Good Neighbor and The Bins

This month we were all able to get together for Sister Day. Well, here and there.

After arriving in town, I met Theresa at her place and got to see her three stellar vintage sewing projects: two dresses and a bathrobe made out of a chenille bedspread from our last trip to The Bins. (I wish I had pics…) I especially loved that she kept the fringe from the bedspread on the bottom of the robe!

Before heading to the park for picnic lunch with the Amys and the kids, we drove over to Good Neighbor, the Russian market. It was like going to a foreign country…  None of the signs were in English, very few labels were in English, no one seemed to be speaking English. It was difficult to discover the prices of items since we had no idea what anything on the nice pricing sign said. But a few things were in a language I knew (namely English) and some things were obvious (such as butter, fresh produce, bakery items…). I also noticed that it seemed like a good portion of the store seemed to consist of sweets like candies, cookies, pastries.

Thankfully there was also a very nice woman shopping who spoke English with a very thick accent. She was so enthusiastic about recommending items or commenting on how fresh their produce was or about how the sausages were made right there in Portland! It was fun to see how proud she was of the local Russian community! And she had every right to be! Everyone was so friendly and patient and helpful. The woman behind the counter gave us samples of the sausage (I’m sure the nice lady shopper told her to) and they sliced our sausage just the way we wanted it.

I wish I had been more daring, but I played it a bit safe for the first time. I would tell you what I bought, but some of the things don’t have characters that I can type and some of them I simply have no idea what they are. But I did buy a lovely loaf of braided sweet bread, some fabulous beef sausage and a bunch of cookie sort of things… Oh, and Kvass. That’s a fermented beverage made from bread. I think???

some things I just bought because I liked the package LOL

After having lunch at the park, Theresa and I ran to Bob’s Red Mill before meeting Amy Lynn at the Bins. I have to say, they were pretty crowded. I am intrigued by the fact that so many people want to rummage through Goodwill rejects…

This time I had way more restraint and came home with $15 worth of stuff that I have actually been looking for and/or needed. Ok, I did buy a few things that I just liked…

 these last two pictures are just things I liked or needed for a craft idea

these are my new chicken chic boots, that way I can look all cute and stylish when tromping around in the muck this winter :o)

   

Theresa said I had to get this to go with my bowling stuff from the Terry Taylor sale (too bad my name’s not Norm) LOL

    The best part about this trip to the Bins was that ALL the clothes I found FIT! This is truly amazing because I’m not even willing to hold them up to see if they’d be close to fitting before I get them home and washed. But they fit… And not just “it’s good enough”, they fit perfectly! Hooray!

We had to go and share our finds with Amy and then she invited Theresa and I to stay for supper so I wouldn’t have to drive home in rush hour traffic. And as a bonus, we also got to go with her to Super JoAnns to pick out fabric for Maggie’s school fundraiser projects! Fun!!! (Don’t worry, I only came home with a 1/2 yard) :o)