I very rarely double post..but I had to do it!

Got my book trailer uploaded to Youtube FINALLY!!! Please watch and tell me what you think!!

A Bitch Named Karma~Book Trailer

My PSA for the day...

Friends don't let drunk friends go to the bathroom alone.

I was at an after Christmas party a few days ago. It was held at a venue downtown..a club sort of place where concerts are sometimes held. The party had a DJ spinning 90's tunes and there were two performers: an ACDC cover band and Tone Loc. My good friend wanted to go to celebrate his birthday (which was on Christmas), so a bunch of us went. It was only $20 a person if you bought your ticket before a certain date. Oh and it included open bar from 10 till 2.

We had a fantastic time- dancing and belting out the lyrics to the songs we jammed to in high school. Drinks were flowing and going down quite nicely but we are a pretty responsible bunch and know our limitations. We make sure there are DD's and everyone gets home safe.

And I was never so thankful for my fantastic girlfriends as I was when I stood waiting in line in the bathroom. From under one of the stalls you could see a women, obviously extremely plastered, who was sitting on the floor. Half her butt crack was hanging out. Then she layed down.

Now if you've never been to something like this...imagine for a moment, a public bathroom, disgusting enough on it's own, but now people are spilling drinks. The floor is sopping wet with a mix of liquor and who knows what else. I was completely grossed out when the hem of my jeans got all wet...imagine that all over your body. Yuck...gross...hand me a gallon of hand sanitizer.

So anyway, this girl is laying on the floor and she's crying. She sits up and she's obviously trying to open the door and she can't. Her shoes came off...so now she's barefoot. Those of us on the outside are now trying to help her. One girl somehow gets in and is helping her. I go to the bathroom and leave.

But the whole time I'm wondering...where the hell are this girl's friends??? There was no one there with her.

So my advice this New Year's Eve...please....don't let your drunk friends go to the bathroom alone...you just never know when they'll end up alone on the floor crying.

Have a fun and safe New Year's Eve celebration! And be responsible!!

Got my Sony Reader!! Yay!

Hubby outdid himself this year and presented me with the Sony Reader Pocket for Christmas!

I'd played with them in the store, but honestly, I was not really prepared for how cool it would feel to hold one in my hands...not attached to a cord or a stationary post in the store. It felt so nice!!! :)

Of course I right away bought my editor's book...the one I'd been wanting to read forever!! And then I ran into trouble. The Sony software is HORRIBLE!! With some extremely helpful advice, I downloaded a different program and now I am up and running! Haven't started reading anything on it yet though....still have some library books I need to finish!!

So I need to know all your best tips and tricks and the best ways to save on ebooks!! My editor sent me a link to Harlequin...they're giving away a bunch of free ebooks! I was so so excited to have a bunch of books uploaded to my Reader! Please share your experiences with the Sony Reader, regular or pocket edition. I read mostly great reviews on it....a few bad ones...but you can't please 100% of the people 100% of the time.

The story left me quite unfulfilled....

I worry about this in my own writing.

Last night we watched Public Enemies...a movie about John Dillinger, played by a sexy Johnny Depp. Normally movie or books about crime and violence are not my thing...but I have a curiosity and affection for stories of days gone by. So even though I knew the movie wasn't exactly my cup of tea, I wanted to watch it.

But I was disappointed for a couple reasons.

First of all, the movie started in the middle of the story. John was being hauled off to jail after being on parole for only 8 weeks- he had spent the 9 years before that in this same prison. He seems to have gotten himself sentenced on purpose and breaks out his buddies. He continues with his bank robbing with the aid of the friends he made while in the slammer. But I am left wondering what the heck happened between his parole and where the movie started. You do find out later that the original prison sentence was for stealing $50 worth of groceries....but I want to know why he started robbing banks. The movie only chronicles the end of his crime career and life. The movie ended and I never got a sense of why he did what he did. I wanted to know what those 8 weeks were like....I wanted to know more of his story...not just the end of it.

And the other part that disappointed me was the romance part of the story. So incredibly unbelievable. Basically he sees this woman in a bar (or whatever they were called in the 30's), goes up to her, asks her to dance. They leave and go to a restaurant....he tells her who is and tells her he wants her to come with him and he'll take care of her for the rest of their lives. This is the point where I say...what the??? I am a romantic through and through...I write romance.....and I often use the "love at first sight thing" in my stories....but seriously?? This was just too quick, too easy.....too unbelievable for me.

I know this is a true story and maybe that is how it all really happened...but I walked away wanting much more than what this movie gave me. I truly hope my stories never do this to my readers!

Is absolute truth always the best policy???

I'm referring to book reviews today.

I belong to Goodreads and really enjoy keeping track of books I've read and sharing my thoughts, reading what others have to say and see who agrees with me and who doesn't. I used to be brutally honest....no point in sugar-coating stuff like that. And as a reader, I think that is necessary. Writers need that stuff...they learn from it...well...at least I do.

But as a writer??? Hmmm.......is honestly really the best policy??

Someday my books will be out there for the world to enjoy and scrutinize and I know not everyone will adore my stuff, I know bad reviews will happen. Can't please everyone....and this business is more subjective than any out there.

But what if other writers see me on Goodreads and read my reviews and OMG what if they see I wrote a not so pleasant review of their book??? Or just in general....should a writer be saying negative things about other writers' work??

Here is where I struggle once again between being a plain Jane reader and a writer. The reader in me wants to be honest, the writer wants to be pleasant.

What's your pleasure?????

Today I'm talking about pleasures....the guilty kind! This time of year we relax into all kinds of guilty pleasures from sugary treats, to corny holiday movies and that hippopotamus song.

You're probably singing it in your head now, aren't you???

"I want a hippopotamus for Christmas, only a hippopotamus will do..."

But anyway....I'm here to question why these silly things are considered "guilty" pleasures. The definition for guilty pleasure is: something one considers pleasurable despite feeling guilt for enjoying it. Often, the "guilt" involved is simply fear of others discovering one's lowbrow or otherwise embarrassing tastes, rather than actual moral guilt.

If someone feels pleasure from something...if someone enjoys something...why should they feel guilty about it?? If the pleasurable activity is not hurting anyone...then why not be proud?? There is so much in this world that is depressing and very un-pleasurable. I'm not going to waste any time feeling guilty for liking what I like.

So come on...share you pleasures!! Any of them...I won't make fun of you!!!!

Me...here are a few of the simple things in life that bring me true joy and I don't care who knows!!

New Kids on the Block (and those of you who know me, know I have NO problems what so ever shouting to the world that I am a huge Blockhead!!)
All 80's music
Boy Bands: Backstreet Boys, N'Sync, LFO, 98 Degrees, OTown
Patsy Cline
Dirty Dancing
America Pie Movies (only the three with Jason Biggs...not all the ones that followed)
Scrapbooking
Chick Lit and Romance Books (and I like the sexy scenes too!)
Dancing with the Stars
All My Children
Disney World
Celebrity Gossip Mags

I will add more later when I think of them!!

This will be my last post before the holiday!! Have a wonderful week!!!!!

It's OFFICIAL!!! I'm beginning this journey!!

I received an email from my editor today...yep...round 1 of copy edits!!!!

I am beyond excited for this!! Yes, this all started months ago when I had a "Congratulations" email in my inbox. But now is when it REALLY starts! She told me she loved it and did the entire edit in seven days time!

And she prepared me for what lays heads. I know it's not gonna be all compliments and adoration...I know a ton of work is in my immediate future. But the work will be worth it. This time....editing is getting me where I want to go...it's not just endless work that might get me somewhere. And I have a professional to guide me along the way!

She'd like it back by Jan. 15th...yeah...not a problem! I'm lucky in that I get a solid 3 hours a day while my son naps. Plus, the way I'm feeling right now, it may be all I want to do over the next few days! I say that now....I haven't even opened the file yet. She already warned me that there will be times I will call her names and close my laptop.

Either I'm fabulously brilliant...or really really stupid....

I can't decide which.

Either I take a huge risk and follow my heart and the inspiration that has struck me....or go the safe yet boring route.

Basically....what happened was....a fantastic story idea burst into my brain the other night (I blogged about it here, I couldn't sleep till I wrote it down and the opening scene). Today I finally got down to adding a file to my idea folder in my computer. I wrote the beginning scene and kept on writing. I did not want to stop. Ideas flooded my brain with where to take this story. I typed a quick outline. I turned off the computer and got ready to go out for the evening with my family...more ideas came to me..I jotted them in a notepad. I haven't been this excited and inspired in almost three years...since I started my second novel...the entire 70,000 words that poured out of me in about three months time. The novel that I fell madly, deeply, in love with and finally found a home for it this past summer.

But the timing is so so awful.

I got an email from my editor a few days ago. She will be emailing me my first round of copy edits within the week.

But that's not really the biggest dilemma.

I am attending The Write Stuff conference the end of March. There will be agents there...several of them. I will get the chance to pitch to one of them. I NEED a polished novel to take with me.

Up until today, I was working on a POV change for my third novel, 1st to 3rd. It was a major undertaking but aside from being time consuming, it wasn't as annoying as I'd imagined. It was going well. I had tons of time to do it and have the story perfected by the conference. But this story is...just........there. I love the first chapter, but the rest just has no sizzle. I like the story..it has many endearing qualities, but I never felt the intensity I do for my other novel and the new one. And I don't know how to make it sizzle. I don't know what to do to it to make it something that an agent just HAS to have. I know the story has problems...I've had it out on submission to a good 50 agents not even one partial request. My hope was that a POV change would help.....but my fear is that it needs major work...and I don't have a clue where to even begin.

So.....now I am in quite a predicament.

Do I take the risk...work my little tushie off and complete and perfect a novel in just over 3 months time??? (It is doable...I figured I can write it in 2 months, I would only need about 1300 words a day...completely doable when I am in ultra creative mode- added 30,000 words to my WIP in 3-1/2 weeks time once. People do NaNo every year and do 50,000 in one month.) Then I'd need to edit my heart out the last month.

OR

Do I stick with what I have? I can easily finish the POV switch and clean up the rest. As far as fixing whatever is wrong with it and giving it some sizzle...well.....I just don't know about that. You have to know what's wrong before you can fix something.

Would it be the end of the world if I try option 1 and fail??? No. It's my first conference ever so if I just go and observe, that would be okay too.

So what would you do?? Go with your gut and take a risk.....or stay safe and try to fix what you already have?????

Does the look of a Blog really matter???

When it comes to graphic design and web design and all that good stuff...I am about as dumb as it gets. I know how to use a computer...I can do some maintenance.....I manage pretty well and when something major happens I call up my uncle and he takes care of it for me.

I had a website for my floral business when I was still doing it. It was pretty awesome. I didn't do it, of course. I paid a cousin and his friend to do it. When I needed a website for my writing, I didn't have the cash to pay anyone so I went with a template. Then when I started blogging...again...free template.

Do both of them look nice and presentable??? Yeah, I guess so. They're both neat and tidy. Check out my website if you want to take a peek. Do they serve the purpose?? Definitely. Original??? Not even slightly.

I do have some ideas of what I'd like them to look like, but bottom line, I do not have the money to pay someone to make them all pretty.

And how much do readers care what the blog or site actually look like?? Both of mine are easy to read...I am turned off by hard to read sites and blogs...especially those with dark backgrounds and funky fonts.

In this world of judging books (and most things) by covers, is an uninteresting looking blog page or website a deal breaker??? Or is the content more important?? I'm finally stepping into the publishing industry...and I am a reader myself...I know how important a fantastic cover is.

I love when this happens...I hate when this happens....

Last night I got into bed...it was maybe 11:30, which is a normal bedtime for me. I try to get in earlier if I have a book to read but I hadn't had a chance to get to the library yet. And if I don't have a book, I cannot get into bed before I am absolutely tired....I just lay there.

So anyway, I got into bed last night and I was tired. I thought I'd fall right asleep. Ah, nope. Somehow a new story idea popped into my head and it's fabulous opening line (we all know how important an opening line is!). When this happens, my brain replays the thought over and over in hope that I will remember it all in the morning. And that NEVER happens. It's gone forever. So I lay there, not wanting to turn on the light. But I knew I had to. The thoughts would not go away until I wrote them down.

So I turned on the light, grabbed a notebook and jotted down the idea and the opening line. The light goes off and I snuggle back under my comforter. But oh no...that wasn't good enough. My brain decides it wants to imagine what will come after that first awesome line. So again, I am forced out of my warm cocoon. I grab the notepad and write a page worth of dialog and text. I could have gone on and on but I stopped, hoping what I had was enough to jog my memory today. And finally my brain allowed my body the rest it desired.

I love when this stuff happens-- an idea comes to me out of no where...something that sounds fun and quirky, something different from what's already out there. I love the thrill of creation.

I hate when this stuff happens because the idea will nag at me till I get it on paper. And usually ideas like this come when I'm knee deep in something else and there is no possible way to start on it. I'm in the middle of my POV change on my 3rd novel and I'll be starting copy edits in the very near future for my 2nd novel. I just cannot start something new right now.

But what an idea it is!! I really love it!! So now I will add it to my "Project Ideas" folder and save it for another day :)

What do you do when inspiration strikes????

Good old-fashioned RomCom!!!

I write contemporary romance and if my books ever become movies...oh...wait....and now my brain has entered the dreamy state of "what if" land...

~~~~ Oh it's so lovely here! My books are adored by millions and so beloved that my story MUST be on the big screen. I see myself walking The Red Carpet for the movie premier of my first novel....camera flashes come from all directions as reporters call me over to ask who I'm wearing and what my inspiration was for writing the book. Inside the Capitan Theater in Hollywood, I get to sit between Zac Efron and Cameron Mathison, the two leading men in the movie. Life is good!~~~~~~~

Okay, now I'm back....so anyway...my movies would most definitely be grouped into Romantic Comedy. I LOVE a good RomCom!! It's probably my most favorite genre of movies. I love to laugh, first of all, and I'm a sucker for the sappy stuff. If it makes me cry....oh yeah...even better!!!

But lately.....most of the RomComs I've rented have been serious duds. I know all romantic books and movies are predictable...the HEA (Happily Ever After) is a given...but still. Make the reader/watcher at least wonder a little bit!!

I watched two movies this week on TV...I've seen them a ZILLION times and it doesn't matter...I cry every time!!

Overboard Yeah...it's old...came out over 20 years ago....doesn't matter one bit! Kurt Russell was still young and Goldie Hawn still had a real face. (I noticed how much Kate Hudson really looks like her mom!) What a story of opposites attract!! And the transformation of a hoity toity rich b%&#* into a loving mother and irresponsible trash into a respectable man. At the end she remembers who she is and tells her "family" she doesn't belong there....the kids run after the limo and the youngest yells "You said moms never leave!". OMG...I'm tearing up just typing it!!! But then Kurt goes after her and Goldie turns her yacht to go back for him and they are reunited! He then finds out the money is all hers and asks- "What can I possibly give you that you don't already have?"....she replies, after gazing lovingly at the boys.... "A little girl." That's good stuff!!

You've Got Mail The story of the big corporation squashing the little guy...but what they don't know is that they're secret internet pals...no names, no faces...just emails and chats. They connect in cyberspace and start to fall in love...then they decide to meet. He sees it's her and stands her up.....he knows the guy in real life is not who she wants. He starts to befriends her and says something to her that makes her think her secret man might be him. She asks to meet in real life again...... they agree on a park. "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" is playing in the background..she starts to cry when she sees it's him. He says "Don't cry Shopgirl" (her internet screen name). And she says "I wanted it to be you." I totally melt here!!!!

The Notebook Don't think this one is RomCom but I couldn't write this post without mentioning it. This movie invokes tears...not just the watering of my eyes....I'm talking full on waterworks....bucketfuls come soaring down my cheeks. And the end...when she remembers but then falls back into her dementia...I can't even imagine the pain of that. Then at the very end...they die in each others arms....don't all couples in love wish they go that way???

What are your favorite RomComs??? How do they make you feel when you watch them???

I'm doing it...I'm changing the POV of my ENTIRE 93,000 word novel.

Yep......I decided it was a must. The entire thing is written in 1st person and sicne it's romance, I decided it would be in my best interest to change it to 3rd. I am keeping the original though.

So here I go. At first I was going to edit the entire thing first..again...go through...look for all the adverbs, work on taking out all those no no words...really change the spots that tell instead of show. THEN I would start the POV switch. But I decided it would be a much better idea to do the POV switch first.

So has anyone done this before....any advice???? So far it seems pretty simple....just a matter of going though each line and changing I to her, she, character's name, etc...

I will also be adding in some of the hero's perspective too...which I never could do before...so this will be interesting.

I have a deadline in mind here for the POV change and the rest of the editing. I am attending a conference the end of March and I hope to pitch this book then. Do you think I can accomplish this all in, oh, just over 3 months time??? I think it's doable!

That time of year again.....Christmas cards!!!

I spend a lot of time preparing my holiday cards. Usually they are handmade and include a family photo and a yearly newsletter (though this year, with Facebook, most of my family and friends have been kept up to date on our family happenings). I put a lot of effort into my cards and I'm usually proud of them. But every year I get the "Wow, you must have a lot of time on your hands....." No I don't....it would be much easier to buy some cards and slap our names at the bottom...but for me...a Christmas card is kinda special..it's a wish for the season, a holiday hug in cardstock form. I put love into them.

I'd love to share my cards with everyone I know, but each year I struggle with my Christmas card list. Of course there are the must sends- family and my close group of friends. They always get cards no matter what. But what about the others? Everyone has at least a handful of people that you just aren't sure if you should send a card to. You recall the last year when you sent them a card and one came from them afterward....and you wonder if they only sent one because they received one from you. Did they feel obligated because you spent your 40-whatever cents for a stamp plus the cost of the card?? Or were they just late in mailing their cards last year?? Do I send one and do this all over again this year??? I sure don't know!!

What I do know is that this time of year is special. The preparation gets blown out of proportion sometimes with all the shopping and money and all that....but when it comes right down to it....the cards, the simple wishes, the time spent with family....it's all so amazing. The smiles on my kids faces when decorating the tree and the joy of driving around at night and looking at the illuminated houses. Not one of us knows how long we have on this earth and I chose to see the holiday season as a time of family and togetherness.....and my cards are just a small token of my love and appreciation for those in my life.

An Award!!!! I'm so excited!!!!

Beth at Aspirations honored me with this awesome award!!!!! THANK YOU so much!!!!!!!

I am really honored to receive this award...I strive to write a blog that is honest, down to earth...real. This is just proof that I actually am achieving what I'm setting out to do!! Thanks!!!

So....here are 10 honest things that I don't think I've mentioned before....hard to come up with more...I'm such an open book!! LOL!!

1: With Christmas fast approaching, some of my treasured Christmas presents ever: the game Mall Madness, a Roller Racer and an electric juicer. These are items my parents seriously searched forever for (well not so much the juicer...but the others!)

2: My favorite book as a pre-teen was Are You There God, It's Me, Margaret and when I read it for the first time...I couldn't take the suspense...barely halfway in I had to read the last page to find out if she got her period or not.

3: Once in 7th grade our nun principal came in and made a handful of us girls wet down our poufy teased bangs.

4: My first year of college, I probably only slept in my own bed about a dozen times. (My hubby attended the same school...we started dating before school started.)

5: I was 2 days from my 19th birthday when we got engaged...and here we are more than 14 years later!

6: All my serious boyfriends (all 3 of them) had last names that started with H.

7: The idea for the first novel I attempted came to me while playing a party game at a friend's house. (It is still not finished...I found it extremely hard to write from a man's perspective at that time...I will go back to it eventually! Maybe I'll make a POV change???? Hmmmmm??????)

8: At one time, I wanted to be a Wedding Coordinator/Planner...I wanted to be Jennifer Lopez in The Wedding Planner...headset and all. I even completed a correspondence course for it and became certified. I loved the planning parts but there is just no money in that profession in my area. And then I discovered my love for writing fiction and the rest is history!

9: My parents are great...they let me live my life and don't judge. They never tell me what to do or overstep their boundaries. (Though my dad will sometimes add in his comments from time to time..."Why aren't you going back to work in a flower shop?"- his question when I told him I was giving up my home-based floral business and pursuing a writing career.)

10: I love my husband and my kids more than words could ever say!! (which I am sure I've said this before, but it's worth repeating! :) LOL!) I want them to be proud of me and hopefully writing will take me there!

Thanks so much Beth!!!!! I so appreciate this award!!

Edited to add: OOops...my bad...TOTALLY forgot to add my nominees!!

Lynnette at Chatterbox Chit Chat
Kristi at Random Acts of Writing
Jessica at Bookends
Jordana at Jordana's Musings

I think that's about it...there were more (Roni at Fiction Groupie, Natalie at Between Fact and Fiction, and Megan Rebekah at Megan Rebekah Blogs and Writes, but the honor has already been bestowed on them by someone else!)

Connecting with the World!!!

I love checking my recent visitor map!! I am floored by how many people outside the Unite States are reading my blog!!! Little ole' me.....people from around the world are interested in what I have to say.....it just amazes me! I never in my wildest dreams thought I would be reaching the other side of the world with my blog posts!

So a huge Hello to all my international visitors!! I'd love to put a face with the country! Please comment!!! Turkey, Slovenia, Portugal, Pakistan, India, South Africa!!! Many more too!! Thank you so much for stopping by!!

My thoughts on self publishing...

From the very beginning, self publishing was just not from me. I wanted to get paid...not pay out my money to have my book published. (Though I know traditional publishing does not make an author an instant millionaire). I wanted to see my book on the shelf of a bookstore not peddling it out of my trunk. (I know there are other avenues for selling self published books, but in the beginning, this is what I envisioned). I needed the publishing world to tell me I'm good...I could not say to myself "I am good". (Yeah, I may have some self esteem issues).

Now before self published authors come for my head...I completely respect those who do self publish and I think there are good reasons for self publishing. Sometimes a book is so niche that it doesn't appeal to an agent or publisher. Or poets....from what I hear, finding an agent or a publisher for a book of poetry is impossible. Or the writer who just wants to put together something for their own personal enjoyment, a family cookbook, a memoir, whatever....this is a way to do it and receive a nice looking product.

It takes guts, lots of em', to put yourself out there and do the work that is necessary to make money on a self published book. To make a self published book a success, it takes more work than a traditionally published author. (And I also know how much work it takes for a traditionally published author to make their book a success too...but being backed by someone helps, a lot).

At one point I thought of self publishing my second novel, the one that is now contracted by Lyrical Press, A Bitch Named Karma. I love that story so much and it was killing me that no one loved it as much as I do. I needed to see it published. I queried that thing like crazy and it just never found it's right match until I queried Lyrical.

I don't know all the details of the new Harlequin self publishing thing.....but I am a bit appalled at the way they plan on basically saying: "Your work isn't good enough for us to publish, but you can pay us to do it."

I read a self publishing blog called The Self Publishing Review. For that brief moment when I was on the fence about self publishing, this blog definitely made up my mind. It tells it's readers why self published books do not do well....unless the author has paid for professional editing services, many of the books are just not up to the standard that they could/should be. This blogger reviews self published books and gives them 15 mistakes before they close the book...many don't make it past page 10. That is a clear cut dose of reality.

Now that I am in the editing phase with a professional editor through my publisher...I see how, even after I've done multiple edits on my own, the story is still far from perfection. So glad I didn't shell out all that cash to self publish.

I hope I didn't offend anyone with this post...it's just my thoughts about this topic.

Fiction only or some non-fiction too??

When I was a teen, I wrote newspaper articles for a club I was a member of, the FFA. I was the reporter and it was my job to tell the world (or at least our little part of it) about club happenings. My articles were published in small papers designated for individual neighborhoods in our city (Bee Papers, The Metro, and for my neighborhood- The Riverside Review) and one even made it into the big newspaper in our city (The Buffalo News). My writing was included in a county-wide agricultural paper too. That year at the FFA NY State convention, I was awarded the State Reporter's award. A huge deal for me! I applied to two different colleges: one for journalism, one for Floriculture Merchandising.

I went to college for floriculture, got married, started my wedding flower business and started a family. I started writing again but this time I was drawn to fiction. It started as something I just did cause an idea popped into my head. But quickly this new found passion grew and in record time I finished an epic novel. It was only the beginning for me and once again I craved publication.

I tried to write non-fiction again and found it to be incredibly difficult. The only pieces I wrote that satisfied me at all were about topics I knew A LOT about...things that were dear to my heart. All the research in the world didn't help either...I just did not have the gusto that is needed to make an article great.

Do you excel in fiction or non-fiction or can you do both well??

Day 3 of my Brain Vacation

I decided to take a brain vacation this week. I've been editing my little heart out the past, oh 5 months. Not every single moment of every day....and there have been days where I didn't open a single file, but I decided I needed a whole week to step away and catch up on some things in my life that have gone neglected.

So let's see...what have I accomplished.... Not nearly as much as I planned.

I did get to pretty much finish the Christmas shopping. I have to buy for one more person (just a matter of picking it up) and I need somehting else for my dad. He's one of those guys who usually just goes and buys whatever he needs when he needs it. I did manage a robe and slippers for him....very exciting. I'd kinda like to get him something else...something that has a tad more wow factor to it.

Today I filled an Etsy order and sewed some drawstring bags. I need them for the Christmas party at my daughter's school. They will hold the kids letters to Santa!

Yep...that's about it.

I need to figure out what I'm doing for Christmas cards this year. Usually I do something fun and hand-made. I have zero inspiration this year. Not one thing has come into my head. I wanted to catch up on some scrapbooking...I have a good 200 or so pics that need to be scrapped. I have presents to wrap too.

Well...it's early...just after 1 in the afternoon. My son naps till at least 3:30...I still have a good 2-1/2 hours left!