotions!
Finally, Popeye & I decided on a pattern & I figured out how much fabric I would need. And it was a. lot. But I thought, "I can do this!"
So I drove with the family down to Denver on New Year's day to do some fabric shopping. I knew this would take me awhile. I picked up Holly, my SIL, and we headed over to JoAnn's. And I immediately became overwhelmed! I do pretty good picking out corresponding papers for scrapbooking, because, let's face it - I only need 3 maybe 4 pieces of paper per page! But I was looking at needing 48 different fat quarters! 48!!! I looked at those rows & rows of fabric, all different prints, all different colors & thought, "There's just no way. I'll just go and buy some scrapbooking supplies."
And then I found them! Little tins, filled with fat quarters of corresponding, coordinating fabrics. 20 of them to be exact. Ah the joy I felt! Those little tins (which are really cute, by the way) contained the exact colors that I wanted for my room (blues & browns with a little bit of green & orange) and provided extras so that I can make matching pillow shams!
I never thought that a little piece of plastic (aside from a credit card) could give me so much happiness!
And 2 nights ago I practiced sewing together the square with an extra fat quarter - it came out perfect! So today I started cutting. And then I cleared my sewing table so that after volleyball tonight I can start sewing! YAY!!!