December already?

Yikes!
This has been one of my bigger projects since Summer. I still need to clean it really well, but I'm calling this baby done and will ship it off this week.

I turned 51 and my Dh bought me a new camera. I missed the telephoto lens I had on his 35 MM camera ( I cooped it as "mine" when we married) and so now I have a digital Cannon powershot SX40 HS and I'm still reading all the information on how to use it. Luckily, I have willing (or semi- willing) subjects around here. So, meet Psyche, the part Maine coon cat from the animal shelter who rules our home with an iron paw. Still, she was good about me taking pictures of her, at least on THIS day.
Not to be outdone, Lola was good about me taking pictures of her, interrupting her mid morning nap. She's also a shelter rescue. I'm still playing around, but I'm having a great time with some of the unexpected special effects. The most intriguing is the color highlight function. You can pick one color and that will be the only thing in the photo that is in color, everything else is b/w. Cool huh? I can think of two things I'd like to try with that feature, but it's raining today and both are outdoors. ICK! Rain! Which is better than sleet or ice around here, but snow is in the forecast, so we'll see what happens tonight and tomorrow.
Yesterday it rained all afternoon and evening but that didn't seem to stop people from going to the park. People did seem to come and go more and I felt some anxiety about losing sales because I didn't have the time to make enough parasols. Rainy days are also conflicting because, while you can use them in the rain, the paint has to dry 24 hrs, so you can't use them right away in the rain.
I need to get ready to head to work, everyone else is already gone and we're hoping the parade doesn't get cancelled due to rain tonight.
Decorating the house tomorrow- Steve said he'd put the tree up then. FaLaLaLaLa... Lalalala!