I have tried to steer clear of doom and gloom around the upcoming e-Bay boycott. Now I'm reading about it outside of e-Bay. I heard about it on CNN yesterday.

I don't know much about it, nor do I know about previous boycott attempts. I guess I'll just sit tight and hold off on posting new items this upcoming week until I get a feel for what's really happening.

As a seller newbie, I don't know what to expect.

Are YOU boycotting e-Bay in the upcoming week?

The postcard clean-out continues...all these postcards I've been carrying around for 30+ years are going up for auction. Feeling a little clueless about how to price them, I've been poking around e-Bay and looking at some of the postcard experts' sites. Wow! Very cool. Makes me want to go out and seek out some new postcards for myself. I've always loved postcards. I've posted quite a few more for auction since my last blog post. Check them out!

On another topic, I have an old childhood friend with vast rock, mineral, and fossil collections who is interested in having me sell some of his stuff. I have no clue where to start with that...it's completely out of my league...can anyone recommend a good store to look at so I can begin learning? I want to make sure I do right by my friend and get the fairest, best prices for his collections.

Snow is lightly falling this morning. It's a lazy Sunday and I'd prefer to keep it that way, but I've promised to take 3 teenagers to the mall. I'd rather eat liver or tripe than go to the mall. That's why I like e-Bay so much!

So, I'm packing up my laptop, some writing paper, and I'll find myself a cozy spot at a local coffee house while the teens shop and imagine that I'm in a sunny place where flowers are blooming and I'm not wearing 40 layers of wool.

I'm eager to get outside in my garden and watch the crocuses and daffodils emerge. From the looks of this winter, that could be another 2-3 months.

It feels like a beef stew Sunday...yum.

It all started about 35 years ago in my grade school in Connecticut. My amazing science teacher, started a "hobby club" and I had an uncle who was a secret service man for Nixon, Ford, et. al. He always sent me postcards from his travels, so; viola, I decided postcard collecting was my hobby.

Having grown up in southeastern Connecticut, our family never ventured very far, so spending hours looking at postcards of exotic places quickly engrossed me. Plus, I was a bit of a shy kid - taller, smarter, and shyer than the average kid...so I loved losing myself in books, music, and art.

Well, here I am 35 years later, no longer a shy 10 year old, but still smart and tall.  I'm looking through my old postcards and I'm interested in selling some and buying more. I admit I'm a little light on my postcard knowledge so I'll be cruising around e-Bay in an effort to learn how to properly describe and price my postcards while searching for new ones to add to my collection.

Take a look! I'll be posting many postcards for auction in the next few days.

February in Vermont - we're having one of the snowiest winters on record this year. This is really good for one of Vermont's main industries - the ski industry. Me, I'm just kind of tired. I mean, I love going on snowshoes or cross country skis, but somewhere around the end of February or beginning of March, I long to discard bulky sweaters, the layer of grime on my car and yearn for a fruity drink on the beach.

Last week (Super Bowl Sunday) I had a car accident. Slid on black ice even though I was crawling below the speed limit. It's times like that that make me say, "Get me to a warm sunny spot now!"

Anyway, I'm auctioning a great snowboard this weekend. My daughter doesn't like it, so I'd like it to go to a good home. She just got a Burton snowboard and prefers it to this one - I don't know a darn thing about snowboarding.  It's brand new, still in the plastic wrap.

It's snowing (yet again) and I just took the dog for a walk - lovely night, with the mountains shining with new snow. Now I'm off to bed for tomorrow is a shortbread baking and delivery day. Visit us at www.vermontshortbread.com for more info about that...