Toasters, Housecleaning and Conversations - It Was a Good Friday

Yesterday turned into a very busy day, but I did get quite a lot accomplished. I started out at Whole Foods - not my favorite grocery store, but the only one that supposedly carried the no-grain bagels I wanted to get. Why did I want bagels? DH broke down when he was at Target on Thursday and purchased a new toaster with wide slots so that he could toast bagels. That sounded lovely to me, so I decided to get some for myself. 

The new toaster that DH purchased is 
pretty snazzy. You need to hold the 
lever down for several seconds before 
it locks into place. For a bagel, you then 
push the left-hand button and it automatically 
senses and toasts the wider, denser bread. 

Of course, while I was looking for bagels, I also needed non-dairy cream cheese, non-dairy "butter", and a nice no-sugar jam. I already had some lovely raw honey that Chickie had given to me - friends of hers have hives and had given her some super tasty honey, but Chickie doesn't like honey so she passed them on to me. I've been enjoying them ever since. 

I ended up with this brand of non-dairy 
cream cheese. It's actually not too bad. Not 
as good as regular cream cheese, but I'll 
eat it, and since I don't do dairy any more, 
I'll manage just fine. 

I got the spreads and the bagels and some uncured lunch meat that I had run out of. I got stopped by three people who complimented my tattoo, and one very sweet guy on the autistic spectrum who said he'd never seen anything like it before, and asked what it was. I gave him the short version of what a Winged Scarab portrayed and he thought it beautiful. Made my morning, for sure. 

I also picked up a jar of this - 
no-sugar Apricot spread. It's 
absolutely lovely - very tasty! 

My main task for the day (aside from doing the laundry I couldn't do on Wednesday) was to put the micro-ban coverings on all of the pillows, the couch, and the queen-sized mattress. That was easier said than done, and the mattress would have been a LOT easier with a second person, but I prevailed. I got everything covered except the couch. I had been off on my measurements, and had to return the couch cover and order the next size up. So, I printed out the return slip to Amazon, repackaged the item, and headed to Kohl's which accepts Amazon returns at no charge. 

I have a guillotine-style cutter in the basement 
of the shop, but it's not accurate enough. I have 
a very inexpensive rotary cutter at home, but it's 
not up to the amount of pages and the weight of 
the cardstock. So, I decided to add one of these 
onto an Amazon order. It arrived earlier this 
week, so now I can proceed with the next stage 
in my holiday cards. I can already tell 
I'll be running very close to deadline for 
them this year. 

Today I'll start cutting down the fancy papers for my holiday cards. I have a lot of cutting to do. I received a new, more accurate cutter earlier in the week, and I took the time yesterday to go onto the manufacturer's website and order one of each of the custom blades they make for the machine. I should be getting those next week, and one of them is a scoring blade, which will get a lot of use for this year's cards. 

My friend, Shruti, is one of 19 artists chosen 
to be featured in this new book, just released 
on October 19th. I'll have to take a closer look 
at it, but I'm so proud of the recognition she's 
receiving from others on her journey. 

I also spent the day messaging back and forth with my dear friend Shruti, from India. For many years she has made a card for more than 500 friends, each one hand-made and highly decorated. A true work of love. I limit mine to 50 and can't imagine doing 500! Earlier this year she had said she was going to take this year off. She was feeling a little guilty about taking the year off and was bouncing things off me, so I told her she needed to take whatever time she needed to recharge her batteries and allow herself to get grounded once again. I told her to take the year off for herself - that she was entitled to it. We had a lovely conversation. It's always a joy to touch base with her. 

So have a wonderful Saturday, enjoy your weekend, and I'll be back on Monday morning. Please stay safe, be kind and do something unexpected over the weekend. It's always good to stretch your boundaries.