I received a surprise gift of $25 in chamber of commerce bucks (to be used at participating stores in my town).

At first, I really wanted to use them at my friend's store because she's super sweet and always has stuff I want. Then, I went by her store and was surprised to find nothing that said, "Take me home. Now!"

Another store in town has similar products, so I headed over there. The owner needed to liquidate her current stock because she overspent for the holidays (oops!). Everything in the store was 50% off.

I wandered 'round and 'round. A pile of orange pillows looked tempting, until I saw the golden wheat embroidered on their fronts. Below those were some coppery orange pillows with white dahlias embroidered in the center of each one. Cute, but still not right.

I decided to start hunting for some art, since we still don't have much on our walls. I found a nice piece, but it really didn't make me swoon. So, I left the store empty handed.

A few days later, I stopped back at the store because I had decided the coppery dahlia pillows would be at least a nice change from the green corduroy ones we have now. They were gone!

I spied another orange pillow I had dismissed on the first trip. After picking it up and really looking at it, I decided this humble cotton pillow would come home with me.

The price of the pillow only used up a quarter of my bucks, and I really felt the need to spend it all. I looked around some more in hopes of finding something to hang on our walls (things had been moved around in the store since my last visit).

I rediscovered the print I had looked at before. Then, next to it, I found the one I wanted (shown above). This is a print of a piece by Debra Scolari. I love the way the squares contrast with the organic shapes of the leaves. (I'm really drawn to the botanical art being produced on the West Coast right now. I'll have to do a post about that soon.)

It has a temporary home above the desk in our living room, next to a wire mobile of bugs my mother gave me several years ago. I smile each time I see it, and I'm plotting how to incorporate more of that delicious blue-green into our living room. Fun!