The place was packed with people and things, and was a bit overwhelming! It was also evident that this person was a collector of mushrooms and craft supplies, which was plenty to make me happy. I came away with a great assortment of vintage buttons. These are some my favorites:

Vintage Buttons

The buttons on the right are labeled “Montana Wild Flowers” and appear to be dried flowers encased in resin. I love them!

Montana Wild Flowers Button

I also brought home this charming little jewelry set. A necklace, earrings, and brooch, which all fit together in a tiny little box. How cute is this?

Mushroom Jewelry Set

While I enjoyed the “treasure hunt” aspect of the estate sale, I also wondered about the person who had lived in that home and collected those things over the course of a lifetime. And I wondered what it would be like to have strangers hunting through my treasures after I’m gone, and how that would feel for my family. Some of the people I saw at the same were talking as if they knew the woman who had lived there, and I imagine it would be a rather surreal experience to go to an estate sale of someone I had known and loved. But maybe these are just the thoughts of an estate sale novice. What do you think?

So what did I buy? Two Amy Butler sewing patterns: Gum Drop Pillows and the Weekender Travel Bag. I had been thinking about the pillows for awhile, but the bag simply caught my eye while I was putting the pillow pattern in my shopping cart. I don’t really have a decent bag for travelling, not a pretty one anyway, and this one looks like it will do a lovely job. Oh, and the pillows? Scifi Man and I are moving this summer, and I can’t wait to make them part of the new decor.

Although I often admire Amy Butler patterns and fabrics, then tend to fall out of my budget. I’m the kind of girl who gets excited about $1.99 pattern sales at Jo-Ann fabrics, and they just don’t carry something as cool as Amy Butler, so these patterns are a special treat. I’ll have to let my brother-in-law know what a good job he did.

So, tell me, how do you spend a gift card? And if you sew, and use patterns, do you have any favorites?

I got to the fabric store at 7:30 and it was already full of crazed women pawing through the flannels (at 99 cents a yard, it was a good deal. I still can’t figure out what they were going to do with so much flannel, though.) The awesome thing about the flannel sale, though, was that it kept everyone’s attention away from the quilter’s cotton, which is what I was after. I actually had some time to decide which fabrics I wanted, and good thing, because it took me awhile to match everything up. I got enough to make two queen size quilts (a Christmas present and a wedding gift) and probably a bit to spare. Everything I bought aside from two fat quarters was on sale, plus I had coupons, which satisfied the bargain hunter in me, and I bought so much fabric that they just left one of them on the bolt for me.

There was a long line to check out, but mostly everyone was nice and friendly. Except one snotty woman who stood behind me in line at the fabric counter and was apparently not content to simply eavesdrop on my conversation with the woman cutting my fabric. She had to add her commentary and snicker with her companion about how ridiculous I was to think I could make a quilt before Christmas. Too bad I won’t have an opportunity to let her know she’s wrong. I’ll share the finished product with you, though.

How will you do your holiday shopping? Do you brave the crowds on Black Friday? Do you wait until the last minute to do your shopping? Or will you eschew crowded stores altogether and do your shopping online? I know Etsy will be a great place to do some shopping for handmade gifts. What other unique online shops will you be visiting? (Really, I want to know so I can check them out.)

I normally don’t go out on Black Friday (although I do love bargains!). I usually take my time finding gifts and do a bit of online and offline shopping. As part of family tradition, my father and I wait until Christmas Eve to go out and finish our shopping. It’s crazy, but it’s our thing, and it lets us have some quality father daughter time during the holidays. I know we both look forward to it. After our day of last minute shopping, we finish up with a nice dinner out. My mom, brother, and SciFi Man have been getting a little jealous of our ritual lately, and have been inviting themselves to after-shopping dinner. I can’t really blame them, though. This year, I am planning to go out to JoAnn Fabrics (the best fabric game in my town) on Friday. There’s going to be some good deals. Since I’m planning to make a lot of the gifts I give this year, it would be silly not to try to find a bargain. And after I make the long drive home in December, I know my Dad and I will be waiting until the last minute to finish our shopping together.

And while we’re talking about handmade and the holidays, have you seen the Buy Handmade pledge yet? Sponsored by a bunch of crafty, handmade-oriented web sites, like Etsy and Craftster, Buy Handmade is a promise to buy handmade for the holidays and request that others do the same for you. If you wonder why you should bother to do that, you can read up on “why buy handmade?” Even if you don’t want to make the pledge, you may want to think about incorporating something handmade into your holidays, simply because of the extra care and love that goes into it. Especially if you’ve made it yourself. I know that not all of my holiday gifts will be handmade, but I will be making some and those will probably be some of the best gifts I give.

I love deals. Did you find any Labor Day deals this year?

All you need to do is create a free account and put a Wists bookmark in your browser toolbar (which they explain here). Then when you see something you want to add to your list, you click the bookmark and select the picture on the page you want to show in your list. You can add tags and notes if you want. To see what your wist might look like, you can take a peek at the one I’ve set up. Happy shopping!