thrifty thursday

Gathering more things for Ellie's new room:

Found this needlepoint at a shop to benefit a local hospital. The more I look at it, the more I'm thinking it might find its way to my room... (The frame needs to be painted wherever it ends up.) I splurged a little on this one too. $17.

These, however, make up for the splurge. Two twin headboards. Cost - free!!

The price tag on those headboards isn't even the best part of the story. Now that I finally have a few free hours each week with Trixie in preschool, I spent a little time on Tuesday with a local group of quiltmakers. They've been meeting since the early 80's to sew, visit and support one another. They could not have been more welcoming to me. I worked on some embroidery of the blocks I'm doing for the current Common Threads project. Explaining "a virtual quilting bee" was part of the fun. I learned what they like to work on, saw a few show and tell items, and heard a bit about family news as they visited with one another. They're a talented group and I could learn a lot from each one of them. Near the end of my time there, Betty mentioned to me that she had some headboards that were no longer needed by her and didn't work for her grandchildren. I stopped by her home the following day and hit paydirt. She was thrilled that they'll be used and appreciated. I know where I'll be hanging out on Tuesday afternoons now.

Sorry for the poor shot of them in the back of my van, but Ellie's new room is going to be a surprise. It's her Christmas gift from Chris and I, so much of this is being done on the sly. Since there are two and only room for one twin bed in her new room, I may try to use one as a footboard. Now I just have to figure out if I want to paint them in the same white as the trim in her room (the rest of the furniture is antique maple and belonged to my mother-in-law when she was Ellie's age) or do I paint it an accent color like pink? Any suggestions? The wallpaper can be seen in the background here.