Day 10 Excuse me, do you have any unfinished shelves?

Wild goose chases can be fun and, more often than not, very frustrating. Today I went on a wild goose chase for a unfinished shelf top 23" x 71/2". The direction for the Hearth Candelabra I want to make clearly states,"All building materials can be purchased at your local arts and craft store." Since Bay City doesn't have a local arts and craft store, I headed out for Lake Jackson with my 20 something neighbor. She happened to be over at the house when I mentioned I might be running to LJ, the way her eyes lit up how could I not invite her to go along. (Besides a road trip in the convertible is more fun with someone.) We hit the Hobby Lobby store and made a bee line to the crafts department by meandering through all the candle, Christmas decorations, and several other decorating items that she wanted to look at; which was about everything in the store. This wouldn't have been a problem normally, but I was on a mission. I once started to walk off only to have her call me back to get my opinion about some item. I think we had been in the store for about 45 minutes before we made it to the craft department where the wood is. Only problem is this HL didn't have a top shelf. We then went to Lowes, Home Depot, Walmart and a small hardware/lumber yard none of which had the board I need. The sales people were all very helpful and even suggested other stores that might have them. Yep, I had been to them all. In most of these stores we had to stop and look at other items also. I don't mind this type of shopping, but I just wanted to find my board, and the 3" diameter disks also needed. I must give Walmart a little credit though because they came closest to what I needed. It was an unfinished, cute shelf 24"x 71/2"on two wooden brackets that had a board connecting them. I briefly thought about buying that and just taking it apart. It was only a brief thought. I arrived home with two 48" dowels 7/16"in diameter. If I can't find the rest of what I need here in town Robert and I will probably just go to plan B which means we will adapt the project to fit what we can find. I'm sure we can make it work, we always do. :)