The Princess and the Goodwill Shopping Trips

The Grandmother's oldest Princess loves to shop.  She will go to any store, any time, for any thing.

To Walgreens for rubbing alcohol for dad.  To Menard's with the Grandfather for bug spray or furnace filters.  But her favorite shopping trips are with the Grandmother to the Amazing Goodwill store.

The Princess was looking for items for a Halloween costume.  She loves October, and looks forward to all the scary happenings that come her way.  Since she's gotten older, her costumes have become more elaborate.  This year, because she's in Middle School, it's a group costume and she is responsible for her assigned part.

The Princess bought a pair of pants that might work, but they turned out to be too small.  She asked the Grandmother to make them larger, but sadly it wasn't possible.  This brightened her day because it followed that they would need to be replaced by, yes, a shopping trip to her favorite place.


After a quick dinner, the Grandmother and the Princess drove over to the nearest Amazing Goodwill.  The Princess headed off with instructions as to how to check for size, and the Grandmother began to browse.

 

You can always find SOMETHING at the amazing Goodwill. Within moments, the Princess was back with the perfect pair of khaki pants that fit perfectly (of course!)

The Princess asked if they were done.  From her face, the Grandmother knew the answer should be "No".  The Princess continued shopping, in search of flannel shirts.  Before long she had one.  The Grandmother found another. 

 

"We should really pick up at least one thing for the smaller Princess", said the Grandmother.  They quickly found a red velvet dress with sparkly accents.

Very soon the shopping trip was over and it was time to return to reality, homework, and bedtime.  The Grandmother didn't realize until they were on the road that she had not had a chance to visit her favorite section of the Amazing Goodwill:

 

 Shop on...

Fall Cleaning

One of the great things about living in Wisconsin is the fall colors.  I read somewhere that in Europe all the leaves turn yellow in the fall, but in the US the leaves turn yellow, orange and red.

I drive through an area with a couple of red maples along the road quite regularly.  If I am lucky enough to get out of the office while it's still light, the sun sets those trees on fire.  It's gorgeous.

This week is probably the peak of fall color in Southeast Wisconsin, according to the authority on such things.  This map is from the website travelwisconsin.com

 

Fall seems to spark a feeling of renewed energy for me.  I'm happy to put away the summer clothes and start hauling out the sweater.  (Although with the temperature in my office being so low, this year I've been wearing cardigans all year!)

 

Picking apples, one of the best ways I know to spend a fall day... or stopping at a local farm stand to buy some.

It's cranberry time in Wisconsin too.  Love the colors!

Last Saturday our church quilt group met as regularly scheduled.  We had such a nice trunk show in September that we didn't get any actual WORK done, so there was a lot to do.

 

Our bucket of finished quilts contains a dozen small lap quilts.  Our bucket of tops to work on had at least 18, maybe 19.  We were lucky enough to receive a donation of large pieces last month, which we had organized, folded and stored.  Plus people are always leaving surprises for us, such as blankest and sheets.  Sometimes we use these for charity purposes, but sometimes we just can't use them for much. 

 

A few sheets were designated for foundation piecing.  We save odd strips, and our bag is pretty full at present, so we need to get working on those.

 

Between the three of us present on Saturday, we managed to find backing for all our flimsies.  We also layered and pinned seven quilts, which all went home with our expert, Suzi. 

 

We cleaned up our area, reordered our shelves, and went home satisfied that we'd done a good job.

Except for the one flimsy we could not locate anywhere -- we all remember seeing it, but not one of us could remember what we did with it!  We called it our mutual senior moment.

 

Oh dear, I think we're going to have to clean up our OWN sewing areas... not the most fun way to spend a day but highly necessary.

It's a good thing we have the fall energy going, right??

 

Sew on...