Monday Mystery

I saw this on my walk the other day. I have no idea what it is.***

There was this red marker near.

And then there were two dirt patches. 

I cannot imagine what it could be. The whole thing is a mystery to me. 

Anyone??

***Update. 

My cousin, Chrissy contacted me at 5:39 this morning to tell me that it's a mole trap! Makes sense. But more importantly, why is Chrissy up this early! She's, more like an 8 a.m. riser!??? At 5:39 a.m. I was already out on my walk! Yeah, there I go, bragging again! 

Something for Sunday

I had something different planned for today but that will have to wait. I have something far more fun and interesting to report. And it couldn't be more timely!

Yesterday, my friend, Susan called. She shared with me a scrapbook mishap that she had. She was in a bit of a hurry to add a few finishing touches to an album that she wanted to show some visiting relatives. When she finished adding the additional embellishments, she "accidentally"--as in not thinking--which tends to cause ALL of our scrapbook mishaps--attached the page on the outside of the page protector! There was no getting that off! After a laugh with her, I told her that all "boo-boos" are fixable. All we---and by "we" I mean--"she"--all she has to do is to slide a new page protector over the whole works! Voila'--no one will know the difference! 

Then we proceeded to talk about other topics. When she told me about her daughter being in London, my first thought was, "OMGosh! She's going to see Taylor Swift!" I was immediately jealous---okay maybe not the green-eyed monster type, but definitely very, very envious. 

Susan quickly set me straight. Her daughter, Sarah was there for the Royal Ascot Race! What? It wasn't until about a year ago that I even learned what that was! ME! The royal--anything--lover! Not only is Sarah there, this is her second time! Okay, I'll admit, the envy is rising again! I never even knew that I might like to go, but now it seems like a bucket list item---especially since Susan shared the pictures. 

But first, let's go way back. Way.

Here in Nashville, we have our very own horse races that only happen once a year. It's called The Steeplechase. It's our version of the royal races. It's THE social event of the year. It's where people go to people watch. To see and be seen! It's all about the hats. 

Here's Susan--all gussied up!

I'm not exactly sure how many years we've been doing it---probably around 35. This was one of the early years. Here's another:

That's Susan on the right. One thing about Steeplechase, it's hot. Really hot! 

These days for us, it's a family affair. It's ALL day in that hot sun. I haven't even gone the past few years. 

Now back to the Royal Ascot. The RA is obviously 5 steps above our Steeplechase. There's much more pomp and circumstance with anything to do with the royals--exactly why I love anything royal. I love these pictures!

This is the entrance to their "royal" hotel. The Goring has been on my list to go to for tea for quite awhile now. So many awesome places for tea, so little time. By golly, The Goring has just been bumped to the top. Since I've never seen it, I had no idea--the flowers!! Swoon! And that handsome couple--meet Kendrick and Sarah. 

So fancy, champagne, top hat and tails!

I love Sarah's silk dress--what a pretty shade of green. Although I don't know for sure, I have a feeling that her hat is adorned with fresh flowers. You know how I am about flowers. The hydrangeas are incredible. 

But this is what melted my heart:

For those of you who aren't British (like I am--okay, a Brit wannabe), you will recognize the song as "My Country Tis of Thee" or simply "America". But it's actually called "God Save the Queen!" Yes, I knew that! 

Side note: I have never been able to add a video to my blog. I sure hope this works. It's only 20 seconds long, but there's a surprise at the end! Wait for it!

Yeah, the next time Sarah's in town, I need to have her and Susan over for a "proper tea." That way we can share a pot of either my Jubilee Tea or Coronation Tea--direct from London. Hmm, I'll make both. After all I have the Coronation Teapot from Fortnum & Mason AND the classic Fortnum & Mason teapot. 

Okay, now I'm just showing off! But I really would love to have Sarah over to "spill the tea" with me and her mom about the Royal Ascot and seeing the royal family!! I'm starry-eyed just thinking about it!

Scrapbook Saturday

I’m telling you, it happens EVERY time! I ALWAYS screw something up. 

So, earlier in the week, while watching tv, I designed a title in the Cricut Design Space on my computer. Simple. The next day, all I had to do was cut it. Done, no problems at all.(Side note: that tip about rolling the mat to remove the cardstock works like a charm. It just pulls away easily.) 

When I finished the cutting, of course, I immediately put everything away and cleaned up from that. I actually told myself, “maybe you should wait until you are finished with the page.” And then I told myself, “But what can go wrong at this point?” It’s not like I messed up the title with the very last bit of paper I had—that’s usually what happens. So I went ahead and shut down the Cricut and put everything away. 

Everything’s rolling along. I get out my xyron to run the letters through. Now I know from previous bad experiences that this is where things can go awry. Invariably, the xyron runs out in the middle of one of the letters. You know, causing half of it to be sticky while the other half is stuck permanently on the top of the letter. It’s happened more times than I can count. But it wasn’t going to happen this time. I pulled out the adhesive cartridge and looked to see if it looked like there was enough left on it. I was using the 500 (if you are a Xyron user you'll know what that means. If not--it's the specific machine), so I couldn’t really tell. I just crossed my fingers and went for it.

Yay! It worked! For once, I was actually able to make a title without any issues. At least that’s what thought—until I went to adhere the letters. OMGosh! I couldn’t believe it. I put one of the letters in the xyron WRONG! Now the sticky was on the top side of the letter!!

There was no way I wanted to get everything back out to cut just one letter. What to do? Well, I had no choice but to stick the letter down on top of the exact same card stock and hand cut around it. And it looks like I hand cut around it. Not perfectly smooth like it was before I messed it up. It’s going to have to do. Even that was a bit of a time-consuming extra step. 

And then, this happened:

I dropped one of the letters that had a glue dot on it.

When I pulled it off, it ripped the paper. You might think, "No big deal, it will probably be covered up." Well, no, I'm using a transparency on this, so it will stick out like a sore thumb. (What does that even mean?) 

There's always a solution, it just adds to the time factor.

I used a marker to "color" it. It's not perfect, but "good enough." At least it's not a glaring mistake.

Why me?? Every. Single. Time! And scrapbooking is my calming activity. Except when it isn't!

PS Feel free to share your scrapbooking mishaps with me and I’ll do a blog post about them. Please tell me that I'm not the only one!

Friday Funnies

Ten Things Thursday

Let's talk books!!

1. I like many of these ideas. Of course, I've come across maps on my Kindle, but they are kind of hard to read. 

2. The books seem like a bit of a jumbled mess! But that chandelier! Swoon!

3. This is a beauty.

4. The bookstore that looks like a library. I like it!

5. This isn't really true for me. I can't read until my work is done!

6. I do not understand why these books are banned. I've read most of them (11 that I can actually see) and cannot recall anything so terrible. Many of these were required reading. But, The Giver? Come on--that book is so good. I cannot recall anything questionable in it. We read it one year for our family book club when the grands were little. My friend, Nancy (who was a teacher) recommended it for me. We loved it.

7. Yeah, it's frustrating when you can't get a book you want!

8. I have felt this way more times than I can count!!

9. I love this so much! I'd like to do it, but I don't know which books I'd let get butchered!

10. This was Stephen King's house in Bangor, Maine. He no longer owns it, but Butch surprised me with a drive by--many years ago when he still lived there. No, we did not see him.

What I Buy Wednesday

I didn't buy anything this week--well except for groceries for Camp Aunt Barb--but I'm not counting that. 

Instead, I'm posting about something I didn't buy! You gotta' love free stuff.

Just like these impatiens "volunteers." They are living on the concrete. There's some moss there, but surely not enough to sustain roots. But, so far, so good. I'm keeping them watered, so we'll see. But aren't they so cute? 

Yeah! I love free stuff.

Travel Tuesday

Let's start with Butch and Mindy. They went to Guatemala last week. The actual traveling part is going to be what makes us decide it's no longer worth it to take trips. They left on Tuesday--Butch's birthday. We picked Mindy up at 4:15 a.m. for their early flight. 

That's when their fun began. As you can see, they started out happy. They were to fly to Miami and then on to Guatemala. That didn't happen. They were re-routed to Texas. They were supposed to get to Guatemala around noon. Butch had their plans for the day which included a good restaurant and geo-caches. 

As it ended up, they lost that day and didn't arrive until Wednesday around 2 a.m. Considering Tuesday was Butch's birthday, it wasn't a fun way to spend it. After little sleep, they started their tour. 

They had a good first day and the rest of the week--for the most part. They were to come home on Father's Day. When a trip is over, all you want to do is to get home. Well, their trip back was just as bad as going. Their flight was delayed, delayed, delayed--causing them to miss their connection. To top it off, Mindy started getting sick. There's nothing worse than being sick away from home! They finally made it on Monday around 1 a.m.!! 

In the meantime, while they were on their trip, Camp Aunt Barb was underway here. 

The amount of stuff they bring is always unbelievable!

The schedule is posted on the refrigerator. I added jobs this year.

One of the boys seems to have something needing repair every year. Nathan made these stuffed ???--I'm not quite sure what they are. I think it's great that kids are learning to sew in school. It seems to be a lost art. 

One day we went to the Adventure Park.

It's a place to climb and zipline. It wasn't terribly hot, so that was good. 

They have some pretty extensive gear to wear. After about an hour and forty five minutes, they were done. The straps and harnesses were rubbing and hurting in places on their tender skin. We went to lunch at a Mexican restaurant where a robot delivers your chips and salsa. That was fun and something new.

This is what the rec room looked like after the first day. I should have taken a picture after the last day!

This is hilarious! The kids pooled their money to buy an extra set of balls. They wanted to be able for all four of them to  play at the same time. I guess they didn't know about playing on teams!

Of course, there are many, many games--mostly poker--"Pass the Trash" (their favorite--we adults are kinda' tired of it), "Fan Tan", and "7 Card No Peek." Since Butch wasn't here, we weren't able to play "Bingo with Uncle Butch"--an annual favorite!

Josie whipped out the "tiny" cards she had won several years ago. The kids get a kick out of playing with them. We adults, not so much--they are too hard to play with! But we manage to do it for a game or two.

Josie was the big winner for the week. Actually, she dumped out all of her poker money, so this isn't just winnings. We play lots of games and the kids eat candy while we play. It's all in good fun!

They came for an extra day this year. We had a great time--lots of pool games. They had a "bake-off" and decorated cookies. The food went pretty well this year--it's impossible to please everybody at the same time! I've made notes for next year. We just about have this down. 

I don't know how many more years we'll be doing it, but as long as they want to come, Camp Aunt Barb will go on!



 

Monday Mystery

I saw this inside one of the markets in NYC. What is it? 

I'm thinking my friend from NYC, Paige can answer it. At first I thought it was something to put your groceries in, but I don't think it has wheels--plus it's shaped oddly. I have no idea what it is used for. It's a mystery to me.

Something for Sunday

Well, it's official! Morgan is a scrapbooker! She's actually done several things in the past year. But she just did this for her grandpa.

This makes me so happy! 

Scrapbook Saturday

Here are some layouts I've done recently. 

 

I pre-plan all of my layouts. That way, I can work on them bit by bit--at the same time. For example, I'll do all of the journaling while sitting in front of the tv. I also design all of. my titles on the Cricut while watching tv. 

Then all I have to do is pick out the papers and make the cuts. The bowl and the arch are backdrops for computer generated titles. Then when I sit down to make the page, I have everything ready to go. 

And that's how I roll.

Friday Funnies