New Cards!

I made some new cards for my etsy shop out of some of my photography prints. Kind of fun to combine two of my loves in one!

Random Thoughts #45

1. Whenever I go out in the evening it takes me twice as long to wind down to sleep at night. Do I quit going out or resign myself to being a zombie the next day?
2. I still watch old episodes of Who's Line is it Anyway? and laugh.
3. I am incredibly lucky and grateful to have the family I have.
4. Yay for my kids improving in school. I also planned with them to do some school things over their break time and they seem excited to do those things. Now if only their mother will follow through.
5. Seriously, what is wrong with Bear Grylls? I know I've asked it before but he is seriously screwed up.
6. Why do I watch his show? (I don't, very often, but obviously too often.)
7. I love how temperature perspective changes here in Minnesota. The same temperature that has us donning our jackets in the summer and fall (60?) has us tossing the jackets aside in the Spring.
8. It can always be worse.
9. Our book club selection for this month is Giants of the Earth. I'm sure it's a wonderful book but ye gods! it's 531 pages. If I finish this one in time I expect a medal. Also? I'm half-way through Water For Elephants and I want to finish that one first so that is going to eat into my reading time for the current book club book. Pretty much I'm screwed.
10. We're going to get new custom-made bathroom cabinets on Monday. Soon after the rest of our bathroom will get remodeled. I'm really, really, really excited. Also? I'm old.
11. Is it bad that I enjoyed the slight bit of startle that one of my kids' teachers experienced when she realized we know another of the families well enough to joke very sarcastically with one another? I have really grown to enjoy this family a lot. When our remodel is done I think we should invite them to dinner. Whooo! Look at me all planning meetings with people.
12. I'm thinking about my friend whose 22-month-old son is undergoing brain surgery this morning.
13. I'm also thrilled that D has started talking more and more. Still not nearly as much as her sister at her age...and not as much as her brother either...but much more than she has and it is so fun to hear. She brings our family so much joy.
14. Her sister and brother are so much fun too. They entertain me daily with their stories. They also frustrate me because they are so independent. Yes, I know it is a good thing. Yes. It is. But when they refuse to go to sleep at night (hmmm I wonder where they get that from?) and then are cranky in the morning (again, looking around innocently) it is hard. But these kids of mine are great kids and will do whatever they want to do, and do it well.
15. Girl Scout cookie selling is over. Wooo hooo!
16. I finally sold one of my notebooks in my Etsy shop. I have been slack about making and posting new items but I hope to get some new things done this weekend.

Sometimes It's Not About Me

I'm uninspired lately. I haven't been able to bring myself to make cards or scrapbook or even write much. It's not you. It's me.

So. I wanted to divert your attention from my lack of brilliance (did I ever have any?) by asking you to consider starting your shopping for birthdays, anniversaries, new babies, whatever, at Etsy. But I want you to start at a specific store. No, not mine (although I would love more sales). There is a shop at Etsy that is a collective project of many shop owners that benefits Doctors Without Borders and their efforts in Haiti. Every item in the shop has been donated by an Etsy shop owner. Shipping is donated by each individual shop (and therefore FREE for the buyer). All proceeds (minus Etsy's fees--wish Etsy would waive fees for that shop) go to Doctors Without Borders. It seems like a win all around. You get a great handmade product and help people in need at the same time.

Go check out Hearts for Haiti! Go now! Perhaps you'll see my donation there. (I finally got around to making myself a bookmark and I have to say it works just lovely and is much nicer than a piece of paper or a tissue!)

Click Each Day to Help Others!

Mommy Wizdom has started a Click-A-Day Challenge that will benefit others, and could very well benefit the participants as well.

We've all seen those sites where if you click a button you're allowing them to donate food or whatever to someone who needs it, right? Well, Mommy Wizdom has gathered several such sites with buttons all on one page.

Her challenge? For all of the participants to click as many of the buttons on this page every day for at least 14 days in February. She's even giving away a $10 gift card to Target to one lucky person just for signing up for the challenge.


Read more about it at her site (click the button above to go there) and please consider participating. She can't make it any easier to do!

***pssst. Sentimental Journey donated one of the prizes.***

Aweigh Results Show Week 1

Well, here we are ladies! The first week is soon to be in the books, er blog. How did you do this week? Did you stick with your changes that you were going to make?

I successfully made time to use the Wii Fit every day and exercised for at least 30 minutes every day. I tried to not snack after 9 p.m. however I was not successful every night. I was able to keep the snacks small though, so there is that. And I took the food scale out of the package. Then I used it to weigh mail.

Let's talk prize first. This week, one lucky participant who weighs in with the number of pounds lost/gained/no change and percentage weight loss will win a $15 credit to Sentimental Journey! I started Sentimental Journey almost a year ago following the Bloggy Giveaways. I discovered Etsy during those giveaways and thought it would be fun to try to sell my cards. I opened my account on Valentine's Day last year, uploaded my first items on the evening of the 19th and sold my first card on the 20th. It was such a rush to sell a card I'd made, to know that someone liked something I'd created so much they were willing to pay for it. Since then, I've added some other things besides cards and even sold some of them. I've sold some vintage items and tutus but I've also tried selling lovies and teethers, journals and tags. Every time I make a sale I get an instant smile on my face.

I also want to let you know what the grand prize is going to be! The grand prize is generously donated by Workouts Anywhere, an online personal training, fitness and weight loss blog. (You can follow on Twitter @eworkouts) They are offering a Silver Online Personal Training plan that includes pre-designed workouts, 80+ workout plans, exercise demos, over 2000 videos, printable workout logs, printable food logs and nutritional information on over 7000 foods. This prize is worth $89 and will help one lucky participant (who posts results at least 10 weeks) to continue on her weight loss journey.

Okay, on to the nitty gritty.

My results this week: -3 lbs. Yay! 1.3 % I think. How do you figure that out anyway? My brain is not working so well anymore. I took my # of lbs lost and divided it by my starting weight x 100.

Uh, well, I weigh myself before I get in the shower each morning, so I will post here with my results when I return from taking Miss M to school. I'm thinking it may not be pretty despite my efforts, but I'm already thinking about what I need to try next week.

Post here in the comments your results (# lbs lost/gained/no change and percentage weight loss or gain). You do not have to have lost weight to win the prize, so you might as well be truthful! The prize winner will be drawn on Sunday and revealed Monday.

Aweigh! Debut Monday

I will likely be posting twice on Mondays and Fridays for the duration of this challenge, but I will mark the Aweigh posts always with Aweigh in the title. The Aweigh post will be beneath my regular post. I know some participants said they'd need reminders to weigh-in. The best way to get a reminder would be to subscribe to my blog. There's a box over there in my sidebar to subscribe via email, or you can subscribe in a reader too.

Here we are at the start of the challenge! Are you all ready to lose together? I'm not sure if I am, but I do know that I need this support from others. I need motivation. I need accountability.

I need to not look like this anymore:

Gah! Sorry about your eyes there.


So! Post your starting photos and come here to give me your link and I'll link you here. If you don't have a blog and want to post your before photo, email it to me at cool_zebras at hotmail dot com and I'll post it here for you. If you don't want to post your photo, that's fine, but you still should take a before photo for your own reference!

Don't forget to weigh yourself this morning and note your starting weight!

What are you going to change this week to help you lose weight?

I am going to use my new Wii Fit every day for as long as my children will let me do it. I am going to stop snacking after 9 p.m. Oh yeah, and I'm going to get that food scale that I bought weeks ago out of the package.

Those are my goals for this week. Little changes. Little steps will eventually lead to bigger changes, right?

Another tip: if you find yourself snacking during the day (I don't have time so that's why I snack in the late night.) brush your teeth after every meal. Food won't taste as good and you'll be less likely to want to ruin your purdy clean teeth.

So! The prize this week? If you weigh in on Friday with your # of pound lost/gained/stayed the same and percentage of weight lost/gained you will be in the drawing to win a $15 credit to Sentimental Journey! Ha! I couldn't have a giveaway without having a giveaway from my shop!

Okay! So go write your posts and post your photos (if you want). Come back here and give me your link. I'll link here in this post. Tell me what you're going to change this week to help you on your way to a healthier weight. If you don't have a blog you can tell me here in the comments!

Bikini from Pantsfreesia

Amber from The Wannabe Domestic Diva

Here's Sandy's "Before" Photo:

Wendy at Fusspot

Guinevere's Thoughts on Nothing in Particular

There's still time to join if you'd like to!

Simply Joy Sunday #2

I'm continuing my weekly quest to seek out, notice and celebrate the little things in life that bring me joy and happiness. My family is just a given, so these posts will focus on the little things .

I finally scored a Wii Fit at Tar-jay Boutique! It was the last one on the shelf and it was shoved way to the back so if I was short I wouldn't have been able to reach it. Unfortunately it morphed my Mii into a more accurate (read: fat) representation of me. But, it has been fun so far and the kids enjoy playing it too. The running is especially good to get the kids exercising when it's too cold to go out! (And yes, I ran too.)

I got some smaller 5 x 5 spiral notebooks to re-cover and sell in my shop and made the first one Friday night. I think it turned out pretty well!

Finally, my just-turned-18-year-old cousin invited my kids and my brother's kids to go bowling with him yesterday to celebrate his birthday. It was K's first time bowling (besides on the Wii) and M's second time. It was "extreme bowling" under the black lights so everything white glowed extra bright. Miss M is actually quite a good bowler -- a lot better than I was at her age! K even rolled a strike!
What are the little things that make you happy? If you have a blog, post them and I'll link you up here. (Be sure to come here and leave me your link!) I decided I'm not going to use Mr. Linky since those types of links don't help with blog ranking and stuff and I want to help people out. So I'll be linking each person individually...and it may take some time for me to get to it but I will link anyone who participates!

Feeling the Joy! (From Last Week)

Angi at Ahh The Little Things
One Carbon Hill

Feeling the Joy!!

Damselfly at Growing a Life

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The Aweigh Weight Loss Challenge starts tomorrow! Get your before photos taken today and get set to start losing with your fellow losers! I am a little short on prizes too so if anyone wants to add their link to my sidebar for 14 weeks, just donate a prize and you'll be linked for the duration of the challenge. If I don't have enough for every week I'll have to do bi-weekly prizes, but that would really stink. If you have contacts that might like some cheap advertising, send them my way! You can also just donate something yourself (whether you're participating or not) and I'll link up your blog or whatever you want me to link to!

Playing

Okay, so several have asked about the camera. It is a Canon Rebel XSi. In a word? Awesome.

Craig also got me a fancy dancy portrait lens which is also quite awesome.

I took more than 450 photos yesterday, just playing with it.

Some of the results:

The winner of the giveaway was Kam. She won the journal and these three birthday cards from Sentimental Journey! Thanks to all who participated!

Etsy Greetings Carnival Giveaway

I'm participating in the Etsy Greetings Team Carnival this week! For those who have never heard of Etsy, or Etsy Greetings, Etsy is a site similar to Ebay where people like me can sell handmade and vintage items. Etsy Greetings is a group of people who have shops on Etsy that sell greeting cards.

So this week you can enter to win some handmade goodies at participating Etsy Greetings Team member blogs or directly in their shops.


What can you win here?


Sentimental Journey is more than just greeting cards, although cards make up the majority of the inventory, so I'm giving away something new that I haven't even offered in my shop yet!



This is an upcycled composition notebook. It's my first one, so there was a little bit of a learning curve, but I think it turned out pretty good. I'll be making more and they'll debut in my shop in a few days/weeks (whenever I get around to it!).


I'm also giving away 3 of my cards, type and style to be determined. Maybe I'll let the winner influence my choice.


Here's how you win and the rules/regulations and such:


1. For one entry, please leave a comment. You can comment anything except just "enter me." Tell me a joke, tell me how cute my kids are, tell me how much you love my blog, link to your favorite YouTube video or suggest songs for my iPod. I don't care what you comment, but make it a real comment and not just "I'd love to win."


2. For another entry (and to see examples of the cards you could win) visit my etsy shop (http://sentimentaljourney.etsy.com/) pick at least one item and mark it as a favorite. Then come back here and leave another comment with your etsy username and the item that you marked.


3. You can earn a third entry by subscribing to my blog, and leaving another comment letting me know you've subscribed. If you're already a subscriber, that counts. Leave another comment to let me know.


4. This giveaway is open to those with US and Canadian addresses. Please make sure that you leave an email address that I can contact you at if you win, or if you have a blog that your email address is easily found.


5. I will stop taking entries on Friday November 21st at noon CST.


Good luck!

Now head to the Etsy Greetings blog and enter the rest of the giveaways!

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P.S. I noticed since I bought my new domain that my Technorati ranking tanked. If you've linked to me, could you please, pretty please update your links? I'd appreciate it immensely.

New Stuff

Last week I launched a new line of cards in my Etsy shop featuring original photography by moi.

I think the cards look pretty and I love the photos that I've made the cards from. I'm hoping others will love them as much.

And today is the last day for donating to the Mission Soldier Support Christmas card drive. Please consider donating a card for our troops. If you've been away from your family for any length of time you know how precious a card with a letter can be.

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I'm also reviewing My Baby A to Z – Come Explore Shapes With Me, over at The Zoo Review for PBN. Visit for a chance to win!

Doing it again all over again

Yep. Making the torture official again. I will be posting every day in November. Although I've pretty much been posting every day for a few weeks now anyway.

Consider yourselves warned.

Actually, I really like writing every day if I can think of something to say. But then there are days like today where ... well, not so much to say.

Or maybe it's more like no time to say it.

I'm working on a custom tutu that someone ordered from my shop and I'm also working on 2 dozen baby announcements for my friend's little sister.

Baby D is pretty much determined that I cannot work on any of these things. I think she's teething pretty hard right now. Poor peanut.

I tend to get things done if I have a deadline though, so pressure is good for me. I might panic but I always manage to get things done. If I don't have a deadline I procrastinate. Actually I procrastinate anyway but then I do the task at the last minute.

I'm fun like that.

So this is my long-winded way of saying I'm participating in the 3rd annual National Blog Posting Month. It's my plan to write some fiction during the month but you know how that goes.

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Hey! Have you checked things out over at Midwest Parents lately? It gets kind of lonely over there sometimes. Just because we're writing about the Midwest doesn't mean that you have to live here to read!

Random Thoughts #26

My baby will be 5 months old tomorrow. Sniff sniff. She's rolling around and starting to pull herself along the floor to get to things. I don't think my other two were quite so mobile by this age. Darn it for her wanting to be like the big kids.

She's both happy and serious at the same time. It takes some effort to get a laugh from her. She's a little more giving of the smiles. She certainly makes me smile.

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M got her first report card for 1st grade. She's doing well, which makes me so proud even though I know it really has nothing to do with me.

She also makes me smile. She's quite fond of crawling into bed with D and I in the mornings and sighing happily. "Just us girls," she'll say.

She's back in school and tired out when she comes home which only increases the laments over how unfair everything is. It's hard to be six.

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K is learning to write his name (finally!) and talking my ear off. As usual. I thought perhaps he would tire, or his voice would tire, but alas, no. When he's not talking he's making a variety of other noises with his mouth. Silence is rare around these parts.

He still makes me smile.

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Craig makes me smile too.

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I bought my domain so now I'm officially a dot com. http://www.coolzebras.com/ . Much shorter without the blogspot, although my fingers automatically start typing blogspot after the coolzebras.

I'm working on some business cards for my blog. I get sidetracked on the 7863 other things I want to do too. If only I didn't need to sleep.

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I'm having fun doing reviews so far. I have 6 that I'm in the process of writing right now. Most are for PBN, but others are for books from Harper Collins and one other product that I was contacted about. There are definitely some giveaways coming up.

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I've sold a few more things in my etsy shop (http://sentimentaljourney.etsy.com/) which makes me smile too. I'm told that the Mission Soldier Support is not going as well as was hoped. This economy really needs to turn around. Why did I have to wait for the economy to tank to start an online business?
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Archer Farms Belgian Chocolate ice cream is quite yummy.

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Norm Coleman and Al Franken are suddenly running "feel good" commercials instead of attack ads. I can't decide which I hate more.

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My cat is old and arthritic, yet I still find it hilarious when any movement by the baby makes her jump 3 feet in the air.

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I'm tackling a cleaning job over at the Zoo Review today.

Mission Soldier Support

Through my etsy shop I'm participating in Mission Soldier Support (MSS) for its holiday drive. MSS was started earlier this year with its first drive working to collect any occasion cards to send to soldiers overseas so that they could send them to their family members back here in the States. That first drive, also started by Rachel Wright, was so successful that she's coordinating a second effort focusing on holiday cards for the troops.

I came across the Etsy Greetings Team shortly after I opened my shop in February and have just started to get more involved in the promos that they coordinate. It's through the Etsy Greetings Team that I heard about MSS and got involved.

I thought it was a great idea the first time she mentioned it, but I was busily gestating and just new to the group so I didn't participate. This time I'm jumping in!

The promotion started yesterday and runs through November 7th. It ends then so that we have time to send all the cards to Rachel, she has time to send them to the troops, and then they have time to send them to their friends and family!

Here's how it works: If you'd like to donate a card or cards to MSS go to etsy and search on MSS as a tag. Eligible cards are tagged with MSS. Purchase the card and type "MSS" or "Mission Soldier Support" in the "Notes to Seller" section at checkout and the shop owner will ship it to Rachel with all the other donated cards at the end of the promo.

Or, just go to my shop and buy any Christmas card and type "MSS" in the "Notes to Seller" box.

It's an easy way to send support overseas to our troops!

I've sold my first set of cards already yesterday so I've got my donation box waiting to be filled with cards! (Thanks Chels!) I need to keep making more cards too!

Sneak Peek

I haven't listed these yet, but I was so tickled with the photos I have to give you all a sneak peek. I made these, and D is too small for them so I asked a friend if I could borrow her beautiful daughter. My friend's husband is an amazing photographer and has a little studio set up in their house. Photography is his hobby, but he could have his own business no problem in my opinion. He took M and K's portraits for me a little over a year ago and I have yet to put new portraits in the frames because I like the ones he took so much.

Anywho. I went to their house planning to take photos with my little Kodak, but her husband took the photos with his big fancy camera equipment instead!

So, I'm heading out to get some more pink tulle to make another tutu for the little model as a thank you. Plus, her dad said he'd let me use his expertise again as well.

Here are the two tutus I'll be listing soon! (Sentimental Journey!)

We realized the colors showed up better on the black after we'd already done the red, white and blue one, but oh well I still think they look fabulous.

Random Thoughts # 24

I made my son a tutu. He kept asking for one after I made each of his sisters one, and I really can’t blame him for wanting one as well. They are quite fun and what better attire for dancing really? He has none of the hang-ups over gender roles that even his sister, only two years older than he, has. I did, however, try to make it as masculine as I could by making it black.

My baby girl spent the last few days with a cold. It’s miserable to have a cold yourself, or to see and hear your young child suffer through the symptoms, but it’s worse to see your 3-month-old struggle to breathe while she’s nursing and hear her coughing from the post-nasal drip. I used the nose-sucker bulb to suction out snot periodically, which she was less than happy about.

So, in order for her to not suffer alone, I went and got a cold too.

I watched a show on the History Channel while at my in-laws’ house and heard the best name for a city: Tuktoyatuk. Try to say it out loud. Tuck-toy-yuck-tuck. Fun, isn’t it?

Since I’m giving away a book, I am highlighted in 5 Minutes for Mom's weekly column "5 Minutes Around The Blogosphere." Click here to check it out. The two moms that run the site are Susan and Janice and they are work-at-home-moms who also run two toy stores: A Rocking Horse To Love and Pedal Cars and Retro Collectibles.

I find Tyra Banks irritating.

I'm hoping I get some sales in my etsy shop soon. It's been a long dry spell.

Giveaway winners

Winners have been notified and have given me their addresses! Thanks to all who entered.

Thanks especially to those who entered who have come back to read not just because I'm giving something away.

Most of all thanks to those who regularly read, whether you comment or not.

Giveaway Goodness Three

It's that time again! Bloggy Giveaways!


I'm giving away TWO prizes this time so there will be TWO WINNERS!

But first, about my family:


We had Baby D baptised yesterday so I have to post some pretty baby pictures...probably tonight.

We also go meet M's 1st grade teacher tonight. It will be interesting to see if any of her good friends will be in her class. I think she'll do fine regardless of who is in her class, she'll make friends anyway.

It should be interesting trying to get three kids ready in the mornings and get Miss M to school by 8:40. We'll see how that goes on Wednesday...the first day of school already!

Also, we had my two older kids' birthday party last Saturday. I now need to make, write (or prod M to write) and send about 20 "thank yous." And we have added to the 438,684 toys we already had in the house. I think it's up to 438,732.


Okay, back to the giveaway:


The first prize is a set of 6 handmade cards from Sentimental Journey. The set includes one each of birthday, wedding, thank you, and Easter and two blank/any occasion cards.

The second prize I'm giving away is a $10 gift card. The winner can choose which of the following merchants she'd like the gift card for: Barnes and Noble, Bath and Body Works, Gap, Old Navy, Panera OR Olive Garden.

There will be one winner for each prize, so TWO winners at this site.

To win, please complete these steps:

First, visit my shop at http://sentimentaljourney.etsy.com/ and take a gander at my wares. Pick your favorite and come back here to leave a comment and let me know! If you’re so inclined, actually mark the item as a favorite. I’ll give you an extra entry in each drawing if you do (tell me what your etsy id is to get credit and the extra entry!).

Make sure that I have an email to contact you. If you blog and your email is easy to find on your blog, that works. If you’re not a blogger or if your email isn’t on your blog, leave me an email address in your comment.

This giveaway is open to those with U.S. and Canadian addresses.

I will draw one winner for the cards and one winner for the gift card from my comments (and hearts) on Friday August 1st so I will quit accepting entries at noon Central time on Friday. Only those who have followed all steps will be eligible to win, so make sure you visit my shop and pick a favorite.

I will notify the winners by email. If I don't hear from the winner and get an address to send the cards to by 3 days later I will pick a new winner! (And just to make it interesting, and better for my regular readers, I'll pick the new winner from entrants on another post. So if you want to be included in the second chance drawing you'll have to come back!)

Of course I’d appreciate it if you’d come back and visit me at my blog here anyway and/or at my shop! My kids are really cute and the two older ones say some funny things. I lose my mind and post about it regularly. Better yet, subscribe and then you won’t miss anything! I’m also adding new items all the time to my shop…so stop by often!

Thanks for stopping! Good luck!

***Comments are now closed! Thanks for stopping!******

Tutu cute?

I decided, after making D and M each a tutu to attempt to sell them in my shop: http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=12785737

And the winner is...

Serious business, that drawing of the winner.

Commenter #35, Andrea said...
I like the Garden Flower Happy Birthday card!

I sent you an email Andrea!

If Andrea should not be able to fulfill her duties as winner (send me her mailing address by Tuesday) the prize will go to the runner-up, which Miss M also picked today.

Thanks to all who played along and visited my shop!

Maybe we'll see you at the next Bloggie Giveaway, if not before! (It would be nice to see you here before!)

And the Winner is...!

The winner of the cards to celebrate the grand opening of my etsy shop (http://www.sentimentaljourney.etsy.com/) is...

Alex Elliot who said: "They all look fabulous. I think my favorite is the 4 weddings and a funeral pack because I love the cards and I like the name as well!" (Email me your address so I can send you your cards!)

I keep adding new cards every few days, so keep checking my site! If my shop continues to do well, I'll probably host another giveaway soon!

Thanks to everyone who checked out my shop and who picked a favorite. And thanks to my mom who bought 7 cards today (three of which I hadn't even listed yet!)