The Cookbook and S&H Green Stamps

Hello and welcome,

I know many of you are way young to remember  S&H Green Stamps.  Oh what  a wonderful bonus when buying gas, groceries and many other things.   These sweet little stamps, they were green, were given to you every time you made a purchase.  On Wednesdays they were double.  You waited until then and bought your groceries and got twice the amount you would usually get.  Back then,  dear Eldon had a Borden's Milk distributorship and had to make many trips to fill the coolers with milk and other dairy goodies he sold.   There wasn't really any room in the back rooms of the stores so just had to keep going back to fill them.  The other route men-Frito Lay, bread men and others all had to do the same.   Wednesday was just the big day for all in the grocery business.

Now the wonder of the stamps is there were redemption centers around and you could trade them in for baby cribs, pots and pans ( I did that) cookbooks ( I have a 1961 Better Homes and Garden  new Cookbook ) children's rocking chairs , lamps most anything you could think of.  You would come out of the redemption center so proud of your FREE goodie.   I remember even getting a guitar case for our daughter Debra.  

There were also Gold Bond stamps, golden in color of course.   But the S&H stamps were the prize.   I can't remember now how many books it took for a prize or how many stamps it took to fill one.  I do remember the rocking chair was 1 book.   Our daughters thought it was a prize and I have it still to this day.   It has been many colors and I used in in my photography business for 24 years.

Now this wonderful cookbook, remember I was a baby when we married.  I studied it like it was the national book of treasures.  I knew every word it said.   As you can tell it was well used.   Funny story, one day I thought I can make cinnamon rolls.  Right?  Well I was making them and Eldon came in from work and said why don't we spread them apart more and they will get bigger?  Ok, we did that.  They got so flat as a flitter.  Pure flat!!!!   Guess that wasn't the thing to do, but it was fun and we didn't know any better.     My gravy, oh my.  Before I got the cookbook-------I had grease in the pan and thought alright I can do this !!!!!!    Have you ever seen 1-2 cups of flour in a little grease and just made thick thick paste?  Well I did, the trash got lots of little goodies that first year.  Well, truth be known other years to follow.   I tried many many recipes from this book and still do.  

Well, thanks for stopping by and seeing what is going on in my world.  You never know, don't know what prompted me to write on this subject but here it is.  





  

Painting, painting and more painting

You know there is such a great revolution going on right now about painting. ( it is a quiet one but trust me it is here)  Our world is ever changing which is a good thing.   As many of you know I have been a traditional artist for many years, then professional photographer for 24 years and now going back to painting.  It has changed so much.  I think to stay ahead of the game for your own sake you need to still take lessons of some sort, keep studying art and JUST DO IT!!!!

During all these years I have kept up or tried to with the newest of the new.   In photography and art.  Both are tied together,  some photographers don't have the art background and it does show.  Trust me.    One giant thing is Digital Art.   Now I know some think ok she just clicks a button and it is there.   Not so.   I still paint stroke by stroke, study color and draw and practice.   I think if you don't know all that you can still do it but my goodness why beat yourself up like that?   Study all along and take lessons.   I am enhancing my paintings with traditional paints and no, it is not paint by numbers.  I promise.   

I am starting to add some wonderful links about this subject and some teachers that will knock your socks off.  There are out there lots of magazines and books you can also study.  The little painting at the first of my blog of Allex in the flowers is one.   A photograph I took and then painted.   You can get as artsy fartsy as you want or stay traditional it is up to you.

One of the FREE magazines you can get is  http://www.digitalpaintmagazine.com/blog/ and I have added this to my blog list.   If you are interested at all go check this out.    


Just had to start this subject, you will be seeing more of paintings and more on the subject.  The program is Painter 11 and a wonderful Wacom tablet.   These are my tools, besides my brain and want to, for this revolution.   
                                                                              

Thanks again for stopping by Annette's World

Scrapbooking for Breast Cancer Awareness

Scrapbooking also can, besides getting together and just visiting and being creative, also raise funs for charities.    Our daughter had a Breast Cancer Awareness crop.  She gathered gifts  to auction off and I might say one of my paintings went for a very nice price.  It was fun to donate because we knew it was going for a wonderful cause.   A lot of us won special gifts that were given hourly and we all got a wonderful goodie bag.  Now we have gone to conventions of big companies and not gotten have as good  of a bag as these were.   Of course there was food, isn't that part of scrapbooking?   Now if you look closely at the group picture I am in it.   I took the picture but then inserted myself in there.   I am not the tallest person in the world,  vertically challenged is a term I have heard used.   Ok, I put myself in there and later, like a few days ago I noticed I have no legs in there,  just a floating head.   Oh well, guess no one noticed but myself.     

Vickie has these at their diner, not open to the public just a 50's style diner.  A fun place to have these crops and parties if you are a member of the family or attend one of their Antique Car Club Meetings.   You will see int he background a large, and I mean large canvas of a movie banner.   So their cars look like they are at the drive in.  Biggest thing I ever painted, but it was a challenge.   Especially because I didn't really have a place big enough to hang it to paint.  One half of it hung and the other half on the floor, when that half finished being painted we just ooched ( is that a word?  Maybe a Texas word) it up and I finished it.   

Here we are at the diner and a great group this was.  Oh, Sam's Bird Nest is what it is called.  Why?  They have several T-Birds but other makes of cars have wiggled 
 their way in. 

We had to show the yummy cupcakes Vickie made and the cookies someone has made especially for the event. 


I uses a printed vellum over the solid paper just to give some softness to the background paper.    You always have to remember to journal, be it lots and lots of words or just a few.  You want someone to see your pages and  know what you are doing and playing without having to explain what it is.   I try to make at least two page spreads so the album flows a little better.  I have made two page spreads out of one picture.  It was a challenge, but fun to do.   There is just so much pretties to play with in scrapbooking but I try not to make them the stars.  After all it is the photographs that are the main story teller.


Thanks for stopping by   Annette's World.  

Memory making of Scrapbooks

Several years ago I started scrapbooking.  When I first heard of it, I thought oh my I don't want to do this, piles of "stuff" in a book.  I was remembering when I use to make our daughters scrapbooks and how cards and mementos were put in a book.  Well, did I ever get an eye opener.   I was first introduced to Creative Memories.  A group of ladies and a consultant met,  visited , had a good time and cut and paste.  Not the computer kind but skills you learned as a first grader.   Of course food was also a big part of the togetherness of the ladies.   When I first started I used a black pen, archival of course, and made one sheet of archival safe paper for maybe several pages.  I used them just as accents.   Now, oh has my style changed.  I use, sometimes, several sheets and styles of paper for one finished page.  You are listening to a lady who had put together 27 albums.  Some are giant size and hard to lift.  I know I should divide the pages and make smaller ones, maybe one day.   

Today there are conventions and conventions for scrapbookers.   One of our daughters even go to Arizona to the Great Escape, choosing the artists by lotto.   Yes, lotto.  She has been chosen for two years.  Of course they do one day as a spa day and shopping is a big part of scrapbooking also.   I use to say whoever has the most when they die wins.  Well, scrapbookers may win this race.   There are also retreats you can go to for several days, like the ScrapinPad in Oklahoma.

Here we are at one of the conventions and check out the crowd, part of it.  So many walks of life and ages all enjoying the same thing.   Something to say about this.  

We are at Arlington, Texas here and as you can see my wonderful purse is not scrapbooking material but a purchase at the scrapbooking convention.   

 

The paper I won, maybe $3 worth but hey I was a winner and so excited!

I believe one of the unwritten rules is don't keep up with what you spend because it will blow you away.  Just buy it and use it and have fun.  

One daughter says it is fun to be around creative, funny and talented ladies.  Scrapbooking lets you leave all your other worries behind and usually it reminds you of all the good memories you are scrapbooking.   One sweet friend of mine is scrapbooking her son that is a survivor of cancer.   He and she are such warriors and they both conquered this nasty disease.   I have made a heritage album of my Eldon's family.   I hope one of our daughters or grandchildren will enjoy it in years to come.   My family?   That is a great challenge to find who any of the ancestors are.  

There are so many people doing this and I don't say just ladies.  There are lots of men out there also and they have such a different way of scrapbooking.  One is Tim Holtz, oh such a talented young man and shares all his talents.   Magazines galore  such as Creating Keepsakes,  Memory Makers and Simple Scrapbooks.   Probablly one of the best heart warming things I remember is I had several years, yes years, of this mag and one of my photography clients had just started scrapbooking.  I gave her all the magazines and you would have thought I had given her a million dollars.   

I do have to recommend  you get a good album that you like working with.  I personally use Pioneer Photo Albums.  I have met them personally and a super nice group of people.  Guess maybe that was an ad but just had to say it.   

 Lots of new things going on including digital scrapbooking.  There is a lot to be said about that.  I know probably quicker but there is something to be said about our first grade skills and touching all the paper and "little things" that go with it.    Besides I am on a computer all the time and it is a break to be a first grader sometimes.  

Your style of scrapbooking will change as it should.  I don't scrapbook like this much anymore and my first ones are not very pretty at all.   Oh my, I do need to go back one day and change them.   One day.  


Well there is so much to say about this subject and I won't wear your eyes out but will be back with another post.   


Thanks for stopping by and seeing what is going on in Annette's World.