I am a bad shopper.

When I go shopping with a purpose – whether it be to find specific embroidery supplies, fabric… food, clothes, shoes, it doesn’t matter what – I am invariably a failure. I rarely find exactly what I’m looking for when I set out.

Eventually, I settle for something that “will do” and I call it quits. This can be very frustrating, and it generally puts me off shopping. I see shopping as a drudge. A Chore.

There are, of course, exceptions. The exceptions are generally those spontaneous shopping excursions that are completely unintended, when I go with someone else for company, to drive, or just to get out and refresh my outlook. It is in those circumstances that I find everything that I looked for in the past twenty shopping trips. Needful things, interesting things, delightful things – they all fall right in front of me.

And such was the case when I came across this fantastic little pocket watch casing. It was serendipitous.

I had haunted many antique stores looking for an old pocket watch casing that I could use for finishing one of my tapestry smalls from A Thousand Flowers. I never found one.

Not in an antique store, anyway…