Treating Myself

I did fairly well at my craft shows this year, which was nice!  I'd been scrimping and saving for awhile and was finally able to do a little bit of retail therapy and treat myself to some fun and necessary stuff, like a new plastic power dome for the NuWave Oven since the old one cracked and was being held together with Spell-O-Tape strapping tape. They've FINALLY come out with one that's allegedly indestructible.  Time will tell.  It should be noted that it's been ages.....years even....since I have been able to treat myself like days of old when I used to get a generous Christmas bonus.  I was torn about doing it but Russell encouraged me to treat myself for a change.

I am not crazy about paying tons of money for shoes and clothes, but the only walking shoes that fit me are Saucony and they are rather pricey.  I do a lot of walking and my current shoes are completely worn out.  The fact that the new ones are purple and blue took the sting out of the cost.

Have I mentioned how much I love beaded cross stitch and celestial designs?  No?  Well I got some kits....2 are still on back order.

I love the look of resin jewelry so I got a starter kit to check it out.  Seems like it has a lot of possibilities!!!

My Seahawks made it to the post season again this year so I had to get this tie dyed shirt to wear for the playoffs as I've practically worn out the shirt Rhonda got me last year.

Russell loves the show 'Gold Rush' so I got him a panning kit for his birthday awhile back.  We just don't really have anywhere to use it around here because this area isn't known for gold.  Then one of my friends posted a link to purchase pay dirt that is guaranteed to have at least $300 worth of gold. We won't even attempt this till spring when it gets warm out.  It was only $30 so I thought I'd give it go.

This is my new computer which I'm still getting used to. But I spent New Years Day conquering my fears by loading and using all the things that I use almost daily:  SD card pictures, the external hard drive and my basic photo editing program.  It has some quirks, but I'm working on figuring it all out. My bookmarks on Chrome were all recovered without issue and that was more than half the battle. The mouse is a little bit wonky, and that's probably my biggest complaint.  But the machine is very lightweight and thin, which is a huge plus.  My old one is in the back room....I can't bear to get rid of it yet, although everything's off the hard drive.  I can't close the lid or else it will completely break apart.  I have to say how pleased I am at the drop in price since the first one I got in 2008.  This was half the cost and my friend Glenn did all the set up and scans and updates for me.  I will say that this new one has a very frustrating touchpad and mouse that gets stuck constantly and then zooms around and starts opening up links and crap on webpages.  It's kept me from wasting as much time online all day because it pisses me off so much that I just want to hurl it across the room.  I am going to have to pick up an external plug in mouse because this one is driving me batcrap crazy.

I lost out on a marble collection on ebay on Christmas Day and I was pretty crushed.  We both were actually...I was the only bidder when we went to bed and then I got sniped when the auction ended at 3:00 am when we were sleeping.  Russell wanted to set the alarm for 2:45 so we could check the status but I didn't want to get up in the middle of the night just for that.  So I did a couple of inexpensive 'buy it nows' and purchased these. The large bag in the center are all crystals, which were always my fave.  Some people call them 'clearies' but I always knew them as 'crystals'.  The baggies all around contain some very unique pieces.  Some contemporary, some regular boring cats eyes, but also quite a few unique marbles including Bennington clays and one that is unglazed and still rough.  Either that or it was found on a beach.

I discovered that there are some sellers, unfortunately from China, on ebay who sell high quality charms and beading supplies for far less than any of my bead catalogs.  I took the opportunity to stock up on items that I have run out of over the past couple of years.  Bead spacers, gears, wings, sea themed and celestial charms.

Amazon.com is so much more than just books, music and DVDs.  I had no idea I could get so many craft supplies, and a lot cheaper than on other websites and/or in stores.  One of my friends sent me a bunch of tins last year and I thought they'd make cool candles so I got some wax and wick to give it a whirl.  More diamond tip drill bits for drilling through bottles.  Liquid silver gilding, and alcohol inks that I've wanted for awhile but never bought due to the high cost.  

Back in 2005 when I went to Victoria, I picked up a pink shirt that said 'Victoria Clipper Crew' and have pretty much worn it to death.  It's so faded and beat up that it's one of my summer sleep shirts. I realized that I wanted a replacement, and being far away from there, I knew the only way would be to try and get it online.  Unfortunately they don't have a page for their gift shop, only a list of stuff that's on the ship.  So I called them up and asked if they still sold the Crew shirts and they said yes, but not in pink just dark blue.  I don't care, I just wanted one!  I decided to get a colouring book too, even though I wasn't sure what was going to be in it, but it was only $2, so I added it to the order.  

My last  'treat' showed up yesterday afternoon!!! I ordered myself a 'no sew blanket' kit.  But not just any design, a Seattle Seahawks design!  I was cruising around online looking for a Hawks blanket but I just could not find them in a fabric or style that I liked.  I have nice, warm, comfy 49ers and Mariners blankets, but the Hawks ones weren't nice at all, especially for the price.  But then I stumbled on a link to the Ben Franklin Crafts in Monroe, WA Facebook page, who was selling the 2 pieces of comfy fleece fabric in kit form.  I am hoping that I am able to make it before the Hawks play Green Bay on Sunday.  The instructions says it should take an hour, so I'm guessing it'll take me at least two or more.  

Yes, I think I did quite well in the 'treating myself' department!  You just have to indulge sometimes.

Closing Out The Year

I had to shoot one last experimental picture before the decorations came down.  I would like to do this again with a bigger tree, but overall I'm pleased with the effect.

I had .60 off a gallon of gas with my Stop & Shop points, which made my fill up under $2/gallon. First time since the early 00s.

Cheapest fill up in 14 years.  HOLLAH!

New Years Day was beyond lazy.  Well.....for hubby and the dogs anyway!  I worked on my new laptop, did laundry, made pasta fazool, finished putting the decorations away, prepped blog posts and put the Christmas cards in my scrapbook.  Before the decorations were completely done, I found that starfish ornament in my craft room, courtesy of Ms. Peepers.  She just loves that starfish.  I picked it up to put away but she was standing there so I bent over and offered it to her just to see what she'd do and she gently took it from me.  So cute.  But I didn't want it to get ruined so I took it back and put it away in bubble wrap.  

"Mama! Can I get a scritcher?"

I just love that sweet face! February will be 12 years since I got her.

Late December in Sandwich

My cousin Diane was in town from Maryland for a week so we met up for breakfast and a walk around Sandwich to shoot pictures.  It was a very quiet Monday morning between Christmas and New Years and a gorgeous day.

The town had some early evening events planned for New Years Eve, or First Night as it's called around here. 

Grist Mill

Newcomb Tavern (which I think is either a private home now or a B&B).

Back of Town Hall & the Grist Mill

Newcomb Tavern with the pond tree.

Shawme Pond

Glass Museum

And the "soft glow of electric sex in the window" at the Heart of Stone gift shop.

Getting Soaked Pursing My Hobbies

It's been ages since I went beachcombing! Between the holidays and prepping for my craft shows, I didn't get a chance to go to the beach for well over a month.  Of course the day I decided to finally go, it started to rain on the way there.  But that's OK....that meant I'd probably have the place to myself.  So off to Scusset I went.

In time for low tide.

You can't tell, but it was raining fairly hard, and windy, which made walking the beach a rather arduous task.

Still though; found this nice big piece of crockery.

If it hadn't been raining so hard, I would have decorated this more with stones and shells.

It was pretty slim pickins, glass-wise, and the walk to the breakwater was very long in that rain.

Then I found this gorgeous piece partially buried in the sand.  It's finds like these that make it all worth it.

By this point I was soaked through my raincoat so I was really humping it to get back to the car.  No marathon beachcombing sessions to Sagamore Beach and back!!!

The stones were very unusual this time around too.  I would have collected a huge sackful if not for the weather.

About 14 pieces of glass...one shaped like a heart and that one crockery bit.

That triangular one at the top center could be a piece of crockery too, but it's really hard to tell for sure.