Category: weekend report

My sewing supplies have gradually crept over the entire house, especially the basement. We want to buy a new house this year and the thought of moving all that finally got me motivated to look through what I have and GET RID OF IT.

I took the nice over-two-yard lengths to the IRC here, but I had a bunch of remnants and smaller cuts and yarn and half-finished sweaters and beading supplies and an entire box of children’s sewing patterns … where can that go?

Turns out it can go to Making Space Thrift in Springville, about an hour away. They’re “happy to accept raw materials, half-finished projects, tools, notions, patterns, and books”–bingo! I FIRMLY INTENDED to come home empty-handed, they had leather scraps (!) for $5 a pound (!!) …. and also elastic in its packaging and grosgrain ribbon on its spool, which I grabbed because my source for that was Joann and RIP, Joann.

 

So I brought back more STUFF but compared with the four boxes I left, it’s still a net loss of stuff, hooray.

I had the day off yesterday so I took myself on a field trip to a new-to-me plant store, and gosh did walking around tropical things in a humid environment help my mood.

The store was Phoenix Vine and it was just down the road, AND they had a shop axolotl (!!). They had some rare/expensive things but also a lot of affordable exotics, like the “Thai Constellation” monstera I took home:

And then I sewed in the afternoon, and I didn’t even realize that I picked a green theme for the glasses case I’m making, too:

The 48-hour East Bay getaway was just the right amount of time away and eccentric museums visited. The Aftel Archive of Curious Scents on our first day was exactly as niche and quirky as I expected, and I got to smell real ambergris, which has been a life goal.

 

The Pacific Pinball Museum was also niche but way less quirky than I thought it would be–if you came here and never played anything and just treated it like a museum, it would still be cool. Each machine has an info placard and there were so many signs and activities, including a whole room on early machines and the evolution of the game.

But I pretty much ignored the signs and activities and just played the games, and it was so much fun. They have open admission so we came and went for the whole second day, taking beach and lunch and ice cream breaks.

 

The beach in question, with San Francisco in the background like the Emerald City, plus some fancy-ass donuts and magnolias and camellias blooming in January (!).

(You may notice there are no pictures from Stonemountain Fabrics … that was the second half of our first day and friends, the in-store experience was just not great. I had to look so hard for something to buy, and even when I found a bolt I liked it wasn’t “OH MY GOD AMAZING I NEED THIS,” like it was on my last visit–it was definitely more, “Well I thought this would be the highlight of the trip but I really don’t love anything but I also booked a plane ticket to go fabric shopping so I’d better buy something.” I know they changed buyers a couple years ago so I think the new buyer’s taste just isn’t mine, but it was kinda disappointing.)

Good thing the pinball museum made up for it!

I could get used to these four-day weeks (and I’m sure Doc could get used to not working at all). We didn’t do any one big thing, just a lot of little fun things: going to lunch, getting a short hike in, visiting a new pool, organizing the gear, and always finding a little treat.

I ended up taking Friday off, too, so I had four! whole! days! to just f*ck around and do things like organize magazines, start little projects, finish sewing, and enjoy being outside.

This is exactly how I want to spend my retirement… Guess I need to figure out a way to retire that won’t take another 20 years.

It was a weekend of a few minor firsts: First time seeing a clear trail and some green in the lower canyon (!), first time taking a crochet class (!!), first time trying to sew jeans (!!!). Plus, I made cookies and did NOT forget the flour this time.

There’s snow coming tonight so yesterday was “the warm before the storm” and it was lovely–60 degrees, blue skies, yellow evening light.

As Hemingway said, “When spring came, even the false spring, there were no problems except where to be happiest.”