Brrr, Its Cold or Getting Up Before the Furnace

I wanted to be at work by 5:00 this morning so that I could leave by 1:00 (to get Michele - yippee, she's home for Christmas!!) and not need to use any vacation time. It wasn't really an issue getting up at 4:00 until I got out of bed and realized the furnace hadn't woken up yet. We have a programmable thermostat which gets the furnace started around 5:00 so that the house is toasty warm (OK, not toasty exactly, but it's all relative) by the time I get up at 5:30. Getting up an hour before the furnace is not a good thing to do in my house where hearts are warm, but floors, walls, air, hands, heads, and other extremities are COLD, even when the furnace is full steam ahead!! I think this morning was the first time I've ever been excited about leaving the house to get in the car where I BLASTED the heat! Oh, and I've just realized that when I get home today, the furnace will not be expecting to bring the temperature up to human comfort (again, it's all relative) for a few hours - that's why the beautiful HOME TODAY button comes in so handy! (Of course, when I have days off, it always takes me a few hours of cold and complaining of cold and hot tea and extra socks and my house scarf, hood, and craft room gloves before I think "Oh, that's right, the thermostat doesn't think anyone's home. Let me hit HOME TODAY . . .right after I finish carving this ice sculpture in the front parlor.") [I do have to admit that the coldness in my house is not my furnace's fault - we have a beautiful new furnace that would like to work harder than I allow it. I keep the heat low to build character (ok, ok, I admit it, it's really cuz I'm cheap, but it sounds better to say it's character building !)]

What's that Burning Smell? or Yikes, My Hard Drive is FRIED!!

Technology hasn't been faring well in the Wescott household this year. First, Michele's on-the-road boredom protection, her portable DVD player, went kaput. That was pretty easily remedied with an early Christmas present. Then, the DVD player that's built into our TV decides it only wants to play Mr. Woodcock. So bizarre. It spits out every other DVD. I have a work around though: I put the DVD in, then turn the input to TV so it will keep the disk in the slot, let the TV warm up for about a half hour, and then it works like a dream. Needless to say, we'll be getting a new DVD player after the holidays!

The worst technology flare up, however, was the demise of my beloved laptop. It came upon it rather like a cold. First, the runny nose: my user profile disappeared and all my data went with it. After a little research, I found the data in some hidden folders and was able to add a new user profile. No biggie, I'm thinking, because my research found that Windows Vista sometimes deletes user profiles - it's a "feature." Next, the coughing and stuffy head: all of my pictures and music files disappear. I again think no biggie, they're in those hidden folders, but no. They're really gone. A little more research and I find a way to retrieve "deleted" files since nothing really gets deleted from a computer. After working on it for about nine hours, I'm only able to retrieve about 1/2 of the files because the rest are corrupt. And, alas, I didn't listen to my Dad and back things up regularly. So, at this point, I know there's something pretty significant wrong with my computer. The frequent "CRITICAL HARD DISK ERROR" messages while I was retrieving my files were pretty big clues. The black screen with "UNABLE TO LOCATE HARD DISK" message was another good clue. So, what to do? Well, after telephone coaching from my Dad, I bought and installed a new hard disk and Norton 360 (which I love), then reinstalled the operating system and all my software - an all day affair. That was Saturday. Yesterday, she (the computer) was acting like new, except she wasn't acting like a laptop. For example, the touchpad wasn't working and the control panel had all these options for a desktop and none for a laptop. A little more research and I find that I neglected to install a Dell-specific software package that I was supposed to install BEFORE installing the operating system! Uh oh! Well, thankfully, the components on that disk can be downloaded and installed from dell.com, so I installed the driver for the touchpad, which is now working like a charm. I'm not really sure what else was in that package, but I'll figure it out when I encounter the next thing that doesn't work quite right. And then I'll fix it - I've got mad computer-fixing skills!

Harvesting Carrots

This is a year of firsts for me. In addition to my first foray into online selling and my first craft show, I attempted gardening for the first time. Well, I think I've mentioned that carrots are hands down my very favorite food, so I made sure that there were plenty planted in the garden. Although I worried about the critters, I was trying to follow the advise in one of the gardening books Gloria sent and not harvest them until after the first frost, but before the first freeze, because it's supposed to make them sweeter. Well, on Monday, Michele locked the keys in the house and sent a friend to get me from work while she had another friend take her to Rita's work to get Rita's keys so that she could then get our spare key out of Rita's house.

Well, the first friend dropped me off about a half hour before Michele returned with the keys, so, not one to be idle, I decided to harvest my carrots. And, oh boy, what a lovely haul of carrots. Gloria and I planted short and sweets and at one point when putting down the seeds I accidentally dumped quite a few in one area and then forgot to thin them, so some were VERY short. I washed them off and popped a few of those little babies in my mouth and WOW! I've never tasted a carrot before that was as amazing as these! If carrots weren't my favorites before, they definitely are now! I have plans to try at least five varieties in the garden next year and CANNOT WAIT!!

And I just had to include this image. The minute I pulled this particular carrot out of the ground I thought it looked like a lady's bottom. I'm not sure this one will get eaten.

As Promised - A Pictorial Report on My Very First Craft Show

Michele got in the day of the show at 5am and I picked her up from the truck stop around 6 to go have breakfast. We were able to access the room to set up by 7, so, of course, Michele and I were there by 6:45! Here's the table just after we set it up.

And here are a couple close-ups:

Michele left for home after helping me set up with a promise to bring me lunch around noon. And true to her word she arrived just a minute or two after noon and kept me company the rest of the day. It was great fun to have her with me and so much fun chatting with the other artists. It was just such an amazing day and the best experience ever. And I can't stress enough what a joy it was to have this first craft show experience with a group of artists who over the past few months have become real friends. What a treat and definitely an experience I want to repeat!

An Absolutly Amazing - and Exhausting - Day

Oh wow! I had THE BEST time at the show yesterday!! It was just perfect. What a thrill to have people looking and touching and complimenting AND BUYING my things! And to be surrounded by friends all the while! Most of the other vendors were from the core group of RNESTers that I meet with every month, but there were several others so I got to make new friends. One such new friend was doing her seventeenth show since October! I couldn't believe it! I have some pictures I need to post, but I wanted to let you all know what an amazing time I had and thank you all for the good energy you sent. And thanks to everyone who came to the show - it just filled my heart to see friends and have friends see my creations!

Dry Run

Oh, boy has today been busy! My final push to prepare for the show. I sewed NOTHING today - told myself that if I didn't get it made last night it wasn't getting made (as a consequence, I stayed up VERY late last night!) Today, I focused on making the table tents for my prices and product information, printing tags (because the ones I ordered won't be here until Monday), and do a dry run for the set up of my table. My dear, wonderful, patient friend Deb came over to help me and lend me her creative eye. She helped me arrange the table, put together the two racks for bags and hot pads, and then - bless her heart - tied ribbons and tags on all my coasters and hot pads! Such a great help she was!! I just finished packing everything up and putting everything in a central location so that packing the car tomorrow will be quick and easy. Now I'm going to reheat some pizza, lay on the guest bed, and watch some Star Trek - I'm pooped!

Beautiful Weather

Today was an absolutely gorgeous day: sunny, blue skies, white snow! Really lovely! These pictures are actually from yesterday, though - not as lovely - but I was working too hard to get any pictures today. This first image is the view down my street. I'll take a picture of the same view later in the season when the snow drifts on the sides of the street are above my head from the combination of wind and street, sidewalk, and driveway plows - really magnificent! The picture below is the snow that got in between my storm door and entry door because I forgot to replace the screen with the storm window in the storm door! I can't be expected to remember to do everything, can I?

Snow Days

We had a nice dusting of 2 to 3 inches snow followed by freezing rain today. I love the snow, but, as a sane individual, HATE freezing rain! Freezing rain over snow is such a bear. But, I cannot complain. Michele is stuck - yes, literally stuck - in Wisconsin. She pulled off the road when the weather got really treacherous and stopped at a rest stop and now her truck is stuck in about 4 feet of snow and it's still coming down. I'm just glad she's somewhere safe with lots of food, a bed (built-in convenience), and access to a bathroom - plus lots of other stuck truckers for company! She'll be staying there overnight until the blizzard warning lifts and then, hopefully, someone will be out to get her truck out of the drifts! Prayers are welcome and appreciated!

Getting Behind!! YIKES!!

Well, I forgot that we had our annual congregational meeting at church this weekend, so I've gotten behind on my schedule for the show this coming weekend! YIKES! I have a contingency plan, though. Michele was home Sunday, so she went through all my completed items with me and helped me determine what is a "must make" and what is a "make if I have time." I'm a bit off target on my plan to have everything completed by Wednesday, but that will work out, I think. I had planned on tagging everything on Thursday, but it looks like my tags won't be in until Friday, so that works out just fine. I built in a cushion on Friday by taking the day off, so I think I'm still safe! Fingers and toes are crossed!

MIA

So sorry for such a long absense. I am making the final push to prepare for my team's show on the 13th. I've made a list, checked it twice, trying to find out who's naughty. . . oh, wait, that's not my game! See how crazy it is in December!

Actually, I've been having loads of fun getting ready for my first ever craft show. I'm nervous, but so very excited!! I've given myself a deadline of next Wednesday to finish making everything I want to bring and I feel on track. I just ordered more business cards - can't believe I've burned through 250 already! For one of my last jobs I had a box of work business cards for about three years and used about four! I have a list and a schedule and have done my research and picked the brains of everyone I know who does this regularly and I feel ready. I'm sure that everything will go perfectly even if everything is crazy - it's all about the experience, right?! Thinking back on this year and all the "experiences" and "first ever's" - wow! And all of you have been right there sharing it with me! I wish I could bring you all to my show with me, but I'm planning on taking a bunch of pictures, so it will feel like you were there!