Happy Friday the 13th!
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Scenes from my vacation journal part THREE
Books, family, Travel 
The last part of the cartoon I did on our trip is Sissy all in aqua.
She LOVES aqua.
And shopping.
Lots of shopping for things that are aqua.
There she is in the background searching for more aqua stuff while Bobbie and I are goofing off. (at her feet in the drawing, are some of the many aqua shoes she tried on)
She was on the hunt for a golden, Blue Heron too. Since she didn't find one, I put one on her overfilled, exploding suitcase.
I put her in an aqua skirt as a fairy on this page.
And the tiny spider at her feet? One night after dark, we walked down to the surf. We flipped on a flashlight to see a spider by our toes, timed with a wave coming ashore and we both jumped as high as we could and squealed.
The pink sky is for all of the pretty sunsets we watched.
Sunsets in Siesta Key are a major event, with people lining up to watch, ready to ooh and ahh.
With or without spiders.
Scenes from my vacation journal part TWO
Books, family, Travel 
Now, where was I? Oh, yes, the next sister, and her flamingo suitcase, Bobbie.
You might notice that Bobbie likes Flamingos.
She likes them A LOT.
This is just a few from her vast collection. And she shared with us too, I also own a flamingo coozie. And that solar powered dancing bird?? Mine! She even found a bottle brush Christmas flamingo for me. I've had to arm wrestle Dewdrop for it, she wants it for her own Xmas tree.
This pretty cup was a gift from her too. It is black when empty, then turns colorful when filled with hot coffee.
Bobbie is a genealogist and loves lots of photos to document events. She has a great camera and makes sure she gets a ton of photos. So, in the cartoon, her camera is around her neck.
And the hat? Inspired by this lampshade.
The creepy clown was someone we encountered while shopping.
(The colorful costume I am wearing? That is a mermaid tale that Bobbie gave to me, I was showing off my walking skills in it. The hat is a mermaid bag that I repurposed.)
And the ice cream? Well lets just say that there might have been some frozen deliciousness consumed on the trip…
Scenes from my vacation journal part ONE
Books, family, Travel 
When I make a travel book, I like to draw cartoons of funny or memorable things that happened on the trip. This one was inspired by Bobbie telling me that I looked good in my "Suitcase"… she meant Swimsuit…
It is probably one of those, 'you had to be there' stories, like the rest of the cartoon, but I'll explain the picture anyway.
The mermaid holding up Tarot cards is from going to this angel card reader in Treasure Island.
We've been to her before and she is really something.
Hmm, you might be wondering about the guy behind me? I'm in the purple suitcase holding the arm.
Yes, an arm.
A saleslady made the mistake of taking the arms off of a mannequin to remove her dress, as I was sitting on a bench outside the shop.
Of course, I had to pick it up and wave hello with the arm!!!
And of course, my eyes are closed in the photo Bobbie took.
But back to the odd guy with the blood dripping off of a screwdriver…
The reason we go to Sarasota is because our Grandma used to live in Bee Ridge Trailer Park and we went to that area on vacations in our youth. Every time we return, we try to find Grandma's trailer and the park has changed so much, that we never felt like we could pin it down. This time, I was sure I'd found the right one, but that the cool, silver trailer had been painted white. The newest owner (grandma hadn't lived there since the 70s) saw us eyeing the place and came out to find out why.
I asked if I could go inside to see if it looked familiar. He said ok, but needed to get his screwdriver?
Didn't faze me at all, I traipsed in and started to explore.
Apparently, the screwdriver was to open a stuck door, not to kill me. But my sister had 911 ready to dial.
AND IT WAS GRANDMA SMITH'S TRAILER!!!!!!!! 50 years older, repainted a few times, a bit run down, but yep, I recognized it. And we were rewarded for finding it with a beautiful rainbow.
The crying flamingo?
There were two of them in the courtyard of our condo and I decided to bring one along with us on a day trip. When I got her out of the back of the car, there was a puddle under her head, it looked like she was crying.
Maybe because she missed her sister? Or because she thought she'd been kidnapped and was scared?
At least no one threatened her with a screwdriver.
Rosey and Pinky, also came out to play together sometimes. Seriously, she had nothing to cry about.
The little, fairy is my sea shell sprite with a crab shell pinafore.
I'll explain some of the other inside jokes in my next post.
Seashell Fairies on the beach
sea shell fairies, Travel 
Our Siesta Key trip was, as always, just wonderful. We were thrilled to see that the area was undamaged by Irma, and all of the people I talked to had survived with little or no damage. Mostly some unpleasant heat and discomfort from the power outage, no lasting devastation or injuries.
Every beach trip I make, I leave a little fairy made from gathered elements as a thank you. This time, I brought along a jade heart to add to the sprite to say my heart was with them during the storm.
This gal was left at the edge of the grassy area along the shore and I made her mid week instead of as I was leaving. I enjoyed visiting her for the next few days, and was surprised to see that she was still hanging out, with no issues other than her little dress blowing away. Her itsy bitsy pinafore was a crab shell, and was light weight, so blew off in the breeze.
I gave her a more solid shell change of clothes, and that seemed to hold up better.
The jade heart was still there on our last day, and the fairy was still flitting about on the sand. I wonder if the heart will be discovered soon, or if the stone will be buried in the sand to be found years from now as a treasure by some child building a sand castle?
Before heading back to Kansas, I left a big sister fairy on the sand next to the first little girl.
What I needed was more time at the beach to make one more sister, so I'd have a trio like my sisses and myself!
Back at home, back to business
Travel 
When I saw these trees along the Siesta Key beach, I wanted to bleach and dye them pink like little, bottle brush trees. So, I kinda did, and I think they look so much better this way!
I'm happy to be home, but it looks to be a busy, busy October, and I'm throwing myself full force into holiday prep. Not Halloween, not Thanksgiving, I'm heading straight to Christmas. No wonder I had pink bottle brush trees on my mind in Florida.
Another set of sister trip books (that almost didn’t happen)
Books, Travel 
For the last few years, my sisses and I have been meeting in Siesta Key, FL each fall for beach time, craft time, and lots of laughter filled, silliness time.
(front of Bobbie's book)
I pack my portable photo printer, a bag of supplies and three hand made books to work in, we sit at the huge picture window over looking the Gulf, and create all week long. This year's books are embellished with cameos of 3 sisters, and are done in beachy scrapbook paper with vintage elements.
I've been swamped with getting my last kits for A Snowbird's Song finished before going out of town and decided to use a journal I'd made a while back for my own book, adding a matching cameo to the cover.
But I wanted to hand make special books for my sisters, it is a tradition.
After playing hookie from work for a morning to estate sale with Beth, we stopped at Michaels to get some scrapbook paper and she invited me to come into her craft room and borrow her book binder to quickly stick the papers together and get one more job marked off my list of to-dos.
GREAT IDEA!
Or so I thought….
I whipped up a couple sets of covers to decorate later, cut and folded all of the interior pages and was ready to bind.
Then, we couldn't remember how to use the binder.
(front of Sissy's book)
We smashed the coils too tight, and belatedly thought maybe we should look up directions.
Yep, got it figured out, tried again.
This time, the coils were too small and the pages wouldn't turn.
Oops, no larger coils left to use.
Next plan- I cut the holes made by the binding machine off the edges of one of the sets of pages to change the way it was put together from coil bound into one made with 2 rings.
So, I punched all new holes with the Crop-o-dile, but did it without a template, thinking, "Heck I SELL tutorials on how to make books, I don't need to follow directions, I can do this on my own. I MAKE MY OWN DIRECTIONS."
Kind of how Walter White said, "I am the One Who Knocks n the door" right before his whole drug empire fell apart and he lost everything.
You can probably guess, I punched those holes badly.
The rings didn't fit through the wildly spaced holes, and when Beth held it up to look at, we both lost it. Our laughing was more out of control than those goofy looking holes I'd punched.
That could be fixed, right? I was just going to cut the left margin off past the misplaced holes and repunch them correctly.
Oh my! Some of those holes were beyond wildly done, to the point of looking like a drunk did them. And no, there was not any wine at craft day. Just my own whining about how crappy of a job I'd done.
Once I'd trimmed off enough of a couple of pages, I realized that they were now too small to hold a 4×6 photo.
More rolling on the floor laughing, came at that point. Then, more whining.
So, next plan? I covered the holes in glued on coordinating strips of paper, and repunched the holes using a template as I should have done in the first place. And as Beth mentioned many times that I was crazy not to do.
(butterfly paper for our mom who loved butterflies, and ice cream paper in recognition of how much of the frosty stuff we snack on while we are in Florida each fall)
That worked just fine.
But was too much to go through for both books, so I decided to make use of the holes punched by the binder on the second book.
The binder had them perfectly measured and even for me already, I just didn't have a coil to put through them. But a blunt needle and some twine worked just as well and was pretty quick.
(back of Bobbie's book, her last name is Valentine and I always make something with hearts for her)
If you tie enough ribbons and charms to the albums, no one sees the binding anyway, right??
A trip to Sparks and White Cloud with friends
friends, Travel 
I didn't think going to visit my friend, Karen, meeting Becky, and staying at a hunting lodge near my favorite flea market could get any better.
Till I saw these! The lodge came complete with a batch of 6 week old puppies.
They got some cuddling while we were there.
And did you notice the view??????
We were up on a bluff, overlooking a bend in the Missouri River. In the mornings, it was covered in fog, for an extra dreamy effect.
We stayed in the Land of Antlers.
Actually, it was called, Rawhide Camp Outfitters.
But you have to see what I mean when I called it that.
What a collection!
The place was homey, comfy, and friendly. The owners hung out and we talked Homecoming courts and Tayiah's chances of being queen, with the teenage daughters.
Meals were provided and we even got a lesson in making pasta from scratch.
My new buddy, Becky, created this framed image for the family as a thank you. It fits in perfectly!
I loved the place, and the company too.
And the location can't be beat! Just around the corner from my favorite flea markets.
Sparks and White Cloud need to be seen to be understood and appreciated. This is one scene from our day of shopping.
You never know what you'll find, I loaded up on $4 millinery and $1 jewelry. After shopping and a good dinner, we had some craft and movie time, with wine of course.
And spent the next day at the Old West Bottoms district in KC.
These two got to continue the non stop laughing and fun for a couple of more days, but I had to head back to family time, which wasn't bad, since I had a couple of grand fairies waiting to hang out with me.
Thanks Becky and Karen for including me in one of the funnest getaways I've had in a long time. And to Dana for letting us use her home and introducing us to her family.
By the way, Tayiah win Homecoming Queen! Congrats!
Painting smoke detectors
cottage, paintings 
When we added the new room last year, and had an electrician around, I had him do some updates here and there in the rest of the house. One was replacing smoke detectors. This one was white when installed and I ignored it for a year, much like the one up high in the 15' peak of the space we built.
I don't know why I didn't fix it right away. It is such a simple thing to do.
The trick is to not paint very heavily. I use a chip brush dipped into my paint, then wiped off slightly to have a dry brush effect. Lightly, lightly, with barely any paint on the brush, I daintily add a little color to the detector.
Then let it dry, and do it again, slowly building up tint. But not clogging or blocking anything.
I can promise you that the appliance still works, because when I burn cookies, it screams at me, even with a coat of paint on it!
And it almost disappears on the wall now.
The new slipcover, is actually a duvet cover. It is too big so is tucked under the cushion, but not in a very tidy way. I still love it with the soft tones of my vintage fabric pillows.
And since I'd washed the previous slipcover on the steam setting of the washing machine (oops!) I needed a quick replacement and had no time to sew.
Hopefully, everyone will be gazing at the new and improved smoke detector and not even notice the messy job I did.
HAHA!
See you later!
flowers
I'm headed off for my annual sister trip, but will have new posts scheduled to pop up while I'm away, so please check back!
(I won't be able to mail any packages til Oct. 1st if you are shopping in the Boutique)