Day 8: Saturday randomness

My first quandary: what to give a school friend of Big Girl's for an upcoming birthday? Normally I would make something along the lines of an interest but this party being so close after Christmas it kind of caught me unaware.

Determined to stay true to my decision to not buy stuff just for the sake of buying stuff (and operating under the assumption that this child's mom feels similarly that toys are taking over her life) I pondered this dilemma.

Finally, inspiration! A play date to the zoo when the weather warms up. No waste, no little pieces to keep up with, and a future memory to be made.

The floor lamp search continues. I scouted out the local Goodwills today and found nothing but a strange brass concoction circa 1989 or so. No thanks.

I did find this, marked confusingly as an "auto min." For roughly five minutes I wondered how in the world one would use this in a car, and finally figured out it's the phonetic spelling of "ottoman." Auto min or ottoman, I have been looking for just such a storage container for Big Girl's toys. The lime green is an asset and not a liability in this case.

Despite my shortage of floor lamps, I somehow managed to run out of lightbulbs. I considered the alternatives briefly but rejected the idea of using candles. To me, lightbulbs fall into the category of acceptable under The Compact (I decided to just go ahead and take the leap and formally commit). I did, however, try to buy a good brand, rather than the ones that burned out in three and a half minutes. I'm thinking of it as an investment of sorts.

I also found this 100% Merino wool yarn, thrifted. One of my New Year's goals is to learn to knit socks. I got some double pointed needles for Christmas and found some others, thrifted. I'm delighted that The Compact does not preclude crafting; one just has to get creative about it.