Happy December !

Yaaay ! My Etsy order from China arrived ! I love ordering from Chinese and Japanese sellers – everything is packaged so appealingly, and there’s always a little bonus. I ordered heart-shaped tiny buttons, half a yard each of black and white 4-inch wide off-brand Velcro®, and a fat quarter of ‘happy frog’ fabric – sorry you can’t see much of the fabric, but I’m sure you’ll see more of it soon ! The pretty, dainty lace and the black cat bookmark (which doubles as a thank you note) are bonuses. Not a bad turn-around time either, since I ordered it on 09 Nov. and it actually arrived on the 29^th. Heck, I’ve ‘won’ stuff on eBay from sellers two states over that took longer to arrive.

This is actually a reorder, as I’ve bought the white knockoff Velcro from Etsy seller Iwawa before, and it works great. Thin, easy to sew with hand or machine needles, and it doesn’t snag or peel apart later. Very secure bond. I’m still using my original order, but since Iwawa doesn’t always have the Velcro® available, when he or she had black for sale, I had to restock !

I was also a bad girl today. Took advantage of Mattel’s Cyber Monday sales and snagged possibly my last MH doll, Invisi Billy. I couldn’t resist ! I’d been contemplating him at $20. plus $7.50 to ship, trying to find a way to avoid the shipping fees, when their sale put everything at 30% off, with free shipping on all orders. When all the discounts had been applied, he was only $13.99 ! Of course, there was some kerfluffle since we just moved and I’d only called the bank to change our address that morning, so we’ll see if and where he eventually arrives.

But before I ordered him, I had to decide. The thrift at the strip mall had a large light-up star in the window last Tuesday – was that still there ? And how much ? This week, unsurprisingly, things are snug once more, so I could possibly have the star or Billy, but probably not both. So I scooted up there, and no star. It’d been sold, and no one working there remembered how much it was. Oh, well. I got to look around a bit and scored a small bag of very pretty fabric scraps for $4., which would leave me with Billy funds. I also saw a Star Wars pinball machine for $3000. and four used Christmas trees at brand-new prices. Such is the way of the Collectable Thrift.

Snagged another load of our stuff outta ThatPit, and found that the ILs had been poking around a bit. For the first time since we moved in, FIL cleaned the bathroom, kindly tossing our stuff into a box and shoving the box out into the hallway. He’s probably not gonna like that I’m taking the mirror next load. They also returned several DVDs, including some that were only empty cases. They said they’d try to find the actual movies, but if they’ve been lying around out of the box this long, they’re probably too scratched up to work anymore. (sigh) And Beloved Hubby thought I was being ridiculous when I kept several of our very favorite DVDs in our bedroom in a hidey-hole.

Managed to forget to snag the power cord to my sewing machine, but I got my cubby and most of my embroidery machine supplies, plus my clothes, so I’m fairly content. The focus tomorrow is dolls and the rest of my sewing stuff, even if it takes two trips.

Ginger-kitty, I’m sorry to say, has gone half-feral again – I think she only likes people when it’s cold out, or she’s pregnant. We saw her for the first time in a week today, and she clawed Beloved to get away. We’ll try to catch her again tomorrow, and FIL said he’d try, and would call if he was successful. In the meanwhile, we have her son, a wonderful orange and white kitty a lot like his momma, but very much enamored with people all year long – well, all year plus he’s been alive ! We called him Junior way back when, he stalked Ginger like a miniature shadow. The ILs said they’d be happy if he was with us, they had enough cats. So he’s already here, and loving it. I’ve discovered he has a particular fondness for chasing tin foil balls. Sometimes, he’ll even fetch !