Paper Easter Baskets

Here's one of those crafty things I've been meaning to try for over a decade. Seriously. This very easy, finish-eight-of-them-in-under-an-hour papercraft was first introduced to me by my friend Mary in 2011. As part of my 24 Goals in 2024, I was determined to do it this year.

(I was determined to do it LAST year, too. Yet all the bits and bobs sat in a plastic container in my Studio for an entire year. Best laid plans. Oh, well. They're done now!)

Mary does a great job with her tutorial, so I'm not going to reiterate how it's done. Here are the supplies I used:

• 12" x 12" pieces of watercolor-print scrapbook paper
• a cutting tool
• a score board
• a rounded corner paper punch
• a 1/8" hole punch
• colorful tiny brads

I cut my 12" paper into four 6" squares, so made four baskets from each piece. I made a total of eight baskets.

The finished size is about 3" across. 

Dale printed our names on the sides. I filled them with Easter tinsel grass, three sugar cookies, and some pastel-colored M & Ms. We used them as party favors on the Easter dinner table to mark where each person was to sit.

Thinking of You

I made a Springtime card for a far-away friend in a new-to-me design from Pinterest that inspired me. The original card is by Karen Dunbrook.

Though the original card with made with paper strips, I decided to use coordinating bright colors of 5/8" wide ribbon in blue, orange and green.

I used a layer of white cardstock on top of yellow for a pop of border color. I figured out the placement of ribbons on the back of that white layer.

Then I used an X-ACTO knife and straight edge to make the precise cuts.

I wove the ribbon through the card slots using a safety pin

then adhered the ribbon on the back of the white cardstock with strong double-sided tape.

The bottom later of the sentiment is made from handmade, textured scrapbook paper. I added a white layer on top and stamped on the "Thinking of You."

Inside, I added a greeting that I'd typed up on the computer, and stamped the jar full of love. I hand-wrote a personal message on the left side of the card.

I finished the back in the usual way. (I'm pretty sure that I remember to sign it).

I gussied up the envelope with a matching scrap of yellow paper on the inside, and stamped the mailbox full of love on the back. Pretty cute stamp!

When she received it, my friend let me know it brightened her day. 

That is the point of sending handmade greetings, isn't it? It's why I send them. Plus, the hours spent making special cards is almost like getting to spend that time in my friend's presence.

Tonight's Sunset

It's a beauty.

Half an hour later, it was pink and purple.

I love living in Oregon.

Big ol' Bud

This rhododendron bush on my daughter's block is ready to burst into flower.

The buds remind me of pine cones, though not as prickly.

Eleven Years

It's been 11 years since I've gotten to see my "bestie" in person. We had that extreme pleasure on Sunday.

Debi and I met in high school at a lunch table.

After my dad sold the family business (my first job), Debi helped me get a job in the Children's Room of the public library. It's my very favorite paid job I ever had due to the great staff and my love of kid's books.

Debi and I lost track of each other for years, but finally reconnected through Facebook. Our rare get-togethers are full of stories and laughter. This time, Dale got to meet my friend after hearing about her for 35 years. She says he's a keeper. I agree.

Thanks to Grayson for the photo

Debi's a keeper, too!

Love you, Debi. Maybe next time I can drive up your direction. Let's not make it another decade.

Eugene Park Tour: Two Up North

This morning Dale and I had a quick little Tuesday Travels outing between Spring rain showers that gave us a little distance vision, took us to two parks, and nabbed us three geocache smilies. We were in the Crescent neighborhood, north of the Beltline and just off Coburg Road.

First, we made a return visit to Striker Field. We visited the parking lot last September during a cold rainstorm. On this trip we got out of the car and found a nano-size geocache (teeny tiny ... about the size of a pencil eraser). The park was busy with kids and pickleball players and a group of old men playing some kind of old men game.

Then we hopped over to Crescent Park to an excellent small-size cache camouflaged in a tree. There was plenty of room for me to leave extra swag. It was a good thing Dale was with me, because I'm not sure I could have reached it on my own. This park is so pretty at this time of year, with a full line of flowering pink (cherry?) trees.

Our final cache was a little scary as it was on a small bridge crossing the I-5 freeway. Eek!

We've now completed our geocaching goal of the year, and are one-third of the way to our park-visiting goal.

Mostly importantly, we got to spend a little time in the fresh air with each other, doing what we enjoy in our lovely home town. What a pleasant way to spend an hour or two!

 

Tearjerker

While I was at a Little Free Library a few weeks ago, searching for (and finding) a geocache, I took a minute to scan the book titles. I found this kid's book that I'd never heard of before, but it had the symbol of a Newbery Honor Book on the cover, so I snagged it.

Pictures of Hollis Woods by Patricia Reilly Giff is the story of a 10 year old girl lost to the foster child system. She was found in the woods as an infant, and has stayed with family after family her entire life. She's thought of as a troublemaker and angry. She doesn't like to give straight answers. When things get tough, she runs. Eventually she's found and dumped in another home.

Hollis is an artist. Quite a good one, at that. She draws pictures of her experiences. We get to hear the stories behind those pictures.

Eventually Hollis is placed with a family that wants to become her forever family. But there's an incident (hinted at throughout the book), that causes Hollis to run again. This time when she's caught, she's placed with an old woman who is an artist. It's a great match, except that the woman has early onstage dementia. As much as Hollis wants to stay, she'll be forced to move on again. So, she runs. 

This time she takes the old woman with her.

It's a lovely, lovely book with characters you want to care about. It all comes out well in the end, as you might expect. But it comes out even better than expected.

I absolutely love this book. Best book of children's literature I've read in a while. This book reminds me why I love Kid Lit so much. 

Poppy Bunny

Last week's puzzle:

I've been aware of eeboo puzzles for a while, but this is the first one I've constructed. I appreciate their motto, "Piece & Love."

Take in some of these details from the gorgeous, color-saturated illustration. It's beautiful and great quality which made it fun to put together -- though that bunny fur was quite the challenge.

All kinds of animals can be found in the garden.

All this fun for a pittance of a price - bought used at a favorite thrift store.

Nibbles - Done!

Well, lookee here. 

Once I figured out exactly how I wanted to get Nibbles ready for display, made this project a priority, and gave myself a chunk of time, the Nibbles ornament came together fairly quickly.

Life is like that, isn't it? It sure is for me.!

Since this isn't an heirloom piece, I felt fine about using hot glue to put it together, rather than lacing the stitching to acid-free boards and sewing the front to the back.

They're not perfect ovals, but they don't need to be. Done is better than good.

I glued on the ribbon hanger before gluing the front to the back.

I used this soft green picot-edge ribbon to cover the side seam. It's a great match to the carrot top. It's the same ribbon I used on Flowers for You last year, so the two will bring a little continuity in my Easter decor this year. I enjoy those kinds of little details.

Here's a detail shot of how the loop hanger and ribbon-covered side seam meet.

The back. I managed to get the plaid fairly straight. The ribbon matches this fabric well, too.

Finally, hanging in place. It's the first of the Easter decorations for 2024.

I plan to do the rest of the decorating later this week.

A New Favorite

 I adore geocaching.

On Sunday my eldest and I got together to share some lunch, shop for Easter gifts, and find a few geocaches. We're excellent company for each other.

We found four caches in their Springfield neighborhood. This final one, GeoGus' Luxury Travel Bug Hotel, was my favorite. It might now be my all-time favorite cache ever visited.

The cache itself wasn't at all hard to find. It shares a structure with a Little Free Library.  

This image is from the cache website

The right half of the structure holds books you can take to read or exchange for books you bring to it. The left half of the structure is the cache. It's locked, but there's a clue on the geocaching website that helps you know the secret to getting inside.

I have never seen a travel bug motel like this. It's decorated as an actual motel ... a dollhouse, so to speak. 

On the front door is the check-in desk, giving instructions for the game as well as the log book.

Inside is the two-level hotel decked out with furniture, fixtures, lockers and even pets. Each locker and each cup hook is a place to hang a travel bug. Travel bug trackables are physical geocache game pieces that move from geocache to geocache. 

Types of trackables include: geocoins, tags, t-shirts, and more. Daughter Jodie has both a travel bug sweatshirt, and a travel bug sticker on her car! Travel bugs like to travel the world, where folks like me write in their log to tell of the bug's adventures. I picked up a travel bug that started in Australia!

Here's the top floor. I left some swag in the box in exchange for the travel bug. There's a toilet in the cupboard (for privacy, of course).

On the main floor is the pool and locker room. You can see that there are plenty of travel bugs to choose from right now.

The cache owner put a lot of work and pride and ingenuity and imagination into this cache. I'm sure it takes a good bit of time and attention into keep it up. 

My photos don't do this place justice. I highly recommend looking through the cache's photo gallery to see the great details.

The Covered Bridges of Sweet Home

Early in January while Dale and I were feeling stir-crazy from all the rain, we decided to take a nice long backroads Tuesday Travels ride out to Sweet Home. We had no particular agenda. We wanted time with each other out of the house since the Christmas season was over and our decorations were finally stored away for another year.

What we stumbled upon during our journey were four more of Oregon's covered wood bridges!

Earnest Bridge

This is also known as the Adams Bridge. It spans the Mohawk River. It's not in Sweet Home proper, but just off Marcola Road on the way to Sweet Home. Fun fact: this bridge appeared in the 60s movie Shenandoah starring James Stewart.

The photos are dark because of all the rain, but I managed to step outside the car just enough to snap a couple images. 

Weddle Bridge

This bridge is in a beautiful setting within the nearly 17 acre Sankey Park. 

The bridge was built in 1937 and carried traffic over Thomas Creek for 43 years until being by-passed in 1980. 

The structure was moved to Ames Creek and restored around 1989. 

All the creeks and rivers were running fast and high the day we visited.

Dahlenburg Bridge

We saw this tiny footbridge on a hill not far from Weddle Bridge. It's also in Sankey Park and crosses Ames Creek. Fun fact: it was built by students in 1989 as a shop project by local high school students. 

Whittemore Bridge

This small walking bridge is located in Clover Park just off Hwy 20. 

Like the Dahlenburg, this bridge was also built by the local high school shop class. Fun fact: it started life on the back of a mobile trailer and was hauled in parades to promote covered bridge preservation! 

It's also in a very pretty setting in the one acre memorial park, spanning Stone Brook Creek.

When we were there, the bridge was still lit with Christmas lights

as was the rest of the small memorial park.

Dale and I will be sure to take more country rides to Sweet Home in dryer weather so that we can enjoy the town and these bridges more thoroughly.