November 21, 2006

good mail day yesterday!

Yesterday's mail held more than the usual junk mail and bills!! I had extra ATCs from cards I made recently for swaps, so offered them up for trade on twopeasinabucket. The picture below is what I received in return. The two top cards and the colorful fibers are from Daria... I saw pics of these, but they're all much more beautiful in real life- the postage ATC with the embossed music and the shrink plastic treble clefs is just gorgeous!! The bottom ATC is from Jacque, from her vintage swap- the cute little girl and the bingo card definitely does make me want to smile!!!

Thanks to everyone who left such nice comments here about my latest craft projects!!! They really weren't difficult, just a bit time-consuming, but easy enough to do while sitting in front of the TV. Now, someone just needs to see them in my etsy shop, and want to buy them! I really need to get a Paypal account, I think that might be the ticket to selling relatively inexpensive things that people wouldn't want to use a money order or check on... I also need to make more things to sell... I also need to figure out how to market my etsy shop, since there are thousands of people selling on that site... I also need to figure out how to fit it all in! (Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated... :-) )

In other news, fall is certainly taking its time in getting here- yesterday it was 89F (>30 C, for you metric folks) degrees, a record high for this date! It's supposed to be in the low/mid 70s (about 22-25 C) for high temps! I don't want freezing weather, or anything, but temperate weather would be nice!! Last year was like this too; I remember going to Thanksgiving dinner wearing shorts and a short-sleeved shirt. Cold weather will definitely be a shock when we get back to Illinois at Christmas, I'm sure! (Mom, will you turn the heat up to about 82, to get the house nice and toasty for us?? just checking!)

Fall in Illinois meant raking leaves; fall in AZ means picking up rocks! At least for me, anyway... we got a load of rocks ages ago to spread along the sides of the house, and had some left over. They sat in the road, because there's lots of small gravel mixed in, which we didn't want, and we really didn't know what to do with it. Now, I'm working on cleaning it up, since we got a letter about it from the Homeowner's Association. I'm sorting it, by hand, and the larger rocks are going in the backyard in a pile, to await further landscaping instructions... I know why this kind of stuff is called "back-breaking" work, that's for sure!!!

Tomorrow afternoon and evening I am going to start in on the Thanksgiving meal. I'm being pretty ambitious, which may backfire on me... (Mom, are you sitting down befire you read any farther? just checking!) I'm going to make cranberry sauce (Gram's recipe, and it will be served in a cut-glass bowl, just like it should be), rolls (from a mix, but still...), and wait- a pumpkin pie (with pre-made crust, but still...). Then, I need to bake the sweet potatoes to have them ready. That way, on Thursday, I only need to make up the relish tray (including my favorite green onions and cheddar cheese), mix up the sweet potato casserole, and roast the duck. So, we'll either be eating like royalty, or we'll be hitting the local Domino's for take-out pizza!!!

I have a doggie who needs the ball thrown to her a little, I think, so I should end this (more like a million times, if she had her way)... Everyone enjoy your long weekend, if you're having one!!!

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