Draw down with Sandra

 I was scrolling through Facebook one day and came across a post that I sent to Sandra in a text and asked her if she was up for a challenge.

Well I think before I challenged her I should have tried to draw this first. After I sent the text and she accepted the challenge I tried a quick sketch on a post it note. It was the most horrid looking drawing I've ever done. It went straight in the trash. Then I finally sat down and tried again.

First attempt. Nope. Didn't like it.

Second attempt. I could see early on that this one was going even worse than the first one so this was as far as I got.

Third attempt. I quit after this. I could tell that it just wasn't going to get any better. 

If you haven't already been to Sandra's blog, hop on over there and see how her drawing came out.

Last Saturday

 The original plan last Saturday was to go to a large craft show in Erie and a small one that is the church a stones throw away from my house.

Saturday morning came and Amanda sent me a text asking if I knew that the craft show in Erie had a $5 admission fee which I did. I told her I didn't really feel like going though and wouldn't be heartbroken if she didn't want to. She said she was only going because she didn't want to hurt my feelings. 

The craft show at the church was still on my list of things to do. In the meantime I found another one that was in Jefferson Ohio at the high school and it was free. We decided to go to that one. 

I went to the church one and bought some holiday scented wax melts from a woman I know that makes candles and the melts. Then I went and picked Amanda up.

I took exactly one picture while we were out

I actually thought I took a second picture at the craft show but it wasn't on my phone. The only thing I bought at this craft show were two chocolate covered pretzel rods. What can I say, I wanted a snack.

After we left there we stopped at Dollar Tree and Walmart. I picked up something for dinner and bought a Christmas present for my son in law. Then it was back home to do laundry and just chill out for the rest of the day.

Thankful Thursday

 We're getting closer all the time to the big day. Next week we'll be celebrating Thanksgiving here in the U.S.

So lets talk turkey. Remember that turkey I bought a couple weeks ago at a craft show?

There were questions about him when I posted him. Here he is standing next to the front door to give you an idea of how tall he is. I also measured him and he stands about 32" high. He does stand, and doesn't hang on a wall. He sits next to my front door now but next Thursday I will put him out on the front porch for the day.

• “I awoke this morning with devout thanksgiving for my friends, the old and the new.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson
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• “It is not how much we have, but how much we enjoy, that makes happiness.” — Charles Spurgeon
• “Never let the things you want make you forget the things you have.” — Sanchita Pandey

Week 23 drawings.

 This week I tried to stay away from any specific seasonal theme.

This cute little mouse might be my favorite this time.

The next two are kind of Thanksgiving related but not too much.

Making decisions.

 It's not always easy to make decisions. Not only do we struggle with them sometimes but so does Gibbs.

He was looking through his toy basket the other day.

He knew there was something in there that he wanted to play with but he didn't know what. He finally made a decision.

Just take them all 

Cake walk

 I have quite a few cakes to post today. Normally I would spread these out but I thought I would throw them all in one post this time.

So you may remember the woman who always orders cakes with tons of different colors. She ordered one and asked for all pastel colors, a purple border and she wanted each rose on the cake a different color. I'm sure you can guess what my reaction was to this order. I decided I would give her 3 flowers and no more. I was generous and added the rose buds but they were in the same three colors that I used for each rose.

Next up was 2 different cakes that were for Veterans day. One was  in fall colors and the other red, white and blue. 

Last up was the order that I had for 2 full sheet cakes and both were to be the same. It was for the chorus department at the school and she just wanted music notes all over them. I only took a picture of the first one because the second one look just like this.

Purchases

 So today I talk about what I bought last week when Amanda and I went out. First was the purchases at Michaels. I needed a shirt for a Christmas gift I'm making. Amanda asked if I could also make her a Christmas themed shirt and I bought a shirt for myself. Then I found a really cute little ornament. And lastly was a scrapbook paper pack. I needed to feed  my paper obsession.

The regular price on the paper was $19.99 and would you believe I walked out only paying just over $21? The paper was on sale and I had 2 vouchers to use that had me walking out of there with quite a bargain.

Here's a closer look at that cute little mouse ornament.

At 5 and below I only bought one thing which was a Christmas gift for Presley.

And another great bargain was at J.C. Penney. They had fleece tops for only $5.99. I bought 2 of them.

Another fun Saturday.

 I've got craft shows on the calendar for just about every Saturday up till Christmas. I'll be going to one today but in this post I'm talking about the one Amanda and I went to last Saturday as well as the other things we did.

The craft show we went to was at the Zem Zem Shriners club. It wasn't a bad show but I really only saw one thing I wanted to buy. I only snapped one photo when we walked in the door to use for the blog.

My one purchase was this item. I bought it because the woman went in to explaining how the proceeds from all the sales went to something, but I can't remember what now. I know at the time I thought I should buy something just because of that. It didn't hurt that it was a snowman and I thought it was cute.

After that we went to Michaels and I tried on a silly hat

Tomorrow I'll post what I bought while I was there. Then we went to 5 and below which was just a few stores down.. Next we went into the mall. We had planned on going to a Christmas store but they weren't opening for a few more days.

Other stops were Bath and Body Works, Boscovs, Yankee Candle and J.C. Penney. I found a good bargain there as well that I'll show tomorrow. 

Our final stop was lunch at O'Charleys. It was good but a bit overpriced for what they gave you.

November Happy Mail.

The card for November has gone out in the mail and email and I've heard that some have been received so I can now post it here.

Being November, I of course had to put a turkey on there somewhere.

And here is the inside.

Now to get busy on December. I not only plan on making the ones for the monthly happy mail but I also wanted to make them for my regular Christmas card list as well. That should make about 20 cards total.

November thankfulness

 Of course it's not just in November that one can be thankful for what they have. It is a good time to remind ourselves though. Today I'm thankful that I remembered what I said last Thursday about doing a thanksgiving themed posts every Thursday until turkey day.

Gratitude can transform common days into thanksgivings, turn routine jobs into joy, and change ordinary opportunities into blessings.

William Arthur Ward

• “It is not how much we have, but how much we enjoy, that makes happiness.” — Charles Spurgeon
• “Have gratitude for all that you have, and you can be happy exactly as you are.” — Mandy Ingber

A very productive day off

Monday November 4th was a very productive day off. And yet I stayed in my pajamas all day long. 

I made these signs for work

Then I updated the breakout sheet I use at work because the new manager has changed the amount of donuts I do on a daily basis

This is the one I doodle on every week. This is a form I created years ago to make my job easier.

Next I finished up the November Happy mail cards. I also worked on a tshirt I'm making for a Chtistmas present.

I made myself dinner, took a shower and put on clean pajamas then spent the evening lounging on the couch.

Work doodle

 Just one to show this time around. I was going for turkey feathers but I suppose they could also look like fall leaves.

Week 22 drawings

 Here we go with another week of drawings.

 While I think that you can recognize that this is supposed to be Charlie Brown, I think it's safe to say that if Charles Schulz was still alive he would have nothing to worry about.

Spider man

 A woman came in to order a cake recently. She wanted to know if I could draw a Spiderman. Unfortunately my skills are not that good and being that it's a licensed character I'm not allowed to do it anyway. I told her I could draw a spider web and then she could add some little toys if she wanted. She asked if I could also do spiders and I said that I could.

The day I had to do the cake I remembered that I had some spiderman rings in my stash of cake decorations. I added those along with the spider web.

She wasn't the one who picked it up so I'm not sure if she liked it yet but she had told me that the little boy would love the spiderweb and the spiders.

Last Saturday

 Amanda and I went out to a couple craft shows. One was at the local elementary school. It was a really nice show. Not huge but they had a good amount of crafters with a nice selection of items. It wasn't the typical things you see most of the time. There were some unique items. I purchased one item that I just couldn't resist. It was only $20 which was a very good price for a wood item

On our way to the second craft show we stopped at the cemetery to say hello to my dad.

We went to a second craft show and then to Cracker Barrel for lunch.

I turned around and took a picture of the view from the parking lot

After that I went home, did laundry and spent the rest of the day doing very little.