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Hello NY!


I have been known to spend way too much time on eBay. Not too much money. No, I'm pretty good about that.

But when The Prince gets on the Wii late at night, I'm often found clicking away at eBay on vintage sites -- just window shopping. Although I have to say eBay is an anthropological dream come true. Much smarter things have been written, I am sure, of how much you can learn about history and human kind from eBay, but it always reminds me that if you only learned about the world from what you read in a book, you're in a sorry -- and severely uninformed -- state.

Once in awhile I will push the bid button, and did last week -- one of the first times in about 2 years. My prize? Boxes of mica chips -- in old five and dime containers marked, "Christmas Snow."

I make a lot of my own cards and the image was just too good to pass up (many of you will see it this winter) along with them marked at a great price.

I just got it in the mail about 5 minutes ago, on a perfectly acceptable spring day when I'm feeling dark (as I have a lot recently). On the outside, from the wonderful seller in Galveston, Texas (could there be any more wild sounding place than this?) was that hand written note above.

Not sure what was better. The friendly hello from a complete stranger or the boxes of winter magic that I opened at my kitchen table sending glitter puffs into the air. All in all, certainly a good find for my $20.

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