Good finds.

Today I found myself with a little bit of free time. The Lorax went to spend time with her grandmother as I was supposed to have a meeting but it ended up being canceled. I took full advantage to head out for some toddler-free shopping time*.

I visited a local consignment shop just to see what was in. Out of the corner of my eye I spotted an item I have thought about getting before, but always putting it off:

A set of those foam interlocking kid mats. I think this one’s first life officially was a hopscotch set. Heaven help me (again) – it’s the princesses**.

It is also close to 900 square inches of blocking space that doesn’t involve me taking up my dining room table or the bed or all of my towels! I’ve been in this shop a few times and have kept my eye on the set. Today, it was marked down red-line style for $3! AND I had a promo coupon from the paper, so I only paid $2.55. For that, I can live with the princesses. They were obviously used (there are some stains / grass marks on the backside), but I am confident they will do the trick.

I had a treat in my mailbox today too – yarn! Payment for my sample knitting for Schaefer Yarn arrived – I picked the “Agatha Christie” colorway (one of my all time favorite authors!, They have “Laura Ingalls Wilder” too – I’m working for that one next!) from the Memorable Writers line in a skein of Audrey and Nichole

The top skein is Nichole, Audrey is the bottom skein. The colors include a pumpkin-spice, a cobalt blue, a teal-ish blue-green, some brown-copper… of course this only causes me to queue up more items in Ravelry.

*Not to say that the Lorax isn’t fun to shop with (she’s big into going into stores now), but I have maybe 0.010298375 seconds to look at anything for fear that the Lorax is tearing into something. Don’t get me wrong – she’s a good kid, usually listens to me / stays near me, but she’s getting more independent and having worked retail I don’t want to be one of “those parents” that would casually call after their kid “oh timmy, you’re not getting into trouble are you?” as timmy is getting fingerprints all over something I just cleaned or whatever.

**Officially I have no problem with the princesses. I love fairy tales. It is the mass marketing aspect that I can’t stand, especially to little kids. There is a time and a place for princesses and I don’t think we’re there yet. We’re at a Red Riding Hood / Goldilocks and the Three Bears stage. Also, have you ever had a “thing” that you like? For me it used to be frogs. Specifically Poison Dart Frogs, but that didn’t seem to matter – people ran with that theme (and some still do) and for a while it was okay, but there was a point where I had to say No. More. Frogs. I have heard from friends who are parents that once their kid got into xyz, that’s all they ever saw.