Scrapbook Saturday

Friday Funnies

Five Things Thursday

This is pretty amazing.

What a good idea--using your pool to keep things save from burning up.

Nashville.

My hometown, St. Louis.

Okay, this is one smart dog!

Words of Wisdom Wednesday

This is powerful.

Now let's talk about it.

1. Saving $8 a day. 

 

It might just be easier to pretend that $250 a month is just another bill.     I know from personal experience that if you say you are going to do            something daily, you can't remember if you did it or not. Sort of like taking    pills--"did I take them for today?" (Not me, the only thing I take daily is    calcium and I do that at night before bed). But, I am giving myself $50        a week allowance, just to see how much I spend on lunches and other        personal expenses. I'm not in a good habit about it and then can't remember if I took my 50 bucks for the week or not.

2. Reading 20 pages a day.

Okay, doubting Thomas that I am (or being from the "show me" state--take your pick) I did the math. 20 pages a day is 7,300 pages a year. I started dividing it down to figure out how many pages each of the 30 books contained. It came out to 243 pages per book. Now, I don't know about you, but the books I read are at least 400 pages and many 500. My first thought was that this statistic must be referring to adolescent or teen books. Then I posed the question on the internet about the average size of a book. The answer is this: A consensus of the publishing houses is that, on average, a book is about 60,000 -90,000 words long. That is approximately 200-350 pages. I stand corrected. Of course, you can easily change number of pages by increasing or decreasing the font size.

3. About the 70 marathons. 

This just made me feel guilty. I didn't even want to check the facts. I just know I need to get back to my walking. It's so hard for me to get back on track after vacations!

Bottomline: All three of these things sound easily doable! They truly are powerful habits!

Tuesday Thoughts

Way back when our friend group started in Devon Park, we always had so much fun together. We partied, traveled, and relied on each other. We still have our poker group, book club, scrapbook club, and journal club. We fantasized about all of us finding a cul-de-sac somewhere and all living together. Well, it never happened. Then I saw this and thought, "Hey, maybe we could still do it!

I think we've missed our window of opportunity! Plus, this bothers me that it looks like anyone could just drive their homes off at any time! I still love the idea! 

I love this! What beautiful little girls! 

I love the old lady picture too, I would love to have seen them at 25 and 50 too. I identical quintuplets--which at the time of their birth would have ben a natural occurance--no fertility treatments!

I tried to find similar pictures with my twin sisters--born 1954:

Jennifer and Janice

They don't look all that much alike now as one colors her hair. Janice never did.

This goes back to our ski trip. I forgot to share it when I posted last week.

I made a new "dump cake" recipe. We always do dump cakes when traveling because they are just so easy. This one was delish!

Lemon Cream Cheese Dump Cake

1 can lemon pie filling

1 pkg yellow cake mix

4 oz. Cream cheese

1 stick butter

Grease 9x13 dish. Spread pie filling in the bottom. Sprinkle cake mix over. Cube cream cheese and dot over cake mix. Melt butter and pour over. Bake 350 for 40-50 minutes until slightly browned and set in the middle.

Me on Monday

So, I came across this article and thought I would share it. 

Nine Things People with Spotless Houses Do Every Day

You can bet I’m going to add a tenth! Nine things—you mean whoever wrote this couldn’t come up with one more? Well, I definitely can!

First, let me start with saying that I don’t claim that my house is spotless—but pretty darn close. Anyone can drop in on us anytime, and I won’t have anything to be embarrassed about.

Okay, here goes:

1. Take off your shoes.

I do take off my shoes. I wear slippers in the house at all times. And I wash them once a week. Part of it is because of the icky stuff you walk into the house, but the main thing is my white carpets. I’ve calmed down about them but can easily get myself worked up. I never expect visitors to take off their shoes. I don’t even think about it—well, unless they are workmen. I do not have a problem asking them to take off their shoes. Many have those “bootie” things to put over their shoes—which become totally useless if they are in and out of the house—not bothering to take them off when they are out and put them back on when they are in. Oh well.

2. Make your bed.

I confessed one time to my friends that I did not make my bed every day. They shamed me, so now I do. But it is kind of in a haphazard way—meaning I don’t put all the decorative pillows on, and I don’t really care if the sheets aren’t pristine/tight. I just don’t. I’ve come a long way from that teenager who never made her bed and had it piled high with clothes!

3. Wipe down the kitchen counters.

I really don’t understand this one. Don’t you wipe the counters every time you use them? It’s not like I have to say to myself, “Oh, I better go wipe down the counters!” They are always wiped down—always!

4. Clean as you cook.

This one I do faithfully. In fact, my cooking sessions begin with a sink full of hot, sudsy water. I cannot cook without one!

5. Wipe down the shower.

Oh, heck no! I am not doing that. When we remodeled our master bath, I specifically told my friend/designer, Christy, that I did not want to do that, nor ask visitors to do it when staying with us. She provided the perfect solution. That girl knows everything! She had some sort of coating put on all the glass so that you don’t have to squeegee them. All of our shower doors look clean and clear ALL the time. I think it cost about $500 at the time—totally worth it.

6. Swiffer before bed.

Nope, not doing it. There’s just the two of us. Nothing needs swiffering. Actually, I don’t swiffer ever! Yes, we have one, but I don’t think anyone uses it. Not even Margarita. She has a crazy way of dusting the hardwood. She takes a rag, puts a hole in the middle, wets it, and places it over a broom handle. I actually like that since she’s catching the dust rather than just moving it around. Maybe she doesn’t know what the swiffer is.

7. Put your clothes away.

Okay, I don’t always do this. But, there are a couple of reasons for that: 1. I have a big closet so you can’t see that the clothes aren’t put away and 2. I usually wear everything twice before I wash. If I were to put everything away, I wouldn’t remember which things I’ve already worn once. I really like it when I can wear the same thing two days in a row because then the closet stays tidy—but only if I’m not with the same people. Well, except for Connie. She’s been known to wear the same thing for three days—usually on the weekends. On weekends, you might find me in pajamas! Butch, on the other hand, has “the chair.” His closet is absolutely perfect, but he might have a half-foot pile on his chair that sits out for the world to see!

8. Wipe the mirrors and the sink.

What? I haven’t wiped a mirror since 1982. Granted, I have a cleaning lady who does it once a week. That’s enough! Ditto on the sink. We rinse them as we use them. They are never unsightly or require cleaning more than once a week.

9. Obey the two-minute rule.

Okay, first, I’ve never heard of this. And second, I thought it was the 2 second rule and applied only to dropped foot or pacifiers. So, the two-minute rule is: if you can do something in two minutes, then just do it and don’t procrastinate. I DO NOT procrastinate—ever (or mostly never.) I would have the thing done in the time it would take me to decide whether I should do it or not! What a waste of time! Just do it already.

And now for my number 10—I cannot believe that whoever made this list didn’t think of this.

10. Do more than one thing at a time!!!

This is exactly how I accomplish a lot. I’ll peel potatoes, sort things, or make lists while watching TV. If I’m going upstairs, I’ll take everything at once-same coming down. Sometimes that’s a little dangerous as I have to use my elbow on the rail to keep me grounded when I am not hands-free. If I get up to use the bathroom, I’ll carry my empty cup to the dishwasher and hit the recycle bin with errant papers, grab the cookbook I want to browse through, oh, and maybe I’ll stop and wipe down the counters! (NOT!)

None of this is all that hard!! Anyone can have a spotless house. If you start doing, it becomes second nature. (I’ve always heard this expression but don’t really know what it means. Maybe I’ll look it up when I’m watching tv. Or not. Uh oh, I’m procrastinating! I could have already done it by now but I won’t!

Something for Sunday--By the Numbers

February by the Numbers:

Bridge—Brentwood Bridge Club—3

Connie’s with Kathleen & Karen--1

Richland—1

Movies Seen—0 (mostly because there was nothing worth seeing, plus Connie and I are playing bridge on Mondays so we'll have to pick another day)

Books Read—8

5 star: 0--not a single book was five star this month; maybe that's why I didn't read as many as usual--I struggled to get through many of these.

Broadway Shows:

***Crimes of the Heart

*****& Juliet (not to be missed)

Podcasts: 

Scrap Gals (6 episodes)

Lunch Out: 8

Dinner Out: 2

Documentaries/Movies/Series Streamed 

Netflix :

****Maria

***The Gentleman (8 episodes) 

*****Pieces of Her

*****Madoff (documentary)

*****Lupin (3 parts—many episodes in each part—totally worth it!) Best of the month!

*****The Clovehitch Killer

*Hitler and the Nazis (episodes— 3)

***Almost Pregnant

***Old Dads

***Escape from Donneca (8 episodes)

***How to Rob a Bank (documentary)

Nate Bergantze—The Greatest American—2 shows

Amazon Prime

*****Secrets of the Cruise Ship(documentary—very interesting)

Trips: 

Scrapbooking—Little Lake Village, KY

Skiing—Breckenridge. CO

Scrapbook Pages Completed: 18 (our retreat counts for many of these)

Groceries:

2/4 $36.02

2/9   68.47

2/10   23.51

2/17   21.10

2/24   19.34

2/27 22.16

Total $190.60

Okay, so that’s what I was thinking our monthly groceries could cost. Now I know that I just have to be traveling half the month!

Ski trip--$400 (I’m not counting this since it’s more trip related)

Scrapbook Saturday

This year, I'm doing something a little different. I'm doing a monthly spread like I did last year, but in a different format. 

It's a 7x10" journal. This is the title page.

This is my January layout.

Thanks to my friend, Karolyn, my sewing machine is up and running again! I made these cute journal cards by cutting vellum heart strips and sewing them down the center. I think they're cute, but I haven't used them yet.

This is the title page of my first album for 2025. I think I want to do just one layout each month. That means, I'm going to have to decide what is the most important story to tell each month.

This is one of the layouts I did on our retreat. These pictures and story goes all the way back to the mid-90's.

Friday Funnies

I love these kinds of pictures so much!

Another one.

We actually have one like this too:

Ten Things Thursday

Thought I would just share some more beautiful kitchens.

This ceiling--so amazing!

I love how these cabinets look more like furniture. 

I'm not sure about this one. There's much to like, but It's a little too dark for me.

I love the vintage vibe of this kitchen AND the color combination.

Another fabulous ceiling. The cabinetry is gorgeous too.

Everything here is beautiful. Another cool ceiling and I love the lights.

Just everything!!