I had a really good end of the week / weekend this week. Aside from inadvertantly giving myself an asthma attack with all the scented candles in my living and dining room Thursday night, Valentine's day was really good. Steffie thought the apple crisp and ice cream were yummy *YAY*, and she seemed to really like her valentine's day gift too. I made her a purse out of this pretty black sparkly fabric with pink and red hearts on it. It's Valentine's Day themed, but in a way that it could be used during the rest of the year. Much better than a gift bag that will just be thrown away. I filled it with little valentine's goodies (everyone needs a mini box of chocolates and a candy bracelet) along with some oh so cute silicone cock rings ... the pink one looks like a flower! Too cute.

For Valentine's Day, Steffie gave me some sour cherry jelly bean candies and some yummy tasting edible body paints that I've been wanting for a while now. The green tastes like green apple jolly ranchers. YUM! For my birthday she gave me this really pretty purple fairy sculpture with little tea lights. She's very pretty and will be perfect in my bedroom I think. Steffie has some other goodies in the works for me too ... like a clippy hog tie bondage thingie to go with my pink wrist and ankle cuffs. I think she'd be adorable hog tied. She sqirms pretty. :-D I would have been perfectly happy if she'd walked in my door empty handed though. Having her here for three days was all the present I needed. The rest were bonuses.

When we went down to Rae and Porkchop's this weekend, and that was a good time too. It was nice to get to go down and spend some time with them. We haven't got to do that much lately. Everyone has been busy with all sorts of things lately and we've been sick and have had car troubles and things like that. It was really nice to just get to hang out and catch up without having to rush around to do anything or be anywhere. They had me a giant birthday cookie with Strawberry Shortcake on it! I had just thought early this week and been kinda disappointed that I wasn't going to have a birthday cake this year or anything like that, and then they had me a cookie. :-D That was really cool.

Steffie and I got another really awesome valentine's day gift together too from Rae and Tanya. They gave us a gift certificate to Smitten Kitten so we could get a new silicone toy for the strap on harness that Porkchop is making me for my birthday. *bounces* I'm excited about it. I tried on Rae's this weekend to see how it would fit and if we'd need to make any pattern adjustments (not too much needed there) and I have to say it's a bit of power trip. I could get use to that *grins.* It will look really good with the shiny purple cat suit. Steffie and I went by Smitten Kitten on the way home on Saturday to browse. Lots we liked, but we narrowed it down to two that we liked the best. One is called The Wave and the other is called Echo. We decided on the Echo for now in dark purple with plans to get the other one later. *huge hugs to Rae and Tanya and Porkchop* We have kick ass friends who love us.

*giggles thinking about the morning* Steffie has other sweet toys too that I'd never play with before this morning. She let me lock the pad lock and take the keys to work with me. I think I might be starting to like some aspects of this switch thing.

*grins just thinking about Saturday morning*

I took Steffie to get her first tattoo Saturday morning. :-D She fortunately or unfortunately told me a while about a forced tattooing fantasy that she had, and it begin to give me ideas. I loved the thought of taking her in and getting her tattooed. The thought of marking her as mine in my own way is very exciting! It didn't go off quite as I'd hoped/planned, but it was an awesome experience. I wanted to be able to take her in blindfolded and get it done like that, but that didn't work out so well when I unfortunately had to switch tattoo artists without a lot of notice. The artist who drew the design would have been totally cool with it too I think, but I'm not sure about the other artist in the shop. The shop was pretty busy too with people getting Christmas present tattoos. If we'd been able to get the piece done in a private room rather than the open floor, I would have followed my original plans.

I did spend a couple months getting the design just right for the tattoo though, and deciding where to put it once I had a design I liked. And Steffie signed the papers and let me get her tattooed with my design where I wanted it! It was great!

She's now my Steffie Bear with a Grumpy bear tattoo (the Care Bear for those of who don't recognize the name) on her oh so cute tushie. Love it, love it, love it. There were lots of owwws afterward and I had the sadistic urge to poke the ouchie *never had that before.* I did restrain myself though since it was a freshly inked tattoo.

Then we were off to lunch and the airport so I could come home to Alabama for Christmas. I sorely was wishing for a couple more hours cause there were other much more yummy things I'd have rather been doing than sitting in the airport waiting for my plane to board. Next weekend will have to be good enough I suppose. I'll be heading down to Des Moines the weekend before new years. Counting the days!

I get to write something good ... positive ... happy! *YAY* It's a much needed and welcome change from the last few posts. I just finished a lovely nap and I'm feeling refreshed and ready to write.

The apartment building finally agreed to let me pay a professional to come in and clean the carpet in an attempt to not have to replace it all. That's a very good thing. At least it gives me a chance, you know.

I got to go to the Renaissance Festival in Des Moines this past Saturday. It was cool. It's not as big as Shakopee, but this is only its second year. It's got a lot of growing for the future. They have a lot of interesting shops. My big purchases were some sticks of flavored honey for my tea at home and a bodice dagger that's actually a pair of scissors. Now I have a pretty pair of sewing scissors and a fest weapon. I thought that was cute. They didn't have a ton of shows (again ... it's a new fair), but the ones they did have for the kids were great. I wish MNRF had more childrens shows like the ones in Des Moines. Angela's kids definitely seemed to enjoy their day at the fair. I will definitely go back there again next year.

The dinner and discussion was really interesting this month on electrical play. Lot of really varied conversation going on about a lot of different things after the main discussion too. I didn't play, but that was perfectly okay. It was really nice to just relax and hang out and socialize some. Mmm ... foot rubs were nice too.

We also went with the boys to the science museum and that was fun too. We got to see a show on electricity while we were there. And play with LEGOS! *yay*

I had a great weekend for very different reasons too that I'm not gonna give details on because 1. it's not everyone's business and 2. I don't know if she'd want me to share with just anyone. (*pokes some of you for asking anyway*). Mmmmmm.... yeah, a REALLY good weekend.