ScrapHappy

Cooperstown Day One

After a travel-filled Thursday, we arrived in upstate New York late Thursday night. You can see our prioriities -- we bypassed checking in our hotel at 11:00 PM and headed directly to the baseball complex to catch the last two innings of the 12U finals. The place was rocking, even at that time, and we were duly impressed with the facility -- 25 or so baseball fields in the single complex, along with the Athletes' Village, the snack shack (v. important), an infirmary and -- of course -- a gift shop. 

After eating our RDA of seeds, we finally checked into the oh-so-lavish HoJo (can you believe we are paying $240 a night?) around midnight. It's actually quite a nice little hotel, fairly new. Indoor pool. Big rooms. Everyone's happy.

We got up around 10:30-ish and got ready for a day of sightseeing. It's a beautiful small New England town, but there's not much here except the Hall of Fame, which was founded in 1939. You'd think after almost 70 years, the natives would have had a chance to get used to tourists invading their town, but not necessarily. Most locals were really nice, but some looked like they had seen one too many baseball-crazed fans come through their doorways and would rather get hit in the head with a Nolan Ryan fastball than suffer through answering another question about where the nearest public restroom is.

Speaking of public restrooms, I am happy to report that the Baseball Hall of Fame has a very nice one. In fact, the whole building -- exhibits and all -- has been upgraded since my last trip, almost 15 years ago. Everything was much more interesting and interactive. My favorites: the old scorebooks (of course!):

...and the scrapbooks! Yes, there are SCRAPBOOKS at the Baseball Hall of Fame. 

In fact, if you think about it, the whole place is like one big scrapbook. Photos + Memories = Scrapbook! Just think, if no one had kept all those cool pieces of ephemera, they'd have big empty display cases instead of a cool museum. Put THAT thought in your dip can and chew it.

The girls lasted about an hour before they were ready to hit the gift shop (see a theme developing here?) and get some ice cream. We hung out while the boys finished up at the HOF. 

While we were waiting, we took some pics

and looked at all the baseball-themed stores. Anything baseball, you can get here. I'll take some pics of some of the stranger items and share with you later.

We ran into some of the rest of our team members (Go Monarchs!), and are now resting until we meet them in a bit for dinner. Ben and the rest of the boys check into the "barracks" tonight, so it's my last few hours with my little Bubby. I kind of feel like he's going off to college! :(

For a week.

Prayer Request

What better way to Do Right on Do Right Friday than by sending prayers and positive thoughts to one of our own? My dear ScrapHappy friend, Mary C., is undergoing some surgery today. If you care to, please pray for her, send her some healing vibes, or pop over to her blog and leave her a well wish or two.

Love you, Mary! (Only Mary would schedule an operation for Friday the 13th. She has that kind of twisted sense of humor that I love and admire!)

Anyone up for a book chain letter?

I need to find six people willing to take part in a paperback book chain letter thingy. Email me or leave a comment if you're interested!

ETA... Basically, you send one paperback to one person, and send a letter to six friends. Let me know if you are up for it!

What a great weekend! A little scrapbooking... The first time I have been to a crop night in about six months! Saturday was our little league party, and today was a trip to the farmers market. We even went to the movies... And Indiana Jones is looking good, even after all this time! I would add a photo or two if I knee how to do so from my iPhone. What did you do?

It's Thursday, right?

You thought I'd forgotten all about you! No way! Just swamped again... and again! We leave next Thursday for Cooperstown, and the kids got out of school today. There was a lot of ground to cover between "A" and "B!"

This is my very simple monochromatic layout from last week. Sometimes, you just want to get the pictures in the album, you know what I mean? No fancy layout or intricate embellishments -- just DONE. (And we all know that DONE is better than PERFECT).

materials: Scalloped cardstock (Die Cuts with a View) + library card and pocket (CK - Kit of the Month) + rub-ons (Scrapworks) + plastic flowery doo-dads (KI Memories) + gems (Hero Arts) + stickles (Ranger) + flower (I can't remember!).

What is interesting to me about this page is that it is very simple and doesn't look like much, but there are actually quite a few products. Have you done that before? You load a page up with product and you look at it and think, "Geez, doesn't really look like I did much here." It's kind of a bummer, and I almost didn't post this page because I'm not crazy about it. But I thought it would be a good chance to talk about this topic.

The great thing about product is that it can work FOR you. You can pick a few items that make a statement and add them to your design, and it looks like "something." Just like a wowzer piece of jewelry can elevate an outfit from blah to snazzy.

So be more conscious in your product choices this week. Think about what you are adding to your page and why. Is it enhancing what is already there? Is it detracting? Is it stand-out or blending in? Are you adding it because something is needed, or because you have it on-hand?

Since I will be gone for the next two Thursdays, here is you assignment for Thursday, June 26: create a page using ONLY FIVE PRODUCTS. Any five you want. Rub-ons and other alpha letters count as one if they are from the same alphabet. You choose the theme. But do it in 30 minutes or less, and keep that product count DOWN.

For last week:
Andrea F. came by for her first 30-Minute Thursday!

Laura T. is our random winner (Notice any similarities between her LO and Andrea's??)

Send me your snail mail addresses, ladies!

What's the Haps?

Yes, I've been scrapping... but no, I can't show you! :( It is killing me!

Instead I will share a few other things:

This has been a year-long project. If you remember back in September, I offered to teach Ben's fourth-grade class how to knit. I've been meeting with them every week or so and working with them in small groups. The result is this afghan, which will be their teacher's end-of-the-year gift tomorrow! (Yes, school gets out tomorrow -- ack!)

Each child worked on a square, and then I finished off their square (some were more hexagonal or ovoid than square!), crocheted an edging on each square, crocheted the whole thing together, and then did an edging around the blanket. I don't even want to think about how many hours of work went into this. But it is truly lovely and charming, dropped stitches and all, and I know their teacher will adore it.

And that cute little onesy is for a special baby! I had grand ideas of embroidering zoo animals on a bunch of onesies, but my aspirations far outpaced my embroidery skills. Whoops! So instead I cut some simple shapes from felt, stitched them on, and added a button (stitched on VERY tightly).

I have so many crafty dreams and so little time!