And I don't just mean the amount of money I spent (which was a little higher than my usual stash enhancement experience, even with everything on sale). No, the real cost was that my local needlework shop, Ginger's Needlearts and Framing, is closing at the end of July. I get their email newsletter and when last week's arrived I started skimming it as usual and noticed that EVERYTHING was on sale. So, yeah, I had missed the top of the email where she said she had decided to close the shop. The reason was that the landlord had raised the rent again, this time to the point that it was no longer viable for her business. She had already had to shrink the size of the store once because of this, but now it was just too much. It's really a shame since she had the only shop in town I know of that really catered to cross stitchers. We do have some needlepoint and quilting shops, but not much for the other forms of needlework. I can remember at least two stores that have popped up that had cross stitch supplies but neither made it. (Which is a shame since one of them was really close to where I live now.)
I admit that I occasionally shop online for supplies or would buy at big chain stores, but I was still a loyal customer of Ginger's for about 20 years and I'm really sad to see the store close. Best wishes to Ginger and her staff and here's hoping that eventually someone will decide to try to fill her shoes.
No stitching updates this time since I didn't have much free time for needlework last week!