It was a fine three-day weekend. I didn't do much but work on my new passion - black and white collages. I will see if I can upload some to my photo album below. Check them out!

At the moment, I am working on a series of valentines. I have done one with a Latino theme, with the Virgin of Guadalupe as the focus. I have also done a fun one with a voodoo doll on it! I have colored those, and they are what you will see if I get them into my photo album. I also did two Asian-themed and two Parisian-themed valentines. I really got inspired by fairy tales, and have done eight fantasy/fairy tale valentines. I want to get back to the Latino, though.

I don't know yet what I am going to do with them. I am thinking of printing them on cardstock and binding them at Kinko's to sell. I might also colorize and frame some. I am having a really good time making the collages, though. I have plans for affirmation cards and all sorts of things.

I even was gutsy enough to mention an Asian New Year collage I had done (on 11 by 17 paper) to the local Chinese restaurant. I am going to drop it by to see if they want to print some out to give to children. I have no idea what I would want in exchange - a Peking Duck dinner? It's worth a try!

Yesterday, I made moves to resolve the unfinished business left with Nadeau, the furniture company that I have going round and round with since July. In this entry, I include pictures of the three pieces I wanted to buy. The only piece that was in stock when I got around to ordering was the blue TV cabinet. Then, when my husband lost his job, I convinced the company to give me a store credit and I thought that the other two pieces were coming in sometime soon.

It's been months! The women of Nadeau never called and told me when the container was coming in with my other two pieces. I even got my act together enough to copy the pictures from the above entry into a letter that I left with them. Still, nothing.

Then, this past Thursday, a friend of my mother called to alert us to the fact that the blue TV cabinet was now on sale for $250 (it had originally been $550!). I went in on Friday, and told the girl that I wanted it. I also set out to look for actual pieces on the floor to replace my first choices for the bathroom and the kitchen. I was tired of waiting around and wanted to be done with this nonsense!

The good news on Friday was that I found the most precious iron chairs with cut outs of a fleur-de-lis on the back! I immediately bought two of them to go in my breakfast nook around my Provencal print table cloth. It was the perfect thing!!!

The bad news was that the chickie from Nadeau told me that she didn't know if she could sell me the blue TV cabinet, stating that the only reason it was on sale was that I had not taken it. I disagreed on many levels - one being that there were two or three others on sale as well. We went around and around, and left it with my waiting until Monday to find out.

Luckily for me, they backed down. And they made a good sale anyway. I bought the fleur de lis chairs (and they look perfect in the kitchen - they just need cushions!). I have also ordered a "step cabinet" for the bathroom. It is dark brown wood with grillwork, like my previous choice, but much more interesting - and less expensive. I also bought a cabinet for the kitchen. It is a similar color, but it is rectangular and has three sliding glass doors.

I also purchased a bookcase for our bedroom. It was half price because some of the original glass doors were broken. I am going to let it go doorless - or maybe put a couple of doors to hide my husband's stuff! I have put in a couple of calls to Antonio, the guy who did our deck. I spoke to him on Friday, and he said that he would be able to borrow a truck and move the things to our place. I hope we can coordinate it this week.