Two for One!

Okay, so I went out to Sainsbury's to grab a cute necklace to wear with my dress for the ball tonight. That leads me to two things I felt the need to share: a McSweeny's-style open letter and some pictures!

First:

Dear anonymous whiner at Sainsbury's,
       First, let me just say that I appreciate the spirit behind your vigilante crusade to preserve the sanctity of the "Parent With Child" zone of the parking lot. I approve of keeping the lazy and morally bankrupt from using these spaces just as much as you seem to. But don't let your self-righteous zeal run away with you! Try to make sure that when you decide to grass on apparent offenders that you aren't mistaken. For instance: take my car...you did. No, there is no baby seat in the back. Nope, I haven't got a mesh sunscreen on my back window painted with cute cartoon animals. And, alas: I don't even have a ridiculously tacky "Baby on Board" safety triangle hanging from the rear window of the car boot! I realise that the lack of these normal Parent With Child signals might have confused you; but since I have the vague inkling that you saw me get out of my car, I would think that the massive beach-ball-sized lump under my top would have given away my Parent With Child status.
       Perhaps I'm being hasty: perhaps you didn't see me. In which case, my apologies for questioning your judgement. But if you did see me, then please: explain to me where on the tiny signs it stipulates that my child must have its umbilical cord detached to qualify me for the privilege of parental parking. Even the lady at the customer service desk smiled when I walked up, supporting my bump, to inquire about your complaint. She gave you the benefit of the doubt and assumed you clearly didn't see how obvious it is that I'm a parent...and with child. In any event, do please keep on keeping on and policing the Parent With Child parking. You do all of us such a great public service...and I'm sure you're incredibly aware of that fact.

Okay! Now that that's out of the way: pictures!

Keeping with the baby-centric theme of this post: I got a new lampshade for the nursery!

On the way back from Sainsbury's I made a - very literal - last-second decision to have a peek in T.K. Maxx while I was out and about. I mean, we saw the discounted cuteness I found there last time, so I figured it was worth a browse if nothing else.

Imagine my delight when I spotted the above-featured beauty for only £9.99! Of the four sizes of this drum lampshade on sale, one was too small, one was too big, and the other two were just right. So, like Goldilocks, I settled for one of the comfortable middle options. And when I found out that both of the "just right" sizes were the same price, I naturally went with the larger of the two. More lampshade bang for my buck. And, the whole reason this sucker caught my eye in the first place? It's another Prestigious Textiles pattern! [Update! It's the Piccadilly pattern from the Hyde Park series in Lime...in case you want to find it or something. And that makes me think of the song I'll link to below] How frighteningly uncanny that as soon as I find one fabric brand whose designs I lurve to bits, I find products made with those fabrics all over the inexpensive home decorating stores. It's like when you buy a new car and suddenly see it all over the roads, but for a decorating nerd!

So now, to liven up my plain window dressing, I have a nicely patterned (and suspiciously un-polka dotted) lampshade to replace the plain cream-coloured one that was there before. And though the photos don't seem to show it, the lighter green in those stripes is much more limey than it appears, so it goes well with both the warm yellow walls and my green/brown/white chair. Gotta love baby projects!