The Thrill of the Hunt

Yesterday Doug and I went to one of our favorite Mexican restaurants for lunch.  We like it because we both love Mexican food and their food is good, but it doesn't hurt that the place is close to two Good Will stores that we don't get to visit very often.

As we were pulling into the parking lot of the first one, I said to Doug, "You know, one of my favorite things about shopping at Good Will is that you truly never know what you're going to find. I love that moment of excitement when we first walk in and start looking around."

Well, that moment happened literally a moment after we entered the store, when Doug spotted a vintage green glass carboy. For $3....

We also found a few things for the beach house, including a little wooden table, a quilt, two pots, a Pyrex mixing bowl, an almost new bagel toaster, and a red metal toolbox.

We actually would have gone home happy even if we had left the second GW empty-handed.

But we didn't.

Almost as soon as we got to store #2, Doug saw a nice braided rug (I am a sucker for nice braided rugs) and called me over to take a look.  The colors weren't quite right for the beach shack, but my mind immediately started wheeling and dealing between our current house and the beach place, and I was pretty sure I could figure out a switch that would work.

We paid for the rug ($15) and put it in the car--we were taking no chances on losing it.

Then the unthinkable happened.  I saw its big sister.  For $30.  And I saw that the tag had L.L. Bean Home on it.  And it was 100 percent wool.  We hoisted it into a shopping cart and awkwardly made our way through the store.

This is what it looks like in the living room of our real house:

The small one fits nicely in my sewing room, but since my 22-year-old daughter, Christine, is staying there for a few more days, I passed on taking a picture.  You probably wouldn't be able to see the rug anyway.

The best part of the day was sitting on the couch and admiring the rug after everything was in place.  Well, at least that was the best part until I measured the rugs and looked them up on L.L. Bean's website.

The smaller one (7x9) retails for $599, and the larger one (8x11) goes for $799.

We paid $45 for the pair.

And almost as good as finding out the rug prices was the compliment I got from Christine when she got home later in the evening and saw the rug. When she was a teenager, she used to say really bad things about my GW shopping addiction and the things I bought.

All she said last night was, "Mom, that rug looks beautiful."