March Madness – 2021 5 Questions

Our blogging friend Ally, prompts us to answer the five following questions as part of her acceptance of the Outstanding Blogger Award, of which she is truly deserving.

Q1 – What’s your favorite movie? Too many. Hitchcock’s “Rear Window” jumped in my head.

Q2 – When trying to buy shoes, what’s your biggest problem? Trying to buy shoes is my problem. For some reason I have never liked that experience. Interesting, because as a Pisces, feet are supposed to be my body part.

My Unicorn slippers. Sadly, wore them out!

Q3 – Ice cream cone or cupcake? Cupcake definitely but actually just the frosting not the cake.

Q4 – What’s one good thing you have learned about yourself during this pandemic? I can most definitely handle being alone. While I miss dinners with a few friends and concerts where I can blend in with the crowd, I truly can occupy my time and be perfectly content in my own little world.

Part of my world. I need to take some new pictures of the studio.

Q5 – Any eccentric people in your family? Discuss. Eccentric is a fun word. I’d have to say my Auntie Annie was eccentric, but maybe she was just outgoing and to my quiet self that makes her eccentric. I know that she was fun to be around. She took me to Reno when I turned 21 so that I could gamble legally for the first time. We had a great trip. She was one of those people who started conversations with anyone and everyone and always knew the bartender! She and my mom are twins and total opposites. Annie worked as a waitress all her life and always had the most interesting stories to tell. This picture doesn’t really do her justice, but you can tell by the gold jacket she wasn’t afraid to stand out in a crowd.

Auntie Annie

I, like Ally, don’t feel comfortable trying to single out bloggers for awards since I feel that anyone who reads my drivel is outstanding and I don’t want to put undue pressure on folks to respond so I will just post my five questions here and if you are so inclined, feel free to answer them in the comments or on your own blogs. My questions are:

• What is your favorite quote. I collect them.
• If money were no object where would you go?
• How many places have you lived or jobs have you held?
• Have you tried meditation? Did it help you?
• Who would you like to meet (living or dead) for dinner?

There you go. Thanks again, Ally, for giving me something to blog about today. Now I’m off to take pictures of more dolls for sale.

from WordPress https://scr4pl80.wordpress.com/2021/03/19/march-madness-2021-5-questions/

March Madness – 2021

Last month I shared my new crafty website, Janetsmiles.com that I will be using to augment my Etsy shop. I am excited to share now that I have added a blog page to that website so that I can showcase things I am working on and new items for sale. With the website I can list some things that I may not have in the Etsy store and I’ve set up two new categories, Vintage Dolls and Other Collectibles.

Meet “Twinkles” the clown

“Jeffrey” who is learning how to tie his shoes

The beautiful Snow Queen

“Little Stevie” playing with the toilet paper

We acquired a collection of porcelain dolls from the 1990s that are for the most part brand new in the box. I have only taken them out to take the pictures. They still have the protective coverings on them to avoid scratching. Some of the boxes look a little worn but the dolls are in great shape. They are from the Danbury Mint and Ashton Drake companies among others. We have probably close to 100 so it will take me a while to photograph and document them all but if you are into collecting dolls, this will be the place to go! Right now I have six items listed but I have another 10 to go in this first batch, including a Shirley Temple doll dressed in her role as Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm.

Please feel free to share this info with anyone you may know who likes to collect dolls. Also coming soon to the “Other Collectibles” category will be some vintage tins and perhaps even some baseball cards and Budweiser beer steins! The blog is here and there is a spot to sign up for notification of new posts. You know me though, I promise not to overwhelm your inboxes!

from WordPress https://scr4pl80.wordpress.com/2021/03/18/march-madness-2021/

March Madness – 2021 – Stream of Consciousness Saturday

So a month ago John gave us the opportunity to put someone “in the corner” for something that we consider offensive. My choice was the toilet paper companies for making all of the rolls MEGA sized.

It amazes me sometimes that people actually read my little missives and even more astounding is that you take the time to comment! I must say I really appreciate it. It was especially helpful with that post. J. Lennie Dorner, one of the Captains on the A to Z excursion, commented that Charmin was offering extenders for the toilet roll holders. I flippantly commented that I wasn’t going to pay for additional equipment, I was just going to leave it on the sink.

However, I did take the time to follow the link he so graciously provided and what do you know, the extenders are free, one to a customer! I decided that free was definitely worth it so I sent in my request. I got my extender today AND IT WORKS!

And it didn’t even take months to get. I know it has only been a week or two at the most. So, if you are having an issue with the massive toilet paper rolls, follow this link to get your freebie.

Thanks to Linda for her #SoCS prompt of day/week/month/year, to J. Lennie for leaving me that comment and to all of you who so kindly follow my rambling!

from WordPress https://scr4pl80.wordpress.com/2021/03/13/march-madness-2021-stream-of-consciousness-saturday/

A to Z 2021 Theme Reveal

So excited to be joining the Blogging from A to Z Challenge again this year. It will be my 6th one! In years past I have done a combination of scrapbooking and concerts, both things I know and love. I was wondering what to do for this year given that we did not go to any concerts last year and, while we have been to enough shows that I probably could have done another 26 scrapbooking concert adventures, it is getting to be a stretch to find either an artist or a song title to match the letters. Also, I don’t have an outside job like I did when I worked at Michael’s to use for ideas.

And then I wrote a blog post about how I was now driving my son to San Francisco everyday and that even though I’ve lived in the Bay Area all my life I was finding things I had never seen before. One of our A to Z captains, J. Lennie Dorner, happened to leave a comment that it would be a good idea for an A to Z. And then I remembered that our newspaper, The San Francisco Chronicle, had included a couple of coloring book inserts to the Sunday Edition.

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These are the two books with the artists who drew the pictures.

At first I thought I’d just use the books, color the pictures and call it done but then I had the idea to include some of my own pictures from the places I had been like the Golden Gate Bridge. A few of the letters in the coloring books showcased places that were outside of San Francisco and while I had also been to some of those spots, I thought it would be more fun to stick to San Francisco alone.

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I love these pages to color and wouldn’t mind seeing Big Sur, but with Covid and the time factor, it is not realistic.

It took some research but I think I managed to get all the letters covered. So now my task is to actually go to these locations, take more pictures and write a little of the history. Since I’ve gotten both doses of the vaccine, I feel a little better about going out in public and visiting the spots I’ve chosen. It also depends on how much typing I get because that has to come first.

I hope that you will come along on this adventure in San Francisco with me. And if you are doing the A to Z this year, let me know so I can make sure to follow you too!

from WordPress https://scr4pl80.wordpress.com/2021/03/08/a-to-z-2021-theme-reveal/