Grocery gaming.

The NSBR (non-scrapbooking-related) board at Two Peas is a blessing and a curse. A curse because it's easy to lose large chunks of time there, and a blessing because you can find out about all sorts of interesting things you'd never have known about otherwise.

Last week my discovery was a concept and website called The Grocery Game. It's a database that compiles grocery store weekly sale lists and matches them to available coupons to help you get the rock-bottom price for products.

I hate to grocery shop. Hate it with the white heat of a thousand suns. If there is one chore I wish I could hire out, it's grocery shopping. And since we moved to Virginia particularly, I've noticed the grocery bills climbing and climbing.

So after hearing story after story of saving 50-75% on grocery costs, I decided to do the four-weeks for $1.00 trial. I've got four stores on my list, and I've been to three of them this week, and saved 41% total.

It's time-consuming at first, cutting coupons, checking the lists for each store, and then making the rounds through unfamiliar stores (I don't shop at any of the four on my list regularly) but the folks on the GG message boards swear that once you build a stockpile of your basic food and toiletry items, you can cut both your time and expenses drastically.

For me, since I hate grocery shopping anyway, there's not much that could make me hate it more, so I might as well put the time in and see how it goes. Saving money might even help me hate grocery shopping a little less.

So that's been my life this week--coupons and lists. I dubbed this the Week of Unpleasant Tasks--I have several things on my to-do list this week that are among my very, very, VERY least favorite chores, so I decided to relegate them all to one week and get them over with. The fact that I'm sitting here blogging in the middle of the afternoon should tell you how hard I'm working on my list.

Midnight notes.

I am basking, BASKING I tell ya, in the wonderful cool dry midnight air coming in my study window.

I think this is the first time we've had the windows open at night in at least two months. Tomorrow night it will probably be warm, wet and humid again, but for tonight...I am loving it. I don't want to go to sleep, it's so pleasant to sit here and surf the net and listen to music and feel cool and breathe fresh air. One of the neighbors must have had a bonfire tonight, because there's a wisp of wood smoke blowing in--it smells wonderful.

Today (Saturday) was a mixed bag of a day, for sure. The scrapbook yard sale was this morning, and I spent most of the day Friday pulling more odds and ends from shelves and boxes and...the funnest part: pricing it. Oy, all those tiny stickers.

The church was open Friday evening, so Todd helped me take my carload of boxes inside, then stood around enjoying the wonderful world of female conversation...until I asked him to help me arrange the table. Then he beat it.

It took me most of three hours to set everything up and walk around and peruse everyone else's tables. There weren't as many people participating as I expected, maybe 12 or 15? I was very firm with myself and only bought a few goodies, just the irresistable ones. Some Heidi Swapp chipboard letters, a pack of American Crafts letter stickers (love those) and paper, a big Provo Craft stamp that I've been eyeing at Michael's for months, and an old Club Scrap stamp.

Today I arrived at the church at 8...the sale was scheduled to start at 9...but there were so many people wanting to come in, they just let 'em in. From about 8:30 to 10:30, things were nuts. Then the last hour and a half were slow.

I ended up making just over $300...awfully nice. I had my stuff priced low, and that helped. I put together a box of leftovers for charity, and pulled a few things that didn't sell to keep, and a few more to Ebay if I ever get around to it.

I heard some bad news at the sale about a person I care about. Checked in with her after the sale, and the bad news was true. She's got cancer. It's serious. I'm not sure she wants it spread around, so I'm not, but if you read this, please say a little prayer for her and her family. The news definitely brought me down from my post-sale high. I freaking hate cancer, I hate it.

I took a nap in the late afternoon, I was so tired from the sensory overload of the sale. I get sensory overload pretty quickly anyway, and the sale was hectic, at least for a while. Totaling stuff up in my head, making change, finding bags, answering questions, and trying to keep my spare eye on the table to make sure nobody had sticky fingers. My friend Cheryl, at the table next to me, had a few stamps lifted. Honestly, though, I had so much stuff, I'm not sure I would have missed a few small things going astray. I swear I don't know what is wrong with people...the sale was held in the sanctuary of the Catholic church, and Todd was shocked when I told him there had been "lifting": "Stealing in a CHURCH??!" Yep, this is where we've arrived as a society.

And on that cheerful note, nighty-night.

Blogs to visit.

I've been addicted to finding vintage/sewing/crafting blogs lately. Here are some of the very best I've found:

Yarnstorm. She's taking a little summer hiatus right now, but the archives are so fun to read. Sort of a chronicling of the lovely British life I'd like to lead...

My House is Cuter Than Yours. I may have mentioned this one before--it was the first of this sort of vintage crafting blog that I discovered. I love this girl's flair. (Not the Office Space kind!)

Angry Chicken. Super-ultra-creative cute stuff.

Little Birds. Even more super-ultra, etc., etc.

Turkey Feathers. Apparently bird themes are common among the vintagey sewing creative types.

Meggiecat. I haven't totally explored this one, but she seems to love vintage images and themes.

Pandora's Button Box. I just can't believe real people are this energetic and creative. I need to get off my computer chair and start taking vitamins!

Wee Wonderfuls. This girl is so freaking talented, she creates sewing patterns and embroidery patterns and other adorable creations seemingly at the drop of a hat. Lots of goodies here.

That should be some good surfing fodder for y'all.

More old stuff.

We headed up to Richmond this past weekend to check out a flea market Todd had heard was good, but...um, not so much. Lots and lots of garbage, nothing remotely interesting. Unless you find used pants and stolen DVDs interesting. Todd did pick up a motor and a couple other odds and ends but my thrift vintage junk dream was rudely punctured.

So we headed off to explore and find some antique malls. We went to three all together, and although Todd found nothing, I did buy just a couple little things.

At the last antique mall, I walked into a treasure trove of vintage paper STUFF. The dealer said she's one of the largest paper ephemera dealers in the country, and I can believe it. I've never seen so many magazines and ads and pamphlets and STUFF in one spot before.

I didn't get to look through everything--it would have taken a whole day--but I grabbed just a few old magazines for fun at-home perusal. I loved the colors on this one, and doesn't that look like a room you'd sleep in at grandma's house?

I also got a copy of an old magazine called Everywoman, which features an essay by Senator John Kennedy on whether the U.S. will ever have a woman president (he waffles around the topic in truly Presidential style), and a couple old Better Homes and Gardens.

At the first antique mall we stopped at, I found this old reader:

My dad has been a custodian at a local school for 30 years, and when I was a kid and an avid reader, he'd bring home books that were being discarded from the school library, in a fruitless effort to keep me supplied with reading material. (And also because he's constitutionally incapable of seeing perfectly good items thown away.)

This was in the 1970s, which meant that most of the books being pitched were from the 1940s, and the readers, in particular, were full of the most charming illustrations I'd ever seen. I firmly believe my love for 1940s-style home decor comes from my years of absorbing these pictures.

So whenever I see an old reader with nice pictures, I pick it up. This one is from 1935, so the style is a little older than the readers I remember from my childhood, but the pictures are just lovely:

Old treasures.

As promised, here are a few of my flea market/garage sale/antique store treasures that I've acquired in the past few weeks.

I've had a small globe collection for several years now--only one of which is at all old (late 1940's). My others date from the 60s, 70s, and 80s. While I was home in Ohio, I picked up another medium-sized globe and two small globe banks, which I'm constantly on the lookout for and never seem to be able to find.

I have one more globe in the mix--the small cream globe on the left shelf came from the Dollar Spot at Target a couple weeks ago. What can I say--it was cute!

In the area where I grew up in Ohio, we have a flea market phenomenon that's held in the countryside every Friday. It's the Rogers flea market and open-air sale, so called because it takes place right outside the town of Rogers, Ohio. People at home just say, "I'm going to Rogers Friday," and everybody know whatof they speak. Or as my niece Kylie asked my mom one day, "Does Grandpa have Rogers tomorrow?" Yes, my dad goes often enough that Kylie just assumed it was a weekly obligation, like church or Scout meetings.

When I was in college, Rogers was the summer treasure hunt spot for me and my friends. We had a friend at the time who was heavily into Partridge Family and other 70s collectibles, which in the late 80s were still considered junk and therefore easy to find. We picked up quite a few treasures at the sale, which has several separate elements. There are pole barns with tables and booths selling everything from produce to the finest plastic crap China has to offer. There's a whole alley of tables with more Chinese garbage--sunglasses, offbrand DVDs, cheap tools--and the requisite dusty Avon and Mary Kay boxes.

But there are a few aisles out in the pastures where junk dealers set up their old stuff. Antique dealers come, too, and set out things that are maybe too junky to sell for antiques, but still old and cool. This is my Nirvana.

Todd insisted that our Fourth of July visit this year stretch out to cover the Friday after the Fourth, so we could make it to Rogers for a pilgrimage. He goes in search of old dusty tools to add to his old dusty tool collection in the garage. I went this time in search of house treasures.

At an antique dealer's table, I found this fascinating lady:

She's made of metal, pretty solid, and she has a hole on her back which makes me wonder if she was attached to something--a lamp?-- in a previous life:

I set her in front of my 100-year-old daffodil watercolor that Todd got me for Valentine's Day a couple of years ago, and she looks perfect there. I absolutely love her!

From the same dealer, I got a yellow McCoy-lookalike vase with handles, and in another excursion sometime in the past few weeks, I picked up another yellow McCoy knockoff, expanding my antique collection to--three. (The vase on the far right is a Michael's special--but the one on the far left is a "real McCoy.")

I found this great piece at the Williamsburg antique mall, which is a place Todd and I like to stroll through a few times a year. The pottery is very lightweight, but the style of printing makes me think it's pretty old--19-teens or twenties? Plus, how many years has it been since a cook needed to keep a jar of sand in the kitchen?

The jar is residing on a shelf in my red sea-themed bathroom, waiting for a few more treasures to join it and make the display complete.

That same day at the antique mall, I came across this old U.S. map. It's in a very cheap poster frame, but the map itself (a giveaway from a Pittsburgh company) looks to be 70 or 80 years old. What I love about it is the quote printed across the top: "Breathes there a man with soul so dead, who never to himself hath said, 'This my own, my native land' ?"

The plan is to mat and re-frame it and hang it over the fireplace in the living room, but I thought it filled this empty dining room spot very nicely till then:

Finally a couple of garage sale finds...when Lisa was visiting in June, she and Todd went off garage-saling one Saturday morning, and came back with a tale of a wondrous sale where an older lady was selling stacks of vintage tablecloths and other treasures. Amazingly, Todd was able to retrace his steps and take me there, where I snagged this stack of tablecloths for $1.00 apiece:

I'd like to sell a few of them on Ebay, but I haven't taken the time yet to check and see what sorts of prices vintage linens are bringing right now.

At the same sale, I got this set of dessert dishes and plates:

And last for today, a bit of amateur artwork I found at a yard sale a couple weeks ago. It's signed on the back by the artist, who painted it as a Christmas present to the family in 1967. The frame has a chunk out of it, which is a shame, because otherwise I'd just leave it in its original frame, which seems to suit it better than a mat-and-frame set-up would.

I love old stuff!

Caterpillars for Kylie.

I took these pictures for my niece Kylie, who is a bug...I was going to say "bug lover," but "bug adorer" would be more accurate. These little buggers ate half of my enormous dill plant a couple weeks ago. Last year, at our condo, they munched my parsley plant down to a few bare stalks, but I guess this year the dill looked more appealing.

Maybe they'll come back to visit in their butterfly stage soon!

I'm baaaa-aaack.

Several people have informed me that I am being terribly neglectful of my blog. I admit it's nice to be missed.

I've been in a summer funk, where nothing seems important, and thoughts are too heavy or tiresome to write down. After many years of being a depressed person, I understand now that it's cyclical. It cycles in and out of my life, and the best I can do is just ride it out.

Sometimes when you're in the thick of it, it feels like you've always felt this way, that your whole life has been a feeble gesture in the face of despair, and you'll never be hopeful again. It's important to cling to reality and believe you'll feel good again. I'm better at that now...I understand myself better.

I'm lucky...the lows aren't as low as they were 10 or 15 years ago when depression really derailed my life. But yeah, last week was kinda low. No real reason, I guess it was just my time. I can point to a couple things, like summer heat and feeling sealed up in this house, but there's always something that my mind latches onto and turns into a reason for feeling bad.

I try not to write about feeling bad or cranky or angry here because I hate reading other people's whiny blogs, so I don't want to subject anyone to my whines. Anyway, this week is better.

In the calm between moods, I've hit several garage sales and flea markets and picked up some really interesting odds and ends for the house, so I will try to get some pictures up and running soon. I'm also purging my scraproom yet again for a community scrapbooking sale in a couple of weeks. I've really been ruthless, and I have several boxes going--fingers crossed I can sell it all and make some cash. The purging has gone hand in hand with a major re-arranging and re-purposing in my study, too, in an attempt to undo the effects of "just get it moved in, I don't care where you put it." Three moves in four years have really put a crimp in my organized life!

Anyway, I'll be back later, hopefully with pics.

Random thoughts.

-I'm going to do a rain dance--the sky is getting gray and I SO don't want to have to water my garden tonight!

-Once again, I'm down to the wire and wondering what projects to create for my home class tomorrow morning.

-I'm tired of having to think about what to make for supper.

-The crape myrtles are blooming and they are just gorgeous. I can see a white one and a purple one from my window, and there are hot pink ones out on the street, too.

-I want fall to come but I'm afraid of trying on my jeans and having none of them fit.

-I wish the summer Olympics were this year so there'd be something fun to watch on TV.

My ribbon rack.

The blog challenge at Two Peas today is to share a scrapping organization tip, and I've been wanting to share this great ribbon rack for months, so here's my chance.

Todd made this for me for Christmas. It hangs on the back of my scraproom door and I can thread all my ribbon spools on the dowels. Long unspooled bits of ribbon get wound onto empty paper towel rolls and threaded on, too.

This is such a convenience, I can't even tell you! Isn't Todd a sweetie?

I swept and mopped the kitchen and foyer floors, ran the dishwasher, emptied the dish drainer, washed some pots and pans, and tidied up. I still need to weed the front flower beds, but it is so hot and humid outside, and I can't make myself get up early enough to go out when it's bearable. I'm not sure it's ever bearable out there at this point, honestly.

Gardening seems like such a great idea in April...then you get into July and August, and it doesn't seem worth it to have to be out there in the heat, trying to keep your precious plants alive, while trying to eradicate the weeds which seem to have NO problem springing up, no matter how dry and fiery it gets outside. URGH.

In other news, I came across the August/Spetember Paper Crafts the other day, which has a "Project Fiskars" insert inside with some of my work from February...a frame, a school set, and a party set. Now I just need my paycheck for that...!

I found the Autumn Leaves "Freestyle" book finally, at my LSS. Better late than never, I guess. It's so far removed from my style, and yet I'm hoping to find some inspiration in some small ways. Now thatI have my housework mostly done, and my scraproom tidied up, I think I'll scrap a few pics this afternoon!

Pasta salad.

Today's blog challenge at Two Peas is to post a favorite BBQ/grilling recipe. One of my favorite things to make with grilled meat is a pasta salad. I came up with my own mixture, trying to emulate an antipasto type of thing.

You need:
one 16-oz box of your favorite pasta (I like rotini/corkscrews, and I used some wheat ones last time that held up really well and tasted great)
a 1/4-lb chunk of salami, cubed
a 1/4-lb chunk of provolone cheese, cubed
a few grilled red peppers (either homemade or from a jar)
a small jar of marinated artichoke hearts, drained and chopped
a handful each of chickpeas and kidney beans (can be omitted if you're cooking for a bean-hater like my DH)
half a chopped green pepper for crunch and color
a pint or so of grape tomatoes, cut in half
a bottle of "Just 2 Good" Italian dressing from Wishbone

Boil and drain the pasta, chop up all the goodies, throw 'em together in a big bowl, and squeeze as much dressing over it as you want. Start with less, then add more if it needs it. Last time, I used most of a bottle, which surprised me. Throw it in the fridge and let it sit for a couple hours before dinner. This is a super make-ahead side dish, perfect with grilled chicken and grilled sweet corn.

Pirates: crusty.

We went to see Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest tonight, and my primary thoughts about this flick were:

Crusty. And gooey.

I mean, look at this:

And this:

I wish I could find a picture of Will Turner's dad--he was crusty in the extreme. And gooey.

Everybody in this film was crusty, gooey, and/or in extreme need of dental treatment. And a hot soapy bath. Only the lovers, Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightley, looked semi-clean and non-nauseating.

Yeah, it was sorta fun, and yeah--even dirty, skeezy-toothed, eye-linered and fey, Johnny Depp is hot. Good swordfights and a few scenes that made my mouth drop open wondering how--even with stunt doubles and models--exactly how did they film that?

But mostly...just crusty. And gooey. Can't wait for number three--maybe it will inspire me to vomit right in the aisle! Good times.

And a few more pics.

I feel terrible that I didn't take any pictures of my side of the family...no pictures of my treasure hunt with Tanner and Kylie, no pictures of our picnic at my folks' that night. In my defense, I was exhausted that day!

All I got was a few pictures from Kylie's very first t-ball practice the night before we left for home. She's the girl in green, and her dad, my BIL Ky, is the coach. These kids could NOT have been any cuter!

When I first started scrapping, I was too much of a photog. A million pictures of every little thing--too many. Now I've gone too far in the other direction--I never have a camera handy when I need it, and I never seem to get pictures of the things I wish I had afterwards. There are so many people I left out of the photo record this visit! And when you only make it home a couple times a year, it feels so much more important to get everything on film. Or on memory card, to be more up-to-date.

I think that's partly why I stopped trying--it all felt so important, I started getting tired of feeling like I needed to have a camera attached to my face all day long. I'm wondering if I need to make a list of the pictures I definitely want during a trip, so I can at least get those, and not feel so bad about missing so much.

More vacation pics.

I seem to only be able to put a few pictures in a post now. Delightful!

Here's a few more pics, me with Miss G:

Todd's dad sailing his boat:

Todd driving the pontoon boat on a gorgeous chilly lake evening:

Me enjoying the sunset boat ride. It's been two years since I've been to the lake in the summer, and I forgot how wonderful it smells and how beautiful it is. It's honestly one of my favorite places on earth. So many happy memories there.

Back home again.

Got home Saturday from a week in Ohio over the Fourth of July. It was so nice in Ohio, I didn't want to come home. It was humid the first few days, but after a day of rain--on the Fourth--it got wonderfully cool. Still sunny, but a cool breeze--I mean, it was really heaven.

I had planned to spend most of the beginning of the week at the lake where Todd's folks live, getting more time in with my SILs and nieces and nephew. But my parents ended up having a few days free, and I spent quite a bit of time with them. It might sound silly for a 35-year-old woman to say, but I quite liked having some "mom and dad" time--having them all to myself. It happens very seldom, and it was really nice! I also had breakfast with a couple of my aunts, my sister and my cousin Janine, did a little shopping with my aunt Carol, and had a treasure hunt with Tanner and Kylie.

It's always hard when we're at home--no matter who I'm spending time with, I feel bad that I'm not spending it with someone else. Even with a week's time, there still wasn't enough time to see everyone I wanted, and to do everything I'd planned.

But it was still great. I hadn't realized how much I miss cornfields, and barns, and gently rolling hills. I honestly wished I didn't have to come back to Newport News.

Some pics:

Angelo, Evelyn and Gianna on my FIL's pontoon boat. I can't believe how big they all look!

Gianna and Angelo playing with balloons inside. The Fourth was so rainy, we had to do a few indoor things with the kids. The balloons kept them busy and happy for a good 45 minutes. Here's Todd showing them how to draw a face on a balloon. Then they deflated it and watched it get tiny!

Raindrops keep fallin' on my head.

Or they would if I ever left the house. Rainy, rainy, rainy. You wouldn't believe how much rain we've had the past week.

Not as much as Baltimore and D.C., but still! It's fascinating, too--you wouldn't even need radar pictures to tell you the rain is sweeping across in bands. It pours, peters out, almost clears up...and then you notice the sky has darkened again and the clouds are gathering to the west. Then it's pouring again.

Our normally-a-trickle creek down at the bottom of our yard is quite swollen. Last Friday we got about three hours of torrential rain, and the creek rose a good three feet, spilling out into the ravine like a little river. It's not that dramatic this week, as there are lulls between the cloudbursts. It's pretty full, though.

I've been checking other bookmarked blogs today, and it looks like June is a slow month for many of us. I could plead busy-ness the first few weeks of the month, but lately it's just ennui. Not sleeping well, not eating well, feeling very clouded over, just like the skies. It's a mild depression cycle, I recognize them quite well by this time. Nothing feels very important, or like it matters very much. I'm waiting it out, and figuring that a week in Ohio over the Fourth of July will ease me out of it somewhat.

When I come back from Ohio, the crackdown will happen. Time to take care of myself...I don't know why it's so hard to be good to yourself, but I suck at it! Probably because all the good things you have to do for yourself don't sound like fun--eating right, exercising, staying on top of finances, keeping the house tidy, yada yada. But they really make a difference, and I know it.

I'm enjoying the rain. It's a nice change of pace from hot, sunny and humid. We definitely have humid, but the temps are reasonable, and the cloudy skies make the house feel cozy and safe.

My new blog!

I decided to start a food blog, with recipes and food memories. It's called Fresh Sweet Corn--check it out!

I've been wrestling with Blogger for a couple of days, trying to get a few more pictures up. No luck yet, and I have a headache tonight, so no wrestling tonight. We got a massive thunderstorm through here late this afternoon, and the headache came along with the change in pressure.

Our creek has swollen awesomely with the couple hours' worth of heavy rain. Looks like a small river down there. Todd is very excited.

I got an e-mail from Simple Scrapbooks the other evening, asking for a layout for their December issue. As SS is my very favoritest magazine, I was pretty pleased! It's a page I did about baking fruitcake and my memory of the home-baked fruitcakes my grandpa used to send us.

Taught my at-home scrapbooking class today with four students, which is about all the dining table can hold anyway. We had a splendid time!

That's it, I'm beat.

Where I've been.

We waved off the last of our June guests yesterday morning. Todd's sister Lisa, her husband Tony and their girls Evelyn and Anna were here for four days, and we had a super time.

I was eager to spend some one-on-one time with the girls, especially Anna, who is almost two. Distance and work have really limited the time I've been able to spend with her in her short life, and I wanted to make up for that this weekend.

Anna is busy, busy, busy, but we did have some fun moments blowing bubbles and digging in the sand. We worked on naming "Aunt Janelle" and "Uncle Todd," and she completely amazed us, as they rolled down the driveway yesterday morning, by waving and saying quite clearly in her two-year-old dialect, "Bye, Aunt Janelle! Bye, Uncle Todd!"

Evelyn was my sidekick all weekend, which was great. I've spent a little more time with her, as she's almost four, but it's been few and far between, and she's always been a tiny bit shy with us. That was completely gone this weekend, and we colored with crayons and sidewalk chalk, tossed the soccer ball around, blew bubbles, had tea parties, cooked together, and watched DVDs together. She's just a pleasure to hang out with.

Here's Evelyn and Anna at the Yorktown beach:

The weekend before last, my parents, my sister Jenita, and her kids Tanner and Kylie paid us a short but action-packed visit. Dad had been promising the kids that he'd take them to the ocean this summer, and they were beyond excited. We went to Sandbridge beach, and I have never seen two kids have more fun than they did. Tanner and Todd jumped in the waves, and Todd showed Tanner how to boogie-board. Kylie looked for clams and crabs and other critters, and did a little small-scale boogie-boarding, too. It was such a fun day!

I'm having technical difficulties posting pictures all of a sudden, so I'll finish updating later. Stupid Blogger.

Summer plans.

Today's blog challenge at Two Peas seems particularly appropriate today:

Special family plans this summer, we all have them.
What are yours?
What are you doing that you consider SPECIAL this summer?
What are you anticipating?

Well, as we are heading into June, I'm actually anticipating quite a lot! Todd's sister Julie and her two kids are flying in tomorrow and staying till Monday.

Next Friday is my niece Marissa's first birthday party in Harrisonburg. My dad, mom, sister, nephew, and niece are all coming down for that, and then journeying on to our house to stay from Saturday till Monday.

The following weekend, Todd's other sister, her husband, and their two girls are coming for a long weekend.

The next weekend, my friend Cheryl and I are talking about running up to Chantilly, VA for the Great American Scrapbook Convention.

And the weekend after that is Fourth of July weekend, and we'll be heading up to Ohio for five days or so.

And there you have it--June, poof!--gone in the blink of an eye. I'm not sure what is happening the rest of the summer...there will probably be a short visit from my brother's family in there somewhere, but we won't have any vacation time left to take any fun trips. Such is the sacrifice of living so far away from family!

We spent Memorial Day weekend painting our downstairs half-bath red. Bright red. Tonight Todd is going to put in the new light fixture, towel bar, and TP holder. I painted the dark wood vanity white, and the doors red...but I had them outside to paint them, and the humidity has been off the charts, and the paint has never fully dried. Not too sure what I'm going to do about that...?

Anyway, home improvement chores combined with menstrual hormones = lots of muttered and not-so-muttered bad words. I hate to paint on a good-mood day...on a bad-mood day, it really sucks. Todd was a sweetie and took on most of it himself, since the bathroom isn't big enough for both of us to be in it at the same time. I still managed to drip pink primer and red paint on quite a few surfaces, though.

Oh, yes, the pink primer. I had the paint guy at Lowe's tint the primer for me since I figured it would take the red better. It was PEPTO pink. Pink Panther pink! We were cracking up as we slapped it on the walls...it gave off quite a rosy glow. Of course, so does the red. I'm not sure what I think about it, to be honest. I know when we turn around to sell this place, the potential buyers are going to moan and groan about it!

I'll post some pictures if we ever get it done.

Friday funk.

I've felt so BLAH the last couple of days! Just very nothing-going-on-upstairs. Blank, blah, blue.

I tweaked my neck and shoulder, either flying kites on Tuesday, or sleeping on our hard hotel bed Tuesday night, and that is definitely slowing me down and adding to the blahs.

In lieu of anything more interesting, here's a layout I did a couple weeks ago for an ongoing contest at Scrapforums. The topic for the first challenge was to use any part of the lyrics of the Dixie Chicks' new song, "Not Ready to Make Nice." We could use all of it or just a word or two, in the title or in the journaling.

The song is a pretty mad, defiant song, and I really don't "go there" in my scrapbooking. Plus, I'm not really in that kind of place right now in my life. I pulled virtually the only positive sentiment out of the song, the line: "It turned my whole world around, and I kind of like it."

I was going to scrap about some things in my life that seemed negative but turned out to have positive results. That seemed too complicated (and I'll be honest--too much thought involved), so I decided to scrap about how scrapbooking has turned my world around. I took pictures of all my tools and radiated those around my paper-pieced globe. I'm pretty pleased with it. I took it out on the sunny deck to photograph it, so the lights and shadows look a lot more extreme than they really are.

Got my "40 Techniques" book in the mail today, along with all my cards, so I updated my resume while I was thinking about it. It's seriously time to start submitting again!

Happy birthday, Grandma.

Thought I'd give Grandma her own separate post, because she deserves it! My Grandma Martin is 86 years old today. In the past five months, she's experienced a broken hip, with surgery, and a bad gall bladder, also requiring surgery, but she's doing well. I know life isn't completely easy for her, but she gets through with grace and a good spirit.

This picture is one that Grandpa took of her around the time they got married in 1943. It's been through quite a few years of bad handling since then. A couple months ago, Grandpa asked my mom to see if she could get the photo restored.

I talked to my dad last week, and he said the restored copy came out wonderfully--not a crease or rip to be seen. When my mom gave it to Grandpa, he got tears in his eyes and said to my dad, "Wasn't she beautiful?"

Well, she still is, of course. And she is very loved, and I hope she feels that love today in abundance. Happy Birthday, Grandma!