Well, I didn’t feel the best this morning when I woke up, but I didn’t feel too badly, either. Just some colitis problems which I just nipped in the bud with medicine before we even left the house. Breakfast at McDonald’s, then on the road by about 9 AM. The drive was only an hour an a half, which surprised me, so we ended up getting there only a half hour after the shopping mart opened to the public (CATS members get in an hour earlier). Bought two tickets, wandered around for a few minutes and just barely got a seat for the free Zweigart fabric lecture. Wow, people weren’t kidding when they say they give out a bunch of samples. Everyone received a full catalog, showing all of the available colors and fabrics, then samples of a dozen or so fabrics. Jim, the Zweigart rep., was great and I actually learned a fair bit about their fabrics in listening to him.
We walked around for two hours and I spent the $100 that I had brought (though $14 of that went to admission for the two of us), but I still had two hours before my meeting time with Robbin and Sandy from the VSCyberstitchers Yahoo group, so we went for lunch and killed over an hour that way. By the time we got back, I perused a little bit more in the shopping mart and then it was 2:30. Robbin and Sandy were both lovely ladies, but I expected nothing less. 🙂 Robbin’s mother-in-law was a quiet riot. Her badge said she was from Middlesex in the UK, so I’ll have to ask Robbin about that sometime. We all talked for a little bit and then Terry and I left for home. We were home by 5 PM, so it pretty much felt like a regular day, just with 3 hours of driving instead of half that for our normal commute.
And now the S.E.X. (Stash Enhancement eXcursion) report… I wandered around a bunch of storefronts, trying not to buy anything until I reached where Jo and her Dinky Dyes were setup. I failed. 😉 I was so close to where Jo was when I walked past Linda Driskell’s booth. She was the only one with a focus on hardanger, so of course I was drawn in. I bought a book of designs called “Victorian Hardanger Sewing Accessories,” then picked up an E-Z Count linen ruler and 3 DMC hardanger booklets that were near the register, each at $1 a piece (for the ruler and DMC booklets). Then, I made it to see Jo, who was sharing space with the Enchanted Lair, and picked out 10 matching sets of variegated perle #8 and #12. Of course, I got snagged by something near the register, again. While I was waiting for Jo to put together the perles for me, I had far too much time to drool over her hardanger fob and needlebook kits. So I picked up one of each, both with lavender fabric, but the needlebook had pastel pink/purple variegated threads while the fob had deeper raspberry/purple threads. Neither of the kits are shown on her site. 😛 At this point, I had spent all of my money (it went WAY too fast!), so we took off in search of lunch and found a Friendly’s just down the road. Once we came back, I headed back to Jo’s booth to get a color card for her threads and then I wandered past Lorri Birmingham’s booth again so that I could drool over the models of her tea tray linens in more detail. Unfortunately, for some unknown reason the models were gone. The autumn and winter kits had already sold out by the time we got there at 10:30, but all the models had been there at that time. So, I was a little bummed and moved to the right of where the tray linens had been to look at her sterling silver plated nantucket baskets. I had seen one in Liz Turner Diehl’s booth, so I was curious if Lorri was using the same ones. Turns out, she was. But, I also noticed a little sign that said the kits were 50% off – only $15! Well, I was out of money, right? Wrong. I had a $20 bill that had been in purse before I got the $100 out that I had just hidden in another compartment so that I wouldn’t use it. So, I was a bad girl and used it to snag one of the last available sets of the Nantucket Pincushion. 🙂 🙂 🙂 Hey, it’s almost my birthday, right? Besides, that pretty much makes up for the $14 entrance fee.
And that’s all she bought, folks.
So, now to eat dinner, then grout the bathroom floor. I’ll get to celebrate my birthday a little bit early tomorrow before we have to drive down to Atlantic City. Maybe I’ll make up for the rest of it on Sunday. 😉
