Enough

I need for things to clear up around here

And I  am not just talking about the sky

I seem to have let my life escalate into total chaos and disorganization. After spending 10 minutes, not once but twice, trying to find something that I had scribbled on a piece of paper and stashed somewhere on my desk, I have decided enough is enough.
I have got to get things back into some kind of order. That isn't going to happen if I come home from work every night and sit in front of my computer reading blogs. I love reading your blogs, I really do but unless any of you want to volunteer to come and clean up my mess while I read your blog, I have got to take a break from blogland. It really makes me kind of sad  because I love all my friends out there and I'll miss you. I promise it won't be a long one. To be perfectly honest with you I don't even know if I can really do it but I'm sure going to try. I'll be attempting to take a week off from blogging and hopefully come back a more organized and fully refreshed me. So I'll see you all a week from tomorrow (October 7th) or sooner if I can't handle it :)

Scary stuff

I was looking back in my photo files and found the scariest thing.
This was taken on 10/16/09

That's snow on my deck in early October. I'll be praying that this doesn't happen this year. I'm not ready for that stuff.
I WANT MY SUMMER BACK

It's begun

And no matter how hard I might try, there's no stopping it. The autumn colors are arriving.

This isn't the most spectacular display of fall colors but it was the best I could do standing in my back yard.

Yesterday I took an unplanned break from the computer. There was a storm brewing while I was going through my reader and the more intense the thunder and lightning got the more I thought it would be a good idea to just turn the computer off and vegetate in front of the TV. Of course right about that time the TV thought it was a good time for the satellite to lose signal. That's when the brilliant idea of falling asleep early hit me. 

Right now I have several different ideas rolling around in my head. I want to get started on all of them right now. I can't do all of them at once. So which do I do first? Being me, since I can't choose one, I do none. I swear by this weekend I will make a choice. I think I'm going to have a busy weekend though because I still want to do them all.

Those are about all the random boring thought I have for tonight.

UFO

There was UFO sighting here in my little town last night. It flew overhead for approximately 10 minutes before returning to wherever it came from.
I was lucky enough to have my camera handy so that I could document what I saw.

Well it is obvious that it's a helicopter so it's not really unidentifiable but still it kept flying over the yard

It actually landed several times in the back yard and Duke was going crazy. I was afraid for his safety.


It finally landed in the road and I approached it with caution. I could see the pilot and I called out to him but there was no reply.

Finally Wade came over, scooped it up and took it in the house to put it back on it's charger. And so ends another adventure in small town America.

Duke knows all and tells all

Don't go thinking you are going to learn all my deep dark secrets here today. It's not going to happen. That's not what Duke is here to tell you about.
Take it away Duke.

 Hello all my wonderful blog friends. I know so many things that I could tell you today. I think there is only one thing that you really want to know though. You all came here today to find out who won the magnet with my wonderful picture on it. Of course you also came here in hopes of getting to see me so today is  your lucky day. You get both.
There were a total of 26 comments on the giveaway post. Random org says the winner is....

That would be Jerry at As the Crackerhead Crumbles
There were three people who removed themselves from the drawing so that makes 23 comments. That way Random org says the winner is...

which would be Donna from Made in Heaven
I have decided that since mom was offering such a cheapo prize for her giveaway that BOTH of them are going to win. If mom would show me how to use the printer I would make a magnet for all of you. Maybe when I figure out how to do that I will.
Jerry and Donna, send my mom your address and she will put your magnets in the mail.

Maze book

Just a few days ago I read a blog post at It's Molly Smith about her mini maze book album. She had a link to a video showing how to make them and I was instantly fascinated. I knew I had to make one. The inside of the book is made using only one 12 x 12 sheet of paper.
Well last night I sat down and messed up my craft room made one. It's not finished yet because of course it needs something to decorate the front and then all the pages need to be filled. I couldn't wait to post about this though.  It looks pretty plain in this first picture.

Here it is opened up. I stamped on a few pages but that's as far as I got.

These would be great gifts either filled or blank so the recipient can fill it themselves.
Check out Molly's version and then go the video if you want to try one yourself

A Fabulous Friday

I had the day off today and I drove in to Erie (Pennsylvania) and spent some time with my daughter.
I just love the architecture of some of those old buildings.

Amanda forced me to go to Hobby Lobby.  She even encouraged my addiction when we were in the scrapbook paper section by pointing out an all season paper pack and the 50% off sign.  Would that be considered a form of elder abuse?

Like any good mother, I made sure my daughter had a good meal before taking her back home.

While we were waiting to place our order I was looking around for the restroom. Amanda pointed and said they're over there. She sent me to the kitchen. I think she was trying to pay me back for pulling out my camera in the restaurant. Again with the elder abuse. I think next time we go to lunch I'm going to insist on taking her picture with our waitress.

Duke says...

Being the thoughtful and generous Westie that he is he wasn't asking for treats for himself. He said that it was time to give one of you a treat. Duke suggested a giveaway. A very small giveaway but a giveaway non the less.
He wants one of you to have a fridge magnet with his Halloween picture on it.
So what do you have to do to win?
It's simple

1. leave a comment saying you want Duke's face on your fridge
2. be a follower if you aren't already
3. follow us on facebook
4. blog about it
5. do cartwheels across your room because you are so excited about the chance to win
6. send a self addressed stamped envelope with $9.95 to cover the cost of shipping and handeling
7. repeat steps 4-6 and include the line "I love Ann's blog"
8. Send a minimum of 6 friends here who will become loyal and faithful followers
9. Promise to send Duke a bag of bacon flavored treats once a month

Ok so I'm getting carried away. All you really need to do is leave a comment and say you'd like to win. Easy Peasy, Pumpkin Pie.
Duke and I will let you know who won on Sunday.

A visual time out

Going back to work after having time off feels like you're starting at the bottom and working your way to the top all over again.

 A walk on the beach always clears my mind and refreshes my senses.

I couldn't be there physically so I did the next best thing and took a walk through some pictures.

Not really quite the same but it'll have to do.

Hope you enjoyed our walk on the beach even though the water is getting a little cold now.

I could get used to this

I had another day off today and I'm really liking this. Today I cleaned out my car and washed Duke's nose prints off the window. I ran some errands, played on the computer A LOT, got my hair cut and did some shopping.
And Duke...

That's right, Duke napped. He found the whole thing very exhausting. Or maybe it was all that digging he did in the yard that wore him out.

Rainy Day and Monday

Hanging around
Don't see a need to frown
Rainy day and Monday
Didn't get me down
How could one be upset by a Monday or a little rain when one has the day off? It's not possible I tell you.
So what did I do with my rainy Monday?
A little bit of cooking. I had Swiss steak simmering on the stove all day.

I finally finished (almost) cleaning up and organizing my craft rooms
Room 1 with my computer desk. 

I don't know which one of you said it, but NO, that is not a bag of chocolate covered mini donuts with only one donut left in it, sitting on my desk. You should really clean those glasses off. You're starting to see things.

The crochet corner on the left and on the right I moved the shelves I had sitting out in the room into the closet. I tore the shelf and pole out of the closet so I could fit the shelves in there. Now I can close the door and I won't have to see all that stuff. Plus I have more room on the floor now.

Only one picture from craft room 2 because I hate those red walls that are still screaming to be painted. I turned the picture to black and white because I hate those walls that much. I call this my inspiration library.

When we put the floor in the dining room and living room I didn't want this bakers rack back in there. It was still good so I didn't want to throw it away. I tried to give it away but didn't find any takers. It ended up in this room and I made good use of it.

I enjoyed myself so much today that I think I'll take the day off tomorrow too.

Weekends

Weekends don't count unless you spend them doing something completely pointless.  ~Bill Watterson

Of all the days that's in the week
I dearly love but one day
And that's the day that comes betwixt
A Saturday and Monday.
~Henry Carey

Sunday clears away the rust of the whole week.  ~Joseph Addison

There aren't enough days in the weekend.  ~Rod Schmidt

What's the fuss?

What could possibly be causing all the commotion on my street today? Is there a fire somewhere?

Why no, it's the annual fair parade. It goes right by my house. Of course there were marching bands.

Not everyone can say that a smurf rode by their house on horseback and waved at them.

I'm going to work at 4:30 tomorrow morning so it's an early night for me. I may not get around to visiting all of you until tomorrow.

Search Party

I'm conducting a search party. Would l you like to join me?

Mom said that she lost her energy so I'm trying to sniff it out for her. The only problem is I don't really know what it looks like. If you see if before I do will you send it back to her please?

Jack and Jill went up the hill

I don't know Jack or Jill but we all went up the hill yesterday via the steps in the picture. I trust you've all had a chance to catch your breath after the climb. Are you ready to continue?
At the top of the hill you find cute little bridges

and little water falls

The kids all seemed to enjoy playing around the waterfalls.
I think that's going to just about do it for the park. If I had time I would have taken pictures on the lake side but I never did get around to that.
Thankfully tomorrow is Friday and my last day of worrying about the fair. It looks like I survived another year of it.

Beyond the bridge

If you don't mind, I'm going to hang out at the bridge and rest today. You go ahead and take a look at what's on the other side.

Why not take a walk up these steps and get a better view of the pond.

 Tomorrow we'll do a little exploring at the top of the steps. Maybe I'll be rested enough to go with you this time.

Exploring

Now that the hustle and bustle of the craft show is over with I'm in the midst of fair week in our small town. If you've been with me for a while you know that this is a busy time of year for me. Today was a killer and it's only going to get worse as the week goes on.
Since I don't have much energy for anything else I think I'll take  you back to the park where the craft show was and show you around.
Where we were set up we had a view of this all day.

On the other side of that bridge there is a huge duck pond. I'll take you there tomorrow.
I think I told you there were three separate wedding parties that went through here for pictures. They all took pictures at the bridge of course.

It doesn't look like it in this picture but this is a rather steep hill. One of the photographers took her group up this hill and had them standing by these trees.

Come back tomorrow for a little bit more of Lake Shore Park scenes.

One for the money, two for the show

Come on in and shop a while.

Do you see the guy in the back of the booth next to us? He was a talker. Everyone that walked by he greeted with "how are you today". When they asked him the same his answer was "We're trying". Then he went in to his speal about we have a little bit of everything.
Day 1 it rained almost the entire time. Luckily we had tarps for the sides but only needed the one in the back. The rain was coming straight down and wasn't that hard so we were safe. The rain didn't keep people away, there were plenty of shoppers just not a lot of buyers. The rain stopped around 3:00 and we saw 3 separate wedding parties come through for pictures. Tomorrow I'll post some pictures of the park and you'll know why they chose this spot.
Day 2 was much better. The skies threatened us with rain a few times but all in all a beautiful day. You can see in the picture they brought in bales of hay to throw down to help keep the mud down from the day before.
I didn't really sell as much as I had hoped but I did at least cover my share of the cost of the booth with a little left over to hit the craft store with. Like I really need to buy more craft supplies :)
The park this was located in is absolutely beautiful. The people we met were very friendly and the woman who puts this whole thing together really knows what she's doing. This was only the third year for this show and she had almost 100 crafters.
My cards and tags were the biggest sellers. The other things I had seemed to draw some interest but my prices may have been too high. Pricing is something I really need to work on.  I'm not really discouraged about the low sales. I didn't see too many people walking around with things. It seemed to me that most people were just there to look rather than buy.
The funny thing is that my very first sale was for an item that I had considered leaving behind. The picture frame with the dog on it sold in the first half hour of the first day. I rushed when I was making it and it was rather rough looking so I wasn't going to take it. I threw it in the box at the last minute and now I'm glad I did. It was the only frame that sold.
So would I do this again? Sure, it was a great learning experience and it was fun. I can't say I absolutely loved it but it was fun.

Today is the day

I'm typing my post this morning to the sound of gently falling rain and praying that by 9:00 30 miles east of here I will not be hearing the same sound.
This is the day, ready or not. It's also time for me to reveal how close I came to my goal.

Yesterday my friend Debbie and I did our mock display in her living room.
In this first picture you can see the lamps that her husband Bernie makes. The baskets in front have string angels made by Debbie.

The rack in the back corner has glass etched mugs and her mug rugs

Down the other side is where all of my stuff is.

Now that I have my morning coffee in me it's time to go do a final check to make sure I haven't forgotten anything. If you listen real careful you might hear me chanting "Rain rain, go away. Come again another day"