School is back in session

Along my walk route I happened to pass the Valley School. This is an old one room school house.

What's the worst thing you're likely to find in the school cafeteria?   The food.

How do you get straight A's?  By using a ruler

What did you learn in school today?  Not enough, I have to go back tomorrow

And one more before I go....
Why did the clock in the cafeteria run slow?  It always went back four seconds.

Oh what a beautiful morning

I could not have asked for a more perfect day off yesterday. The morning started out at 71 degrees and at 6:30 am I headed up the street for my first walk. This picture makes it look darker than it really was.

I carried my phone with me instead of my good camera simply because it's easier to carry. I can slip it in my pocket and pull it out when I want to take a picture. Boy did I take pictures too. I'm pretty sure I have enough pictures to carry me through the week for blog posts.

When I got back home I started some laundry did a little cleaning up and read some blogs. By 9:30 I was ready for another walk and I took a long one. I reached my goal of 10,000 steps by 10 am.

I actually took a third walk and did a 15 minute work out with  my walking DVD. I was full of pep and even at 6 pm I was still full of energy. It's so nice to not be laying on the couch feeling like I'm 90 years old.

Celebrating and resting

Yesterday was Wade's birthday. His two daughters and their kids came to spend the afternoon with him. We ate, we visited and there was a whole lot of swimming going on.

We also had lots of cake. I made one for him and his daughter also brought one. This one will go to work with him on Monday. I told him he had two choices, eat the whole thing himself or take it to work to share. Otherwise it will sit here and get moldy. I did have one small piece of the cake his daughter brought but that's enough for me. I'm sticking to the diet

As for the resting part. I had to take a day off from the exercise and walking to recuperate from what I'm assuming is an over strained muscle.  Gibbs is resting after spending an afternoon of being chased by 4 little kids and swimming. He now has a new appreciation for living with old boring people. Seriously though, he did enjoy himself and was a very good boy for not being used to being around little ones.

Chewing the fat

Hey everyone, how would you like to chew the fat with me today?

Well I don't really have any fat to chew but I do have a tasty busy bone to chew on. I'll let you nibble on the one end if you like

This is kind of an old picture of me but it's a pretty cute one don't you think? Personally I think I look cute all the time.

Yesterday when mom got home from work she took me out for a walk. I was all excited about going but I didn't know how darn hot it was going to be. On the way back home I walked up in the grass by some trees and layed down for a bit. That cool grass sure did feel good on the old belly. Mom thought it was funny but I wasn't laughing.

Well it was nice chattin' with you today.

Fitness takes time

Now that I've been working on getting healthier I've discovered that it takes up a lot of time. When I get home from work aside from the normal things I need to do I also have to work a walk in. That doesn't always leave much time for blogging. That's my excuse for not posting again yesterday.

I'm really liking my fitbit. I love how I can check my progress on my phone and it's really got me motivated to keep moving. Yesterday I got home from work and I was tired and just wanted to lay on the couch. I knew I hadn't hit my goal of 10,000 steps yet so I got my butt moving and went out and took a walk to reach my goal.

With the fitbit it even sends you a weekly  progress report. It's interesting to see how much I really did during the week. This is a screenshot of the email they sent.

The sleep tracking is pretty interesting too. It tells me what time I went to bed, how long it took me to fall asleep and how many times and for how long I was awake during the night or was restless.

This could be me

It's actually my calcium tablet I take at bedtime but close enough.

Fotojet

A while back I was contacted and asked to check out a photo editing site and provide a review. I felt kind of bad because I was in the middle of trying to get ready for the craft show and I just didn't have the time to sit down and play.

I finally found a bit of free time and got to check it out a bit. The site is called Fotojet.com 

You can create a collage with many different templates to choose from

You can create a poster, card or social media header

And naturally you can easily edit your photos. 

There are several options that are for registered users only but registration is free and easy signing up with either an email address or your facebook account.

I liked the easy one click options available as well as the option to add text or clipart. All in all I would say that Fotojet is worth the visit. The only thing I was disappointed that they didn't have was the ability to add textures to your photos.

Grab yourself a photo or two and hop on over to Fotojet and check it out for yourself

A visit

Saturday morning I headed out to do my weekly errands. It was a beautiful morning as I headed down the road. As I approached the cemetery where my dad is buried I stopped in the middle of the road (since no other cars were around) and took a picture looking up the hill.

This is a rather small cemetery and the section in the front by the road is pretty old. I've never walked through to see just how old some of those headstones are but you can tell by looking at them that they're quite old.

Since it's been a while since I've stopped and I wasn't in any big hurry I pulled in and drove up to the back of the second section.  The back side of the headstone has his last name on it so it makes it easy to spot from the road.

 I've always liked the view from here.

Saturday

I had nothing so you get the Bay City Rollers. OMG those hairstyles kill me.

Funny Friday.

Today it's just some things I thought were funny.

It is bad luck to fall out of a thirteenth story window on Friday.
- American Proverb

 One Friday a traffic policeman stops a Maisie and asks to see her driving licence.
'Lady, it says here that you should be wearing glasses when driving.'
'Well,' replies Maisie, 'I have contacts.'
'Lady, I don't care who you know, you're still going to get a ticket.'

Murphy's Law of DIY (Do-It-Yourself )

Any project will require at least two journeys to the hardware shop.
If you need more than one item (pair, four, etc) the probability that one will be damaged or the wrong colour is directly proportional to the desire or need of the object.
You always need more paint.
You never have enough nails, screws or glue.
The likelihood that you will complete a weekend project before the end of the weekend decreases with when you actually start the project.
Therefore: Any plumbing project started after 4pm on Sunday will require an emergency call to the plumber to get the water running again.
To estimate the amount of time needed to complete a project: estimate the amount of time needed, multiply by two and use the next highest unit. Hence: A one hour task will take at least two days to complete.

At work

The other day at work I walked over in to the produce room and found the produce lady sweeping on the job.

Next I saw this cart with empty boxes on it. There was a melon box there and it got me to wondering.

I came to the conclusion that melons get married in churches because they cantaloupe (can't elope)

OK you've gotten your groans in for the day so I'm done now.

Getting a bit fit

And now I'm doing it with fitbit. I had an activity tracker but I've been wanting a fitbit and since this was reduced to $59 (down from $99) I decided to treat myself.
It's just the empty box since it's already on my wrist. I tried to take a picture of it on my wrist but it wasn't a very attractive looking picture. Not that this one is but you get the idea.

For those of you that commented  yesterday that I didn't need to lose any weight, I do thank you but according to the charts I am overweight. I'm not looking to turn in to stick thin super model but I do want to get my weight in to a healthy range. I've already lost 10 pounds so far and another 10 pounds will put me where I need to be.

I've been drinking my slimfast shakes, making smart choices for dinner and snacks and getting plenty of exercise. I found an alternative to going outside to walk for those days when weather doesn't permit. I bought this DVD and let me tell you it's a workout but so easy to follow along with.

She has several DVDs out and she's pretty awesome. This is all pretty much walking in place with a little bit of other moves added in. In 15 minutes you walk the equivalent of 1 mile.

The best part of all this is that I'm feeling less aches and pains and my energy level is up.

Now accepting applications

I'm accepting applications for the position of personal manager. I need someone who has experience in negotiating  contracts.

 Once again I am in the position of having to take care of the blog duties when it is clearly not my responsibility. I mean I do have important things of my own to attend to.
Do you know why she couldn't be bothered with blogging today? She was busy exercising.  She's all in to this getting healthy and getting her weight down to where it should be. She says she'll do an update on that soon but I have my doubts about her.
OK, my work here is done, I have a toy to go shake the stuffing out of.

A room with a view

Or a view of the room. After cleaning up my computer/craft room last Monday I had to take a panoramic shot of the room. Believe it or not it's been almost a whole week and it still looks this clean. I obviously haven't done any crafting yet. Once I do it will return to it's usual messy state.

The picture gets a little wonky over on the right hand side of it but you get the idea here. I moved my desk in front of the window so now I can sit in front of the open window and enjoy a breeze (when there is one) The white table which is where I do all my crafting was on the opposite wall and now my sewing machine is there. On the far left in the corner I created a bit of a shelving unit with some of the crates I use for my craft display and with the other crates I have a have another shelving unit in the corner next to my desk (far right which doesn't show up in the shot). So what will I do when I want to do another craft show? I'll either have to buy more crates or unpack all these.

Trump

Don't worry, this isn't going to be a political rant. It has nothing to do with politics at all. It's about what trumps blogging. Yesterday it was napping. Today it's sitting outside reading and enjoying the cooler evening air. Well until the mosquitoes joined me.

The only difference is that I don't have to go to work this morning so I can throw something together quick and this is is, lame as it is.

But hey, I'll throw in a picture today, This is an old picture I found in the files of my hosta flowers

Sorry

There'll be no post today because napping trumps blogging

Sunday

Like I mentioned yesterday, on Sunday I got to the park early so I could get some walking in before we set up for the day.  I took my camera with me and headed for the water.


The morning started out looking iffy with all the dark clouds but the sky was amazing with the sun's rays shining through. This picture really doesn't do it justice.

I was fascinated by the ripples in the water

Right about now I would like to be sitting here and looking out at that water. I'm ready to do some chilling. I've been playing catch up at work and I'm not doing so good. Maybe today I'll get it all done

Andover Craft Show 2016

The moment you've all been waiting for (or not). Let me tell you it was one VERY hot weekend. They changed the size of the spaces and although we kept the same space number everyone was shifted down a bit so the shade we used to have we no longer did. I spent the majority of Saturday in the sun. I left the house at 6:45 am and didn't get home until around 8:30 pm. I was burnt and very tired. Sunday I took advantage of any little bit of shade I could get and tried to avoid the sun

Oh our booth. This is the setup. We changed our look from previous years. We went with black table covers topped with a tan and then burlap. We also added the back curtain which was 2 red tablecloths and a tan sheet. The rug was also a new addition as was the checkout stand located at the front left of the booth

A closer look at some of my items.

I didn't sell one single Angel although plenty people looked at and commented on them. Another booth also had the same type of angel except hers were all glass and had various items used for the body and wings. Hers were $25 each and mine were $7.  My post it note clip boards didn't sell very well either. I thought they would be a great idea and at $3 would have made a nice little gift. I did sell a few plaques and almost all of my paint stick scarecrows.
All in all, money wise, I actually did better than in past years.

On Sunday I got there earlier than I needed to so I could get some walking in before we got started. I took the camera with me and snapped a few pictures while I walked. I'll show you those tomorrow

I guess

I'll have to take care of the blog since obviously some mommy isn't going to do it. She should have been posting to tell you all about her craft show but she's got some lame whiney excuse for why she didn't.

She says that both Saturday and Sunday she was just way too tired. They were both very long, very hot days and when she got home she just wanted to get a shower and go to bed.

Yesterday was her day off so you think she would have gotten around to doing a post but nooooooooo. She unloaded all the stuff from her SUV and then since it was such a disaster she spent ALL day long cleaning and reorganizing her craft room. I'll admit it does look really nice in there now except for the closet. If she keeps the door shut no one will ever know. She says that's the next project. I think the next project should be a walk and a game of fetch.

Now you see him now you don't

After our fun with the hats last Saturday we headed for Presque Isle State Park. We had fun strolling through all the craft booths although there wasn't much variety in what was being sold. I would say the majority of the crafters were jewelry makers.
We didn't go to the beach side but before we left I stopped to take a picture of the water.  I was hoping for some sail boats that weren't too far away. No such luck

When I took this picture that guy was in the way. With the help of photoshop, now you see him

now you don't.

This will be my last post until Monday. I'm not even going to attempt to blog through the weekend. I'll be back on Monday to tell you how the craft show went. Have a wonderful weekend.

Finally

I've been trying for days to get a post up but due to internet data usage I was unable to until today. What a pain in the butt

So any way, last Saturday was a girls days out. My friend Debbie and I went to Discover Presque Isle which is a yearly even held at Presque Isle State Park. They have crafters, food and assorted activities going on on the beaches. I haven't been there in a few years so I thought it would be a fun day.

Before we headed to that we made a stop at Michaels craft store. While we were there we had a little fun with some hats.

Despite the hat Debbie wasn't the least bit witchy.

Too bad you can't see the back of this one. I think it had a spider web on it 

Every girl should have a party hat

With all the laughing we were doing I'm surprised we didn't attract some store employees wondering what we were up to.

I'll try and post again tomorrow but I'll be busy most of the day getting all the last minute stuff done before Saturday morning.

Kind of sort of

I'm kind of back but kind of not. I had a great weekend and barely went near my computer at all. I just enjoyed the weather and the time I spent with a friend and even just hanging around the house.

I don't have anything prepared for today so I pulled a couple of pictures out of the album archives to share.

A cheap dollar store rock that used to be in my garden. I'm pretty sure this one got broken and is long gone.

I don't think I've seen a single lady bug this year. 

This week is going to be pretty busy since this is the last week before the craft show. Our show is this coming weekend (Saturday and Sunday). Aside from working I'll be doing a lot of last minute things to get everything ready. I'll try and post and get around to visit but I can't promise anything. Next week things should get back to normal.