Last Saturday (11/5) my friend Allan and I made our annual trip to the Donzell’s Holiday Open House. It’s something we do every year for the past several years and even though the open houses themselves aren’t as amazing as they used to be we still manage to have a whole lot of fun.

After visiting the open house this year we decided to hit a thrift store nearby. I bought a green Christmas tablecloth with 12 napkins, still in the Kohl’s packages, for $11. DEAL!!

What I didn’t buy was the green floral container you see above. There were two of them, I saw them, I liked them, I knew they had possibilities but I didn’t know just what the possibilities were yet. So I left them.

As I was getting out of the shower on Monday the light bulb went off. I knew what I wanted to do with them. So on Tuesday I went back. And only one of them remained. Drat! I didn’t know weather to pick it up since I had my heart set on a pair of the thing I’m gonna try to make or not. What if I can find a second one?

I got the little Santa for some little scenes I want to put together for my holiday decorations and the floral container. I figured that if I couldn’t find another I could always donate it again. But I kind of had a hunch that I could. Those are floral containers I’ve seen A LOT in my design work… so I headed off to a Goodwill that is nearby.

And don’t you know they had a container that was very similar! So I grabbed it along with this little wire curio shelf and the Drawn Thread Embroidery book.

Drawn thread embroidery book? What?

When I lived in Germany I had a young German friend who did the drawn thread embroidery and it fascinated me.

You start out with a whole piece of fabric and end up with amazing work like in the photos above. Now, I’m not sure this is the kind of craft for me but you never know. AND I think the patterns and graphic elements might just cook for a while in my head and come out in an entirely different project down the road. You never know knowing me. 🙂

By the way, the little wire curio shelf… it’s not a shelf any more. It’s not even the same color. But you’ll have to check back to see what I did with THAT! 🙂

Notice how I got my idea for the floral containers in the shower? Do you do that too or do you have another “Idea Incubator” – a place where all your ideas pop to the top of your head?