Small Town Living and Shopping Out of Town

Notice in my bio how I flaunt living the good life near the US-Canadian border. Most of the time this is true. When I think of living in a small town, I’m glad, proud and a bit flaunty about it. There is less stress, less traffic and, unfortunately, less stores.

To go on a shopping spree I must leave town.

The trick for a successful shopping spree is planning. I’ve done this a few times, and make a list of all the things I want to look at, and possibly buy. Once I told Dad, he surprised me by handing over a flyer with some items circled for me to pick up. My mother asked me to get only one thing and I accepted she let me off easy. Bossman offered to drive and carried a list in his head. We were ready. What could go wrong?

We drove 2.5 hours to Kelowna to get everything on all our lists. First few hours everything went smoothly, much too smoothly. Bossman and I upgraded our cell phones, picked up Dad’s stuff, and walked the mall, relaxing and having fun.

The time came for buying some embroidery floss for a cross-stitch project. I needed several colors and started pulling them from clearly marked bins. A nice selection all arranged one beside the other, leaving ample opportunity for the wrong color to fall into the bin next door. Because I’m in a hurry, tired, and the only one that wanted to be in the crafts store I wasn’t as careful as I should have been, and didn’t check the numbers on each the DMC threads. A little voice even suggested that I take a look, but noooo I refused. Why listen to the little voice? What does it know? Why does it even exist?

Ignoring the little voice, I didn’t think about it again until I looked at my floss after getting it home.

I landed up with three colors I all ready had and zero colors for my special project–Mom’s birthday gift.

I normally take bumps like this in stride. If you heard anything to the contrary ignore it. Really, Usually I’m fairly calm. I don’t rant or go on and on about anything. …hmmmm, where was I? Too many of one color and missing the colors I really, really needed. So that left shopping on line. Floss is usually about fifty cents a package. Even if its marked up it still isn’t that expensive.

But it is all relative, right?

I find an on-line store with everything I could possibly want. It’s in Canada, so no over the border issues. It is for all kinds of needlework so there is a rainbow of DMC floss waiting for me. All I have to do is choose the colors. I did, feeling myself fill up with happiness. I could finally finish the cross stitch I started for Mom and give her her present, late as it is.

I saved two cents on each floss. Wow, I thought. Knowing I was getting such a deal, I cemented my new method for buying floss deep into my psyche. I have found a way to keep myself in floss for the rest of my life. Then they charged me a dollar for each packet for delivery. Say, what?

Sigh.

I paid twice as much as the floss was worth, but it’s done. Its a gift, and the cost, especially for a homemade gift, doesn’t really matter. But I think the story is pretty good and I plan to tell it when anyone asked about Mom’s new trivet. Even after all I did to make this happen, it is still worth it.

Here’s a little look at what I’ve done so far.

The two things near the top corners are supposed to be hummingbirds, but without the colors I need they could be anything. I’ll post another picture in a couple of weeks after I have finished.

Do you have any projects on the go? Any stories behind them you’d care to share? I’d love to hear about it . 🙂