Thursday, May 29, 2008

Free photos!

Hey Shay, Mel and Steph,

Since you girls comment I will write to you. Anyone new reads and comments I will write to them.

Back to the free photos, I just discovered that at www.mycokerewards.com one of the rewards is 20 free prints from Snapfish (with only 64 points). I was pretty happy since I spent $35.00 at Snapfish last month.

Also if you have not signed up with mr.rebates what are you waiting for and tell them I sent you. If you do any online shopping at all, it is awesome! Shay you signed up - have you used it?

I love little extra easy ways to rack up fun freebies. Anyone know of others?

Mel - the pictures from Facebook are not a high enough resolution for me to print - can you send them to me?

Steph - send me your address, I have a surprise for you.

Tuesday, May 27, 2008

How I kicked off the summer of 2008!

This past Memorial Day weekend was weather wise one of the best I have ever seen. Every day was sunny and perfect temps.

I spent most of the day Saturday in my craft room. It had been quite a few weeks since I had a chance to spend any time on any creative projects and I was missing it. I worked on some thank you notes that I am really late in sending and another 6x6 scrapbook project that I have been having fun working on lately.

Sunday, Ernie and I rode the Harley to DC to be a part of Rolling Thunder "Ride for Freedom". That event is one of my most favorite. We decided to watch instead of ride in it. It ended up being just the two of us which worked out well - we did not have to worry about anyone else in the crowds and after about an hour we were ready to go. The news reports say that 350,000 bikes participate in the event in total. It is so cool to see that many bikes in one place.

We stopped home, changed cars, got the dog and drove to NJ to visit my mom. Monday, we spent the day at one of my favorite events - Bob Brooks auction in Malaga, NJ. We arrived about 9:30 not the early bird gets the worm auctioning but we were able to score some good stuff. To the lady who roots around and picks out the one thing that she wants out of the box and then holds it up for it to be bid along - thanks for taking all the fun out of an auction. Bob Brooks now has a 13% buyers premium. As we were checking out, they mentioned it. I got to say "when I first started coming here, there was no buyers premium" They said that was a long time ago, like 10 years. I said yep, I have been coming here for 12 years. OH what did I score, a cool retro pale blue fan, an apothocary jar, 4 boxes of Christmas ornaments. My mom got a glass brick (we bought that from someone on the side - I LOVE those cash transactions!) and two glass battery jars and a sewing stand. I just like to go and poke around the antiques.

When we got home, after a quick nap, we prepared a delicious dinner. Pioneer woman your jalopenos wrapped in bacon - YUMMY!

All and all - a perfect weekend - scrapping, harley riding, and juking!

By the way, if you are reading this - post a comment - I would like to know that I am not talking to myself.

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

$$$ saving tip!

While having some things checked at the beach house, the repairman from Del Mar Appliance was a wealth of information. He gave me two tips which made a ton of sense and I thought I would pass them along - just before you run your dishwasher (finally have one back in my kitchen!!) run the kitchen sink until the hot water comes out. That way the water that goes into the dishwasher is hot from the beginning. He said it takes a long time for the dishwasher to heat the water. I tried to find supporting research for this. He also said that you really only need about a teaspoon or two of detergent.

Tuesday, May 06, 2008

Jukin'!

Spring means many things for people - Baseball season or flowers, or gardening - for me it means Saturday mornings of Jukin' - my Aunt Phyl and Aunt Mary invented this word - it means shopping and junking and just checking out the local stuff. For me, it means yard sales mostly and maybe a craft fair and maybe a festival.

Last Saturday, I was up and out at 8am. I have a list of things I look for - cute clothes, vintage jewelry, anything polka dots, books, apothocary jars, tupperware, pink kitchen stuff. This week, I hit a few sales. Then I headed to the Landon Festival - and got the cutest apothocary jar. I also saw some cute ideas which added an ornate frame to my yard sale list!

This week, again up and at the neighborhood sale by 8 and I scored a Waterford vase!! since it was in the neighborhood, Ernie and Diesel came too! I got all the way home and went back for a pampered chef stone (I broke mine - FYI - they are not meant to broil on!) We also went to Wine in the Woods this year in Columbia - two words - Never Again! The lines were terrible, just not my scene. Glad I finally got to go - and check it off my list.

Thursday, May 01, 2008

Scrap ETC

The whole reason I started my journey to Nashville was to attend Scrap Etc with my scrappin bff's (list is long but if you are reading this blog you are absolutely one of them!!). It was held at the Gaylord Opryland Hotel (big, pretty, expensive!) I was a member of the illustrious group C - Brittney was an awesome leader. Thursday evenings welcome ceremony was a good introuduction of everyone and then we headed to a class team-taught by Danelle Johnson and Kristi Sikora-Blankenship. This was for me the most inspiring time of the whole event - Kristi was my favorite speaker by far - she is excited and she talks FAST!! What I really related too is that now she works for a construction company and scrapbooking is a hobby - just like me! I loved her samples and her ideas and her glue and go theory really woke me up. When I scrapbook, I spend too much time focused on details and not enough time glueing stuff down.



The only repeat teacher for me was heidi. Her project was totally my colors and a very cool idea. Jenni Bowlin (sad but I slept in and missed a little of this class), Gretchen MacElveen, Vanessa Hudgen, Angelina Wiggleton, Vilna Furstenburg, and Monique McLean - each project was a unique take. SNL - let's chalk it up to it was a very long weekend and by that point things just got rough.



Two really cool things about the weekend was Amy Tan from Amy Tangerine was there selling her t-shirts and I got the cutest one (and she had a lot to choose from in my size) I have always loved her stuff! The other cool thing was a singer/song writer Amanda Hudson was there and her songs are the perfect blend of a nice message and folksy music to remind you of why you scrapbook - and her perfect scrapbook day song is sooo stinking cute. I am so glad I got to buy that CD. I really love to support artists/entrereneurs.



I got lots of fun supplies at all of the stores I was able to visit.



I drove home Sunday and honestly it wasn't too bad. I left about 7am and pulled in my parking space about 6pm. I spent most the time on the phone with my mom recapping the week. I accidently left something behind so I spent some time on the phone working to recover it. I listened to my new CD. I saw some really pretty parts of the USA - love the mountains.

Nash Trash

On Thursday in Nashville, I had signed up for the Nash Trash Tour. First we had a little contest to see who could dress the trashiest. I did not win - shoot I did not even try - but it was fun to cheer. Then we boarded the big pink bus and proceeded to laugh our heads off - those girls are so funny and they had so many great one liners - when they hooted and hollered to the Firemen to show us their hoses, and their celebrity sightings. We also stopped off quickly at the Country Music Hall of Fame - as soon as I walked in I knew that I had to see the whole place.



After the tour, Mel and I hightailed it to one of the scrapbook stores to pick up some bags, stopped at Sonic for some drive in food - LOVE that place my stomach felt funny from sitting in the back of the bus so I just had a chili cheese dog.



And then, we went back to the motherland! The Country Music Hall of Fame was amazing - and I loved it. From Elvis solid gold cadillac to Hank Williams boots to dresses from Faith Hill ( I love the costumes and the embroidered boots) - I was mesmerized. I have not always been a country music fan - I was introduced to it in college. It was the summer that Garth Brooks had the song That Summer. Since 1992, I have seen loads of shows and I do have an appreciation for the oldies. Seeing all of the memorabilia and hearing great stories about country music simply renewed my love for it. I am now a member of the museum which means I can go all I want for free for a year!! and I bought a ton of souvenirs there!