Cards and things

It's December 27th on the calendar but it's already Valentine's Day up in my craft room. My card swap group skipped our December meeting and in January we're swapping Thank You and Valentine cards. I made 16 of each card. Our "rules" are simple: start with good quality
cardstock and add at least 2 elements. For the Thank You card I started with light orange cardstock and then embossed goldenrod cardstock with Cuttlebug's Thank you embossing folder. I added ribbon and a Prima flower and finished with a rhinestone center. Inside I stamped a message.
For the Valentine I used pink cardstock and a couple of different Valentine papers, one from My Little Yellow Bicycle and another from DCWV. I punched a heart border on the top of the Valentine paper and using the Cricut A Child's Year cartridge I cut out the boy and girl valentine silhouettes and then embossed "be my valentine". Before assembling I added some red glitter to the top of the card to emphasize the heart border.

A Child's Year is one of my recent acquisitions. I got it in the after Thanksgiving sale when Cricut cartridges were $30 each. I wasn't really sure about this cartridge, but I've already used it twice.
Yesterday I bought the Calendar Creator cartridge and started making the sample design, an August calendar. I'm thinking it might be useful for my bulletin board.
Debbie got me one of the seasonal cartridges for Christmas, it's got 45 snowflakes, some 3-dimensional. I've seen them used to make room decorations on www.mypinkstamper.com. They might be nice on my Christmas tree next year.

Christmas was very good this year. Considering that my husband is an "anti shopper" I was well taken cared of and he hardly had to set foot in a store. At Thanksgiving my daughter mentioned a gift that she would have gotten me if she had the money and John told her that he would pay for it if she got it. I think everyone forgot about it except Debbie. December 23rd I was dragged to the store to pick out a present for myself so I got a silver chain for a heart that I had ordered. Then on Christmas Eve I got (myself) a gift certificate for a mani-pedi. I also had bought a ring when I was at the QVC store at the Mall of America for John to give me for either our anniversary or Christmas. The surprise present was a Roku, a device to instantly download movies from Netflix or Amazon. Deb and Jim even hooked it up and showed me how it works. So now when there's nothing to watch on tv we can watch a movie or favorite tv show from the past. My mother got lots of presents for her girls (Bed, Bath & Beyond must have had a good year). I got a very cozy red sweatshirt, gadgets, slipper socks, pop-up books and a gift certificate to the spa.
Rocky got a Babble Ball that was intended for Lucky (Deb's cat) but since it was most definitely a dog toy Lucky regifted it to him. He is crazy about this stupid toy. When you bounce it or roll it (or torture it) it talks to you. Rocky chases it around the house until it gets stuck under a piece of furniture and he cries.

Thank goodness our snow is nearly gone. We've discovered that snowmen bring out Rocky's protective instincts. My normally silent dog barks and raises he hackles when he spots snowmen in our neighbor's yards. He's also not sure about men in snowsuits.

For more of my Christmas pictures go to www.nerisews.smugmug.com.

Thanksgiving aftermath

I cannot believe it is only 6:52pm. It feels like midnight.
Dinner was marvelous. We all ate pretty lightly, saving room for all the desserts. Of course we have our purests, those who only eat apple or pumpkin pie, and then those of us who have "Russian Dessert" (oneovich). I did most of the cleanup myself for a change. John will probably come around and clean up after me later. I can barely move now. I have no plans to hit the malls tomorrow. 99% of my shopping is done and the rest can be accomplished online. No need to battle any crowds. Tomorrow morning I will be at my aquacise class at the Y at 8:30. I'll bet that it will be a small class.

Happy Thanksgiving! This is my yummy bird when it came out of the oven. I love preparing Thanksgiving dinner but it sure is a lot of work. Chop, cook, clean, repeat, repeat, repeat etc. The turkey went into the oven at 9:25 and was done at 12:37. While it was cooking I prepared my stuffing/dressing which I cook in my crockpot, the sweet potato streusel casserole, the cheese and cracker platter. The bird was all carved and the roasting pan cleaned and put away by the time Debbie and Jimmy arrived at 2:30. Mom made the giblet gravy (James, that's my secret recipe for gravy!) Right now we're enjoying the cheese and crackers and shrimp and fruit while the main meal finishes cooking. Oh the smells coming from my oven are heavenly!

Here's our menu:
Shrimp cocktail
Goat Brie, Muenster, Cheddar and Tallegio, cream cheese with curried apple chutney with crackers and bagette slices, chips

Fresh fruit

Roast turkey
Gravy (ala Mom)
Cranberry Orange Relish
Jellied Cranberry Sauce
Sweet Potato Casserole
Sausage Stuffing
Mashed Potatoes
Artichoke Casserole
Corn Casserole

Pecan Pie
Apple Pie
Pumpkin Pie
Ice Cream

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

According to the calendar there are 34 days until Christmas but if you were to look at my dining room table and in the corners of my house you would think that Christmas was tomorrow. I spent 2 hours today visiting Christmas Fairs at the Methodist Church, Catholic Church and American Legion. I found some cute earrings at the Methodist Church. They get me in the holiday mood.
My Christmas shopping is just about done and today I spent a couple of hours wrapping and organizing my packages into groups. I have stuff for my family (I just remembered there are a few boxes for my husband hidden in the closet), stuff for the family my club has "adopted" for this year, gifts for Secret Santa exchanges, Christmas parties etc, etc. I can almost see the top of my dining table again, which is good because in just 5 days we'll be gathering around the old turkey platter on this table.
I still need to formalize my menu and make my shopping list. I haven't made the cranberry relish yet but I did pick up the cranberries and put them in the freezer when they first hit the markets.
We don't know if we are getting a turkey from Honda this year or not so who knows if we'll have a main course or just all the side dishes? Works for me.
Last night my Local Scrap Shop had part 2 of the Christmas Card Swap. I got some fantastic cards! I posted a few of the cards that I received and two cards that I made (the Joy card and the Snowflake).



The Snowflake was lifted from Christmas Cricut's Easy Card Monday this week. Joy was cut with my Cricut for another card but I didn't like it so I just created this simple card with a new rubber stamp and some embossing powder.

I can't quite get the hang of posting pictures in line with text.

Organizing the Clutter

No matter what I do, clutter just finds me and follows me around. Just ask my mother who faints when she can actually see the top of my kitchen table AFTER I've cleaned!

There's no getting around it. We all have a certain amount of "stuff" that we have to save for future reference. Sentiments from greeting cards, ideas for new projects, passwords, birthdays, and the "safe place you put x". Windows 3.1 (anyone remember that version?) had a nifty cardfile function but that was dropped in subsequent versions (sure, get rid of something that actually worked). For several years now I have used a program called AZZCardfile. I use it to store recipes that friends share online, inspirational things that I refer to, manage lists of various collections, etc. There are also ready made lists that come in very handy (recipes for gifts in a jar). I have seen references to how people use the program in their crafting (lists of Cricut Cartridges, Stickles colors, Rubber Stamps, sources for products. It's a very useful program that you can try for free at www.azzcardfile.com.

Today, I have a few little jobs to do and then the rest of the day will be spent taming the clutter. I think I'll put up a pot of soup in my pressure cooker for dinner. That's a great clutter-buster: clean out the refrigerator and pantry at one time and make a yummy dinner to boot! Got to be ready for the trick or treaters tonight.

New site

I just discovered a new scrapbooking site with tips and videos:
http://www.aboverubiesstudio.com/free-goodies/prizes-and-giveaways/win-it-day-2-a-childs-year-cricut-cartridge/451/

Mall Pictures Posted

I posted (some of my) mall pictures up at www.nerisews.smugmug.com

The Mall Rats take Minnesota - Day 3

Today, being Sunday, the Mall didn't open until 11:00 so we slept in until 8:15. Even then, I was practically comatose until Debbie got out of the shower watching tv news. We went down to breakfast and had to wait for a table amidst some avid Vikings fans. Deb was in charge of finding a table while I made us waffles. After breakfast I confirmed our reservations for tomorrow and then we caught the 11:00 shuttle to the Mall.

Debbie had been asking me to give her ideas of what to get me for Christmas. Over breakfast I told her that I could use a waterproof watch so our first stop this morning was Swatch. Apparently ALL Swatch watches are waterproof! It was hard to settle on just one design. There might be more than one Swatch in my future. After Swatch we went into QVC where I found a ring that I just knew John would like to get me for Christmas. As I was looking around I realized that I neglected to put on my makeup this morning so we decided that our next stop would be Bare Escentuals for makeovers. The gal who helped Debbie yesterday wasn't there but they had lots of willing salespeople to play with our faces. They weren't very busy so I didn't feel too bad and once they found out that we were here celebrating Debbie's birthday we got some great deals. We both left there looking fantastic and ready for lunch at Tucci Benucch. This time there was no waiting for a table. We ordered a roasted mushroom and sun-dried tomato white pizza and Baked Spaghetti. We each ordered a different sauce for the baked spaghetti (which we split). I had a vodka rose sauce and Debbie had meat sauce. Both were delicious. The pizza crust was about as thin as I've ever had. It was not great. We were too stuffed for dessert.

After lunch we decided to separate for 2 hours to do some solo shopping. We were going to meet up at the movie theaters at 4:30. I did some handbag fondling and then found myself up on the 2nd floor at Yankee Candle where I found perfect $10 gifts. I took a look down at what was going on on the first floor and found the perfect Christmas present for a very hard to buy for person. I called Deb to tell her what I saw and then headed downstairs. Can't write about the rest or I'll spoil a surprise. We still had an hour to kill and no more shopping to do so we sat in the Nickelodeon Universe watching the kids on the rides. The one ride Debbie let me ride was the elevator up to the 4th floor to go to a movie. BTW, "The History of Lying" is a good movie to miss. We were sitting in comfortable seats and were off our feet for 2 hours but that's about the best we could say for it. The movie got out at 6:15 and we headed down on floor to Johnny Rockets for hamburgers and a chocolate shake for dinner. When we started out on Friday we each put $120 in a "kitty" that paid for everything except our individual shopping. We had to kick in another $2 each but we have enough money left to buy a bottle of water for the flight home. Perfect! We ate and then headed down to the entrance to catch our shuttle back across the street to our hotel. We arranged for our shuttle to the airport and then went upstairs and FILLED our empty suitcase with our purchases.

Mall Rats - Day 2

We woke up at 7:30 and eased into Day 2 of our Attack on the Great Mall. We fortified ourselves with breakfast in the hotel lobby...fresh waffles, bagels, bacon/egg/cheese biscuits, juice and coffee. We were ready in time to hop on the first bus of the day over to the Mall at 10:00. Today I decided to invest $5 in a locker and at least not have to wear or carry my jacket. It turned out to be a very wise decision. Today we tackled the first floor of the Mall. First thing I discovered was the Mall of America store. I bought a half priced tee shirt and a thimble. Then we stopped at Bath and Body Works and did some damage. Went back to the locker and stashed our bags. Next stop was Build-a-Bear Workshop where I made not one, but two bears. One bear was a limited time promotion for this weekend only and was half price. I'm a sucker for a sale. That bear was for me. It took quite a while to get the bears stuffed (complete with beating hearts) and then fluffed and dressed. Back to the locker to stash one bear and take home box. I decided to carry my bear around and take pictures of him/her in various locations around the mall.
Debbie did some shopping in Bare Escentuals and I told her to pick out some things that she would like for Christmas and then I would go back and buy them later. That worked out well, too. And while I was there the bear got a makeover and posed for a picture.
We had lunch at Magic Pan Creperie (a traditional chicken divan crepe, a pizza crepe and a crepe suzette). Delicious! We checked out Tucci Benuche for dinner. Went to the Barbie store (a real letdown compared to the American Girl Store) and then went to the Aquarium. It was fascinating to walk through an underground tunnel with fish swimming alongside and overhead. After the aquarium we continued our tour of the first floor and then went upstairs for another bubble tea. When we placed our order we were told that they had run out of the tapioca pearls and would have more in 20 minutes. We didn't want to substitute the fruit jells so we sat at the end of the counter and waited. And waited. AND WAITED. It was good to be off our feet and relaxing for 37 minutes. Debbie wanted exactly the same drink that we had yesterday but I ordered a spicy chai shake with pearls and tangerine flavoring. It was delicious. After we got our tea we had to go back down to the first floor and finished our circuit. So, in 2 days we covered all four floors of the mall. Now it's time to return to some places that we needed to explore further. I went back to the bead store and bought some beads with a necklace in mind. We tried on slippers in the Alpaca store but didn't buy anything because they just didn't feel right. Somehow the hours just flew by. At 8:00, we were ready for dinner so we went over to Tucci Benuche only to find the wait was going to be almost 90 minutes. Instead, we went up to Cantina #1 where we had to wait a mere half hour. We had some chips and guacamole, chicken enchiladas and a chicken tortilla casserole. Unlike last night we barely made a dent on our dinners. We were finished just in time to dash for the 9:00 bus. We spent 11 hours at the mall!

Shop Til You Drop - Day 1

This morning I woke up at 3:45, a full hour before my alarm went off. At 4:30 I figured I wasn't going to fall back asleep so I got up and showered, dressed and took Rocky out before waking Debbie at 5:00. We were on our way to the airport at 5:15.

By the time we got to the airport, the drizzle that we had at home had become a mix of rain and snow. I just love sitting on a plane when they spray with deicer. It's almost as much fun as having a screaming infant in the row behind you.

We arrived in Minnesota at 10:00 CDT and miraculously our bag (we stuffed our carry-on bags in one big suitcase that we checked) was waiting on the carousel when we reached baggage claim. We were at our hotel at 10:30 and at the Mall of American at 11:05. Now, when we go mall exploring there are certain rules...We started at the top (well, in this case we went to the 3rd floor first). We walk the entire floor, including down all the side "streets".
The first thing that caught our attention was the amusement park in the center of the mall. As we went up the escalator we got a different view of the many roller coasters. It was mind boggling. Our first destination was a restaurant called "Noodles" for lunch. I had Japanese udon noodles with grilled steak and Debbie had penne pasta with a rosa sauce and grilled chicken. It was very tasty and just enough to fill the void and get us ready to shop til we dropped. We continued walking around the 3rd floor making note of places we would go back to. We shared a Bubble Tea, watched some mall cops (and dog) in action. It didn't take us long to get the lay of the land. We found some really neat shops (a bead shop, Archivers scrapbook shop, lots of game stores, as well as the standards found everywhere, but a little bigger and more stocked than our local versions).

We headed down to the 2nd floor and continued our circuit. Rule #2...you can look across the floor, but you can't peek over the railing to the shops on the lower level. It was very hard to do on the 2nd floor. Big surprise of the day was Debbie's reaction to the American Girl Store. She never had an American Girl Doll but she was completely captivated by the dolls, the furniture and the beauty parlor for dolls. Who'd have guessed?

We checked out the movies for future reference. We had dinner at Bubba Gump's. We had a coupon for a free appetizer if we ordered 2 entrees so we ordered a ton of food and ate it all. We had an assortment of shrimp, trout stuffed with crabmeat and an artichoke and spinach appetizer with chips. Then we ran to catch the van back across the street to our hotel.

Now we're in bed watching Monk and luxuriating in the five pillows and an entire queen size bed for each of us.

Catching Up

Catching Up


October 12, 2009.
I totally missed writing about our amazing trip to Montana. If only I could find the flashdrive that I kept my trip journal on. I would go back there in a heartbeat. Not too sure I’d be able to survive their winters but the summer is stunning. When I was away I borrowed our office netbook to keep in touch and keep my journal. I liked the light weight and the keyboard but the 8.9” screen was a little too small for me. When I got home I succumbed to the temptation on HSN and ordered an Acer Aspire 1 with an 11.2” screen. Much better. It also has a full size keyboard. About the only thing it doesn’t have is a cd/dvd drive. So far it hasn’t been a problem. It even comes with a built in web cam. Don’t ask me how to use it.
My Kindle was wonderful on vacation and I really love it. I have read a lot of books in the less than 2 months that I’ve had it, including The Lost Code by Dan Brown. Next up is Diana Gabaldon’s newest book, An Echo in the Bones. Can’t wait to see what Claire and Jamie are up to. When we last heard from them it was the dawn of the American Revolution and I think they were in West Virginia (or was it one of the Carolina’s?) At any rate, it will be a pleasure not to have to lug a 3” thick book around with me. I’ve also been reading some Beacon Street Girls books which were recommended by the 10 year old I mentor. I’m enjoying them very much.
Since we’ve been back I participated in a Christmas Card Swap at the Scrapbook Clubhouse in Westbrook. I went home with a great assortment of cards and signed up for an “All Purpose” card swap later this month. I signed up to make sympathy cards and I finished 16 cards this weekend. I might not be able to attend the card swap party if John and I really go away for the weekend to celebrate our anniversary. It would be our first overnight trip with Rocky. We might head up to Acadia National Park in Maine.
But, before that happens, this weekend is Diane and Debbie hit The Mall of America. The MOA is a gigantic shopping destination in Bloomington, MN. Yeah, we’re flying 2000 miles to be Mall Rats. Our flight leaves Friday morning at 8:00. To make our flight we have to leave home around 5:00 am so Debbie is sleeping over Thursday night and Friday morning we’ll roll out of bed and drive to Windsor Locks. We land in Minnesota around 10:00 CDT and we’ll be at the Mall before lunchtime. Debbie is in charge of what we do once we arrive. The trip is my birthday gift to her.
Yesterday we celebrated Debbie’s birthday at Outback Steakhouse.
I've been consistent about working out at the Y (though, now that it's getting colder and darker it's harder to get up and out and face the thought of getting in the pool, but I'm really enjoying the Aquacise classes. I try to get there at least 3 times a week, sometimes more. There's such a difference between the morning class and the evening class. The water is usually warm, the showers are hot, the sauna is fantastic and the ladies are friendly.

I have a lot of catching up to do! Our trip to Montana was wonderful. The weather was perfect and we traveled 1400 from Helena to Yellowstone, back to Helena, up to Glacier National Park, down to Great Falls and then back to Helena. Hardly saw another car on the road. I did see a BEAR on the road, though, in Glacier National Park! Our wildlife sightings were pretty sparse though because the weather was so darn hot. We saw deer, antelope, bears, moose, mountain goats, big horn sheep, Columbian ground squirrels, elk, cows, horses and camels...yes, CAMELS. The people we came in contact with were very friendly and all in all it was a 4 thumbs up vacation.
Pictures are posted at www.nerisews.smugmug.com

The next excitement is the September 24th launch on HSN of the Provo Craft Gypsy. This is my next "gotta have it". I also became a follower of a new blog at www.cuttingabove.blogspot.com. They are giving away 2 Gypsies on October 3rd.

What's in a name?

Here's our good looking birthday boy trying to pretend to be thrilled over a ball of yarn and a "Teach Yourself to Crochet" kit when what he really had his heart set on was a CROQUET set. We didn't make him suffer very long before we brought in his real present, the wished for croquet set. We went out to lunch for lobster rolls, steamers, fried clams and a lobster pie and had homemade strawberry pie for dessert. It's still hot. The idea of a glacier is very appealing right now.




On the crafting front, I am almost finished making my 16 Christmas cards for the swap at my local scrap shop. I just have 4 more cards to put together but I'm waiting for the paper that I found on ebay. I thought that working on Christmas cards during a heat wave in August would help cool things down a bit. Isn't my little Santa cute?

I finished reading Twenty Wishes last night. I'd like to read the next volume right away but I have several other books queued up on my Kindle that I could tackle first. I had the Kindle with me the other day when I went into a bookstore. I browsed the titles and when I saw something that interested me I just pulled out the Kindle and found it online and bam, it was downloaded into my library. Very handy. I also have enough paperbacks stacked everywhere in my house to last me several years. I just can't seem to resist bookstores and books.

Montana in 5 more days!

We are getting down to the wire with our trip to Montana just 5 days away. I'm busy doing laundry and thinking about what we'll (I'll) need to pack. I'm all into packing light and I only want to check 1 bag but I know from our experience a few years ago that we can expect frosty mornings so jackets and sweaters are a must. I stopped at AAA and picked up the Montana Tour Book and map yesterday and some candy for the plane/car.

My Kindle arrived on Thursday and I love it. I've already finished one book and I'm deep into a 2nd (Twenty Wishes by Debbie Macomber). I have several books downloaded and ready to go. I was up until midnight last night reading and then read for another hour this morning before starting the laundry. I really have other things I should be doing.

What I'm working on: Technique Swap for MemoryMakingCrafts - I need to make 11 identical 8 x 8 pages of a single technique. Deadline is September 20th.
Christmas Card Swap - I need to make 16 identical cards for a swap at my Local Scrap Shop. I already ran out of the patterned paper I'm using but found a supply on ebay.
I started knitting my 2nd sock on Monday.

A Word about my Blog Photo

The picture of my husband and me on the front page of my blog was taken by my brother, James, last October 22nd while we were visiting with him in China. The day began with an early morning private sail up the Li River with the beautiful Karst Mountains as our backdrop. It was breathtaking. We stopped for breakfast in a little village and then rode back to our hotel. When this photo was taken we were on a very adventurous bamboo raft ride from Yangshuo to a market village down river. Unfortunately our raft was not licensed to carry paying passengers so whenever the police launch came into view we were unceremoniously hustled off the raft and left to walk in the scorching heat. It was a memorable experience as it entailed walking past a herd of water buffalo. It was also our 21st wedding anniversary. By the time we got to the market I was suffering from heat exhaustion and had to leave as soon as I got my first whiff of whatever was being cooked. This experience pales though in comparison to our adventures in Longji. But that's for another time.

Back to my first post

I just read back through my posts and I just know that you're dying to know what happened to the socks I was knitting. I had to rip out the 2nd sock when I was about 4" into the leg part. Somehow I screwed up and had too many stitches and then I dropped a stitch and it became a huge mess and I just had to pull out the needles and unwind the yarn. And I haven't sat down to cast on the 60 stitches and start over. I wound up wearing the single sock the other day at work because it was freezing. I WILL get back to my sock. It will give me something to do with my hands on the airplane.

Chick Trip

Mall of America here we come! Debbie has always wanted to go to the MOA and this year, for her birthday I am whisking her away to Minnesota for 4 days and 3 nights of shop til we drop. I made the reservations and Debbie is going to plan our days. We're going October 16-19 so we can do some serious Christmas shopping. Hope there's a UPS Store in the mall. This new checked luggage charge on the airlines is a real downer. On the one hand you want to travel with just carry-on luggage but then you need to think about what you're going to do with any purchases. A UPS Store would be a great solution.

If anyone has been to the Mall of America and has some strategy tips for how to make the most of our three days PLEASE leave me a comment.

Oh Yum!

For what seems like ages I have driven past a sign for the Madison Chocolatier on Rt. 1 in Madison, CT. The sign advertised gelato which evokes very fond memories of Bellagio, Italy, 1989. Well, at long last the stars all aligned and I found myself on the right side of the road at the right time of day and I stepped into this tiny shoppe that immediately put a smile on my face. My nostrils were assailed with the intoxicating scent of CHOCOLATE. My eyes were drawn to the showcase filled with chocolates, tarts and cakes that immediately added 3 inches to each hip but somehow I didn't care. I was on a mission. I approached the gelato case and an adorable young girl asked me what I would like. She offered me tastes of any or all of the dozen flavors. I sampled Raspberry Chocolate Flake. Delicious. I really couldn't decide. They didn't have my all time favorite gelato flavor: hazelnut. So I asked the sweet young thing to decide for me. She said she could put a little of each flavor into my cup, so that's what I had. The gelato is served in a little plastic cup with a little plastic shovel as a spoon.

Then today, I satisfied another culinary urge: a hot lobster roll at the Lobster Landing on Commerce Street right here in Clinton. The cafeteria ladies at school had urged me to stop by and taste the best lobster roll I had ever eaten. So simple. Pure lobster, cooked to perfection, stuffed into a toasted roll and doused with a generous portion of melted butter. We sat at a white plastic table alongside the town harbor and savored each succulent mouthful. Now, remind me why I thought that cold lobster with mayonnaise on a buttered roll was perfection.
OK...I have a clue. It all has to do with the butter and my dad. Dad had a "thing" about butter. We never knew exactly why, but nothing that even looked like butter ever passed my dad's lips. So of course, when my parents went to Maine and discovered the joys of lobster rolls they would have gravitated to the cold rolls with mayonnaise instead of the hot rolls with melted butter. They passed this joy on to the younger generation and we never knew what we were missing. Can I love them both?

And, while we're on the subject of food, I just saw the new movie, Julie & Julia on Friday with Debbie. We both loved it. Meryl Streep was amazing. Makes you want to go out and pick up a copy of "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" and sharpen your knives. Go see it.

Traveling

Well, I guess it's really summer. We have just made our vacation plans and leave in three weeks for 10 days in Montana. Why Montana? Good question. Apparently, three years ago when we did our Great National Park Adventure, traveling from Utah through part of Idaho, Wyoming and South Dakota John got it into his head that we were going to Montana. We did, technically, when we drove through the Roosevelt Arch into Gardiner, MT while we were staying at Mammoth Hot Springs. We even had a huckleberry ice cream cone there. But John felt cheated. So he's been talking about going to Montana ever since. What does he want to do while we're there? He has no idea. We're going to use Helena as our base and MIGHT drive down to Yellowstone just for a day and then explore around Helena before heading up to Glacier National Park for 3 nights. After that we will go where the spirit moves us (at least right now) depending on the weather.

To be fair, I don't mind going to Montana. I'm really quite excited about seeing the Rocky Mountains and the plains. I've been reading some books that take place in Montana and it will be nice to have some images in my head about what this part of the country is really like. I don't think it's like Connecticut.

I've already started a list of scrapbooking stores in Montana that may be along our routes. I'm planning my layouts of our trip already. I'm hoping that we will get to see some wildlife (a bear would be so cool! We never did see any in Grand Teton or Yellowstone.)

NE Scrapbook Friends

On Saturday I went up to South Windsor to have a cookout with three members of NE Scrapbook Friends, an online scrapbook group that I belong to. The occasion was a visit by the list co-owner, Joann, from Pennsylvania. I had never met Joann before so I joined the party and we spent a delicious afternoon together enjoying hot dogs, hamburgers, chicken, salads, desserts, and all sorts of munchies. Doreen and her daughter Lynn Marie are really great people. I had met them both up in Point Sebago, ME in May but had never been to Doreen's house before. She has a beautiful home and a very neat, organized scrap room. Boy, what I could do to that room in 30 minutes! So, here we are in Doreen's yard: me, Joann, Lynn Marie and Doreen. Oh, and Sage.

Here Kitty Kitty

That was no ordinary cat that Rocky chased to our neighbor's woodpile last night when I took him out for his before-bedtime potty break. Rocky got to the woodpile and stopped dead in his tracks, gave a little whimper and backed up rubbing his face on the grass. Even though I didn't smell it immediately, I knew what happened. That was no cat. Rocky had his first run-in with a skunk. I kept him outside (and away from me) and hollered for John to bring me the big bottle of vinegar. What did he bring? a $20 bottle of balsamic vinegar! I left him outside with the dog and got the 2 gallon bottle of white vinegar that I bought for God knows what reason (skunk encounters, I guess) and proceeded to baptize Rocky with it. It worked! It really neutralized the skunk aroma immediately. I let Rocky inside and put him in his crate while he dried off.

Unfortunately I don't think he learned anything from his experience. Today he cautiously made his way over to the woodpile and checked out the area. I'd better keep the vinegar by the back door.

A new venture?

I just finished making a prototype for an insulin pump pouch for the granddaughter of a friend of my mother. They're not difficult to make, and already I can see some possibilities for personalizing them. It would be interesting to see if I can find a market for them. This pouch features a velcro closure and an adjustable elastic waist strap. There's no reason it couldn't be used for other applications, like coin/key purse for latchkey kids. It's soft enough to be worn under clothes without chafing.

My sewing orders seem to come in clumps. I can go for a long spell without any orders and then, all of a sudden, I have several orders going at the same time. I am currently working on some patches, the insulin pump pouches and a special quilt. I know that as we get nearer to Christmas I can count on a bunch of sweatshirts to embroider and one or two quilts. I'm hoping to finish the patches by Monday so I can deliver them on Tuesday.

It looks like summer is here this weekend. Finally we have some sunny weather and warm temperatures. I took Rocky for a walk around the block and we stopped at a tag sale. I spied some stuffed animals and Rocky took a liking to a stuffed frog that my neighbor bought for him. It was cute to see him walk the rest of the way home with the frog in his mouth. He was so proud.

Thursday night we lost two BIG limbs on a maple tree out back. We were very lucky. Fortunately our neighbor had gone to the grocery store for a few minutes just before the branches crashed to the ground so they missed landing on his car. They also missed taking down the power lines. I called the arborist about taking down the rest of the tree, but so far he has not stopped by so today John and our neighbor cleaned up the two limbs themselves. John is going to be tired tonight!

I'd write more, but my fuzzy buddy has his head in my lap and is telling me it's time to go out.

Milestone

July 14th was the 25th anniversary of John and Diane (not our wedding anniversary, but the day we met). And, yes, we celebrated. We went out to dinner at one of John's favorite Italian restaurants. Tomorrow is John's birthday (in a manner of speaking, I was an early birthday present for him 25 years ago when we were fixed up by a mutual friend) so tonight we went out to eat (again) because tomorrow night I have my aquacise class. We have a favorite "go-to" restaurant where the food is always reliable, satisfying and priced right. You can get a sandwich or a steak dinner and breakfast any time of day and they make the best fried scallops around.

My Lia Sophia order finally arrived with only a few items backordered. I got quite a haul for myself. Now to go through it all. If I keep it in those little blue boxes I'll never remember what all I have, besides, the jewelry is too pretty to hide in boxes and drawers.

Grilled Pizza

I love my new work schedule. With mandatory furlough days for town employees falling on many Mondays this year I changed my part-time schedule from Monday, Tuesday, Thursday (days that had been requested by my supervisor when she hired me 6 years ago) to Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, so now I have a 4-day weekend every week. I really love my Mondays. Today I had an 8:30 appointment for routine bloodwork (fasting) after which I took myself out to breakfast at my favorite spot and then went to Wal-Mart to poke around. I guess it's been a couple of weeks since I've been to that Wal-Mart and in that time they've begun a major renovation that has the entire store turned upside down. It was very chaotic and unsettling, which just goes to show that I can be tolerant of chaos of my own making but I am bothered by chaos that I can't control. I was very glad to pay for my purchases and GET OUT OF THERE!

Hooray! My Lia Sophia order has finally shipped. At least I now have a tracking number. I don't know where it ships from but hopefully it will be in my hands by the end of the week.

The rest of my day was spent sorting through stuff in my studio. I literally had about a 2" square work surface to make John's birthday card because things have gotten so out of hand. While I worked I watched disc 2 of Planet Earth from Netflix. I still have a lot more work to do, and I guess it's going to be a neverending project. A few weeks ago I bought a 12 x 12 expanding file with colored tabs. I don't know if they intended it for this, but I have sorted my loose paper into color groups by the tabs. Now I have a place to put those partial sheets of paper after I use my Cricut (or Pazzles Inspiration, which I AM going to start using).

Dinner tonight was a cookout. I made shish kebab and a grilled pizza. I never believed that you could grill pizza dough without making a gawdawful mess, but I stand corrected. The crust got a little charred but the finished pizza was pleasantly crunchy and chewy. I used pizza dough from the grocery store, leftover Classico tomato basil sauce, carmelized onion and mushroom and pizza cheese. The actual grilling time was about 2-3 minutes each side. It was good. I would do it again.

My GPS bit the dust. I have a Nextar X3-02 and it just stopped charging. I'm looking around for a replacement. I've actually been pretty satisfied with the Nextar. It's got the text to speech feature which makes me laugh when the voice gets abbreviations screwed up. Of course, I wasn't too happy when the GPS routed me through the Lincoln Tunnel driving from VA to CT and then lost me in Manhattan because the tall buildings prevented me from getting a satellite signal. It seems that all GPS systems have pros and cons. If anyone is reading this and you have a GPS that you love, I'd like to hear from you.

And what about Kindle...Naturally, my brother has one. He has everything. I've been looking at Kindle and the Sony e-Book (they're now the same price). But then, there's a free Kindle app for my i-touch which I downloaded, along with a few free books. I think the Kindle app is a barebones reader where you miss out on a lot of the features of the regular Kindle (like the dictionary), but using the i-touch version means that I don't have to put yet another device in my purse. I don't find the i-touch screen too small to read comfortably, but it is uncomfortable to have to hold the little device for an extended period. Another difference that I've seen between the Kindle and Sony is that Sony allows you to share your library with up to 5 family members. My house is filled with books. I love books but I'm running out of space to store all the books I have. It sounds incredible to be able to lug around 1,500 volumes in a little device the size of a paperback. But what happens to your "library" when you die? Are you no longer purchasing a book but just a license that allows you, and you alone, to read or use a book for your own enjoyment?

From my Lair

Yesterday I went to the Stamping and Scrapbook Expo in Hartford. I seem to recall overhearing some women talk about it at the Scrapbook Clubhouse last year and they weren't too excited about the show and the vendors but I decided to go anyway and begin collecting stamps for the Summer Passport Shop Hop along the way. The show wasn't bad but the Expo Center was a little over ambitious given the modest number of vendors they attracted. I probably spent about 2 hours going up and down the aisles watching all the demos before I made any purchases. I bought a foiling pen and glitter set, a circle cutter and two punches. Then I went to Wiggles and Giggles for my first passport stamp. I had a coupon to save 20% if I spent more than $10 so I bought a box for my soon to arrive Copic markers, some paper and a Just Rite stamp set that I've been lusting over for about 6 months.

John's birthday is next week so I set to work making him a birthday card based on a design that I saw in a video a week or so ago, but can't remember the location so I was working on memory. The card was based on a tri-fold with a window cut in all three layers and then die cuts were positioned in each window. I wanted birthday candles, a present and balloons with the present attached by a string so it would spin. The card morphed into a pretty good approximation of the card that I remembered...maybe even better, since I added a picture of the birthday boy. I used the foiling pen and glitter, the Just Rite stamper, my Marvy 2" square punch, EK border punch (candles), Fiskars 1 3/4" scalloped circle punch and Cricut Stretch Your Imagination cartridge. Now let's see if I can figure out how to add a picture to my post.



Rocky decided that he wanted to go for a ride in the car today. He jumped into the car and refused to get out.

Friday I did my annual stint as Guest Chef for our summer cooking program for 4th and 5th graders. We made Scrambled Egg Nests, Blueberry Muffins and Mango Lassis (which the kids loved). I was really surprised at how well everything went. There was one child with a nut allergy so I was careful to select recipes that did not have any nuts in them. We did a side by side comparison between King Arthur flour and store brand flour when we made the muffins.

Is this really JULY?

We have been having a very unseasonable summer. Lots of rain and thunder storms and beautiful rainbows and not much in the way of warmth. We had at least 3 different storms come through today interspersed with periods of sunshine. We had one thunderstorm that lasted close to an hour and I was surprised that our power didn't go out at work. The cracks of thunder sounded like they were right around our building and the rain came down in torrents. When I went home at 3:30 Route 1 was closed at the Causeway so I went down to Shore Road and came up Broadway. There was another road block there and they wouldn't let me go down to my street but I could go to the street before mine. As I went up that street I looked through the yards and got a sick feeling when I thought my house was missing but I was looking in the wrong place. My driveway was strewn with fallen tree limbs but my house was intact. I saw immediately that there was no power. Rocky and I went out to the corner where some of my neighbors were gathered and got the low down. Two power lines had been knocked down but police and the electric company were on the scene. I went home, fed Rocky and curled up with a book. The power came back on just before 5:00.

I'm getting ready for my stint as guest chef at our summer cooking program for intermediate school kids. I'll be doing breakfast dishes: blueberry muffins, scrambled egg nests and mango lassies.

What I've been working on: Brought my Cricut to work to day to make a summer bulletin board. I used Paper Doll Dressup to make a string of children dressed in bathing suits and play clothes. I love that cartridge.

What I'm reading: The Rancher Takes a Wife

My first post

I am not a blogger. It's not so much that I have nothing to say, but I keep forgetting to sit down and say it. I also keep forgetting the url for my blog so it's possible that I have several blogs out there on the web with just one entry in them. This time I hope to be a little more organized. I've already written down my url, id and password in "a safe place". Hopefully, the next time I need to go to that "safe place" I will also discover the combination for my old gym lock.

I am Diane. I am many things to many people: a wife to John, mother to Deborah, daughter to Sondra, sister to James, employee to Barbara, friend to many. I have always loved to make things with my hands. I knit, I sew, I embroider, I quilt, I scrapbook, I make cards. I leave behind me all the bits and pieces that these tasks create and that leads to the Chaos that surrounds me. If you ask my mother she will probably tell you that this is my fatal flaw and I have had it all my life. Give me a horizontal surface and 10 minutes and I can create a pile. I have wonderful intentions of taking care of the pile before it becomes a mountain that requires a backhoe to excavate, but unfortunately I usually get sidetracked with another project and that just leads to another pile.

I love "things". I love yarn and paper and thread and fabric and TOOLS. Can't have enough tools. Today was the first time I went into Jo-Ann's with coupons in my hand and came out empty handed! I think I already have everything they have. I still had to look, because I had a coupon for 10% off my entire purchase.

A bad thing happened to me today. I was at a party and I had to move my car to let another guest leave and, in backing up I sort of squashed another person's car. It's the first time I have ever damaged another vehicle in 40 years of driving. And, to make matters worse, the car I squashed belonged to a kid who had already had one car totaled on him and was rear-ended in another accident. Needless to say, he was not a happy camper and I feel terrible. The damage is not major by any means but will require a little body work. I was only going about 2 miles an hour and backed into his left front fender. There's no damage to my car. I exchanged insurance information with him but because of the holiday there's no one answering at the insurance company.

What am I working on right now? I am knitting the 2nd sock of a pair (for me) out of a varigated stretchy cotton yarn. I started the pattern on the sock today and discovered that I'd been reading the directions for the wrong sock so the ribbing at the top of this sock is going to be 2 rows longer than its mate. I can live with that. Yesterday I made a graduation card for my great-nephew's high school graduation and spent a pleasant afternoon reading a romance novel.

I just pre-ordered the latest books by Dan Brown and Diana Gabaldon from Amazon. By the time they arrive I will most likely have forgotten that I already ordered them. I don't think Diana's book will be released until late September. I can't wait to see what will happen to Claire and Jamie in this installment.