One of my favorites: the bluebird ornament. I have two of them. This one has the indented center which works as a reflector. Something tells me they were called thumbprints, but I may be wrong about that. The other, which I found several years later, is a smooth bulb.

Well. Christmas is one week away. Suddenly, it’s almost here. I’m now wanting to slow time so it lasts longer. When I was a kid, I wanted it to come QUICKLY! Now, I want it to be ‘in the offing’ a bit longer. I want more time to listen to Christmas music, to indulge in being smack dab in the middle of the Christmas season.

USPS woes: My package, which came from Spain, landed at JFK, then went to the Jamaica, NY processing center where it went through customs, then went to the Metro NY Processing Facility, then suddenly ended up at a postal center in Pennsylvania. After two days, it landed at processing center in New Jersey, then traveled all the way back to the Jamaica, NY International processing center, where it sat for 3 days, then to the Queens NY facility, then to Newburgh where it sat for two days, and finally to my local post office. It’s being delivered today. It should have been here a week ago. Needless to say, I live 75 miles north of NYC – this should have been a no brainer.

My customer’s package – she paid for priority mail and lives in Virginia – left my local post office on the 14th, went to the Queens NY Distribution Center, left the center on the 15th, landed in Richmond, VA on the 15th, and then – for some reason – ended up in Grand Rapids, MI on the 16th, where it remains. It is now 2 days later and there has been no movement.

It makes me crazy. But it especially upsets me when a customer has paid for 2 day delivery and doesn’t get what they paid for. I am tracking it as best I can, but I can’t submit an inquiry until the 21st. Hopefully, she is tracking it as well.

I imagine that it all happens in the sorting. Packages mistakenly get put in the wrong bin. This has happened to me more often than not. Sigh. I imagine all of you have stories to tell about the same thing.

We’ve started watching a Christmas movie every night. Last night was A Christmas Story, tonight is White Christmas. We have no interest in modern movies, they’re not our thing. Yes, we’ve seen Elf. It was immediately disqualified from any future viewings – cute, but not something we want to revisit.

And finally, Queen Sophie, my first Blythe:

She always looks slightly skeptical, doesn’t she?

Stay safe.

Happy Wednesday.

Endlessly windy around here. Non-stop. We were out running errands yesterday and it felt like we’d topple at any moment! It’s also much colder, but that was expected.

It’s Friday the 13th – Don’s lucky day.

We decorated the tree on Wednesday and darned if I didn’t break 3 vintage ornaments. I’ve never done that before. I admit to getting a little teary about the losses.

Here she is:

There will be more views in the next couple of weeks.

A low-key day ahead, though I have to mail an Etsy package. Our local post offices are overwhelmed at the moment. Earlier this week, our mail didn’t arrive until 10 pm. Insane. They are short-staffed, apparently. We really felt for the drivers. As we’re in the country, there are no street lights, and driving around on an unfamiliar route, looking for the right mailbox must have been exhausting. And one of those days involved torrential rains, as well! I’m waiting for a package that was sent from Spain – OB22 and 24 bodies for Blythes – and it arrived last week, went through customs, then went to Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and now it’s back in Queens. What the heck? I live 75 miles northwest of Queens – in the same state. It should have been here days ago.

Queen Zoe. (mini me)

Queen Miranda.

Two more to go.

Stay safe.

Happy Friday.

It’s been quite rainy since Monday. It was so dark this morning that it was almost impossible to get a good Queen for a Day photo. I had to wait longer than usual. You’ll get no complaints from me about the rain – as you know, we desperately need it.

The lights are on the tree. One string wasn’t working, but we still had enough on hand, thank goodness. After we finished, the tree looked like it was leaning to the right, so I kept turning it, with Don giving me updates, until it looked fairly straight. We were busy yesterday, so we didn’t add the decorations, but we will today. It will be a nice rainy day activity. Besides, we rather like seeing just the lights for a while and, true to form, I briefly considered only lights this year. But I think, in the end, we’d regret it, as we have such a nice collection of vintage ornaments.

I have to take my car in tomorrow or Friday as I’m hearing a metallic sound when I brake. It’s probably a brake pad that needs replacing – or a rotor. Crap. If it isn’t one thing, it’s another.

FYI: I don’t know if I mentioned it on the blog – I don’t think I did – but the day after the election, I got two messages. Very clear messages. The first was an image of Dump and “Leon”  in handcuffs. I saw it at least twice that day. I also received a simple message: “They’ll be found out.” And I became very calm and have remained so since November 6th. I still believe Kamala will be inaugurated.

We’ll see.

Queen Imogen.

Queen Madeleine. Taken this morning; getting a good photo took forever, as it’s so dark and rainy out there. Her hair is a bit flyaway, but that’s the norm. She’s French; she has her own style.

Stay safe.

Happy Wednesday.