My Christmas shopping is almost done.

I'm really glad I took the time to take some pictures of the snow because as of last night it's all gone. All night and day it's been full on pineapple express and I've been inside most of the day for fear that I will drown.

Not that that's a bad thing. School's over, except for two papers that I have to finish, so I don't have to go outside today.

I'm doing some Christmas shopping on ebay today. My mom collects vintage rhinestone jewelry by a designer named Gustav Sherman. It's good quality stuff, but because it's Canadian, it's not overly well known. You can tell the difference, though. It's far shinier than a lot of stuff that looks similar.

It started with my dad. Secretly he likes really sparkly jewelry but he can't wear it so he started to give it to mom. I'm not sure if she liked it all or not. Then one day we were in Deluxe Junk and saw their collection of Sherman, and that's where it all changed. We ended up with a fern leaf brooch, which began to grow on her. Beside it, all the other jewelry she had looked really tacky, so we went looking for more.

Eventually she got into it, and contacted a man who at the time was writing a book on Sherman, and now she's got an autographed copy.

Dad wants to get her some more pins but he isn't really all that ebay savvy so he gave me a budget with instructions to spend it wisely. I've been having some pretty good luck on today, and now suddenly I'm feeling the urge to get some for myself. It's horribly contageous.

When stuff starts arriving, maybe I'll post some pictures of it.