Warning: Long Post Ahead
I have so much to post about that I may just break this up into more than one post. Let's start with the thank you. I got a great package from my Secret Pal 8, and she revealed herself. My Secret Pal was Cindy, in Colorado. She was a great pal and I really enjoyed all of my goodies. This was the last one:
There are a lot of good Colorado stuff there, so it's like I've been on vacation again, without leaving home! From the top, there is a box of tea, some Knit Picks merino style yarn, a bottle of Colorado water, then coming around back to the right, a lovely handmade dishcloth, some beautiful handmade stitch markers, a tin of "Knitting Girl" mints, some lip balm, a candle, a yummy bar of soap and some Colorado trail mix. Good stuff, all! I know this seems kind of odd, but I'm really excited about the water! I drink bottled water all day long and I love trying local waters. It's chilling in the fridge as we speak and I think I'll bring it to work today. I'm touched by the handmade stuff and definitely will put them to good use. Here's a close up of the yarn:
I've never tried the Merino Style before and it's really nice. Very soft and cushy. I love the turquoise and brown color combo, too! Cindy also sent me a bunch of post cards over the last three months, which was super fun! Here's most of them:
It was a really fun Secret Pal exchange again. Thanks for being a great Pal, Cindy! I also had fun being a Secret Pal for Jena. It was fun getting to know Jena through her blog and pick out some goodies for her.
I spent the weekend at Scrapfest 2006. It was my first time attending and it was really fun, but crowded. I was sick on Friday, so my plan to get there early to check things out didn't work, but I sucked it up and went for my class. There was so much going on, I went on Saturday as well, even though I hadn't originally intended to do so. I also went on Sunday, so I spent almost the whole weekend papercrafting. There were booths of papercraft manufacturers with make and take projects. Here are the projects I made throughout the weekend:
As you can see, most of them were cards, but there were also some little booklets and tags also. Mostly it was set up to give you ideas on techniques and supplies and I did get a lot of good ideas. I was kind of burned out on cardmaking and beading after doing projects every month for Project Spectrum, but this reignited my excitement. I am definitely a knitter and usually just do the other crafty stuff every now and again. Scrapfest is an Archiver's event and they had several larger make and takes available. You just bought the supplies (at a good discount) and they supplied all the tools and stuff you needed and tables to sit and make the projects. I bought pretty much all of the Archiver's make and takes and will be using some of them as gifts:
At the top is a music box, which includes a set of cards inside the box. In the middle are two big clothespins which you use to display a photo and a box with a small accordian photo book inside. On the bottom is a frame. I also took a couple of classes, all of which were for scrapbooks:
At the top is an accordian book inside a tin. At the bottom is an accordian book with a beach/vacation theme and a regular book with a birthday theme. I was disappointed in the first class, because they just basically gave us the tin and papers and told us to make it however we wanted. The beach and birthday books are really, really cute though. They had actual layouts and were really cute. I wasn't able to finish the first or birthday books, so I'll have to finish those here at home. I finished the beach book, but I need to put pictures in it. The classes cost extra money, but you do get quite a bit of supplies and the instruction which makes it worth the cost. It was nice to take a break from standing in line to do the make and takes and sit and make a bigger project, too. Overall, I thought it was a fun event and I think I'd go back again.
I also took the kids to see a movie on Saturday night:
This was a pretty uneven movie. There were a few good laughs, but a lot of the jokes fell flat. Of course the storyline was pretty predictable. There were also parts that just felt sort of tacked on as part of a checklist or something and not really a cohesive whole. The kids liked it though.
I also had Book Club on Sunday, but I ended up not making it there. I was running late, due to the Scrapfest stuff. Then I spilled an entire large mocha down my front, so I decided to just skip book club. I can't tell you how many cups of coffee I've dumped. I'm just too stupid to handle those lids - they pop off all the time. I should just carry a real cup and immediatly dump my coffee into that. Anyway, I hadn't finished the book anyway, so perhaps I wasn't meant to attend this month. This is the book we read:
I really had a hard time reading this book. It's written by a journalist who traced the path of his food in four different meals: a fast food meal from food from big industrial food production, an industrial organic meal, a small organic meal and a meal that he hunted and gathered himself. I got about halfway through the book. The first part is about "big food" and in particular, our reliance on corn - in the form of corn syrup, filler product and feed for the animals we eat. I hadn't really thought about it in that way and found it interesting, but it was also hard for me to embrace the idea of corn as the root of evil in our society, growing up in South Dakota. It's pretty detailed and densely written, so I struggled to read it. It picked up more when he turned to the organic farming alternatives, but I don't think I'm going to finish it. I decided to start reading a light mystery, the Besty Devonshire mystery that Cindy sent me in a SP package.
This weekend was also the start of football. I missed most of the games since I was at Scrapfest, but I did watch the big Manning v. Manning match up and then last night we watched the Vikings on MNF and then the Raiders/Chargers game later. It was the start of Fantasy Football for me too. I decided this year to just play in one league - the league I'm in with my brother and my friend Michael's brother. It's been a relatively stable league for years and it's fun since we all kind of know each other. I'm the only woman in the league and I've won twice. I've been competitive most years, with the exception of the year I took Daunte Culpepper first and he had a miserable year. Well, and other problems, but that was a double whammy for me. Some of these guys hate losing to a girl, which is fun for me. Unfortunately I lost my game this week, to the league commish, Michael's brother. It was close - if Randy Moss would have played his normal MNF game I would have crushed, but unfortuantely the Raiders are terrible.
I also have been knitting, but this post is already WAY too long, so I'll save that for next time.
There are a lot of good Colorado stuff there, so it's like I've been on vacation again, without leaving home! From the top, there is a box of tea, some Knit Picks merino style yarn, a bottle of Colorado water, then coming around back to the right, a lovely handmade dishcloth, some beautiful handmade stitch markers, a tin of "Knitting Girl" mints, some lip balm, a candle, a yummy bar of soap and some Colorado trail mix. Good stuff, all! I know this seems kind of odd, but I'm really excited about the water! I drink bottled water all day long and I love trying local waters. It's chilling in the fridge as we speak and I think I'll bring it to work today. I'm touched by the handmade stuff and definitely will put them to good use. Here's a close up of the yarn:
I've never tried the Merino Style before and it's really nice. Very soft and cushy. I love the turquoise and brown color combo, too! Cindy also sent me a bunch of post cards over the last three months, which was super fun! Here's most of them:
It was a really fun Secret Pal exchange again. Thanks for being a great Pal, Cindy! I also had fun being a Secret Pal for Jena. It was fun getting to know Jena through her blog and pick out some goodies for her.
I spent the weekend at Scrapfest 2006. It was my first time attending and it was really fun, but crowded. I was sick on Friday, so my plan to get there early to check things out didn't work, but I sucked it up and went for my class. There was so much going on, I went on Saturday as well, even though I hadn't originally intended to do so. I also went on Sunday, so I spent almost the whole weekend papercrafting. There were booths of papercraft manufacturers with make and take projects. Here are the projects I made throughout the weekend:
As you can see, most of them were cards, but there were also some little booklets and tags also. Mostly it was set up to give you ideas on techniques and supplies and I did get a lot of good ideas. I was kind of burned out on cardmaking and beading after doing projects every month for Project Spectrum, but this reignited my excitement. I am definitely a knitter and usually just do the other crafty stuff every now and again. Scrapfest is an Archiver's event and they had several larger make and takes available. You just bought the supplies (at a good discount) and they supplied all the tools and stuff you needed and tables to sit and make the projects. I bought pretty much all of the Archiver's make and takes and will be using some of them as gifts:
At the top is a music box, which includes a set of cards inside the box. In the middle are two big clothespins which you use to display a photo and a box with a small accordian photo book inside. On the bottom is a frame. I also took a couple of classes, all of which were for scrapbooks:
At the top is an accordian book inside a tin. At the bottom is an accordian book with a beach/vacation theme and a regular book with a birthday theme. I was disappointed in the first class, because they just basically gave us the tin and papers and told us to make it however we wanted. The beach and birthday books are really, really cute though. They had actual layouts and were really cute. I wasn't able to finish the first or birthday books, so I'll have to finish those here at home. I finished the beach book, but I need to put pictures in it. The classes cost extra money, but you do get quite a bit of supplies and the instruction which makes it worth the cost. It was nice to take a break from standing in line to do the make and takes and sit and make a bigger project, too. Overall, I thought it was a fun event and I think I'd go back again.
I also took the kids to see a movie on Saturday night:
This was a pretty uneven movie. There were a few good laughs, but a lot of the jokes fell flat. Of course the storyline was pretty predictable. There were also parts that just felt sort of tacked on as part of a checklist or something and not really a cohesive whole. The kids liked it though.
I also had Book Club on Sunday, but I ended up not making it there. I was running late, due to the Scrapfest stuff. Then I spilled an entire large mocha down my front, so I decided to just skip book club. I can't tell you how many cups of coffee I've dumped. I'm just too stupid to handle those lids - they pop off all the time. I should just carry a real cup and immediatly dump my coffee into that. Anyway, I hadn't finished the book anyway, so perhaps I wasn't meant to attend this month. This is the book we read:
I really had a hard time reading this book. It's written by a journalist who traced the path of his food in four different meals: a fast food meal from food from big industrial food production, an industrial organic meal, a small organic meal and a meal that he hunted and gathered himself. I got about halfway through the book. The first part is about "big food" and in particular, our reliance on corn - in the form of corn syrup, filler product and feed for the animals we eat. I hadn't really thought about it in that way and found it interesting, but it was also hard for me to embrace the idea of corn as the root of evil in our society, growing up in South Dakota. It's pretty detailed and densely written, so I struggled to read it. It picked up more when he turned to the organic farming alternatives, but I don't think I'm going to finish it. I decided to start reading a light mystery, the Besty Devonshire mystery that Cindy sent me in a SP package.
This weekend was also the start of football. I missed most of the games since I was at Scrapfest, but I did watch the big Manning v. Manning match up and then last night we watched the Vikings on MNF and then the Raiders/Chargers game later. It was the start of Fantasy Football for me too. I decided this year to just play in one league - the league I'm in with my brother and my friend Michael's brother. It's been a relatively stable league for years and it's fun since we all kind of know each other. I'm the only woman in the league and I've won twice. I've been competitive most years, with the exception of the year I took Daunte Culpepper first and he had a miserable year. Well, and other problems, but that was a double whammy for me. Some of these guys hate losing to a girl, which is fun for me. Unfortunately I lost my game this week, to the league commish, Michael's brother. It was close - if Randy Moss would have played his normal MNF game I would have crushed, but unfortuantely the Raiders are terrible.
I also have been knitting, but this post is already WAY too long, so I'll save that for next time.
rdladd@arnan.com
