Back to Work, and Shopping

I finally got back to working on things this weekend. Yay! We also did some shopping. I think the shopping and related aftermath will about do for this post.

Supplies Shopping

We started the shopping Friday evening, with a trip to Hobby Lobby for smallish mirrors - not tiny ones, but the size you might stick in a purse, once they had a nice leather cover over them. We did pick up some little-bitty mirrors, too, to use for decorations. And while we were there, we got a 10-pound slab of paraffin wax, to use on pouches. Should be set for another mumble years for wax now.

Saturday morning we made a trip to the Tandy/Leather Factory store (including Robin, and also Cookie, who we'd dog-napped on the way). I'd been thinking of getting some colored kid skins, to use as underlays for cutouts, and we wanted to look at some of the new conchos and 3D stamps we'd seen in a flyer.

Turns out they don't have the kid any more. For mirrors I can just dye calf, since the leather doesn't have to flex (alcohol-based dyes dry leather out horribly, water-based not as bad, but still some, and oil-based dyes are challenging to use, so the colored kid was really nice). I can use garment leather for other applications, where thinness isn't quite as necessary.

The exception to being able to dye calf is white. Well, I could use their acrylic "cova colors", but it's white paint, and I might as well just use white plastic as that stuff. They did have a nice pearl white sheep, but I decided we were spending enough without it, and just got green, blue, and red dye.

The dye was the cheap part of the trip. We came home with a boatload of conchos, especially three types of steampunk ones, with moving gears/propellors. I found a few nice buckles in the clearance bin, where Ron also found some stamping tool sets he didn't have. And then I let him loose on the new 3D stamps.

Dick Blick was another stop, after dropping Cookie off at home and Robin at karate. I got a small circle-cutter/beam compass; and we both decided upon looking at a larger ellipse/circle mat-cutter that we did have one already.

Storage Shopping

Saturday night we went to Cabela's. While Ron looked at things that go "bang", I went looking for unused milspec ammo cans. I was distracted by Mom Instinct alerting me to a kidlet who appeared to be wandering on her own, and when she got far enough away from where I first noticed her (why yes, I was following her) I summoned an employee to take charge.

Back to the firearms department, where I finally asked for the ammo cans. Some genius in management decided that they shouldn't be out on the sales floor, so an employee went into the back and got some for me.

The ammo cans are to use in Things 2, for storing yarn and other stringy bits. If we get more of the bins like we use in Thing 1, the ammo cans will fit in the unused space the bins leave. And metal ammo cans, unlike plastic dry boxes, are straight-sided. Plastic boxes typically taper, and that taper means more annoying wasted space.

Next up was finding something for tails, as the ammo cans aren't long/tall enough. Back up front to the fishing section (did I mention that firearms are in back, and I got 2/3-3/4 of the way back to the front following the free-range kid?), which was a washout. Back almost all the way to the back of the store to archery. There we found a nice arrow storage case. Unfortunately, it was cracked. But there were more hiding in back, and appeared in short order.

Utilizing New Storage

Sunday I attacked the bins that had been sitting in the front entryway for a week (on the cold air return, so they needed to move). First, I made muslin liners for the ammo cans, so I wouldn't have to worry about OD paint coming off onto light-colored contents.

The laceweight yarn went in two of the ammo cans, and the un-spun alpaca the other two. I was able to tuck all the knitting needles and the stitch markers in, too. I do need to get some cedar blocks - not that I'm worried about Tiny Creatures, but the ammo cans have a kinda funky smell.

I can see getting more ammo cans, since in the long run I'm looking at another type of lace-weight yarn, and also maybe sock yarn. Mmmm . . . alpaca (blend) sock yarn . . . decadent . . . Ahem. Yes.

The ten tails we have left fit into the arrow case. I did wrap a layer of fabric around them, mostly to keep stray hairy bits contained. There's no extra room, so if we're ever going to have any more than we have now, we'll need another arrow case.

Other Shopping-Related Natter

Ron and Robin have been searching for the ellipse mat-cutter, which Robin also agrees we have, but it hasn't been located yet. The small circle-cutter works fine. Cut parts to put a mirror in, which were too small.

Last week I ordered some colored linen thread, which arrived Wednesday or Thursday, but the color chart I ordered with it was not in the (small) box with the thread. I figured it was coming in an envelope, but it didn't show up Friday or Saturday. Called today, the supplier will mail me (another) one.

The pretty tan bison side I ordered didn't arrive Friday. It had turned into a nice but not-what-I-wanted dark brown bison side. Grump.

The on-line return information is not as clear as it could be, so I called today to ask exactly how the procedure works (as in, are they going to send me a return label, since it was a mistake on their end). The person I talked to asked if it would be OK if he shipped me out a tan side the same size or a little bigger than the brown one, and included a return label with in the box?

Yah, you betcha, eh! I figured I'd have to get a return label, or at least authorization number, send the brown side back, then they'd send me a tan one once they got the brown back. It's so cool when businesses trust customers.

Yeah, I think that's about enough natter for this post. So I'll go on about actually working on things later.