P.S.

Hello, just a note. I meant to mention yesterday that when we were at the Textile Warehouse, the check-out person mentioned they were planning to offer another Groupon Coupon opportunity in January! I am planning to keep an eye out for that, and would be happy to organize an expedition for anyone who takes advantage of that (or who would just like to explore textiles in Chicago).

Week in Review

I'm sorry it has been so long since I posted. I am working all out on a couple of Christmas presents, and I know that one will not get done, and the other is iffy too. So I have been "working my fingers to the bone" (and enjoying it) but a lot of other stuff is getting left behind, like blogging, and reading other blogs.

A week ago Monday Karen and I went to the Textile Warehouse in Chicago. I had a "Groupon" coupon that was about to expire, and Karen agreed to ride with me. What an adventure! The warehouse is 3 floors packed with fabric: after five, silks, upholstery, curtain, suitings, and that was just on the main floor. Upstairs were mostly home decorating fabrics, nicely displayed in some of the rooms, but just stacked on each other in other rooms. In the basement (the 3rd floor) there were racks and racks of full bolts of lining, and satins, and a few double knit, and etc. Karen and I were wondering how long some of the items had been there!

In one of the rooms on the main floor they had stacks of trims, at not outrageous prices. I picked up a couple that coordinated with each other, and I am thinking of a bag.



This trim reminded me so much of the fringe around the bottom of our sofa in the late 50s and early 60s (except for the color... the sofa was what you might call a bright mauve).



One of the most exciting discoveries we made was in the button department. One of the staff assured us that the buttons were only a couple of cents each, so I started looking for 5/8ths buttons for the button mitts that I made for presents this past year. We got a little carried away:



When I went to check out we had to get these priced by a different person from the cutting table. The gentleman counted out 100, and still had 1 and 1/2 times as much in the box. He calculated I had 250 buttons in all, and gave me a price of (wait for it) $19!!!! I was jumping for joy! That is enough for more than a dozen pairs of mitts. They are very cool buttons too.

A week ago yesterday we had our party for Coffee Break Bible study. We went to Brenda's house to see her decorations... they were amazing. This is her husband's Christmas Harley Davidson Village display. His mom used to give him an item each year.



Brenda collects the little plastic, inexpensive, nativities. Each one by itself looks tacky (I have a couple myself, and I love them), but together they make a very nice display.



This is her main creche with all the characters. It would be fun to look at all these, but we couldn't take the time... there was too much to look at.



She had about a dozen Christmas trees decorated, and every room was beautiful and interesting. Thank you Brenda for sharing your home with us!

Then this past Saturday we went to the Denver and the Mile High Orchestra Christmas concert. (This is actually quite a good picture, compared to my usual concert pictures, don't you think?) There were two trumpets, a trombone, and 2 saxophones, a guitar, a very good bass player, and a drummer.



I think I would have enjoyed it more if I had known what type of music to expect. A Christmas concert to me usually means traditional carols. This was very jazzy, with quite a bit of "White Christmas" and "Here comes Santa Claus" songs. DH, and the rest of the group we were with enjoyed it a lot, and I did too, once I got over the disappointment of no carols.

We stopped for "coffee" afterwards, but we all ended up having a late supper. It was a lot of fun.

DH is on vacation this week, so we are enjoying our time together. I better run now though, I have presents to work on! (Pictures of the projects next week, I promise, even if they are not done!)