Happy, Little, Time Wasters

 

How To Make A Small Junk Journal From Paper Bags

The Friday Five Good Things

 Five good things that happened this week.

1. We didn't lose electricity during the storm.

2. When the Eldest went to dig her car out, a maintenance man shoveling the hospital walkways went over and helped her out.. 

3. She had made a reservation at a motel close to the hospital, but her little car couldn't handle the road. She went back to the hospital and the night nursing supervisor found her a room on a med. surgical floor where she spent the night.

4. I've been having fun playing in the junk journal.

5.  During my weekly Teague visit, she took me to my annual mammogram appointment, and then we picked up sandwiches on the way back to her house. I had a gyros

How was your week?

Throwback Reprints from CJ's Whine and Cheeze

   In 2003, Ma had a stroke. Dad was her full time caregiver until he he had a car accident that totaled the car. So in 2006, I became their chauffeur among other jobs.

At the time, to deal with the stress of running two households and working, I kept a blog entitled CJ's Whine and Cheeze. Egged on by some friends who enjoyed the first read through, you'll see your part when it comes by.

Thursday, July 05, 2007

Ave Maria

To most folks, July 4, is a day for cookouts and fireworks. For my family, The Fourth is another Holy Day of Obligation, the Weebles' wedding anniversary. This year, their 64th.

The Eldest had to work the holiday, and Himself stayed home in case she called saying the boss let them out early. He also had to go in search of a large pot to cook the prize she won in a raffle. (If you have nothing better to do, you can read all about her prize ) That left the Youngest and I to head to the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Perpetually Clueless for the afternoon service. As planned, we stopped at the nice, clean, modern supermarket, Stop and Shop, two miles from the Weebles'. There was a special on roses so we picked a dark coral bouquet. I asked the florist clerk if she could wrap the flowers while we finished the rest of the shopping. We picked up strawberries, angel food cake and fat free Redi-whip, two cards, and some other items I needed. The clerk surprised us by adding babies' breath and leather leaf fern to the roses making a really pretty bouquet.

There were a lot of people in the store. Most of them were picking up hotdog and hamburger buns, and the checkout lines were moving quickly. We had made good time down the Pike so I told the Young One we would visit one of the other stores to kill some time. We had 10 items in the cart. I debated whether or not to use the self-check out, but decided to use the 12 item express lane. I placed our items on the conveyor belt and waited, and waited and waited. The young woman ahead of me was having a debate with the check-out clerk over the price of a bag of chips. The clerk called a runner to go check the price. We waited some more. The Young One observed so much for an express lane, though it was helping us to kill time. Finally the chip dilemma was resolved, and our order was rung up.

Out in the car, I tucked a bit of cash into each card. The cash was really more for Dad than Ma. She controls the purse strings. She's so tight when it comes to an allowance for him. So tight, she squeaks when she walks. He doesn't always have ready cash to get a hair cut or buy himself a cup of coffee. So I slipped some cash into his card. Slipped an equal amount into hers. The Young One asked why I didn't just get them one anniversary card. Explained that if I put all the cash in the card, Grandma would take it all and Grandpa would get bupkis. With the nitty gritty taken care of, we went over the highway and by the woods to Grandma's house.

I rang the bell and then opened the door and announced "It's me!" so I wouldn't scare the Devil out of them. The Young One gave Grandma the flowers. Grandma was thrilled. She had been feeling down figuring we had forgotten all about them. She made much over the flowers. They were the same shade as her wedding colors.

I began getting things ready in the kitchen waiting for the arrival of the other pilgrims. When they arrived, Ma beamed. Almost all her chicks singing Aves to her. She was well pleased.

Ma has a small table in the living room that opens out to a dining table. The table is littered with Ma's business, all the you-have-won junk. She began issuing orders to clean the table off, but I quickly squelched that. It would have taken us days to relocate the items on her flat file.

She sat in her chair, arms folded across her chest. "Hmmm. In my own home I can't give orders."

I considered it tit for tat. I sent the Young One and The Boy downstairs with Grandpa for three extra chairs. We cozily sat around the kitchen table to have coffee and cake.

For the most part the Weebles were on their best behavior. Ma tried a few snipes. How her son in law does everything for her. She tried the chorus of The He's Stupid song. She hounded the Boy for the price of the cars at the dealership where he works. She wanted to know if he could get her a car.

"Got $40,000?" he asked.

"I will next week. I got a big check coming in. I was notified."

We all sang the Kyrie Eleison (Lord, have mercy)

Ma then asked where she could find a typewriter. The general consensus was at an antique store, but we weren't sure where one would find useable ribbons. Ma wants to type her checks because her handwriting is deteriorating. The scammers must be calling complaining they can't read her checks.

"What was that thing you used to play with?" she asked the Brother.

He looked at her blankly.

"The thing in your lap that you used to play with."

I tried not to lose composure, but I couldn't help it. I began to giggle and caught the Brother's attention with a hand signal which reduced us to gales of laughter. 🤣

All in all we had a fun time. After all, it was only a couple of hours out of our day to make an old lady very happy.

More From the Junk Journal

The prompt for Jan. 7 was Tags and Tickets. I didn't have any tickets so used the round images as tickets. 

The images for the tags came from a welcome sign I made as one of my first calligraphy projects. I photocopies the snow people and cut them out.

The poem on the pocket: (The Young One helped me complete the rhyme)

Some like it hot

Some like the snow

Some look forward to baseball

Some go where the coffee flows

The theme for January 14 was monochromatic, but the white really needed something to break it up.

Inside the pocket was a poem the Eldest wrote when she was 7 years old. I had calligraphed it and used it as a Christmas card one year. So I photocopied it and made a tassle.

Her poem:

Winter is...

Frost on cars

Ruined plans of going places.

On Mondays afternoon Ice skating

Zoos are closed

Extra days off

Nobody outside at times

Icicles clinking when you take them off

Cold, frozen, windy, days

Extra days in June

I added:

Is it August, yet?

January 15th's prompt was to use packaging. I cut a circle out of a plastic clamshell package that held the Crop-a-Dile I bought. I used it along with a photograph of the girlies and their snowman friend to make a snow globe. The date on the photograph was March 17, 1997

Since I'm behind in the journal, I didn't really think of a way to put space between the "glass globe" so the sparkles would move.

The prompt for January 16 was window. Because the book pages are thin, I couldn't cut a hole in the page as I already glued two pages together. So I hunted around for a clipart image of a window. I found one with a calico cat. I used the image and colored the cat black. Purrfect. Ink loved to watch the snow.

There weren't any prompts for Jan. 24  and 25 because there is no journal class on the weekends. I used this weekend's storm as a two page spread. On the left, a list of storm prep and last minute store items, mostly snacks and especially chocolate. On the right over a picture of the backyard, The Snow Gnome measuring stick with a snow total of 17.5 inches. I think I need to add the countdown until the Summer Solstice.

T Stands for Breakfast for Lunch

 

On our way out to lunch, Teague asked me where I wanted to go. She said she recently had pizza so she didn't want to go out for pizza. I recently had a hamburger, and didn't want to go out for subs (grinder, hero). Where to go?

Teague had been talking how she had pancakes so I decided we should go to  Lowell's in Mendon. The menu has lots of choices sandwiches, entrees, and they serve breakfast all day.

So I ordered Two French Toast with Two Scrambled Eggs with a side of bacon. I had a cup of hot tea with a splash of milk and one sugar packet.

Drop by hosts, Bleubeard and Elizabeth's blog to find out what the rest of the T Stands For gang is up to. If you want to play, include in your Tuesday post a beverage or container for a beverage. Don't forget to link your blog to Bleubeard and Elizabeth's page.

Monet and Me

 

with an assist from Godzilla are creating a worksheet for students to create snowflakes. (As if we aren't getting enough snowflakes this weekend) The purpose of the exercise is to show students how the pen can be manipulated to make different kinds of marks and shapes.

How Does Your Garden Grow?

A bunny came out to warm him or herself under the basement air circulator.

Ugh!

Warm temperatures Thursday caused glacier to slide off the solar panels. The temperature plummeted so the glacier is frozen.

The snow at the beginning of last week was light and fluffy. Himself took (the) Boat Anchor Samwise for a test run to see if he could plow through the snow. Here he is after plowing a path to the birdfedder on his way to the heating oil outlet. Way to go, Samwise! I'm not sure Samwise will be able to handle the 18 - 24 inches of snow predicted for my area with the big storm that has been sweeping the country set to arrive later on today.

Saturday started off with a balmy 0 degree F. Only 146 days until the Summer Solstice.

How does your garden grow?

Happy, Little, Time Wasters

 

Quick Paperclip Pockets

The Friday Five Good Things

 

Five good things that happened this week.

1. I enjoyed the first class of  Lindsay Ostrams' The Empty Page class

2. I have followed Dark Winds off and on. Himself was up to the episode where Robert Redford made a cameo. It was the last time Redford made an appearance as an actor on screen. I watched and now I'm hooked on the rest of the series

3. I got the camera working and with the Young One's help set up for class

4. I had a really fun chat with the Young One. She makes me laugh

5. Teague and I went to a favorite lunch spot where I had breakfast for lunch.

How was your week?

TBT Reprints from CJ's Whine and Cheeze

  In 2003, Ma had a stroke. Dad was her full time caregiver until he he had a car accident that totaled the car. So in 2006, I became their chauffeur among other jobs.

At the time, to deal with the stress of running two households and working, I kept a blog entitled CJ's Whine and Cheeze. Egged on by some friends who enjoyed the first read through, you'll see your part when it comes by.

Wednesday, July 04, 2007

Minutes from The Ladies' Sodality July 3rd Meeting

The younger parishioners of Our Lady of the Perpetually Clueless got together at the North Parish Hall for a night of fellowship and fireworks.

The Brother cooked hamburgers, hotdogs, sausage, on the grill to perfection. Macaroni salad, baked beans, tossed salad, chips, salsa, fruit salad, cookies and soda. Supper was eaten al fresco. As always, the Sister-In-Law was the perfect hostess.

The evening’s entertainment was provided by the city, a spectacular fireworks display. The North Parish Hall is on a hill so we had the perfect spot for viewing, sheltered under the gazebo away from the bugs. 🎆

After the fireworks display, the Ladies’ Sodality met in the kitchen for an emergency meeting to discuss whether or not to make a pilgrimage to the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Perpetually Clueless to pay obeisance to the Weebles and their long marriage on the Fourth of July, 64 years of marital bond…er bliss. The Knights of Kyrie Eleison joined the meeting. There was some discussion as to whether this was a Holy Day or a High Holy Day.

The gist of the discussion was that if a celebration wasn’t held, there’d be Hell to pay, and if a celebration was held, there’d be Hell to pay. It was rather like a pork roast, the one who was not going to have any fun was the pork. 🐷

The Ladies’ Sodality bent under the pressure and decided a pilgrimage with coffee and cake would be the best way to save the bacon. The pilgrimage would begin from the North and South parish halls. Parishioners would arrive at 2pm at the Cathedral. The North parishioners would supply the coffee, and the South parishioners would supply the cake. The Weebles could be counted on to provide the fireworks.

The meeting was adjourned.

Respectfully submitted,

Herself

Doodling for Stress Reduction

 

On Mondays via Zoom, I participate in a class where we spend  a half an hour doodling our stress away. 

The prompt for this doodle was to draw random shapes, fill them in with flowers (leaves, feathers) and then color in the space around the petals.

T Stands For Troubleshoot

 

I'm teaching an online class and a test run with the camera with the result of rotrow. In System, I could see the camera working, but when I ran the software, nothing. There was an error message that said to install the program from a CD. Say what? The laptop doesn't even have a CD/DVD drive.

What to do but take a sip of tea. A little too early to panic just yet. A quick trip to the manufacturer's site and a YouTube video showing an unboxing and installation. Perfect! Two ports on the back of the camera. The right port for running the camera. The left one for installing the software, but if you have a previous version, you need to uninstall.

So I uninstalled the software. Plugged the end into the left port and the USB into the computer and. Nothing! No software! No download. Play the video a little further along or you can download the software from the website. I took another sip of tea to quell the bubble of panic.

Back to the manufacturer's site and found the download button. I had another sip of tea while the download was happening. Then I clicked install. Another sip of tea as I watched the countdown. Then double clicked the software. Oh, rapture! Oh, joy! It worked.

The Young One had been standing by so I could use her eyes to tell me if my desktop was set up so that students would be able to see. Was the camera at the right angle? Could the nib of my pen be seen and not blocked by my hand? She suggested some left-right fixes and Bob's your uncle.

Hopefully, everything will work today. 🫰🏼

Drop by hosts, Bleubeard and Elizabeth's blog to find out what the rest of the T Stands For gang is up to. If you want to play, include in your Tuesday post a beverage or container for a beverage. Don't forget to link your blog to Bleubeard and Elizabeth's page.

Monet and Me

 

have a couple of pages to show from the January journal. The prompt for January 12 was to be a quote. I photocopied some artwork I had a done a year or two ago. I cut the little Kilroy dude out and stuck him to a tag. The poem was made into a pocket. On the back of the Kilroy tag, I wrote a quote about Winter. 😉

The prompt for the 13th was Torn. I tore the pieces for the penguin, cloud, and snow out of paper. I cut the sign because it was the remnant of a card and hard to tear. As of January 13th, there were 158 days left until the Summer Solstice.

How Does Your Garden Grow?

Winged Pig Before

Winged Pig After. I had tried to bring him in but had waited too late. He was welded to the ground. From snow, rain, sleet, freezing, thawing, rinse, lather, a repeat. His nose fell off. However, I never expected him to implode. 

A bird visitor left a calling card in the dusting of snow yesterday. (Sat. 1/17)

Followed by a small creature. A cat?

And the Delivery Person.

Ugh

More Ugh overnight. Lots more branches came down.

But the Widowmakers are still hanging in there.

More Ugh predicted for tonight. The snow storm that was too far off the coast and would only bring my area 1 to 3 inches has now tracked closer. Predicted snowfall over night to be 3 to 5 inches. 🤬

How does your garden grow?

Happy, Little, Time Waster

 

Three Guys from Boston (Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Jimmy) Say Every Town and City in Massachusetts

The Friday Five Good Things

 Five good things that happened this week.

1. I got all the blog posts ready for the week

2. Errands, dinner at out, and dropping off artwork for client

3. The journal for the Empty Page class arrived.

4. More errands and then out to dinner

5. Thursday or Teague Day and we started talking about plans to run away.

How was your week?

TBT Reprints from CJ's Whine and Cheeze

  In 2003, Ma had a stroke. Dad was her full time caregiver until he he had a car accident that totaled the car. So in 2006, I became their chauffeur among other jobs.

At the time, to deal with the stress of running two households and working, I kept a blog entitled CJ's Whine and Cheeze. Egged on by some friends who enjoyed the first read through, you'll see your part when it comes by.

Friday, June 22, 2007

Painting the Roses Red

Tuesday, the last day of the trifecta. The Weebles would be running out of milk. Ma would make Dad walk to the store to buy the milk. Too humid for a healthy, young person to walk a few miles, let alone an 88 year old man with heart problems. Though Ma knows she is 88 years old, she somehow thinks Dad is still in his forties and in good health. So, I stopped to pick up a gallon of milk to save Dad the walk. I also stopped so I wouldn’t be roped into a trip to Market Basket for a lousy gallon of milk.

Were they happy I brought the milk? I might as well have brought them magic beans.

“What’s that?” Dad asked.

“Milk.”

“What did you do that for!”

“To save you a walk!”

See Dad would like nothing better than to be running out for milk per Ma’s order and to drop dead in the middle of the road. Freedom for him with a helping of guilt for the rest of us.

“How much did you pay?” Ma asked.

“$3.89”

“You paid too much!”

“Well, if you people learned to drink 1% milk you could get a gallon cheaper!”

“I don’t like 1%. It’s watery.”

As if she could tell. She has a bit with her cereal for breakfast, and the rest is used in coffee. Ma was put out because there wasn’t going to be a quick dash for the milk after the visit to the foot doctor.

“Chalk one up for Herself,” I though smugly. I can play the game too.

Ma started to pick on Dad again about the blood and urine tests. She had the urine sample, but we’d have to drop it off at the doctor’s office.

“No, problem. I’ll take it with me and drop it off on my way home.” I go right by the doctor’s office.

Off to the foot doctor we go. The hospital medical building where his office is located must have been running a sale. There were no parking spaces available, let alone the handicap space. I offloaded the Weebles in front of the building and trolled for a parking space. I even went to the main hospital lot and that was filled! After a few circuits, I finally got a handicap space in front of the main entrance to the hospital. A primo space, but on the other side of the building and too far for Ma to walk. I no sooner got up to the doctor’s office when she came out. So I told them to wait in the lobby and I’d bring the car around.

I headed for their house when Ma announced I had to go to the other doctor’s office to drop off the specimen. She had it in her handbag. Punishment for bringing the milk is a different Toonerville Trolley run.

“I told you I’d take it with me when I went home. I go by this building.”

Ma crossed her arms across her ample chest. “I thought I was saving you a trip and doing you a favor.”

“No, this is now an extra trip.”

She sighed deeply. “I don’t give the orders, I just take them.”

And I'm painting the roses red.

More from the Junk Journal.

On January 6, Lindsay showed how to make streamer with bits of paper or fabric, a bulb pin or a safety pin, and a button. The cardinal stamp was from the Holiday Cheer stamps issued by USPS for the 2025 holiday season. It came from Finnbadger's cat card envelope

The house card was formerly an Amazon giftcard holder. It sits in a paper pocket. The tree was from an insert from St. Jude's Children's Hospital which I cut out. On the back some notes about the streamer. The tree is held to the house with the green paper clip.

When I hear someone say Let It Snow, I usually add at Someone else's house. 

The gift card envelope opened up. A sticker with 3 bears dressed for Winter. The bears asking Are we having fun yet?

Lindsay demonstrated how to easily make an envelope from a square sheet of paper. I used a piece of origami paper. The prompt for January 9 was washi tape. Lindsay covered her entire page with washi tape. I was too cheap so just covered the inner flap of the envelope.

This page is part of the spread you saw for T Day. The "Warm" came from the top of the snowman card. 2OLOTR (Two Old Ladies on The Road) need a warm destination. Inside the envelope, the Two Old Ladies on a warm, Summer day taken at Nubble Light in York, Maine.

There are no prompts for the January weekends as the group doesn't meet on the weekends. I decided I wanted to use my journal every day during the month of January. 

The pages for January 10 and 11 formed a spread. I thought of the Rankin and Bass production, A  Christmas Without a Santa Claus which introduced us to two characters, Mr. Heat Miser and his brother, Mr. Ice. I grabbed a screen shot of them from a YouTube clip and cut them out along with a thermometer which was colored in for each of them. Googly eyes added a bit of fun, too

My cousin and I tease each other about the weather. He loves snow and cold. I do not.

If you're humming their respective songs, you can find the lyrics on the back of Mr. Heat Miser and under the card flap for Mr. Ice.

T Stands for Dream Without Limits

From my January Journal, the prompt for the day was Note to Self and Postcard. A marshmallow snowman from a Christmas card relaxes in a hot tub of hot chocolate. The note to self: Open your heart and dream without limits.

Under the snowman card is a postcard of Ogunquit Beach, Ogunquit, Maine. The view is from the ocean looking towards the Norseman Resort. Two Old Ladies On The Road are anxious for warm weather and running away to Ogunquit.

Drop by hosts, Bleubeard and Elizabeth's blog to find out what the rest of the T Stands For gang is up to. If you want to play, include in your Tuesday post a beverage or container for a beverage. Don't forget to link your blog to Bleubeard and Elizabeth's page.

Monet and Me

took some time to admire the thoughtful card sent by Finnbadger from Envelope 100. He sent the card because it reminded him of me, Ink, Calli, and Quill. Embiggen the card and you can see all three cats.

I also joined Lindsay Ostrom's Facebook group working on a January junk journal. I've really been enjoying the group even though I've gone my own way. My journal with a Winter theme is more scrapbooky, scrapbookish...more like a scrapbook than a collaged and painted art journal.

I like the idea that under flaps, you can have room for some personal journaling

While at the annual, family gathering, gifts for the grand-nieces were wrapped in snowman paper. Before the paper was tossed out, I asked if I could have some. At the time, I wasn't sure what I would use it for. As I began working in the journal, it occurred to me that I could punch the snowmen out and use them as page numbers or dates in the journal.

On January 2nd, Lindsay demonstrated how to make paper beads from strips of paper. I stuck a couple of strips of paper as borders on this page and rolled the ends to make the beads.

January 3rd was the Full Wolf Moon. I like the background for the page and the silhouette of the wolf against a full moon. I like the moon dangling from a string. I'm not sure I'm that crazy about the yellow banner.

The cool thing about the junk journal is the pages don't have to be complete. You can always go back and add more or take something out. This idea needs to percolate more

Having worked in a hospital laboratory for 6 years, I'm a firm believer in the full moon. The crazies come out of the woodwork. It's like a virus. Three days coming, three days with you, and three days leaving. It happens at the New Moon, too, which is a full moon we can't see. So the back of the wolf tag the wolf is howling: The crazies are OUUUT

While gathering ephemera for the journal, I went through some school papers the girlies created.  I photocopied this  poem the Young One wrote when she was 6 years old. 

Finnbadger has a beautiful, circle, return address stamp with a cardinal in the center. I fussy cut the cardinal and colored it in. I also colored in the snowman's carrot to make it stand out more. The cardinal poised on the tip of the snowman's nose is asking: Is it July, yet?

The journal prompt for January 5 was Tuck Spot. Lindsay demonstrated making pockets by folding pages in triangles or rectangles. The tag was a gift card to me from The Young One. The snowflake on the front fit the theme and with a little bit of a trim, it fit into the pocket. 

Since I'm not a fan of Winter and tend to hibernate, I saw a craft about making a polar bear bookmark. He fit into the second pocket. On his back, I wrote the instructions for folding pockets. With the white dots, he looks like he's peeking out from his cave. Wake me when Winter is over seemed to be a fitting sentiment for the page.

How Does Your Garden Grow?

Not my backyard, but the chiropractor's backyard.

Icy steps and walk

Icy trees. Since the beginning of the year, every other day was either a bit of snow or ice.

Not my backyard. This was on the way home from Teague's house. In the 40 years I've lived in this area and driven this street, at all times of the day and night, I have never seen a train come through the crossing. It was a very long train. As long as the trains that go through downtown Framingham and Dennison Crossing.

Not much snow left in my backyard.

No snow in the front yard. 

How does your garden grow?