CHRISTMAS was...

FAMILY

out of FOCUS

TEST drives

meltdowns

and PRETTY LIGHTS!!!

CJane knows...

How sad is this? Almost 80 degrees forecast for CHRISTMAS DAY.

WAAAAAAAAA!!!!!

CJane ( http://blog.cjanerun.com/2008/07/peanuts.html ) is right. Florida sucks. (she didn't put it exactly like that, but I'm sure thats what she meant to say ROFL)

Retail Christmas

Okay, I ADMIT IT, I am NOT the best blogger on the planet. I do have what I think is a pretty good excuse though, for not posting for over 5 weeks. Working in retail this time of year sort of sucks up all your time and resources. Since before Thanksgiving (and I presume till Christmas Eve) it has been BUSY, BUSY, BUSY!!! The recession has not dampened Christmas shopping in the Tampa area.

SO. Above is my sister-in-law's Christmas tree. One of them. She put up four this year and each one is prettier than the one before. I featured this one because it was the best picture...LOL. We will have big doings at their house Christmas Eve and again Christmas Day. Then, I suspect, dinner at Uncle Tom's house and home (for me) early...to sleep! Eight o'clock schedule for the day-after-Christmas returns starting! Ugh! Gonna be another long couple of weeks of Christmas for retail. And the stories...."They SAID it came from Stein Mart!"...no tags at all (or better yet a Marshall's tag)...and not even a brand we carry. Oh, and a little hint...if it is a small appliance, don't even waste your time (or ours)...Stein Mart doesn't carry small appliances! And sparkly jewelry with no tags attached? We KNOW you wore it to your holiday parties and now want your money back! We don't forget faces, either. LOL. Bringing your return to us in a Stein Mart gift box does not insure it is our merchandise and that we will take it back. Please leave your boxes at home---you are just bringing us your garbage.

LOL Can you tell I am worn out from all this? I'm starting into my Christmas curmudgeon phase. Pardon me. Its retail.

Now I am off to wrap, do laundry, grocery shop ( and something else I can't remember at the moment)...my only day off now till Christmas!

And The Winner Is.....

BARACK OBAMA!!!

This was a MOST unusual election! For ONE thing it went on for about 2 years...the campaigning, that is. But I am with politics the way I am with football--Let me know when its down to two and I'll choose up sides. For ANOTHER thing, it was the first time a man of AFRICAN AMERICAN decent made into the finals. AND a WOMAN was on the ticket for the GOP V.P.

FOR ME, the most unusual part of this election year was the fact that I actually liked BOTH guys! Usually I like NEITHER and vote for what I consider to be the lesser of 2 evils. Not this time. It was a real struggle to weigh the pluses and minuses of the two candidates and come up with a firm decision. Firm. Maybe thats not the best description. I should just say "come up with a decision". But I did.

Lets just say when it came right down to it I reverted to my usual technique for choosing...I voted against W.

ETSY!!!

These are the pieces with which I opened my ETSY shop! It is a scary venture, I'll tell ya!

First of all, the whole process

had me scared. Write a bio, make a banner, pick an avatar. write shop policies...and so on. All I knew about an AVATAR at that point was what I had seen on CSI:NY and it was pretty strange...LOL. The first few weeks of this 'planning stage' I worked on possible names and banners. And I worked on crafts. As usual I started a few that ended up in the proverbial rag-bag. Then came the tassles. I kinda like my tassles. I just don't know if anyone else will be as in love with the idea of hanging hunks of yarn and fibers in their house as decorations. I hope so. Anyway, I have to bead those up a little more before I put them online.



Besides worrying about the OPENING process of an ETSY shop there is another big concern. IS MY WORK GOOD ENOUGH? WHAT IF NOBODY WANTS IT? WHAT IF EVERYBODY WANTS IT? whatif whatif whatif??? AAARRRRGGGHHH!



Okay, fast forward to October 30. Well, I mean fast forward from the months of agonizing over all of it. As I tend to do I just JUMPED. I went on ETSY and just went for it. It wasn't so bad. I made it up as I went along (the bio and stuff, I mean)--they kind of walk ya through it. Next thing I knew I had my own shop! Now comes the REALLY scary part!



By the way, the name of the shop is RUSTY HEART and here is the link: RUSTYHEART.ETSY.com

Now it seems there is something wrong with my camera. : ( I am HOPING that it is NOT actually the camera but the memory card. When I put it in the computer the last time it brought up a notice that said "memory card needs to be reformatted". I got out the camera box to get the USB cable but it wasn't there. I'm bummed. I am SO hoping its the card and not the camera!! You can't have an ETSY shop without a (good) camera. Besides, I have some GREAT lace I need to get pics of to put in my shop! I guess we'll see. : /

The Link: http://www.eastvalleyproductions.com/player.cfm?media=/movies/Nie/Glendhill
(pic borrowed from sister Liz--hope she won't mind :\)



First let me talk about GYMBOREE play and music centers (owned by TOT-BOT) closing here in Pinellas and Hillsborough Counties (FL). Apparently they were pretty rude about it--Didn't even tell the franchise owners till the day it was done. The owners, in good faith, had sold packages right up till the end. Other bay area play centers are offering specials for parents who got stuck in that debacle. (Here comes the pitch...) PlayMania Tampa will honor Gymboree packages when you make an equal or greater purchase at their location. They are an independent, family owned business (my niece Whitney and her husband Todd) located in the Sweetbay shopping center at Big Bend Road and I-75 in Ruskin. The number there is (813)649-8919.


Okay. I feel like I did something nice. LOL. The fact that I have no readership is beside the point...rofl. But hey, they are good people trying to run a new business in these really crumby times. Ya ought to go sign up just 'cause they're so brave!


Now, for an update on my newest 'friends' from the blog world, Stephanie and Christian Nielson.



He is now out of the burn center AND the rehab center and is going to therapy on an out-patient basis. YAY!!! And...(a drumroll here, please) Stephanie is being gradually allowed to wake up from her 10 week sleep!!!!! It is so emotional, reading cjane's blog---and Jaimee Rose's articles



After fiery plane crash, a sister is held even closer . I am totally in love with that whole family, all 40 or 50 of them...LOL. J/K there, but ya do almost need a program to remember everyone. (There are 11 siblings in Christian's family and 9 in Stephanie's. Add husbands, wives and kids and...well, sometimes I forget who belongs to whom. (whom? is that right?) If you have no clue what I'm talking about click on the 'Cjane Enjoy It' button on the right and/or read the Jaimee Rose article. Bring tissues. Saturday night Mindy Gledhill did a benefit concert for the family and S&C's daughters got on stage to join in singing "Golden Slumbers", a lullaby, for their mom.


Talk about a boo-hoo!

.pictures from work (Stein Mart)..

I LOVE the Tie Tables---like lifesize color wheels : )

They are on my mind and in my heart

PRAYING for them...
...won't you join me, please?

http://www.nierecovery.com/ http://blog.cjanerun.com/

Heart of a Hibiscus

See how the shadows make a HEART in the lower left part of the hibiscus? I thought that was so neat.

Bill! Stop the car!!!

I have a horrible addiction. I cannot pass a pile of trash without slowing the car and craning my neck. My heartrate goes up, my breathing shallows and that 'little kid on Christmas eve' feeling comes over me. Oh, the anticipation! Will I find something with incredible potential? A great piece of furniture? Color? Texture? Shape? Character ? The first Barbie Mattel made...still in the box? Admittedly the Barbie would be a nice find, but the addiction is not for riches....it is for POTENTIAL. POSSIBILITIES. The moment when I can make something to which people will respond, "You got that out of the TRASH?! OMG! Thats awesome!"

I have to assume I come by this affliction through genetics. As a kid I remember riding along in the backseat of the family car...probably aggravating my brother in some way only a big sister can, when suddenly I would hear those awful words--"Bill!!! Stop the car! There's TRASH back there! Turn around! Turn around!" Talk about humiliating your pre-teen daughter! I would slink down in the backseat and PRAY that no one who knew us would see our car or my PARENTS digging through TRASH.

That was back in the sixties. Fast forward to 2008. Both my parents are gone now. I HAVE TAKEN UP THE REINS. Only now I live in an apartment and the trash is all consolidated to this one area in the back. Not the GARBAGE, mind you. The TRASH. (there ARE certain STANDARDS to maintain, after all!). Whenever someone moves out and leaves STUFF behind, the 'guys' drag it to that glorious treasure corner at the back of the complex.

Enter, Shirley.

So...my latest temptation is pictured above. It has been there for a week. I am fighting it. I-AM-FIGHTING-IT!!! I mean, I am in a 720 sq ft apartment that is already full of furniture and STUFF. I have NO room for it, don't need it and frankly I don't want to climb over the other ca-ca to get it outta there. What on earth could I possibly DO with a PURPLE WICKER LOVESEAT? NO! NO! a thousand times NO!


hmmmmm.............I wonder if my girlfriend could use it?

:::::sigh:::::

: D

The weight of a prayer

Prayers. I wonder about prayers. You know the prayers you might say routinely...the LORD'S PRAYER, the Grace you say over dinner, bedtime prayers...the ones you don't really think about, you just say the words----I WONDER...do those prayers carry any more or less influence with GOD than the ones you say from your heart---the ones you can FEEL when you say them? This IS rhetorical, by the way...I am really looking for the answer in my heart.



I am wondering this now because of some people I have recently 'met'.

StephanieNielson. Her husband, Christian. Her sister Courtney. Other sisters

(LUCY and PAGE come to mind), brother and sister-in-law. And the Neilson CHILDREN...Claire, Jane, Ollie and GiGs. Oh yeah...and their dog, JIMMY!



MR. AND MRS. NEILSON, with their friend and flight instructor Doug Kinneard, were in a plane crash in Arizona on AUGUST 16, 2008. Mr. Kinneard succumbed to his injuries after reaching the hospital. CHRISTIAN was burned over more than 30% of his body. STEPHANIE was burned over more than 80% of her body. HE is 29. SHE is 27, and she is a Mommy Blogger. http://nieniedialogues.blogspot.com/ .


While Stephanie recovers, her sister COURTNEY has been keeping the world updated on the family's well being and Stephanie and Christian's progress. Courtney's blog is here: http://blog.cjanerun.com/

I ADDED THEIR BUTTONS OVER THERE AT THE TOP.-------------->

for now, GO. READ.

I will go pray. Some of the real ones...the kind ya FEEL .