Oh, but it’s been a busy couple of weeks.  It’s a long and complicated story, but the condensed version is that at the end of September we flew to Northern California to celebrate a very special 85th surprise birthday party for my husband’s aunt .  We came home for a few days and then turned around and flew back to the Bay Area for a week split between SanFrancisco and the Northern Sonoma Coast.  It was a wonderful time – the birthday party was really a family reunion of sorts, and best of all, I had all of my kids together.  My middle daughter was able to fly in from Boston – thank you, United Mileage Plus – and my oldest daughter and her boyfriend came in from Perth.  YES!!  It was a whirlwind of huggin’, kissin’ and eatin’ for 3 crazy days, but it was worth everything it took to share that time together.  Even my mom and dad were able to drive up from Santa Barbara to be with us.   Needless to say, Ray’s aunt was VERY surprised.  Our second California week was all about fun and relaxation, sight-seeing in San Francisco, reading books and hiking on the Sonoma Coast, and of course eating and drinking lots of good food.  Our Aussies have become excellent cooks and I was delighted to turn over the hot mitt and let them be in charge.

Mr and Mrs Maui Stamper

Such fun and adventure has a price, of course, and I came home to mountains of laundry and mail in addition to the regular routine.  I think I’m through the worst of it and hope things will feel normal again soon, although you might be hard-pressed to define normal in my world.

One of my immediate projects this week was to make some tags for a silent auction to raise money for Water for People.  This organization works on many levels to bring safe, clean water to under-developed communities throughout the world.  My tags were packaged in sets of 5 and I gave myself permission to pull out a few retired products to put them togethre.  To my immense delight, some of those retired products are now available on the Clearance Rack at FABULOUS prices, so if you haven’t taken a look, wait no longer – for example, that gorgeous striped Riding Hood Red ribbon is now $1.99!!  The Clearance Rack blitz will end on October 18, and supplies are limited.

Now, how about some tags:

Peaceful Season stamp set, Old Olive and Riding Hood Red ink, Very Vanilla and Crumb Cake cardstock, Smooch Spritz, Champagne Mist Shimmer paint, Riding Hood Red grosgrain, Linen thread, and a retired button.

This post is getting long, so I’ll share one more set of tags today and leave the rest for tomorrow.  Shoot, you all know the truth – I’m not all that organized yet and I need to get hustling!

Cute, eh?  This polka dotted ribbon is also $1.99.  I bought a bunch to use on Christmas packages – at that price, you can’t beat it!  Here’s the set of tags:

Tags til Christmas and Snow Swirled stamp sets, Real Red and Garden Green Classic ink pads, Whisper White card stock, Ornament Punch, Gold Brad, and Real Red polka dot ribbon.

Hurry on over to that Online Store and be sure you select me as your demonstrator – orders through demonstrators get preferred pricing and shipping!