we are hunters, stalking elusive prey

By we, I mean Bean & me; by elusive prey, I mean bargains. We went shopping today. Oh boy, did we ever.

In our defense: the Village Yarn Shop(pe) is closing, so everything in the store is on *clearance* - even the furniture. And that is in the same shopping center as A.C. Moore, and we had coupons we had to use. And when we got there, we realized the Toys R Us in the same plaza is closing, which means... more things on *clearance*!

Soooo... without further ado, I present to you my haul:
From the Village Yarn Shop(pe), I snagged a Mission Falls pattern book I'd been eyeing, a spinning rack on which they were displaying buttons (which I will use to organize my necklaces), a styrofoam head on which they were displaying a hat made from Rowan Plaid, 10 absolutely stunning (and somewhat pricey, even on clearance) buttons, a ball of OnLine Purseta (the same stuff I used to make the pouch for my camera), and three hanks of Reynolds Ole-Ole in black. I know, I know - I'm supposed to be on a yarn diet. But. *Clearance*. The OnLine stuff, I bought because it was their last ball, it was 70% off, and I don't have enough leftovers from making my camera pouch to make anything - but with another ball, maybe I can work something out. The Ole x2, I am planning to use for a Headline News cabled newsboy cap from Stitch 'n Bitch Nation, to hold my new dreads. Actually, I don't think I bought enough of that stuff, so I may be returning to the VYS soon to pick up some more - and maybe that Dalegarn pattern book I liked, and some of that Debbie Bliss cotton angora, and... uhm, other things. :)

Bean got buttons. A whole lotta buttons.

From A.C. Moore, I was able to resist buying more yarn (have you seen the Lion Brand Fettuccini? I was expecting it to be tacky, but it's really not, and I'm now obsessed with the Ocean colorway) because I found this adorable set of mini pliers! When I saw it, I knew I had to have it, because I had just been thinking earlier in the day how I wished I could carry pliers around with me all the time, but not have them be so heavy in my bag. The set comes with tiny round nose, chain nose (my favorite!), and flat nose pliers, plus tiny wire cutters, crimpers, and two kinds of tweezers, all in a little purple carrying case! Rock!! Can you tell I'm in love with this thing?? Whoever designed it must've had me in mind. Oh... and I did buy one more ball of the Fantasy Yarns Cashmere Luxury Chunky in purple, because I was worried I wouldn't have enough to make the striped arm warmers I want to make, and also - it's still? Yup, on *clearance*.

Bean got some good stuff at the A.C., too, but I will let her tell you about that on her blog.

After all that, I insisted we go to the Toys R Us so I could look for this one thing I had resisted buying a few months earlier - it's a foot-long model Mini Cooper, which folds open to reveal a race track for two teeny tiny Mini Coopers! How cute, right? And it was only $10 to start - on *clearance*, it would be a steal. At first, I couldn't find one, tho' - the store was a madhouse, and all the stock had been shifted around. When I finally found the aisle where they should have been, there were only boxes and boxes of a different model car. I was so sad that they were sold out - but I did find a couple Hot Wheels-sized Mini Coopers. Then, after having walked past one end cap a couple aisles away at least 5 times, I happened to glance up and spot it on the way top shelf - one lone fold-out race track Mini Cooper! Woohoo!! It was almost as if, by walking around the store so many times hoping to find one, I had willed this one into existence. Hee. I also snagged an under-seat bag for my bike and some gum and candy (because it was all on *clearance*).

Bean got some goodies for Ted & Andrea's wee-one-on-the-way, some wrapping paper, and also some candy. She might've found more, but if there's something I've forgotten to mention, I'm sure she'll cover it on her site.

And then I went to anime club, where I discovered that, this semester, we'll be watching RahXephon and Mahou Sensei Negima and... something else, I missed the first part of the meeting. By the way, townies are welcome at our anime club meetings - no need to be an SU/ESF student! We meet every Tuesday at 7pm in Kittredge Auditorium in the basement of HBC on the SU campus (find all the campus maps you could want right here - the building is labeled H.B. Crouse on the first main campus map). It's free! It's fun! It's like crack, only without the nasty side-effects!

And then I came home, and instead of doing all the physics homework I should have been working on, I wrote this post. Hooray for procrastination! And hooray for things on *clearance*!