Souvenirs

 

So what do you buy when you go on vacation?  We all know there are plenty of places that sell what we like to call "rubber tomahawks" - those useless things that you can't believe you bought and dragged all the way home.  Some people buy local wares, art or local crafts, that reflect the flavor and the ambiance of the place you visited.  Me?  I tend to buy fabric.  

Seattle has lots of good choices in the fabric genre that we don't have here in Florida.  Just a couple of blocks from Dear Sister's house is Pacific Fabrics, where Beautiful Daughter and I spent an hour or more perusing the awesome selection.  I could have spent a fortune, but I was actually a little bit proud that I walked out without a single purchase.  (So TOTALLY out of character!)  Beautiful Daughter #1 proved that she is her mother's daughter by purchasing several items here.  Chip off the old block, as they say.

My dear sister introduced Beautiful Daughter #1 and I to the Ben Franklin store in Redmond (once again, the photo is off Ben Franklin's Facebook page - when will I learn to think about the photos I need to take while I am actually THERE?). 

I remembered Ben Franklin as a "5-and-10 cent store".  Boy was I wrong!  We found the ribbon area first.  Such a great selection, and relatively inexpensive.  I found the ribbons to finish Ari's tiered skirt, while Beautiful Daughter was thinking hair bows for Abby.  Then, I found some great greeting cards with the cutest pictures of all the places we had been so far.  At the time, I had no idea what I was going to do with them - and I thought they were a little expensive, but I had to have them.  For lack of a better plan, they became the birthday gift and birthday card for the two September birthday folks in the family, both of whom shared parts of this Seattle adventure with me.

Finally, we found the fabric section.  Heaven!  Yes, it is my weakness, but once again, I exercised more will-power than I thought possible, and walked out with just the ribbon and the greeting cards.  And then (after another great lunch at Ivar's - this time at one of their drive-in restaurants) I went home for a nap and dreamed about all the things I wished I had bought.  Thus, nothing would do that I had to go back at the next opportunity and (exercising great restraint even then) bought the things I couldn't live without.  It is so much fun to imagine what it will become.  Join me?