I crack myself up sometimes.

 Last week I had sent a text to Amanda. Or so I thought. Here's a screenshot of the text.

If I had only looked at the top of the screen it says Brad. It gave me a good laugh anyway.

A pre Valentine's day card.

 Saturday I made a Valentines day card for Presley. I also made some stickers. I haven't sent her any happy mail in a couple weeks so I sent this one out early as a pre-Valentine card. I'll make another Valentine to send closer to the day.

This was a free cut file from Jennifer Maker. There were 3 different side edge cards in the download. There was also one with roses and one with hearts.

These were the stickers that I made to send with the card.

another page in the book of Nana ann

When I did the page that showed all the places I've lived I never added where I live now. I finally got that done. I can't decide how much I want to have done before I actually give this to her. I almost gave it to her when we had her birthday party but changed my mind.

Presley turns 6

Last Sunday was Presley's birthday party. Because it's on a Sunday I had asked if we could do a separate one at my house. Getting up as early as I do this was just easier for me. This past Friday was the day we did it. My pictures are horrible but you'll get the idea. For some reason the app would not upload a picture in portrait format so most of these pictures are sideways. Sorry about that. 

There was of course  a small cake. I just made it plain and then added the cake topper I made and a number 6 candle.

Presley was all smiles while we sang happy birthday.

Next was presents.

She liked her stuffed unicorn and carried it around for most of the night.

She also liked her Wednesday Adams blanket.

Her and her unicorn wanted to be wrapped up like a burrito.

shelf by shelf day 4

Last day and last shelf

Most of this shelf is purchased items. The only thing I did do on is another one of those little jars that I added a vinyl design to. 

And that concludes my Valentine shelf posts. Hopefully by now I have more material to use for posts.

Shelf by shelf day 3

 

Again I put batteries in the lights for Sandra. I like this set of lights better than the pink ones. This shelf has another of those little jars that I added vinyl to. I made the love sign by decoupaging fabric on to the blank love piece then adding a wood heart to the middle of the O. The Feb 14 sign is a reverse canvas project. This was a stretched canvas. You remove the canvas from the frame, add your vinyl design then attach the canvas to the back of the frame piece and trim off the excess canvas.

Shelf by shelf day 2

The only things not made on this shelf are the felt hearts and the mailbox. The tall candle on the left was from Dollar Tree and I added the vinyl and bakers twine. Next to it is the little jar. It also came from Dollar Tree and I added vinyl to it. The kissing booth was made with a wood Dollar Tree crate and wood craft sticks. It was all painted red then I added the felt hearts and banner to the top and wood heart to the front. The candle holder under the mailbox was one I had and painted white.

Shelf by shelf day 1

When I posted about my shelves that I put Valentine decorations I had some comments asking about how much of it I made. I thought I would go shelf by shelf and tell you. 

Starting at the top.

First off I put batteries in the lights for Sandra. The three bottles on the left were recycled sweet and sour sauce bottles. I mod podged red, pink, and white tissue paper all over the bottle then wrapped the tops with jute twine. The little heart shaped pillow on the right I also made. Everything else came from Dollar Tree except for the doily. I think I bought that at a thrift store or yard sale.

Happy mail for me

The other day when it was snowing like crazy, the mailman delivered a little bit of sunshine in an envelope. It even arrived in a bright cheery yellow envelope.

Imagine my surprise when there was the prettiest card to brighten my day.

Thanks Denise for making my day.

Another day but not another dollar

So I forgot to turn my alarm off Saturday night and I almost got up at 3am yesterday but then remembered that I had called off.

Thanks for all the well wishes yesterday. I am feeling a little better. I guess hanging out on the couch for 2 days helped. I did a lot of laying around and drank a boatload of hot tea. I also took several doses of cold medicine.

Took this out the back door Saturday night. 

Now to answer a few questions from  yesterdays post.

Liz said Would you even have been able to get to work in that snow? It is way outside my experience!

Around here yes, it would take a lot more snow than this to keep people from going anywhere.

Ginny asked When can you retire, and will you as soon as you can?

I suppose that I could retire this year since I will be 62 in March. While I would like to retire then, I'm greedy and want to wait to get more in SSI. I'm thinking I would like to wait until I'm 65 at least.

Snow overload

For a change the weather man was actually right. We did get hit with snow and lots of it. It started Friday. I got home from work and thankfully it was no problem getting in the driveway.

Saturday morning it was still snowing and it kept up all day. My deck steps are under there somewhere.

 

I had to go out and shovel a spot for Gibbs.

 

I took a little video of my neighbor across the street snowblowing his driveway. I should have gotten one of my next door neighbor snowblowing mine. 

 

I didn't feel well at work on Friday. I've got a cold or something so I made the choice to call off for today. Calling off is something I never do. The last time was 2018 when Wade passed away. Feeling the way I do and with this weather I decided it just wasn't worth it.

Stickers

Sandra sent me an email that had the cutest graphic in it. I saved it to my computer and used it to make some stickers

I've had a pack of these round stickers sitting around forever. They were actually Wades that he had before we were married. Now I have a use for them.

snow on the coffee table

Well not real snow but I put a couple of my non Christmas snowmen there.

Since we're in the chillin' season I thought snowmen would be appropriate.

According to the forecast we're also supposed to get blasted with snow starting today. They are calling for 6-10" from today through Saturday. I should be ok this morning and getting back in the driveway after work. I'll also be ok Saturday because I'm not going anywhere. I'm stressing over Sunday morning though. Will I be able to get out of the driveway to go to work? I leave mighty early on Sunday since I start at 4am. I don't want to walk and then I'm the only one in the store for 3 hours too. I hate this time of year.

something different

I finally packed up the Christmas village and put it away. I had bought 2 new shelf units to display the village this year. When I packed it all up I took one shelf unit up to a spare room and used it to hold all the boxed up buildings. The other shelf unit I left in the living room and thought I would use it for seasonal/holiday decorations. Right now it's decorated for Valentines day.

I may or may not keep this here. It works for now though

Here comes the sun

Monday, although it was bitterly cold we actually got to see some sunshine. On one of the many times I was letting Gibbs out I tried to take a picture through the storm door. I couldn't see a thing so it was totally blind point and shoot.

It was blurry but kind of cool.

. 

Next I stepped outside and aimed the phone and click.

For some reason I just really like the looks of this one. 

January happy mail.

Both versions of January's happy mail have gone out and I've gotten confirmation from some that the snail mail version has been received.  Now it's time to show it here. 

The outside

 

And the inside. 

 

Now to work on Valentines cards for February. 

New pages.

I've added new pages to the Nana Ann book that I'm making for Presley.

I finally made a cover.

 

I did a page about my first dog.

 

And one about my first Christmas.

Yesterday Jean asked how long our winters last. Well my official answer is too long. But here in northwestern Pennsylvania we can get snow up through April. It used to be very wintery until about March and then we would get spring but the weather has changed so much over the last few years. Our winters have been much milder than they used to be. The last couple years we've gotten spring weather then back to winter for a couple months and back and forth before it finally settles into spring.

wintery weather

It's been very windy here again. I thought we were done with it but another round is coming through. It was snowing a little but nothing much. You might see all the branches down in my front yard in the video.

It was very cold in my house and the furnace was working overtime. I shouldn't complain though. I have a friend who lives in Montana and their temps are in the negative digits.

New toy

I was given an Amazon gift card and used it to purchase a new toy.  I bought a teeny tiny printer.

  

Here is the actual printer.

 

This prints 2x3 pictures from my phone. I'm using it to print pictures for the Nana Ann book I'm making for Presley. I tried scanning and printing old photos with my big printer but it wasn't working so well.

So now what I'm doing is taking a picture of old photos with my phone and then printing them. They aren't perfect but it's a fun little toy. It uses zink zero ink technology. 

The very first picture I printed didn't come out too bad. The next 3 had kind of a sepia tone to them. I tried to take a picture of those to put in this post but the blogger app on my phone wasn't cooperating. Maybe I'll just save that for another post.

This time of year

At the beginning of every new year, bakery sales are always down. Everyone has started their new years resolutions to lose weight. By February it will start to pick up a bit. 

We have a Facebook page for the store and Wednesday I decided to take a picture of the donuts and did the following post

 

To my surprise, we sold out of donuts. Thursday I did another post

It really takes so little to entertain me sometimes. 

Art at work

Sometimes I add a little doodle art work to my work day. I have a breakout sheet that I use every day. It lists all the items I bake as well as the donuts. I check the shelves and mark what products I need to pull for the next day. I also keep track of how many of each item are on the cart I pull out. Each time I pull an item I deduct it from the total on the sheet. This number helps with ordering and inventory. This was a form that I created years ago to make my job easier and more efficient.  For the last three weeks I have been decorating the top of my sheet just for fun. I thought I would be a little festive. Plus it gives me something to do when I'm slacking during the work day.

Christmas week

New Years week

And this is the current week.

I don't know if I'll continue doing this or not. You just never can tell with me.

This and that

 Big news here is the weather. Yesterday morning we had a little snow, then it turned to rain. The big thing however was the wind. Lots of downed trees, power lines and power out all over the place. It stayed on all day where I work though and it was on at home so I lucked out there.That wind was killer. When I left work it was 41 but with the wind and rain it sure felt a lot colder.

The other day when I posted about stealing someone's idea for a post I got a comment from Jean. She said "Why do you call that stealing? You are sharing a great idea and have written a fun post. And you gave credit to the person who gave you the idea.

“There are two ways of spreading light: to be
the candle or the mirror that reflects it.”
― Edith Wharton

Being a mirror is adding light to the world too. I'm trying to do a lot more of that this year."

Then she added a second comment recommending a book. PS (1) I love those pictures of you, and (2) you might like Austin Kleon's book Steal Like an Artist: 10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative. I think it's a fun read.

I went to Amazon to find out about the book and it did sound interesting. I just may buy it.

Monday while I was off I played around a little bit with Bing AI. I needed a new picture for my Facebook banner. This first one came from the first set of pictures I did. I uploaded this to FB

Then I decided to try again and choose this one from the second set of pictures to upload to FB. This is the one that I now I have on my FB page.

A lack of motivation

Yesterday I don't think I could have been any lazier if I tried. But then that's what days off were made for. 

You'll notice Gibbs wasn't any more motivated than I was. 

I had things I could have done but none of them sounded good enough to actually do them. It was also cold and gray outside so sitting around doing nothing just felt right.

paper play time

Presleys 6th birthday is coming up later this month. The theme for her birthday party is Wednesday Adams. Friday and Saturday I worked on her birthday card.

  

And here is the envelope.

I cut the letters and the offset layer on my Cricut machine then after gluing them together I jazzed them up with some glimmer markers that a certain someone sent to me. Oh and I made Wednesday Adams stickers so that is a sticker behind her name.

Desperation

 I've always challenged myself to post every single day. It keeps my mind working and frankly, I enjoy it. There are times that are more difficult than others. Right now, the well is dry and I've resorted to stealing.

Saturday, Liz from Finding life hard posted a link to one of those sites where you upload a photo and it shows you what you would look like as a Barbie. I couldn't resist the temptation and I clicked the link got my results, and while Liz wasn't looking, I stole her idea and posted it here. Of course when she sees this post I'll be busted.

So what do I look like as a Barbie?

I don't think I would pay good money for this Barbie. What would they even call it? Senior citizen Barbie?

Not as much fun

Yesterday I went out and did some shopping again but it wasn't as much fun as last time.

It was a very cold morning when I left at just 25 degrees. It never got higher than 28 that I saw.

I went to a different town than I did last week. Last week was Erie this week was Meadville. Each one is roughly 30 miles away. There isn't as much in Meadville. I did make a stop at Walmart there and they are doing the new displays that I've heard others talk about

 

I don't much care for them but who asked me.

When I got home I worked on putting Christmas decorations away Most are packed up now. There are just a few stray things I missed. I also have the village left to pack up. 

The life of a baker

I started my job back in 1997. I didn't initially start in the bakery but it was only a couple months before I took over the bakery manager position.

A lot of people think my job is a piece of cake.

To be honest, for me, it is pretty easy.

Even though some people think I make a lot of bread.

 

The pay is actually kind of crumby.

 

Oh well. I guess that's just the way the cookie crumbles.