On Saturday, I met up with Anne at a little store that sells locally-made art. They also do classes and have a time when you can glaze pre-made ceramics and then come back a few weeks later after the ceramics have been through the kiln. So in spirit of Anne and NGS doing arts and crafts projects we are definitely not talented enough to do (I shouldn't speak for Anne - I am DEFINITELY not talented enough), we painted some stuff. When we get them back from the kiln, I'll show everyone a before and after photo. CLIFFHANGER.
Actually, it is sort of a cliffhanger even for the two of us because the colors we painted things did not look anything like the colors presented on the sample color sheet, so who knows?
(Also, a woman who volunteers at the community center was working at this place. I said hello, briefly introduced her to Anne, and then forgot this encounter took place. This is FORESHADOWING for later that evening.)
BUT! Because I am who I am, I also purchased a bunch of postcards and greeting cards.
Right now is peak greeting card season for me. Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas. They're all coming right in a row. But come January (February is Valentine's Day, March is St. Patrick's Day) and April, some of you might get some fun surprises in your mailboxes!!
Then Anne and I ate lunch (I ate enough for five people, Anne took three bites and packed up the rest to take home), wrote out a few postcards, and we agreed we'd meet for coffee when we came to pick up our works of art.
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I stopped at Walgreen's to buy body scrub and Halloween greeting cards for the niblings.
I walked the dog; it rained.
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THEN! It was time for the big fundraiser at the community center. I did not splurge for a ticket to the event ($100 a person!), but one of the board members asked me if I would sit at her table, so I said yes. She has asked me to be at her table for the last several years, so I imagine I'm just her favorite person/the only not rich person she knows in town. Ha!
Anyway, there was a silent auction to start the event (I had a Moscow mule mocktail) and most of the baskets were way out of this lady's price range or were alcohol-related in nature, so I found myself putting down the minimum opening bid on a stack of greeting cards and stickers made by a local artist that had been donated by the lady who Anne and I had talked to at the art store earlier in the day. I felt pretty smug as I put my auction number on the sheet - I have now bid in the silent auction and SURELY SOMEONE ELSE WILL OUTBID ME. My fundraising duty is done.
(I did donate some money for the fund the need auction. I'm not a monster. The building is an old historical place and it needs about $100,000 in exterior work done. I raised my paddle and donated a tiny bit. I also bid on a piece of pottery in live auction, but my bid was pretty nearly tripled. I can't hang with these people.)
You know what happened, right? I won those cards.
Those animals on top are wearing HATS. HATS!!
My husband nearly murdered me when I walked in the door carrying MORE GREETING CARDS.
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Sunday was less fun. I bathed the dog and did her nails. I laundered and vacuumed. I wrote blog posts and froze my toes off. I wore sandals and my heated vest when I walked the dog. I want you to just imagine for a second how disappointed my husband looked when he saw my dog-walking outfit.
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How was your weekend? Did you buy any greeting cards?
Those cards are darling! I admire your commitment to snail mail. We got our family pictures taken on Saturday in the service of future holiday cards, so we did sort of have a card adjacent weekend.
ReplyDeleteWhat a lovely time of year for family pictures. I hope they turn out beautifully!
DeleteI love all of this - the meetup with Anne, the artwork to come, and the snail mail supply stockup! Every problem has a solution - you have too many cards and the solution is to send mail which will make everyone happy. I've found that buying a few postcards everywhere that I go==>I have a massive stash of postcards - but only for right now. Gotta stock up for winter when I won't be traveling.
ReplyDeleteIt is a problem of my own making and you're absolutely right that there's an easy enough solution. My card box was getting a tiny bit low on cards, so now it's just bursting at the seams.
DeleteHahaha well at least you'll get lots of use out of those cards! I love those places where you can paint your own pottery, and it is totally a cliffhanger because the pottery always looks different after glazing.
ReplyDeleteI can hardly wait to see what it will look like when it's been glazed. So much fun! (Unless it's hideous, in which case ha ha ha on me for thinking I have talent.)
DeleteThis sounds like an amazing weekend! Time with Anne! How fun! And the greeting cards are an EXTRAORDINARY exchange for doing your fundraising duty. Really magnificent cards.
ReplyDeleteRegarding your last paragraph: WHY did you wear sandals? I mean, I get why Hannah might wear sandals, because you did HER nails, but did I miss something? Do you have a toe injury that prevents warmer footwear? And also why was your husband disappointed in your outfit?! I don't know why I am so fixated on this very small part of your post but I am.
I wear sandals as long as I can. Let the toes be free, man. I hate wearing socks and shoes and will probably continue wearing sandals until there is actual frost. My husband thinks that wearing the heated vest WITH sandals is silly and claims I would not need the vest yet if I wore warmer shoes. He might be right, but I don't want to wear socks!!
DeleteOkay, this answers all my questions (THANK YOU!) and I support your toe freedom. I hate wearing shoes and socks as well and also different body parts require/prefer different levels of coverage.
DeleteYou can never have too many cards, Engie. So I think this is awesome.
ReplyDeleteCan't wait to see your art project from the time with Anne. How fun <3
Plus, animals with HATS? It was meant to be...
I bought a birthday card for a birthday my son is going to attend (well, he picked it out, I paid for it - at the DollarStore so only $1.25, but it was Darth Vader, so he was very excited to get it for his friend).
Yay!! I was hoping someone would say they also bought cards! I mean, you're definitely a lot more purposeful about it - I don't know who wants a cow with a chicken on its head - but I am not alone.
DeleteI forgot to respond to the cards question because I was distracted by the toes, but now that THAT is resolved: I bought birthday cards for my sister-in-law, a card for a distant relative who is being bar mitzvahed, and a card via Etsy for my hair stylist who is getting married.
DeleteWhat a bounty of cards!! I always get so nervous to bid even at silent auctions - probably from watching so many shows and movies with bidding wars where one party was betting on someone outbidding them, haha! How lovely to have some fun with Anne (“Arts and Crafts with Engie and Annne” sounds like a series, btw) and support a cause this weekend. So social!
ReplyDeleteI always just assume someone WILL outbid me and then I have done my fundraising duty. That's the fun part. I get to help, but not actually spend money. Oooops. I didn't read the room on this one.
DeleteFunny you mention it, because while I didn't actually buy them this weekend, I did write out some cards yesterday (oooh! I wonder who they could be for???)
ReplyDeleteYou do have a lot of cards, but if there was ever a person who would know what to do with them, it's you. I'm laughing a little that you didn't get outbid- I can picture people looking at them and thinking "what in the world would I do with those? Animals wearing hats? No thanks." They were meant for you.
Honestly, it was probably the least expensive of the auction items and I can see people eye's just sliding by them because it wasn't a weekend trip to the Berkshires or 150-year-old scotch or whatever. But the hats really did speak to me. LOL.
DeleteWhat a fun weekend! Congrats on your winning bid (and send Nance some of those cow postcards!)!
ReplyDeleteMy winning bid was the minimum bid. I thought for sure someone else would bid!
DeleteTHANK YOU, MAYA! I'm probably one of the very few women in the world who does not get offended when people say, "I saw a cow and immediately thought of YOU!"
ReplyDeleteYou scored big when you got those great cards at auction, Engie. All of them are terrific.
BUT
What were you thinking going out for a walk in the cold wearing SANDALS? A heated coat and sandals is just anatomical and physiological nonsense. Your poor body had no idea what to do for you at that point. I'm cold right now just thinking about it.
What a fun weekend for you! I hope your pottery turns out the way you want it to. And I love Lindsay's idea for a regular show/feature.
Yes, Nance, I thought of you, too. So many cows!
DeleteI do not like wearing socks and shoes. I wear sandals until there's frost. Unfortunately, there's frost in the forecast for tonight, so I actually did get out my winter slippers and start transitioning away from summer footwear. Sad.
I even gave up on Christmas cards a few years ago, but I admire your spirit and dedication. 😊
ReplyDeleteI feel like cards are such an easy way to let people know I'm thinking about them. And they're fun!
DeleteLove the pig wearing a potted plant *hat* on its head. Your weekend sounds like fun, just the thing to raise your spirits. If your spirits were low, not implying they were. Just a turn of phrase about spirits.
ReplyDeleteI love the pig, too. It's so adorable and I'm obsessed with pigs, so it all works out.
DeleteWhat a fun weekend! I've been to a pottery painting place like you describe. We did it for a baby shower once and painted things the baby might want/need someday like a piggie bank. It was really fun. The cards are very fun! You are the queen of snail mail. It's something I want to do and then i never follow through and actually do it. Maybe I will buy some postcards this week when we are in VA and surprise some people with fun mail!
ReplyDeleteIt was very chilly here so I could not imagine wearing sandals! Taco really wanted to wear crocs on Sunday and I refused. It was just so chilly! Your toes must have been SO COLD.
YES! Just send a few postcards when you're in Virginia and you'll feel so happy about it.
DeleteThe Supper Club event, right? I actually thought about going, but we decided to lay low instead. Good thing: $100/ticket is a little steep for my blood!
ReplyDeleteYes, it was the Supper Club event. I've never actually been to a supper club, but from the event I gather it's mostly about booze? and mediocre food? I didn't pay for the ticket myself (which is a good reminder that I need to write a thank you note to the woman who hosted me), but I did eventually pay the ticket price in donation/auction items. Hopefully I wasn't too rude of a guest.
DeleteI love the cow with a chicken nest for a hat! I agree with you that a person can't have too many greeting cards, and that they're meant to be used. Well, I really do have too many greeting cards. I love them so much! I buy them, I make them, and I even was gifted a huge box of them.
ReplyDeleteI do use them! No greeting card is too sacred for me to send, although I might save that pig one for a very special occasion. I love that you make them. Do you sell them anywhere?
DeleteI love buying cards, but I then I think they're so pretty that I kind of hoard them and don't send them. you are inspiring me to up my sending game, though.
ReplyDeleteSend them! They're meant to be enjoyed by lots of people!
DeleteI love those cards, especially the dog one in the top photo and the animals with hats!! You probably don't know this about me but I had an entire drawer of cards and one of the things I started doing before I moved was to try to send out a bunch but Engie, I had hundreds of them. Oops. I ended up giving them (some boxed sets, nice ones, completely unused) to a friend, my mom and an arts and crafts center. I had a disease. So. Yo answer your question, I have not bought any greeting cards lately! I do buy PCs but only the exact amount that I'm going to send out!! And I send them. No more hoarding cards for this girl.
ReplyDeleteOh, well, I also have the same disease. My card box is in pretty good shape right now, which is to say that I have a lot of options for blank and birthday cards. I love cards so much!
DeleteI cannot keep up with you . . . but I'm trying. You won the cards! Hooray. I once won gift cards for a gas station at a raffle and I was so excited. I also just won a family photo session at a silent auction supporting the Violet Foundation. I died at how this woman considers you her favorite person or the only non rich person that she knows. Ha!
ReplyDeleteGift cards for a gas station are worth celebrating! That's a genuinely useful auction item - not like a basket full of candles and popcorn or whatever. (No diss at candles or popcorn - I very much enjoy both, but they aren't necessary for this modern life, you know?)
DeleteSo much fun! I love the cards, I have Anne and NGS envy. I wish I could have joined you. I also thought of Nance with the cows, and wonder which card you will send her? I tend to mostly buy birthday cards for snail mail, and I buy about 6 months worth at a time. So I have all of my cards through the end of the year. My husband is the opposite and has more than once pilfered my stash, which means that I now no longer have a perfect card for my brother's birthday in December. I guess I'm an enabler.
ReplyDeleteI sometimes do go to our local Hallmark and bulk buy birthday cards for the next few months, but I did this once and the cashier made a snarky comment about how many I bought, so now I tend to do it anonymously (or, I guess at local art shops where it seems appreciated when I bulk buy). I do use the cards eventually, though, so I have no guilt.
DeleteCards are so hard to pass up. I have a whole shoebox full of cards. And I am working for a stationary shop so i could get more cards if I want. I am pretty good not doing it though... mostly.
ReplyDeleteYour cards with animals and hats are made for you, aren't they?
Oh, man, if I worked for stationary shops, I would have cards EVERYWHERE. I cannot resist them.
DeleteI love a CLIFFHANGER! HA. You are so funny. We used to have one of those pottery painting places in town and the girls and I have such good memories of us trying to be real artists.
ReplyDeleteYay for more cards!!
Ha! I'm really interested in how it turned out. I got a call that they're ready to pick up and as soon as I can get over there, I'm going to get them!
DeleteAnne (seeking some escape here today) would just like to comment that her lunch was quite good but she was not feeling well, and that my artistic abilities are far outstripped by yours. ;)
ReplyDeleteWell, I still haven't picked up my creations (the goal is to do so on Saturday), so it's not clear that my abilities are anything other than ridiculous at this point!
Delete