The Gathering Place Again

Well, Friday I decided to go The Gathering Place again to shop for a Christmas gift for a friend.  It was pouring down rain that day, but I was determined to go despite the downpour and I had a great time!  It would have been more fun with someone else, but I decided on the spur of the moment to go and I felt like it was pretty short notice to ask anyone to go with me.  Anyway, I went and I took some more pictures with my new little camera.  Here they are:

Another great place I found was called Art Crafters.  They have a huge art gallery where their main purpose is to frame artwork, but they also have some artisans who rent spaces in their store and sell their stuff.  They had one really pretty framed jigsaw puzzle.  I have read that you can frame them, but I've never seen one framed and it was awesome!  I didn't get a picture of it.  But, it got me to thinking that maybe I can do a jigsaw puzzle and frame it myself.  I have some great puzzles that I have never put together.  I hate the idea of putting them together and then just disassembling them again.  Framing them would be a great way to preserve them and keep all the hard work that was put into assembling them.

Now, we are just trying to finish up our Christmas shopping and wrapping.  I think we are finished now except for wrapping some last gifts.  I can't believe that Christmas is at the end of this week.  Where has the time gone?

Pictures

This weekend while I was at The Gathering Place with Melba, I saw her take out a really small camera and take a picture of a gingerbread man that she thought she might be able to make.  As I was watching her I remembered that I had intended to bring my own camera and left my house in such a rush, that I forgot it.  It got me to thinking about how clunky my camera is and how heavy it is when I have to carry it around when shopping.  You never know when you want to take a picture and usually I have no camera with me.  So, I decided to buy myself a really small digital camera that I can carry in my purse all the time.  It's not much bigger than a cell phone and there is a pocket in my purse where I can keep it and it will be convenient for me any time I want to take a quick photo.  It's also small enough to fit into a fanny pack, which is what Melba had with her on Saturday.  This little camera was on sale at Sears for $59.99.  I did have to buy a photo card, but that was on sale for $7.99.  This is what it looks like:

I didn't even read any reviews, I just winged it and went and bought it, so who knows what I'm in for.  But, I do have another Fujifilm Finepix larger digital camera and it's great, so hopefully this one will be ok too.

Here are some more pictures that I took with it this morning.  Just a few photos around my office.  First, my ribbon tree that I made this year for Christmas.

Next a little push pin beaded kind of tree that I made last year.

Then a couple of my African Violets that are in my office.

The Gathering Place

Yesterday I had the most wonderful afternoon. I went to Dayton to visit my cousin Melba, and we went to this wonderful place called The Gathering Place.  The link is here. It was so wonderful. While we were there, Melba's daughters, Karol and Sheila met us there. We had the best time. The Gathering Place looks like this:

I also love Melba's house. I love the way she has it decorated. She has a simple, country theme with lamps on her kitchen counters, country washtubs and dried flowers hanging from the ceiling. It's just awesome.

Here is a picture of the beautiful dried flowers in her kitchen.  I would love to take a camera and take more pictures. I always feel so inspired after I've visited her home.