A Day in December

Happy Friday to everyone.

It’s a week before Christmas. Have you finished your holiday shopping? With tons of holiday offers left, right and center; I can’t help but wonder if there’s anything that I need to buy, NOW!

I can’t think of any.

Having said that, if you know any deals of the century that you can’t ignore, will you let me know? 🙂

Crazy Holiday Sale
30% off entire order, with free shipping, no minimum
30% off entire Sale Room
Additional 20% off Clearance

Wow. Are the retailers making any $?

Ruby Junk on Amazon
It’s the first year of Ruby Junk (my scarf label www.RubyJunk.com) selling on Amazon. I’ve been very conservative in projecting the holiday sales volume. The last thing I want is to sit on tons of overstock after the holiday season. To my surprise, most of the my styles are selling out on Amazon. That’s good news, right? 🙂 I’m so pumped and looking forward to next year’s holiday season!

But now, I have to re-stock, as soon as possible. I’ll still stay on the conservative side because I don’t know how the sales is going to be after the holiday season.

Stay Warm
Snowy Fairfield IowaFor those who are building your characters in the ice box like I am, stay happy.

Make yourself a bowl of ginger ginseng chicken soup. It’ll keep you warm. I would throw in some goji berries too! So yum!

How about renting a few movies and have a cozy night in? Don’t forget a cup of hot chocolate and blanket. Hmmmm! 🙂

Happy holidays.

Melting Mystical Fairyland

January is usually the worst month of winter season in Fairfield, Iowa. Ice storm is not unusual at this time of year. In fact, we were hit by two days of ice storms last week.

Some tree branches couldn’t stand the weight of the ice and broke. Some of them landed on the roof and some made a mess on the road. The city will come and pick up these branches, which is nice.

My house lost power a few times. That was when I really wish I had a wood stove, which will guarantee heat in the house no matter what.

Despite of the cold weather, I try to appreciate the beauty of January – the fresh snow, the ice crystals, the fog and many wonders of nature.

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broken branches in front of my house

Thank goodness ice started to melt yesterday. I had taken some frozen land photos in 2005, so the same frozen ice subject doesn’t excite me. But how about melting ice + the fog? Hmm… I decided to take an hour off, roamed around my house and the nearby streets to appreciate nature. Nothing is the same old same old, that’s the beauty of nature. You’ll discover something new, if you choose to see with an open heart.

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Foggy 2nd Street

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Ice hockey time. You can count on kids to find fun things to do in winter.

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Warmer weather melts the ice that accumulated on the branches which sends ice cubes to the ground (tree next to my garage).

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bricks in ice water

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Ice layer on tree. There's water running between the tree stem and the ice layer.

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Bubbly

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Sign of life

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Broken branch (no staging, all organic)

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all iced up - heavy branches

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broken branches

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mystical landscape (Country Club Golf Course)

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foggy

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broken

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broken

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broken, a different angle

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heart

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another melting heart

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melting ice layer - it's so thin!

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ice layers

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crystal-like ice

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treasure?

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bubbly

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drip

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cracking

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melting away

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mystical landscape

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Fresh Snow Day

[Tuesday]

This morning there was three inches of new powder snow outside. All white, and it was so pretty to look at.

I don’t like cold weather. I didn’t see snow until I was 21. Frankly, I don’t care for snow at all.  It’s actually a pain in the butt to warm the car and to clear the snow in the morning. But who doesn’t love fresh fluffy powdery snow? It’s dry, and doesn’t stick to the skin. It moves with the wind, like feather. It’s so dreamy!

I really wanted to play in the snow this morning, but I had to go to work. 🙁

First thing I did after I came back from work was to let Kai out. He started hopping in the snow and playing happily. 🙂 This Iowan born dog thrives in cold weather. I threw snow balls at him and he would jump and catch them. He loves chewing the ice.

I will never let the kid in my heart die. If I can’t avoid snow in winter, then might just as well enjoy it.

Q: How much snow comes from one inch of rain?

A: Fifteen inches of dry powder snow equals 1 inch of rain. This is also equivalent to only five inches of very wet snow. The accepted average is ten inches.

(Source: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_much_snow_comes_from_one_inch_of_rain)

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Fresh snow on Kai

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Checking out neighbor’s dog

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Ready to play any time

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Kai was so hyper in the snow that I had to say  “Treat!” to get him to look at me for one second.