Indulge Your Shelf

It took my many years, but I finally reached the milestone of 1,000 sales in my Etsy shop, Indulge Your Shelf .  I've had so much fun with the shop over the years!  In fact, I started this blog specifically as a way to help market the shop!  It felt so good to finally get to 1000! When I first opened the shop, I sold some of my handmade crafts fashioned from antique and vintage materials: pillows, journals, Christmas ornaments, etc. And I've found amazing treasures at thrift shops, garage sales, estate sales, etc. -- and listed them in the shop.  Wonderful things that I didn't need but that I knew someone would love.  And they did!  They went up in my shop and soon they were found by someone who'd been searching for JUST that thing and they would buy it and love it and gush about it!  It makes me so happy! Things that I loved myself but just had no use for -- like the barkcloth fabric draperies above, perfect for a child's room... And sometimes when so...

One of my FB pages invited us to share a favorite recipe; I shared this one, and the story of my dear friend Fran, and it was so wonderful to spend time thinking of her!  She's been gone since 2008 and I will always miss her. Fran and I met when I was in my early 20s and, despite the difference in our ages, found we shared so many things.  We loved the same foods, art, past times and hobbies.  She became one of my closest friends and remained so for many years! This is her recipe for Christmas cookies; they are something like meringues, and different because they are pale green.  The sweetness with the addition of the mint flavor makes them very memorable!  The cookies were a regular on my Christmas cookie tray for many years -- even though back then, in the 1980s, they were already old fashioned! If you read through the recipe, you'll see how they got their name.  I always made them as the very lats batch after a long afternoon or evening of baking!

We've all been through the wringer in 2020, haven't we?  So many feelings -- confusion, fear, pain, loneliness, unrest, just to name a few.   Here is my year in photos, so far: Yep, it has been nuts. I hope you, too, are surviving as best you can!