Our trip to the LNS last night

I haven't been to my LNS in a while. I went before Christmas, but have been really holding back on buying new charts and things. When I do want to kit up a chart, I've been doing it in DMC. From my stash. I have ordered a few things, but very little. But I decided just as one can not diet without occasionally having a little bite of cake, one can't be on a stash diet and never splurge. And sometimes, you just HAVE to get the threads the chart calls for.

When I was going through my chart stash, I found all the old Birds of a Feather french seasonal charts. They were beautiful Picasso-like images of girls, all done in Weeks Dye Works. I collected them, and never bought the threads. I'm glad I bought the charts because BOAF went out of business, and there is nothing like them out there, but I've hesitated to start them because of the cost of the floss. And I know I could do them in DMC, but it wouldn't be as nice. Part of the allure of them is the wispy fragile effect the variegated threads give the design.  So, I sucked it up last night and descended on the LNS with my list for one of them--L'Ete--and some other charts that I needed the threads for . . . and my darling, not quite 3 year old daughter  . . .

She was as good as a toddler can be. Oh, wait, she's not a toddler, she tells me, she's a kid. I took a long her Ariel toy for her to play with while I shopped. She had other plans.

I got the threads first.  She kept asking me what they were for. I kept telling her for stitching and please not to touch them. I know I dance a fine line in mom-head because I tell her not to touch things, but, I mean, this were beautiful hand-dyed threads and she's a kid, and sometimes, as much as I want to encourage her, I have to remember, she can't be touching up on everything. I put everything back she messed up--I don't want to make it seem like I'm a parent that doesn't watch my kid or take responsibility for her, and I don't want her to be an unwelcome visitor to the store. I only kitted up three of my projects, but I figured that was enough, and it was asking a lot of a little girl to sit quietly. But I could not resist buying a skein of Weeks Old Glory and Mother's Day, and one of Gentle Art Jasmine. SO pretty.

They were having a sale, and we perused the selections. I bought Blackbird Designs Raise a Glass of Cheer and Heartstring Samplers Baby It's Cold Outside at 20% off, and they had grab bags. Now, you know how I love a grab bag and when someone says for $9.99 you get $85 worth of supplies . . . I bought two. And they're good. I'll do a separate post on them.  Well worth the money.

My girl loves her some witches, and you never see how many witch cross stitch there are til you go to an LNS with a witch fanatic. She pointed to Mill Hill Hocus Pocus Trilogy Mimi and said, "Will you buy this for me?"  and did the same for Magical Spell, another Mill Hill kit. I agreed, because she had been so good for her and they're pretty reasonable. And then I found Spooky Hollow by Lindsay Lane Designs and so we got another witch in our basket!

Other designs I picked up were:
Welcome Spring by LHN which was $6.75 and had 3 skeins of pretty Classic Colorworks.
Just Nan Bunny Shower (which I will make some of the bunnies grey and brown)
Country Cottage Singin' In the Spring--loved the colors
CCN Seasonal Celebrations-Spring. I wanted Summer, but they just had spring. Someone on Youtube had finished this one, and it was gorgeous. I love her color choices. So cheery. Just what we need after that long dismal winter.
Pine Mountain--Perhaps Christmas.  Kay-kay wanted to buy more of these, but I told her we could just get one. We chose this one.
She also picked out a Christmas ornament and said, "We can make this one for Daddy. He will love it!"  So . . . we'll be making that one.

While we were checking out, I saw that they had the Owl Birth Sampler, by Cherry Hill Stitchery. I am not an owl person, but I love this chart, and I bought it. I have a new nephew, and he might enjoy it.

And then, when we were all done, and back in the car, we realized we could not find Ariel. We ran back in and searched everywhere. And of course my daughter is freaking out and sobbing because Ariel is her most favorite Disney character at this point--work did Little Mermaid for our holiday show this past year and I took her, and she was mesmerized. As an artist, I can appreciate that that show will have an impact on her life, because I was enraptured by Annie when I was not that much older than her, and it's probably one of the reasons I started singing-- I wanted to be Annie. So, losing Ariel. The ladies were helping us, and took my info, and were so sweet, but we couldn't find it. Because it was in the car, it had fallen behind Kaydence in her carseat. We went back in and thanked them for helping us.

We had a couple more errands to run, so it was late when we got home last night . . . and I have a lot of stitching to do.

I don't intend to do a lot of big hauls like this anymore any time soon. I made a decision yesterday--again--to refocus on the things I have kitted up and started, so I can put the flosses from those projects back into circulation.  It's just nice to occasionally have something new.

But that's all from here for now. When I charge up the camera battery, I'll do a post about my current WIPs..

Have a great weekend. Happy Memorial Day!