My "Magic" Hardware store

We have a magic hardware store on Maine Ave. in downtown Lakeside. Picture an old movie with one little block that is "downtown" and you've got a pretty good idea of what downtown Lakeside looks like. It's part of the charm of where we live. We're in San Diego county and we have all the big city stuff, but travel down the road one mile and you'll see a quaint little shopping area, rodeo grounds and horses walking down the street. And right smack dab in the middle of Maine Ave., is Paytons True Value hardware.

We have lived in Lakeside for about 15 years now and we have had many little home improvement projects that we have had to do. You know, the kind of projects that send you to the hardware store over and over again. And over the years we have found that our little old house just isn't "standard." Sometimes we have to find a special part to make things work. We'll try the local Home Depot or Lowe's and over and over again, we end up at Paytons and they always have exactly what we need.

It's Magic!

Seriously, have you been in a Home Depot or Lowe's lately? They are absolutely huge. They have row upon row of boxes and yet, the little tiny Payton's Hardware Store in downtown Lakeside always seems to have exactly what we need!

A few weeks ago I was on the hunt for Hula Hoop making materials. I found the tubing, but I could not find the insert connectors. I even had the part numbers from Lowe's and I showed them to a "helpful" Lowe's associate and I could not find the parts!! It was driving me crazy. At the time I joked to hubby and said "I should check Paytons."

Well I did finally find the parts, thanks to a more helpful Lowe's employee. He used an unusual tactic. He listened to me and then he, are you ready? He looked up the part number on the computer. Wow!

Well yesterday, we went to Paytons (for another home improvement project. We have a new kitchen faucet. Thank you hubby!) and I just had to check. Do they have the connectors?

Yep!

I drove to four different home improvement stores, made three trips to Lowe's in Santee, and my favorite little store, in downtown Lakeside, had the connectors. I could've ridden my bike there!

So if you live in the area, I think you should pay a visit to Payton's. I bet they'll have exactly what you need. And in true small town fashion. Make sure you pick up a free bag of popcorn while you're shopping.

April Workshop Project

It's here, it's here... April's workshop project. It's a Scrapbook in a Purse! Wouldn't this make a great Mother's Day gift? It would also be a great project to do with Girl Scouts or at a birthday party. You'll have three different paper/pattern choices and the project is only $4. Kit includes paper and accessories (brads, ribbon, velcro, flowers) needed to complete one Scrapbook in a Purse.

Email me to RSVP right away! (For April 18th workshop)

Special thank you to Gail Vought for sharing her samples and ideas with me and to Connie Mann. I believe Connie is the consultant that came up with the pattern and generously shared the directions.

Enjoy!

Memory Boxes

I had planned to do memory boxes at my workshop this month, but they are a hot item at Close To My Heart and they are completely out. Ooops. That'll teach me to wait until the last minute to order supplies.

I made this box to match my stamp room. I have several other choices for my customers.... but that will have to wait... Instead we're switching to plan B for next week, thanks to my good friend Gail. I'll try to take pictures for the new project tomorrow.

Paper: x7803 Let's Get Together
Letters and Flowers: George Cricut Cartridge
Stamp Set: D1204 Delight in Everything

Take your Top Ten to the next level

Yesterday I challenged you to create some of your own Top Ten lists. Today I am going to give you some ideas on how to use those top ten lists as a springboard for your journal, new scrapbook pages or even entire scrapbooks.

Today's Challenge:
Read the entry below and then use your top ten lists to create a new blog entry, scrapbook page, themed scrapbook, or piece of art (Jaime!). Leave me a comment with a link to your creation. Next week I'll post one of my creations and highlight my favorites from the comments.

Use Top Ten lists to "catch up" on years of photos:
Whenever I start to talk about scrapbooking with people, I can almost guarantee that I will hear the statement. "I am so far behind. I have 20+ years of photos." Who wouldn't be overwhelmed when faced with that many photos? How do you put them all in order. What if you start scrapbooking some and then find more that should have gone with them? Top Ten lists to the rescue!

Let's pretend that we made a list of our Top Ten favorite Christmas memories/traditions. Instead of scrapbooking every Christmas we've ever experienced, we can look for a few photos that highlight some of the more meaningful memories. Don't have a photo to represent one of your memories? Journal about it or google it and look for a photo online.

What do you think you will enjoy more? 20 pages of Christmas' past, or one two page spread that highlights the best of the best? What would your family enjoy more?

Create a special gift or album
One of the best gifts I ever made was a little mini album/card that I made for my Dad. I wrote...

"I remember when...."

And I filled it with little things that meant a lot to me when I was growing up. I wrote about the year that he helped me create my Dawn Dishwashing Liquid costume for halloween. He drove me from store to store to find the right material and then he went above and beyond to create the perfect spout/hat to go with it.

He gave me my first grown up album (not Disney music, etc.) - Men At Work. I had no idea who they were and had never heard their music. It was the absolute best album to give me. I loved it and still do!

Your turn. Use your top ten lists to create a special album or gift for someone you love. It's also a great way to document your ancestors in your family heritage album. Instead of a picture that says "Grandpa Joe," you can create a page that includes some of the fun things you remember about him.

What is your Top Ten?

(Excerpt from a Scrapbooking class I taught for Staff Development on Monday)


Creating a top ten list is a great way to jump start your scrapbooking. Whether you're brand new or a seasoned scrapbooker, we often find that we just aren't inspired or aren't sure where to start. Try this technique next time you're stumped and see what you come up with.


Challenge: Take a few minutes and create as many top ten lists as you can. You can use a few I suggest below, or create your own topics. Tomorrow I'll share how you can use those top ten lists to add interest to your journal or blog, create fun scrapbook pages and quick theme scrapbooks.

Top Ten:

1. Places you've visited

2. Favorite Foods/Restaurants

3. Goals

4. Things you love about _____ (husband, wife, child, work, place you live)

5. Bike Rides (I had to work cycling in somewhere!)

6. Things you remember about (a relative, growing up, a house, a town, a trip)

7. Moments that shaped your life

8. Memories from high school (college, elementary school)

9. Favorite TV shows/movies/books

10. Favorite websites/blogs

Testing pictures from phone

Well here is test number two. This time I am attempting to attach a photo.

I took this at the entrance to Lake Murray on the ride yesterday. The wildflowers are blooming and we saw a momma with about 10 baby chicks. They were adorable and they swam so fast!

Edited to Add: It worked!! Woo Hoo!! I have a feeling the posts will be short and sweet when I send them from my phone though. It took me forever to type that.

Training

I feel like I have finally broken through a plateau in my riding. I used to be pretty inconsistent about riding the whole way home. I treasured the days when we had doctor appointments or meetings and I loved it when I could swing by Josh's work and pick up my car. Don't get me wrong, I liked to ride home, but I had a hard time doing it day after day. My body just couldn't handle it. I was exhausted and I was sore. If I had a hard ride home one day, I liked to do a partial ride the next day; and I was starting to wonder how I would do on our bike tour. Would I be able to do long rides back to back. Then all of the sudden this week, everything seems to be clicking. I'm completely enjoying my rides and I'm not totally exhausted when I finish. I can do a good solid 16 miles one day and then easily ride 10 the next day. And that's after working all day. I imagine it will be much easier to get the miles in when I start riding first thing in the morning!

I just looked over our 6 week training schedule for the bike tour and the only thing I have left to do is to start planning in some longer rides on the weekend. Three hours? No problem. Four hours? We did that once. Five hours and Six hours? Hmmm... Now, I'm getting a little worried. First I wonder if I can make it for six hours, then I wonder where in the world am I going to ride for 6 hours? It's all well and good that the tour says that our ride will be mostly flat. Maybe they have long flat valleys there, but this is San Diego and I'm not sure I can come up with a 6 hour ride that doesn't include some nasty hills.

Well, it's late and I better get to bed, I'm in training you know.