Santa Claus is coming to town...

...but much too early this year it seems. I'm going to blame it on the weather rather than my lack of organization. It's hard to get into the Christmas spirit when it's 75 degrees outside. Don those red tank tops and green shorts for holiday attire! I have a nice pair of lime green flip-flops that will work nicely I think.

Why is it that artists/crafters seem to have so much trouble sticking to one thing? I've spent the last 2 days on my knees making a painted canvas floorcloth for my mom (to be included with a 'gift certificate' for DH and I to hang wallpaper if she ever gets around to actually choosing some) instead of doing something at the sewing machine. Same thing with my S-I-L. We draw names each year among the adults so we only have to do one big present for each other instead of one for each of the fortylebben siblings and spouses. This is her first year as real family with us and I could have done a quilt for her, had I not done one for their wedding in April. Bad planning on my part I guess. So she's getting a pashmina with some needlefelting on it. And maybe a pair of gloves and a hat to match if I can find the right ones. But that would involve actually getting out to shop and that's WAAAAAY down on my list. I tend to go to one specific place looking for one specific thing, and if I have to hit a bunch of places just "looking" I usually change my mind about what to get so I can bypass the whole shopping experience as much as possible. That's the Scrooge in me coming out I guess, since shopping to me feels like rooting around in someone's closet. Maybe my expectations are too high also. If I see something I like, I expect the store to have it in the color/size/style I need. All too often, I find exactly what I'm looking for only to discover the only one in the right size only comes in Tangerine Sunrise, (I tried to work the word 'only' into that sentence one more time but just couldn't do it) or it doesn't come in any size but 2X-petite. Too much crap piled up too high on the displays, and it looks like my slob child has folded and stacked the stuff too. There is just some sort of switch in my brain that makes it impossible for me to justify spending 45 minutes rooting through a pile of stuff to spend $15 on it in the hope that the recipient will enjoy it.

And more Scrooginess on my part involves the incessant ads for "One Day Only" sales, and "Lowest Prices of the Season" sales. If they're one day only, why do they have them every Saturday? If J.C.Penney keeps lowering their prices every week to the lowest of the season, I can just wait until January and they'll GIVE me the stuff. Sort of makes me wonder just exactly what their mark-up is to begin with too if they can keep lowering the prices like that. And my favorite is the "Everything in the Store ON SALE" sales. Well, everything in the store with the exception of the list of departments in the fine print at the end of the ad, which they very neatly cover with lots of movement and color so even if you're looking for the exemptions you can't read them.

Thank God I live in the Deep South where Christmas lights hanging year-round don't get too many weird looks from the neighbors (reference Redneck Woman) so my decorations so far involve plugging in the lights on the front of the house. Yeah, I have pink flamingoes in scarves too, although with this heat they should be in bathing suits. We finally broke down last year and bought a plastic tree too, already lighted (long story about the Christmas tree that stayed up until April that was the last straw for a live one) and I'm leaning towards hanging tons of candy canes on it and being done with it. I found candy cane stripe wrapping paper (wrapping you say? Sure, I wrap everything as we're walking out the door to deliver it) at Dollar Tree yesterday and may be back to buy enough to do ALL the presents with this year. Keep everything simple, but it will involve actually attaching name tags to the presents. When the kids were little each one had their own paper so nothing needed tags. Another lazy way to do things. It will probably keep me out of the running for Mother-of-the-Year, but I'll get over it.