Saturday On The Move

Phew. Yesterday I was all over the place.

Mom and Jayne picked me up about noon, and we went to a couple of craft sales and two yarn shops I haven't been to yet.

The first craft sale was in a church, and we went because Mom knew that the woman who had sold us basket-making supplies was going to be there selling her work. Her work is amazing, especially since I've now attempted basket-making and I know how time-consuming it is.

She made all of this, and it's just a fraction of what she has to offer. She's got teeny, tiny baskets, all the way up to baskets that would hold a sack of potatoes (in fact, Mom bough one yesterday that is made for holding potatoes).

Unfortunately, she's going to be getting out of the business by the end of the year, she thinks. Yesterday, everything she was selling was 30 percent off regular price.

Look at that lighthouse. Isn't it cool? And it has a tiny battery-operated Coleman lantern in the top that actually lights up when you turn it on. I think that would look really cool in a nautically-themed home.

She was in the process of making this basket, featuring feathers, when we were shopping.

I'd love to be able to sell handmade goods at craft sales, but there is just no way to make a living out of it (at least not for someone like me, who doesn't have retirement income yet...). When you factor in materials and time it takes to hand-make something, there's no way you'd earn the money back. Plus, at the church sale, it was $110 just for a booth! I mean, I guess once you pay that, you get to keep the money you make selling items, but you'd have to sell an awful lot just to make the $110 back.

For example, after the chuch sale, we went up to Oak Park High School, in North Kansas City, for a huge sale. They had tons of tables. Most of them were selling beaded jewelry, but there were a few knitters and seamstresses. I bought a hat for Adam (see the photo below).

A little older lady was selling them, and I bought it for $4. Four dollars! Can you believe it? It looks exactly like one I would make for him, but I couldn't get the yarn for it for $4. Plus, I love the way she did the striping. It's very stylish - I can't believe it was knitted by an older lady!

We also stopped in Parkville, to check out a yarn store I'd heard of before - Florilegium. They had beautiful hand-dyed yarns. I didn't buy anything there. Parkville was pretty cool. I'm going to have to drag Adam up there some weekend. It's a cute little downtown area, with all kinds of specialty shops, and they have a restaurant and brewery so maybe we could have lunch there after doing a little shopping.

On the way back south, we stopped at MisKnits, a new store in KC that I also hadn't been to yet. I liked her store. A LOT. It's definitely on the list for Amy's and my knitting extravaganza next weekend.

We did go to TigerFest, but just to do a once-over of all the merchandise up for auction. I'll be interested to see if my knitted goods sold for anything. Guess I'll find out later this week.

After TigerFest, we ate at Jalapeno's, a cool little Mexican joint in Stanley. It was packed. It very much had the feel of being the only restaurant-bar in a small town on a Saturday night. Families were there, people on dates were there, and people were just hanging out at the bar watching football. The food was good, but not overly spicy. I like my Mexican food to have a little bit of a kick to it.

THEN, (see, I told you I was all over the place) we stopped in at Dean & Deluca. Seeing as how we're both in education, which means we never have extra money, we would never shop at D&D on on own accord, but we had a $10 gift card. So, Adam got some gelato ($3 for about three tablespoons) and I got a piece of key lime coconut cake ($4.50 a slice). Pricey stuff, but damn, it was good.



Once we got home, we watched some more college football, and I finished Alice's purse. Felted it this morning, but I'm not going to take a photo of the finished version until it's totally dry and I can take it outside.