shopping

Pleasures Great & Small

by CZeitler

This is a good time of year for reflecting on the blessings that we have, both great and small. I’m not sure how to define each of the blessings I am grateful for, because those that are considered essential are the most expensive so it is hard to call them ‘small’. Given that I will start my thanks with my ‘essentials’ and then work my way through to what happened yesterday. There is not going to be any crafting content, though I am very grateful for the supplies, tools, and physical ability to work with my crafting supplies.

The essential blessings I am grateful for are the home I have to live in, reliable transportation, food in my fridge and freezer (I love this time of year for the $.99/lb Turkeys). I have a full-time job that pays me enough to cover my bills, gives me over 22 days of vacation/floating holiday each year, and is a positive environment to work in (occasional patron problems notwithstanding). I have my health, pretty much, and my hands still work.

I am also grateful for the non-essential blessings that I get to celebrate. I have an amazing family that I know I can speak to, visit, and enjoy in so many ways. I was able to visit my sister yesterday, she was looking for a pegboard and I just happened to have taken the same pegboard off of my walls a few days earlier to put up a new bookcase. I was able to purchase new bookcases a couple of months ago so that I can get my supplies organized in a way that is useful to me. I have the creativity, skills, and supplies to create ornaments and other presents for my family.

I was able to purchase tickets for a livestream of my favorite YouTube channel, participate, and laugh along with Sorted Food. I will also be able to rewatch this stream as well as those that I have purchased in years past. I was able to take the time off so that I could watch and rewatch the streams at my leisure.

Yesterday when I visited my sister I was able to purchase lunch, gas, and a few treats and snacks for both of us to enjoy over the holiday season (and hopefully beyond depending on how hungry I get). I purchased a prickly pear fruit from an Asian Market my sister found. It was lovely to try, tons of seeds that I am going to try to dry, and a slightly sweetly mild flesh that I was able to eat. It tasted like a very light kiwi fruit, with a little sour tinge that was pleasant as I got very close to the skin. We went to Ikea where I found the Vintersaga Ginger Thins cookies were a dollar less than they have been, so I purchased two tins for myself and two for my sister. These cookies are amazing, I had to hide a tin from myself in the freezer or they would both be gone before the week is out.

Finally we went to Grandpa Joe’s Soda store. I had looked up the prices online, and was pleasantly surprised to find that many of them were slightly less since they do not have to worry about shipping. I did not get the Grizzly Energy Drinks though I was very tempted, I did get a Jones Select Zero Sugar Rootbeer, which was just as lovely as I thought though I drank it on the way home so I do not have a photo. There were several candies that I decided I could not resist. I bought two different Cherry Mash treats, and tried one today, It was lovely, the milk chocolate was a thick shell that tasted lovely and smooth. I expected some juice, like a chocolate covered cherry, instead there was a dense sweet nougat-like cherry flavored filling.

The other cherry mash is ‘Big Cherry Milkshake’ and will live in my freezer with the Brachs Swirl Gumdrops, until I rediscover them in a frenzy for something sweet, hopefully a few months in the future. I do have an extreme sweet tooth, horrid when you’re a type 2 diabetic, however I have been low key craving some of the sour candies that I enjoyed when I was in my early 20s. This store had them, though I admit I cannot remember which flavor I enjoyed. I guess I’ll just have to try all three of the flavors I purchased, sigh!

I do think that the Mango version is what I really enjoyed since I can remember the tin colors, however I hope that all three flavors are good. I was also very lucky to be able to purchase some sweets to share with my colleagues. Originally I was going to pick up a huge bag of tiny sweets that was under $10, however the bag admitted that in could be cross contaminated with tree nuts, to which one of my colleagues is allergic. Instead I found some bags of freeze dried treats that were $1 per bag, I could not resist. There are five different types and the bags to not fess up to any kind of nut tree contamination so they should be safe for my colleagues.

I am safe, warm, loved, relatively healthy, and able to feed myself. I have the freedom in my budget to send presents to my family and treat myself and my sister to a few treats to enjoy over the holiday season. I was able to purchase a few supplies to support my joint health and ability to keep crafting for years to come during the Black Friday Sales. I plan on putting a post up about those very soon.

Along with all of these small blessings, I have a supportive outlet for me to remind myself of these blessings. Thank you for reading my blog, and I hope that you all have a lovely holiday season depending on what you celebrate.

Live Life a Little More Abstract!

Small(er) Businesses I Love

by CZeitler

With Black Friday, Shop Small Saturday, and Cyber Monday, I wanted to spotlight some more small(er) businesses that I have purchased from and had very positive experiences. I am not sponsored by anyone, nor am I receiving any commission. I want to shout out some great store.

There are some businesses that, within the craft industry, are quite large, but I wanted to mention them anyway. Missouri Star Quilt Co. has some amazing sales, they offer a ‘bundle’ that you can add to throughout 7 days, that way you only have to pay the $6 shipping (in the US) once. Fat Quarter Shop has 24 hour flash deals every day and some lovely specials for this weekend.

Mirrix Looms are absolutely spectacular looms if you are looking to do bead weaving, tapestry weaving, or even bracelet making. The all metal construction makes for a very lasting loom, and the quality is simply remarkable. At present they are having a 20% or more off sale, well worth looking into if you are planning to get into tapestry or bead weaving.

Snuggly Monkey, which I had mentioned before, is having a buy more get more off sale. They are well worth looking into for high quality sewing, quilting, embroidery, and more.

Brooklyn Haberdashery is a great shop, they have a bit of everything from paper crafts, textiles, and some random things as well. I will admit they are a bit expensive however the quality is certainly there.

If you like to crochet then it is well worth investing in some Furls crochet hooks. Their quality is amazing and they tend to reduce hand fatigue for longer crochet sessions. Some are 15% off up to 30% off. I would look as soon as you can, these deals tend to go quickly.

I had not heard of Sue Spargo until I attended H&H Americas earlier in 2025, however now I’m not sure how I missed her. She works mostly with felt and the quilts she creates are simply spectacular. I will admit that I have been very inspired by her work. This store has sales through the 11th of December.

I have also always been impressed by Kelly Cassanova’s Work, she is a weaver that experiments a lot. There are amazing video courses that she has released as well as videos on YouTube.

There are many more stores that I love to shop from, but these are my favorites right now. I do want to shout out four of the stores that I always get good prices and service from: ParadiseFibers, TheWoolery, Yarn.com, and Living Felt.

I Hope that your Thanksgiving weekend is going well. Remember to Live Life a Little More Abstract!

Black Friday Sales (Pre-)

by CZeitler

Before I received the bill to get my sewer pipe cleared out I took advantage of some of the Pre-Black Friday sales from smaller retailers. I do not know if the service I used upped their prices or if I misremembered how much the service was last year, but ouch!

One of the first places that I purchased from is Snuggly Monkey. I absolutely adore this small business, they are so friendly, reactive, and always have neat tools. I knew that I wanted to buy something and I am trying to flesh out a set of needles so I have something to reach for no matter what project I am working on. To that end I purchased Sashiko Needles, Beading Needles, Bullion Knot Needles, Ribbon Embroidery Needles and some plastic embroidery thread bobbins (to try a 3-d printed file I will talk about in another post). They came within a week, are packaged beautifully, and I appreciate obtaining more tools at a very good price. Highly Recommend.

I have been looking at Felt Right for a couple of years. I would like to start up a podcast or some streaming however I know that my rooms echo too much to try. The library that I work at had a recent renovation and they used Living Felt, it looks amazing! To that end I purchased a 6 tile sample pack in colors I wanted as well as 4 small diamonds to test out how they will work and look in my area. The 20% off coupon was a great incentive, making these very reasonable if you are trying to get a few at a time.

I did not order the Craftease pillow when I ordered the rest of my ergo friendly items, so I lucked into a sale. I managed to get the pillow that I wanted, gloves to help my circulation, an extension clip and their black friday gift box for under what the pillow alone would have cost me. I checked and the gift box will include another extension, an extra pillow cover, as well as lotion. Since my hands are already starting to dry out, crack, and bleed a bit so the lotion will help.

The yarn I ordered from Crochet.com and knitpicks.com has already arrived, great prices, I love the quality and cannot wait to use it!

I had purchased a couple of things from bigger stores when they had insanely low prices. There are plenty of great deals out there, I am trying to stick to what I need to make my crafting life easier and more productive.

If you are looking for another small business to buy from I highly recommend: https://www.thecraftivist.com/ I purchased a punch needle kit from them years ago, the packaging, owner, and quality of the goods are unparalleled.