And another thing . . .

I wore my underwear inside out today. I noticed just before I went to a dentist appointment so I didn't have time to change it. "Aw man, that's going to bug me all day until I fix it." Never thought of it again. So there is an upside to brain deterioration.

My paper order arrived last night! (The holiday rush slowed down delivery - it's usually just 3 days or so. I was starting to get antsy when I tracked the package and saw it was scheduled to be delivered the 11th.) So now I can start assembling my personal Christmas cards to send out. I work at Village Gifts all day tomorrow so I'm thinking I'll cut all the paper tonight and/or in the morning so I can work on the cards there during slow periods. Of which I hope there are none!

I worked Thursday night and had a few more customers than last Thursday. The owners came down around 7:30 to close up 30 minutes early. I noticed we have one or two new vendors. I worked on some stitched trees which I may use as my own gift tags or something.

I think the boxed cards buying season is probably over so while I may still sell a few more single cards, it's time to start concentrating on the new designs. Here are some thank you cards I made tonight.

This is one of my new stamps, embossed in red. I need to get permission from the stamp company and put their name on the back (grrrr) before I sell these. I'll sell these inexpensively by the box, probably 8 cards for $5.00.

Embossed in Mediterranean Blue. Same price, 8 cards for $5.00, I think.

How cute is this? This textured paper is my new favorite thing, I have it in several colors. I bought a 1-1/2" square punch at The Stamp Pad last weekend. That's something I never thought I'd buy because I can cut squares easily enough with my paper cutter. But since it was 20% off, I went for it and am really glad I did. It's fast, it's perfect, it's easy. After the fact, I realized I can also use it to punch squares out like this - meaning use the hole it leaves, not just the punched out part. That multi-part flower is foam mounted on the inside of the card so it peeks out the window. It's held together with a silver eyelet. And there's still plenty of room to write a note inside. I was going to stamp thank you in these too but I may just leave them blank but put them in the "thank you card section". I may box some of these and sell them singularly too.

As always, I welcome any ideas and thoughts on this stuff.

I'll be putting these up on Pine Tree Designs soon, along with a place for satisfied customers to leave comments. Thanks to V for her stunningly brilliant idea about the comments box.

Enough shop talk.

I finished listening to It's Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life by Lance Armstrong and Sally Jenkins. As I said before, this was the abridged version but still, I recommend it because it's an amazing story. But as a person, he comes off as not very likeable and is pretty candid in the book about his faults. (I kept thinking if this is what he's admitting to publicly, you know there's probably more to it. Human nature and all.) It was a little weird listening to it, ending with his first Tour de France win, then the birth of his son, declaring his love for his wife. He went on to have twin girls with her and now they are divorcing. Ann mentioned in the comments the other day she'd seen where he's now dating Sheryl Crow, which seems to be true from what I surfed on the net. I could not find a picture though - guess they really are hush-hush about it. Several pieces I read said he's going through an "ugly" divorce from his wife, possibly based on his infidelity. After listening to his book I'm not surprised, given his egocentric personality.

Speaking of gossip, I always read People Magazine at this dentist's office while the hygienist cleans my teeth. (No, actually my arms don't get tired.) I read that Nicole Kidman and Tom Cruise have an excellent divorce. She invited her love interest, Lenny Kravitz and his kids to some island to celebrate Christmas - and invited Tom Cruise and his love, Penelope Cruz as well. So their kids get to be with both of their parents for the holiday. They all get along great says People. I thought that was pretty amazing and admirable. News you can use by People.

And you may also recall that not too long ago I listened to Lucky Man: A Memoir by Michael J. Fox and loved it. I think he's terrific and very likeable. He's so open about his disease and how it affects his life. He says he knows he looks goofy - head rolling and bobbing around and he walks funny sometimes - who cares, he says. Good for him. After all, he spent 7 years "in the closet" about having Parkinson's. He said he received tons of mail from other PD patients once he went public. He's very involved in the PD community and is heavily involved in his Michael J. Fox Foundation, dedicated to finding a cure. I've learned a lot about stem cell research and made one of my monthly donations to his foundation.

I bring this up because look what I found in People:

That would be Michael in the gray t-shirt and glasses, singing with my main squeeze, Bruce Springsteen (in the turned around baseball cap) at the Stone Pony in Asbury Park, NJ. How freakin' cool is that?? That's the bar where Bruce got his start and it's well known that he pops in from time to time. This was a concert to benefit the Parkinson's Disease Foundation and he made an unbilled appearance for the 4th year in a row. Unbilled but not unexpected at this point, right? But Michael's appearance was a surprise to the audience. They sang "Light of Day", which Bruce wrote for the movie Mike starred in with Joan Jett in 1987. Mike had a band in high school so I'm sure he was having a blast. What fun!

Tonight, I picked up Tuesdays with Morrie to listen to next. I didn't check but I think it's an abridged version as well, but the author reads the book so that should be good. I'm not sure how I think I'm going to drive and listen to it and cry at the same time.

Oh. And another thing. (Ha!) I'm getting a sore throat and I'm plenty pissed about it. I started with the Echinacea today and extra vitamin C. I'll take Nyquil tonight to ensure I get some good sleep. (Stella, you must cringe when you read that Nyquil part - what else can I do for myself - what herbs do you recommend for warding off colds and such?)

If you would like me to send you a Christmas card, email me your address. Sending me a card is strictly optional of course, but if you'd like to, tell me in the email and I'll send you my address.