Cabin Fever

Still freezing here.... still raining.... the cats are getting cranky with one another, and all three of them (along with Gracie) are following me around and getting in my way most of the day. Too cold for them to go out on the screen-porch, and they all want to play. ShadowBaby and AngelBoy want to go out in the yard, but it's too wet and too cold. Gracie wants to lay out in the sun on the deck, but there hasn't been a drop of sunlight for days. (Zillions of drops of rain, however.)

On the bright side.... I'm getting a lot of reading done. My pile of books-to-be-read has dwindled from twenty-something to less than half a dozen. Some have made it to my own bookshelves, and others are on the give-away pile for friends who come to visit. Still others are stacked up and ready to be added to the Valentine party gift bags.

I went out to the post office today with eBay packages... hardly anyone out on the roads in all this wet and cold weather. Mostly everyone who can stay home is staying home, I guess. Me included. All I did was go to the post office and come right back home and add another sweater to my layers. I drove my husband's car today because I didn't want to get mine wet.... and I sure did miss those heated seats in my little car.

We got another handmade thank you card today from our friends C and R... they had come here for dinner and Scrabble last week, and R (who is very artistic) put together a wonderful card to thank us for the evening. I have saved all of her thank you cards-- she sends us a card after each dinner or party invitation. Her pretty cards inspired me today, so I got out my boxes of old greeting cards and ribbons and tid-bits and what-nots.... all those little things that I save because they're just too pretty to toss away.

I started by making a Valentine card..... which came out pretty good, so I will probably make some more of those. Then I got to thinking about a thank you card for C and R-- they've invited us to their house next week, for another night of dinner and Scrabble. Honestly, how can I send R a store-bought card after she has sent me so many pretty handmade ones? And the one I send to R has to be good, considering the great ones she has made for us.

Into the boxes I went.... looking for pictures and ribbons.... tiny beads and flowers.... I found everything I needed, and then some. Best thing to do--- get the blank card and lay everything out and see what really works well together, which I did. When you do it that way, you realize that you don't need as much for a collage as you originally thought you did. After much arranging and re-arranging, I got the card to look exactly as I wanted it to look. Out came the glue gun and the paste, and the card is now finished and looks quite nice. Seems funny to have the thank you card for next week's dinner already finished, but I wanted to get it all set while I had the design in my mind.

I will have to tell my Aunt Dolly about all my hat boxes filled with odds and ends, tid-bits and tiny trinkets, ribbons and pretty papers. My aunt has similar boxes stashed up in her attic... she has saved bits of pretty things for as long as I can remember, which is why I've done the same thing for as long as I can remember. Aunt Dolly was always searching in those boxes for tiny things to decorate packages and gift tags, placecards and wrapping papers. Her "treasures," as she called them.... "treasures too pretty to just throw away."

Rainy days.... they're like the holidays.... gets you to thinking, and gets you walking down memory lane. Which isn't a bad thing, I guess..... but it is indeed sad to realize just how quickly all the years have flown by.