24 Days of Advent - Day 14 - Precious Friends

Okay, so I know that I went from Day 12 to Day 14! I'm having a hard time keeping up with my daily Advent blog posts.

Today I was able to spend several precious hours with a precious friend whose undergoing chemotherapy. She thought that I was doing her the favor by driving her to her chemo, but really it was the other way around. I was the one who was blessed!

She and I have been friends for 10 years -- we used to be co-workers who shared a cubicle area (cellmates, so to speak), but now work at different places. Since we no longer work together, we just get to spend time and catch up on one another's lives over an occasional lunch (which means there's NEVER enough time)!

Anyway, we got to spend hours and hours together today and I'm just overcome with gratitude! I'm so thankful for my friend and happy that I could help her out, even though I felt like my contribution was just small potatoes.

I always get sad a Christmas time, remembering all the dear ones who have passed away -- parents, grandparents & friends -- but I'm also reminded of how precious relationships are.
Call up an old friend and catch up . . . Write a letter (yes, by hand -- gasp!) to someone far away . . . Tell someone close how thankful you are to have them in your life!

Another Etsy First!

I received an email today from an Etsy seller, silkwormvintage, who was including one of my shop items, the vintage strawberry tin tray, in a treasury she created (I Love Strawberries for Christmas). I'm really pleased (and excited) to be included!

What's an Etsy Treasury? Etsy defines it as an "ever-changing, member-curated shopping gallery comprised of lists of items" and it's usually based on a theme or their favorite items. Any member can create a Treasury list and edit it as often as they like. Members can use treasuries as a great way to shop (for example, by search of 'strawberries'), click through to the items and leave comments. The number of views your list receives as well as the number of clicks the items featured in your list receive are displayed in the list's Stats section. The cool thing is that Etsy then features some treasuries on the home page!

When my life slows down a little (when will THAT be?), I plan to create a list or two myself!

Fresh Pickings!

I know that there are people who won't sink to picking things out of the trash, but I'm not one of them! Yesterday, I went south on our road instead of north (which is my normal route) and saw this little table sitting at the curb under a tree. It had obviously been there a few days -- water from the recent rains had pooled on the top and the veneer on the cutwork sides (what was left of them) was all separated.

It's nice and heavy and has good old bones, though. It just needs a little love. . . okay, and a little veneer -- and cutwork added to the sides -- and paint -- or stripper and stain and varnish. I'll post pictures when I'm finished working on it!

Fun Stuff from the Memphis Trip

We just got back from a long weekend 'mini-vacation' to visit our dear friends Mark & Kally in Memphis (more pictures and *hopefully* a video will follow later). We had a GREAT time and went through every state possible in a direct trip there and back: Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Arkansas, Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio and (thanks, Kally, for the 6-mile round trip so that I could say I'd been there) Mississippi.

We visited a few antique shops on the way down, mostly in Indiana and Illinois. Thanks to my friend 'treasure seeker', I've gotten in the habit of taking my camera along and snapping a picture of the shops. I really liked Markle Antique Mall in Markle, Indiana and got a few things there.
I got to put the lessons I learned about 'boopie' glasses and candlewick from 'treasure seeker' to use at this booth.
My favorite Illinois antique mall was Rend Lake Antique Mall outside of Benton, Illinois -- it was great. That's where I got the tumbler and Kitchen Parade cloth below.

The booth in this picture was my favorite one & displayed really well!

Then I got to go to Kally's favorite shop, Sheffield Antique Mall in Collierville & we had a wonderful time (as we always do when we're together). There's no treasure you can buy that's as precious as a true friend!

Here are the treasures I came home with (and I don't think I even spent as much as Jim's one round of golf!)

An orange chenille rug decorated with big, bright pom-poms
A 'Kitchen Parade' small tablecloth or large towel
A vintage dishtowel decorated with vegetables
A wire holder for my swanky swigsA tumbler from a feed store that says
'Egg Atoms' for 'Mountains of Eggs'
(the hen is shown on an egg mountain to prove that it's real)
A barkcloth pillow cover large enough for one of my old metal lawn chairs
When I got home, I went back to Livingston Antiques and got a little yo-yo man that I'd had my eye on and was afraid might be gone. He's really a clown, but since he doesn't have a scary face, I don't have to be afraid of him!

Now, with my new austerity program, I have to get rid of as many things as I brought into the house +1 more. We'll see how THAT goes!

News from Florida

Well, we're down in Naples. Actually, we're in Bonita Springs in a condo with a lovely view of the gulf -- we're about a block away. When the traffic noise dies down we can even hear the waves.

Last night we had dinner with some old friends -- Robin & Bob -- from Illinois and it was so good to see them! We were REALLY close to Robin when we lived in Crystal Lake and her son John & Danny were great friends, but we'd all lost touch somehow over the 14 years we've been in Michigan. We didn't even know that she'd relocated to Florida. We reconnected through Facebook just a few weeks ago.

We had such a good time last night -- it was like we'd never been apart! I know we could have sat & talked for hours. Reconnecting and spending time with her was just the lift I needed. We got a chance to get to know Bob better, too -- they married 6 or 7 years ago, after we had moved.

The only bad thing about catching up with old friends is that you miss them that much more and we're now about 1000 miles apart instead of a few hundred! We'll be sure to keep in touch from now on.

I remember all the gloom and doom predictions of how computers would isolate people and render them incapable of relationships, but I have found that (at least in my case) computer networking has fostered relationships and made it easier for me to keep in touch with people I care about.