My 60th Birthday weekend - Day 1 - June 29, 2018

This is a post from June.  I had pictures coming at me from three or four different phones and it took a while to get this together.  It was my 60th birthday weekend.

 I shared this letter, I got anonymously in the mail, with you all a few months ago, before we went to Maine. I swore it was from our friends that live in Kentucky, because his birthday was the only 60th birthday party that I had been to, that had these decorations!  And this looked like their yard.  She swore she knew nothing about it.

Do you know how hard it is to pack for a weekend when you don't know where you are going or who you are going with!  And my sister called that night and she had to work the next day (Friday) and Vickie was going to a casino up  north with her daughter.  Those were the only two people I could think of that would do something for a weekend, but all of us just returned from Maine on Saturday, so I was pretty sure it wasn't them.

And Vickie had come over on Wednesday and gave me my birthday gift early, "since I was going to be gone over the weekend!"
I even told my Shug when I got it that I didn't know if I wanted to leave for a weekend, over my actual 60th birthday, without him, especially after just returning from vacation!    And I'm not sure I want to spend the weekend with whomever is picking me up!

Who Is Coming After Me?

I also asked him if I needed to bring my gun because what if it's some crazy UBER driver picking me up!  Because you see, he knew....he knew the details, but he wouldn't tell me.  We were sitting on the porch waiting because I knew I would be able to hear a car coming up the driveway.  

This was me....waiting....

And I didn't hear the car coming up the driveway because Vickie knew to drive sssllloooowwww so I wouldn't hear her!  What a surprise!

She said she had to go to Noblesville to pick up a gift for her Grandaughter at Lil' Bloomers (an adorable children's store).  Something she ordered, she said.  Well....then she said she needed to use the bathroom so I said, "stop at the coffee shop and I'll get a drink while you go to the bathroom.  And it's right across from Lil' Bloomers!"   She thought that was a great idea.

We got to Noble Coffee and Tea, and these cinnamon rolls were waiting on me.... 

as were these people!!!  Trent (My sisters husband)  Billie (Trent's mom) My dad, My Mom, and Ashley (Vickie's daughter)!  We all sat around enjoying coffee and rolls....

There was a gift on the table for me....and I had no idea who it was from but it was perfect.  It's a sign and it's hanging in my kitchen right now, as a reminder of a wonderful and fun weekend.  So I'm going to take you with me....here we go....Day one.

 When everyone left, Vickie, Ashley and I were on our way to Lil' Bloomers, to pick up the gift Vickie ordered... Not.  As we are at the stoplight Ashley asked what The Picket Fence store sells.  If you know me, you know I enjoy shopping in Downtown, Noblesville, IN now and then.  So I know the stores.  I told her it was an antique store and she wanted to stop inside.

 Outside the Picket Fence.

 Inside the Picket Fence, another present for me!

We finally made it to Lil Bloomers and I was inside looking around and they kept trying to get my attention over on this wall...

 Oh my gosh...another gift!

 Pink flamingo wine glasses.

 Vickie asked me what was the name of that clothing store I like.  Little Gypsies.  They have BOHO style clothes.  I shopped for at least half an hour before I saw this in the chair!

 Sorry about all of the cheesy pictures.  I had pictures coming from three or four different phones/people all weekend and it's taken me awhile to find them all.

 Little Gypsies even let me pick out a pair of earrings for my birthday!  

After this Ashley left us, and it was just Vickie and I, so we did a little shopping for ourselves.

(I had so much fun!)

I thought we were done with gifts when Vickie said, "lets go to Karisma."  OK....

 A journal...which I have yet to write in, but I think I will do so and record my birthday weekend.

We stopped at one more store that I like called The Corner Cottage.  I know the owner through shopping there, and I was telling her all about my weekend when Vickie pretty much dragged me out of the store and told them we had reservations, we had to go!

And she was hungry ( we hadn't eaten since cinnamon rolls for breakfast) so we went to a place called Bru Burger, for dinner. 

And there sits my sister!

I had felt sorry for her because she had to work and they told me they were texting each other and Vickie was sending her pictures all day long.

And there was this HUGE balloon sitting in my chair waiting on me!

We had a great dinner of burgers and fries and Peach Margaritas!  YUM!
And off we go....only they wouldn't tell me where we were going unless I guessed.
And I knew we had an 8:00 reservation.  And it was Friday night, so all I could think of was a concert.  But where....
Seymour is the home of John Mellencamp...hmmm....

Then I guessed a wine tasting at French Lick....I was close....
But first we had to check in to our room, it was 7:30, we had reservations at 8;00, we were grungy from shopping all day, V&T had to potty and the 'event' was at the hotel next door.  So, Vickie stayed with the car so we could illegally park, Theresa ran in and checked us in our room (but didn't go look at it) I ran into the little store and got us some water because we were parched.  Theresa wouldn't even stop at a fast food place for drinks on the way there because we were cutting our time too close.

We drove next door, parked the car, I went and let them know we were here, and got our seats, while V& T used the restroom (I went while T was checking us in our room), and we made it!

Check this out....

OH....MY.....GOSH....

And this was Day one.

This was the view from our room.

And we went and checked out the pool at the French Lick hotel and they were showing a movie.

I'll wrap up day one here.  Vickie and I did go to the casino for a little bit, which is at the hotel, and Theresa went to the room to lie down.  She had a headache. 

It was a fun day blogettes....

Cindy

How to make your own beads out of magazines

 In my last post I said I would show you how to make these beads.  I hope I can do a good job of explaining how to do this.  If you don't understand something, please ask.  They are made out of magazines!

First you need to assemble the supplies. 

You need one of these clear embossing ink pads. 

I found mine in the stamping department at Hobby Lobby, but I'm sure any craft or scrapbooking store would have them.

You need this ULTRA THICK embossing powder. 

The crystals are bigger than the kind you usually  use for embossing on paper.

You will also need a paper plate,

glue (Elmer's is fine),

bamboo skewers,

and a heat gun that you usually use for embossing,

and magazines!

You can use some of these very thin sparkly threads if you want to add some glitz to your beads.

You can see the threads here by the arrows.

You will need to cut strips of magazines, keeping in mind that the only part you are going to see is at the top or bottom of the page, depending on the direction you roll the strip.

You'll need to sprinkle a little bit of the embossing powder on a paper plate, and a little bit goes a long way.  There is enough here to do a lot of beads.

Figure out what you want the bead to look like.  That part of the magazine should be at the top and on the OUTSIDE.  Then, take a dab of glue, and put it on the INSIDE bottom of the strip of magazine.  Don't put it on the very bottom.  You don't want it sticking to the bamboo skewer.  Go up a tiny bit, and put the dab of glue.

Then start rolling it on the bamboo sewer.  See how you start at the bottom of the strip, and the glue is a little higher up.  That way the glue will adhere to the paper and not the skewer.  It takes a little practice but it's not hard.

After you get it rolled almost to the end, put a dab of glue on the very end.  Give it a minute to hold the paper together.

Your little bead should move easily on the bamboo skewer without sticking.
The next step is to roll it on the ink pad.  I just gently roll it up and down a couple of times to be sure the bead is covered.

Right after rolling it on the ink pad, you roll it in the crystals.  This adheres the crystals to the bead.

Then you melt the crystals with the heat gun.  I had to set it down to take the picture, but when you do this you'll hold the heat gun and actually see the crystals melt.  Kind of roll the skewer around so that all of the crystals melt.

Give it a minute to cool.  The bead will then have a bit of shine to it. 
After it's cool, roll it again on the stamp pad,

then roll it in the crystals again,

and when you use the heat gun on it the second time, it becomes very glossy.

Once it cools down, twist it off of the skewer.  You'll need to clean the skewer off a bit because you can't help but melt a few crystals on it and they sometimes get in the way of taking the bead off of it.

You can see how the different width of paper determines the length of the bead.

Remember the journal I showed you in the last post.

 I made a little bookmark for it out of beads, including the one the lady gave me at the journal class.

These are a bit addicting to make and would be great for gifts.

If you have any questions feel free to put them in the comment section.

Enjoy!

Cindy