Shop Til You Drop Or Your Fingers Do!

I just Love the Victorian era for all it's wonderful fashions, but not for all it's rules of etiquette. A couple of years ago I posted several articles on my Linda's Blog concerning Victorian Traditions and Victorian Etiquette. In re-reading some of them I thought you might like to read some of them, too.

Here's my post concerning Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

Have fun shopping or keying! LOL LOL

Today is the biggest shopping day of the year. The day after Thanksgiving, the traditional start of the holiday shopping season. Plus, Monday is the biggest shopping day of the year for Internet sales. Given that, I thought it might be fun to take a look at some of the Victorian rules of etiquette for shopping to see if they could be applied to today.

According to the Logicmgmt.com website Victorian Shopping Etiquette is as follows:

1) In visiting a store for the purpose of examining the goods or making purchases, conduct yourself with courtesy and amiability. That's always a good idea. Not always practical. Especially when there are only 5 of the latest toy and there are 100 parents waiting in line for hours.

2) Never look over goods without any intention of buying them. Are you kidding? That's the only way to tell if there's an imperfection.

3) Speak to the clerks and employees of the store with courtesy and kindness. Do not order them to show you anything. Request them to do so in a polite manner. In leaving their counter, say pleasantly "Good morning" or "Good Day". It's always a good idea to have manners and treat others with respect. However, if the store clerk is not paying attention to their job or is yacking on the phone with a friend you have the right to speak up.

4) Never take a costly piece of goods -- nor any piece -- into a better light without first asking the clerk's permission to do so. This rule has been changed to "IF YOU BREAK IT-IT'S YOURS!"

5) Should you find another person examining a piece of goods, do not take hold of it. Wait until it is laid down, and then make your examination. This rule definitely was written before they started having the mad rush of bridal gowns on sale at "Macy's" or the last minute rush at Christmas by the parents trying to get their child the "IT" toy of the season.

6) To attempt to "beat down" the price of an article is rude. In the best conducted stores the price of the goods is "fixed", and the salesmen are not allowed to change it. If the price does not suit you, you are not obliged to buy, but can go elsewhere. Didn't the Victorians barter? I bet car salesmen would love to have this rule nowadays.

7) Pushing or crowding at a counter, or the indulgence in personal remarks, handling the goods in a careless manner, or so roughly as to injure them, lounging upon the counter, or talking in a loud voice, are marks of bad breeding. What? The Victorians never experienced the mad rush of last minute shoppers. That's part of the fun.

8) Never let the door of a shop slam in the face of any person, nor permit a stranger to hold it open without any acknowledgement of courtesy. That's just plain rude, but I've seen it happen.

9) Never express your opinion about an article another is purchasing, unless asked to do so. If an item is defective and you know it, then I would think someone would appreciate knowing it. However, don't be surprised if you hear "Who asked you?"

10) You should never ask or expect a clerk waiting upon a customer to leave that person and attend to you. Wait patiently for your turn. A universal rule of shopping that some people do ignore. When they do look out. Talk about "road rage." That's nothing compared to "shopping rage!"

11) It is rude to make unfavorable comparisons between the goods you are examining, and those of another store.Doesn't apply to today. Nowadays with stores all matching their competitors lowest price you'd be a fool not to speak up.

12) Have your parcels sent and so avoid the fatigue of carrying them. Ah, there was a time when stores did this for you. Not anymore. Here's where a foldable shopping carts comes in handy.

I think they forgot a rule. Rule #13) Always let you personal shopper do the walking. You've got better things to do. If you don't have a personal shopper then go on to Rule #14) Always do your shopping in your jammies. Let your fingers do the walking over your keyboard and let the Internet be your guide. Personally, the latter is the best wait to shop. 

So, on Monday while you're out there Internet shopping please don't forget to visit our Linda Walsh Originals website. We have a lot of wonderful doll patterns, "instant download e-patterns", and tons of handmade dolls & crafts for sale. Plus, we follow Rule #12 and send your parcels to you. See, and you thought chivalry was dead!

If you decide to venture out into the wide, mad rush of holiday shoppers please BE SAFE!

Happy shopping to all.

And, remember the most important rule of shopping is - SHOP TIL YOU DROP or your fingers do!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO ALL!

Thursday when we sit down for Thanksgiving dinner we will give thanks for all we have, remembrances of our dear and departed loved ones, and prayers of good health for our families and friends. There are so many ways to says thanks and express gratitude for all we have. 

Below are a few famous Thanksgiving quotes: 

Ralph Waldo Emerson said: 

For each new morning with its light,

For rest and shelter of the night,

For health and food, for love and friends,

For everything Thy goodness sends.

Theodore Roosevelt said: "Let us remember that, as much has been given us, much will be expected from us, and that true homage comes from the heart as well as from the lips, and shows itself in deeds."—1901 

John Fitzgerald Kennedy said: "As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them." 

Johannes A. Gaertner said: "To speak gratitude is courteous and pleasant, to enact gratitude is generous and noble, but to live gratitude is to touch Heaven." 

And for my Father in remembrance of his Father and my Grandfather, John, who came from Estonia, an Estonian proverb: Who does not thank for little will not thank for much. 

HAPPY THANKSGIVING everyone. 

I've Been Playing, Again! This Time With A Personalized Card Website

If you're a reader of my Linda's Blog and have been following me and all my blogs (yes, I do have a few! LOL LOL) you are well aware that I love to play and experiment. Especially when it comes to interactive websites. 

Well, on November 2nd I received an email from Krystal at Cardstore.com (http://www.cardstore.com) asking me if I'd like to review their website and products.  It seems she had seen my blog post about the fall decorations I had created and thought I might appreciate trying a card website where you basically get to build beautiful and personalized greeting cards. 

So, given my love of playing I thought I'd try it out.  Well, the other day, I decided to play and try out their website.  I have to tell you that this took me awhile, not because the website was hard to maneuver.  To the contrary it was very easy to maneuver.  It took awhile because they have hundreds - no, make that thousands, of cards for every occasion, every holiday, and just about anything else you might want to send a card for. 

You can choose from some of their designs and just add one of your photo's, or choose one of their designs and add your own words, or choose one of their designs and add both a photo and your words.  The words you add can be short or multiple paragraphs depending on the format you choose.  There are six different formats for personalizing your card depending upon where you want your photo and words to appear. 

Plus, for everyone who has a hectic schedule and very little time (like me) you can have your return address printed on your envelopes for no extra charge.  That's a great time saver and deal all by itself.  However, the best time saver is you can create an address book in your account and then they will print the addresses on your envelopes for you.  They'll even add stamps for you or better yet - they'll mail your cards for you (once you've paid for the stamps in the checkout process).  For everyone with busy schedules that's a terrific option. 

I decided to create some holiday cards in a couple of different versions and to create some holiday gift tags.  I didn't have time to create an address book so I could have them printed on my envelopes, but I'm going to do that during the year so next Christmas I'll be in terrific shape. 

What's also great about this website is they also offer a volume discount for ordering multiple cards.  So, you can personalize just one card or create multiple cards.  Plus, you can save your designs in your account and return to them to edit or order them on your own schedule. 

I created, personalized, and saved some business thank you cards and birthday cards in my account that I may order sometime in the future.  After you have saved your cards you can then go back and edit them and/or add them to you cart when you're ready to order.  I did notice that from time to time when I went back to add my saved cards to my order that they didn't always show the picture I had chosen in the preview process.  This only happened with the saved cards and not ones that are created and added to the checkout process initially or when you go back to edit a card from your cart.  I'm not sure if this was due to the browser I was using (Google Chrome) or just a snag in their saved card process.  In any event it was no big deal to go back and add the picture again or just go back to my cart and chose the edit link before checking out. 

For those of you that are designers you can submit designs to them for their consideration.  Plus if you want to become an affiliate of Cardstore.com they also offer an affiliate program with Commission Junction. 

I found Cardstore.com to be very easy to use and was pleased with the large variety of their design selections.  They have photo cards for every occasion and event, invitations, thank you cards, birthday cards, everyday cards, encouragement cards, humorous cards, friendship cards, get well cards, sympathy cards, anniversary cards, congratulations cards, moving announcements, wedding cards, graduation cards, flat cards, folded cards, business cards, and even stationary.  With all that to choose from I hope you can understand why it took me awhile to peruse thru their website. 

So, I decided to order some Christmas cards and did so the other day.    I'll let you know how they turn out. 

I hope you enjoy your 20% discount. 

If you'd like to check out their holiday cards please go to http://www.cardstore.com/holiday-cards.html. If you'd like to check out their photo cards please go to http://www.cardstore.com/. 

What About The Pilgrims?

Thanksgiving Day will soon be on the horizon and our thoughts will turn to giving thanks, family, traditions, and celebrating. 

I prefer to call it gobble, gobble, gobble day. We'll all be feasting until our stomachs are bulging (at least some of us will). I think we should call it calories, gobble, gobble day! Don't you? 

Thanksgiving Day is a huge holiday in the United States. 

Families and friends get together and give thanks for all our blessings. 

We have football games, and the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade. 

And, the day after Thanksgiving marks the beginning of the Christmas shopping season (black Friday) which is, generally, the busiest shopping day of the year. 

We've been celebrating gobble, gobble, gobble day for a long time. 

We've been eating and shopping, then eating, eating and eating. 

And, finally, gaining weight. 

Are we sure we should be giving thanks for this? LOL LOL 

So, why do we do this? 

Well, we seem to think Thanksgiving was a day of observance for the Pilgrims. A day for them and us to give thanks for all we have and all we enjoy. 

But, the Pilgrims never held customary Thanksgiving Days in the fall. 

In fact, the Pilgrims only had one feast in 1621, after their very first harvest and this was NEVER repeated. 

The pilgrims were deeply religious people. A day of thanksgiving to them was a day for prayers and fasting. It was nothing like we have today. 

However, when we think of Thanksgiving we think of the one Harvest Feast that the Pilgrims did have with 90 people, including their Indian friends. 

So, of course their is a history to how did we got the Thanksgiving Day as we now know it? And, since I just love history, I thought I'd share it with all of you. 

The Pilgrims had landed December 11, 1620 and lost many of their group during the cold, harsh winter. Their first harvest in the fall was bountiful so they celebrated the harvest with the Indians who had helped them survive and the feast lasted three days. 

So, how did it turn into a national tradition? 

Well, that didn't happen until 169 years later when George Washington proclaimed a National Day of Thanksgiving in 1789. 

As is usually the case, some people wanted it, some (like Thomas Jefferson) did not. So, between 1789 and 1863 Thanksgiving was dependent upon whether the President proclaimed it as a National Day or not. 

During the Civil War Sarah Hale, a magazine editor, urged President Abraham Lincoln to reinstate Thanksgiving Day. 

In 1863 President Lincoln proclaimed the last Thursday in November as a National Day of Thanksgiving.

However, it was still dependent upon the President, however, to proclaim the day as a National Day every year. Every President since Lincoln proclaimed Thanksgiving Day as the 4th Thursday in November. 

Seventy-six years later in 1939 Franklin Roosevelt, however, proclaimed Thanksgiving to be the 3rd Thursday in November to lengthen the holiday shopping season. He did this in 1940 and 1941, too. Doing so, however, upset many people. 

So, we have President Roosevelt to thank for linking SHOPPING to Thanksgiving. 

It wasn't until 1941 that congress declared Thanksgiving as a National Holiday. 

However, they changed it back to the 4th Thursday in November. 

Why the 4th? Who knows. Political pandering, probably. Payback for something? Who knows. We're talking about politicians here. 

In any event, Thanksgiving has remained the 4th Thursday in November and is inexplicably linked with shopping, parades, football games, feasting (and gorging, perhaps), Pepto Brismol (definitely after the gorging), and the winter dieting frenzy. 

After all when you eat, shop, eat, eat, and eat you're going to gain weight. 

So, Happy Thanksgiving to all. 

When you sit down on the 4th Thursday of November just remember these words "Gobble, gobble, gobble. 

Oh, how we love to Gobble. 

Eat, eat, and eat! 

Oh, what a wonderful treat! 

Gobble, gobble, gobble. 

Oh, how we love to eat! 

Diet, diet, diet! 

Oh, NO I will NOT try it!" 

Happy Thanksgiving! Gobble, Gobble, Gobble! 

Pilgrims and turkeys are usually associated with Thanksgiving and are also a favorite of doll makers and doll patterns designers alike. I have made many pilgrims and have designed several pilgrim doll patterns over the years.

I have also made many, many different types of pilgrims and turkeys that I have made from other designers patterns. I loved making each and every one.

The Rest Of The Shadowbox Pictures

In a previous post on my Linda's Blog entitled "Shadowbox Pictures For Fall Decorations" I told you about the shadowboxes hubby and I had made for some of the gifts were were giving one Christmas season. 

We had created enough shadowboxes to give as gifts and enough for decorations for every season. The shadowboxes were mostly made out of 1/2"x1" pine for the frames and 1/2" pine boards for the centers.  The frames were painted one color and the center boards were painted another.  And, rub-on stencils were added to the center boards to complete the pictures. 

There was only one exception to the total wood picture and that was for the snowman picture shown at the beginning of this post.  That shadowbox was created using pine wood for the frames and an 8"x10" canvas panel for the center.  Like the other shadowbox pictures I painted the canvas panel a different color then the frames and then applied the rub-on stencils to create the picture.  Brush on varnish was added to seal everything. 

Shown below are some of the shadowboxes we created for the Christmas holiday and winter season.  

I hope you enjoyed seeing all the pictures.

Walking Around The Craft Show

There's nothing I like better than walking around a craft show looking at all the wonderful creations.  So, this weekend hubby and I did just that.

Now that isn't exactly hubby's favorite thing to do, but he did it for me.  And, actually to his surprise there were a LOT of really talented artisans at this craft show with some really nice stuff.

So, of course, given that I have never found a craft booth that I didn't like I bought a few presents for the holidays.  My preference for gifts is to always buy handmade if I can.  Of course, my handmade gifts are preferable, but lovely handmade gifts from talented crafters will do.

So, I bought a few things!  All gifts of course - well, most were gifts for my family for the holiday season.  A couple were things I bought for hubby and I.  Well, make that were bought for me! LOL LOL

In any event, it was a terrific craft show this year and I was happy about that.

Truth be told the last few years there have been fewer and fewer craftisans at this show.  This year they had many, many more artisans with wonderful handmade products.  So, I was very pleased with that.

I'd love to tell you what I bought and show you pictures, but I know my sister and sister-in-law will be reading my blog and that would give away the surprise.

However, I will tell you that I was a really good girl and resisted the fudge booth this year.  It really took a lot of will power on my part as the fudge was really inviting.

I should have at least bought some for the holidays, but know it would have never made it out of the car!

Make that - it would have never made it out of the show!

Hubby would have eaten it all!

And if you believe that I have a bridge I could sell you...........