Indulge Your Shelf

Surprise! At the end of this week, I'm celebrating my first Blogaversary! Yes, one year ago I began this blog, not my first and probably not my last, but certainly my most fun one! I've really enjoyed this year on Indulge Your Shelf, especially getting to know all of you -- the wonderful friends I've met here in Cyberspace! To celebrate, I've decided to offer a giveaway: a snowman ornament, handmade by me ! I made these ornaments over the weekend, from a tutorial that was part of the Artist Class I took. I just love the way they turned out -- they're whimsical, aren't they? This is the exact snowman you could win: He is made with Creative Paperclay, painted in acrylic paint, dressed in antique dictionary pages, and dusted with sparkly glitter! My giveaway is open to anyone the world over, and you can enter to win him by commenting ON THIS POST ONLY anytime between now and 11:59 p.m. MT on Friday, December 11, 2009. I will choose a winner on Saturday, Dece...

I just had to show you this beautiful offering by my friend Linda on eBay! It's a gorgeous sequined blouse from the '40's or even earlier, plus a velvet wrap that's unlike any I've ever seen and truly beautiful! This is the back: She's including as a bonus a lovely black evening bag from the same era, and a string of pearls! If only I thought I would fit in this, it would be mine ! I'll bet my Aunt Delores dressed up in something similar when she went out dancing, back in the day. Today my husband and I drove to north Denver to pick her up so she could stay with us for the weekend. She was visiting a cousin there for Thanksgiving. Tonight after dinner I enjoyed showing her some of the crafts I've been making lately. Tomorrow she will be helping us with the wreaths! I plan to take her to some thrift stores, too.

Our Thanksgiving was peaceful and lovely. We cooked at home and had no company this year, which was different but very nice. Look at my husband (ignore the tie, please...): does he look like he's about to turn 50 next week? I'm having a dinner for him this Saturday...shh, it's a surprise! Ever since September I've been looking so forward to the holidays; now that the season is upon me, I'm scrambling. I did get the bulk of my Christmas cards sent yesterday, whew! And, the tree is up and lit, but not yet decorated. All the outdoor lights are up, too, which makes the house look very merry and bright! We've even had one stint of cookie-making at a friend's house. We both expected our sons, 7th and 8th graders, respectively, to lose interest quickly in favor of the Xbox, but were surprised at how much they got into the decorating! One thing that's making this such a hectic week is that I'm in charge of the wreath project for my son's local Sc...

I wrote about 9k words over the last couple of days, and 5k of it was last night, and 4k of it was this morning until early afternoon. I'm so happy to have finished! I'm also so pleased to have found the book's title, on page 90 as I was writing it: Stepping Stones, Straddling Fences. Now I'm going to go see a movie with my husband and son, and then we're going to get some dinner out. There's only so much turkey you can eat, you know? I hope everyone had a lovely Thanksgiving and I look forward to catching up with you all in the next few days, now that MY NOVEL IS FINISHED!

As promised, here is the full list of participating shop from the Etsy Bloggers Street Team, organized by shop type (mine is under Vintage): ☆:*¨¨*:★:*¨¨*:☆:*¨¨*:★:*¨¨*:☆:*¨¨*:★:*¨¨*:☆:*¨¨*:★:*¨¨*:☆: H a p p y H o l i d a y s ! ! H a p p y S h o p p i n g ! ! ☆:*¨¨*:★:*¨¨*:☆:*¨¨*:★:*¨¨*:☆:*¨¨*:★:*¨¨*:☆:*¨¨*:★:*¨¨*:☆: *=*=*=*=*=*=*=* Accessories *=*=*=*=*=*=*=* Visart http://visart.etsy.com Holiday sale - 20% off all product orders over $50.00 before shipping (not includes custom orders) Hand made polymer clay accessories, beads and buttons. Wild Goose Chase http://www.WildGooseChase.etsy.com 15% off all items! Refund will be issued through PayPal after payment is received. Enter "Etsy Bloggers Sale" in the message to seller at checkout to receive cash back. Low priced stocking stuffers including One-Of-A-Kind awesome mirrors. *=*=*=*=*=*=*=* Art *=*=*=*=*=*=*=* tapestry316 http://www.tapestry316.etsy.com Huge sale featuring my watercolor paintings,...

It's Wednesday and all I have on my plate, so to speak, for today is to bake two pumpkin pies, clear my crafts off the dining room table so we can eat there tomorrow, and continue writing my novel. I have ~14k words to go and we're counting down with 5 more days -- yikes! Today, NaNoWriMo winners around the globe are uploading their novels into the work counter and sporting lovely "winner" icon/bars on their profiles. But not me. Not yet . I'm a little worried. This morning, I'd received a pep talk email from NaNoWriMo, and I particularly enjoyed it. It's by an author named Robin McKinley , and part of it went like this: I have always been a write-each-draft-straight-through-and-don’t-look-back storyteller; it’s the way I develop a feel for the pacing, for where the high and low, careening and meditative, places of each story are—and how I discover where and how it's going to end. Consistency and clarity (and spelling) begin to emerge in the second...

This month's Etsy Bloggers Street Team featured blogger is a regular read of mine: Becky Kazana, aka The Fab Miss B . Her Etsy shop can be found here . I love visiting Becky's blog because it's colorful, in so many ways. In fact, if I were to try to find a word to characterize her blog, shop, and style, the best I could come up with is "fanciful." In the best of ways! Becky recently moved to Hawaii (life's rough) and I have enjoyed her posts from that tropical paradise. Here are some of my favorite items from her shop : Mimi, the Chenille French Poodle Lena, the Burlesque Pipette I told ya: fanciful! Be sure to stop by and see Becky at her blog!