I Heart Michaels

If there is one thing that I love more than what I do, it's shopping for what I do. I love going into stores during August and seeing the Back to School displays and supplies. One of my favorite stores to frequent is Michaels. A few years back Michaels got smart and decided to start catering their August sales displays to teachers,  and started selling items such as pocket charts, stickers, calendars, hall passes, etc.

Even though I'm leaving for New York in a few days, I decided to stop by Michaels today because I have been jonesing for a Smash journal to take with me on my trip. Ever heard of it before? K & Co. - the company that produces the journals and accessories - defines "smashing" as "the act of sticking all your cool stuff into [the] book." Having always been attracted to scrapbooking - both paper and digital - I thought the idea of throwing together a book haphazardly and spontaneously (the book comes with a pen/glue stick) seemed pretty cool. And from all the journals and books I saw on the company's blog, I knew I had to try it.

"Pretty" Smash Journal

"International" Smash Journal

Thanks to my quick-thinking mother, I had a Michaels gift card left over from Christmas, and was delighted to find that the standard $12.99 price of the journals was marked down to $9.99...so I bought two! I also picked up some of the Smash accessories - two small journal pads, a date stamp, a couple extra writing/glue pens, and some washi tape. I also happened to come across some scrapooking adhesive borders and die-cut cardstock pieces that were both travel themed (yay!) And of course, I got my daily dose of Hello Kitty - some note cards from the dollar section. 

Here are some pictures of my loot:

I'm sure that I will be back at Michaels after I return from my NY trip. As I told my grandmother this afternoon (while explaining to her exactly what a Smash journal was), it is a teacher's candy store.