A Box of Bling!

We've been working pretty darn steady around the house and yard (okay, mainly my hubby) but I supervise! We decided on Monday to take the afternoon and go to Victoria for some shopping and just take our time and enjoy the day. I had gone through my entire bead stash and I only had one green bead type and that's not enough to make a choice for beading a scarf, and I have two scarves coming up to bead. Desperate situation indeed! Hubby wanted to go to Lee Valley Tools who opened a new store in Victoria and he had a list in hand of things we *need*.

So after a slow leisurely browse, we left Lee Valley with a torch for blasting weeds along the driveway and sidewalks ( nicer than weed sprays), some hand tools for furthering the efforts in the gardens ( post to come on this soon) and something called a hitch for our tractor and the riding lawn mower to be able to tow garden carts and even the larger trailer. ( A really big deal in the man's list of neat tools he *has to have*. I didn't take any pictures there... I simply forgot!

Next two stops were for me! We were heading by this shop on our way to the bead store so naturally I had to stop in. Knotty by Nature is a cute little store and they carry fleece , fibre for spinners, knitting accessories and knitting yarn, spinning wheels, some small looms, and weaving yarns. They carry 8/2, 8/4 cottons, boucle cottons, some linens.... *lots* of really neat stuff!
Here.. have a look!

I sent this one to my daughter, Carrie, via my iphone to 'share' my fun time.... she dyes her own colourways and braids them up just like these below for her Etsy shop.

Around every corner you turned, there were more goodies and such vibrant colours! It's a nice place to have a good browse and look at other brands and what they are doing for colour and different put-up's. Great music playing when I was there as well.

Another corner and here's the weaver's corner, complete with Ott light and sample books. In the second picture you can see the smaller cones in behind the Ott light, these are specialty yarns from Habu. They even had Korean paper yarn for weaving and knitting. Those are the bulky skeins on the right of the table.

I bought two half pound cones of bamboo in off white and a richer cream. I have some silk scarves in mind and these will be the wefts. Helps to stretch the silk and still be a soft yummy scarf! The balance of my small bamboo stash at home are all bright colours and I wanted some neutrals.

I took this picture above and it wasn't until later at home that I realized that I hadn't really checked these particular skeins out... so I obviously will have to go back and remedy that! (maybe that was a good thing?) Great colours!

They had a Saori loom set up and they welcome people to try their hand at it. They have other small looms and rigid heddle loom they rent out as well. It certainly introduces the whole world of weaving and spinning to knitters. They have diverse ways of persuing fibre depending on their interest. A great little shop!

Just a short hop up the road found me at the Johnson Steet Market. It's a neat ring of brick buildings with a courtyard in the middle that is open, bright and cheery... and you walk down a flight to the lower portion, with little shops everywhere. You could spend a whole afternoon drifting from store to store in this one location alone. For the men who might tag along, there is a neat old camera store that handle modern, recent and antique cameras, plus a little Mexican restaurant where they can have a coffee or a bite.

I ignored all these lovely distractions and went straight for my goal! Bead World. Its huge and has beads of all kinds, of all colours, and all accessories you might need. I was there for 'greens' and hit pay dirt! Come have a look and tell me you could take less than an hour in here!

The hanks on the walls behind the ladies are semi precious stones all prestrung on fine cotton. I leave those alone as they are a little rich for my tastes.

I head to the tables with a tray for the neat little funky accent beads and the basic seed beads are in the little containers on the shelves. All sizes... from smooth to irregular cut, metallic, antiqued... and in a rainbow of colours!

This area is where I spent much of my time and it didn't disappoint! After an hour or so, I left with my little bag of goodies and called Hub to see where he found parking. He was just up the road from where he dropped me off and parked outside of *another* bead store "Bead Works". He was visiting the book store next door and had found some golden oldy magazines. Now isn't that convenient? So a quick look around in there and I found some fine Japanese Delica seed beads in a soft twinkly violet that I have been trying to find for ages! They also carry Thread Heaven which I use all the time so its great to know where I can get more when the time comes.

This is part of the lower courtyard at the Johnson Street Market and you can see the bench seating for the music stage. The shops are on both levels and face into the courtyard and some the main street.

Lots of hanging baskets of bright flowers. In fact, Victoria is also know for all the hanging baskets they hang every spring all through the down town area.... over 1600 annually and probably closer to 2000!

Here's the drinking water fountain in the upper levels, with flowers in behind. Then I stepped back to shoot the baskets hanging in behind...

The message board is just outside a kids store for funky toys and gadgets.... and the message is advertising 'bacon' flavoured dental floss! Anything to get them to clean their teeth I guess!

So here's the picture of the loot that followed me home:

These should tide me over nicely doncha think?

We had supper out and a leisurely drive home..... it was a great day!