Out and About

After a few days being couped up last week, cabin fever has set in big time. Next time i need to remember to leave my wallet at home. :o) After all, i live in the "thrift store capital" of our area. Within a mile or 1.5 mile radius there are 6 thrift shops of varying degrees of coolness.

Once i got the wee one to school this morning, i headed to run errands. Again, another instance where errands were sidetracked by window shopping. The bookstore/teaching store is located next to one of the thrift shops benefiting a local hospital, so i always like to pop in there.



There i found this cool little Pyrex dish (with the pattern i remember my mom having when i was growing up) so i had to snatch that up. I am trying to replace as much of my plastics with Pyrex as i can.

Then, as i was gathering materials we'll need for homeschooling our little one next year, i was cruising through the books displayed in the front window and through the window i noticed something different about the layout of the land across the street. I said to myself, "Hey, lookie! A new shop in our poor suffering ol' downtown Kent. I'll have to take a closer look-see."

It is a "treasures" boutique. Lots of neat trinkets and furniture people have found and are trying to sell in a co-op biz. I love places like that, but their stuff always seems so overpriced.

However i did find something that i couldn't walk away from. Ta-da:

Looks like i am not the only one that felt love at first sight when i saw this. :o)

At first, i just loved the charming chaos of this piece. Then i thought i would love it if it wasn't so striking. After putting it down and walking around the store (slowly) twice, i decided it was it's very striking-ness that i found myself attracted too.

Then i looked closer:

Turtles! Oh boy, i thought. Then i tried to convince myself that one cute pattern block did not a valuable investment make. But then i looked closer...

These little people are charming--they remind me of the little pocket Worry People the Guatemalans make. So small and too cute.

These cute little Dutch looking people were adorable too...especially surrounded by the red blocks with hearts and flowers. Look at the little one there sitting on the pumpkin! Those flowers on the left there started making me remember the cool flower wallpaper my mom decorated my bedroom with as a child. Still not a reason to buy this piece though...then...well, you know what happened next.

Upon further inspection, i found these cu-ute little duckling-chicky critters mixed with the adorable flowers looking soooo European. The more i stared at these critters, the more they reminded me of something my daughter drew recently...

these are her renderings of our chickens in a self protrait she drew.

Now i really couldn't put the thing down.

Until,

This was almost the deal breaker. Then i remembered a sweet quilt-maker's blog i read recently, and she mentioned how she would design, with the utmost scrutiny, her quilts down to all but 1 block. Then she would randomly pick a pre-cut fabric square from her stash to add in--whether it matched or not. And her quilts were really fabulous looking and unique. She couldn't be the first person with that idea, could she? Maybe the person who made this piece had the same philosophy?

I decided after this piece

that i had to just buy it. So cute and who doesn't love barns and rainbows?

And once i got home and saw this, i was really glad that i had bought it.

It's such a happy little quilt.

And i especially love how they finished the back.

I was so inspired by the quilt and had so much crafty energy that i needed to do something before the little one comes home. So, i was able to work a little on crocheting a rosary.

And now i am wondering which room my new quilt will look best in:

on the new chairs in the living rooms?

Or....

on my red oversized chair downstairs in the room with our bright blue walls.

Decisions, decisions.