This weekend I went on a couple of crafty excursions in the neighborhood, which was fun. On Saturday Andrew and I walked all over Hawthorne looking for some cool vintage furniture and house stuff. We didn’t find the record cabinet, chairs, or desk of our dreams just yet, but we did score this incredible thing for $12:

I am pretty jealous, I really wish there had been a Capricorn needlepoint to go with it so we could have a his and hers! Oh well, I do have an awesome Enid Collins zodiac bag, so I should just count my blessings. Maybe one day I will stitch up a Capricorn piece to go with that amazing crab, I have such a thing for vintage zodiac stuff. (PS: there is also an Aries and a Pisces at the shop if you are interested, they’re in one of the middle vendor spaces in House, the big huge vintage store where Periodicals Paradise used to be.)

Then on Sunday I got to see Kelly, Karen, Jody and Jill (four of the ladies of the fabulous Tuesday Knite) for some crafty touring around town. They just took a glamorous sock-knitting cruise from LA to Vancouver, BC and flew down to Portland for the weekend afterwards — very West Coast jet-set! We had lunch and then stopped by Stumptown, Noun/Saint Cupcake, Cool Cottons, Yarn Garden, and Mabels, and finally crossed the river to hit Powell’s.

I was so excited when I spotted Cool Cottons last week — what could be better than a cute independent fabric store I can walk to from our house! Andrew and I went by for a minute on Saturday but I got to spend a little longer in there the next day, which was fun. I found these pretty things — a half-yard of these two colorways of a super soft Mendhi/FunQuilts Free Spirit print, and a little bit of a cheerful little polka-dot print I liked a lot too.

The owner, Pam, was working on a gorgeous quilt with pretty hand-sewn elements. Since I’m trying to get the courage up to start my second-ever quilt soon, it was especially inspiring to see her work in progress — I feel like such a baby quilter, figuring it out as I go. She also mentioned that they are getting more and more fabrics in every week through the summer after the market in Salt Lake City last weekend, so new prints from Free Spirit and Amy Butler are on the way. I can’t wait… I hope the new Katie Jump Rope line from Denyse Schmidt is in the mix!

oh, I almost forgot: I’m heading over to the Crafty Happy Hour at the Victory Bar (3652 SE Division St.) tonight, so please say hi if you’re going too. I’m looking forward to it!