What I'm reading Wednesday...

On Kingdom Mountain by Howard Frank Mosher

Well, I am home again.  I got a lot of reading done while I was away.  A list of which has been added to my Reading List page linked under the blog title photo.

Now that I'm home, I am reading a book that I had reserved at the library before I left.  It is about a cantankerous Vermont spinster and the treasure-hunting, barnstorming pilot who dropped from her sky.

What I'm reading Wednesday...

Moloka'i by Alan Brennert

I am probably one of the few people I know who has absolutely no interest in going to Hawaii.  Or basically any place warm and sunny.  Or even reading about it.  Give me cold and damp any day.  LOL

Still I needed a book to fill the Hawaii category on my 2019 reading challenge.  This one is about the leprosy colony to which thousands were exiled from the mid nineteenth to the mid twentieth centuries.  

If I can't have cold and damp, give me gloom and despair of some other kind.  :)

Making it Monday...

I am so organized.  So on the ball.  So prepared and ready to go--and not at ALL a procrastinator--that I have time to stamp today.

Yeah.  That's right.  I said it.

Frugal Friday File 2019, week 28...

Successes:
1.  Last Friday I received word that the family member of the person I was filling in for has improved greatly, so she could return to work this week.  Yea!  A couple of hours later I got a call from a different branch asking me to work Monday through Friday this week, 8:30 - 5:00, in a neighboring town.  Ummmmmmm.  She heard the hesitation in my voice and began explaining why she needed someone to work.  And I, of course, accepted the assignment.  Sigh.  I am such a soft touch.  A nice paycheck will make me feel better about that.

2.  I cancelled my appointment for a haircut.  I made this appointment on my last visit, so that I could have a fresh cut right before vacation, but that last cut was a little shorter than I ended up liking much.  It is just now growing out and looking better to me, so I'll forego a trim and save the cost.

3.  I noticed that Audible was offering 66% off the first 3 months, and thought I'd look into it since I've been listening to more audio books.  For $4.95 a month, you get one free audiobook and 2 audible originals per month...uh, the library gives me 8 audio and/or ebooks at a time...for FREE...and I can have 8 more once I return those...as often as I want!  (And after the original 3-month trial, the Audible price goes up to $14.95 a month!)  Easy to pass on that offer.

4.  I considered replacing my favorite duffel bag with a new piece of rolling luggage.  Then I remembered that I have a small handcart that folds flat and bungee cords...rolling luggage!  I may have splurged if I was going to be staying at a nice hotel, but I'm going to be staying at a cabin at a KOA camp, so my Red Green luggage will be fine.  :)

I'm skipping #5 this week.  I'm tired, and I need to get this finished and set to publish in the morning so I can get to bed.

Saturday:  Chicken Fried Steak w/ cream gravy, fries, corn
Sunday:  Sunday family supper at Kasey & Beau's
Monday:  *pizza
Tuesday:  homemade hamburgers w/ sweet potato fries
Wednesday:*Tex-Mex  
Thursday:  *burger
Friday: leftovers

Number of individual servings made and frozen for work lunches this week:  3

(*not-frugal takeout or dinner out)

What I'm reading Wednesday...

Little Century by Anna Keesey

Working Monday through Friday in a neighboring town this week.  Not much reading going on.  I got this audiobook through the library to listen to while making cards in the craft room.  Not much card making going on this week either.  

Saturday Snail Mail...

I am really enjoying my new desk layout.  The shelves over it, and the drawers under it make card making so much more efficient and pleasant.  And the comfortable desk chair...such an improvement and increases my desire to spend time at the desk, which increases productivity.

Lately I've been playing with the new Bird Ballad stamp set from Stampin' Up!  

My mother-in-law likes birds, so I've made several.

Plus they're fun to color and experiment with.

And I've been playing with the Varied Vases set from Stampin Up! as well.  

These new Perennial Essence Stampin' Up! designer series papers are so gorgeous, I didn't even add much in the way of stamping. 

I made this card for my sister's birthday.

And I used one of the tags I had cross-stitched awhile back to send Chloe a card while she was at camp.

Some of these were made last night and today, and some were over the past month or so.  And there were a couple of birthday cards that got mailed without photos being taken.

Frugal Friday File 2019, week 27...

Successes:
1.  I wanted to own a printed-copy of a non-fiction book to round out a trilogy that I love and refer back to from time to time.  It was $16.81 on Amazon, plus tax (about $1.40), with free 2-day shipping with my prime membership.  I clicked on the 'used copies' link, and found one advertised in very good condition with free shipping (7-10 days) and zero tax for $8.81.  

If I want a hard copy, and don't have an immediate need, I can wait the week or week-and-a-half to save, in this case, over $9.  I have occasionally bought used copies of books this way, and appreciate that Amazon makes it so easy.  I've never had a bad buying experience (knock on wood).  

Now I admit I might have found it at a thrift store or used-book store for possibly less, but driving just once to the city to either of those stores would eat up any savings I might find (ah, the joys of living in a semi-rural location).  

2.  I picked up three more days of work this week.  The person I am filling in for is finding that her husband's illness is taking longer to bounce back from than they expected.  I am leaving on a trip later this month, so I reminded the boss that if she cannot return by then, we will have to find another on-call to fill in.

3.  Peaches off our tree and Youtube cobbler-making videos.  Both free!

4.  Another fun and FREE class at the library.  All supplies provided.

5.  For the past few years, the most used letters on my keyboard have been getting fainter and fainter.  I'm a touch typist, so it wasn't a huge deal, but it did bug me.  I used black label tape in my label maker to make replacements.  And then because Carey's keyboard at work was also missing quite a few, I made replacements for his as well. (He is NOT a touch typist, so it really frustrated him and hampered his work.)

My keyboard.  I made labels for the e, i, o, a, s, d, k, l, and n.

Saturday:  *Subway
Sunday:  Sunday family supper at Kasey & Beau's
Monday:  PB&J (too tired for anything else)
Tuesday:  *tacos
Wednesday:  PB&J (see Monday, above)
Thursday:  *barbecue
Friday: Carey/leftover barbecue, me/bacon&egg sandwich

Number of individual servings made and frozen for work lunches this week:  

(*not-frugal takeout or dinner out)

What I'm reading Wednesday...

A Wonderful Stroke of Luck by Anne Beattie

I picked this one up from the library last night while I was there for the stamp-carving class.  I've not heard anything about it.  I checked it out purely because the back cover says that part of it is set in New Hampshire, and that will tick another box on my 2019 reading challenge.  :)

Another fun class at the library...

Tonight our public library had a class on rubber stamp carving.  I was so excited!  I've used hundreds, maybe thousands, of rubber stamps in my day, but never one that I carved myself.  Oh, I take that back, I did carve a teeny-tiny flame for a birthday candle out of a pencil eraser once, but this one far surpasses that.  

The website listed the size of the rubber blank, and suggested bringing our own image that we wanted to carve.  I wanted to make a stamp of Rudy!

The finished, carved stamp is on the right (above).  It wasn't easy...pretty simple...but not too easy.  My test print is on the left (above).  When I saw the black splotches in the background, I did a little more carving to clean up the image a bit.

I had to come straight home and make a card with it.  I was impatient, so I just used a black pen to outline the ear, eye, and nose...I should have used a dark brown pen or watercolor pencil...but I think it's okay.  I'm sending it to a friend and her husband.  We used to live near them, and got to spend a lot of time with them.  She's a stamper as well, so I think she will think my self-carved stamp is as cool as I do.  And her husband will love the little Eddie Bauer dog on it.  When we had our first Jack Russell terrier, her husband knew the breed had two names in it, but he could never remember what they were.  So he always called it my Eddie Bauer dog.  :)