Catching Up and Sit-upons.

The last couple of weeks have been a whirlwind of activity getting ready for school and Girl Scouts and after school activities.  Yes, I know, I am a retired grandmother -- how does this affect me?  Well, when  you are the after school pickup of a suddenly active child, it affects you.

The duty of being an assistant Girl Scout leader has fallen on me as none of the troop mothers could do it.  This is odd for me because I was only a Girl Scout for a short time -- a LONG time ago -- so I am having to wrack my brain to remember much of anything about it.  We were discussing projects and my daughter mentioned the cushions for the girls to sit on.  Back in the deep crevices of my brain I sort of remembered these and when I did a google search I was reminded of the name of them -- sit-upons! So, we decided to gather the goods for the girls to make sit-upons.  While trying to find a photo of one to put here as we haven't done ours yet I discovered a number of new ways to accomplish this task including using extra large ziplock bags.  Using those you simply fill the bag with whatever stuffing you choose (we will be using my daughter's 250 saved plastic grocery bags), zip them up and seal with decorated duct tape.  The girls also decorated a piece of paper with their name and decorations and put it on top of the stuffing so the stuffing didn't really show.  Now, mind you, when I saw this I had already purchased materials to use -- plastic tablecloths and yarn.  I have plans to cut them into 18 inch squares, punch the holes and let the girls lace them shut.  More hands on than just stuffing a bag and more cost effective, too.  I had to laugh at myself for wanting to take the easy way out -- when my mother and our other leader were going through GS training and they wanted them to start a fire by rubbing two sticks together, my mother's friend promptly pulled out her cigarette lighter and started the fire.  They failed fire starting and had to start over and they weren't allowed to go home until the mission was accomplished.  They finally managed to get a spark and were allowed to leave but it was a long, long day.  So, me wanting to just fill ziplock bags reminded me of my mom -- funny the things that jog memories.

Ours are going to be red with white yarn for lacing.  Walmart didn't have a huge selection of plastic tablecloths -- especially when I was looking for the PEVA or EVA options.  Before I cut anything out, though, it has to pass Leader Bri's muster though.  Hmmm....maybe she will like the ziplock bag idea.

Looking for ziplock bag coupons.  I think that idea is a winner.  I will post photos.

Will I Ever Get Tired Of It?

I haven't been feeling all that great the last few days.  Seems allergy season has started early for me -- actually, it never ended LAST allergy season -- seems all my allergy seasons are running together.  The last week-end just about did me in -- a family reunion in Waco on Saturday, family things Sunday and Monday which included meet the teacher day, house hunting, lunch out and a movie.  By the time I got home Monday evening I seriously thought I was going to die I was so exhausted and.....my feet hurt.  So, yesterday was spent trying to recover after my 8 a.m. dental appointment.  I hope I remember to NEVER make another 8 a.m. appointment -- this was my second in a month.  I am not an early morning person anymore, it seems.  Today, however, I was more or less back to my old self so I got some laundry done, managed to actually thaw something for dinner and cook it and I made a couple of cards. 

So, without further adieu -- the cards

The first one was not good.  It didn't have enough "stuff".  So, I improved on it.  I added the bat.

 It still wasn't right so I just did it over again and here is that attempt --

This one was a great improvement so it will be the one to be mailed.  There is a learning curve to this and I am having difficulty remember to pay attention to the small details.  Up to this point I have been putting things together and not paying enough heed to the little things and then the end result is just a bit wonky and I have to think about it.  When I think about it I can discern what is wrong and re-do but I am going to have to be more careful to do that BEFORE the thing is a finished product.

Anyway, that was today.  After a bit of vacuuming tomorrow I will be back at it because for some reason I just can't get enough of this craft.

Family Reunion

I am sorry to say that I am not a "reunion" sort of person -- our family reunions when I was growing up were too fraught with drama for my liking.  My husband's family, however, loves to have reunions and they do so every two years.  And we go.

Now, bear in mind that they just buried my husband's aunt two weeks ago and you would think the mood was not be particularly celebratory but we did  have the reunion today.

My husband's maternal family is Czech from Moravia.  His grandfather, Adolph, immigrated when he was about 6 along with his siblings and his parents.  Adolph's father didn't survive the trip to the United States and his mother, a midwife, passed within the first year of being here.  My husband's grandfather and his siblings were adopted or taken in by a doctor in the Halletsville area who raised them, educated them and helped them with citizenship.

Adolph didn't stay in South Texas but settled in Central Texas -- an area rich in farming with a large Czech community.  He married Marie and had four children.  Marie passed as a young woman and he married Annie, a young widow with two children.  They went on to have five more children together, my mother in law being one of them.  Between the eleven of these children there were many children and grandchildren.

There are only two of the original group left -- my mother in law and her brother.  They are in their mid-nineties. There have been five burials since the last reunion two years ago, the most recent two weeks ago.

Today we had the opportunity to go through boxes of papers and pictures belonging to family members long gone.  We were encouraged to take what we wanted, the cousin who had these in his possession didn't really want to have to take any of it home.  I managed to bring home some meaningful paper work involving the farmland that Adolph acquired when he relocated to Central Texas, some photos of the original "homeplace" as my mother in law calls it, some family portraits -- there was so much stuff -- some of it relevant to my husband's life and some not so much.  It was quite the genealogical find.  It fills a box.  It still strikes me oddly sad that a piece of paper, a bill of sale, a list of purchases at the feed store can outlast people.  These common everyday items seem to have so much meaning.

The next reunion will be in two years.  Is this going to be just a "cousins" reunion with all the old folks gone to glory?  Are we now the old folks? Is it going to be in the country again like it usually is or will it be at the new venue that we were at today.  Changing, changing, things keeps changing. 

Whatever it is, wherever it is -- I am sure we will go. 

Paranoia Strikes Again

Does anybody ever make their blog private?  It seems like such a hassle.  I am beginning to worry about the safety of posting certain things and wonder what you all think. 

Card making

I am at it again but I have a lot to learn.  I see so many gorgeous cards on the internet and each one sends me off shopping for supplies to make them.  Yet, when I sit down to make them the creativity just seems to be lacking.

However, here are some of my latest attempts.

So much fun! So pricey! So messy! But so much fun!

Genius!

My husband is a genius.

I have been going "green" for sometime now.  Some of my practices have become second nature, some I have ditched, some I have tweaked to be more practical for my family.  One of my pet peeves has been the toilet paper cores.  I don't do crafts that require toilet paper cores and I don't have a hamster.  So.....what to do?

I discovered this!

This is my husband's preferred product -- nothing terribly soft in this house, no siree!

So, I figured this would appeal to both our sensibilities.

I was wrong.  Apparently being coreless results in it not "rolling smoothly".  I have no idea why that is a problem, it doesn't bother me but the resident handy man came to the rescue.

Yes, a piece of pvc pipe the length of the paper holder and the width of the "core".

A permanent "core".  Problem solved.

The man is a flipping genius.

Vinegar Girl by Anne Tyler

I have read a couple of Anne Tyler's works and, while I enjoyed them, they seemed to have a depressing side to them.  This one is completely different.  This was such a fun read. 

It is the story of Kate, Bunny and their father, the eccentric Dr. Battista.  And Pyotr.  Bunny is a truculent teenager.  Kate is the older sister that seems to be bound for spinsterhood.  Dr. Battista is clueless.  Pyotr is Dr. Battista's Russian lab assistant who is in danger of having his visa run out quicker than their project does.  This is serious business.

Solution?  Marriage. 

And then there are the mice-in-crisis.

I can't say more.  Just read it.  It is a quick, light read and all is well that ends well.

Enjoy!

Mid July ALREADY?

Wow, this summer is just flying by and I am not ready for summer to be over.  I know, summer isn't over until September but Bean's school starts August 10 so basically that is when we are done with summer.

It has been hot, we haven't really gone anyplace or done much of anything but it has been relaxing.  I have had a lot of time to think and re-evaluate things and I have to say I have had a change of attitude.  Not sure why but it just seems like I have relaxed -- like a big sigh.  I am getting things done but I don't seem as manic and rushed.  It seems I have a mental list of things I need to do, have figured out the easiest way to do it (no procrastination, for one thing!) and then I have allowed myself to enjoy the rest of my time guilt free. 

And I am enjoying my time.  After a short break from reading I am getting back to that.  I just love getting lost in a book and I really enjoy exploring our new bookstore -- which has a pokemon now, from what I understand.

I think I have to credit my new hobby with some of that calm, relaxed feeling.  I have been playing around with the cardmaking some more and I have to say that I like small projects like this that can actually be finished in a reasonable time.  There is a learning curve, however.  I have learned that some white ink just soaks into dark paper.  I have also learned that I can't cut straight and paper cutters can be confusing -- I know -- that is ridiculous. I have learned that glue, like school clue, doesn't work as well as tape. I also know that I have to quit shopping but I think I am done with buying big stuff -- now it is just paper and embellishments and stamps and such.

Anyway, here is my latest card -- it is silly simple and I am not  sure if the pics will show up well but here it is.

This originally started out green and red -- but I used glue and it caused the paper to buckle. I used a Colorbox white stamp pad and dauber to stencil  the design and the ink just soaked into the paper.  So, I started over and decided blue would work -- I like blue at Christmas.  So, here it is.

Now I have a lot of sweeping and reorganizing to do.

No procrastination!

Once a Week Blogger

Seems I have become a once a week blogger! Not my intent -- things just got a bit busy.

After the 4th my daughter had to go to a conference for advanced placement teachers.  The conference was held at TCU so she had to venture to my side of town whereas I was going to her side of town to keep the Bean.  We had three lovely days with her and enjoyed every minute of it.

The weekend found me trying to catch up on laundry and picking up -- we are a messy duo -- mostly reading material and crumbs. Anyway I did find some time to do some card making. I only made one and my photography is really bad.  I have a new camera and didn't know how to turn the flash off so I had to enlist the photography guru to show me how.  So, anyway, here are the fruits of my latest efforts.

The coloring seems to be a bit washed out here but it really isn't.  I made two copies of the stamped image -- one I did in Prismacolor pencils and one I did in Crayola colored pencils.  This one was done with Crayola.  The one I did with the Prismacolor pencils is more vibrant.  It will show up on something eventually but I thought the more subdued colors went well with the muted, soft toned papers.  However, it is more colorful than it appears here.  Sorry for the poor photography but I shake a bit and the light was miserable. I need to work on my photography skills.

I have been playing with my Cuttlebug but I am bummed to find out that I need an additional plate and they don't carry it at my neighborhood Joann.  I bought a set of Spellbinders dies but need the plate before I can use them.  This is getting to be a rather pricey hobby so I am cutting myself off for the moment.  Not sure if  I will be keeping the the die set or not.

So, that is what has been taking up my time these days.

Oh, and I have put down "the book" and have taken up this one --

It is pretty good so far and I will review when I am done. 

Well, off to the dentist!  Have a great Monday!

Happy 4th of July!

Today is the 4th of July here in America.  It is not a gift giving holiday but rather it is a holiday to celebrate our country, our values, to be patriotic and to eat traditional food.  I have never been a big celebrator of the 4th but this year feels different.  This year I feel the need to show my patriotism, to celebrate our country, our values and eat traditional food.  This year we seem to need it more, we seem to have a real need to get back to what makes us who we are.

So, tonight Hubs and I will joining our daughter, her husband and the Bean for hot dogs, chips, beans and patriotic cup cakes.  We will be watching fireworks on the television specials commemorating the day.  It will be good fun.  The irony of it is, my daughters in-laws are visiting from England and they will be celebrating their first 4th of July -- don't think they share the same excitement for the day!

Last night we joined them for dinner at Saltgrass and the fireworks show in Southlake Town Square.  Thanks to them for the invite.  Even though it was terribly hot, a breeze blew up and make it tolerable.  The fireworks were gorgeous -- I didn't take photos though.  The crowds were massive and it took us 45 minutes just to exit the parking lot and we were not even in the town square -- we were across the street.  But, the car was cool and it was fun watching the people so all was good.

Today we are having a quiet day -- I might do a little shopping across the street and then I might not.  I am looking at a set of rubber stamps but am having a hard time spending the money as they are a bit expensive but I am going to see if I can find them locally first rather than ebay or mail order.  I have some ideas for some cards but I have decided that sketching them out first is probably a good thing to do.  So, I think today is going to be a "play" day along with the ever present laundry.  Yes, laundry stops for nothing.

So, have a happy 4th, all! Do fun things, eat hot dogs and watch fireworks and never, ever forget who we are and what we stand for.  Ever.

Anniversary, End of a Bad Week and Coloring.

Today is our 44th wedding anniversary.  Husband is changing the spark plugs in the truck.  The romance is overwhelming, isn't it?

I had a bad night last night -- not much sleep -- thanks to the above pictured groom.  He was too warm, then he was too cold, then he had leg cramps, then he snored and clicked his teeth -- for hours and hours.  I woke up not a happy camper.

So, I did laundry.  And I did this--

Having fun coloring rubber stamped images.

Seems I am very easily amused.