Saturday musings

It's the Saturday before Christmas and therefore destined to be a very busy day. I am getting it off to a slow start, checking out my favorite blogs and sipping my tea.

This BEAUTIFUL card came yesterday from my friend and enabler Etha. The stamps are from the Little Blossom Cottage sets at Clear Artistic Stamps. With all the sparkle and shimmer that doesn't scan well, this card is WAY more gorgeous IRL.

The card got me to thinking (again) about the wonders of the Internet. Etha and I have known one another now for about 13-14 years online. I treasure her friendship. Although my grandmother is to "blame" for all the bags of crochet yarn, and I found cross stitch and quilting pretty much on my own, without Etha's example I would never have tried Hardanger, or tatting, or bobbin lace, or stamping, or cardmaking, or blogging! I learned about EGA and SCS from Etha. I got to visit Cape Cod and Martha's Vineyard because of Etha. My husband hiked the mountains of Colorado with Etha- and I was sure that for at least two days of his more-than-month-long trip he was being well fed.

On the "down" side, I have a "craft room" that is too much storage and not enough work space because I collect so much stuff through Etha's enabling, lol!

And, all of this when we have actually, physically, "met" maybe 5 or 6 times!

I have good friends from an old chat group on MIRC. We talked about stitching, sometimes every night, and about everything else in our lives as well. A few of us then met IRL at the various stitching festivals years ago- SOCS and HOCS and CATS. I got to see Bev, one of those special friends, again this year at the Stitching Jubilee and I'm already planning to attend again next year, with Bev and company, I hope.

The SplitCoastStampers Flybabies is another special group of women brought together on the Internet through a crafty interest and who have become friends way beyond stamping. I feel like I know them so well it is actually hard to believe that I have never met any of them.

Isn't technology GRAND?

Well, today I need to try to finish my Christmas cards, finish a small scrapbook of old Christmas pictures for my mother's present, and get some housework done. I also need to rest up a little for the BIG holiday party that our friends give every year and which always goes VERY late. Aside from the housework part, it looks like a fun day.