Old Made New

You may have noticed that I don't know how to turn this picture, but I have faith you your ability to see what it is anyway.

     I discovered how to avoid buying a new under-seat suitcase for someone I live with who loves princesses and doesn't care for the personal-item sized case she already has, royal color that she chose in the first place! (Purple is an ancient dye color reserved for royalty.) 

Spending enough to buy a princess-covered gift bag and a jar of Mod Podge, (which, I was happy to discover, costs LESS than a new suitcase) I rounded up a pair of scissors and a ratty little paintbrush and managed to transform Carolyn's 4-year-old suitcase into an adventure all by itself.

     Now Carolyn chooses this suitcase over the slightly larger hard-sided one she has with spinner wheels that she used to choose every time we went somewhere.

     The final chapter of this story is that after 40 years of not using the stuff, I didn't know how much soap was required to clean the Mod Podge off that ratty little paintbrush.

This was enough.

Do you like to fix things that you already have?

Or would you rather buy new things?

It's not a dirty toilet!

Okay, I'm the first to admit that I'm not the best housekeeper in the world. June Cleaver has me beat by a mile, but I'm better than I was. I have a few standards! So when I saw a brown spot in a toilet that I've fought to clean out hard water toilet rings (with near disastrous results), I decided to eradicate it.

But when I looked closer, the brown spot wasn't what I thought it was. Rather than a piece of waste, it was a thirsty moth.

Our old doggie used to drink out of the toilet, but this was the first time I found an insect taking a sip at the never-ending porcelain well.

What would you do?

Squish it?

Flush it?

or leave it?

Presentation Matters

I don't care how long your nose is or how sallow your skin or limp your hair (or no hair, as the case may be.) What matters is that you're as clean and neat as possible.

The same goes for boxes.

(What?)

When I went to LTUE and put out my flyers for WRITE HERE IN EPHRAIM (two days away! We'll be playing and writing on SATURDAY, MARCH 9, in EPHRAIM, UTAH!...the geographical belly button of the state) I made a display out of paper I scrounged, a red marker that I use as lipstick, and a tissue paper box. See the result below: 

Following lukewarm response, I went to my sister, Loraine's, house where she made me a more professional looking display (on back corner in photo below.)

Which one would you want to be associated with? The clean? Or the clean AND neat?

The funny thing is that as soon as my son Monkey put out the new sign, four people flocked to the table and took flyers.

SO COME PLAY on SATURDAY! Check out the WRITE HERE IN EPHRAIM conference link at: http://shirleybahlmann.weebly.com/write-here-in-ephraim.html

You'll be glad you did.

(I'll be the six foot tall neat, clean person running around helping everyone.)