Friday Frustration on Scrapbook Saturday....because...

...you guessed it! It's Friday and I'm trying to use my sewing machine for scrapbooking. Here's the story:

You've heard it before. I just can't seem to get the knack of my sewing machine. But, I'm determined to master it. I'll give it another month or so. By then, I'll either have figured it out or not.

So, last week, I had a couple little "wins" with my sewing machine. First of all, thanks to my friend, Nancy E., I was able to change the thread. She told me that the easiest way to do it is to tie the new thread to what is already in the machine and then just pull it through. OMGosh! Game changer. I was feeling pretty good about that.

I made this and was excited!

Okay, so I only sewed about a 4" line. It was a start. 

Next, I decided to make a shaker box.

Okay, it's not perfect, but I did it. Also, I learned that I need to leave a little bigger opening to get all of the sequins and shaker stuff inside. Lesson learned.

My original plan was to sew across the whole thing to adhere the chipboard "joy" and "Christmas" at the same time. But then I realized if I did that, then the shaker stuff wouldn't be able to "shake." Lesson #2 learned. Still, I'm happy with the results.

Next, I made this--sewing across the word like I wanted to do above. I'm still not really good at keeping everything straight, but it will do. 

You can see where I went off the chipboard on the side. No where near perfect, but it's okay.

I made this so that it will lift up to show the journaling underneath. But, there was one problem with that.

I realized that the bottom thread color matters. It should have been white. It's so messy looking. Plus, you can see how something is not quite right. I don't think there's anything I can do about it now. Lesson #3 learned--bottom thread matters when it's going to be seen. 

Just these little things took me 3 hours!! This sewing is really time consuming! 

Several days have gone by. Yesterday was the day I was going to continue with my "self-taught" sewing skills. 

I started off okay. I stitched straight down the center of a large heart. It went perfectly and the line was straight too. Off to a good start. 

Next, I wanted to simply sew 3 letters together: D E C (for December). I realized that I needed to figure out a way to hold them together while I sewed them. I used washi tape. I quickly realized that since one side is sticky, it was sticking to the machine. Of course, it's tape after all! So, I had to put more tape on the backside. Then I realized that I cannot sew in mid-air. So, I put a thin strip of cardstock to sew on. 

Once I finished, I cut off the green strip and removed the tape. This is what it looked like:

The tape ripped off some of the cardstock--plus, I don't like how it turned out. So, I tried another way.

I tried taping the letters down. That didn't work. Oh, and amidst all of this trial an error, the needle came unthreaded! I was sewing without thread. Then, I turned the wrong "wheelie" thing--there are two of those on the side of my machine. Suddenly, I went from a straight stitch to a zig-zag. Okay, that was lesson #4--pay attention to the "wheels."

Amidst all of this, I had to stop and cut more letters on the Cricut. At least I have mastered that!

Next I tried this:

This worked okay. But when I cut it, it came out like this:

Okay, I still don't really like it. Then I tried this:

Thought I might as well try the zigzag. Maybe a little better, but can you see that black thing? Yeah, it's the black thread from the backside. So, I did this:

I tried to "color" the thread with a white pen. That didn't work!

When it was all said and done, I have this:

I don't like any of them. My head is spinning from looking at it. Now it just looks like I tried to spell DECK and forgot the "K"! It's going to be back to the drawing board today.

Sewing. All for the love of scrapbooking!!

Ten Things Thursday

How about some Fall foliage? 

This one looks more like a painting.

Just had lunch yesterday at Nancy's. She used napkins and plates very similar to this scene. Very pretty.

And then we are dealing with our own leaves here. Our pool was all brand new and looked so good. We have been fighting the leaves even while the renovations were still underway. The guys doing the work were out here ever day to keep them out of the pool. Now Butch is doing it. This mess is the day AFTER our lawn people were here and blew all the leaves. It's constant every day.

The reason we're--and when I say "we," I really mean Butch--are trying to stay on top of the leaves is because of this:

They are staining the brand new deck!! Our pool guy says there is cleaner that will clean it off. But, for crying out loud--we haven't even been able to enjoy it yet and now we have to spend money cleaning it with a special cleaner--and whatever it costs to have it done--which will be a lot! 

It's always somethin'!

What I Buy Wednesday!

Stephanie was off work yesterday for Veteran's Day. She asked me to go with her to do some shopping and have lunch. I let her do all the planning. She told me she would pick me up at 10 a.m. Okay, about an hour and a half later than I would have left, but I just rolled with it. See, I can be flexible!! I never even mentioned it.

First stop--Starbucks to get a festive holiday drink. She treated me to a peppermint hot chocolate--my first and it was delicious!!

Next stop was Hobby Lobby. She wants to update some of her decorations this year and HL is the best place to go to do that. ALL Christmas (and fall for that matter) is half price. I was just there on Friday. I cannot believe how much is already gone. It seemed pretty picked over. Still, Steph was able to score exactly what she needed.

Here's a peek. She's gone in a whole new direction and it's going to be spectacular!

From there, we headed to "The Happy Place"--a cute little gift shop in Nolensville. We met one of the owners, Diane's friend, Barbara. 

I spent the gift card that Diane had given me on some Christmas gifts. Steph also picked up a few things. 

Stephanie wanted to do lunch at The Puffy Muffin, but it was way too crowded and was going to be a half hour wait. Instead, I took her to a new place--Serrato's Steakhouse. It's not really new to me since I've been there 3 times in the last week! Great food--we had salads and their homemade bread.

We talked about so many things--particularly, our upcoming activities for the holiday season. We covered it all! 

It was such a fun day. Kind of rare. We don't usually have much one-on-one time. More because we just don't think to schedule it. We need to fix that. 

Tuesday Thoughts About...

...BOOKS! I'm pretty much always thinking about books (or scrapbooking). I read constantly and have two books going at once--right now, I actually have three. As long as they are completely different, for example, a mystery, self-help and a memoir, I have no trouble keeping up with them. Self-helps and memoirs are likely audio books these days. I've mentioned before that I cannot keep up with regular novels in an audio format. My mind wanders too much.

Anyway, today's post is about closing lines of books. I like to play games with myself with things like this. Can I guess the book? Sometimes, "yes" and sometimes, "no." 

Let's try it, shall we?

So, what you have to do is read the line and not look at the answer. It's not hard as you know pretty much right away. Rather than beginning lines, these are ending lines. Here goes:

I got #2, 5 (only because I recently read this again), 17 and 20. 

I guess they tried to trick us as #7 & 14 are duplicates--neither of which I got. #17 & 20 are also duplicates--which I did get right away. To Kill a Mockingbird was my favorite book when I was in the 8th grade. I read it like 3 times in one year. Still, I only got that one because of the name Jem.

So, now for the results. I only guessed 4 of the books correctly (counting #17 & 20 separately). Of the 20 books and counting the duplicates, I only actually read 12 of the books listed. 

Obviously, the last line of books has less of an impact on me as do first lines. I tried to find a quiz listing first lines, but they weren't listed in a compact way such as this list. 

Still a fun exercise to try to maintain my mental acuity! Give it a try and let me know how you fare.

Monday Mystery

What???

I have no idea what a digital kitchen is. It's a mystery to me. 

Anybody? I could look it up on the internet. Okay, I will.

A "digital kitchen" can refer to two different concepts: a delivery-only restaurant that operates without a dining room, or a smart home kitchen that uses technology like smart appliances and apps to enhance cooking and management. The restaurant model is also known as a ghost kitchen or virtual kitchen, while the home concept focuses on modern, connected devices to improve efficiency and convenience. 

Okay, I guess this makes sense. But this particular place is still a mystery to me. 

I guess the next time I'm over there, I'll walk up to the door and peek in.

I had no idea that I actually have a digital kitchen. I use my phone to access recipes,, 

play music or listen to books while I'm cooking and setting timers. I guess that qualifies.

Otherwise, I don't get it. I guess it's still kind of a mystery.

Scrapbook Saturday

Just thought I'd share what "scrappy" things I've been up to this week. 

Last Sunday, I decided that it was time to put all of the layouts I've done this year in to albums. It's my least favorite part of scrapbooking. I always have so many pockets to cut and fold-outs to deal with. But, considering that I am taking Ali Edwards December Daily class this year, I decided that I want to have everything else out of the way. More about the class below.

The first thing I did was get out the stack of layouts that needed to be put in album. 

I started sorting them in to piles--one for each of the albums they will go in.

I have lots of albums all going at the same time. That way it never gets boring. This time, I had 8 categories: home and garden, travel, family, friends, AYM, Jordan & Robbies wedding album, Barb and Sandy. This makes it easy to just grab one album at a time. I quickly realized that I did not have enough albums. So, I made a quick online purchase.

By the time I finished, I had finished off 3 albums and started 2 more. It took me 6 hours--just doing that! I made a New Year's resolution 1/1/2025 and kept up with them on a monthly basis. That only lasted a few months and then I let myself get behind. I am happy to have it out of the way.

So, my December Daily class started this week. You can read more about that here.

I have loved it and have started to make a few things.

This first one is a paper weaving technique that was so much fun.

I'm thinking that I'm going to use this as the background for the title page in my DD album with a gigantic 2025 on top.

Then, I got to thinking about our AYM theme for 2026.

I decided it would be fun to use this same technique for the title page of that album

This is how I know I have ADD--one thing leads to another. While I was thinking this through, I had to get it started lest I forget the idea. 

I decided to hand-cut a heart booklet and sew it down the middle. I have an idea for that too. I grabbed some ribbon, made a few houses and voila'--I just about have the title page done and the things for the kit too--I've already precut 196 strips. I've found that if I don't do the cutting upfront, someone will do it wrong and then we won't have enough paper! Believe me, it happens every time!

I stitched these Christmas trees. They are about 5" tall and didn't photograph well. They should lay flat once I adhere them to a background.

This was so easy to make. I made a template first. This was going to be the beginning of my album. But, unfortunately, I didn't remember what size album I bought. This will be too big. Still, I can just use it on another layout for my regular albums. I worked in 12x12 only--until this DD project. It's going to be a 6"x8".

This mantle was super fun to make. Notice the shiplap? I'm planning to put the page title in a wreath on that. I might add some stockings.

It's been a super fun week scrapbooking. I told Butch that I was going to help him outside with the fall garden clean-up, but he never mentioned it again, so I just did what I would rather do anyway. Isn't that what retirement is all about?

Friday Funnies