Sally goes shopping - (an oxymoron)

Now that the windows in those two rooms are clean, it's time to renew the window coverings. Thirteen years ago when we first bought this old place we worked hard to renovate it room by room. By the time we got to window coverings money was tight, so we did the best we could with some inexpensive calico Roman blinds from Ikea. I also bought second hand curtains from op-shops when ever I found suitable ones, and converted them into roman blinds to go over the top of the cheap calico blinds. This double layer gave us a very effective thermal barrier during the extreme cold and the scorching heat. They have served us well, but some are beginning to look a little dull and worn.
In one of my past homes I had timber Venetian blinds installed and always loved them, I still do now, especially the white ones.
So today, after putting it off for as many months as I was putting off cleaning the windows, I drove the forty minutes to our nearest Spotlight store. This is a big deal for me. I sometimes feel overwhelmed in large artificially lit places, so I was well armed with an overload of notes and information about what I was planning to purchase.
To calm myself before attempting the serious task of selecting what I was there to buy, I checked out the fabrics, then wandered into the home wares area.
I can't tell you just how satisfied I was to have negotiated that huge store and I made two trips back to the car with my purchases.

These bowls were on sale so I bought six in three different colours.
Upon returning to live in Australia in late 1999, and buying myself a tiny house, I bought all of the contents of that little home at Garage Sales and op-shops, intending to replace them with new things as my finances permitted, but I mostly never did, apart from some daggy chairs and a smelly sofa.  I loved and cherished each and every piece of my kitchen paraphernalia and eclectic collection of furniture.
Then I met Brian and we bought this old place, my old stuff came with us, it matched the old home.  However, dessert and soup bowls have a limit to how chipped and cracked they can be, so the time had come to replace them.
The assistant carefully wrapped them all in this sewing pattern tissue paper.
Well done Spotlight!! for re-using the paper patterns instead of just throwing them in the bin.

Of course they will be re-cycled again for wrapping gifts, so I carefully flattened and folded them up, and have put them with my re-cycled paper, string, ribbon and gift wrapping stash.
There is something about these beautiful patterns on tissue paper that gives me the same joy as sheet music. No, I can't read music, but I adore the look of those music pages and can be known to buy old music books in op-shops.
So I purchased enough blinds to cover the windows in three rooms. This will keep Brian busy for a couple of evenings after work. Next week I just may return to buy more blinds for the remaining rooms.
I also purchased some fabrics for the making of a patchwork quilt for little Clover's first birthday. Can't show you a photo of said fabrics; don't want to spoil the surprise for Clover's Mama.
It seemed like a big day out, but you know, I actually enjoyed it.
Oh, how wonderful it was to wake this morning in the early daylight instead of in the pitch darkness. So pleasant to milk the cow and feed the animals in daylight.
If it were up to me, I'd stop daylight saving a month earlier. What do you think?