Accidental stash enhancement

Keep in mind that I am working on pilot pieces and that, as a result, I am forsaking all others until they're done.  Keep in mind that I need no further stash for awhile (I have a couple of stitching-related trips coming up before the end of the year--with new projects to stitch coming from both--and a boutique with things that are hard to find at one of them and a museum gift shop at the other.)  Keep in mind that I still have my group of projects that I would like to work my way through by the end of October.

Sigh . . .

I ran out of beads for one of the pieces I am doing, and I am missing one color of Elegance for another.  There are two shops within a reasonable distance of each other, but which require about a 45 minute drive from my house--so if I'm going to one, I could check the other.  So I persuaded Dearly Beloved that he would like to take a drive with me (and encouraged him to take a book to read while I was looking) and off we went.

The first shop was busy.  Very busy. There was a group of stitchers who had made a three-or-more-hour drive to visit and they were working on stocking up for a long winter.  The shop had only a couple of employees on duty and they had their hands full with both the group and a couple of other customers who were there before me.  So, I found my beads and decided to look a bit.

Bad move.

Temptation, so much temptation.

And two samplers I've been sorta thinking about for awhile, even to the point of checking the linen stash to see if I had what might be appropriate fabric, were sitting there.  And they only had one copy of each. And the shop gives a discount to members of my sampler guild.  And they had all the called-for threads. And I had found the fabric for each in my stash.

I now have two new projects to stitch: Melicent Turner from Little House Needleworks and Weeds Make Haste from Shakespeare's Peddler.  They are not being added to the current group, but may find their way into the next one.

And I did find the beads I need, and some interesting beading needles from Bohin (I LOVE their needles!  they go through fabric like buttah! and these are not long and dangerous like usual beading needles!) and some extra-fine needle threaders.  So I'm back to beading tonight.

And the color of Elegance I also need?  Struck out there, alas.  I may have to go stash diving and see if I can find a suitable substitute.  Thank goodness the other shop could answer the question very quickly before I had a chance to look around . . .