Paper Flowers

Our oldest daughter got married a year and a half ago. She lives in Lynchburg, VA, and, of course, she wanted to get married there. She and her fiancé had both been living in the area for several years and they had established a great group of friends and a church family there so certainly it made sense. 

I wanted to have a shower for her but since her social group was in Lynchburg, it made more sense for me to travel there and host it in the area rather than having it in Charlotte, NC. I wanted it to be special, original, and transportable from Charlotte to Lynchburg. I needed to do as much as I could at home so the set up would be easy.

After some thought, I decided to multi-task flowers/decor and favors into one. It was Spring, so a garden theme fit in perfectly. Origami is one of my hobbies, so instead of purchasing flowers, I made them… about 100 of them.Then I made tags for each flower with a positive word on the tag; happy, wonderful, amazing, lovely, enjoyable, and so on. I used them to decorate the tables and at the end of the shower everyone received 2 or 3 flowers to take home and enjoy. My daughter kept several as a memory, too.  

Our lives are made up of memories and then we share them with others by turning them into a little story. What happy memory do you have? What did you do that was special and original?

On-purpose Repurposing

I don’t always use things for the purpose for which they were intended. I also try to keep things out of the landfills and repurpose them whenever possible. So I'm happy when I find creative ways to solve problems using items that would otherwise be discarded. As they say, necessity is the mother of invention.

Crockpot Lid

• PROBLEM: My cat, Jovi, loved to steal trash out of the living room trash can. I needed to find a way to outwit a very smart and determined feline. (Meet Jovi here.)
• SOLUTION: I pulled out an old lid I had saved from a broken crockpot and put it on the trashcan. Problem solved — the trash now stays where it belongs.

Grated Cheese Container

• PROBLEM: I buy cleansers for cleaning which would often tip over under the sink, leaving a big mess for me to sweep up. Then the container would get wet, so I'd have to throw out the whole thing because of the moisture destroying the cardboard container and the cleanser inside. Grrrrrr.
• SOLUTION: The parmesan cheese you get to shake on pasta (we call it "shaky cheese" in my family) comes in a great plastic container that can be reused. I save these containers and use them for my cleanser. The lid snaps shut, the plastic does not absorb moisture and you can see the product. I use a sharpie marker to label the containers — problem solved. Those containers also work great for beads and glitter, by the way.

It’s a new year, so find a new use for something you have then tell me what you did — I’d love to hear about it in the comments below! Meanwhile, get inspired by the repurposing ideas online at Upcycled Wonders and My Repurposed Life.

A-Bomb Drops in SC (really!)

I want to go to Mars Bluff, SC. As near as it is to Charlotte, I’ve never been there. I know, you are wondering... what is in Mars Bluff? Where is Mars Bluff? Why would you want to go there?

The name kind of sounds like an alien resort; it is not, of course, but what happened there is so, oh my gosh, interesting. Mars Bluff is a small community in Florence County, SC. On March 11, 1958, an Air Force Boeing B-47 was flying over the area with a nuclear bomb on board. Captain Koehler, the pilot, noted a fault light in the cockpit indicating an issue with the bomb’s harness. He notified Captain Kulka, navigator and bombardier, to check on the bomb. As Kulka was doing just that, he needed to steady himself and accidentally hit the emergency release (time for a dramatic pause)… and down, down, down went the bomb. It landed in, you guessed it, Mars Bluff.

The nuclear core was not on the bomb, but there was still enough explosive material to create a crater about 70 feet wide and 35 feet deep! There is a marker there and everything! When I read about this all I could say was, “Oh, my gosh”!! Of course there is more to the story and here is a link to additional information — check it out and you’ll say, “Oh, my gosh!” too.

Mars Bluff is on my 2018 list of things I am going to do. It is not a huge thing, or an enormous trip. I realize it might even be anticlimactic, but I want to go to Mars Bluff to see the crater where the nuclear bomb dropped in South Carolina. I’ll let you know when I get there.

Leave a comment and let me know what local thing you want to do in 2018!

 Here is a link to pictures of Mars. 

Christmas at Daniel Stowe Botanical Garden

My husband, Steven, and I had a date this holiday season. We went to the Daniel Stowe Botanical Garden to see the Christmas lights. It was chilly, but it was such an enjoyable time I thought I would share with you some of the pictures.

Holy Flying Frogs, Batman!!

I was scouting around for some trivia today. I sometimes just type in something on the internet and see what bits of information show up. Today I just typed in flying frog and I nearly croaked to find out there are really such strange creatures in this world. I had no idea, did you?

They are actually called Wallace’s Flying Frogs, and ok, so they really glide but I hope you can leap over that fact and hop along with me on this amphibian journey. They are named after Alfred Russel Wallace, a British naturalist and biologist (1823-1913), who discovered these creatures in the tropical jungles of Malaysia and Borneo.

Flying frogs' feet are large and webbed; they are called "flying" frogs because they can descend at a less than 45 degree angle, their webbed feet working like four little parachutes to glide them safely to the ground. How cool is that? They don’t have wings but they do work with what they've got. They don’t need wings to fly.

I’m telling you the truth, I’m not am-FIB-ian. After all, I read it on the web. Click below to read it for yourself!