Across the border

The Pennsylvania state border that is. My daughter and I went out to eat and we crossed the border into Ohio. I've heard about a place called White Turkey Drive-In for ages. It's been there since 1952 and everyone always raves about it. I've never been there until yesterday.

You can sit at the counter that surrounds this or there is lots of picnic tables set up in the back. We chose to sit out back.

Amanda had the large Marge which is a turkey sandwich with bacon and I had a fish sandwich and onion rings.

Yarrow

A while back I took some pictures while wandering around the yard and one of them was of them yarrow growing in my front yard. I can't rememer who I was talking to but I had said that I would try and remember to get another picture of it when it flowered. Well the other day I finally remembered.

This used to be a huge patch of it but this is all that's left now

Here's a close up of the flowers. I had a hard time getting a good one because of the sun and there was a breeze that kept moving the flower every time I snapped

TGIF

I can't tell you how happy I am that today is Friday. Even if it's another day like yesterday was, at least I have tomorrow off.

Yesterday was one of those days where everyone and everything just annoyed me. As the day went on I just got more annoyed. There was absolutely no reason for it, it's just the way it was. It was nice to get home where it was just me and Gibbs. That is until he started barking at everything that moved outside. There is a kid who rides up and down the street on his bike and every time he goes by Gibbs barks at him. Then there is the rabbit who I'm pretty sure is teasing Gibbs. The other day Gibbs started going crazy, barking non stop. I looked out the window and there in the front yard about 6 feet away from the house was a rabbit. He was totally oblivious to the maniacal barking and sat joyfully eating grass.

He's lucky he's cute because that barking of his drives me nuts.

Old

I'm feeling old and tired so I dug in the archives for some old pictures. These were a couple edits from June of 2017. I remember doing them but forgot all about them. I kinda like them.

It seems like I have one day every week where I come home from work and crash and burn. Last night was my night. I don't mind the coming home and crashing on the couch but I wish it would happen on the same day every week so I could plan for it.

Retirement planning

I figured out what I want to do after I retire. This lady was my inspiration.

Thought for the day

I found this on Pinterest.

So what have I been doing? Sunday I came home from work and was simply wiped out. I lounged around on the couch and took a few naps before bedtime. Yesterday I picked my daughter up from work at noon and gave her a ride to her doctors appointment. We stopped for lunch too. After that it was back home for some more lounging. I seem to be getting really good at that.

The good with the bad

In order to balance everything out you need to have a little bad to go with the good.

My approval finally came for my glasses. The place where I'm getting them said the measurements they took were wiped out of their computer. Instead of one trip to go pick them up now it will be two. One to remeasure and then another to get the glasses.

The laundry is done and folded. I discovered I left a tissue in one of my pockets and had little bits of white tissue all over my clothes.

I have material and ideas for craft projects. I have no ambition to do them.

I have a job that  pays my bills. I don't want to go today. Yes, that wimpering you're hearing is me as I go off to work today.

But look, I'm still smiling.

Struggle

It was a bit of a struggle to come up with a title for this post so I decided that the word struggle would become the title even though it has absolutely nothing to do with the post itself. To be perfectly honest, I'm not really sure what the post is about. 

I took a picture of the tree in my back yard but I was attempting to get a picture of the lines in the grass from mowing. When I came home from work yesterday it was time to mow. Apparently the back yard was a little too wet because the mower left extra heavy tracks through the yard.

Sorry, bad cell phone picture.

But yes, there are deep tracks through the back yard but it's mowed and that's what matters.  Oh and my shoes will dry. 

Well isn't that special

I picked up the mail and found two identical post cards. They were from the local newspaper trying to get people to subscribe. Would you believe that neither one was addressed to me. One was addressed to Wade and the other was addressed to my ex husband. Now Wade I can understand but the ex hasn't lived here since some time around the turn of the century.

My favorite is the local volunteer fire department. They send out letters every year for their fund drive and want you to pay a membership fee. Well every year it is addressed to my ex. I figure if they want money from me they better send the letter addressed to me. Then again if I need a ride in an ambulance it'll cost me since I don't send them the money.

That's it for today. Not even a picture to go with the post. Can you tell I'm feeling lazy?

No Frills

When you're making a card for a guy you have to skip the frills. No glitz, no glam just a card. I needed such a card since Wade's youngest son has a birthday coming up.

I made this one using a free cut file from SVGcuts.com

Not the best picture since I took it with my cell phone but you can see what it is. The Happy flips up, the birthday flips up and then the bottom half of the card opens to the side. Plenty of room to write messages or maybe tuck in a buck or two.

The end result.

First of all let me start by saying that the video I used for yesterdays post did not demonstrate the easiest way to remove the canvas from the frame. And yes, there is a much easier way to do it. If you take a box cutter you can simply slice all the way around and then just pull up on the piece that is stapled down. One blog I read said that she doesn't even bother removing the staples but I found that some would come up with the canvas and some I used a knife to gently lift them up and then pulled them out with some pliers.

But enough of that. Here is what mine looks like.

In the picture it looks like some of the letters are worn or have white spots on them. It's a glossy vinyl and that's just from the light coming in through the window hitting it. The letters really do look solid black. 

Just a peek to pique

That's right, I've got just a peek at what I was working on yesterday. I hope it's piques your interest enough to make you come back to find out what I did.

This is my first attempt at a reverse canvas project. You start with a stretched canvas and then cut the canvas off of the wood frame. You then paint the wood if you want, paint the canvas and add whatever you want and reattach the canvas to just one side. For now I just have the wood frame and the canvas. I've painted both but was waiting for everything to dry before I finished.

If you want to learn more about reverse canvas you can watch this 4 1/2 minute video I found on Youtube.

The making of a flower continued

Getting back to those paper flowers I'll show you how to turn those die cut pieces into something more lifelike.

Gather the die cut flower pieces, some cotton balls and an ink pad that is either a darker shade of the color of your paper or a complimentary color. Since I didn't have a yellow ink pad I chose orange. You could also do this with a marker.

Rub the cotton ball on the ink pad to pick up some of the ink then rub the inked cotton ball on the flower pieces. You don't want to completely cover the piece just highlight certain areas like around the edges or any raised areas there may be.

Once done with that you'll need a toothpick, skinny dowel rod or something else to use to curl the petals of the flower

After you've used your chosen tool to curl the edges the pieces will look like this.

Aside from curling the petals I also pushed down in the center while pushing the petals up from the bottom to give it a slight cone shape.

Now all you need to do is grab some glue and with a dab on the center glue the layers together. You can use 2 or 3 layers depending on how big you want your flower to be.

 
Now all it needs is a gem or pearl in the center of it or you could even leave it plain.

Rest in Peace Aunt Marian

Yesterday I attended a funeral for my Aunt. It seems almost funny to say "rest in peace" because my aunt was louder than life, full of spit and vinegar and a pure pleasure to have a conversation with. We shared the same birthday and she was my godmother.

This is the last picture that was taken of her with her constant companion Bruiser who was also in attendance throughout the funeral.

Marian Irene Surovick, 88, of Albion, passed away peacefully, with her family by her side, on Tuesday, June 11, 2019, at UPMC Hamot. She was born on March 21, 1931 in Linesville, Pa., a daughter of the late Arthur and Bernice (Young) Butterfield. 

This is how I remember her more, pictured here with the love of her life who passed away 10 years ago. She was lost without him and happily reunited with him in heaven

After the service at the cemetery I visited other family members. My father, grandparents, one aunt and one uncle are also buried in this cemetery.

 This is my father's tombstone and you can see the chapel in the back which is where the service was held.

A couple rows up you'll find my grandparents

and next to them is my dads sister.

A row or two up from them is where my aunt was laid to rest next to my uncle.

It was a busy Friday

Of course it started with going to work. Aside from the usual work I had a cake order to do. Let me start by saying this is NOT one of my better cakes. The customer was happy with it though so I won't fret over it. They had asked for paw prints, a mop and a broom. The writing was supposed to say "We will all miss you Amanda  but mostly Ashley"
I got all the writing on and realized I left out the word all. I had two choices. I could scrape it all off or leave it and hope the customer was OK with that one little word not being there.
Next came the bucket. After I put that on I couldn't help laughing at how hideous it looked. OK then came the broom. Well obviously the broom looks more like a rag mop. Finally some paw prints that look a bit odd but they are what they are.

The picture was taken with my cell phone that takes really bad pictures ever since I scratched the lens.

When I got home from work I had to make a quick trip to the borough office to pay my water bill that I almost forgot about then it was back home to mow the lawn. Once that was done I made myself some dinner and cleaned up the kitchen. I never should have laid down on the couch because that instantly made me fall asleep.

After the response to yesterday's post, I'll work on putting together another one showing the rest of how I make those flowers.

The makng of a flower

The other day when I showed a card and I said that something had been cut with a die, Grace asked what I meant by that. Since I'm not always good at explaining things in words I thought maybe some pictures would help.

To start these are the metal dies that I used to cut the flowers I made for Amanda's birthday card. The side you see in the picture is the side that will cut into the paper when rolled through the machine.

You layer the cutting plate then paper and the dies, put another plate on top and crank the handle on the side of the machine to roll the whole thing through the machine. As it rolls through the dies will cut into the paper.

When you take it out you have the cut shapes.

Maybe another post I will explain how I turned these into the flowers you saw on that card.

It never fails and an anniversary of sorts

It seems that every year as soon as the peonies bloom it rains and they all end up laying on the ground.

As for the anniversary, today marks one year since Wade passed away. It certainly has been a year of adjustments but I can't really say that it's been a difficult year. With the love and support of so many wonderful people, including YOU, I managed to make it through these past 12 months.

Another go at vinyl

While Amanda and I were out shopping I mentioned that I wanted to try and do vinyl on a cup. She picked out a hot pink sheet of permanent vinyl and asked if I could do butterflies. So I picked up a cheap cup from the dollar store (just in case I screwed up the first time out) and put her initial and a butterfly on it.

After I finished I thought that maybe the letter A should have been bigger and I wasn't entirely happy with where I put the butterfly and considered whether or not I should have put more than one on. In the end I threw it in a gift bag and gave it to her like it is. I can always do another.

The card I've been holding

I can finally show the card that I made for Amanda's birthday. But first lets start with the envelope. This is actually a box envelope since the card had raised embellishments that wouldn't fit in a flat envelope

I was really quite pleased with how this card came out. The lace type card topper was a free file from Birds cards. The flowers and leaves were cut with a die then inked and shaped. The larger flower is 3 layers and the smaller ones are 2.

I have to give you a closer look at the flowers before I let you go. I'm not quite sure why I used gems on two flowers and a pearl on the third but it is what it is.

The next birthday coming up is Wade's youngest son. His is on July 4th. I have some time before I need to get that one made.

Happy Birthday Amanda

The year was 1983 and this little one came into the world.

In the blink of an eye she was a year old

I turned my back and she was 2

36 years later and she still brings me joy. Through good times and bad she has always been a bright spot in my life. 

Happy Birthday Amanda

A mother daughter day

Yesterday was a mother/daughter outing to celebrate Amanda's birthday which will be on Monday. We started off with some shopping making a stop at Michaels, Hobby Lobby and then Kohls. Afterwards we went to lunch and Amanda chose a place called Sugar'n Spice.

The restaraunt is located in an old hotel

This place has quite a history

The atmosphere is wonderful, the staff is friendly and the food is sooooooo good.

Stuffed chicken breast for Amanda

Liver and onions for me

When the waitress brought our to go boxes she said "Now you can't leave here without having a piece of our pie" I couldn't resist.


I can't remember what she called it but I got the fruit one

 and Amanda got chocolate peanut butter

Is it froggy in here?

You may have heard that froggy went a courtin' but it just isn't so. He's hanging out in my front yard and he's as happy as can be.

This was a birthday present from one of the girls at work. It took a while for me to get him outside but he's finally there.

Another look

I know I just showed you pictures of the Japanese iris but I looked out the window the other day and saw this and thought they were so pretty

The ones on the left side of the tree are really filling in and they look awesome this year.

The ones on the right next to the birdbath add just the right touch.

Then I have more. There are some on the left side of the steps.

And another clump on the right side of the steps.

The hosta has gotten quite big this year too.