Fun day with a friend

Yesterday my friend Moonsilk Stitches and I spent the day together, and we had a wonderful time. We both had gift certificates to redeem at different needlework shops, so that set the itinerary; then we had fun shopping in the same neighborhood as the shops.

I had a gift certificate for Designer's Desk in Geneva; a gift from my guild as a thank you for chairing our show committee. There are 3 stories of needlework goodness, including a bargain basement. It is the type of store where they encourage poking into drawers, looking in corners and under things, and wandering around.  I had very little trouble spending my certificate, and I got some lovely silk for stitching temari.

After that, we wandered through a couple of interesting shops in Geneva, The Paper Merchant first. They had cards, wrapping paper, stationery, invitations, etc. Next we went to The Little Traveler, which was a very interesting store. It was so much fun wandering through the store, moving from shoes to baby stuff, to home furnishings, to the Christmas shop, to toys, to food, and etc. We looked into the tea room several times, but didn't even find the door; we saved some of the things for another time.



We had lunch at Matsuri, a very elegant sushi restaurant. The decor was very elegant, subdued and restful, and the food was delicious and beautiful. I tried the sushi lunch, and had too much to eat, all of it delicious. DH and I had tried sushi once before, and were quite disappointed, but this was in a different category.

Our last stop in Geneva was The Spice House. It smelled so good when we went in! I wasn't quite sure how to buy anything, but I found out you had to pick out what you wanted from bulk jars, get the amount weighed that you wanted, (get it labeled) and then pay for it out of an old fashioned (non-electric) cash register. They also seem to have quite an active on-line store.

Our final stop was the Inspired Needle in Lemont, IL. (I can't get the website to work, sorry!). It is the first time I have been there, and it is a lovely shop! There were lots of high count linens and beautiful patterns. I restrained myself, and limited my shopping to a small swatch of "creme brulee" linen... beautiful color! Now I have to decide on a nice pattern to use it for.

We had a wonderful day, and hope to do it again soon.

While wandering on the byways of the internet today I ran across this article on the yeas and nays of knitting in meetings. I tend to be able to pay attention better if my hands are occupied (if I don't have anything productive to do, my paper tends to be a mess of doodles); but I do not have the courage to bring my knitting to church. I do bring it almost everywhere else I go. I always tell people I am a fidget... I come by that naturally too, from my dad.

Here is a picture of our weather last week. It has been sunny, but cold this week. Everyone is looking forward to spring.




(That is a ruler on our porch railing... you can't see it, but it is registering over 4 inches of snow.)