Some Things for Sunday

Wow! I can't believe February is already over. Time is flying by--way too fast. I wish things would slow down a little! Happy March!

    
Most of these fit for me, but I rarely read more than one book at a time. If I do, they have to be completely different genres. Otherwise, I wouldn't be able to keep them straight. Sometimes, even when I finish a book and start another of the same genre, I'll be thinking back in the previous book and get a little confused with the current one. Anybody else have that problem?

I'm pretty sure this is how all pet owners feel. Sorta puts me in my place. But then again, that's kinda sad for me! Maybe it's my ego talking, but I'd like to think I rate higher than a dog! Maybe not.

I love this idea so much. This was made out of a loved ones ties (no one I know). I wish I'd seen this before Butch retired and sent just about all of his fabulous ties to Good Will! He has some bright and colorful ones--and expensive! I could have had one of these made for each of the girls!

Luckily we were born in to the English language! Not sure I could have learned it as an adult!

Plans for my garden this year!

Scrapbook Saturday

Here are a few layouts I did while on our retreat a couple weeks ago. I can't believe it's been two weeks already. Time is just flying by.

Notice these cute little circle photos? I printed them from the Canon Ivy that Mitchell gave me for Christmas. I let my friends try it out on our retreat. I used it quite a bit---love it!

More little pictures from my tiny printer.

Just a simple end page for my 2020 pandemic album.

I cut this gingerbread house with the Cricut. Then I just doodled it and used glitter glue for a little sparkle.

I just had to stitch part of the title for this page. I left the thread and needle dangling.

That mask is actually an ornament. I decided I'd rather use it on this page than on the tree. I also taught myself how to journal in a shape and change the colors. Really fun. The striped strip on the left is actually part of the packaging material the papers came in. I just couldn't throw it away!

Friday Funnies

Five Things Thursday

This is going to be a post of contrasts. Things couldn't be more opposite!

1. While we were here:

This was happening at home:

2. While we were doing this:

Lunch at one of our favorite oceanside restaurants.

Ordering my favorite salad--the Endless Summer Seafood Salad--the only thing I've ever gotten.

 They were doing this at home:

I kinda hated to miss the fun---significant snow is so rare for us.

3. As we were watching this:

This is what was happening at home:

 Yes, this is normally what the ocean looks like down at Santa Rosa Beach, FL, but this is our pool--partially frozen! We've never had that happen. 

4. While this was happening at home:

The "boulevard of broken sleds"--term coined by Justin.

This happened at the beach:

The "table of broken toes" was replaced by this:

5. While we were at the beach avoiding this:

Killer sharks!

Steph was at our house avoiding this:

Killer icicles!

Okay, I'll admit the last one was a bit of a reach. 

Travel Tuesday

So a little over a week ago, when we were planning our trip to the Memory Make Inn, we were determined to get 4 of us and ALL of our scrapbooking stuff in to my Jeep. 

Butch, who is the master packer said it couldn't be done. I totally agreed with him. Anybody who knows scrapbookers, knows they need  a lot of stuff! It took a real concerted effort and organization on everyone's part to trim it down to the bare necessities. 

I measured my space in the back of my Jeep and told the girls they each would have 20" x 18" of floor space. Now that's not much---especially if your main bag is bigger than that. 

I started with this:

This did not include my duffle, computer bag or purse. I keep thinking, there's just no way! Then Pam sent out an email saying that she was not bringing her tool bag, but only the necessities from it. That was a good idea, so I decided to do the same.

I pared down my tool kit to just a bag with these essentials: hand lotion (a must when I'm working with paper--it really dries out my hands), two sizes of glue dots, assorted adhesives and pop dots, scissors, foam pad and push pin (as my anywhere hole punch), extra tape runners, my Little X and a corner rounder. 

That reduced my scrapbook stuff to this. When Butch put all of his stuff in the car, he still say there was no way and I agreed with him. I picked up Pam and then said, "there's really no way." Then it was on to Karolyn's. We managed with very little space left or Nancy. Once we got to Nancy's I was like, "Okay, there's no way in HELL!" She had sooo much stuff! But in her defense, she was bringing her computer and printer for us to use for our journaling. Plus, since she doesn't scrapbook all that much, she brought her stitching and she had a batch of cookies. Luckily we only needed a small cooler. 

Well, lo and behold, we managed it!!

OMGosh! We did it! Of course, Karolyn and Nancy in the back seat were pretty crammed as there was two duffles between them. 

Still, it's fun to be able to travel together. And, considering the weather turned bad, I was glad to be the one driving. After all, my friends are southern belles---with no experience driving in sleet, ice or snow! My philosophy on that is just to go slow and take long! That's the only way that I'm not "white knuckling" it and all tense. Although, when those truckers are still traveling at 70+ miles and hour, that's makes me pretty nervous! Oh, and in case you are wondering, yes, I could see out the back. 

The bigger problem was that it was 7 degrees out and my windshield wiper fluid froze.I couldn't clean the windshield. It kept freezing up so we'd have to put the defroster on high at about 80 degrees to get it to thaw out. Then we were burning up so we had to open the windows to cool off. Over and over and over again! The fluid never did thaw out until about half way to Florida on Wednesday. 

The moral of this story is that we have found that it CAN be done. 4 women, ALL their scrapbooking stuff, secret scrapper surprises, food, assorted computers, duffles, a couple suitcases, stitching, cooler and ALL of our purses--we made it work! 

Monday Mystery

I thought it was an odd practice when at the beach, some of my friends would put towels from the beach or pool to just dry them without washing. I didn't really think about it much except that I didn't really like the idea of putting something in the dryer that had not been washed. I just figured it was just me and my fanatical ways.

But then, while at the beach, Butch was cleaning out the lint "thingy" in the dryer. The washer and dryer is one of this little stackable units that fit in a little closet. After he cleaned out the lint filter thing, he reached down and could feel more fuzz. He got out the vacuum and got this much out that was under the filter:

I guess that's why you hear about dryer fires. That's a lot of lint that is escaping in to the dryer. Notice the inch and a half below the lint? Well, it's SAND!!! OMGosh! That's a lot of sand! And that's just what he was able to vacuum out! There's quite a bit more in there, but our little attachment couldn't reach it. We're going to bring our longer one from home to really get at it. 

There's really no mystery here. We're not putting anything in the dryer that is not clean from now on! 

We're a couple of cleaning fools. Did I mention that I cleaned the hot water heater? Yeah, well, we're like that! Now we just have to get on a roll at home! There are plenty of things that could use a little attention.

Oh, and while we were at the beach, Butch finished making the sign I asked him to make. I wanted a sign exactly like the little beach house sign:

This little sign is cardboard and is about 1 inch long. I planned out the lettering on my Gypsy (for the Cricut electronic cutter) and my friend, Pam helped me cut it out of vinyl as I had no experience with that. Butch cut the arrow out of wood. When we got to the beach, Butch painted the sign and we put the vinyl on. 

Talk about perfect! I'm telling you, the guy can do anything! Of course I wanted it to actually point to the beach, so we had to turn it around. This one is about 15" long.

That little sign was the finishing touch to balance out this grouping. 

Speaking of other things he can do...

He made these shelves to put over the wire shelves in the pantry. He notched them out for a perfect fit and then covered the edges so the brown edges of the wood wouldn't show.

It looks so much nicer now. Now that we're not renting the place out, we can leave some non-perishables. 

We've ordered the new patio furniture to be delivered when we're back in March. So, with the addition of these pillows...

...we are completely done! Well, with the decorating. We still have the fight about the shower doors that were installed incorrectly. But then again, that's a whole 'nother story!

Scrapbook Saturday

It's been a week! Scrapbook weekend, home Sunday afternoon, iced in on Monday and Tuesday, internet down on Tuesday, left for the beach on Wednesday. This is the first time I've had a moment to blog. 

Our weekend at the Memory Make Inn was another really fun time. Getting there was a little dicey due to the weather. I drove because my friends are all southerners and do not have experience driving in ice or snow. Actually, there's no driving in ice. Like I told them, my way to approach it is to go slow and take long. That worked. 

It's always a good time when I get to be with family. Plus, spending time with my friends was great too. We don't get to do that so much as of late. (Another thing you can say and everyone knows exactly what you mean!)

I'm always looking for fun things to do. Sooo, I organized one of those "secret scrapper" things like I did years ago at certain retreats. I used the website Draw Names. That way it's a surprise to everyone. It was so much fun to see all the little surprises that people came up with. I had Karolyn and accidentally gave it away pretty early on. I thought she had caught me putting something at her place. As it turned out, she didn't but by then I had mentioned it! Sheesh! I guess I'm not so good at keeping secrets. 

Jeanne had me, but I never guessed. She surprised me with some cute little hand sanitizers, fuzzy socks, Russell Stovers hot chocolate and a heart shape Valentine box of Russell Stovers along with a few other things I can't recall off the top of my head. I think everybody had fun with the exchange. At least was something different.

I also presented them with a couple challenges. The main one was: I let them each choose a magazine without telling them what it was for. Then I gave them a piece of background cardstock and told them to design an end page with nothing but the magazine. Now, I have to say, I saw a video of someone using a magazine in conjunction with their scrapbooking so that got me to thinking, "could you do a page with nothing BUT the magazine?" And the challenge was born!

The title for the page was "The End" (duh). Perfect title for an end page don't 'cha think? They were allowed to use any tools they wanted, but nothing else. I had the two girls who run the house and the other two guests be the judge. My girls did a really good and creative job. Now, just for fun, pick your favorite and see which one the 4 judges picked.

Jeanne's page---and she complained the whole time. She acts like she doesn't like my hair-brained ideas, but she's been going along with me since she could walk. That's just what little sisters do!

Pam did a pretty cute folded paper technique. On the right, she did a paper ruffle. Pretty clever.

Karolyn used the punch she had just received in the secret scrapper exchange and made a parcheesi type board. I thought that was pretty unique too.

Janet made a collage that I thought was pretty nice. She's got a lot going on, but it all works!

Nancy had "love" on the mind as she was decorating a bride book for her daughter!

This is  my layout which I did before leaving home. I wanted to make sure it could be done--a layout using only using a magazine. I used an Oprah magazine and two circle punches. I crumpled some of the circles for added texture.. I didn't show them my layout until it wall all over because I didn't want to plant an idea in their head that they might have trouble working around. I did give them a little hint to think about end pages they might have done before. At the beginning of lockdown, I did a "zoom" call with them and did a layout similar to this one. I did not enter my layout in the contest. 

So, what do you think? Do you have your pick? Here goes....

The winner is.....drumroll please.....Janet!!! 3 out of the 4 judges picked hers as their favorite! Congrats Janet!!

Maybe next time someone else will come up with a challenge so I can get in on it!!