Technically, most of the shopping probably did more harm than good. Since almost all the money we spent today came in the form of giftcards from the wedding, we’re pretty much taking away money from stores. I think Macys can probably handle it though. In addition to a few somewhat more practical purchases, Matt and I got to buy some pretties. We’re probably most excited about the dishes we found, which are actually the only thing we ended up spending our own money on, since we didn’t have any gift cards for World Market. We bought ten, in hopes that it will see us through breaking a couple, and last a good long time.  I love the pattern on them, which the lable claims is a “modernized cherry blossom print” but to me looks like some of the nicer 70s style illustrations. It reminds me a bit of this garden illustration from Outiart.  Anyway, now we have cool plates! Somewhat dampening the excitement is the fact that we’re going to keep them in a box for about a month. Sometime in February I’m going to take a week and paint the kitchen, which badly needs it. It’s hard to see in the photo, but the wall is a pinkish with darker rose poorly sponged on top, the cabinets are a butter yellow, and the cabinet doors are sage green. It’s not as repulsive as it ought to be with that color combo, but it’s not good either. One purchase from today that we WILL be using immediately is the biggest pot I’ve ever seen. It’s a 20 gallon stew pot, which we’ll be using tomorrow to make split pea soup (in a quantity which will barely reach the bottom 1/10th of the pot). This is somewhat useful now, though it makes our standard size range look like doll furniture, but it will be especially helpful in few years if we can get an extra freezer. Matt and I like to make soups and such to store then eat later, but right now we just don’t have the space to pre-make more than a couple meals at a time. Still, it’s a (comically) cool looking pot. We registered for, and already got, a whole set of these bulbous styled pots, stainless steel with thick bottoms and really neat looking. They look like the kinds of pots you’d see on movie set of olden days, or possibly in a hobbit hole. They’re fun. Normally I’m not a huge fan of shopping, but it’s more enjoyable for me when I’m shopping for house stuff rather than clothes. Especially when the money we’re spending isn’t real money. Gift cards officially rock.