Sale-ing Through Town
My first stop in town yesterday was at Joann Fabrics. I got there about 15 minutes after they opened. I get an e-mail every morning that tells me what is on sale at the store. They sometimes do “flash sales” where they offer one-day doorbuster specials, so it behooves me to keep an eye on those e-mails. On Sunday, all of their knit fabrics were 60% off. However, I did not want to make a special trip to town just to buy knit fabric. I need to sew up the pile I’ve already got. I do need about a yard, though, of some knit fabric with pink in it for the lining of a cowl on one of the tops I want to make, and the remnant rack hasn’t yielded up anything suitable.
When I got there yesterday morning, I wandered over to the knit fabric section to see what the price had gone back to, and noticed that the doorbuster sign advertising 60% off was still up. (I check the date at the bottom of the sign to see when the sale price expires.) One of the employees I know fairly well was at the cutting table, so I walked over and asked her if she knew that the sign was still up. She went over and looked, then came back and said, “For you, I will honor the 60% off price.” I hadn’t really intended to buy anything—I just wanted to let her know the sign was still up—but I went ahead and got the chunk of cowl lining I needed because she had been nice enough to offer.
Then I went over to the aisle of sewing notions to see about getting another stretch belt. There was a sign saying that all the sewing notions were 50% off, so I picked up a pack of machine embroidery needles, too. They run about $13 a pack and I need some to finish the collage wallhanging. As the young woman at the register was ringing up my items, she asked if I had any coupons. “I don’t think my coupons will work because everything is on sale,” I said. “No,” she replied, “the sewing notions aren’t on sale.” “Hmmm,” I said, “there is a sign on that aisle that says 50% off sewing notions.”
The poor young woman was a bit flustered by this news and got on her little radio to ask if anyone knew if the sewing notions were on sale or not. After a moment, I heard the store manager saying, “Go ahead and honor the sale price. We forgot to take the sign down.”
I know it’s a lot of extra work for the employees to have to hunt down all the one-day sale signs and take them down. I truly didn’t go in there to cause trouble. It’s probably a good thing I am in there so much and they know me well. The husband doubts they make any money on me, though.
I also did a big Costco run—hopefully the last one of 2020. The store was very busy, as was Hobby Lobby, because I think everyone has started stocking up for the holidays—and more possible closures.
I picked up a bottle of this as a treat for the husband:
It’s a limited edition beer from Big Sky Brewing in Missoula. Costco now has a special section of by-the-bottle craft beers. He really likes dark beers, but the selection around here is heavy on IPAs, so when I see dark beers, I tend to pick them up.
I also made a visit to one of the clothing stores downtown. My friend Twila works there, as does the young woman who made the cake for DD#1’s wedding. I was hoping to see both of them and I was in luck. I haven’t seen Twila in months, so it was good to check in with her and catch up. And I told Briza how much we enjoyed her cake at the wedding.
When I got home, I ran 12 quarts of beef stock through the canner (it’s yummy):
I say a prayer of blessing on Margaret every time I get out one of the boxes of canning jars she bequeathed to me. The rest of the beef bones are cooking down into another batch of stock, probably another dozen jars or so. No, I don’t strain my stock. It doesn’t matter once it’s in the soup.
My Kratky lettuce-growing supplies are starting to arrive. These are the net pots:
The idea is that these pots are suspended in a nutrient-rich solution under lights and grow without soil. I am starting small on one shelf of a wire shelving unit in the basement. If this system works, I’ll expand it and move it out to the old garage.