Don't yell at me ~ I already know I'm late with this post! I'm hoping that, by tomorrow at this time, all will be better. Let me explain: I'm blaming this all on my high speed connection.

I was on dial-up for years. Seven of 'em, to be exact. Then I switched to Embarq (formerly Sprint) high-speed. All was fine for awhile. That was before we had to start using the Embarq email program in lieu of the Earthlink program (they must have had an agreement with Earthlink that either expired or went sour). That's when my computer started freezing up almost daily, causing me to start rebooting my computer VERY often, getting a lot of "Internet Explorer has encountered a problem and needs to close..." type messages and waiting (for what seems to be forever) for my pages to load. Slower than dial-up! Long story short, I discovered that many of my online pals who are with Embarq are experiencing the same problems. My hopeful solution: I'm having Charter Cable hook me to their system tomorrow afternoon. Wish me luck. ;-)

By the way, Charter has an online special going on right now - $14.99 monthly for six months. Just thought some of you might want to know.

If you read this blog with some regularity you probably have probably been thinking that that the time I haven't been waiting on a slow computer connection has been put into our spot in the new mall. You would be right. It takes a lot of time to clean and repair linens (no, not all dealers do this but we make an honest attempt to stock merchandise that is in good condition), clean up olde kitchenware and, of course, clean and repair and sometimes paint furniture. So, as of right this minute, this is what our new spot looks like:

The first picture is standing at the door looking straight to the back; the second is of the side that looks out onto the area next to me (a cake decorating service will be immediately on the other side of that window). See that basket in the corner? I have some soaps that I ordered from Susan at Harmony Handmade Soaps (http://harmonyhandmadesoap.com/ ). I discovered her soaps a few years ago while visiting my son in Indiana and have been addicted to them ever since. Hers are the only soaps I use. They smell sooo good (especially "Tranquil Sleep" - my favorite!) and leave your skin feeling silky. I oftentimes give them for gifts. They smell so delicious that just about every person who comes into one of our shops has to take a few moments extra to enjoy the fragrances.

The little two drawered chest was a white and gold French Provincial piece before I decided to transform it into a blue FP piece. Looking at this pic, I suddenly realize that I believe I put the handles on backwards.

This is the outside of the booth - I added some stars and garlands.

...and this is the wall inside the booth directly behind the shuttered windows.

As you can see, I still have a lot more to do before the (new) opening date of next Monday.

I've been working on several handmade items; you'll see those and (hopefully) more trash-to-treasure items next time.

Thanks for stopping by!