Friday Funnies

Five Things Thursday

1. You know you're getting old when you can't figure out why your cookies are not browning.

Then you discover that you baked them on two cookie sheets.

Just so you know, it can be done. They just take twice as long!

2. You know you're getting old when you start getting emails for heavy-duty toenail clippers.

Otherwise known as horse hoof trimmers.

3.  You know you're getting old when you start getting emails about products for high blood pressure.

To be clear, I do not have high blood pressure!

4. You know you're getting old when you notice that your proboscis (I'm sure "Grammarly" will be impressed with this unique word) and ears seem to be getting bigger. My ears seem okay, but it's my nose that seems to be getting bigger. I've noticed that with old people, so I looked it up. Here's the answer:

As you age, gravity causes the cartilage in your ears and nose to break down and sag. This results in droopier, longer features.

So, it's not my imagination. All I can say is--sheesh! As if the lines and wrinkles aren't enough, you start to look like Pinnochio without even fibbing!

5. And my favorite of all--you know you're getting old when...

...your calendar is bigger than you are!! OMGosh! Here's the story:

I was at my friend, Nancy's for our "circle journal" group. We were trying to decide the next date we'd be getting together. I literally guffawed when Nancy pulled this thing out! Seriously? It's hilarious! Of course, I use my iPhone. Some of the other girls have the checkbook size calendars in their purse. But this...it's too much! To be fair, Nancy has always been my funniest friend!!

What things can you add to the list?

PS Notice my Princess Diana scarf? Love that thing!

What I Buy Wednesday

I had to order a few more albums. 

When I saw this one, I just had to have it. Perfect for this year's AYM theme.

"The Songs of Our Life" title page designed by Pam. We each have either two months or a month and a title or end page. We put together kits for the group. If you draw a title or end page, you design it and provide all the materials to make it. This one is perfect! Jeanne has to do the end page. The pressure is on!

And then, there's this:

A new rug from my new favorite store that I get to shop at online without ever having to step foot in! Works for me!

It's kind of a crazy patter, but I loved the diamond pattern.

It sort of matches the diamond pattern in the mosaic tile. 

And one thing I didn't buy--actually, I'm going to save it for my Monday Mystery. 

That's it for this week!

Tuesday Thoughts about...

...wasted time!

It's unbelievable how much time is wasted each year--waiting on "hold," waiting in line, and sitting in traffic. Now you are not going to believe this, but that wasted time comes to 26 days!! Yes, 26 days!! Think about that. It's 624 hours! Holy smokes, that's a lot of wasted time! 

But not me!! Thanks to my Kindle app on my phone, I always have my book with me! Even if I'm on "hold" with a call, I can go to my book. 

Now, what about time "wasted" on social media? The average is 145 minutes per day! That's almost 2 1/2 hours! Each day! That's 912 1/2 hours a year!! I guess some people could argue that it's not wasted time. I think social media time took the place of time wasted gabbing on the phone. I've always said I'm not a phone person for the very reason that it's such a time-waster. And that's just as much my fault as the callers. I can be quite a yacker if encouraged! 

But, if I'm being honest, I would say I spend at least 3 hours on my computer each day. I spend the first hour of my day on the treadmill on my computer. I'm very methodical about what I do. I start with checking emails. If something needs a response, I have to wait until later as I cannot type and walk fast at the same time. 

After I check my emails, I check Facebook, Instagram, and read a couple blog posts I've saved to my "reading list." Usually, all of that takes a full hour. If I have time leftover, I'll go to my "saved list" on Facebook and choose one of my categories: news, entertainment, style & beauty, or gifts. It's not too difficult to make a few "clickable" purchases! 

About once a week, I go through my entire Bloglovin' list. That will take the full hour. I save everything to my reading list that I don't have time to read right then. 

After that first hour, I take my shower, have breakfast, and get back on my computer for about another hour while watching Good Morning America. Then, I'll actually answer emails, start working on a blog post, or tackle something from my to-do list. Later in the day, I'll spend another hour all together checking emails and Facebook again. And that doesn't even count the time I play games on my iPad while watching tv. There's another couple hours. Now that's the time-waster for me. Because, all the time I spend playing games means that's time I'm not stitching. I haven't done any significant stitching in months. I really need to get back to that.

Another time-waster that you might not think about is the amount of time people spend looking for things. The statistics are that we spend 60 hours a year looking for things: keys, papers, socks, etc. When I used to give my organizing talks years ago, I used this statistic to show how being unorganized costs so much time.

All that time wasted really adds up. So if you do the math, that adds up to 4.37 hours a day. Wasted! Wow, that's a lot!

Hmmm, and I think I've just wasted another hour writing this post! You know, the research and all! I can waste time better than anyone! As a matter of fact, I think I just wasted 10 minutes of yours! Ooooops! Sorry!

Me On Monday

Why do I do this to myself? 

Before I get to that, let me tell you about my week. It was a fun week. I basically took the week off from "work." Of course, I mean "home" work--since I don't work outside of the home. 

Taking a week off means that I did not do a single thing on my "to do" list--which is 2-double column, pages long!! To be clear, this list contains everything I need to do, buy, call, plan, organize, etc. I like having everything in one place. 

By taking the week off, I should also qualify that to mean "the mornings." I work in the morning only---except for cooking dinner. So now we're really getting down to it. I didn't do anything from my "to do" list. But I did scrapbook nearly every day--except Wednesday and Thursday when I had a doctor appointment in the morning, met a friend for lunch and then played bridge on Thursday. I managed to scrapbook 7 days counting the weekends. Like I said, it was a fun week.

So, yesterday as I went up to scrapbook, I had something nagging at me. It's been eating at me for a few days: When am I going to decorate for Easter? Or, am I going to decorate for Easter? Then I looked at the calendar to see how much time was left and how often we'd be out-of-town. I have no excuse. There's plenty of time. Plus, if I don't decorate, then that means I won't enjoy my Easter needlepoint. After all, I only get to use it once a year. I decided that I needed to do it. 

This is what I'm dealing with:

Butch helped me haul it all down. Then I began. 

This banner was a family craft project several years ago.

It was pretty simple: ribbon, staples, scissors, buttons, and glue. I just found a bunny pattern online and printed it out as a pattern. The grey was a sort of heavy twill. The banner part was assorted Easter prints cut out with pinking shears. We just stapled the banner pieces to organdy ribbon and tied little, random pieces of ribbon in between. Adding mother-of-pearl buttons for eyes was the finishing touch.

This Easter egg pillow came from Hobby Lobby years ago.

Assorted, random pieces along with one of my needlepoint eggs. There's a set of nesting eggs and a bird's nest with eggs.

I have quite a few Beatrix Potter figurines. The vintage, wooden thread spools decorated with eggs, ribbon, pins, and charms were another family craft project about 10 years ago.

It takes a lot of time to carefully place each item to make it look completely haphazard!

My needlepoint Easter train pillows.

Easter basket door wreaths. I can't even remember how old these are. 

Well, that's about it for Easter decorating. It really only took me about an hour. I just don't know what's the matter with me. I don't really enjoy seasonal decorating anymore. It used to be fun, but now it's just work. Plus, it's not like the kids are little to get a kick out of it. I need to do more entertaining to make it worthwhile. Yeah, that's what I need to do. Okay, excuse me while I plan something.

Something for Sunday--Capsule Wardrobe

Before I get started, I want to share a couple of pretty, snow photos. We had 4 inches last night. That's pretty unusual for us--especially in March. The temperature is going to remain in the 20's all day today, then up to the 50's tomorrow. 60's by Monday. That's Nashville weather for you!

It's so pretty. It won't last long. The ground is too warm. I hate that it's probably ruined all of my early blooming flowers! Okay, on to my post.

Have you heard of a "capsule wardrobe?" I've heard the term here and there, but never really thought about what it meant. 

Recently, I read an article about it. I think I get it now. A "capsule wardrobe" is a small, curated collection of clothes--usually 30-50 pieces. 

Apparently, there's something called "decision fatigue." Some people just have a problem or are tired of figuring out what to wear. So, the "capsule wardrobe" was invented.

I don't have a problem with deciding what to wear. I don't know about you, but often, I choose my footwear first. Maybe I want to wear my cute red shoes today--which totally depends on what I'm doing as one pair is not all that comfortable--I guess they should go, but they are so cute! The uncomfortable ones are the Talbots on the right. I wear those when I'm not going to be walking a lot. The others are very comfortable. 

If I choose them, then I will build my outfit around them. 

Or I might start with my earrings. If I'm in the mood to wear my new, London map earrings that are a light aqua,

then I'll go from there. My outfit comes together pretty quickly after that. Of course, it's easier since I have my closet sorted by color.

In creating your "capsule wardrobe", the first thing you are supposed to do is pare down your closet and keep only the things you really love. That happened automatically for me when I lost weight. 

This is what I'm down to in the way of jeans and pants. It's really enough! They say that by paring down, you save time and money. I get the time, but the money was already spent. If you can resist--ahem, like I've done--and not buy more, then that saves money!

Supposedly, cleaning out your closet gives you a sense of relief from brain fog. I'm not sure about that, but I know it gives me great joy! I like things neat and organized. 

So in a nutshell, here's what to do:

1. Take stock of what you have. By taking stock, you'll see right away if you have a penchant for a particular color. 

2. Pay attention to what you wear. A good idea is to put all of your hangers in the same direction. Then, when you wear something, hang it backwards. After a month, you'll see what you wear most. To be clear, I've never done this, but I keep saying that I'm going to. I'll let you know if I do.

3. Challenge yourself to pare down to that 30-50 pieces based on what you actually wear. Do you really need 20 pairs of black pants/jeans? Or 15 pink tops?  Okay, I might be able to pare down to 30-50 pieces if I only count pants, tops, and sweaters. 

I probably have 30 scarves alone! Do I need 30 scarves? Probably not, but I do wear them. I need to do the backward hanger thing on my scarves. There are plenty I don't wear. Still, I'm not sure I'm ready to part with them. Plus I have the space. Remember what I always say--"if you have the space, you will fill it up. You'll keep things you wouldn't if you didn't have the space!"--and that's the truth!

Sidenote: Okay, I had to stop and go count the scarves. OMGosh! I have 43. And I'm not getting rid of a single one! When I decided to put them on hangers in order to see them better, I went through them. I don't remember how many I got rid of, but I'm glad I did. I should definitely do the hanger trick on my scarves. 

4. Discover your style. By paring down, you'll see how you prefer to dress. I know that I prefer the layered look--jeans or pants, tops, sweaters, jackets and scarves. In fact, I actually have some outfits already put together. That way, I don't forget I have a particular scarf that works perfectly with certain things. Please, just don't tell me your style is all t-shirts!! I mean logo t-shirts--not knit shirts. Those are a staple in my wardrobe!

5. Determine the ratio of what you need based on your lifestyle. Do you stay home 80% of the time in loungewear? Then 80% of your wardrobe should be loungewear. 

Oh hell, no! I think that would be way too depressing to have a closet full of sweatpants. I have knit pants that I consider my "around the house" pants. Still, I'll put a nicer top on with a sweater and earrings--most of the time if I'm staying home. Really that depends on whether I put makeup on for the day. Sometimes I don't if I'm not going anywhere. I DO NOT want to look at a closet full of knit pants!

6. Keep on top of your "capsule." Whatever you find that you no longer wear, you need to discard it rather than keeping it. You need to make an effort to just keep what you use. 

Okay, this sounds all well and good. But, I do admit, I like to have choices. I don't have a problem, deciding. Nor does that make me fatigued. I'm stronger than that!! There's no way I would let my closet get the better of me!

Scrapbook Saturday

Here are the last layouts from my scrapbook weekend.

This layout is from Butch's Portugal trip.

It's another fold-out. Butch takes extensive trip notes. This set was about 9 pages long!

The last Disney layout---this one is going in Mindy's album.

I did this layout for out "round robin" group. We each trade pictures and do a layout for someone else. I always love doing these. I definitely spend more time when it's for someone else. The journaling on the right opens to reveal another photo and the rest of that die cut tree. On this layout, Susan (the friend I was doing it for), allowed me to do the journaling. I took the opportunity to use a lot of fishing terms in the story. Butch even got in on the act. He provided me with the "flies" that are on the fishing hat. He cut the barbs off, so no one will get "hooked!" (See what I did there?)

This layout is from our Key West trip. 

I used another folder on this one to make more room for photos.

This is my AYM layout for our "Songs of Our Life."

I picked the song and put the kit together. "Your Love Keeps Lifting Me Higher" is a particular favorite of mine. And this girl is another!

Here's the journaling:

I'm not a hundred percent sure, but I think I'm caught up on trip layouts. Oh, wait! I forgot about the ski trip. I'll be doing several layouts for that. I haven't even gotten the pictures printed yet.

The work of a storytelling, scrapbooker is never done....