Yesterday's news....

I typed the following paragraphs yesterday.... between the time I started to write and the time I finished, the cable company here had a major glitch which lasted till this morning (Saturday). No computer for all of yesterday afternoon and last night, and no cable service for the television either. Not a problem.... we burned some wood in the fireplace and made believe we were up at the lake. The cable company has now fixed their problems....


I drove up to Hancock Fabrics this morning, after a trip to the post office with a bunch of eBay packages to mail. The post office wasn't as crowded today as I thought it would be, but I'm sure that will change as we get deeper into December here.

I've always found neat things at the fabric store, and what I was looking for today was some silky red ribbon. My Christmas dinner placecards have porcelain Santa-face buttons on them, and I bought a box of eight Santa-face blown glass ornaments at Marshall's the other day. I thought the Santa ornaments would make a nice table-gift, one at each place-setting for Christmas Day. But they needed a little ribbon bow attached to the little hook at the top, and I found the perfect ribbon at the fabric store. Right now, all eight Santas are sitting in the box, all tied with little red ribbons and waiting for Christmas dinner.

They had lots of Christmas sales at the fabric store today, and not just on fabric. All of their scrapbooking accessories were 40% off, and they had lots of Christmas things to pick from---- so of course I bought a bunch of them. If you don't get them on sale, those little things get to be expensive. And they had such pretty ones, with shiny papers and glitter. I now have enough cute little Christmas stick-ons to make holiday placecards for the next five years. (I am not into scrapbooking, but I do use all of those 3-D stickers and scrapbook things for my placecards.)

I also looked through the fabric remnants, because you can get such great fabric-ends for next to nothing. This past Halloween, I wrapped up the best-costume prizes in Halloween fabrics that I had bought during the summer--- each half-yard piece costing just fifty cents. This morning, I found a leopard-print plush fabric, two yards of it, for under $2.00...... I will use that as a bed for Gracie up in our bedroom at the cottage. All I have to do is put an old towel or two underneath the fabric to make it even more comfy, and she'll feel right at home. She has a similar doggie-bed here, which is in the corner near my husband's side of the bed, so I'll do the same thing up at Mayberry for her. (No, our pets are not spoiled.)

Another little fabric remnant that I bought this morning is a two-toned brown velvet, with swirls of gold glitter on the front of the material. Gorgeous piece of fabric, wide enough and long enough to be a scarf, which is what I'm going to use it for. The ends of the fabric are seamed up and look finished, but the sides aren't finished but you can barely tell because of the velvet two-tone and the glitter, so I'm going to just leave it as it is. I don't have a sewing machine, and wouldn't know how to use one if I did. I could put a hem on it, which I know how to do, but that would take too long for something that no one would notice. Best to just leave it as it is..... and that beautiful piece of glittery fabric cost less than a dollar.

It was freezing last night, so all three cats were in the house, and all three slept on our bed. As always, ShadowBaby's little kitty-clock woke him at at 4:30, so the other two got up as well. I put them all on the screen-porch for a little while, to remind them how cold it was out there, and they all used the litter boxes while they were in there. When they came back in, they munched on a little dry food and then they all went back to sleep.

The sun is out today and it's warming up a bit.... it will continue to get warmer during the next five or six days.... we won't be back up to 85 degrees, but the high temperature during the day will be around 70. Sweater weather. But at least it won't be freezing. I was outside in the front garden today when the sun was at its warmest.... I brought the lighted deer out front and secured them into the flowerbeds, and then I strung tiny white lights all over the little bushes. I forget the name of those bushes that the gardener planted a few months ago. They sure are slow-growing. I miss the look of the larger shrubs that the gardener pulled up. Oh well, in a few more years, I guess these little bushes will be bigger and fuller. But for right now, the deer look like dinosaurs in a miniature garden.