Christmas Sparkles and Sputters

My first impulse this morning was to go straight to St. Ann's for the Apple Annie show so that I wouldn't have to park on Roswell Road.

However, I did need to get a couple of more packages out and postage for my greeting card going to England. So, juggling about four tasks at once, I dribbled packing peanuts in one box, wrapped the gift to go in the other, and printed out two Christmas letters, one for a box, one for the English post.

Then came the time to do the labels. I handwrite all the cards, but the labels are printed. I had already purchased labels, so I figured I'd put them through...

Hm. The ink didn't stick to the labels. I knew it wasn't the printer's fault, as it printed the letter fine. I had some other labels. These were glossy. Same thing happened. Well, phooey.

So I just handwrote the labels, and finally got going. I was planning to mail them on the way back, but there is a huge post office on Lower Roswell Road, near the synagogue, and almost no one was there. Hm. Either go to this empty PO or the one downtown with the torn-up parking lot. No brainer, eh?

That done, I headed to the church to wander about for 90 minutes. I still had to park on Roswell Road, but by now I was pretty mellow, the packages being taken care of. I like this church; I get nice vibes from it.

There were lots of nice things at the show, but as always lots of jewelry, which I'm not interested in. Not a lot of cutesy kids clothing like Yellow Daisy or some of the other craft shows. Many decorative things I couldn't afford. I did buy a tiny pair of skates and a sleigh with winter greenery in them and a gingerbread girl made from a tiny flowerpot. I also bought a couple of things to benefit the Youth League: a candle topper that looks like the front of a house surrounded by fall trees and a little tealight holder that looks like an old-fashioned stove with the backboard and warming shelf, all decorated with apples, in black and white and red.

The woman who paints the wonderful bird pictures was there, so I bought the little chickadee I skipped last year; she had several chickadees, but this one had the cutest face. I also bought one of the chickadee bookmarks because I liked the verse she had on it.

The other purchase was three bars of herbal soap for dogs. Miss Willow's going to have a niiiiiice bath at some point.

(I had a fun time but people still drive me crazy with their heedlessness. The booths are very close together and it's frustrating when a knot of people stand chattering in the middle of the way, and there was a woman in a scooter blocking about ten people from using the stairs because she was looking for a signal for her cell phone! Sigh...)

On the way home I stopped at Michael's for a frame for the chickadee and at Office Max for—of course—labels that clearly said they were for laser printers, and, oh, yeah, at Trader Joe's, since we won't have time to come back over the weekend. I asked about the open house, like they did last year—and it's on a Tuesday, and only from four till seven! Phooey.

My last stop was downtown to buy the tickets for the Marietta Tour of Homes this weekend. That took about a minute, and since there was a train roaring by anyway, I walked toward the square and then turned on Church Street just to peek in a couple of the little antique stores there. One is moving and the sale prices are still high, but I love some of the things. I will have to go back to one store; they have some pretty small things in a primitive theme. What I would like to do, if it's cool enough, to go back next Thursday, on my birthday, walk around, maybe have lunch.