Taking a break

The old woman is taking a blogging break. She says she's got nothing to say. I already knew that but I didn't want to tell her. Any way, I'm sure she won't be gone long. She's gets all teary when she doesn't get any emails so give her a day or two and she'll be back to this instead of feeding me treats and throwing balls.

Short but sweet

I'm having a bit of a problem with juggling all the things I need to do in a day. Therefore today my post is short but sweet. Actually it's sugar free so I suppose it's not sweet at all. Either way this is it.

Enjoy the Hosta blooms

Repost

I've got nothing so I'm reposting something from last year. I hope this doesn't bug you.

Normally my pool is where I find all the beetles but on this particular day they were chowing down at a local eatery

Apparently they liked the cuisine

Did you know that beetles have been around for 270 million years? They can live in any climate and can range in size from microscopic to about 100 grams which is equal to  a little over 3 1/2 pounds.

Smile

Most days when I sit in front of the tv I've got my laptop out and on a lap desk so that it's not heating my legs up. My lap desk was a cheap blue plastic one that had developed a crack that was working it's way to the other side.  When I was in Wal-mart the other day I couldn't resist buying this one

Of course that hello gorgeous goes to all of you as well (handsome for my male readers)

When I went to Michaels I found this clever acorn

I liked the idea but wasn't about to pay $5 (I think) when I knew I could probably make something similar. Instead of buying it I took a picture of it.

Enjoy your day!

She's just plain loco

I tell you my mom is just crazy. The other day I say "Hey mom, do you want to play with me?" and she says what a great idea. I was pretty excited about a game of fetch so I ran off to get my squeeky ball.

When I come back there she is at her computer and she says to me "This was a great idea Gibbs. I've had a lot of fun playing with you"

I meant the REAL me, not a picture of me.

Yesterday

Saturday was hot hot hot and today is supposed to be more of the same. We headed out to do some grocery shopping in the morning and the sun was already shining bright

Wade and Gibbs hit the pool and I went back out to run to the craft store. When I got back home I headed out to the deck to do a little reading. Wade can have the sun in the pool. I'll sit under the umbrella at the table.

I did go out for a bit of a walk and it was a scorcher. I also started one heck of a grease fire in the grill when I was making dinner. That was the big excitement for the day. Too bad I didn't get pictures of it.

Signs

I may have already posted these but they've been sitting in the folder where I keep pictures that are ready to be posted for a very long time. Since I have nothing else for you I'll give you these church signs

I would just like to say....

I'm so happy you stopped by today.  Happy Friday!

The rest of the pack

The other day I showed you the canvas panel that I did but I also said that I bought a pack of three. Today I show you the other two. I did these the same way. I painted the background and then filled in with stickers.

The only thing I didn't like about this pack of stickers was that it had both coffee and tea. I suppose that's ok because there are some people who like both.

Who doesn't like cute little birds.

I started another project the other day but doubt I'll have time to get back to it until the weekend.

Now that's done

Going up. Third floor please

I didn't cancel my appointment and now I can officially say that I have had a mammogram. I'm going to say that they are not anywhere near as scary as I've been lead to believe.  My appointment was for 9 am. They told me to get there at 8:45 to fill out the paper work. I ended up getting there more like 8:35 because it didn't take me as long to get there as I thought it would. I finished with all the info they needed and just sat down and opened my kindle when the door popped open and I got called back. I walked out of there at 8:57 which was 3 minutes BEFORE my scheduled appointment.

This isn't a good picture but on every floor in front of the elevator doors they had these waterfall type fountains that went from the ceiling all the way down the wall.

For something different I opened my feedly on Sunday and the posts that were there made a statement. 

Chloe's Self Reflection. It's Sunday and therefore it is the miracle of the frogs again.

I found that amusing

Canvas

A month or so ago, I went to buy more of the wood plaques and they were out of them. On a whim I purchases a pack of 3 5x7 canvas panels.

All I did with this one was to paint a background and then add stickers.

I ended up doing an edit of this picture and now it's the background picture on my phone. This panel doesn't have any type of hanger on it. I rather liked the way it looked though

Over the top

I needed one more plaque to completely fill my rack and yesterday not only did I finish one but I also did a second one.

Which witch do you like better

One more thing

This may be the last of the craft projects that I complete for this years show. I posted about an angel I made last year here.  

I've had the materials to make more since shortly after that post. Finally after almost a year I got around to making six more of them.

 Since this isn't a very good picture if you want a better look at one of these you can click the link above to take you to the post where I first did one.

These didn't take very long to do but for some reason I kept putting them off. Now they are done and ready to go to the show with me. Only 3 weeks to go now.

Vintage

Today I have 4  very simple plaques. I painted the wood then glued on a vintage poster sized to fit. I believe all images are in the public domain and safe to use. If anyone knows otherwise please let me know.

I could have decorated these up a little but I was going for fast and easy.

At least they'll fill a spot.

This plaque almost hit the garbage. I started by stenciling the deer and tree trunks and it just kept getting worse from there.  The paint was too thin and it ran under the stencil. Then I tried sanding and unfortunately the tree shows through the deer now. Then when I went to do a top coat of mod podge to seal it the ink in the deer ran. I decided to dab brown all over with a sponge and try to camouflage the whole mess. I wouldn't buy it but maybe someone would. The "clean your room" is a magnet. I glued a magnet to the wood that will hold interchangeable chore magnets that I found at the dollar store.

The back of the plaque holds the additional chore magnets

This one I stamped the saying on muslin, glued it to cardstock then glued that to the blue paper. I broke a crayon and glued that on. I liked the idea but it just looks too plain. 

A few more things

Here are a few more plaques I have finished.

I apologize for the blurry pictures. I noticed on these and the ones I posted yesterday they sure aren't very good. Or maybe it's my eyes that aren't so good. If you can't read the yellow one on the bottom it says "Mostly I just sit around all day being fabulous"

Either way, these 4 along with some others I have finished (and will show you another day) brings my total up to 47. I only need one more to fill my rack.

Instead of.

Since this is the last month before we head off to the craft show, instead of waiting till the end of the month to give you my monthly craft report, I'm going to just give you what I make as I make it.

Now, I have quite a few items that have gone through at least one show and haven't sold. My thoughts were to take them and put them in a box marked reduced and sell them really cheap. As I was going through my stuff and deciding what to reduce I had an idea to use some of it to create something new.

I grabbed some rag balls that I was selling for $1 and some grubby candles that I was selling for $2. I also went in to my craft stash and found some baskets, a little wood crate some silk flowers and some moss. Then I started arranging things in baskets.  I did purchase the little scarecrow and squirrel that are in the bottom two pictures. I was at Dollar Tree and thought they were cute and they wouldn't add much cost to the finished basket. The really little basket on the top right just has rag balls and a battery operated candle.

Dissolved

The other day on this post about the vitamins I'm taking Steve from Out on the Prairie left me this comment:


If you put the vitamin in a ounce of vinegar, you can see if it will dissolve in one hour. This is what it would do in your stomach before being pushed through your system.If it doesn't dissolve, then that particular brand won't do much for you.

Well you know I had to try it.

Looks pretty disgusting but now I know that my vitamins dissolve within an hour in the vinegar. Thanks for the info and the fun experiment Steve.

Walk with me

Care to take a walk with me?

I hope you don't mind me looking dorky wearing my white socks with my snazzy walking shoes. I like that extra cushion when I'm walking.

We can walk past the feed mill

This spot caught my eye and it looked pretty cool once I did the edit to it

Down through the park we can stop a bit on the playground if you like

The final stretch past the funeral home. Lets stop to admire some of the pretty flowers they have planted.

Have a splendid Sunday everyone

Part of my daily routine

Aside from the blood pressure monitor that I bought, I've added a few other things to my daily routine.

starting in the front and moving around clockwise

The thing with the black band is an activity tracker. It counts steps, distance and calories burned. On the days that I work I'm getting in 11,000 to 13,000 steps in a day. On my days off it's a struggle to get 10,000. I'll have to work on that one.

Next is the blood pressure monitor. I'm checking it a couple times a day. Usually once in the morning and again in the evening. I'm happy to say that it's been in the normal range.

Slim Fast. Yes, I'm having a slim fast shake for breakfast and lunch, 3 snacks a day and a regular dinner. I'm trying to make healthier choices with that. I'm actually about 15 pounds over weight and would prefer to get that down to the normal range. So far I've lost a couple pounds but I've noticed a big difference in how hungry I am. I'm not craving something to eat constantly. I'm also drinking tons of water.

The last 3 bottles are vitamin D, calcium and a woman's multi vitamin.

All of this started a couple weeks ago and I can not believe the difference in how I feel already. I've never been one to stick with things though so keep  your fingers crossed that I can keep it going.

Something to crow about

Wednesday night we had a glorious rain storm. It messed with the internet connection but the rain was badly needed. Had I started working on scheduling a blog post earlier, there would have been one yesterday but I put it off, the rain came and the internet was spotty at best.

Thursday I had the day off. Since the holiday fell on my regular day off I got another one during the week. He gave me Thursday. I had so much energy and ambition that I made a trip to the store early to pick up some things I needed. When I came home Gibbs and I headed to the park for a walk. Had it not been so hot we may have walked longer but I think he had enough. Then I came home and started cleaning. Boy did I get a lot done. Now come Saturday, I'll have the whole day to play guilt free.

I need to pour on the steam with crafting since it won't be long till craft show time. The one we do is the first weekend in August so there's not much time left.

Oh and the crow, I found that at Hobby Lobby. We've named our joint craft venture Crow Cabin Creations so the crow fit in with our theme. He'll be our booth mascot.

June craft report part 2

Today  I have all the plaques that were made with that chalkboard cardstock. These were simple to do and didn't take up much time. Rather than wire to hang these I chose to use jute twine instead.

There were 2 of each design

On some I painted the background color the same and some got 2 different colors.

I almost didn't use the Let's do this piece. I didn't really care for it. But then I figured just because I don't like it doesn't mean someone else won't. 

I suppose by the same token I could also say that just because I like the others doesn't mean someone else will. I sure hope they do though. At least enough to buy them. Now I have to decide on what price I'm going to charge for these. I was thinking $5

June craft report part 1

After having yesterday off it's back to work today. I would much rather spend another day hanging out around the house doing only the things that I want to do.

On to the June craft report. I've got a total of 6 pictures so rather than load one post with that many, I'm breaking this in to two parts.

I have a total of 18 plaques but only 16 are new ones. I found 2 in with last years craft items. They'll fill a couple slots on the rack though so they're going in to the mix.

The two I found

I found wood football shapes that were already painted at the craft store and I picked a couple up. I figured I should have at least a couple plaques for football fans. Since this is Steeler country I had to go with the yellow and black.

I really liked the way the background on these turned out. I don't know if it was the colors or what but rather than cover too much of it up I went for some words and a few buttons. Oh and as you can see, I've added the please to that one plaque.

See you tomorrow for part 2

Happy 4th of July

All we have of freedom, all we use or know —
This our fathers bought for us long and long ago.
~Rudyard Kipling, The Old Issue, 1899

“Then join hand in hand, brave Americans all! By uniting we stand, by dividing we fall.” – John Dickinson

Wishing everyone a happy and safe 4th of July

Just a couple things

At the suggestion of the nurse practitioner I saw last Monday I bought myself a new gadget. Since she had taken my blood pressure twice while I was there and it was falling in the pre-hypertension range, she suggested I buy either an aneroid monitor or a digital monitor and keep track of my blood pressure. She said to check it a few times a day for a couple weeks. 

After looking at the different ones available I chose the digital wrist monitor. For the first couple days it was still reading in the same range but since then has gone down to normal. I also downloaded a blood pressure tracker for my phone. After I take my blood pressure I just put the numbers into the app and then it keeps track of it all for me. That way when I go to the doctor I can show him what it's been. You can also put in additional information like when you took it, were you seated, standing or lying down, what was the weather  plus any additional notes you might want to make.


Another purchase was made a month or so ago. I found this scrapbook paper stack. It's chalkboard cardstock

There were two sheets in the stack that looked like this

When I saw this I instantly though of my wood plaques and knew this would make 6 quick and easy plaques. Since there were two sheets it really made 12 quick and easy plaques. I cut the page apart, painted the wood plaques and then glued the chalkboard art to the wood.

Tuesday I'll be back with my June craft report

If I never see it again...

...it will be too soon.

Certain commercials tend to grate on your nerves. It may be an annoying jingle, bad acting or just plain ridiculous content. There's one that I see far too often that the spokeswoman just creeps me out.

This is for the legal helpline (or something like that) She's on there talking about different medical issues you can sue for. Her permanently arched eyebrows are bad enough but I swear she NEVER blinks the entire time she's rambling on about whatever.

Numbers

You have to pay attention to the numbers.

The above picture is my windshield and the stickers are for inspection and emissions testing. Notice the numbers. That's May of 2016. That is not the issue date, that is the expiration date. I just realized yesterday morning that I have been driving around for a month with an expired inspection sticker. I called the guy who does my inspection at lunch time and he's squeezing me in today. He's right up the street from work so I'll drop it off in the morning, walk down to work and then walk back up after work and hopefully he'll be done.

I've driven by several cops in the past month, I'm surprised I haven't been pulled over. I guess it helps driving a newer vehicle. They probably don't pay as much attention to it as they would something that's older and maybe not in so good a shape.

As long as we're on the subject of numbers, what's with the calendar now reading July 1st? I can't believe the year is half over already.