Lucy's DIY Plan for Economizing on a Tight Budget.....

Good afternoon Blogland Neighborhood! In this tough economy, we're all looking for ways to economize.....including "Lucy".....




......and apparantly Kitty has been giving Lucy's "DIY Plan " a try.....




.....hmmmmm....maybe she should come up with a better plan.....


....maybe the dress can be fixed ..... but that PERM?!?!?!???
















Be back soon!

Toodles,
Mary Anne (aka Mare)

How HOT is it ????

Good Monday afternoon Blogland Neighborhood! Here's the question for the day ..... HOW HOT IS IT ??????





....hot enough for me to dig out my capris to wear to work this afternoon !! (well, on people of a normal height these are capris .... for me they tend to look more like "high waters" ... you know .... flood pants!) (and if you're thinking that this part of the outfit looks pretty unglamourous .... you should see the rest of it!)

Anyhow .....today the temperature was in the 90's !!! and it was still



90 degrees at almost 6 PM ! which leads me up to the next question .... is today April 27th or August 27? HOT HOT HOT for this time of year in Pennsylvania !







.....and since we don't want to leave you with that image of PALE legs in a typically unglamourous pair of flood pants burned into your retinas .... here's a picture of some forsythia in the yard ..... it's the least we could do!

Be back soon!
Toodles,
Mary Anne (aka Mare)

Happy Arbor Day ....recycle a tree !!

Happy Arbor Day Blogland Neighborhood! In honor of the day, we just had to show you this beautiful tree in bloom across the street from MBIAJ Headquarters.

Also, in honor of Arbor Day and Earth Day/Week, we also decided to do a little recycling craft project to spruce up the "Paperwork Dept's" desk .... well, actually this is how it went .... info was copied onto some index cards .... info (phone numbers , addresses, etc) that needed to be within easy access ...so, the index cards needed to stay out on the desk .... so they needed to be contained IN something ....but what ?......should something be bought? ......hmmmmmmm..... nah.... must be something in a closet or cupboard or whatever that could be used to hold some index cards .... so, after scrounging around.....




....this is what we came up with ......yep, a box of multi sized tampons which come with these little divider boxes inside the main box. PERFECT .... well almost ... the little divider box was a little too tall, and DEFINATELY too plain .....so, we cut it down to about half the original size and then ......



.....spruced it up with some fabric, some ribbon , and a button! PERFECT !! Now it matches ....



....the desk lamp which started out as .....


....this .....WAY too bright when you're sitting in the desk chair and it's GLARING right in your eyes!





....and here they are together .... we think this little set looks cheerful and definately brings out the RED in our wax lips very nicely!!! (what .... you don't have wax lips sitting on your desk next to the paperclips and pens?) ....and yes, there's Kitty , still in her Earth Day outfit over seeing this recycling project .




....anyhow, even though we took (another) detour away from the fabric covered button and yo yo flower project, it doesn't mean we haven't at least made a teensy bit of progress .....



......we're getting there .... about as fast as molasses in January .... but we're getting there!

Be back soon!

Toodles,
Mary Anne (aka Mare)

Flower Child ????

Good Monday morning Blogland Neighborhood! Looks like I wasn't the only one that went to the Earth Day Celebration over the weekend .....














.....while some of us were following our INNER hippie .... others of us let it OUT!! How in the world did I ever miss her in that get up?!?!?!!!!

Well, anyway, have a good rest of the day !

Be back soon!
Toodles,
Mary Anne (aka Mare)

Earth Day Celebration in Jim Thorpe, Pa ..... or is it Woodstock?

Happy almost Earth Day Blogland Neighbor-hood! In honor of celebrating and taking care of the ol' gal (i.e. The Earth) there is an Earth Day Celebration going on here in Jim Thorpe, Pa ..... or at a quick glance it might be mistaken for Woodstock! Now I know yesterday I said today would be a sewing day but today the sun was shining and the temperature went up to 75 !!!! so, after just a few stitches, I was lured away from loyal Betty (my Featherweight machine) by my "inner hippie" and.....




.....all the stuff going on in the park....


......there was music....

.....ALOT of tie dye T-shirts....

....and henna body art (I was tempted, but then decided there was just WAY too much "body" for any kind of art!)

...there was a booth with some really cool quilts and patchwork skirts and dresses...

....and this booth with these gauzy type fabric (I forget what it's called) skirts and dresses ..... looks very much like the kind of bedspreads my roommate Donna and I bought at Pier 1 Imports WAYYYYYY back before Pier 1 became more upscale (also before Donna and I became more upscale .... HA!)... back when Donna and I were sophmores at Temple U ... Ambler Campus 1977 ...there was also lots of macrame' as I recall ..... anyway....


...this vendor had some really great embroider-ed and woven bags/totes , etc. (don't forget you can click on any of these pictures to make them bigger so you can really see all the great stuff in the booths)




.....there were hula hoops ....


.....and hula hoopers .....




.....AND , of course ..... a lime green VW bus !!!!



.....they were selling T-shirts and hula hoops .









After spending some time in the park, I strolled up through town (because, after all it was just voted #7 in Budget Travel Magazines' America's Top Ten Coolest Small Towns)

...there's Mr. Moonbeams place of business ....The Inn at Jim Thorpe (not the court house next to it!)


...this is the Albright Mansion Restaurant .... they have GOOD stuff to eat in there AND the husband is a wine expert AND his wife , being from England, specializes in Teas ! (this would be a GREAT place to go for a Mother's Day lunch .... in case anybody was wondering......although it would be difficult to top the giant candy bar and the day spent at a muddy dirt bike race the past couple of years ....)


.....and this is the Douglas House shops .... lots of individual shops upstairs and downstairs in this once a long time ago (HUGE)single family home .... most of these houses are Civil War era homes ..... just look at this



....Rhett !! Rhett !!! I'm coming Rhett !!





Anyhow, down those steps and to the left down the hall is Alice's Pantry where fellow blogger Busy Bees sells her handmade aprons to benefit various charities ..... if you're in town, definately stop in there!!



....AND you should DEFINATLEY stop in here .... Rainbow's End candy and ice cream shop!!! (and look how cute that baby and his daddy are!! ....I have no idea who they are ... but isn't that cute!!) Well, I just can't take a picture of this place and not go in and get my favorite (well, one of them) treat .....so I did! .... then, since it was such a GORGEOUS day, hopped into my car and drove the mile or two out of town to Mauch Chunk Lake....


....for....

....a picnic ! .....a diet coke and some homemade carmel covered marsh-mallows !!! (don't you know that the diet coke counteracts the fat and calories in those marshmallows???....hey! it's my picnic and I'll pretend whatever I want!)



.......ahhhhh ....what? No! I'm not wearing white socks .... those are my ankles!





....(BIG sigh....) Well, OK, maybe we should go for a walk to work off the fat and the calories that the diet coke may not have counteracted...... Come on!! Wake up!!! Are you still with me? I know this is a LONG post .... but you're the one who's sitting down and reading .... I'm the one who is walking around!!


.....OK, here we go....I've got my Earth Shoes on for our Earth Day walk....



...we'll take this path that follows ....


...this stream from the lake back towards town.



....oh fun!! a bridge !!


.....and there's a guy fishing .... I forgot that besides the Earth Day Celebration today , it's also Opening Day for fishing here in Carbon County, Pa ...


.....(a little scribble that maybe will be a quilt someday .... maybe...)


......there are some more fisherman .... looks like they're done fishing for the day ... I wonder where they're hurrying off to....




.....oh....this explains it .... two hot dogs and a beer!















Well, hope you enjoyed our Earth Day Celebration/ Opening Day / picnic/ walk in the woods ..... just another MBIAJ extravaganza put together for your viewing pleasure!
So, in honor of Mother Earth , don't forget to ....


....hang out your wash once in awhile and ....


....make use of these ALL OF THE TIME !!! (please!)








Be back soon (hopefully with a FINISHED fabric covered button and yo yo flower project .... HONEST!)

Toodles,
Mary Anne (aka Mare)

Driven by guilt......

Happy Friday Blogland Neighborhood! Hope you all had a nice Easter or Passover and a good week. Oh, and Kitty was just tickled pink that you all loved her Easter bonnet!

Well .... today's topic is GUILT ! We here at MBIAJ Headquarters are amazed at what can be accomplished when driven by guilt ....(that's Guilt not Quilt). For us here at Headquarters, that "guilt" is the lack of employment (the kind that comes with a paycheck) for the past 3 weeks, and on and off before that for a couple of months due to decreasing referrals to the homecare agency I have worked/contracted with for the past 14 years. In addition to the very time consuming job search for something that doesn't involve commuting at least an hour or more, the interview process and the tons of paperwork that goes with that....time has been spent cleaning things normally ignored .... this is DEFINATELY guilt driven !!! WHY you ask? Well, because this morning after the gang left for work and school, and we (me and my "staff") had yet ANOTHER day stretching out ahead of us the first thing that crossed our mind (like the other days of unemployment) was "an entire day to sew and draw ! YAY!" .... but just as fast as that thought flitted through our brains, the GUILT monster came and knocked it clear across at least 5 states ..... that little "Guilt Voice" kept saying ... "how can you sit and do something fun when you aren't bringing in a paycheck? You should at least clean some stuff that usually gets put on the back burner when you're too busy working to clean it (including the back burner!!) So today's gross cleaning project, fueled by guilt was ....





.....cleaning out the fridge (and trust me , it needed it!!) (and don't look too closely because I didn't feel THAT guilty to do a thorough enough job to pass Martha's standards...)








Anyhow you'd think with the free time left over after the job searching aggravation and all the cleaning, cleaning , cleaning (which by the way has come to be known as the "Thankless, viscious cycle " .... because it IS !!!) alot more would have been accomplished on ......





.....the "fabric covered button/yo yo project" (which is lingering and hopefully won't be dying a slow death in the UFO pile)..... and I KNOW that next week when hopefully the employment issue has been resolved and it goes from one extreme to the other (i.e. no work vs. so busy there's no time to blow your nose) that I'll be kicking myself .... just KICKING myself for not ignoring those dang GUILT feelings and saying to $%@& with the cleaning .....I should have spent the time SEWING and DRAWING instead !!! (but that's not what I was taught at "Our Lady of Perpetual Guilt" by Sister Mary Martyr.....)

OK, it's a GORGEOUS day outside so it's time to haul my butt outside for some fresh air and exercise .... then later I think I'll have some whine with dinner!!!!

....then tomorrow.....yes TOMORROW the plan is to sew GUILT FREE !!!!

Be back soon!

Toodles!
Mary Anne (aka Mare)

Happy Easter !!!!

Happy Easter Blogland Neighbor-hood ! Kitty in her new (finally decided upon design) Easter bonnet and the MBIAJ "staff" wish you all a day of chocolate bunny and marshmallow peep eating bliss !

Be back soon!

Toodles,
Mary Anne (aka Mare)

Hankie eggs AND the quest for Kitty's purrrrfect Easter bonnet design.......

Good afternoon Blogland Neighbor-hood. Well, here it is Good Friday and we still haven't come up with an acceptable Easter bonnet design for Miss Purrsnickety Kitty....(as you can see by the crumpled paper and rejected prototype)....she says so far none of the designs "do anything for her" .....they just don't capture the "real Kitty" ..... SO, (after counting to 10 for the 100th time) we suggested taking a little break from the hat thing and working on something else ...."Fine!" she says .... besides, she says she was late for her manicure and pedicure.....whatever....

OK, now that we got rid of her for awhile the "Sewing Dept " wants to show you a little project they came up with that actually involves NO SEWING !!!! This project came about as a direct result of the "Great Sewing Room Clutter/Crap Clean Up Project" as it has come to be known. It's amazing what was found in the dark recesses of cabinets and drawers in there (unfortunately no cash or winning lottery tickets ... oh well....)

Anyhow, look at some of the stuff we forgot we had ....


...lots of pretty hankies that were my mother's and grand-mother's (and a few I bought) , some wood and styrofoam eggs, rick rack in fun colors, and a few pipe cleaners.



....first place the (fake) egg in the center of a hankie....




...second have your assistant (Daisy in our case) sit in an Easter basket and test how well the fake eggs roll around ....



....next pull the hankie up around the (fake) egg and secure with a piece of the pipe cleaner (or a twist tie)...



....cover up the pipe cleaner or twist tie with the rick rack and tie a bow... Ta Da !! DONE !! Easy as pie...well, not really since we can't make a decent pie dough to save our lives .... but you get the picture ....




......anyhow, here are a bunch of "Hankie Eggs" sitting in a basket waiting for the Easter Bunny from Weight Watchers to give his seal of approval (no calorie eggs!! ...that should earn us a few brownie points!!!)

OK... time to get back to the drawing board and try and come up with an Easter bonnet design that suits you know who....

Be back soon!
Toodles,
Mary Anne (aka Mare)