Y’all I’m Scrapbooking!

I have big news! I will be scrapbooking again because I’m going to be a grandmother! My daughter had her gender reveal party this weekend and we found out IT’S A GIRL! She had me make a few t-shirts for the occasion and as you can see by the picture below she was team boy. I don't think she is disappointed though but more scared that she might have to pay for her raising! *okie thinks her daughter should be afraid, very afraid and then laughs evilly*.

Now if you know me you know I have a ton of supplies to probably complete 500 scrapbooks *okie knows that’s probably not an exaggeration* and now I have a pretty awesome reason to start using some of those supplies I've acquired over the last 15 years or so. 

It's gonna take me awhile to get back in the hang of designing layouts and making them since I haven't done this part of the paper crafting in, well longer than I care to admit! I got this layout designed and I've even cut the SVG elements and will work on putting some of it together this evening. When I get the layout done and make sure it goes together well I will share the SVG. YES, you heard me! I am going to start sharing SVG's again, simply because I like to share. 

So stay tuned because I’ll be posting more on here as time goes on but in the mean time here is the full design I'm going for. *okie hopes she can remember how to do this whole blog thing*

I'm Back...AGAIN and Attended Cricut Meet and Greet

I know most folks probably think I have fallen off the face of the earth but I am still around and still crafting! It's been almost a year since I've done any blogging and I had honestly came to the conclusion that no one really paid attention to my blog but I recently attended a Cricut Meet and Greet in Plano Texas and while there I had some people ask me about my blog and talked about how much they always enjoyed reading my posts and seeing my projects. 

I think Facebook has taken over many bloggers as it is a lot faster to post to Facebook, and to be truthful a heck of a lot easier but it is also very easy to lose projects and information in the great highway of Facebook Social media. 

I will be trying to upload some projects I've done over the last few months and also try and catch y'all up on my life as that seemed to be something of interest to others as well *okie often wonders why people find her boring life interesting*. 

Just to prove I am alive here are some pictures from the Cricut Meet and Greet from last week. I was so blessed that BFF Carmen was able to come up from Houston and we were able to attend together. Of course some of y'all know that we will try to find any excuse to spend time together! 

I made our shirts a few days before the event and since we are both Game of Throne fans I put a little GOT twist to the shirts and there were a few people that understood the meaning of "Cricut is Coming" right off the bat. For those of you that aren't familiar with GOT one of the themes of the show is "Winter is Coming".

Ashish Arora, the CEO of Provocraft, was very excited about the new display in Michael's and he stayed busy signing the little Cricut Cuties that everyone received and answering questions. 

We had a very nice dinner after leaving Michael's and there were a lot of wonderful door prizes given away! All attendee's received some of the Premium Vinyl and while Carmen and I did receive some we both gave ours to the hotel clerk as she seemed excited about the prospect of cutting some Jack Skellington decals from vinyl.

Okay so now y'all have proof that I am alive and kickin'! 

Cookin' With Grease

When I was growing up we used bacon grease a lot, it went cornbread, to cook popcorn, in green beans, frying potatoes and pretty much anytime grease was needed in a skillet. Not that we didn't have vegetable oil or Crisco, any country pantry is gonna have those things. If you grew up in the country you know what I'm talking about and understand that cookin' with grease meant cookin' with bacon grease.

Of course back in those days *okie suddenly realizes she has reach THAT age* we didn't really know about cholesterol or if we did we either ignored it, didn't think it was true or just didn't care. Now days we hear about how bad bacon is for us and to cook with bacon grease is something that most people won't admit to as to avoid being ostracized from the vegetarian, vegan *okie shudders at the word vegan because those folks give okie the absolute heebie jeebies* or health nuts in their circle of family and friends, not to mention the soapbox preaching about the saturated fat. monounsaturated fat and polyunsaturated fat that bacon contains. Now I'm not sure what a saturated fat really tastes like but it must be something that really adds flavor to food because I think everything I've ever eaten that tasted delicious had saturated fat in it.

 

As I grew up and out of my country home away from my family I realized that cooking with bacon grease was not good for me. I started eating turkey bacon, which I do like, and found new ways to cook items that required oil, grease or shortening going into a skillet. I learned to cook with cooking spray and teflon skillets, grilling and broiling meat was the way to go in my kitchen. When I did cook bacon I threw the grease out, no way was I saving that heart attack ambrosia. I would pat the grease out of the bacon until you could rub it across a mirror and the mirror would be squeaky clean.

I remember one weekend my sister Cheryl and I were visiting with my mom and she said "if you girls want some bacon grease there is a quart jar in the fridge for each of you". My sister and I gave each other a quick sideways glance and politely declined and I remember us laughing and rolling our eyes at the thought of cooking with the bacon grease, even though we were raised on the stuff. We also discussed the amount of bacon that had to be fried to fill up not one quart jar but two!

 

Now I'm not sure when I decided that bacon grease might not really be that bad for me but I think it was several years ago when I was at the doctor and he was going over my lab results and told me that my cholesterol level was 132. I told him that I should be able to go off my cholesterol meds and I never understood why I was on those meds since my cholesterol had never been over 180. He went on to explain to me about how there is good cholesterol and bad cholesterol and my good was low and my bad was high. I must have looked at him like he had 3 heads because with a number of 132 I just can't imagine me still needing to be on the meds and I told him "well if that shit drops anymore I am gonna have to eat a pound of bacon a week just to keep enough grease in my veins for the blood to keep flowing". He looked at me and said "uh, no". I sure miss that doctor. Oh I didn't change doctors because of that, he stayed my doctor until about a year ago when he retired. 

I remember leaving that appointment thinking how I had been trying to cook things right for so long and that I really did avoid bacon because I thought it was so bad for me and then thinking "WTF??? I try and do right and it's still not good enough? Well phuck that! I'm eating bacon!". And so I did. I started buying bacon and frying it. I started keeping the grease to use in my green beans.  And let me tell you....the glorious taste of those saturated fats in those green beans make them taste like 1000 times better than just heating them up! So yeah here I am at 52 years old cookin with bacon grease, just like I did when I was a teenager. I don't save a whole lot of grease, just enough to keep around for adding a little flavor to things, mostly green beans, and I let the grease sit in a bowl and them scoop off most of the grease and then scrap up the bottom that has all the little bits of flavor. 

Sometimes ya gotta make a tough choice and I made mine - I still don't fry a lot of food but by George I am gonna keep my little bacon grease and use it to add some good flavor to some of my foods! 

My Crafting Days are Numbered!

I have limited days to do any crafting I might want to do, 9 days to be exact, before I have my carpal tunnel surgery done on my left hand.

Actually it's not even 9 days when you take in account that I will be going to Houston for the weekend for the Cricut Make Something You Love event. So that knocks me down to about maybe 4 evenings since I have to think about paperwork, packing, driving, etc. 

Last night I had planned on working on my reindeer ornaments, I will be posting and offering the file for sale hopefully in a few days, but that kinda got blown out of the water since my daughter wanted to go to Hobby Lobby after work and look for things to decorate her office. I ended up spending the evening making a picture she wanted. She saw the picture at Hobby Lobby but didn't want to pay $25 for it since she had some other things picked out. I told her I would take a picture of it and make it for her.

Supplies Used:

Cricut Explore

White Vinyl

Gold Vinyl

Shadow Box Frame

The original was all white but I decided to use some gold vinyl so it tied in with the rest of her pictures she had chosen for her walls. 

When my daughter saw that I was making the picture right away she was very excited. I knew she wanted to get her decor up as soon as possible and I also knew that if I didn't do it last night then it might not get done before my surgery and I wasn't sure when I would be able to do it after my surgery. Several times during the process of making the picture I was glad I did it right away because I noticed the angles my wrists were bent and thought to myself then "oh okie, you are gonna be a sad, sad crafter if that surgery keeps you from crafting for very long".

I'm not nervous about having the surgery done as I am just hoping it does the job and my hands stops hurting, well at least one of them anyway. I don't know how long it will be before I get my right hand done. I have dealt with this for almost 10 years now and it is just getting worse. I can't tell you the last time I got a full night's sleep since I wake up multiple times shaking my hands out to get them to stop hurting. 

I guess on the bright side for now is that since I will have use of my right hand I can design files and such and use them later...I believe on looking on the bright side!

And Now About Light Pads

I know people have been using light tables and pads for sometime now to help with their weeding and I never thought I needed one and often laughed at the idea. 

Now that I am in my 50's and my eyes are not as sharp as they use to be I found myself wishing I had a light pad and I couldn't bring myself to spending a lot of money on one. I did consider the Cricut Bright Pad but I couldn't justify the cost for it since I knew there were products out there with a lot lower price tag. 

I did find one on Amazon and I have to say I really like it! It is super light weight and easy to store. I don't think it will break because true to my nature I dropped it a few times just to make sure it is durable *okie is waiting for this to blow up in her face, or at her feet, one of these days when she is seeing how durable things really are* and it didn't crack or bust. 

When I started weeding some of the Duck Deco Glimmer Laminate I knew I made a great purchase! I about went blind last year before Christmas when I was weeding a lot of the laminate for ornaments. While that stuff is gorgeous it is terribly hard to see when you are weeding it. You can see in the picture that the lines are clearly visible and this made the weeding a breeze!

The link below for the light pad is just like the one I purchased. I love the large space it provides for projects being weeded. Mine didn't come with a handy dandy carrying case like this one does so I do feel a little cheated! HA HA HA So if you are looking for a light pad, or light box, whatever you want to call it I can highly recommend this one!

I AM NOW AN AMAZON AFFILIATE

I need to inform my readers that I am now an Amazon Affiliate. I think that is written in the rules or something saying that I have to inform people so this is the official announcement.

A few friends of mine suggested I sign up for the affiliate program since it seems people buy things that I talk about and like. Of course I always give an honest opinion and I am not going to suggest things that I don't like or that don't work well.

To be honest I'm not even sure how all this works and I think I get like 2 cents for every $100,000.00 worth of products that people buy from products I link, but hey 2 cents is 2 cents!

So if you notice that the links I post to some things look a little odd it is because if people click on those links and buy from those links I do get a commission of some sort.

Now I can say YOU HAVE BEEN INFORMED!

We Interrupt Your Regularly Scheduled Post

We Interrupt Your Regularly Scheduled Post To Bring You....

Okay it's not late breaking news but it is good news for me!

I think the first time I remember stepping foot in a Hobby Lobby was when I was probably about 9 or 10 years old and I went with my mom and my Aunt Carolyn to find some macrame rope, wooden beads and little ceramic owl beads. Macrame was all the rage back then and any woman who was worth her salt knew how to macrame and if you were really good you would have a macrame hanger with a glass table top that hung from the ceiling! I see some of y'all in the back nodding your heads because you know exactly what I'm talking about! 

Anyway, now you know when my love for Hobby Lobby started...about 40 years ago! So can you imagine my excitement when it was like legally official that Hobby Lobby was finally coming to my town?? I heard the news back in the late late fall and we still have to wait until August before it opens but at least I have signs that it is really going to happen!

I know for a lot of you this is no big deal and you might have 3 Hobby Lobby's in a 10 mile radius but for me it is super exciting because it means I won't have to plan an all day trip when I need one simple little thing! 

Okay granted there might not be a lot that I need at Hobby Lobby but "wants" are a all together different story and whether I am needing or wanting it will only be across town, which is only like 3 minutes!

Back From Hiatus!!

I dropped off the blogging world right before Christmas and I apologize for not posting a little something to let everyone know I am alive. There were some serious family issues going on at that time and for a few months after. Right now things are smoothing out and I am just now starting to feel like blogging again. If you follow me on Facebook you are aware of some of the issues that I had going on and also aware that I have still been crafting. If you don't have me on Facebook you likely think I died somewhere along the way *okie thinks there were a few times that death would have been an option, especially when she got sicker than a dog*.

Anyway I will be blogging again and while I have shared some projects on Facebook I will start making posts of some of the projects I have done over the last few months. One reason I am going back to blogging is because I realize that if you post something in a group on Facebook it will likely be lost forever if it is in a group with a lot of members and if I post it here then people can always come on back here and find it pretty simply by doing a search.

Stay tuned because I have quite a few things to share with everyone!

Transfer Tape...8 Years Later

I read so many complaints about people not being able to find a good transfer tape so I thought I would make a post about the transfer tape I use.

Back in the summer of 2008 I needed a good transfer tape that would hold up in the mail but also release well since I was selling Cricut Head Decals at the time. I looked around and decided on the R-Tape Clear Choice from Signwarehouse. At the time I thought the expense was quite great but I didn't want to get complaints about the tape not working, etc. Here it is 8 years later and I am still using the same roll! I have even shared part of this roll with my friend Carmen. She recently asked what the tape was because she thought it was the best she has used and I think she might have ordered her own roll. 

As you can see by the picture my tape has yellowed a little but it still works great and I am able to reuse pieces over and over. 

This particular roll is the 6.5" x 100 yards but they do have other options. I liked this size the best because it was wide enough for most things but if I needed it wider I just add how many more layers I need. 

I have used this on wall quotes but I actually prefer a paper tape that is less tacky so it's less of a struggle. For that I use the R-Tape Conform and it has worked really well. Since I use this tape mainly for wall quotes that I sell or give away I can't reuse most of it and I go through it quicker. And by quicker I mean I have about the same amount of tape on that roll as I do the Clear Choice and I think I bought the roll back in 2010 or 2011. The roll I have is the 6.5" x 100 yards as well. 

Here are the links to the tapes I use:

Clear tape - R-CLEAR CHOICE AT-60

Paper tape - R-TAPE CONFORM 4078RLA

PayPal Dispute Resolved!

As ya'll know I had offered a file for purchase of some Snowmen Ornaments and one person that purchased rescinded her payment saying she never got the file.

In her correspondence on PayPal she said she tried to email me several times but I never replied and then stated she didn't know how to contact me any other way than PayPal. First off she used my email to send the money through PayPal and she never emailed me about not getting the file. Also I had sent the file the day after she paid. At that time I was still was emailing the file because I didn't have a buy button on my website for my files, which I do now in the posts that have files for purchase.

I sent her several messages through PayPal and she never responded so I decided to escalate the situation to PayPal for review. Thank goodness for the snipping tool in Windows because I was able to send them a screenshot of where I sent her another email, forwarding the original email with the file attached.

This is not something I wanted to do and I know it was only $5, but it was my $5! Actually only $4.55 after PayPal fees. 

After review PayPal decided in my favor! YAY! I really wasn't sure what would happen since there were no tangible goods but I guess since I had kept the email in my "sent" folder and was able to provide that information it helped. 

I just don't know why people want to try and cheat others!

It's The End of an Era

Several times over the years I have thought about not sharing files but I would continue for one reason or another but as of now I will no longer be sharing files and most all links, hundreds of them actually, have been taken down.

I started sharing files back in 2008 when Design Studio was still used and I made files out of nothing but squares, circles, triangles and the letter "j" from George was a life saver. Once I started using Make The Cut the whole making file process was so much easier and user friendly and I would be so excited to share a design I was able to make. I truly enjoyed sharing, but now...it's almost a regret.

I know this might seem rash to stop sharing and taking down the links but after reports of people posting my files in various groups on Facebook or using my files for their own projects to make money I have decided that it is time to end my generosity. Rarely do I get donations for the files I make and many times there are hours and hours of work that go into just one "simple" file. To all those who have been generous and made a donation over the years I truly appreciate you! It has been very frustrating many times when I have had a file downloaded hundreds of times and maybe, maybe 3 people would even say thank you. 

I will continue to share my projects here and make blog posts of nonsense that goes on in my head and my life. If I can think of a way to share files to where others are not sharing my work as their own or making money off my generosity I will start sharing again.

If anyone chooses not to come back due to this announcement I completely understand. 

It's No Fun To Browse The Internet!

It's really no fun anymore. It use to be fun back when you could browse the internet while seeing and reading cool things. But now...it's just a pain in the arse!

For instance, you go to look at some kitchen makeover stories on the Better Homes and Gardens website and you lose the whole picture of the kitchen makeover because of all the ads and pop ups. I'm not sure if I was looking at a kitchen here or if I was trying to buy a house, a truck, drink some whiskey, watch a video or decorate for Christmas. Do the folks who design this chit not know how this interrupts our sensory abilities to focus on the subject?

When I tried to read an article about some unusually marked dog the page was full of ads and then it wanted me to click "NEXT" to continue reading, which I did not since I have found that those kind of websites make you click through like 284 pages *okie knows she is exaggerating but it doesn't feel like much of an exaggeration* to read a 3 paragraph article. Not only that but there are all these annoying suggested reading's below the photo that most just lead to...YES! ADS!! And of course there is more ads in the side column that want me to book travel, cook a gourmet meal, hang my Christmas stockings or learn how to get beautiful. Why does the internet not think I am already beautiful! Are they spying on me, oddly enough I keep a little piece of Washi Tape over my camera eye on my laptop because while I am not a paranoid type I do know that people will hack into your computer for fun and see what you are doing by taking control of your webcam *okie won't mention that she would totally do that to others if she knew how* . It's all so distracting from what I am actually trying to see and read.

If you want to see 31 Hilarious Baby Photos you have to go through a slideshow, clicking 62 times *okie didn't go through and check to see if it was 62* because there is actually 2 photos for each photo and they are on separate pages. IT'S FREAKING ANNOYING! I JUST WANTED TO SEE CUTE BABIES!! Why can't they just put it all on one page and let you scroll through instead of wasting time clicking and clicking and clicking and clicking annnnndddd clicking!! Not to mention that other pages pop up and you have to find out how to get past it in order to get back to the dang cute babies!!


Didn't the internet use to be a lot more fun and simple? Now it's just a maze, or web if you will, of just making us see ads, accidentally click on them where we lose our original subject and then giving up all together. I've decided it's just no fun to browse the internet anymore!

VINYL SALE!!!

I'm not having a vinyl sale because I like my vinyl, although I did share some of it with my cousin recently, but I wanted to share the sale that SIGNWarehouse is having right now.

I got an email about their 'Talk Like A Pirate' Sale they are having on their EnduraGLOSS vinyl. If you have never used this vinyl it is comparable to the Oracal 651 that most people love and right now at this price it is $5.98 cheaper per roll than the Oracal 651. The sale runs through  to Monday September 26th and is limited to what they have on hand so if you need some vinyl ya better hurry and order!

I do personally buy from this company and they have super fast shipping and the most awesome customer service!

***DISCLAIMER*** I was not paid or compensated in any form or fashion for making this post. This post was made to solely share information about a fantastic product at a fantastic price. 

Organizing Cardstock and Paper

I am really a bit ashamed to say it had been over a year that I had done anything to my paper organization but it is true *okie hears a few gasps, looks out everyone with a bit of a perturbed look on her face* OH PUULLLEEZZZZ!! I'm so sure all y'all keep yours organized and update on a daily basis!

Anyway, I had cardstock here and there and packages of colors with scrapbook paper and my Graphic45 hadn't been updated in awhile either so it was quite a task I had before me but since it was too hot to do much of anything I thought I could use the time to get 'er done! I took this picture after I had already started doing a little. I got the blue plastic bins at Goodwill and I have no idea what they were suppose to be but I know they were used to stand vertical but horizontally they work great for holding my cardstock. They are really heavy duty so I don't worry about them tearing up and since they are solid they can't fall apart. 

I have a hard time trying to figure out colors and I thought the greens were bad but I quickly decided that I think blues are the hardest color to organize because there are just so many dang shades of blue and how I ended up with so many shades I have nodea and to be honest I still don't have the right shades of blue! I have tons of teal blues and I do remember how I ended up with all those. A few years back Consumer Crafts had an awesome sale on the Coredinations, such a good sale I got multiple packs of whatever I could and it seems that the teal is what I use least because it is what I have the most of left now. At this point I was begging people on Facebook to come and organize my blue cardstock for me. Not one person ever showed up to do the task *okie thinks she has a lot of slacker friends*. 

After much persistence, many paper cuts and feeling like I was going blind I got it all done!

Next up was getting my, for lack of a better word "glitzy" cardstock in order. If I thought my regular cardstock was scatter then my glitzy was like hunting for Easter eggs! I kept finding it in all different places and when I did find it somewhere that might be odd I would remember why I had it with certain paper but decided it needed to be all together. 

I had Bazzill bling, Coredinations gems, metallic, opalescent, brushed metal and mica to get in order. I did mix all those different ones together and put them with their color hoping it will be easier for me to find when I am wanting something glitzy. 

Since moving my regular cardstock to the blue containers I had a lot of the Cropper Hopper holders free and it worked out great for getting a lot of my other papers organized and labeled. I have one of those Brother P-Touch label makers and I absolutely love it! 

I didn't label my scraps, but that is what is to the left of the glitzy cardstock. At the time I took the picture I hadn't gotten to my specialty cardstock but it is now organized and on the shelf right below this one. Specialty includes, faux textures, foam, vellum, vinyl (thin for paper not my regular vinyl) washi sheets printables and also I was able to fit my birthday and kitchen category papers on the shelf as well. 

I got my scrapbook paper reorganized and the companies separated again, such as K&Co, MME, Stampin Up, DCWV, Basic Grey and Graphic45. This is a picture of my Graphic45 papers, sans any Christmas collections *okie thinks it is obvious those would go in the Christmas section*. I even finally updated my inventory of my Graphic45 so hopefully I wont make the mistake of buying duplicate packs, which I did do one time in the past. My inventory is done in Excel, just like my stamps, punches, embossing folders, etc, so it makes it easy to go in and add and keep things in alphabetically order. 

My poor scraproom looked like a paper flea market for about a week while I was getting this all done but I am glad I did get it done and it looks so much neater now and it will be easy to find what I m looking for when I want to do a project. Which was not long after I got it all organized! I was sent the Close To My Heart Flower Market cartridge to review and tomorrow I am going to show you a project that I did with that cartridge. Would someone get the lady in the back who fainted some water? I guess it was bit of a shock to her that I used a Cricut cartridge. Is she okay? *okie sees someone nod their head yes* Alrighty then, y'all be sure to come back tomorrow and check out the project!

Let's Catch Up!

First off I apologize for lying but I really didn't know I was lying at the time...I mean about posting more often. I honestly had best intentions but then I got to where I was really enjoying the swimming pool and having company quite a bit and well......yeah....

So in the last month I have been quite busy. I made a visit to Houston for  week which was a lot of fun. My friend Lori wanted me to come and help her get her scraproom set up and it also allowed me to surprise my friend Carmen and visit her for a week. And when I say surprise, I do mean surprise! I only knew a week before heading down that I was going to go and I never mentioned a thing to Carmen. I did text her daughter to make sure the family didn't have any plans and that Carmen would be home. Let me tell ya a little how that went.

I parked down the street from their house because I know Carmen always looks out the window to see who it is and if she saw my car she would immediately know it was me at the door. I knocked on the door and heard the sounds of boots clicking on tile so I knew it was her husband coming to the door so as soon as he opened the door I did the "SSSSHHHH" sign by holding my index finger up to my lips and whisper "she has no idea!". He was smiling and I heard Carmen say "who is it?" and when I walked around the door she had the most perplexed look on her face and I kept waiting for her to rub her eyes so she could make sure she was seeing what she thought she saw. Of course we immediately hugged and she said "What are you doing here???" and I said "Well you said you were lonely!!!". I had to explain to her that Lori and I had cooked up the scheme because I had posted on Facebook a few weeks earlier how I was sad because Carmen and I hadn't been able to see each other since October and we had gotten use to seeing each other about every 3 months and I wasn't sure when we would get to visit again.

Let me tell ya something folks....ya know it's a true friend when you can show up completely unexpected and say "hey I'm staying a week" and the person welcomes you with open arms!! And yes, I am blessed to have such friends!

My mission while in Houston really was to help Lori and it worked out that Carmen was able to go as well and while we didn't get it all done we worked hard enough that she would only have a few last things to arrange in her scraproom. I honestly felt like Lori and Carmen did the majority of it as I was organizing paper and embellishments and such, ya know the tedious crap that has to be done. I think this was the only picture taken while I was in Houston and Lori pointed out that we didn't get a group picture this time and we usually always do. I did have some help down on that floor as Lori's little Westie Callaway kept coming in and helping me and by helping I mean standing on the paper and waiting for me to give her back scratches or belly rubs! I would have brought her home with me if I thought I could have gotten away with it. Lori's other dog, a Boxer named Riley, wasn't quite as friendly and barked at Carmen and I anytime we were in the same room with her. 

I was able to pick up a few packages of Bazzill cardstock at Tuesday Morning while down there and when I got home I decided it was time for me to update my cardstock since it has been over a year since I even attempted to get it all in order. And speaking of which I will post about that tomorrow. 

Dear Men Of The World

Dear Men Of The World,

I think you somehow got mixed up when getting in line for the maturity gene. I, on the other hand, have reached the life marker of 50 years and have matured since who and what I was in early adulthood. Since I have never been married and raised my daughter alone I had to become independent. My independence affords me the following...

• dinner in a restaurant alone without feeling uncomfortable
• seeing a movie in a theater all by myself
• call for my own car repairs, use to do a lot of my own repairs
• deal with used car salesmen and buy a car
• take care of my yard
• organize my garage
• do minor plumbing repairs
• own power tools and know how to use them
• change fuses and sockets without getting electrocuted
• make my own money
• pay my own bills
• and many, many more things 

but mostly I have learned to enjoy my own company and can make it through life without needing a man to feel I am worthy as a woman. 

If I chose to have you in my life it is because I enjoy your companionship. The definition of companionship in my life is simply, to quote Merriam and Webster "the good feeling that comes from being with someone else". Let me dumb it down for ya a bit, *clears throat* I mean explain it more clearly so there is no misunderstanding - "being with" is spending time with and having conversation on a regular basis. So yes, actually doing activities, attending events and talking to one another. One more explanation, talking requires face to face conversation with words coming out of the mouth. It is not words on the screen of a phone. 

Please take a note, I'll wait while you get a pen and paper...

My amour-propre doesn't rise or fall with what you say or think about me. Instead it is based on belief in myself. There is nothing you can say to or about me that is going to make me want to suddenly have your penis slide into my vagina. So unless we are companions do not approach me with any suggestions of sex, and even then don't ask but instead let things happen as time goes on. I can and have done without sex and have learned that while it is wonderful with someone I love I don't need sex to have a happy life.

In other words, go grab a magazine, some Vaseline and get it on with yourself because this woman right here is NOT going to be your

• fuck buddy
• booty call
• one night stand
• Netflix and chill chick
• hit it and get it
• friend with benefits
• whore

or any other euphemism you might want to use for the situation of having sexual intercourse without being a companion in life. 

Sincerely,

ME

Double Whammy Celebration!

Today I am having a little double whammy celebration here at the house with a few people and I got lots to do!

Thursday will be Andrea's birthday and I usually try to take her to lunch or something but I will be out of town. For those that don't know I never really consider Andrea a friend but instead she is my sister, she is also the mother to my 3 Goddaughters. Years ago when we had more friends live close to us I would have a get together with the girlfriends and it was a lot of fun but as years pass and people move away the annual celebration just fizzled out. Now our daughters are grown and we can enjoy celebrating with them and this will be the first time our two families have celebrated her birthday and I am more than a little excited. 

Sadly her daughter Eboni isn't able to make it down from Broken Arrow and Amber has to work but I think she will be able to make it later this evening when she gets off. Her daughter Ashley, her husband Daryl and their son Carter will make it over along with Andrea and her husband Glen. Yes I have a God Grandson and I a totally in love with that little boy! I even paid for him to go to swim lessons because I knew I was going to have the pool this year and I wanted him to be able to not be afraid of the water and from all reports he is doing fantastic and loves the water. Today will be his first day in my pool and I am as giddy as a school girl to have him in the pool with me as I am a person who loves the water. And of course my daughter and son-in-law will be here.

I need to wash some baker potatoes and I have NY strip steak in the fridge ready to set out so they can achieve room temperature before putting them on the grill. We will also be having grilled veggies, which include Squash, Zucchini, cherry tomatoes, yellow pepper, orange pepper, red pepper, bell pepper and mushroom. I totally forgot to get a red onion to put in it! I have it marinating in Zesty Italian dressing with some minced garlic and lemon juice. I got a few Lock N Lock bowls a couple of years back and those things are awesome for marinating such things because I can just flip the bowls every so often to make sure everything gets coated well. 

Anyway back to my day and the second part of the celebration is the Grand Opening of my pool! So far only my daughter and I have swam in it and that was to help get the salt dissolved after we put in 260 pounds of that stuff. 

I still need to get the back yard mowed around the pool. Hopefully it is dry enough now. We've had hot weather but with super high humidity and that just doesn't work well with drying out the grass much. I also need to put down some stepping stones for a temporary walk way from the deck to the pool to help keep down on the dirt in the pool and also help people avoid slipping in any possible mud that might accumulate. 

My salt water chlorinator came in on Thursday and I was able to get it hooked up and running. I did a lot of research on sizes and such before ordering and found that the Intex 120 Krystal Clear Saltwater System would work for the size of my pool and ordered it from Walmart because it was a little cheaper than the one I saw on Amazon. Or at least I thought it was, it was actually a few bucks more because of the tax that was added through Walmart. 

It was easy to set up and the hose connects and hoses worked perfectly so I didn't need to do any adjustments. It has ran two cycles since I hooked it up and I do feel better knowing it got to run two cycles before people will be swimming in it today.

Last night I decided to go ahead and order my sand filter because my cartridge pump is leaking at the top where the cartridge is located and I'll have my son-in-law take a look at it today when he comes over. I knew I would be ordering one but was going to wait but with not wanting to mess with having to fix the leak all the time I bit the bullet and ordered. From everything I read it will be a lot easier and keep the pool cleaner than the cartridge system so I don't think I will regret the purchase. The picture is the one that I ordered and it is the Intex Krystal Clear Sand Filter Pump and has a 3000 GPH flow and will work perfectly with the salt water chlorinator.  

As much as I would love to keep typing and talking to you lovies I got chit to do and time is a wastin!

Busy Busy Busy

I haven't really had much time in the past few days to sit down and write a post but didn't want anyone to think that I was going on hiatus again so thought I would give a brief review of what I've been doing.

My groups just finished up their last birthday card yesterday and they were thrilled with each one. They made two last week and two this week. Getting the card kits together always takes quite a bit of time and this time I also made an extra 12 of each because I am going to Branson next week to teach my cousin and some of her friends how to make cards. Wish me luck on that one because I have little patience with such matters because people want to ask questions and I just want them to do what I say HA HA HA. I will try to get the card posts ready in the next day or two so I can share those with you. One of them as really cool file that you will be able to download.

Another thing that has kept me busy is getting my new pool up. Last summer was the first time in about 13 years I didn't have a pool and I thought I was going to die! DIE I TELL YOU! I will give more details on the pool later and also share how my daughter and I installed a wide mouth skimmer that required cutting a hole in the brand new pool *EEEKKKK*. 

I have a great Saturday planned with my friend Andrea and hopefully at least two, would prefer all three, of my Goddaughters and my own daughter and her husband. Andrea's birthday is next week so I am going to fire up the grill have libations ready and we can swim and float around in the pool. 

How To Fix Your Hamilton Beach Flexbrew Single Serve

My daughter asked for a Kuerig for Christmas and since that is all she asked for I got her one and she loves it. I myself have been wanting one for quite some time but couldn't justify the cost for myself *okie thinks that it is odd how we can spend money on others but not ourselves* but I did find a Hamilton Beach Flexbrew Singe Serve at Walmart for half the price of a Kuerig and I thought I was worth at least half of what my daughter is worth *okie cracks up laughing*. 

I have had different coffee pots over the years, usually a Mr. Coffee in most cases, so this whole single serve was quite appealing to me because I didn't have to make a whole pot of coffee and if I decided I wanted another cup of coffee all I have to do is pop another pod in, add the water and push the button and let's face it...it's almost impossible to make just one cup of coffee in a large pot. There were a few other reasons I chose this machine, one being I really liked the looks of it and how it was compact. If you want you can remove the little shelf and use a travel mug. Another great option is that you don't have to use pods, it has a built in filter basket where you can use loose coffee. One more plus is that you can make coffee in several different cup sizes. I usually go with the 10 oz because the bottled water I have is 20 ounces and I know to just use half the bottle. *CONFESSION* I keep bottled water for the kids because they always come in and take it with them when they leave. I use the same bottles over and over and just refill from my fridge since I have filtered water. 

I did read the reviews and most of them were good, there were a few talking about how after awhile the water would no longer go through but I decided to take a chance on it anyway. Just a few days ago my machine got to where the water wouldn't brew all the way through and I thought "well dammmnnnn" but me being me I decided to take a looksy and see if I could find out the problem.

The first thing I did was take off this rubber gasket around the piercing needle and clean it. There didn't seem to be anything on it or anything to clean really but I wiped it off just the same. While doing this I noticed a hole in the piercing needle and I wondered to myself if that is actually where the water goes through.

I went to my craftroom and found a paperclip and poked it through the hole *okie wonders if she should mention she did unplug the coffee maker before starting her out of curiosity let's try and repair the coffee maker job* and sure enough there were coffee grounds that came out! I twirled the paperclip a little bit to make sure I was getting it all out and truthfully there wasn't even much but I guess enough to keep it from brewing right.

After getting the piercing needle all cleaned out I put the rubber gasket back on, plugged it back in, added the water and turned it on. It started making the noise it usually does as it heats up the water and instead of sputtering I saw a nice thick stream of hot water pouring out! GO ME!!! Now if the problem happens again I know it is a quick fix and I won't be thinking I have to run out and replace my coffee maker. I did go ahead and do the vinegar cleaning while I was at it and there was some build up in the little filter basket. Our city water is very hard and there is always lime and calcium spots on things. After drinking this water for years I should have bones like steel with all the calcium I have consumed!

I Need To Blog More...But Keep Offering Free Files??

I use to make almost daily posts for a few years because I always had something to post and now days I don't craft as often so I always feel I don't need to post anything but I have noticed I usually get more comments on my commentary posts than I do my crafting posts. It is discouraging at times but then I realize I get a lot of comments on Facebook when my links post to my Facebook page and to the Old Cricut community group. There are a few other groups I will post the link to my crafting posts and I get likes and comments on those as well. I was touched by the comments and emails I received from some of my readers after I first posted a few days ago after not writing for a few months.

I wonder why people always have something to say about my commentary since I usually find it as drivel that goes through my head and I realize that typing out that drivel can be therapeutic. I looked back at some of my stats and I was a little shocked to see where my readers come from! I have readers in of course the US but also Canada, Russia, Germany, United Kingdom, Australia, Ukraine, France, China, Brazil, Ireland and a few more that I can't remember off hand or recognize on the map that was in my stats. I guess I forget how vast the world wide web is and don't think about people out other countries really being interested in what is on this blog.

Here are some fun stats..

Post with the highest number of views - For The Love of Minions

Second highest number of views - Cuttlebug A2 Folder Storage

Highest referring URL - Google

Second highest referring URL - Obsessed With Scrapbooking

Highest referring site - Google

Second highest referring site - Networked Blogs

Highest Keyword Search - okieladybug

Second highest Keyword Search - okieladybug blog

Highest Viewed Page - Make The Cut/SVG Files

Second Highest Views Page - Card Cut Files

I guess what this means is that I will keep on bloggin after all and hopefully even if I don't have crafty posts I will at least post something even if it is the silly thoughts that come out of my head. After being at this thing for a little over 8 years *okie gasps a little realizing it's been that long* I guess there is no reason to stop now!

I know I need to blog more and not go so long in between posts and recently I thought about not making my files for projects I make available for download because I get very few comments of even "thank you" and I thought about different ways I could allow someone to download so they have to at least acknowledge the fact they are using a file but all the ways I could think of require extra work and let's face it...I'm lazy. With that said for now I will continue posting links where files can be downloaded and learn to live with the discouragement.