The Florida Trip

Stacy and I recently returned from a vacation/business trip. (Stacy had to be in Orlando, FL by Thursday for a trade show on Friday and Saturday.) Our adventure by car took us through Missouri, Arkansas, Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, and Florida. We had driven to Georgia to see my sister in Atlanta before. The last full week of February found temperatures in the south in the mid-70's to low-80's. Perfect. Our route was (more or less) based on the locations of Harley Davidson dealerships. Southaven, MS was one of our favorites. The people there were super friendly and the dealership was huge! Across the parking lot was an awesome bar/grill called The Fillin' Station. We went over for a drink after we finished at the dealership, then ended up there for supper. I found it interesting that the lunch and supper menus were different. I had my first taste of Gumbo there -- it was AWESOME!! This place had so much character! And it was huge, too, both inside and out. You can see that they sport a pretty spiffy upper deck for music and other special events.

While taking a scenic route through downtown Mobile, AL, we noticed a few buildings with some pretty cool architecture. I would love to go back some day and find out what was in some of those buildings or tour them. We also noticed that they were getting ready for some sort of event. Road barracades were set up in parking areas and a few carnival-type (sno-cones, funnel cake, etc.) kiosks were set up in parking lots. We learned later that day that they were getting ready for Mardi Gras!! (We made it through just in time!! What a mess that would have been to get lost in!) Apparently, Mobile is the original home for Mardi Gras. Who knew?!

We overnighted in Pensicola, FL. The next destination was Daytona. We spent about a day and a half in Daytona. It was a week before the start of Bike Week, but the areas we saw were getting ready! I think our first stop was Bruce Rossmeyer's Destination Daytona. I have a lot to write about from this stop, so I'm going to break it down into smaller posts. Stay tuned!

Shameful...............

Have I really been neglecting my blog ----- again? The truth is, I've had so much to write about that the layout was giving me enough mental anguish to put it (posting) on hold. But enough! I needed a new background, too. If you read my blog, you'll just have to get used to the mix of crafting posts and motorcycle posts. I considered having 2 blogs, but, as I've just said, I can't manage the one I have!! So anywho, if you're here because you're interested in my motorcycle tidbits, welcome and please feel free to skip over the crafty posts. I know the thought of glue and paper makes some wrinkle their nose in disgust. If you're here because you're interested in my crafty posts, welcome and please feel free to skip over the motorcycle posts. I know the thought of riding on the back of a motorcycle makes some of you roll your eyes and shake your head in disgust. So there. That's sounds a bit like a disclaimer, and I guess it really is. At any rate, why-ever you're here, please leave me a post and tell me what you think about any of my posts. Thank you kindly.

Valentine's

I only got a few valentine's done this year. Bummer. I need to make my holiday cards 6 months in advance! I used a couple of Paper Crafts magazines for inspiration. The straw card is my own creation -- imagine that!! (Front and inside greeting shown) I used dotted swiss mini file folders from Dollar Tree for the LOVE and BE MINE cards.

Fun With Fleece

I spent a couple of evenings making scarves I've seen on the internet. This one is made up of circles. I cut all of my circles on the AccuCut machine at work. That saved me tons of time. Like 72 circles worth of time! Each "puff" is made up of 8 circles. (see picture at left) I sewed 9 "puffs" together to make a short neck scarf to wear with my new red pea coat. Cute!

I spent 20 min. figuring out how to put the circles together. Lots of trial and error. Once I had that figured out, it took me less than an hour to finish. Cost: $2.98

Found a picture of this
scarf on the internet as well. Mine isn't as cute as the one shown. For one thing, my fleece is too heavy. Secondly, I am too much of a perfectionist to make the uneven big loopy ruffle the picture showed. Consequently, it's a little bulky. Unhappy with the ends, I took the very tiny scrap that was left and made it into ruffled borders. Kind of a nice touch. This also took about an hour and cost $2.98.

If you'd like more details, leave a comment or shoot me an email. susankmast@hotmail.com

I have one more picture of a scarf I like. I'll try to get that one done soon.

New Cards

After being totally disgusted with both of my scanners, I've decided to go back to taking pictures for my blog. I've made a bunch of cards since the Thanksgiving bunch, but I don't have pictures. I should have taken pictures before I sent them, but I didn't. Life goes on.

Sooooo...............anywho...............here are 3 new ones I created on my "snow day". It was so wonderful to finally be back in the studio after 3 weeks of being sick. (Ack!) These are really lumpy, so I probably won't be able to send them in the mail. Oh, well.

This is my first attempt at a shaker card. I was unpackaging some Karen Foster (I think) snaps, and it occured to me that these little compartments would be fun to fill for a shaker card. The upper left has icy-blue seed beads, upper right is 3 pieces of snowflake "confetti", lower left is a Jolee's-type snowman, and the bottom right has 4 colors of sequins. Background paper is Miss Elizabeth's.

I really love working with black. When I ran across this scrap of black and creme paisley, I knew I had to use it with another page from a pamphlet I had out. And then it grew. I just kept digging for other "stuff" that would work with my color scheme. I found a black feather some white crocheted trim (stamped with Color Box chalk), a Jenny Bowlin card, a piece of black ric-rac, a bingo marker (thanks, Lynn!) and some old, discolored crepe paper. There was already a hole punched in the paisley paper, so I decided to work with it.

A couple of things that make this card significant to me and the recipient, is that our shared birthday dates are marked with tiny gold stars on the bingo card, and the bingo marker represents the number of years we have been friends. Pretty cool, huh?

This one is "lifted" from the Nov./Dec. issue of Paper Crafts magazine. (Thanks, Tina!) I was inspired by her use of the red and khaki gingham ribbon with a snowflake, both of which I had in my stash. The snowflake center is made up of two stacked buttons. I covered the tag with page from an old pamphlet and added 3 punched/inked snowflakes at the top, popped up for dimension, then added the little "wonder" sticker at the bottom. The snowflakes were inked with my favorite Color Box Chalk color, Creamy Nutmeg.

Okay, boys and girls, that's all for this time! Thanks for sharing some of your day with me!

Simple

Create your own scrapbooking design

With no scheduled gatherings at my house this season, I scaled back my decorating to the bare minimum. I only got out a few Santa's and made my tree and coordinating gifts the focal point. I have this thing about having my paper match my tree. I don't like a hodge-podge of papers clashing with my tree! As soon as I can find a new tree, I'll bring back the fancy stuff and more traditional themes.

Thanksgiving cards

Tis the season for Thanksgiving cards. (Not very good scans. Had to usea different program. Yuk.) Nothing fancy, but they were fun to make. I don't use the "coordinating" stuff very often, but I did use some products by Reminisce to speed up the process. I can't make a card without some embellishments. But look!! No ribbon!! It may be a first for me. I hope everyone enjoys the day with the ones they love.