Craft Shopping Spree

My sister took me shopping at Michael's craft store this evening. Everything I got relates to the bookmarks craft. Among them:

• 4 new crochet thread colors (navy, light peach, mint green, shades of blue)
• 19 new ribbon colors (there was a 25% discount off the entire ribbon purchase so I went a bit wild rectifying the fact that my ribbon rainbow had more holes than my thread rainbow had last February before the first Joann.com order)
• 3 small pkgs of small primary colored wooden buttons (it would seem I hardly need anymore buttons what with the thousands in Mom's collection, but those buttons have relatively few bright colors other than reds and even fewer duplicates and fewer under half an inch in diameter which make them useless for attaching to double dangling ribbon ends to weight them which prevents the large bead or button on the other end from pulling the bookmark right out of the book)
• a bag full of assorted sequins and spangles to be used the same way as beads and buttons and also to decorate a length of ribbon not just the ends
• a pack of blue and white paper flowers
• a set of 3 fine work scissors (the most expensive item but with a %50 off coupon still cost less than the single pair I ordered from Joann.com last month)
• a set of repair needles including long big-eyed dull pointed ones and curved ones among others--for tucking tails as the short needle I've been using is very frustrating and the new bodkin won't fit through the stitches themselves
• a box of mini clips that I'm hoping will work to replace the bigger clip I've been using to hold a stack of ribbons together as I'm prepping them for a tassel (these are even small enough I might be able to keep the ribbons clipped as I thread the ends through the loop)
• fray check (some of the ribbon ends need it but I don't need two that size so one is for my sister)
• a bobbin winder for cardboard floss bobbins which I need for the braiding I've been studying so I can make braided tassels and bookmarks (my sister bought that in exchange for the second bottle of fray check)
• a pack of 58 cardboard bobbins

Moving on.

I finished the dressing of four bookmarks last night, taking pictures of each step of several of them and of course the finished product. Was planning to make that tonight's post but that would have taken much longer to put together what with a dozen photos to prep and then telling the stories that go with them. My sister and I didn't get home until after nine and by the time we'd eaten the Subway sandwiches we picked up after leaving Michael's it was after 10. So I decided to make the Michael's shopping spree the topic but that meant setting up the display for a pic and by the time I had the pic off the camera and and prepped for posting it was after midnight.

This post came close to not getting done at all tonight as I almost fell down the basement stairs before I started writing it. I was going down to ask my sister something and I stepped on Bradley, my nephew's cat. I wasn't holding the rail but did have a hand on each wall which helped to steady me but wouldn't have prevented me from toppling forward if my foot had hit the edge of the stair after Bradley squirmed free or if I'd had more forward momentum. I was going slow because the light bulb on the stairwell is burnt out. We need a big tall man to change that light bulb. It's not only hard to reach it is inside a decorative castiron lantern that is hard to get open. It's especially hard to do without light.