"R"

"REUSE"

You all can't imagine my glee when I saw this attached to the wall of my 16 year old's "territory" in our home.

This is the "guts" of a 3 ring binder that has been "REUSED" instead of going into the garbage and then to a landfill. It is being held to the wall with simple tacks (not sure how long it will stay; but dang, I am giving this teenager big points for the idea!). I know some are saying how insignificant, but I truly believe anything that can be "REUSED" and more importantly that is "REUSED", is a grand thing.

Now, what has happened to the rest of the binder, you all may be asking? I must be truthful and admit I have no idea! LOL.

And for any of those who may be interested...yes, the sling back bag is from the Red Bull Soccer Team...we have special fondness for this team as this teen was trained for 2 years by a Red Bull Goalie Trainer.

Dremelin' Along

I am responsible for this, I'll admit it.

Hubby purchased a dremel a couple of years ago. What a fun tool!!!! I just couldn't help myself. I carved and carved & carved. This is made of Black Birch. Friends of ours have land in the Catskills & this tree fell over during a storm. They cut it into pieces for me & I gladly hauled it home. I only worked on this less than a week. I first had to find the stencil. Then I drew shape on to bark. Then the fun began & I started carving with the dremel. Didn't take me long to realize I needed to wear some kind of eye protectant.

Now, I am not sure how many of you may or may not know, but birch bark & twigs smell like...
yup you guessed it....BIRCH BEER. I loved birch beer as a kid. It was always such a treat. Well, any kind of soda was a treat, but Birch Beer was by far my favorite!

I was quite sad when I finished as this project as it had been so delightful to both my sense of smell & sense of sight. I could not believe how nice it was coming out! Especially, for not having really ever used power tools of any kind before. I have since used a jig saw for some very nice Cub Scout projects. But really don't have much desire to use other powered tools -chain saw - no thanks; table saw - once again no thanks; power drill, power stapler, power hammer, power washer - yeah I'd probably be up to using those if the right projects came along.

My husband was kind enough to spray some kind of protectant on each piece. He also always remembers to put them in the garage each winter. So this will be our 3rd, maybe 4th summer with them displayed in our front yard. I will be sad to see them go when it is time.

Now how come none of you Scouters let us in on this tool secret when it came time for Pine Wood Derby? I never liked the Pine Wood Derby because I never felt it was a kid friendly building event. After I discovered the dremel, I took a 180 degree turn in that thinking. Of course, I only had one more car to make in our Scouting career. (We switched every 2 years back & forth from Pinewood to Rain Gutter Regatta).

BTW -- I had so much fun, I did try to carve a stamp or 2 with the dremel...nope not too successful...LOL. Dremel & rubber just didn't seem to be very compatible, at least for Maple Leaf Red.

Yarning II

This is my second baby security blanket. Well actually, I made these for my boys to snuggle with as well, but they were not infants at the time. The pattern is an easy peasy shawl. It is a simple knit, knit knit. It is loopy because of the needle size I used. This one is blue & made of a cotton blend. The first infant one I made was a cream color with a brown edging. The first one, the cotton is far more softer, but that yarn I bought at yarn shop & hunted & hunted for awhile with my mom before we found exactly what I was searching for. The colors matched the nursery (earthy tones) and the yarn purposely was "green" as I know the parents are concerned about everything this very special child has contact with!
The more each of these are washed the softer they will become! Luscious!

These are 2 cute little book worms I have made. The book is a mystery regarding knitting & crocheting. Something along the lines of a "teacup" mystery. Not so sure I really enjoy the writing, but it is not a book I have to really focus on to get what is happening. Sometimes we need simplicity in our lives.

Here is a whole family of bookworms. I will give these to our PTA to sell at our annual Holiday Sale in November. Each one takes about 10 to 15 minutes to make. I used variegated yarn as I am hoping that will appeal most to elementary school aged children.

I also made some for a dear friend, (we are going to call her Bull Dog - 4 foot 3 inches tall, but jeez don't mess with anyone she cares for cause she will take you on and you will probably be surprised with the end results), who has been great company my mom for the last couple of months while Mom has been recovering from a difficult personal experience. Bull Dog has an annual Craft Fair at her place of work each year. I figured these would sell quickly because they are cute & cheap!! Bull Dog can always use some extra spending money.

Cute lil fella don't you think?

Why I Letterbox

And thus begins the tale of my Fall 2008 Letterboxing Adventures in Central New York...

One never knows what one will "happen upon" when letterboxing. I snapped this picture last fall while boxing in CNY with CritterLiz. We were "detouring" - although we did not know that at the time - and came across this home. Now, I've seen many things attached to homes for decorations, but gosh darn it this one just "creeps" me out a bit! I can't help but giggle; and yet at the same time wonder what they may have attached to their home during the winter months....

Some situations are just so funny!! You have to love the humor of this "Port-A-John" company! This Potty has been set very close and when I say close, I mean CLOSE to a Propane tank...how can one not but giggle just thinking about the placement of the john and the many forms of "Gas" there are in our world....

While we are the subject of "gas". I snapped this one at dusk once again while "detouring" around the Cortland area. When someone mentions Cortland to me, I think College Hockey, Cortland College, Cuzin Scott (he went to college there), farms. Although, why this work of "art" surprises me so much, I am not sure. As farming & gas do go together!

Speaking of "Art", what a lovely surprise we had when we decided to hunt for one box. This is a family "Art Gallery" at an abandoned farm, where all art is made from scrap metal. I believe they also have a place down in North Carolina. AMAZING AMAZING pieces of art on display here! Unfortunately, all pieces of art for purchase were beyond my budget, maybe I'll be able to purchase when "Pigs Fly". But I sure did appreciate the talent!!! Lots of ahhhs and ohhhs from our entire party.

What can I say but, "When Pigs Fly"

This excursion happened in the Fall of 2008, but recapping it just now has brought many smiles and giggles to my face. We had one really tough challenge at a park. We actually played a relay style game of jumping over each other to find this particular box because there were so many people in the park. We had all the kids lying down at all the benches in the park and we played the "caterpillar" relay game. We finally found the "box"...only to discover it was a GEOCACHE; then we had to play an obnoxious game of "toss" the ball to get the people to leave the bench so we could replace the geocache at one end of the bench & retrieve the letterbox that was on the OTHER end of the bench. Fun Fun Fun & made us use inventive styles of hunting...LOL.

I wish to thank all the planters in this area for giving us a great adventure that weekend. To name just a few..Scout, Red Barn Photos, Lock Wench, AceoHearts, etc., etc. This was one road trip CritterLiz & I will never forget. If any of you get the chance to box in this area, I strongly urge you to do so!!! You will not be disappointed. The stamps are wonderful along with the places the planters will bring you to.

The Rolling Hills Of VA

"FAIL"

...at least by this picture I snapped..according to my 16 year old..LOL This picture was taken on our ride home from Knoville, TN where we went for the "Global" finals for the Destination Imagination" Program Stewie particpated in this year.

I almost deleted this picture straight away from my camera, but my "driver", CritterLiz, thought it was very funny.
Now just think about this for a couple of seconds. We were driving about 74 MPH and I happened to snap a picture of the backside of an advertising sign just about right in the middle of the picture!

What are the chances? Think you can do it?? LOL...

Relaying

This past weekend we participated in the Relay For Life Event held in our small town. For those of you who may not know what this event is about, I will give a brief explanation. It is sponsored by The American Cancer Society. Teams sign up to participate in a Relay style event which lasts for about 15 hours. The objective is to have at least one of your team mates on the track at all times. Sounds easy enough. But let me tell you the track does seem to get pretty sparse between the hours of 2:00 AM and 5:30 AM. LOL.



We hold this event every other year in our town. We are a very small "blue collar" town. One must to commit to raising at least $45,000. A lot of monies for this economy right now. Last time we held this event we raised $75,000. Well done to us!!! We worked hard & most of the town participated. We weren't quite as fortunate this time around, but we did go over the $45,000 minimum. We had far less participants this year. So I congratulate all that were there for digging deeply into their pockets for this great cause. "Great Cause" you might say...I think so, since my hubby is a cancer survivor & my good friend, CritterLiz, is also a survivor.



For those of you who have never participated in a Relay Event it is quite special to those of us who have been touched by this disease...whether you are a survivor or a care giver to a survivor or maybe a care giver to someone who has lost the battle against this disease. We all pull together to raise monies to end the many facets of cancer. We raise monies to go to research & to help those that are going through treatments now.



Our "Stewie" found himself involved in a competition among friends for the event. Each lap completed, earned a bead; every fifth round one received a star. (see picture above) Stewie went to bed about 4:15 AM that evening (with 53 beads) and asked me -- the Mom to take over. He walked for about 4 hours and did 53 laps. I walked for 1 and a half hours with his beads and earned only 15. He was racing around that track!!! Crazy kid!!!



One "Money Grabber" we do at the event is "Jail and Bail" -- a screen house is our jail. One can buy a "warrant" for $5.00 and our Sheriff will "arrest" the villain and bring them to the "Jail" and they must post a $1.00 bail to be released. I started it off this year by putting warrants out for each of my boys. It told one because "it's just plain fun", I told another it was because "he was too cute"; and the other was because he is a "good sport". The funniest one of the night was from an 11 year old girl who "arrested" her Mom because "she wasn't on the track"!!!! Way too funny! And who doesn't want to be "arrested" by a guy wearing this hat...LOL!! (BTW..our "Sherrif" for the night a Volunteer Fireman & could not wait to don that hat on for the evening! He had many "Deputies" (boys & girls age 3 to 13) helping to grab those who thought they could "run" from the law...LOL



Were we tired the next day? You bet! Should we have been tired? You bet! I was very impressed by one team this year. I know they had some "special" beverages at their tent, yet they were one of the few teams that managed to keep at least one person on the track at ALL times & usually there were 2 of them on the track...Thank You to the "Cooler Ones" team. Your dedication to the cause was inspiration to all of us who made it through the night!! I thank you personally!

I went to sleep from 12:00 to 2:00 that evening. Then again at 9:30 Am the next morning til 1:30. My spouse went to bed at 3:30 AM; to be woken up at 6:15 AM for closing ceremonies; took oldest son to soccer game at 10:30 AM & finally rested again at 2:00 PM.



An exhausting day & night? Yup...Worth every moment of it? Yup! I do hope if any of you are asked to participate, I do hope your say "YES!" It is not an event you will ever regret being a part of, I promise.