Another Week Filled With Excitement

It's Monday morning and I'm looking forward to an exciting week. 

One of our neighbors' birthday is coming up this Thursday and as of Saturday, we had not finalized any plans for a party or get together.  Saturday was a very rainy day but Sunday was forecast as clear skies and a high of 81 degrees.  We decided to have the birthday party at Johnson's Beach on Sunday afternoon around 4:00.  I begged to bring salad because we have so much lettuce in the garden that I cannot use it fast enough.  Sunday morning George ran to the store and picked up some nice, white kitchen towels.  I know the birthday girl has birdhouses and a pond in her yard that she enjoys, so we designed a motif with her name "Katie" and a birdhouse.  It really turned out lovely.  Guess who forgot to take a picture of the towels?  Me!  At least I do have the capabilities of turning the design into a jpg so you can see.  Between the salad and the towels I worked until the moment we left for the beach. 

It really was a beautiful day.  The beach was windy and the water was cold but the skies were blue and the temperature felt warm in the sun.  We drank wine, ate a fabulous dinner, watched presents being opened and played on the beach.  I rolled my blue jeans up to my knees and was wading with the others in the surf.  One wave snuck up on me and my pants got wet anyway.  We finalized the day with birthday cake that another neighbor made and singing Happy Birthday.  All in all, I guess we were at the beach for a couple of hours.  Katie loved her towels and said they are so pretty she wants to frame then and not use them. 

Gosh!  George and I hadn't been to Johnson's Beach since the early 1990's.  There are more condos out there now.  In the park area they have a lifeguard stand, restrooms, paved parking lot, outdoor showers for rinsing off the sand, and covered gazebos with picnic tables.  They also have concrete grills.  There are nature trails and a boat launch, as well.  Quite a change from years ago when it was just park on the side of the road and walk across the sand to the beach.

All of that work and sun made us tired.  Once we returned home, George and I relaxed in the living room to watch a movie.  I snoozed on and off throughout the movie; George fell fast asleep and missed the entire movie. 

When the movie was over I thought I'd check my emails and do a general computer clean up before going to bed.  Well, I am glad I did that!  I opened up the Cajun Stitchery email and to my pleasant surprise a customer had purchased 2 handkerchiefs from our Etsy store.  She purchased the "Funky Hanky" and the "Lace Handkerchief".  I almost started crying for joy.  Wow!  Someone, all the way in Michigan, that I do not know, saw the items in our Etsy Shop and thought, not one, but two were worth spending their hard earned money to purchase.  Suffice it to say that I just stared for a long time at that email, trying to take it all in.  The next email was from PayPal acknowledging receipt of payment for the purchases.  By this time, George was awake and came downstairs to see the wonderful emails.  Of course, I shot out an email to our new customer thanking her for the purchase and assuring her that the handkerchiefs would be placed in the mail on Monday.  As of this writing, the purchases have already been mailed and the customer notified.

It's a good thing that I had taken the time last week to watch several of the Etsy videos because one was specifically talking about how to wrap an item that's been purchased.  Those Etsy people are so creative.  They suggested taking a little bit of this and that around the house and voila beautiful packaging.  I don't rate with those creative minds but it did give me ideas.  I wrapped the hankies in some pretty glittered pink (repurposed) tissue paper, made a tiny bow from fabric (same fabric as the hankies) scraps and attached (with double sided tape) a little Christmas ornament made on the embroidery machine (lagniappe).  I filled the package with rosemary leaves for a pretty scent and left it overnight.  This morning I took the rosemary out of the packaging and put it in a mailing package.  Gee, I sure hope she likes it.

Now I need to get busy and put more stuff in the Etsy Store; at least enough to replace the items purchased.

Today I expect my friend, Lois, to visit.  Lois called yesterday and wants to take some of our spices and lettuce from the garden.  She is certainly welcome to it.  Even the huge salad that I made yesterday hardly put a dent in the lettuce crop.

Speaking of the garden, we noticed some tiny tomatoes on the Better Boy plants.  We will be harvesting tomatoes soon.  Sassy Satsuma was covered in flowers which have now dropped off.  She is now covered in tiny round green fruit which I believe will turn into lucious satsumas in the near future.  And the new blueberry plants have many tiny blueberries forming.  We need a lot more of those blueberry bushes.  All in all the garden is producing and looking beautiful. 

Tomorrow is going to be a busy day because I plan on attending a BNI meeting to see what it's like.  Afterwards, I am having coffee with a friend downtown.  Someplace in there I need to drop off some totes that I embroidered for another customer.

We embroidered this Kayak Survival Kit for a friend to give to her friend.

We have kitchen towels, handkerchiefs and pillowcases to embroider this week, as well.  So, it looks like it's going to be a busy week and that is a good thing.

C'est toute mes amis.