Beware the wall of text!

I should probably post here more often. But since I haven't posted for a few months, here's a recap!

In October, I got to go to New Mexico for work. I went there several years back, and fell in love with the food there, particularly stuffed sopapillas. So I insisted that we go out to a Mexican place one of the nights we were there, and I got my stuffed sopapillas. Om nom nom.

Also in October, Jeremy's first novella, "Kensei," came out for e-readers! It's bundled with two other novellas as Cobalt City Rookies from Timid Pirate Publishing. All three of the novellas feature teenaged super hero protagonists. I have, of course, read his novella several times, and I finally got started reading the other two recently. So far, super awesome!

We spend November working on our novels for NaNoWriMo. This was the fourth year I attempted it, and once again, I did not finish. This time, it was because my laptop died a week before the end of November. Though I ended up buying a new laptop on Cyber Monday, and had it two days later, it was really a disheartening blow to my potential progress. I'd still like to finish the novel, but I haven't gotten back to it yet.

I also had the big EtsyRain holiday show in November, which was excellent! This was the first year the show was in McCaw Hall, and the new venue was spectacular! My sales were also great, and the new item I debuted, wrist warmers, proved quite popular.

A few weeks later, I sold my crocheted crafts at GeekFest, which was put on by Seattle Browncoat Charities. It was a ton of fun to finally do a show where I didn't have to try to explain things like Cthulhu. :) Also, Jeremy got to see Kirby Krackle, ended up buying all of their music on his phone while listening to their show, and then playing it for me. Yay, nerdy music! (Granted, we had seen the lead singer from Kirby Krackle about a week previous, which was part of the reason that Jeremy went to see them play at GeekFest.)

We spent Christmas proper in Seattle, but then left a couple of days later for a grand tour of the Midwest. We flew to St. Louis and spent one night there. The next morning, we loaded up the car with my mom and youngest sister, and drove to Kansas City, where we spent two nights at my middle sister's brand new house, which I refer to as the mansion. It has an indoor pool. That's really all that you need by way of explanation. I managed to pull a muscle in my leg from either swimming or going up and down the stairs the first day (possibly both), but I still went ice skating on the second day, which really didn't improve my leg any. But it eventually got better. We also got to watch Inception, Return of the Jedi, and Les Miserables while we were there.

After our two nights in Kansas City, we returned to St. Louis for another night, and did karaoke in my mom's living room. Because she found a karaoke machine at a yard sale for like $6, and it worked. The music selection was a bit slim, but that just meant we got to pick out ridiculous songs and sing them. Someone should have taped me and Megan trying to sing all five parts on a Spice Girls song. :)

We drove down to Carbondale for New Years Eve, where we played a ridiculous amount of Cards Against Humanity and hung out with my good friends there (except for Thor, who was sick). We went to lunch with my former boss's widow the next day, after I took Jeremy on a driving tour of Carbondale. I was a little surprised at how well I remembered how to get most places... but I guess I did live there for nine years!

Finally, we drove back up to St. Louis and stayed at my mom's for one more night, where we broke out the wine and played a wine-themed version of Monopoly. Much to his astonishment, Jeremy won the game after Mom and Megan decided to give up.

So now we're in 2013, and though I don't do resolutions or anything of the sort, I do at least have things in mind that I'm trying to do, like trying to budget and spend more carefully this year. I'm also trying to write more frequently (daily would be ideal) and keep my blogs more active. :) On the crafting front, I should probably figure out something new to start making this year. At the moment, I'm doing a bunch of custom work for friends and family, and then I need to restock all of the stuff that sold out at my shows. So it might take a while before I can start on new things. Or, depending on how some of the custom works goes, I might start making these things for my shop!

It's almost Christmas!

Today is my last day in the office until Monday. That's right, I get a whole four day weekend! It's a far cry from the days when I had the week between Christmas and New Years off (and then some), but I'll make do with what I've got.

Tonight, we're headed over to see what amounts to Jeremy's family in the Seattle area for Christmas. Not sure exactly what we'll be doing, but I know there will be dinner and probably either pool or video games, depending on his brother's preference. :)

Tomorrow, we're sleeping late, heading to the zoo for part of the afternoon, having a snack-y dinner and then snack-y treats as we observe a Christmas tradition that does not seem to have any presence on the internet. Must check with Jeremy and determine the origins of this tradition before I try to explain it. :)

Friday, we're also sleeping late, opening Christmas presents, lounging about aimlessly, and then going out for Chinese food and to see Sherlock Holmes. I have to say that the opening Christmas presents part of the event intrigues me greatly. We finally wrapped presents last night, and Jeremy commented on how heavy mine is. As I was getting my boots on this morning, one of my gifts to Jeremy fell off of the "mantle" (read: the top of our entertainment center), and I realized that his gift to me seemed to be sliding the Rock Band drum set over slowly, so I picked up the gift to move it to a more secure location. It is HEAVY. And solid. And I have no idea what it is, unless it's a slab of rock. Seriously.

Saturday, I have claimed to spend the day in my studio, taking pictures of all of the stuff I've made in recent weeks, working on a serious destash of the supplies I will never use (keep an eye on Counting Stars if you want to see what I'm getting rid of!), and maybe even getting some sewing in. I know, shocking! :) And then we've got D&D in the evening.

Sunday will be a day to get all of the usual chores done, but other than that, a lazy day.

Sometime in there, I need to work on my Vampire game, and I'm chomping at the bit to work more on Jeremy's family genealogy. I'm getting somewhere with the German side of his dad's family, which seems to have arrived in America and stayed in one place (Minnesota), until they eventually made their way to California. This was very thoughtful of them. :) It makes my life a lot easier. :)

Wow

So my vacation was great. It was super relaxing, but I also got a lot of crocheting done. The presents I had picked out for the kids were a HUGE hit, especially the hats I made and the stuff I found on Etsy. I was really pleased by the latter, because I like having people to buy for who appreciate handmade stuff. :) (The belle of the ball has been stuff from Kayce's Nue to Me shop, which I did buy quite a bit of...)

Then we got back, and I was in the office one day, but sick by that afternoon. I spent the last two days at home watching Battlestar Galactica, crocheting, and otherwise being a lump. But I'm pleased to report that I feel MUCH better now (and am back in the office).

I finally get to play in our Saturday afternoon game tomorrow, which has switched from being the all-combat Exalted game to a Scion game run by Jeremy. I'll be playing a daughter of Baron Samedi who is a tattoo artist. :)

Sunday is my final show of this winter, at I Heart Rummage. One last chance to get handmade Christmas gifts if you haven't already finished your shopping! :) And if you have, come and buy stuff for yourself! :)

I'm looking forward to my four day weekend for Christmas, which will include the zoo, the new Sherlock Holmes movie, and Chinese food. Oh, and a present. Jeremy picked up the box that contains my present on Wednesday night, and gave it to me to carry. In my sickly state, I had to give it back to him, because it's too heavy. I have NO clue what it is. I'm looking forward to opening presents on Christmas morning. He will have a stack to open from me... which reminds me, still gotta pick up the last couple of things for him. (Alas, not handmade.) :)

Going to California

This will probably be the last post I make for about a week, as we get up bright and early tomorrow morning to fly to California, where I'll be meeting Jeremy's mom, his remaining siblings (I've already met his youngest brother), and all of his nieces and nephews. This is only marginally nerve-wracking, as such things tend to be. Mainly, I'm just hoping that everyone likes me and that the kids all love what we got them for Christmas. Because seriously, I think we're bringing an entire suitcase just for presents. :)

For whatever reason, the original flight I had us on got changed to an earlier flight, which is a bit of a pain. We have to get up at the usual time tomorrow morning (o'dark thirty), and we really need to pack and get everything else done tonight. We've gotta figure out how to get Black over to Uncle Andrew's house, as he is doing much better, but still should probably be isolated and watched for any signs that he's not continuing to get better. He does at least get to play with the other cats at Andrew's this time, though, which will make all of them very happy. :)

Our plans for California are pretty much entirely family stuff. We'll head straight to Jeremy's mom's house tomorrow afternoon. Friday, we're going to spend the day in libraries and cemeteries, working on his family's genealogy. Saturday, we're meeting up with one of his brothers (who Jeremy has not seen since said brother was a baby, and said brother is 30 now) and his family. Sunday, Jeremy's mom is having all of her kids (Jeremy, another brother, and his only sister) and their kids over for dinner. Monday, we fly back. It'll be a bit of a whirlwind, but with the flights and all, we really only have three solid days to spend.

So yeah, don't expect much out of me till I'm back in the office on Tuesday. In the meantime, I'm going to be crocheting like a madwoman and trying to work on stuff for my Vampire game. Hopefully not at the same time. The world does not need a crocheting vampire beyond my old character, Mel. :)

And whee!

I'm up at a ridiculous hour, made to appear more ridiculous because I don't change my timezone on Blogger when I travel. For the record, it's just before 7:30 a.m. in St. Louis.

So after bunches of fretting, I made it here just fine. There was some running while at the Denver airport involved, and my levels of loathing for that airport continue to grow, but I got here. The glitch with getting a rental car was easy enough to deal with, AND it ended up meaning that Dad bought Megan and I lunch that day, so who's complaining? :)

Of course, it didn't feel much like Christmas until yesterday, as I had only received sporadic gifts to that point. Not that I was super worried about gifts for myself, but the sporadic receiving was accompanied by sporadic giving, which meant that I still had a box of presents in my suitcase. :) I know that several of my gifts were pretty well received, but the overstimulated children who had stacks of presents two or three times bigger than them didn't quite get to look at all of what they got. My cousin's sons, who had smaller piles, were pretty pleased though. :)

I also managed a pretty good haul for the fairly limited gift giving that we did among the adults in my family. More exciting is the fact that due to some initial miscommunication with that, Sarah had already picked out and bought what she wanted me to have. So I knew which gifts to pull in one gift exchange (Tin Man on DVD, a book about Serenity, and a video game), and I made a very last minute trade in the other gift exchange to end up with Rummikub, which looks very much like a game that I played with my Grandma Vogel as a kid. And who doesn't like more board games? :)

Today, after Christmas with my dad and then painting all of the bedrooms in my mom's house, I get to make my trek to Carbondale. Even though I was there only 2 months ago, I'm still super glad to be heading down there again. Because though I've been wishing I was back in Seattle already, especially amidst the chaos of the childrens' present opening yesterday, it'll be nice to spend some time just relaxing with my friends at my other home.

Glee!

Okay, I'm going to try NOT talking about the weather today, since I'm sure that those of you in Seattle are sick of thinking about it, and those of you not in Seattle are sick of me whining about it. :)

As of 5 p.m. today, I am officially on vacation until January 5th! This is exceptionally exciting to me, because it's a nice, long vacation. I'll be traveling for the bulk of it, but that's fun in and of itself. And by the time I get back, perhaps Seattle will be back to normal. :)

Tomorrow will be slightly odd, though, as it sure won't feel like Christmas Eve. I get to do fun things like laundry, packing, and possibly playing a Christmas themed Cthulhu game. Oh, and maybe going to a comic shop and a tattoo shop, just to check it out.

In other news, "Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog" is laugh out loud funny. I missed it when it was available for free online, so I ordered the DVD as soon as I found out about it, and got it yesterday. Definitely worth the $10 and the extra I paid to make sure I would have it before Christmas. :) I kinda want the soundtrack now, so I can sing all of the songs incessantly. :)

My posting while I'm traveling may be sporadic, so if I don't get back on here before then, Merry Christmahanakwanzakah. :)

Eek!

I think it's just about time for me to start saying no if anyone else contacts me about custom stuff before Christmas. I've got someone who wants a couple of pairs of armwarmers to give as gifts, and I said I could do it. But I still need to stock up on more pairs for I Heart Rummage as well! And I sold another Dalek, which means I need to make more of those. For those, though, I have to order more dollhouse parts from eBay first. :) (Which means, by the way, that I've sold/traded 5 Daleks now. w00t!)

If only I knew where there was a JoAnn's or other craft shop nearby, I'd be set. Go buy more yarn and start making armwarmers in my downtime between work and dinner and dinner and bedtime. And hell, even a bit in the morning. Right now, though I'm already anticipating that I won't be putting down my crochet hook much for the week after I get home!

Christmas shopping is done!

I was starting to panic last night because I hadn't finished the Christmas shopping yet. Jerome teased me that I was about 2 months behind. But I managed to finish it up today, with the exception of some special requests that Lindsey is working on for me. As soon as those are ready, I'll have everything bought and on its way to me.

As was the case last year, all of my purchases are from Etsy, and there's the stuff I made on my own as well, for most of the kids. (I had forgotten about Jerome's niece when I was plotting making stuff for all of the kids, so I got her some cute pants that Kayce made instead.)

Oddly enough, I think sales in my shop last year were a bit busier. This might just be my perception of it, though. I'm hopeful that Christmas snuck up on a lot of people, like it did on me, and that things will pick up in the next week or two... because beyond that, there's not a lot more time for shipping and such!

Of course, my brain is gonna be far from Christmas next week, since I'll be in Laguna Niguel. It might not be hot out, but low 70s is a much different December than I've ever had before. :) Don't know how much of it I will be outside to enjoy, but I suspect the sun sets a little later there, and it should at least stay warm out when the sun is up. :)

Awesome show!

Last night, some of the Ballard area EtsyRain sellers had a small show at Canal Station, where Dale lives. It was a very cool idea to begin with (wine, cheese, and craft sellers), and turned out to be a really awesome show. In fact, it was the most profitable show that I've done since moving to Washington! (And honestly, the only shows I did better at in Illinois were multi-day shows.)

I also got to get Jerome's salsa bowls from Laura, and he loves them. :) She doesn't have any in her shop right now, but keep your eyes open for them. They'd also work great for other dips or small portions of whatever you want to eat in a bowl. :)

The only downside to the show is that I'm low on inventory for a couple of my best selling items, which means I need to buckle down and get some work done. The top priorities are finishing off more soap socks for Anne, and then finishing Peter's Christmas present. Then I get to work on lots of inventory for my next show, which is Punk Rock Flea Market, on December 6th. (Luckily, that show draws inventory from both of my shops, and I always have PLENTY of bottle cap belts. :) )

And then, if I have time, I have more Christmas presents to work on (supplementary, not required), or replenishing my inventory again, before I Heart Rummage on December 21st. My shop is TOTALLY going to be closed either on or right after that day, and will stay closed through New Years. I suspect that between those two shows and online Christmas shopping, it'll be slim pickings until I'm able to crank out more stuff after the holidays. :)

The Christmas gifts

Back in November, Anandi and I were at a craft show, and the woman across from us was selling photo brag books with a bit of an origami flair to them. As much as I wanted to get them for all the women in my family, I definitely couldn't afford them (especially not while sitting at a rather slow craft show). But I watched as she showed them off, and slowly but surely, I figured out the design. It was a pretty basic pattern, and even she said that she hadn't come up with the idea herself. So I went home and made a test version, and then went and bought my own cardstock to make my own.




So here they are. The top picture shows the ones that I made for my female family members. Amanda's and Sarah's are in the back, while Mom's and Megan's are in the front. The unfolded one shows the inside of Megan's. It might not make a lot of sense if you haven't seen one of these in action, but they're super cool. I also made them for Jerome's mom and one of his sisters, but didn't take pictures of theirs. They were very pink and girly, as his sister just had a baby girl in September. :)

I should point out that I have no plans whatsoever to sell anything like these. Even though I did work out the "pattern" part on my own (and it's really a fairly universal sort of pattern), I wouldn't have thought of them without seeing the woman selling them, and to me, that's a form of copying. I don't mind making something that I see elsewhere for myself or for a gift, but not to sell. It may be an odd form of ethics, but it's the way I look at it. :)

Recap and such

So it's only the short version of the recap, but here goes:

1) I saw pretty much everyone I wanted to see, and didn't run into anyone who I didn't want to run into. This made me very happy, especially when I ran into a couple of people I hadn't been expecting to see. I'm sad that I couldn't give Randy a hug (my tattoo had JUST gotten finished, and Randy gives big hugs that would have hurt me), but that's okay. :)

2) Tattoo. Yup, number 6. :) What was going to be the rest of my chest piece ended up on my upper back instead, as it didn't look right on my chest. So there's been a slight reworking of future plans, but I think they will all work out the way I want them to. I don't have a photo of it yet. It's in the yucky peeling stage right now, so I won't have a photo of it for a few weeks. And it's going to be worked on more whenever I see Candace next, as she definitely wanted to do some more with it, and I've already got a couple of thoughts about adding to it. :)

3) Present haul was pretty decent, though not quite as many gift cards as anticipated. Luckily, however, we were able to get all of our new stuff into my suitcase, and borrowed a bag from my uncle to use as another piece of checked luggage. Everything made it back intact, too! :) We knew we were going to have to check luggage when my gifts included a letter opener from Australia, pepper spray, and a big jar of homemade (and unlabeled) salt scrub. :) Oh, and everyone loved their handmade stuff, except for my brother, who hasn't gotten his T-Rex yet. :( (His gift was the only one that didn't arrive in time.)

4) Got a bunch of good family photos, on other people's cameras. Even though I took my camera, I never got it out. :) This is typical of me, and why I have so few photos from New Orleans (among other places). But my sister has already posted hers online, so I am gonna go pick through them for the ones I want, and put them on my Flickr. :) Here's one of them:


That's my mom and her brothers, my aunt, my siblings and their spouses (and, of course, Jerome), my cousin and her husband, my niece and nephew, and my cousin's two sons. Megan's boyfriend is the only person missing from the photo. :)

I find it amusing that my sisters and I all went with V-neck shirts that day. It was not planned. :) (We're the short ones in the all girl row, in case you were wondering. My brother is the shortest of the guys in the back row.)

Back in Seattle!

We're back, and there's snow, and I'll have a real update tomorrow.

There were a lot of things in Illinois that I missed, and a few things in St. Louis as well. But I'm glad to be back now. It'll be super nice to sleep in our own bed, and get back into the swing of life in Seattle. Every day in the Midwest was all different and confusing, and we only got to sleep kinda late on one of those days. So I'm almost ready to go to bed now (not even 6 p.m.), since I work tomorrow. Oi.

I tried to get my mom to teach me how to knit, but she decided to go to bed instead. *sigh* Someday. In the meantime, watch for new stuffs in the shop soon. :)

Whee! :)

Popping in quickly to say Merry Christmas (for those who celebrate it and those who don't). I'm in St. Louis at my mom's house still, but we should be flying back early tomorrow. You know, assuming they don't close O'Hare again.

Next year, I'm not buying any plane tickets that involve going through Chicago. Especially not on Christmas Day.

Recap when I get back, but for now, I will say that getting a tattoo for 2 hours begins to get a bit painful. I sat for 2 hours and Jerome sat for more like 2 1/2. But they both look super good. :) (Pictures later)

Yes, I got a stupid Flickr...

I'm way behind the curve on this one, mostly because I'm a slacker. And because I already had a Photobucket. But I have a Flickr now.

Of course, I'm already eyeballing the upgraded version, because I like to have folders for my things, and three folders ain't gonna cut it. Jerome will then mock me for this, much as he mocks me for having a paid LJ. That I almost never use. But it let me have 36 pictures. :)

Anyways, yay. Flickr and such. I'm confused by most of it, and I'm already wishing that tags were more standardized (like a list that I could go "oh yeah, this one should have that tag too), and now I need to upload 80 billion pictures to mine, so people can see my neat stuff. :)

However, the plan is for me to go home from work this evening, eat dinner, and go to bed. Because I have to wake up at 11 p.m. so we can go to the airport. If I don't sleep when I get home from work, I won't get to sleep till after 6 a.m. That would be no bueno. So a nap after work it is. :)

Taking only two crochet projects with me, though one of them is more of an open ended project, and oh crap, I just realized that it's not gonna work unless I take a bunch of safety pins along too. Okay, crisis averted. I'm also planning on buying some yarn while I'm there, and making stuff with it, because it won't take up as much room when it's made into stuff. And I'm gonna see if my mom will try to teach me how to knit, finally. :)

So happy holidays, everyone. I may or may not be posting again before Christmas, depending on internet availability at peoples' houses. :)

Ugh...

It's only 11 a.m., and I'm already starving. Not a good way to spend my morning, particularly when I don't have any work to distract me from my hunger. :(

So I've been worrying about our flight on Wednesday instead, because I haven't been able to pick out our seats yet. I'm hoping that when there are less than 24 hours until the flight, that link will open up, but for now, it's just sitting there, taunting me. :( Somehow, knowing our seat numbers will make me feel a lot more secure about the flight part of the excursion. (The getting to the airport part of the excursion is also worrisome, but I think I've got it under control.)

Got word from my mom on Saturday that all but one of the gifts I ordered have arrived. The last one is coming from overseas (Israel, I think), and I knew that it would be iffy whether it would arrive or not. However, it's for my brother, and he will have at least one real gift to open (since his birthday was last week), and I will just print out the Etsy listing and wrap it up for him if it hasn't arrived yet. :) Somehow, that actually sounds more appealing at this point, since I have always loved to mess with him when it comes to his gifts. (I once bought him a can of peas when he asked for "world peace," and I'm sure my niece is getting old enough that she can now play with the knock-off My Little Pony I bought him when he asked for "a pony." I will point out that he just turned 30. :) )

Oh, and in case anyone has been waiting with baited breath to find out if my really cool plan for a new line in my shop would work out, the verdict is in. I can make them. After the new year, we'll see if I can also sell them. :) (And, of course, I have another idea to work on now...)

Jerome makes me laugh... :)

On the phone earlier, he was so excited because when he asked me what I needed him to do today, I told him that really I just wanted him to clean up the coffee table (a.k.a. his "desk"). He decided that he's gonna do that, and then just lay on the couch all day long. Ah, that's my sweetie. :)

His vacation basically started last night, as he only has one more class that he has to attend, and nothing to turn in for that class. He gets three frickin' weeks off! Me, I get a week of vacation, but I'm using up almost all of my vacation days thus far to have that.

Of course, the latter part reminds me that I need to start keeping an eye on the weather forecasts for multiple cities. Whoever decided that routing a plane through Denver a week before Christmas was a good idea apparently never heard of snow. :)

Stuff and things...

This photo makes me very happy. While I know that my photography on my Etsy site can still use a lot of work, every once in a while, I get a gem like this one. True, it doesn't show much of the actual item, but I'm beginning to notice that sometimes, having a teaser-style pic is actually BETTER than having a normal pic. It seems to drive people to click on it. :)

In other news, there's still something wrong with the automated postal center in the downtown post office. So I guess I'm running over to Ballard again tonight. I suppose I can keep my fingers crossed for another sale or two, so that it's not just a trip for a single package.

We've also gotta run to Kinko's at some point, so that Jerome can get his last project of this quarter printed. He still has to go to a couple more classes, but at least everything else is already turned in. Then he gets three weeks off school... lucky...

Starting to try to figure out how I'm going to get a week's worth of winter clothes into a single small suitcase, and wondering whether I will need to pack skirts or jeans, because I still am not sure if we're going to be able to get tattoos next week... so I'm hoping Candace gets back to me soon! (If not, then I'll just try to save the money and we can start looking for an artist out here... :) )

And in other other news, I will never get sick of Billy Idol's music. *rocks out*

Many many things...

1) Chip and Dale's Rescue Rangers is on my TV right now. Help! (This is the first of Jerome's 80's cartoons fixation.)

2) Got new jewelry today... *happy dance* (Keep in mind that when I say jewelry, I never mean standard sized/normal jewelry. Today, it was a new titanium ring for my cartilage, and a new nostril screw. :) )

3) I have no clue what was going on downtown tonight, but it was sheer insanity. We waited for a bus on Capitol Hill almost half an hour before giving up and taking another bus, which then took forever to get to our normal bus stop. The side trip to Cold Stone Creamery might have had something to do with the "forever" part, but it was worth it, and well deserved. :)

4) Ack, dilemma! I just opened one of the few Christmas pressies that I had sent to our apartment, and it is WAY too cute to give away. I want to keep it for me!!!! This is why I was much better off sending most things to my mom's house, but this one was one I needed here, rather than there. But yeah... if I keep it, it's too late to order something new for this gift, which means I'll have to go storebought. If I don't keep it, though, I will be sad. This is no fair. :(

Pirates!

For those who live in a cave (how do you get internet in a cave?) or are otherwise unaware of important things, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End came out on DVD on Tuesday. I haven't bought it yet. I want to, but I'm waiting to see if I get it for Christmas, despite asking for gift cards (because they're easier to put in our suitcases to bring back to Seattle).

Speaking of Christmas and all that, we fly back to the Midwest in 13 days. Yikes! I spent my entire life prior to May in the Midwest, never leaving for more than a week or so. But I already know it's going to all seem so weird to go back to it for a week.

It will also be weird because I have a week off of work. I don't even know what I'm gonna do. :)

Black Friday

Actually, it's rather blue out today--not many clouds, just really cold. And by really cold, of course, I mean that it's in the upper 30s. I don't know that it's been below freezing since we've been in Seattle, though upper 30s feels pretty darn cold. :)

But anyway, it's officially Christmas shopping season now, for those who hadn't already gotten started. My brother tells me that they've already finished their shopping, but I also know that my brother is a freak. :) I can't talk, though, because I'm almost done. :)


For those who haven't finished shopping yet, or are looking for handmade Christmas cards, I'm running a sale in my Etsy shop for a couple of weeks. All of my sets of handmade cards are buy one set, get one half off! I've got all different sized sets, from 2 cards up to 8 cards, so buy a couple of sets and get all of your Christmas card needs covered! :)

Cards can be found here and here. The first link is for specifically Christmas or winter holiday cards, and the latter section is for more general purpose cards.