More birthday loot

The "mysterious Amazon box" I referred to WAS a present - my brother and sister-in-law sent me a set of the Poirot movies from my Amazon wishlist (the set with Murder on the Orient Express, excellent!)

I really, really love the David Suchet Poirot movies so it makes me happy to have more to watch. (I know: someday there will be infinite channels, and you will be able to watch anything you want that has ever been filmed on demand. But that day's not here yet, so it's nice to have a small library of favorite things on dvd)

I also received a table runner and a new field hat from my parents - the hat is in the Lawrence of Arabia mode, with a "curtain" of fabric hanging down in the back (otherwise, it is like a brimmed ball cap) so the back of your neck does not get sunburned.

My "big" gift - a quilt kit I had mentioned wanting - will be here in April. My dad ordered it for me but apparently it won't be available until then. But that's fine; I have enough to occupy me. And it will be nice to have something new to open in April.

And I got a few cards - a nice e-card from Charlotte, and a card from a longtime family friend, and one from my parents. And my Sunday school class all signed a card for me, which made me happy.

Also, a few other things I bought for myself:



That is the "silly" thing I referred to. A Hello Kitty "I love nerds" lunchbox. I don't intend to carry my lunch in it - I remember from childhood how metal lunch boxes would get dinged up and scratched and a little rusty after you'd carried them for a while. Rather, I'm going to use it to hold knitting projects in; it will be just right for a pair or two of socks or some other small project.

The poison-green yarn is for a pair of long armwarmers, and the multicolored yarn will be yet more socks.



Some of the fabric I bought, plus a quilting book. The book is called "Simplify," it is simple geometric patterns of the kind I enjoy making, and a lot of them are designed for small numbers of fat quarters, or for those jelly roll sets of strips.

In fact, there's one that makes a lap quilt with just four fat quarters with a contrast sashing fabric. Those reddish-purple fabrics - they are all from the same line, they all feature chairs and a small yellow bird(? Odd, but I like them) will be used for a version of that quilt, along with yellow sashing. I will have to look at the solid yellows I have; I may have one on hand that will be right for it. (Or I might use white. I will have to hold the fabrics up against yellow and against white to see which works best)

I also got yet another jelly roll set; this is a zinnia-themed line, and the yellow fabric is from that line (for sashing on the quilt I will make). The other fabrics are just bright novelty fabrics that made me happy; they will eventually go together with other fat quarters in a quilt pattern to be determined later.

Also, down in McKinney, I stopped at a second restaurant - that was my next-to-last stop of the day (it was almost 3 pm; I had eaten around 11). I decided I wanted a piece of cake. There's a new restaurant called Gather; they have a sort of minimalist-fancy decor, seemed very calm and quiet (though that might be a function of the time I was in there; they weren't busy at that point). I had a big piece of coconut cake (it was very good, obviously from-scratch bakery-made, rather than from-mix bakery-made) and a small pot of vanilla flavored black tea.

(I wish there were a restaurant like that near me. Somewhere where I could just go, late in the day, and get a cup of tea and something to eat - not cake, certainly not every day - but something like a sandwich or a scone - as a pick me up on days when I feel like I need one. We have a coffee place, but it's on the other side of town and I don't know if they do tea. And it's certainly not as restful a place to sit as Gather is.)

My last stop was the second quilt shop, Happiness is quilting, where some of the fat quarters came from.

One of the big attractions for McKinney for me is that you can park your car and then WALK everywhere in the little old downtown square (and they have a fair amount of parking near the square, and it's free). So I park, and I walk, and if I either buy something breakable (like the teapot) or heavy (like the stuff from Loco Cowpoke), or if I just accumulate a few bags, I walk back to my car, lock them in my car, and go back out, unencumbered, for more shopping. I'd much rather be able to drive once and park once, and then walk the rest of the day, than have to drive from store to store and fight traffic and parking. That's actually one of the "calming" things about McKinney for me - the ability to just walk around and around the square, explore the little side streets off of it, without having to drive and find parking more than once.