While Esther was in town last weekend, we gleefully sent all the boys off to buy the world's best eggrolls (review to come!) and headed off on our own spree across the street in one of my absolute favorite places to shop. Amazing food, incredible drinks, and FABRIC. Ah bliss.

Over the years, it has supplied everything from earthy wool for Lord of the Rings cosplay to luscious dupioni for bridesmaids' dresses.

"Fabrics R Us" may not be a name dripping with Asian heritage, but it has come to mean the epitome of fabric shopping for me. Hancock? JoAnn? I'll go there for patterns and doodads, but when it comes to the actual material, Fabrics R Us is is the real deal. This store is like my childhood version of Wonderland. I could get lost in there for hours. Give me a stack of books, and I'd never leave.

We had to content ourselves with drooling over the regularly priced yumminess inside the store this time. For shy people, there is a definite downside to this place. Unlike at good ol' other stores, at Fabrics R Us you don't carry bolts to the cutting table, and good luck finding a price or content information anywhere. Women with measuring tape and scissors patrol the store, on the prowl for skulking customers in need of assistance. And probably in search of the non skulking ones too, although I can only speak from my personal experience. I'm always horribly embarrassed to ask prices and other questions ("excuse me, is this wool?"), and it sure doesn't help that I am not multilingual.

I never quite manage to leave the store emptyhanded, and this time was no exception. Jack is now the proud owner (and someday in the future, the mortified victim) of two new pairs of minky animal print pants. Serger review to come?

Needless to say, I most highly recommend Fabrics R Us in particular and Asian fabric shops in general by association. If you have ever left one of the standard stores frustrated and thwarted, poke around outside the box. You might just find an adventure in inspiration.