A friend spruced up a photo of Rufus for me to add the proper celebratory mood for welcoming the New Year.

    Hope everyone had a nice Christmas. Mine was OK, no fights for a change. Dinner, which was baked sliced potatoes & pork chops, wasn't quite as boring as expected. And I got some nice gifts; CD's, books, paintbrushes, a new winter coat. Here's a pic of our tree before the packages were opened, my sister added a bunch of gift bags when she arrived & filled things up more.You can see the ornaments better than usual this year and my new mini nutcracker guarding it all.

   This year I became a craft show maven. Nearly every weekend since early Oct. I attended at least 1 craft show, sometimes more than one and one weekend, 2 in a single day, which was a bit much. It was a different view from the other side of the table, as a spectator, instead of a vendor.

   The main reason for going to all the shows was to check some out in case I wanted to be in them, but others were just out of curiosity. I tried to avoid the busiest times, though some shows were so ill attended that the word busy couldn't have been used at any point. It seems that the shows I was thinking of joining were the small, overlooked ones where the sales didn't even net the entry fee. One at the YMCA was awful, tables jammed in hodgepodge fashion by the pool & basketball court, lots of people barely glancing at what was on offer. The best one was combined with a quilt show at the local senior center; high quality crafts in multiple rooms decorated nicely and handmade quilts, some from the 1920's & 30's all around, even hanging from the ceiling like banners.Another good one was at the Irish Heritage Center, though the sales weren't very good at that one. Not sure why, as the crowd was good sized.

    There were plenty of pine cone centerpieces, knitting & other stereotypical crafts at the shows, but well done things too. And some odd items, such as jewelry made out of large coat buttons or teddy bears dipped in wax. The latter reminded me of the figures at Pompeii, but the crafter had no idea what I meant. One lady selling homemade soap had a large cardboard standup of Fabio with a towel drapped around his waist. I just burst out laughing! My purchases were all inexpensive items-- things like notecards, silly pins, a scarf with fish on, a hat with puppy pawprints on. I've always wanted a nutcracker, but the large ones are rather pricey, so I was thrilled to find someone selling small ones at a show this fall.They were all so appealing that I had a hard time deciding, but finally choose this handsome fellow, who stands less than 6 inches tall.

   There's a couple shows I missed because I was sick, so hopefully I'll get to them next year. I won't, however, go to as many as I did this year; it was mostly fun, but sometimes too much of a good thing. It did make the holiday season more festive than usual, obviously the effects of all those pine cones....

   On Monday I met a few pals from my local book group for our annual holiday luncheon. There was supposed to be 4 of us, but Ruth Ann  had slipped on ice that morning & broken her wrist, so was in too much pain to join us. She missed a great outing, with good food & a cute red-haired, bearded waiter. We went to an upscale little restaurant, where they were serving free mocha lattes & we were so busy talking & laughing that the waiter had to return 3 times before we were ready to order. Peg, who'd made the reservations, had requested a window seat, so we had a lovely view of the road construction in front of the building. lol Mary Ann showed us her father in an old-timey photo on the wall, which are filled with antique style pictures & watercolors. Since I don't do parties or revelries as most people do for the holidays, I always look forward to our low key gathering. Being with friends is a wonderful celebration of good cheer.

   Got all my shopping done, decorations have been up for a week and snail mail cards are all on their way or have arrived. My sister has been toying with the idea of reading "Anna Karenina" & I found a nice edition at Barnes & Noble. After sampling a few paragraphs, I intended to read as much as I could of it before giving it to her. But then I stupidly had it gift wrapped at the store! I'll have to get the publishing info from her on Christmas Day so I can look for it at the library. I've read other things by Tolstoy, but not that one.

   I bought my mom several needlework kits & lots of word search puzzle books to keep her busy. Her retirement years are proving to be quite boring & she lacks the confidence to join senior citizen groups that might help, so I try to keep books & other activities around to give her something to do, as she gets even more grouchy when she's bored.

  My sister & I had a good time at the dog show, but I've not yet downloaded the photos from the camera. That will be a future post or two.

   This week I'm doing the holiday decorating. I seem to use up all of my energy clearing spaces for the tree & Nativity set, so it takes longer, but the tree is underway. It's an artificial tree, since I don't believe in  murdering a live one just so I can look at it for 3 weeks in my house. Once the branches are on, I won't allow anyone to help, as I turn into Martha Stewart and want the trimmings done in a precise way.

    I'm also trying to get the rest of my snail mail cards in the mail, which was delayed because I needed stamps. Surprisingly, the line at the post office moved quickly & the stamps even have animals on. The rest of the shopping will probably have to wiat till next week, I'm sure it will be crowded no matter when I go.

   My sister & I are scheduled to attend the Crown Classic dog show on Thursday or Friday. We've been looking forward to it for months. I'll post pics of it afterwards. All in all, a very active week for me.

            ...to all of my Jewish friends

"Christmas in the Barn" went well yesterday. When I set up on Friday, the rustic look of the room instantly appealed to me. It's so western, I imagined a handsome cowboy stepping through the door. My new tabletop set-up worked really well & was easy to transport. There was a nice variety of crafts, all handmade(YAY!), in an area of the church as well as in the Barn. Crowds flowed between the two buildings, people had to park on the church lawn because the lot was full. I was amazed to see so many people & most of them were buying things, not just looking. Quite a few people I knew stopped in, a neighbor, book group members, people from other craft shows, friends, it was great! Most of my fellow crafters were friendly, I really enjoy the sense of cameraderie at these events. And the church volunteers who organized the show were overly helpful & friendly, they really made the crafters feel valued & kept morale at a high level. There was long lines of customers wainting to buy their homemade soups, the flavor I tried was tasty. An older man dressed as Ebeneezer Scrooge (top hat, frock coat, carved cane) strolled though & since the book was fresh in my mind from Tuesday's discussion, I engaged him in debate on some trivia from the novel.  

    The atmosphere was terrific, my sales were decently profitable and the mood was festive. Though it was wintertime cold outside, there was a friendly warmth inside & it's one of the best craft show experiences I've had since starting them in 1992. God bless us everyone!