I'll send a photo tomorrow, when they're all dry. I made next year's gifts for my friends. After I submitted the jigsaw puzzle ornaments instructions, I got inspired to make some more. I bought a puzzle for .50 at the thrift store and had all the fun of putting it together. It had 550 pieces. Then I sprayed them (gold this time!) and glued thie pieces into little wreaths to hang on the Christmas tree. I had enough ribbon left over to make bows for all 24 of them! I spent under $10.00 (just the puzzle, spray paint and glitter glue) and have gifts for 24 friends! I think that's about .40 each, and they're really pretty. And I'm READY!!! No more being late!!

My next hope is to have a really great yard sale this spring to help finance the publication of my book, "Hart Hollow Journal -- Living of $500 a month using every trick in the book." There are quite a few freebie coupons coming out tomorrow, and I will sell most of the freebies at the yard sale. Every little bit helps, and I can do it within my budget!

It's very cold here. Although it's above freezing, the west wind is howling, and even in my little office, my nose is as cold as ice!

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After four days of frequent interruptions, I finally have the tree done. We had a three-footer for years, but this year bought a six footer. I had forgotten how much work it is to get the lights on, and wasn't sure how many ornaments we had left. But it's done and it looks great!

I was looking at our menus for this week, and I realized that I hardly have to buy anything. If I concentrate on using up what we have on hand, all I need to add is salt, flour, baking powder. We're like a pair of '49'ers panning for gold. Jim grows way more than we can eat!

I made soap four days ago, and it's turning out really well. It was halfway set up before I got all the lye water in it, so it hardened really fast. Guess it's time to dig out the fragrance and color. If you save fat from the bacon and other meat and keep it clean (boil it with a couple inches of water, then chill so the solids sink to the bottom) and keep it in the fridge or refrigerator, all you need to add is a can of lye to make soap. It's about $4.50 for a can. But it makes ten pounds of soap. Let's see, if we cut that into 5 ounce bars, that makes 32 bars. Not bad compared to the dollar or more for grocery-store soap. I saw bars of plain lye soap for sale at the hardware store for $3.99 each. It had a list of things you could do with it, including bathe, shampoo, clean clothes, etc. The last thing was wash out a sassy kid's mouth. Gave me a good laugh. Anyway, this is going to be lavender soap so I can give some for Christmas gifts. Two years ago I gave some raspberry soap to Maryann, and she's been hinting for more ever since.

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I am catching up my email while the tallow melts. Today is the day I make soap (no matter how slow the tallow  melts) for my Christmas baskets. I've already made the other stuff that goes in the baskets. Because it's only three weeks till Christmas, I've chosen a recipe that sets up quickly.

I'm spending a bit on Christmas and extra dog food, so I have to make my allowance stretch until next Friday. So I'm going for three no-spending and no driving days in the next seven days.

We saw a wonderful concert last night! Time for Three are a string trio that are so totally different! I was expecting Baroque, but we got everything else. And I have never seen or heard such fast fiddling! We get the concert tickets every year in exchange for my writing critiques for each concert to put in the local newspaper. We could never afford them any other way.

Monday is my day to apply for Social Security. I am so excited! I've been waiting to get disability for many years, because I really can't earn a living due to a long list of illnesses.

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I started my Christmas list today. Usually I start in January, but I was sick then. I made a list of who, and now I'll start filling in what they get. Since I'm knitting bath mitts, I will make at least two bath baskets, plus one for us. Last year I gathered up a bunch of gifts to mail, and then didn't have the cash to mail them, so this year they'll get really light gifts. Some crocheted snowflakes come to mind. Doilies.

Three friends have called since last night to offer help for our 25th Anniversary party this Friday. Is that sweet or what?

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