Oooh, la la ! A costumed visitor from the past ! (and a thrift store down the street. . . )

Happy Halloween !!

OK, so. Here's my scary tale of woe. Saying I had ‘a couple of bucks’ to spare for a good sale on VHS tapes for the ILs and offering to take them to it was probably not the best of ideas. Live and learn. I figured I’d buy them $3. or $4. worth of tapes at the Salvation Army 5 for $1. sale –  up to $5. if they found movies they really wanted – and a bag of chips for Dearest Son to share while he visited. I even told them I had three or four bucks for the cause before we left. 37 tapes, three books and a Bible on tape later. . . (sigh)  And MIL was still digging and sighing over the titles in another box at the door while I was in the check-out line. At one point, she wanted me to test out a sofa with her. Ummm. . .  Long story short (too late !), my $10. budget ended up costing us $20. and we never did get chips.

It really is my own fault, I should  have put my foot down, especially when she started adding books – definitely *not* on sale today ! – or when they didn’t winnow through the tapes they chose, just kept adding more. If I’m ever dim or misguidedly generous enough to put m’self in this stupid spot again, I’m gonna hand them the money I budgeted and let them police themselves and come up with enough for their ‘we gotta have this !’ extras. Heck, I’ve spent more on them this week than I have on m’self !

(grin) Although, if I had done that, they probably would have spent $2. and kept $3., which might have ticked me off a bit, but at least I wouldn't have felt obligated to buy all that stuff. 

All that said, we had a quiet Halloween. While Dearest enjoyed his grandparents, Beloved Hubby and I watched Hannibal, the TV series, on Netflix, and devoured huge, tender marinated pork steaks and a green salad. Zero trick-or-treaters, but parties all around us led to streaks of cars lining both sides of our ‘no parking at any time’ street. At least it slowed down traffic. We tore into the ‘100 Pieces !!!’ bag of candy I’d bought and gorged on Twizzlers and Kit Kats and Reeses Peanut Butter Cups, then went out for a half-price feast at Taco Bueno. That’s how I remember Halloween when I was a kid, even more than a Ben Cooper boxed costume with Sabrina’s picture right on it, and the matching strange but compellingly scented mask – feeling half sick on candy, trying to pound down dinner on top of it. Ah, memories. . .

Oooh, two days in a row embroidering !

Rain all day. I mean, it didn’t quit raining at all ! Beloved Hubby was home for the day, so I was off to Hancock Fabrics, stupidly not taking an umbrella, ‘cause I’d only be unsheltered for the few steps between Emmy-car and the store door under a tin awning. Stupid !

I has fleece ! All that Hancock’s had was Eye-Sear Safety Orange, but I snagged a quarter-yard of it along with variegated blue and variegated green, all so soft, you expect the pile to purr. Also some straight black out of the remnant bins, over a half yard for a bit more than I was paying for the quarter yards of colors. I also scored three yards of narrow silver iridescent trim for 78¢ and a velvety remnant with iridescent silver dots, a half yard for $1.58 – as usual, I’m not sure what I’m gonna do with it, but it was too pretty and low-priced to leave there. I’m thinking maybe more doll bean-bag chairs. If it’s stretchy enough, more doll blouses ! Used a coupon on what little wasn’t already on markdown and scored the lot for less than eight bucks, so I’m contentedly happy.

Then I got to thinking – and yes, this is where I got stupid. The Salvation Army is in the same strip, but not under awnings like Hancock’s and the other half of the strip. To get to it, I could either drive (which always seems like a waste to me) or walk past six more stores, a laundromat, and a huge grocery, all out in the rain. Of course, halfway past the grocery, it really let loose the deluge !

So, yeah, by the time I got into SallyAnn’s shelter, I looked like the loser in the “Not Hot Moms” division of a wet t-shirt contest. Or a semi-drowned rodent, your choice. The store was darn near deserted, a marked contrast to the last time I was there, during their weekly ‘Half Off Everything But Furniture’ Wednesday (aka, Looks Like A Free-For-All). They were having a ‘5 for $1.” special on VHS tapes, so I snagged two for Dearest Son to enjoy during his next visit and three I thought they’d like. Didn’t see anything for us, but I may have been distracted by all that luscious fabric I’d just bought. Wrapped the tapes up tight and headed back into the wet, rainy fury. At least I’d snagged a freebie ad paper to protect my already drenched head for the return trip.

Once in the car, my shirt was so soaked, I steamed up the car and had to drive with a window down if I wanted to see. The defrosters did what they could, but I overwhelmed them. Of course, I was right in the middle of an inexplicable traffic jam on a two-lane road, always fun when you drive a stick and you’re soaking wet. Dropped off tapes to the IL’s, told them about the sale, made arrangements for tomorrow. They wanna have Dearest Son over for a visit, which will be nice for all of us.

The fleece version of A Creative Medley’s free shirt design went very well, even with white thread in the bobbin, little showed up on top. Turning the sleeves was still a challenge, but nowhere near as much of a fight as yesterday’s felt trial. I can make the shirt a bit longer to lengthen the sleeves, but I sort of like the ¾ sleeve look.

Luna wishes you a Happy Halloween !

I was a little sneaky today – and very lucky !  A Creative Medley, a machine embroidery designer I follow on Facebook, gave us a freebie miniature Halloween shirt design ! It’s made for those ‘Elf on the Shelf’ dolls (sorry, I hate ‘em), but I already knew her short-sleeved versions can be stitched in stretchy material for sixth-scale dolls. This freebie, however, was long-sleeved and made for a 5x7 hoop. Brody’s max field, as I’m sure you know, is 4x4.

So I shrank the freebie design down – not recommended, it can really throw off the design and its integrity, but I did it anyway – with free Bernina software and stitched it out. Since I didn’t have any stretchy fleece in orange, I used some great felt. Came out OK, but the sleeves were an absolute nightmare to turn right-side out ! Thank Heavens for hemostats. Much too small for Barbie, as expected, but it fit the MH girls just fine ! Of course, now I want some fleece. . . which is conveniently on sale at Hancock Fabrics right now. . .

Maybe tomorrow. I was actually kind of tired after taking Dearest Son to the half-off local thrift sale. He found a pretty Disney Store stuffed Marie (Aristocats) and a Bratz doll he liked, I found a 1997 Dolls of the World French Barbie, a DVD set of the first season of Sailor Moon, a My Scene ‘Masquerade Madness’ DVD, a silly ‘Magic Reveal’ Disney Princess coloring pad, and eight VHS tapes for the IL’s, since the player I bought them yesterday works. Cherry picked at Local Grocery #2, then dropped off movies at the IL’s. ‘Just dropping off’ usually takes about a half hour, if I’m lucky and they’re busy, I can cut away in maybe 15. After all that, I was ready for a nap !

Playin' catch-up, all day long.

I stayed on my butt all day, when I wasn’t asleep. Which wasn’t very long, as I’d wake from a nap then fall asleep in my chair. I got a few bits of housework done in between crashes, and just barely made a stupid-simple dinner, but that was it. I really think I over-did it earlier this week. Lesson learned.