feeling useful

I'm spending the morning at home today, and I've got so much done I feel super useful! I made muffins for breakfast, that were delicious with my coffee at 6:30 this morning. I tagged all the sock bags, packaged them up, and mailed them off to Zen Yarn Garden. I even finished the last toy of a big order I've been working on for months. Once I have photos of the last three, they will be mailed off too. (I must get a photo of them all snuggled into the box - so cute!) I also stopped by the local thrift store and picked up 4 pieces of fabric, a ball of yarn, a pair of knitting needles, a needle gauge, a folding fabric-cutting board, and a t-shirt - all for $7! Then I went next-door to their second-hand bookstore, and picked up four paperbacks for $4. Winter Solstice by Rosamunde Pilcher, What's Eating Gilbert Grape by Peter Hedges, Maurice or the Fisher's Cot by Mary Shelley, and Every Living Thing by James Herriot (still missing The Lord God Made Them All). That should make up my reading material for the next couple months. I wish I had more time to read these days, but at least I have good books to look forward to.

The thrift store in town here is run by the VON. The volunteers running the shop are all these lovely older ladies, who are always happy when I come in and buy half their yarn and fabric supply. I was chatting with the lady in the bookstore, and she was so pleased when I mentioned that I can sew clothes and whatnot. She wished she knew how to sew, because the fabric in the stores is so beautiful these days. I'm sure you could say the same for yarn stores too. It seems crafty people everywhere are demanding quality materials, and now fabric and yarn shops are full of natural fibers in gorgeous prints, colours, and textures. Not like when my mother was my age, and you could usually only find acrylic yarn and polyester fabric.