Janet's Smiles

Jim Adams has chosen the good reporter’s questions, Who, What, When, Where, Why and How as our theme for today.  So many possibilities!

This reminds me of when we were raising the kids.  If they wanted to go somewhere with their friends, we always told them not to bother asking us if they couldn’t answer the questions:  Who were they going with?   What were they going to do?    When were they going to be home?  Where were they going?  How were they getting there?  The Why was kind of obvious – to get away from their parents who asked too many questions – LOL. 

I wanted to use a song by Adele off her “25” album, “Why Do You Love Me?” but it seems there is no video for it.  It was a bonus track on that album, available only if you bought it from Target.  It is a really catchy tune and if you get a chance you should try and have a listen somewhere.   

So I decided to go with “Where Or When” written by Rogers and Hart, as sung by Rod Stewart on his “As Time Goes By” album.  He did a series of oldies called “The Great American Songbook” and this is on Volume II.  Quite a departure from his normal rock.  We’ve seen Rod a couple of times and I always have to check the setlist before my husband will go because this style is not his cup of tea.

 From a show my daughter and I saw in 2009:

That’s all I got for today.  Make sure to check out some of the other #SLS gang.  Pretty great songs out there.  Happy last day of June.  What am I gonna call the blog next month?     

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Today’s prompt from Linda is for/fore/four.  We get bonus points if we can use all of them.  Let’s see what I can manage…

FOR the last 22 years every September we have been going to Boulder Creek, California for a golf tournament that my husband and his friend started.  I can easily remember how long it has been since our daughter was born the year before and she will be 23 in November.  Of course being the scrapbooker that I am, every year has been well documented.

The first year of the tournament.  Rachel was 10 months old. 

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Jim has given us a nice topic this week, cards/dice/gamble/lose/win.  I had used Kenny Rogers’ The Gambler a while back so I searched for something different and came up with The Outfield, Winning It All.

I like the lyrics in the last verse.  “The time is right, my time has come.  Gonna give everything that I’ve got…”  There are some things in my life going on now that these words really inspire me to complete.  Hopefully I’ll come out a winner! 

Hope you have a great Sunday.  Happy listening to all the other #SLS offerings!

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Hey all!  We’ve transitioned to summer.  I love the warm weather but ours has been in the 80’s and 90’s which is too hot for my poor hubby.  We got an evaporation fan but of course as soon as we did the temperatures dropped.  Go figure.

The prompt for today’s Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “leaves.”  Before June “leaves” us, I thought I should post my entries to the Escapist Coloring Club.    Linda, whatever would I blog about if you weren’t so good at organizing these?

Most of the time I use markers to color with.  Sometimes I outline first with the markers and then color the inside with colored pencils.  For these two I used metallic gel pens.  I have to be careful to let the ink dry before putting my hand over that part or the ink gets all over and smudges.  The pictures don’t show it well but they have a metallic sheen to them. 

Lots of “leaves” in all my coloring.  I like to two-tone them too.  I’m making these to use as backgrounds in cards and things.  I am getting quite a collection though so maybe I better stop coloring and do some card making!  Happy Saturday all.       

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Today’s prompt from the lovely Linda is “social.”  I am definitely going to be social tonight as we are going to our favorite Mountain Winery to see Foreigner!  We have tickets in the second row, so maybe we’ll have another up close and personal experience.  Cross your fingers!

Stop by and check out the other #SoCS participants and see how they are being social today. 

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I haven’t written in a week!  That won’t do.  Have I been busy?  I don’t think so.  At least no busier than usual.  Perhaps lazy is the word?  Shameful.  I’ll have to rectify that.  Anyway, this week the prompt from Jim is Desire/Lust/Romance/Passion.  Quite a risky – risque’ topic!  I’m choosing one from Kenny Rogers called Morning Desire.

Short and sweet today.  It is roasting hot here (88 degrees) so I think I’ll go spend some time in my cool studio watching the Giants and crafting away.  Happy Listening!

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Jim, who has been doing a great job since taking over from Helen with hosting our Song Lyric Sunday fun fest has given us the prompt Avenue/Boulevard/Drive/Lane/Road/Street for today. 

I’m gonna choose Scorpions and “Melrose Avenue.”

Hope you all have a great Sunday.  Take a listen to the other participants in the group too.

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Blogging through the month of April with the 10th Anniversary A to Z Challenge has been such fun.  Even though I only had a brief idea of what I was going to blog about and having just moved all my craft supplies from inside our house to a new studio that we had built in the backyard, I managed to finish on time and I am pretty happy with the way the posts came out.  I had some fun creating things along the way and even made my first YouTube Vlog! 

I wrote about my cards and mini-albums and paper crafting in general, a subject that is a passion for me.  In case you missed any of the posts, here are links to them.

A is for A+
B is for Backpack
C is for Castle
D is for Duckie
E is for Easel 
F is for Feathers
G is for Gift Card Holders
H is for Honey Do
I is for Ideas
J is for Jar
K is for Kits
L is for Love
M is for Mini Albums
N is for Name Game
O is for Overlays and Owls
P is for Promotion
Q is for Quotes
R is for Repurpose, Recycle
S is for Special Orders
T is for Tools
U is for Unique
V is for Village
W is for Winging It
X is for Expo
Y is for YouTube
Z is for Zutter Bind It All

J. Lenni Dorner gave us a list of 10 questions since this is the 10th Anniversary…

1. What did you love about the challenge this year? —All of it.  
2. What would you change about it? — Nothing that I can think of. 
3. What was the best moment for you during this year’s challenge?  — Coming up with the topic of eXpo for “X” and Zutter instead of Zebra for “Z”.    
4. What is the best comment your blog got during the challenge, and who left the comment? — I was surprised by the great reception my craft work got from everyone.  I can’t pick one specific comment.  
5. Will you do the challenge again? — Absolutely!  Can’t wait.  Thinking of new ideas now.
6. Was it well organized and were the hosts helpful? (Did you fill out the after survey?) — Very well organized as always and yes, I did fill out the survey.  I have the survivor badge to prove it!
7. How did you and your blog grow, change, or improve as a result of this challenge? Did you find new blogs out there to enjoy? — I did find several new blogs (see below) and I stretched myself to make a YouTube video which turned out better and easier than I expected so I’ll bet I make more 🙂
8. Were you on the Master List? (If you did the challenge last year, was it better this time without the daily lists?) — I was on the Master List.  I don’t think it made much difference to me.  I posted on the main page and on the Facebook page almost every day.  
9. Any suggestions for our future? — I can’t think of any right now but I’ll let you know if I do. 
10. Any notes to the co-host team? A word of thanks to Jeremy for all his hard work on the graphics? A picture with your A to Z shirt, if you ordered one? — See below for my co-host team thanks.  I’ve seen the T-shirts and I may get one, just trying to decide which one.  I have a mug from my first year and use it all the time.  

One of the great things about the A to Z is finding new people who are out there blogging away too.  Over the past three years I have continued to follow a number of people that I met through the A to Z.  Among the most interesting bloggers I came across this year were (in no particular order):

Gigglingfattie at https://noloveforfatties.com  The name of her site intrigued me from the start because, hello, fat girl here.  She chose to write 500 word stories based on the pictures in a children’s A to Z carpet.  Her stories were so cute.

David Kravetz at http://lessbeatenpaths.com  David wrote about the alphabet using signs he came across while traveling America.  There are some very funny signs there and places I’ve never heard of.

Tamara at https://thethreegerbers.blogspot.com/ had a most informative series about the Justice System and used some true life stories to illustrate her words.

Mary at https://www.jinglejanglejungle.net gave us songs with a word that represented the letter of the day and asked us to think of more.

Donna at https://dbmcnicol.blogspot.com told her stories using random words and pictures. 

Eschudel at https://zombieflamingoes.com used a picture story-day in the life theme and I thought it worked really well.

Crackerberries at https://crackerberries.wordpress.com used whatever came to mind for the letters.  Did a great job too.

Shelley at https://www.quaintrevival.com is a blogger I’ve started following this year and she tried the A to Z for the first time.  She caught on really quickly and had a great first year!

Dena at https://denapawling.blogspot.com gave us a quiz a day using pictures and questions with the letter of the day.  Very fun.

I’ve seen Cherdo at http://www.cherdoontheflipside.com before with her music posts but have not been a follower.  She showed us different aspects of our lives that may/or may not mean that we are geezers.  I’m pretty sure I passed just about every test for inclusion in that category.

I made a copy for myself of the sign-up spreadsheet and I will be working my way around to find some more blogs that I missed during the next few months.  There’s never enough time to keep up with all 600+

It definitely helped me to do a draft page with each letter of the alphabet and the graphic (designed by the talented Jeremy Hawkins) that corresponds with it.  Then when I was doing research I had a place to put pictures I came across that I wanted to use and could add some links (like the link to the main A to Z page) and that saved time on the posts that were due that day.  Then even if I wasn’t quite sure how the post was going to end up, I at least had a starting off point.  I didn’t make a million dollars selling things in my Etsy shop but I know my views and visits to the site increased (wait, maybe that was because I was going there to link my items? – LOL).  At any rate, once again it was a very fun experience to be part of the A to Z family. 

A huge thank you to our founder Arlee Bird, John Holton, J.Lennie Dorner and the rest of the A to Z team.  I know there must be a lot of behind the scenes work that we are not even aware of and they certainly deserve a standing ovation.  Now it’s time to start thinking about next year’s topic! 

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It’s here!!!  The last letter in the 10th Anniversary A to Z Challenge is finally here.  I don’t know about you but I’ve had a really good time with this year’s challenge.  I haven’t had a chance to visit all 600+ participants but I have gotten to a few dozen.  I expect next month I’ll start making some more visits since it won’t be that busy.  I’m trying to think of a theme for the month.  Sometimes it seems like a letdown when April’s rush is over.

Anyway, for my letter “Z” I’m going to talk about the Zutter Bind It All machine.  When I talked about tools for the letter “T” I forgot about this one because it is something that I have had for a while but don’t use very much.  It is a machine that you can use to make your own books with wire binding.  I got it from Blitsy (an online creative supply store) during a sale for a steal. 

Wire cutters

as well as several different sizes and colors of wire binding.  There was also a project idea book with so many cute ideas for making different kinds of books and albums.  Look at that boot! 

It even came with some wood chip board covers and pre-cut pages so you could start making something right away.

Whew!  Done!  I hope you have enjoyed reading about my crafting experiences and that you’ve had a chance to visit my Etsy shop.  Please keep me in mind if you ever want something made especially for you or have an idea for a unique gift for someone else.  If you saw my Studio tour yesterday, you know I have A LOT of supplies for almost any theme.  Stay tuned for May 6 when we do a reflection post of our experiences this year.  One more big thank you and Happy Anniversary to Arlee Bird, the founder of the A to Z and all of his cohosts and helper bees.   

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Happy Monday!  We have the last two letters in the 10th Anniversary A to Z Challenge this week.   I am so happy that I have made it this far with no complications.  I was so involved with getting the Studio together in March that I had almost no time to prep for the A to Z and yet I managed to meet all the deadlines and have relatively (I hope) interesting offerings for each letter.

For the letter “Y” I am presenting a YouTube video walk through the new studio!  I have been wanting to try my hand at making some how-to videos.  I thought that starting with a tour of the studio would be fun.  I hope you think so too!

I left out some things I wanted to say and I’m sure I fumbled a bit but for a first attempt I think it is okay.  In case you want to see some of the companies I mention, I am linking them here:

The shed was made by The Shed Shop in Hayward, California.

The ScrapBox was made by The Original ScrapBox Company.

The binders are from Totally Tiffany.   

I hope you liked my video tour.  Do you think I could do more of them?  Have something you’d like me to demonstrate?  My niece said she wants to see more about the Junk Journal I mentioned so maybe that will be the next video.  Love any feedback.  Hope I didn’t scare you away and that you’ll come back tomorrow for the big finale!

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