Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Topeka's First Snow! {really, trust me!}

Snow! Can't see but it is there!

This was taken outside my office window on the 8th floor with my really old cell phone, so you'll just have to trust me when I say it was snowing! Here's what one of the local tv stations has on their website:


Today
Rain and Snow Mixed, High 40°, Low 26°
Cold and windy. Rain may mix with snow at times...little if any accumulation.

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Tuesdays

Tuesday means I made it past Monday and it's only one more day until Wednesday which is officially Hump Day, especially for those of us who work a M-F job. I thought about calling this post Tuesday Truthfulness and then I'd just tell the truth about things. What things though? Hmmm, how about the fact that I usually take on more than I can handle? It's kind of like the old saying, "your eyes are bigger than your stomach!" Remember that one when you were growing up? Well these days that translates in to, "your intentions are bigger than your abilities" (or substitute time, energy, stamina, money... they all work equally well.) Just when I should have been spending all of my spare time making cards, gift bags, tags, etc. for the craft show on November 27th I decided to participate in the Operation Write Home Valentines Blog Hop on my other blog Diary of a Craft Room Transformation. Now don't get me wrong, I have zero regrets and am 100% happy that I did, BUT the fact remains I should have spent that time working on the craft show preparations. So that is truthfulness, ok? Maybe I need to start setting better goals and making check lists and then sticking to them. Any suggestions? How do you stay on target?

Thursday, November 11, 2010

Happy Veterans Day slide show of Dad

Not a year goes by that I don't swell with pride knowing that my father served over 20 years in the U.S. Army, including two tours of duty in Vietnam. This morning I gathered some pictures of him, both in and out of uniform, just to share a bit of him with all of you. Please thank a veteran today and if you don't know one please say a little prayer for the safety of all our soldiers currently serving to protect our freedom. Now, just sit back and enjoy the show! ***Note that as of ???? The slides have disappeared. I will try to manually add pictures.


Monday, November 8, 2010

Thinking about Veterans Day

A note from a fellow veteran on Facebook reminded me about the pride we should all feel knowing that when we signed up for the military we gave them a blank check payable to the United States of America for an amount up to, and including, our life. I'd like to share a few pictures with you this week to commemorate not only my veteran status, but also my father's. To start out, here is a picture of the two of us when I first got to my duty station in Goeppingen, Germany, home of the Big Red One Infantry Division where my dad was stationed at the same time. The story follows the picture. Sorry about the quality, but it was scanned from an already yellowed newspaper article. If you know me then you'll agree that my nose is NOT pointed and long as it appears in the picture. That's actually part of the plaque behind my nose that you're seeing. No, REALLY it IS!!! Oh and btw, yes I did finally learn how to play the guitar and we logged hundreds of kilometers on those Volksmarches!


Sunday, November 7, 2010

Sunday ponderings

Update on my new toy first. I made a couple of feeble attempts at creating my own design and learned a few things. The first one was of my recently departed Wire Fox Terrier and it didn't have enough contrast, ending up just a blob of ink on the page. Who is that, Rorschach but he did the ink blot tests... well this looks kind of like one of those. Then I made a wordart file in MS Word of a scripture in a circle that must've been too small or didn't cook long enough or something because the letters all kind of melted together. Maybe I cooked it too long? Soooo, I tried one of the negatives supplied with the kit and it turned out much better, albeit still not quite what I'd like to see on paper. I scrubbed too hard when cleaning the goop off and the source of the quote fell off. Conclusions:  buy some acrylic stamp ink pads, don't scrub so hard, use a digital timer. I'm not ready to share pictures yet because, well, they're just too embarrassing. Well not really, I don't embarrass easily, but they're jut not worth showing. Am I disappointed and discouraged? No not really, just impatient because I like things to be easy peasy and this has a bigger learning curve than I'm used to.

Today has been rather productive though in spite of my boycott of my new toy for a day. It started out at usual with the dogs not wanting me to sleep in even though Mike so lovingly shut the bedroom doors so they couldn't bother me. Can you spell "dog claws clicking on the laminate floor outside the door?" Well it was time to get up anyway after getting that extra hour.... no wait! He turned all the clocks back before I went to bed so I really didn't get an extra hour, right? RIGHT.... because I stayed up and extra hour based on today's new time! Anyway, on to getting the vitamin trays filled for the week. Easy this time because we didn't run out of anything. You have to understand that in addition to the three little prescription drugs that I take every day I also take a fistful of assorted herbs and vitamins. One of these days I think I'll just stop taking all those extras just to see if I feel any different!

I finally tackled the dresser in the bedroom which was piled high with all kinds of stuff that didn't belong there (kitchen towels that got washed with my clothes, then never made it out of the room; old receipts; broken jewelry; Tupperware container full of stuff that came out of an old purse, and the list goes on...) The bonus is that Mike saw what I was doing and after he finished mowing our huge yard he came inside and cleaned off his dresser too! Isn't he the sweetest husband a gal could ever have?

Oh yeah, I always do my laundry on Sundays, so I got two loads done. Mike does his on Friday nights, then we do miscellaneous laundry if needed on Saturday. I usually do most of the folding when I get in bed while watching some kind of tv show.

We took a nice long walk around the neighborhood minus dogs. It was really quite pleasant unless you count that huffing and puffing while walking uphill. I've got to get in better shape so I can walk up a slight incline without losing my breath. You know they say if you can't talk while walking then you need to slow down, well let me tell you that I definitely could NOT talk!

I spent close to an hour unassembling, gluing and reassembling the bedroom wall clock only to decide it needs a new element. You know, that thing the battery goes in that makes the clock hands turn. They're very simple to replace and I've got one somewhere around here, but couldn't for the life of me find it. So for now it's just wall art!

NOW it's time to get down to my sewing room and whip up a thing or two.

Tootles!

Saturday, November 6, 2010

Amendment to my Saturday plans due to arrival of Teresa Collins Stampmaker!

Ok, so remember what I JUST said I was going to do today? Well scratch part of that because my new toy just arrived! It's a Teresa Collins Stampmaker!!! Yes, Christmas came early around here because I needed it before the holiday season so Emily and I could make our own stamps, embossing folders and stencils. Well I also got 16 new sets of Studio G Christmas stamps also, so am pretty set for Christmas stamps for now. Rather than repost the pics, here's a link to my other blog that has the scoop and will have more later.

Tootles!

Yippee it's Saturday!

What is it about weekends that makes me so happy? It seems that during the week I just keep counting the days until Friday because I know the next day is Saturday. Maybe it's the freedom I feel knowing that I can lounge around in bed all day if I want to, although that never happens unless I'm so sick that I can't move. Could it be the pressures of my job that make me yearn for the freedom of weekends? No, my current job is pretty much pressureless unless you count having to get up early, get dressed for work (fairly casual), drive 10 minutes in to town, park close to the building, sit at a computer all day and then drive home as being pressure I've been pretty much blessed with a good job and great co-workers. Besides that, my weekends are usually full of projects around the house that need to get done, so I'm actually busier at home due to the pressure I put on myself. Maybe that's part of it, I love weekends because my creative spirit has an outlet and there is usually so much more to show for my efforts than what I see during the week. Whatever the reason, I love weekends and look forward to the day I can retire so every day will be like my weekends are now!

So what, you might ask, is on my plate for this weekend? Welllll..... TONS! What will I get done? Who knows? Last night I made eight mini books to sell at the craft show Emily and I are doing on November 27th. Today I need to embellish them and make the ties for keeping them shut. I have about ten more sheets of paper to use to make more. Then I need to make more Thanksgiving cards for my own use and some for our Etsy shop. Oh and I MUST make some gift bags/shopping bags for our sale. We had so much 6 inch tulle left over from Emily's wedding that I'll use that to make simple reusable drawstring bags that are in keeping with our Eco Chique philosophy of reuse, repurpose, recycle! Even the Thanksgiving cards I've made have embellishments made out of cereal boxes. Hmmm, I wonder if using up my stash for those mini books counts as repurposing if the original intent of the paper was scrapbooks? lol!

Ok, so I'd better get busy working on all those weekend projects before the day is gone!
Tootles...