The long promised grocery bags...

After promising for a few weeks that I would post pictures soon, here they are. We used them for shopping today. This was a large trip, and I even had some extra bags. Guess I didn't need to make quite so many.




I've got 4 of the lemon "paper" style, and then 2 of the maps and three of the cupcakes, both of which are "plastic" bags.

Stop & Shop now has this new system where you take a scanner when you enter the store and then as you shop, you scan and bag your items. Then at the checkout just check the scanner back in and pay. In theory it's faster. And Chris really liked getting to scan everything. The produce department even has special scales where you weigh your produce and it will give you a label that you then scan.

They're here!

Aren't they cute? Awards for fastest, slowest, best in show, and illegal. Much more fun than the little ribbons/pins we've given out in the past.

Your order has been shipped...

Yup. That's right. Derby trophies are on their way!

I love getting messages like this. Especially when you're not entirely sure if the items will arrive in time. I actually told them I needed it a week earlier than I did just so I'd be sure that they arrived on time.

I just tracked it, and my package is in the state, and should be here tomorrow.

So now everything that I have ordered for the Derby has arrived or is on its way! This weekend we're going to go shopping and make sure we'll have enough food. And then I just need to sit back and wait for any mail-in entries to arrive. I wonder how many packages we'll be getting next week.

Rain, rain, go away!

So I know there are some parts of the country (the south) where they are wishing it would rain more, but I'm sick of it!!! The past few days we've had torrential downpours, and the forecast for the rest of the week seems like lots more of the same. Blech. I'm starting to think of what we will do it rains on Derby Day. Tarp attached to the top of the tennis court fence? Only works if no one shows up to play tennis.

I came home from work today and couldn't drive up the road. There was a tree down, right in front of our house. Wouldn't have been so bad if there wasn't a car parked right next to it. I wonder if the car was parked there before or after the tree came down.









And my poor garden! There is so much rain that the gutters can't keep up with it. Not sure if the gutters are clogged or if they are just full of water, but the rain is pouring off the side of the house and onto my garden. My beans, carrots, zucchini and cucumbers have all seen better days. Yesterday I tried to add more dirt (some got washed away) and propped the beans up a bit, but they were back to looking pathetic again today. I can plant more beans and carrots and I think I'll be ok, timing-wise, but I think it's too late to try to get more zucchini and cucumber plants.

On the plus side though, my broccoli looks fantastic!

It's official... I'm a dork

Yup. Big dork. I ordered trophies for the Pinewood Derby. And we have goodie bags for the kids this year. Kind of crazy.

Not doing so well with the making of the cars. Chris and I went to the shop on Sunday and I started. My simple car is more or less done. My fancy cars? Yeah, not so much. And of course I got bored pretty quickly working on them. We'll have to see how they turn out over the next few weeks. I'm guessing not so well.

LOAD? Going fantastically! Finished up the Christmas album last night. Have pictures ordered for a few more LOs, but then need to do some photo editing so that I can order the rest. Just not enough hours in the day.

Fabric shopping bags? I'll get pictures up here soon. I promise. I'm making two different styles (paper and plastic) and was going to wait until they were all done to post. The plastic ones are done, but haven't done the paper yet. Again, not enough hours in the day.

Bike riding? Went for a 10 mile ride on Saturday. Took about an hour or so. Quite the workout, especially since I'd already gotten a work out while skating that morning. And in skating we are starting to learn a routine. So much more fun than just practicing individual elements. Maybe one of these days there will be a new video to entertain you.

Healthy living

When did I become so green? First it was the vermicomposting, and now it's reusable grocery bags. Made some cute ones over the weekend, but then the power ran out and then I ran out of thread, so they didn't get finished. Photos coming soon.

Also, Sunday Chris and I went on an 18+ mile bike ride in 90 degree heat. My butt's a bit sore, and my legs are slightly jello-ish.

About the bikes... I drive past a bike shop every day on my way to and from work and thought it would be good to get one. I had Chris semi-convinced, and then our stimulus check arrived. :) Half of it went to credit cards, the other half went to bikes. Wow, they're expensive! And then there's all the extra stuff you can get. I got a cyclometer because I want to know how fast/how far I've gone, but I was good and got their cheapest model. And then we also needed a bike rack. We went with one for my car rather than the truck, which means we'll have to do some creative packing of the car when we head to Maine this summer (with bikes in tow). Usually we have the bed of the truck pretty much to overflowing, so it will be interesting to see how well we cram it into my care.

Derby and LOAD

So for the month of June, I committed to a challenge over on Tally called LOAD, or LayOut A Day. As of day 5, so far so good. In fact, on a few days I've made more than one thing. However, my variation of the rules is that it doesn't have to be a layout (it can be a card or something else creative) and as long as I work on something every day, that's ok- I don't need to actually complete it. So if you're interested in checking out what I've been up to, head over to Tally.

And in other news, the Derby invitations are out. If I missed you and you think you're interested, let me know and I'll send you the details. I still haven't started my car yet, and I'm feeling a little anxious about that. There's exactly a month to go, and usually I would have started by now. Granted I'm usually busy finishing things up in the day or two before (or day of) but I've usually at least started by this point. I think I know what I'm making, so at least that's a start. And I've bought the goody bags and contents for the kids at the Derby, but that probably doesn't really matter.

And with that, I'm off to bed.