I have been in somewhat of a funk lately for many reasons.  Some of which I control and some of which I dont.  Yesterday, though, I began to return to my happy self.  Its the little things that really can make you happy.

I havent really dont much grocery shopping in a while.  This means that I have been eating terribly.  Way too much junk and not enough fruits and veggies.  So I decided yesterday that I was going to stop at the grocery store on my way home from work - Jim wouldnt be getting home until late anyway. 

I picked up a bit of fresh produce, although not as much as I was hoping for.  A lot of it was still too expensive or just didnt look very good.  The sweet cherries were on sale and seemed pretty good, so I went for those.  They were definitely the best of the produce I checked out.  I already finished the ones I brought for lunch.  I wish there was more.

Lunches have been hard lately because I havent really been cooking.  With nothing in the fridge what the heck do you take for lunch?  Today's lunch was easy.  I found a pepperoni pizza lunchable in the clearance section for $0.50.  I dont usually buy them because they are so expensive, but I splurged at that price. 

I also wanted to get something I could make for dinner so that I didnt eat more crap.  I walked through the meat department.  I noticed that the Hatfield Sausage was on sale.  Each of the packages also had a $1 off coupon attached to them.  So I decided I would make sausage for dinner.

I picked up a few more things and then went to check out.  I remembered I had an instant lottery ticket that I still needed to cash in, so I got it out so that I wouldnt forget about it.  Again.  I finished paying for the food.  As I was waiting for the money from the lottery ticket (my whole $2 - Im RICH!), I was looking over my reciept, because that is just how I am. 

I noticed that the 3 pound packages of Italian sausage rang up for $1.99, not $1.99 per pound as I had orginally thought.  So before I left, I went back and got more.  Each package cost $1.99 minus the $1 off coupon on each one. 

So dinner last night consisted of sausage, corn, and cherries.  And I still have a ton of sausage in my freezer.  So if you have any good recipes that use sausage, please share!  We will be eating a lot of it over the next few weeks.  At $0.33 per pound, I couldnt say no!

That is really all it takes to make me happy.  It makes me feel like I am doing something well. Today is also turning out to be a great day - and really for no reason.  It is taco night and I dont have to work tomorrow.  Only 1 week of work left - and I am excited! 

(Why is it that before every vacation I run around like an idiot with my head cut off?  Jim is absolutely amazing and does a ton of stuff around the house.  But when it comes to vacations?  I swear I could throw the video game controller through the tv.  This is never a good way to prepare for vacation!)

Wednesday morning we headed out after sleeping in a bit.  (You know you are old when you leave at 9:30 and you still slept in...)  I had printed directions so that we would definitely be able to get there because Jim said the GPS in the car probably wouldnt have Canada in it.  Thankfully, he was wrong and we were able to follow the GPS the whole way.  No getting lost on this trip!  Driving was fanatastic.  We had the windows down most of the way because the weather was simply amazing.  There was hardly any traffic.  We really couldnt have asked for anything better.  (On a side note, a really cool and helpful feature on Jim's car was the ability to change everything from mph to kmph.  His car has a digital display and being able to change the display meant no guessing games.  Way cool.)

This was my first time driving through border patrol.  Honestly?  I really didnt expect any questions from them.  I do half wonder what we would have had to do if we did have more than $1000.  I knew that we didnt have anything illegal and we were going for a legitimate reason, but he definitely still made me nervous!  Of course Jim almost busted up laughing as soon as we pulled up because he asked "Why are you going to Canada, eh?"

Jim and I stayed at a KOA just over the Canadian border.  It was awesome!  It was actually on a pretty major road - which made it easy to get to - but it was still quiet.  They had a playground and a 'jumping pillow' (think giant moon bounce).  I really wanted to jump on the jumping pillow, but there were always tons of kids on it and I dont always share well!    They had 2 outdoor pools - one was a shallow kiddy pool and then a regular pool.  There was also an indoor pool and 2 hot tubs. 

We did sleep in a tent, but there is also tons of space for RV's and they had little 'kamping kabins'.  There were regular bathrooms and showers.  They had kitchen areas that had a little electric buner thing and sink.  If you wanted, you could also bring some of your own kitchen things - like an electric skillet or george foreman grill.  So while we were camping, it wasnt the middle of nowhere without modern amenities that most people think of. 

On Wednesday evening, we did not much of anything.  We went swimming a bit.  We played a bunch of cards.  We just sat around and relaxed.  On Thursday morning, we woke up, had breakfast and relaxed a bit more.  (That is really one of my favorite parts of camping - we dont do much of anything.)

After lunch, we headed out to the Falls.  We did make one stop first.  We traded in all of the Canadian coin we have been collecting.  When all was said and done, we had $905 Canadian.  Not too shabby!    Nothing like getting paid to go on vacation!

We found a parking lot that was only $5 for the day and parked.  We really didnt know for sure which direction the Falls were from there, but we figured we couldnt miss them.  (Usually this would be the part where I would say that we were wrong, but thankfully it was pretty obvious which direction it was to the Falls!)  As we were walking down the street, Jim and I both noticed a woman who appeared to be trying desperately to hide in the crowd.  She was definitely strung out on something.  And she was wearing a sheer black shirt, with no bra.    I dont think I will ever understand people.

The Falls were pretty amazing.  Something that is apparantly not common knowledge: there is actually 2 sections to the Falls.  From the American side, you wouldnt be able to see the one section very well because you are pretty much right on top of it.  Jim and I walked around for probably about an hour and a half or so before heading out.  I absolutely loved the Falls.  But the area was extremely touristy and there were way too many people for my tastes.  I can only imagine how bad it would be on a weekend - especially for the 4th! 

When we got back to the campground, I took a nap and Jim went swimming.  When I got up, we went over to the hot tubs.  Just before we got there it started to down pour.  We hurried into the building so that our towels wouldnt get soaked before we got to use them.  By the time we were done in the hot tub, it wasnt raining anymore - but it started raining soon after we got back to the tent.  So we ended up just going to bed early that night.

On Friday morning we woke up early.  We took our time eating breakfast and packing up, but we were still gone by 8:30 to head over to my sister's place in New York.

The part you cant really see from the American side.

I loved the color of the water!  It looked so awesome.

I think this picture turned out really cool.  You can see the Maid of the Mist - just barely.  It really shows how much mist is produced from the Falls!

Im not sure if you all remember seeing these a couple of months ago or not.  (If not, I posted a picture of the original and one of my first attempts here.)  Anyway, after some thought, I had decided to make a bunch to sell.

So far, I have made 13.  I have a bunch more that arent far from being finished.  I want to open an Etsy account and list them there.  My dilemma is how much do I charge? 

So here are the important details:  Trivets/Pot Holders/Hot Pads  100% handsewn. 5.5 inches in diameter.  Below are a couple of examples of the ones that I have made recently.

What do you think?  How much do you think I should charge for them?  How much would you be willing to pay?

Update:  Here is the information that I didnt share.  The cost of materials for these is minimal.  The investment is really my time.  Although they are small, each one takes me about 2 hours to complete.  I have been debating for a while how much I wanted to sell them for.  I would like to sell them for a bit higher of my price because of the time investment, but I also want to actually sell them.  So I was thinking about a compromise (with myself?).  I would sell them individually for $7 each.  If you buy 3 or more, $5 each.  (Im not sure I can do that on Etsy, I havent really checked out all of the details yet.) 

My only other dilemma is what do I call my Etsy store? 

A few of you mentioned that you really liked some.  If you want some, I can work something out with you.  We can do it not via Etsy so that I wouldnt be charged any fees and then we can share the savings. 

Thanks for all of your input!