When you find yourself in a hole –

Stop digging. Or knitting. And do something else instead.

So I bought this on my lunch hour yesterday, when I absolutely *had* to get out of the office:



And I wound up this between DVD’s last night:



I think they probably belong together, and I have no idea what their baby will look like. But here’s an engagement picture. I strung all 679 beads onto the yarn this afternoon.



This morning I bought five jars of assorted jams and jellies for our year’s supply. Not in the mood to photograph it; Thursday was a slow news day chez nous, which is why you got a glamour shot of band-aids and Kleenex.

And then, with a car full of milk and butter so I wouldn’t dawdle, I hit the estate sale that Secondborn’s best friend and her husband were having. The first thing that I really paid attention to was this:



Her grandfather made it, using the same pattern that my dad used to make one for Firstborn, complete with crayon drawer beneath the seat. I have no idea what happened to Firstborn’s; left behind in one of our many moves is my best guess. So this is rather a bittersweet acquisition, and this is also public notice that Firstborn gets dibs on it when I kick. And in the meantime it’s here for BittyBit and any future Bitties. Not sure where it will go. Maybe here, next to my own?



I also scored this occasional table, which after a little Murphy’s Oil Soap is now between the spots where the rattan chairs will go.



It’s got some veneer worn off and would be a pain to keep dusted if I were the dusting type. There is probably some fancy name for when wood is routed to look as if a piece were constructed of bamboo canes, and if you know it please feel free to share. And obviously I didn't do as good a job of getting the dust out of the sides as I'd thought.

I just thought this had a nice shape and interesting details, and it’s a good size for the space available. And because it is all wood and more or less one solid piece, I am less likely to break a toe on it than I would have been on the tile-topped, tripod-ish metal-framed table that LittleBit and I were coveting at a local shop. [Though I did mutter a childbirth word when I bumped it against my toe while sliding it to its current position.] Not to mention the price differential is roughly 2/3 of one of the chairs. Here's a better shot of the tabletop, minus my planner and keys and cellphone.



In order to get the beads onto the yarn, I wanted a beading needle that had an eye large enough to hold the yarn and small enough to slip through the hole of a 6.0 seed bead. What I came home with, was a vial of wire threaders for punch needle embroidery. Note to self for future reference: do not even think of using a wire threader and messing with beads, with a fresh manicure. Thank goodness for clear nail polish, which covers a multitude of sins, omissions, and brainf*rts-in-general.

I also came home with this: $99 worth of stuff for $5. Has this been a great day for the frugal, or what?



Three Prairie Moon patterns, each more charming than the last. And three other patterns, one of which I forgot to include in this shot. At the bottom you see the vial with my polish-eating needle threaders.



I have a 20-year-old piece of tussah silk that I've been wanting to make into a pillow top for a couple of years. I got started on the beading tonight while watching Kindergarten Cop, and I'll save the photos for another day. This post will be photo-heavy enough, and I'm about ready for bed.

Oh yeah: I got my hair cut, I got my nails done, I picked up quarters for laundry for the next time the Laundry Fairy smacks us with her hamper.

Night, all! Have a blessed and peaceful Sabbath.