Marvelous Monday Update 9/2/2024

 I just came off of a four day weekend. Gotta love those!  For my U.S. readers, did you do anything special over Labor Day weekend?

PLANNER UPDATE

Back in May I mentioned I'm trying my hand at using a crafty planner to keep track of what I'm working on, (loosely) manage goals, and track my finishes.  This POST talks about how I'm going about doing this.

Well... I fell off the wagon... BUT, I got back on and am trucking along to get caught up.  I've filled a couple more Finishes pages.

I created a new section for when I visited Liberty Hill Needleworks in Williamsburg, VA back in July.  If you're ever in the area, you HAVE to visit.  It's a beautiful shop with lots of models and charts nicely displayed.  They have a website and a FB page.  

I also updated the month-at-view pages in my planner.  More on those another time.

WEATHER

My area had excessive heat warnings Monday and Tuesday of last week.  

Both days registered 106-107F heat index temps.  Actual temps were 99-101F.

It was HOT-HOT-HOT!  On the hottest days of the year, my 3-year old central air until became my nemesis. 

Despite the thermostat being set on 60F for over 24 hours, the temperature in the house didn't drop below 78F.

Thanks to a suggestion of a friend, I slept in the Casita with the AC on.  I actually got cold!

A heating and air company came to look at the unit and said the compressor is going bad.  They are checking into whether it's covered under warranty.

A cold front came through Wednesday and the skies were filled with huge clouds.

WATERCOLOR FUN

I had a four day weekend so I spent one day working on some Halloween postcards I created with watercolor.

 Aren't they cute?

 

Speaking of Halloween, there are some new neighbors up the street from me who are in the process of decorating for the holiday.

 

Mr. B. wasn't a fan when I took him for a walk by there.  With his "ferocious" growl, all 4 lbs. of him let them know to stay away. LOL

 

CASITA NEWS

Since I had four days off work in a row, I spent three of them working on more oxidation removal.  I am SO close to being done.

When I took the spare tire off to do the lower half of the back, there was a stain where the tire cover ground the dirt into the fiberglass.

Some elbow grease took most of it off.  With oxidation cleaner, polish, and wax the stain can hardly be seen.

My coworker said she drove by house and said that the Casita looks so shiny from the street.

The tire cover was quite grimy and needed sewing repairs.

 

I cleaned it up best I could and did the repairs.  

 

 

I decided not to get a new cover because when I get a new spare tire, the cover size will change.

The final project I did over the weekend was paint the bumper.  When I took the tire off, I saw there was some rust forming on the bumper beneath the tire.

I covered and taped off the backside. Can't take a chance of over spray landing on the white fiberglass!

 

 

A bit of wire brushing to get the loose rust off before Mr. Rustoleum and I went to town.

Looks much better, doesn't it?

GARDENING

I received a box of flowery goodness in the mail.  After cleaning out part of the bed where the sedum have taken over, I planted 6 different colors of irises my FB friend in VA sent me.  I'm looking forward to seeing them bloom next year.

Wow, this is a long post.  If you're still with me this far, I'd like to end off with sharing the last page in my gratitude journal.  I started writing it a year and a half ago and have made a conscious effort to write something positive every day.

Until Next Time,

Are You A Planner?

This year, I thought I'd try doing a crafty planner again.  I've tried a couple times before and I didn't stick with it.  After seeing some YouTubers show how they used their planners, I thought I'd give it another try.

Have you checked into cross stitch planners. Whew, are they expensive!  I also didn't like that the pages were so pre-planned that I couldn't add other crafty endeavors.  So, what's a girl to do?

This girl went to Walmart and found a hardcover planner.  They don't have this exact one anymore, but the 2024-2025 one it available.

Planner by Mintgreen

I like that this planner allows you to see a month at glance and then has a daily/weekly section also.  It's hardcover with 2024 stamped in gold foil.  This and the flowers drew me in!  For the eco-conscious, the pages are printed with soy ink and are made from 60% recycled paper.  Pages are color coded making it easy to flip to the date I want to go to.  There are pages in the back for notes.  As time goes on, you'll see how I turn this into a very functional crafty planner. 😃

With some sprucing up, the title page looks quite "crafty", don'tcha think?

After the title page, there is the typical "personal information" page.

I didn't need this page, so I covered it with scrapbook paper and added my own flair.  I have a lot of scrapbook paper that I plan on using up with this planner.

Isn't this much better?  And cuter!

At the beginning of each month, there is a Notes page.  I started off January by documenting my most recent start.

On the opposite side, I decided to list out all the WIPs for each of my hobbies.  Quite a lot!

I didn't start the planner until the beginning of February so I had to go back and try to fill in January's activities.  I make notations of what I worked on each day.  I also keep track of unusual weather conditions.  We had a LOT of snow the second week of January so I spent a lot of time shoveling and snowblowing.

February's Month-At-Glance is much more fun.

If you take a look in the upper right corner of the monthly page, there's a section for notes that I've turned into "To Do" projects.  If any are completed, then I cross them off the list.  Any that aren't done are usually carried forward to next month.  I did finish a couple things on my February list. 😃

I can be more detailed on the daily/weekly pages since there's more room.

There are a couple of pages for addresses and phone numbers in the planner.  I turned these into Finishes pages.  I love the banner font!

March was a very busy month!  In addition to my typical crafty endeavors, I went to the Hoosier Retreat.  It'd been four years since we all had seen each other.  Thank you, Pandemic.

Month-At-A-Glance

Week-At-A-Glance

Mr B turned two while I was at the retreat

Another March Week-At-A-Glance

Had to document JG stitching finish!

I added a ribbon bookmark to my planner.  I didn't want the monthly tabs to get bent up due to my constant accessing the pages to make my notations.  More stuff used up from my stash.  Win-Win!

I went overboard on the stashing in March. ::sigh::  It was fun, though!

As I previously said, there are pages at the back of the planner designated for notes.  I turned several of the pages into pages for the Hoosier Retreat.

While I was away, it snowed at home and Baxter celebrated his second birthday with his first ever taste of ice cream topped with two mini dog biscuits for candles. Lucky dog!

Both furbabies were happy to see me come back and take them for a ride home.

April came in with more snow. Then the solar eclipse made it's way through followed by Earth Day.  Lots of crafty stuff going on, too.

Hopefully these layouts give you an idea of where I'm going with a typical planner.  So far it's been fun and I'm using up my paper crafting supplies.  Another Win-Win!

Until next time...