Happy New Year! Here's to New Beginnings!

Happy New Year, Everyone!  Our New Year's Eve started off with a bang - literally.  At 6:00 a.m., the local news warned people in my neighboring communities to take cover because of  impending tornadoes that were expected to touch down.  My oldest son - who was in nearby Rogers - awoke to to the sound of tornado sirens.  Thankfully, we are all alright, but unfortunately, several houses were leveled and three people lost their lives.  My heart goes out to those poor families who lost their loved ones and their homes to this devastating incident.

Last year at this time, I made the first New Year's resolution that I ever stuck with and was quite successful at it.  I vowed to eat healthier and lose weight.  And, when I say weight, I'm not talking just a few extra pounds.  I lost a total of 92 pounds last year and am now currently more than halfway to my weight loss goal.  I have to give credit to a program I discovered from a Facebook friend for my success.  That program is called "SparkPeople" and it's absolutely wonderful.   You can eat like a "normal" person which means you don't have to deprive yourself when going out to restaurants or eating with the family.  I highly recommend it for everyone who wants to shed a few (or a lot) of pounds.  I've dieted my entire life and I've tried every program out there, but this is the one that really WORKS.  Listen, if I can do it for an entire year, that says a lot.  :)

"Before" pic (yuck)

After losing 92 pounds - halfway to goal!

After much thought, I've decided to reduce the inventory in my EBay store and move a bulk of my handmade items to ETSY.   During the months of January and February, I will be making the transition.   Don't get me wrong - I'll still be selling on EBay, too - but on a smaller level.  In order to help reduce the inventory there, many items will be on sale in my EBay store.  ETSY customers can also save during this transition by using coupon code "WELCOME" to save 20% on their entire purchase.   In addition, in the very near future, my daughter, Brianna and I will be selling our homemade candy and cookies on ETSY.  Each year, around the holidays, we always make lots of sweets.  We've had many suggestions from people to market our sweets - so why not?  We will highlight our tried and true buttery caramels, English almond toffee and Scandinavian almond cookies (to name just a few).  All of our homemade sweets contain quality ingredients such as real cream butter.  (No margarine used here!)  Please stay tuned for details....

Buttery soft caramels

English almond toffee

I hope this New Year brings lots of love, laughter and the things that are truly important to everyone this year.

Ice Storm Causes Destruction in My Town

On Monday night, my little town of Springdale, Arkansas was hit with a devastating ice storm. We knew the storm was coming but we had no idea of the damage we would experience from this. Tuesday morning, 1/2" to 2" of ice had accumulated on the roads, sidewalks and trees. Schools and businesses were closed because it was too dangerous to try to drive. My daughter, Brianna and I were inside our home listening to the trees make popping noises as the branches collapsed under the weight of the ice. We are photograph nuts and we've never seen anything like this, so we snapped pictures like crazy outside. Little did we know that many of our pictures would be the last of our home with it's big beautiful ornamental pear trees in the front yard. As we snapped pictures, we watched our huges trees buckle under the ice. One of the trees split in half; part of it landed on my car; the other part of it landed on my son's car. My entire neighborhood experienced damage like we have never seen before and it literally looks like a bomb went off in my neighborhood. My entire town and the surrounding areas lost electricity on Tuesday. It is now Saturday, and I anxiously wait for my power to be restored. Word has it that 95% of my town will have power restored by midnight tonight (Saturday). Our Governor, Mike Beebe, has declared our town a Federal Disaster area. I understand that there will be funding available for clean up and repairs but that's really all I know at this time.

In any case, I am thankful for the use of my town's library computer today. I am a big news junkie and I literally feel like I have been cut off from the world for the past 5 days. Between that and the cabin fever, this has been a frustrating experience. Thankfully, my family and friends are all alright. We are also fortunate enough to live in a neighborhood where people still help one another. We don't have to worry about looting or anything like that. Neighbors I have never met before came over and sawed tree branches in my yard, helping to remove them from the vehicles and the street. In times like this, it is comforting to know that people are willing to help one another when times get tough.

Once I am able to access my computer from home, I'll be posting pictures from the storm on Facebook and Flickr. Please stay tuned.....