:Summer Crafts 101…

As I mentioned, I’ve been wanting to share Kathy’s Summer Crafts – 101, as she called it. Her initial email has sparked a number of childhood memories, summer memories. Therefore, “back when a smoke was a smoke and groovin’ was groovin.” Not that I smoked. Nor was I one of the groovey kids. I was a bookworm. very poor at sports, other than Dodgeball. Remember how teams were picked on the playground in elementary school? The teacher chose captains and then roundrobin style, the captains selected their players. I was always second to last, right in front of the girl with polio. At 13, I found a competitive arena in which I could succeed. Dog shows!

Well, we all have our own stories. Julie, long ago, told me she was determined to finish the Championship on a dog because she’d never completed anything in her life. I’d say she’s gone well past that goal, possibly discovering she can, indeed, finish a project. Maybe that should inspire me to finish at least one of my many projects!

Onward to Summer Crafts 101… compiled from several emails from Kathy.

Remember Brownie Day Camp or Vacation Bible School and all the neat 
things you made with popsicle sticks or plastic woven lanyards?  This 
is my tribute to the “good old days”!  And I can even wear these 
necklaces to celebrate our lhasa apsos!

Would you please share your own favorite handmade/purchased fun lhasa 
apso momentos–anything from fine art to funky and tacky…I love 
tacky–as you can see!  Smile!
Kathy

Debby,
Love your bronze apso memory!!  Sure, share the fun necklace photo in 
the blog–maybe others will do likewise.

http://www.momsminivan.com/extras/situpon.html
Sit upons link above but we used plastic lacing…did you?

We drove over 6 passes and the Slumgullion Pass nudged the above 
memory of my Uncle Russ making Slumgullion!!  I had no idea where the 
name came from!

SLUMGULLION

1 lb. ground meat

1 med. onion, diced

1 lb. can tomatoes

1 (8 oz.) can tomato sauce

1 c. macaroni, heaping

1 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. pepper

In a large skillet, cook ground meat and onions. When meat is done, drain excess grease.

In another pan, cook macaroni. Crush the tomatoes and add them along with the sauce, macaroni, salt and pepper to the meat and onions in the skillet. Let the whole mixture simmer until some of the juice from the tomatoes cooks away. Feeds 3-4 people.

This recipe has been in my family for years. 

slum·gul·lion  (slm-glyn)

n.

A watery meat stew.

[Perhaps slum, muddy deposit in a mining sluice + dialectal gullion, mud (perhaps from Irish Gaelic goilín, pit).]

I took a 99 cent photo key ring and turned it into the necklace below
with cut-out photo of my apsos, a butterfly charm, and a collage for 
peace on the flip side.  Pony beads work great–my old eyes can see 
to string them!!
Kathy

:back when a smoke was a smoke…

and groovin’ was groovin’.

Remember that stanza? I have no idea why it’s been in my brain the past day or so, but there it’s been! And wouldn’t ya know it…once again time has gotten away from me this morning. I want to share my garden. I want to share Katy’s Brownie Camp fun. Hey! Maybe that’s why ‘back when a smoke was a smoke’ has been in my head…sit-upons and all. If you don’t know what that means, you’ll have to wait in suspense! Right now, I’ve got to feed dogs and make my way to a mock evac for Animal Evac Volunteers, full uniform and all. What a GRAND way to spend a beautiful Saturday morning in the mountains!

I took this photo two weekends ago, driving home from the dog shows. Yep, right out the window of my car. While I was driving. Probably not a good idea. Probably worse than applying makeup while driving. Not that I do that, but I’ve seen it being done. Anyway, I did use the auto setting on my camera, so that a plus for fellow drivers.

:Ranpa…sent by Kelly

Kelly sent this note and photo…
This is Ranpa, I was going to post it on your blog but didn’t know where I should place it etc..  This is her typical look, I just LOVE it!

Kelly, here’s a photo of her as a puppy. The background color is nearly the same as above…which is kinda fun.

The blog allows only administrator/s (me) to place photos on the blog. I love sharing photos from everyone! So, don’t hesitate to send photos, along with a post if you want to write something about the photo.

As an aside, a couple more things about the blog…

If you’ve sent a comment and don’t see it posted, let me know. The spam catcher does a great job, but sometimes it does that SPAMALOT…SPAMANOT thing. Like Shirley’s comment a while back. I check the spam catcher more often since that happened, but…if you don’t see your comment send me an email and let me know. 

The power to search previous blog entries is awesome! It’s so awesome I’m in the process of transitioning the Put The Pen To The Paper section of the website to blog style. With all the information I have on that page, it’s taking a fair amount of time. I probably should make that a priority and move several things daily. A cinch by the inch, hard by the yard, as my dad would say.

Anyway, there’s two powerful ways to search. The search box. The category list. For example, if you would like to read more about Ranpa, you put her name in the search box and up will come all posts that contain her name. This post is categorized Gompa Lhasa Apso. If you’d like to see all posts in that category, from the category list in the left hand column, click that category. What comes up either way is a list with a sentence or two of each blog entry and a link to the entry in its entirety. Cool!