hello Pumpkin

I had originally planned to put the design on today's craft project onto a Dollar Tree chalkboard. What I hadn't considered was the black and white buffalo check vinyl would not work well on the black chalkboard background. Not a problem, I dug in my stash and found a jar to use

Since I took the picture I added a ribbon to the side of the lid. Aside from the fact that I didn't Center this one really well on the jar I'm happy with how it turned out

falling into autumn

Today I have a fall craft that I made on Saturday. This is on a Dollar Tree chalkboard. I painted the frame and then added the vinyl

You'll have to excuse the crappy picture. I took it with my cell phone in the basement where the lighting wasn't all that good. But you get the idea. Come back tomorrow for another fall craft I did on Saturday

For the dog lovers

Today I have an ornament that could be used anytime of the year. This is for the dog lovers out there

 I found a free dog ornament bundle that I downloaded and this was one of the designs. You'll likely see more dog related ornaments in the future

Two more ornaments

I have two more ornaments to share today. Like the last ones these were made on blank wood shapes. I painted them and then added the vinyl

 I have one more completed ornament to show and then I'll move on to some fall crafts that I did yesterday on my day off.

Store charge cards

 I have two store charge cards. I have one for Kohls which I got several years ago.

And I have one for Boscov's that I got last year.

I use the Kohl's card once a year in November for Christmas. I shop the black Friday and cyber Monday sales. I pay it off as soon as the bill comes and then don't use it again until the following November.

I got the Boscov's card in April or May when I was shopping for a dress for my sons wedding. They asked if I was paying with my card and I said I didn't have one. They told me if I opened an account I would get a percentage off my purchase so I did it. I made one other purchase on the card some time in May and haven't used it since. 

Yesterday I got an email from Boscov's and this was part of the message:

        We’ve missed you!

You may not realize it, but your Boscov's Credit Card account hasn’t been used since 05/07/2022. That's why we're planning to close your account on 10/23/2022 - but its easy to activate and keep it open, if you like.

Seriously?  Because it's been just over 3 months since I last used it you are going to close the account if I don't use it by 10/23. That just really annoyed me. I most likely would have used this card the same as my Kohl's card for Christmas shopping but if they are going to insist I use it a certain amount of times per year then maybe I don't want their card after all.

better

Yesterday when I got home from work I went back to the ornament I posted yesterday and made a few adjustments. I got lots of great ideas on Facebook and here on the blog. I did have some Jingle Bells but they were not real small so I was only able to put one on without it looking crowded. Then I finished it off with a metallic marker to write the year

not my best work

I'm not sure what my problem is but lately if I can get myself to do something crafty I end up not liking the end results. Perfect example is the ornaments I showed you yesterday. They were okay, but I wasn't entirely happy. Another example was this ornament that I made. I just don't like the looks of it at all. Amanda said that maybe it needed some Jingle Bells

Aside from making ugly ornaments, I'm also a bad dog mom. Yesterday Gibbs had a birthday and I forgot all about it. Of course he forgives me because I've pretty much failed to remember his birthday every year. Gibbs is now 8 years old.

Craft Time

I won't pretend that I had an exceptionally crafty day for my day off. These ornaments were done over a period of several days. Some I am more happy with than others, and some it just seems that the more I played with them the worse they got. Without further ado here is what I made.

I painted the wood ornament with two different shades of blue. I started with the light then added the dark. You'll notice that the middle right I went a little too skimpy with the darker blue and the snowflake doesn't show up as well.

On the back side I experimented with different pens to write "let it snow". Not quite happy with the look but it is what it is.

That one ornament that the snowflake didn't show up well, I decided to go around the vinyl cutout with a blue glitter pen. It shows up better but not entirely happy with this one.

And lastly a close up of the writing on one of the backs. I liked this one better than some of the others that I had used some thicker pens on. 

If it isn't one thing it's another.

 It seems there is just no end to reasons why I can't get a good nights sleep. If it isn't a certain dog we all know needing to go out to attend to business

then it might be me needing to attend to business

Or it's a thunder storm that has the volume turned to extra loud

Sunday morning around 12:30 or so it started with the thunder, then the lightning and then came the rain. 

When I first go to bed, I can fall asleep very easy. I'm out in less than 20 minutes. But, if I wake up, and I always do, I have the hardest time falling back asleep. Sometimes I never do. I end up dragging through work and then hitting the couch when I get home for a little nap.

Just to clarify

 There were a lot of comments on my post yesterday about the girl who works bakery on Saturday. Technically, she is a deli person and that is what she was hired for. Quite some time ago, the boss asked her to train in bakery so there would be another person who knew it to help cover for vacations and stuff. She is one of those people who doesn't take constructive criticism well and I had talked to her about an order she messed up. I was stressing the importance of being accurate. She kind of flipped out on me and told me that if I was going to be mean she was just going to leave. After that, I believe she had asked the boss to take her out of bakery on Saturday. He pretty much blew her off and told her she could handle it.

I had had a few conversations with the deli manager regarding the situation. Well yesterday I got a call from work. It was the deli manager. She said she talked to Marc (new boss) and told him she would do Saturdays in bakery. She already does it on Monday. She doesn't mind doing it and she knows how I work. I guess the change is going to start next week. I am a happy camper. She has no problem doing cakes but she won't write on them. 

One of many reasons.

There are lots of reasons why I get annoyed and frustrated every day. My story today explains one of them.

Yesterday, I had two separate people come in wanting to order cakes for today. That really doesn't sound like much of a problem. However, it created one for me. The girl who works on Saturday is terrified of doing cakes and will do anything to get out of them. Not to mention that what takes me 15 minutes to do will take her an hour and a half. I had two choices. One, I could have done them myself or two, I could have left them for Saturday which would have meant that the deli manager would have had to fit them into her schedule. Well, I am seriously annoyed that I have to do the work for the girl who is working my day off and I don't want to have to put more work on the deli manager. It's just not fair to her. So I chose to do them myself. I only took pictures of the one

TGIF

 Can anyone guess, on a scale of 1-10, how happy I am that I'm off tomorrow?

If you guessed a solid 10 you are correct. 

So I'm trying to decide what I should post about today. I guess I'll have to go through the pictures on my phone and see what I've got.

Well lets see. I've officially started my Christmas shopping. While I was in Walmart the other day I found a couple fishing themed hats in the clearance section. They were $5 each and I bought two of them for my son in law. 

I did a cake recently at work that I haven't posted. Nothing special but it's what I do. They didn't care what colors so I just picked what I had already mixed. 

 

And I think we'll just finish this off with something funny

What would you rather be doing?

 I think I would much rather be staying home today instead of going to work. I would catch up on some sleep, or at least attempt to. I think that the extra day last week along with the plumbing issues really did me in. I've been falling asleep on the couch right after dinner all week.

I recently made this ornament for my son in law

Amanda had texted me some pictures of her husband while he was fishing and I thought I might put one of those on the other side of this.

I'm a bit behind again on blog reading and emails. I only had enough ambition to write this post. I'll catch up with all of you soon.

Two bits.

 Monday after the plumber left, I had to run to Walmart. I needed to buy some wasp and hornet killer to take care of another little problem I have out back.

I got what I  needed and then roamed around the store for a while. As I was walking past the sleepwear, I stopped for a second to look at a rack of reduced sleep shorts. I can't remember what price was on the sign, but I was about to walk away. Another woman was standing there going through them and she said "If you need sleep shorts, these are only a quarter. Look at the sign on the other side." Sure enough, they were marked down to a mere twenty five cents. Well, I didn't NEED sleep shorts but for a quarter how could I not buy some. Besides, I needed a little pick me up present.

Regular price on these with $7.98

I've had my fill.

 So the plumbing issue that I thought was fixed ended up not fixed. Saturday when I went to take a shower there was a steady stream of hot water coming from the tap. I texted the plumber but he said he was out on the lake at the time. From Saturday around 4:00pm until Monday at around 9:30am I was a stressed out wreck. My anxiety had kicked into overdrive. I do not like not being in control of things. Even though the rational side of my brain tells me to calm down and things will work out one way or the other, the irrational side wins the battle.

I texted the plumber at 7:30 Monday morning and promptly at 8:00 he responded. He asked if I was off and said he would be in touch. An hour and a half later he texted to say he was on the way. 

The tub is now fixed again and a new shutoff valve installed in case I have further issues. Now I can shut off just the tub and not go into a panic shutting off all the water and killing the gas to the water tank.

While he was working I put Gibbs outside because there's just no other place for him to go that he wouldn't be in the way. Of course if you put Gibbs outside by himself he's going to bark non stop. I told the plumber I would be outside with the dog to keep him quiet. We went out and sat under the tree and I read while the plumber worked.

so you know

Just wanted everyone to know, everything here is ducky. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. 

I need a vacation

 It just seems like a never ending stream of frustration any more. Speaking of stream, yesterday morning before I went to work I saw a steady stream of water coming out of the tub spigot. This is what the plumber just fixed for me. I texted him later in the morning and he came over and checked everything out last night. I was very grateful that he responded so quick. It was just frustrating that it did that in the morning. 

Work has been hectic since I'm trying to cut hours every day so as not to get any over time. Today could be a problem but I'll do my best. 

I've got nothing else because I'm just kind of ready for a nap. Even though I've been leaving work early it only means that I fall asleep on the couch earlier than normal and get an extra nap in before bed time

Chillin

My original plan was to share a short little video here. When I uploaded it to youtube it uploaded as a short and there was no code to embed the video into my post. So instead here is a picture of Gibbs chilling in front of the fan the other day when it was really hot. If you want to see the video you can follow the link that comes after the picture.

If you watch the video I apologize for the tv being on the loud side. I don't keep my hearing aids in at home so I turn the tv way up to hear it. 

https://youtube.com/shorts/6qNOFYfZeuA?feature=share

Lunch with a friend

Monday I met an old friend for lunch. We grew up in the same neighborhood and I've known her for most of my life. We occasionally get together for lunch and it had been a while. I had a delicious grilled chicken salad with curly fries. We spent over 3 hours chatting and catching up.

 

The flip side

So I finished the other side of that chalkboard that I showed you the other day. I'm not entirely happy with it but it is what it is. The front side had fall and the back side has Thanksgiving. The turkey and the pumpkin are stickers that I had in my stash.

Happy Monday

I need to seriously enjoy today because this is going to be one crazy week. I won't get another day off until next Monday. I do however get to leave early throughout the week so that my overtime is kept to a minimum. 

Yesterday I got to leave work at noon which felt really really strange. The other thing that felt strange was that I was training the boss's wife in the deli bakery area. She will be helping out and filling in where needed. Technically she's the new owner of the store but I believe it will be her son who will be doing most of the day to day work. 

On another note, yesterday was incredibly hot. Even sitting in the Ann cave it wasn't as cool as it usually is. Then thankfully the wind picked up and we got a nice cooling rain. I put Gibbs's harness on and we went out front for a little bit

We both enjoyed the cooler temp while it lasted. After the rain stopped it didn't take very long for it to heat back up. 

A little crafty

Yesterday was pretty much a lazy day. I started out with reading blogs and drinking coffee. Then I decided to be a little crafty. I know we're still in summer but I made something for fall. I decorated this Dollar Tree chalkboard. First I painted the wood an orange color then I cute vinyl for the words and the pumpkin

  

Right now the back of it is blank but I plan on doing something to that as well

Looking back

 I jumped way back in time to 2012 and picked up a few pictures I took.

To make a prairie it takes a clover and one bee, One clover, and a bee, And revery. The revery alone will do, If bees are few.

Emily Dickinson

You have to decide if you're going to wilt like a daisy or if you're just going to go forward and live the life that you've been granted.

Kevin Costner

digging

Amanda frequently sends me pictures in text messages. A lot of times she'll tell me I can use it for my blog. I decided to go digging for things she's sent that I haven't used. 

This first one is from the last time we went shopping. I think this was in Christmas Tree Shops. Someone in quality assurance didn't do such a good job. This says Holly instead of Holy. Then again, maybe it was caught and that's why it was at this store for such a low price.

 

The next one is a picture she sent of one of  the birds that visits her feeders out in her yard. 

She's been sending lots of fall craft ideas lately. I thought this one was super cute. 

 

Two days in a row. I'm going for a record.

 I don't really have a whole lot to talk about today. I thought I would answer some questions from yesterday.

I've also got a link to my boss's obituary if anyone is interesting in seeing who I worked for.

William E. Corbin

Ginny said that I need to be the new manager. I was a store manager for a while but after Wade and I got married I went back to the bakery. I really didn't like that job. I don't mind helping out in any way I can though.

Andrea asked how old he was. He was 61. Just a year older than me. His birthday was just a few days after mine.

Lots of you commented on my plumbing problem. I'm just glad it's done now and it didn't cost me a fortune. I think the hardest part for me is knowing who to call and wondering if I can trust them. Wade always either knew how to fix things himself or seemed to know someone to call. 

So the ret of this week, today and tomorrow are going to be so incredibly busy. Friday especially because I have 2 big orders to do.

Next week should be interesting because we have a girl in the deli going on vacation. One of the night managers went to the boss's son and told him she would cover the hours. Um, hello? You're going to add overtime hours on to  your paycheck? Well I went to the boss's son with a proposed deli schedule for next week that divided the hours among the 3 part time deli girls and didn't include any over time at all. I also told him I would work the Saturday that the deli girl going on vacation normally works in bakery. I'll work that day and cut hours where I can throughout the week. He liked my solution way better and he used that to do the schedule for next week. Night manager may be upset with me but she didn't think her plan through very well.

I'm back, kind of, I think

 

Excuse my absence but as I said the other day I was dodging curve balls. The biggest of all was the unexpected death of my boss. I talked to him on Friday and he was fine. Saturday morning he had a massive heart attack and was gone. A group of us will be going to the funeral home today. 

The second curve ball was the plumbing issue. I blogged about my plumbing problem back on July 5. It took until Monday August 1st to finally have it resolved. I had a leak in my bathroom faucet. I called a plumber on the same day I had posted about it. He came that same day and looked at it. Then it took forever for him to look for a part before he called and asked if I wanted him to order it. Finally he says he's ready to come. Now this could have gone either way. It was either going to be an easy fix or it was going to be a major job where my whole tub would have to be pulled out. Needless to say I was worried that it was going to worst case scenario. So this past Monday he came and luck was on my side. He was able to fix it all for $250. 

There are some other minor issues that I need to take care of. The dog still needs to get to the vet and There are some doctor/hospital bills sitting here that need to be paid. 

On another note, I use feedly for reading blogs. The past week, give or take, there have been very few blog posts in my feed. I just assumed that people were busy and not blogging. Turns out posts just aren't showing up for some reason. If I haven't been commenting on your blogs it's not because I took time off from that, I just didn't know you had been posting. I'm trying to get to everyone so if I've been missing you let me know.