Ten on Tuesday

Musings from the passenger side of a semi...

1. I've been out of the loop for a couple of weeks, was tagging along with bf in his big ole truck to California and back. Let me just say that I have a lot more respect for truckers than I used to. It's a tough job.

2. There's no way in hell that I could drive a vehicle that huge and still have my nerves intact.

3. I encountered a few female truckers along the way. I admire their bravery.

4. Grape processing plants and beer making plants STINK!! We went to a grape processing plant in Fresno that literally smelled like vomit. I'm not sure how to describe the beer plant smell in Van Nuys. Had a cornish smell. The plant in Irwindale didn't smell too bad, but it was obvious that they made beer!!

5. Truck stops charge a lot for their stuff. 10 bucks for a shower. Really? At that price the shower should include more than the soap dispenser on the wall and a towel. One truck stop in Ontario was going to charge to park the truck. Come on.

6. Found out that GPS can go nuts if the signal is weak. I have GPS navagation on my phone. One day a couple of weeks ago we were on the way back from Fresno looking for a truck stop, so I plugged it into the navagation and the thing went beserk and took us into the middle of an orchard. It was screaming at us to turn right, but right was into a grove of trees. Interesting. So we had to turn the semi around and go back on the highway all along the GPS was screaming at us that we were off track. No silly GPS, YOU are off track. The truck stop ended up being at the next exit about 5 miles down the road. We are still laughing about it.

7. Hey Sprint...put up a couple more towers in the San Joaquin Valley, will ya?

8. Finally found a place hotter than Tucson. The desert in California was murder. The thermometer on the truck dashboard said 120. I seriously believe it. We got out of the truck at a truck stop right before we got to the Arizona border and I thought I was going to melt before I got inside.

9. Speaking of heat, I was very surprised at how hot it was in the LA area last week. I was beginning to think that the Tucson heat followed me to LA.

10. What you've heard about California drivers is somewhat true. I was expecting the drivers and the traffic to be a lot worse, but it really wasn't bad. The highways were busy, but moving. But then again, I wasn't driving...

New tutorial in the works!

I am working on a new tutorial! I will be making one for bottle cap magnets using a collage from a seller who was offering them in exchange for tutorials. This will be a good one, so stay tuned!

Fabulous Friday Recycled Find

There are a lot of great items that have been made from something that would have ended up in the trash. I have found most, if not all of them on Etsy. However, I recently discovered a great website(from the Etsy forums of course), Greenwala, which is a "green" social network. Here is a little blurb about them taken from the website: "Greenwala is a For Profit Philanthropic company focused on harnessing the power of a community to create opportunity for people to "Go Green" and improve their lives. We believe that every individual has the power to foster change and it is through that belief that we feel that the Greenwala community will be the destination for those wishing not to just Green their lives but to improve the lives of those around them."
Greenwala is currently running a few contests, one in particular that I love is a contest sponsored by HP which the entrants submit photos of things they have created from something that would have been thrown away. The person that gets the most votes for their creation will win an eco friendly laptop and printer. While it would be nice to win a new laptop as mine recently died and now renting one, I am not too lucky with contests but entered my recycled paper snowman ornaments anyways.
What I would like everyone to do that reads this is to vote not only for me but for at least 4 other entrants as well. It only takes a couple of seconds and you don't have to join the site to vote-that is as far as I know. All of the creations are fabulous and just think that stuff would have ended up in the trash. I love them all.

Wordless Wednesday

Ten on Tuesday

Today is Tuesday, so here are my ten ramblings for today:

1. I will be offering advertising on my blog soon. I just need to figure out the details. Project Wonderful wasn't working for me.

2. I will also have my giveaway sometime soon, just too much going on right now to sit and plan it.

3. I am currently working on a large custom order which has been a lot of fun, yet challenging at the same time.

4. I am going to start making snowman ornaments soon. I have made them for the last couple of years from recycled paper-junk mail, school papers, receipts, etc. Those are fun to make too and it's less paper to end up in the landfills. Here's a link to some I sold last year: snowmen

5. BF is doing well after his transplant. Even got a new job. :)

6. As for me, still laid off but working two days a week instead of one. Broke as heck.

7. Can't wait for cooler weather. I don't recall sweating so much last summer. Hurry October! I never got around to inventing that seat cooler for my car. I think I need to invent a steering wheel cooler, too. LOL

8. Daughter started school Thursday. She likes the new school-so far...

9. My desk is looking pretty cluttered. Man I wish I had a craft room or my own house for that matter.

10. Hey, it may rain today. I just realized that it's cloudy outside. Woo hoo!

Fabulous Friday Recycled Find

Happy Friday everyone! This week went by really fast. This week I will feature one of my own recycled creations, so here we go:

This week's fabulous recycled find is a set of 4 magnets made with recycled bottlecaps featuring a recycle theme.
These were made by me with recycled bottle caps and the recycle theme fits the purpose of them perfectly. I glued a rare earth/neodymium magnet to the back for a super strong hold to a metal surface. These would look great on a refrigerator, file cabinet, school locker, or any other metal surface.
These can be found in my shop on ArtFire
along with a ring and a bracelet that were also made with recycled bottle caps.

Wordless Wednesday