Always a Surprise

CRAFT BITS & PIECES is a resale shop in my neighborhood. They sell the leftovers from craft projects or attic "cleanouts", stash "cleanouts", estate "cleanups", etc. The funds raised from the sale of these items generate income for the my town's senior living council.
Senior Options for Independence (SOFI) Care Management and Elderbus Transportation programs.

I try to visit CRAFTS BITS & PIECES  http://craftbitsandpieces.com/?page_id=12 at least one time a week. This little shop is entirely run by volunteers and is open for business from Wednesday to Saturday each week. Very convenient hours too: 10 am to 5 pm on weekdays and 10 to 4 on Saturdays. I like to visit on Wednesdays, if I can, because that's when they have been closed for several days and have been restocking the store.

You actually never know what kinds of surprises you'll find there. Here are a couple very surprising items I found on my most recent visit.

    


The long white apron, I call my Downton Abbey apron. It is completely hand sewn. The lace is wonderful. I could not resist having this. My dress form is wearing it and I love it on her. The small panels with little dolls on them, I just brought home with me because I was hoping I could think of something to do with them. I have a couple ideas. One is to stuff them and make them into little "softie" dolls. The other is to frame them in a hoop - for a child's room. Do you have any suggestions?

CB&P always has all kinds of yarn (very reasonable priced), all colors of crochet thread, knitting needles and crochet hooks (extremely reasonable). Most of the yarn is less than a dollar a skein. I have made entire prayer shawls for approximately $3. They always have rubber stamps and other paper crafting items, laces and fabric trims, zippers, elastic, thread, ribbon, patterns, fabric yardage, Christmas decorations, jewelry, pattern books, florals, even greeting cards. And that's not all folks. It's just a treasure trove experience.

This shop helps me keep some semblance of control over my stash, too, because when I'm finished with a project and certain I won't use the materials again, I drop them off at the "donation station" which is just a few doors away.

Whenever I visit CRAFTS BITS & PIECES, it's always like a child going to the circus - great anticipation, excitement and breathlessness. I feel like an explorer or an archeologist on a hunt for hidden treasure.

A Little Local News

One of the things I love most about Summertime is I'm outdoors all the time and sudden discoveries are all around me.
Today, I just want to show you some recent discoveries I found right "under my nose".

My brother came from Pennsylvania for a visit last week and he wanted to see the newest edition of Wegman's (our local grocery store). The company built a brand new store within the city limits, replacing one that was outdated, outmoded, passe' - all that. This company is renowned for "state of the art" stores. They are the Anthropology of grocery stores. Though this new branch is quite small compared to their other branches, it has enough interesting things to draw me back again and again.

All of the Wegman's stores have what they call a "Cafe'". In this space, shoppers may sit down and relax with their computers, newspapers, tablets, etc. along with a meal that they have purchased from the food court section of the store. This section has "ready to eat" Oriental, Indian, Spanish, Italian, Southwest, Kosher, etc. - hot and ready to eat. They have coffee and other tempting drinks, they have a French Pastisserie, salads, fruit and yogurt cups - and on and on.

What I love about the new store is that their Cafe' also went on and on. There were tables along a long windowed edge of the building. Therefore every table was a window seat. They had a room that looked like a family room in a home with a large TV on the wall over a roaring fireplace. Guess what was on TV? The Food Network !!

They had a long narrow hallway type of room lined with tables and walls lined with huge blowups of vintage photos of historic Rochester. I am in love with this.

Here's the corner of Winton Road and East Avenue 150 years ago

And here is what it looks like today. This is the very spot this new branch is located.

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Some things that are happening in my back yard - flowers growing, deer sunbathing

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A sheep farm that is not far from my house. The sheep all skittered away from the fence when I approached. I didn't know they were shy - didn't want their picture taken - they had no sunglasses to hide behind so they gave their behinds to the camera.