The Simple Woman's Daybook April 9, 2024

 For Today April 9, 2024

The Simple Woman's Daybook began here.

Looking out my window it is now dark but has been a beautiful day! The thermometer read 75 degrees! That's pretty amazing for So early in April here in Ohio.

The Guardian's Home Opener was yesterday and here in Cleveland we had 100% eclipse. The ballpark opened early to host the phenomenal natural occurrence in the sky.  When the sun was completely covered, there was a huge cheer from all over town! It was something so amazing to witness. 

The Guardians won the game which made it even sweeter!

I am thinking what an amazing God we serve. God numbers our steps and our days. He walks before us, beside us and behind us. He loves us more than anyone else. That is so hard to comprehend. Why would God care about little old me?  I sure am glad I'm one of his children.

I am thankful that God has gifted me with the ability to make greeting cards and sharing that with others. These ladies have become dear friends. I get to see in the little things that come up how God uses me and my belief in Him to minister to these ladies. I see the opportunities and jump on the chance to help them.

One of the ladies told me after class that she was having nose surgery for cancer the next day. I got the chance to pray for her right there. I know years ago I might have said, "I'll add you to my prayer list." This type of leading from God always brings tears to my eyes. Praying for others is a very emotional thing for me.

One of my favorite things is sitting on our screened in porch with a cup of hot coffee. The days here in Cleveland are slowly warming up. We will have rainy, spring weather this week, but the last two days let me know that sunny, warm days are coming!

I am creating another granny square afghan to be donated. I'm also just finishing making cards for a local nursing home so they can celebrate Nurses in May and Aides in June. What a nice thing for them to do.

   

A friend and I make cards for the nursing home and the residents to use. We provide envelopes so all they have to do is pop a stamp on it and send it on its way.

 

I am wearing jeans, a blue sweatshirt, socks and tennis shoes. Today's weather was a mix of warmth when out in the sun and cool breezes sitting outside.

I am listening to a local Christian Radio Station. I do this once in a while to see what kind of new music is out there. Then I know what to search for on Spotify.

I am learning that everyone has their unspoken burdens in life. My dear friend just lost her mother two weeks ago. Her husband had a traumatic brain injury in February is and living with a few slow brain bleeds and other issues related to his accident.  Both Tim and I are  committed to helping this friend. Her husband is able to walk and talk and communicate, but isn't allowed to be left alone. He has many doctor appointments and physical therapy appointments as well.

In my kitchen we had Tim's healthy, home made pizza for dinner. Our baseball team played at 6:10 today so it was pizza while watching the game.  

 

In the school room I am learning lots of new things to do with card making. I'm also learning new crochet stitches.

 

In my garden new life is so evident! Tim brought in a huge bouquet of hyacinths. Their scent is amazing! Our daffodils, poppies, lavender, and Lily of the Valley are popping their heads out of the ground. Onions abound as well. They are everywhere! We live where there used to be a farmers field of onions. We still have onions growing 30 years after the farm was sold! LOL They are in the grass and in the garden.  They drive Tim crazy. I just laugh because I find it amusing that after all this time, they still thrive. God's got a great sense of humor!

 

A moment from my day This week I am holding my card classes. Here are some of the cards I've been working on. The first 4 cards are what we made this month in class. All of the stamp sets are retiring at the end of this month.  I like to add different things to cards that the ladies can do with what they have.

Many of the ladies that come to class come to socialize and learn new things.

The first card with the balloons is to show them they can cut out around their image and add dimensionals to the back to make their card image more noticeable. 

This card was to show them another way to color stamps to have multiple ink colors. We used daubers for the flowers and a marker for the stem. I also showed them how pretty an embossing folder looks on and image after it is stamped.

This card showed them that they could make a frame using different stamps, then add a sentiment. I also showed how just altering the size of your layers can make a more noticeable frame around your image.  Also by stamping a second or third time without reinking can create depth on your card.

This card was to show how using a simple shape of designer series paper helped me plan the colors for the card. They saw how layering with dies added to their card. We stamped color on color for the pink stamping. We highlighted the plant image by stamping around it.

This card is a combination of the Daisies stamp set that is retiring and a new scripted set. This card was made using Lynn Dunn's video. She shows you how easy it is to make a card that tucks into that corner to stay closed.

Check out the link for this card.

This card was made using this link.

This card was truly an amazing creation found here.  You stamp on white cardstock then stamp in a slightly different place on vellum which is placed over the white cardstock. The ink doesn't dry on the vellum so I put clear embossing powder over the inked page of vellum and heated it. This gives it a shiny look.

Bible Verse of the Day: 1 John 4:4  He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.

A Few Plans for the Rest of the Week: Tomorrow evening Tim and I have dinner with Brianna and her boyfriend, Mike. It will be a nice time to catch up and talk without the baby. Our family gatherings are filled with her antics and not much catching up on our lives. 

Thursday and Friday I will teach more classes.

Friday miss Mia will be here.

Blessings of the Day: We had a beautiful, sunny, warm day. Tim and I got to watch the baseball game together. I got to teach another card class and hug and talk to my dear friends. I'm so blessed by these ladies.

Thank you so much for stopping by. I hope you enjoyed your stay here.

Blessings,

Bensarmom

Museum, Flowers and Cards

 The Cleveland Children's Museum

Friday, my son and I took his daughter to this incredible Children's Museum on Euclid Ave. at 40th.

When you see it from the outside, it looks kind of neat, but this wasn't anything compared to what we found on the inside!

His daughter is 2 and we found they have a room just for 0-3 year olds. We saw babies doing tummy time in front of a mirror, lots of toddlers exploring all that was inside. As an educator, I was truly impressed with the variety of things to do just in this room. 

There were lots of plastic balls that could be put into tubes that filled up, tubes that zig-zagged, behind doors that open and shut, into doors and dropped down a tube where if you opened another door, you saw the ball you dropped.

Lots of toys that could be shook and made noise. Some that moved and spun while being held as well as puzzles, a slide, several areas to crawl through, an area with large, colorful magnetic horseshoes that stuck to the wall. When you think of the developmental stages of kids and play, you could see the type of toys there.  

It was a fun and safe environment for everyone. It was interesting to see how parents dealt with 'sharing' issues. It was fun to see kids share items without being asked, and some that wouldn't share at all.

In this room, there was a water play area, bubbles and this suction machine. You opened a small door and put your scarf inside, then watched it race through the tubes and fly out at the top and float down to the floor. This was something that when Mia gets older she'll be able to follow. The scarf moved too fast for her to understand what it did and where it went.

The water area is tons of fun no matter what your age. Kids are given waterproof smocks to keep them dry while they played with all of the water toys.  Again, Mia enjoyed the basic playing of putting her hands in running water, watching her ball float down a stream of water. She enjoyed filling containers of water and emptying them.

This museum is excellent for learning about Science principles. That's the beauty of it, kids of any age will enjoy their visit.  There are many schools that come here for field trips.

They had another area that was a play kitchen, a grocery store and even a check out counter.

Mia wasn't interested in this area only because there were so many children running around. I'm sure she was overwhelmed with the number of people and a new place to explore.

We were so impressed with what we saw, that my son got a one year membership. They deducted your admission for that day from your total. They also said any two adults could come with Mia. It didn't matter who it was. That meant that Grandma and Grandpa could take her!

If you're ever in need of something to do with kids, this is the place to go. You can spend hours here!

A dear friend gave these to me last week. They were such a great surprise! They looked so pretty in the vase by the window.

The next thing I knew, another bouquet of flowers arrived in a vase. Tim had picked flowers from our garden before the snow came again. The hyacinths have the most lovely smell. They are still looking good and smelling good too a week later. What a special guy to do this for me.

This is a free digital image from Gerda Steiner stamps. I used it to make Mia's Easter card.  It will go with the soft bunny papa got her.  This card has three paper strips that go together to make it look like one full sheet of paper.

This was printed, heat set, then colored with Copic markers.

This is one of my favorite gnome and coffee images. This is from High Hopes stamps. It is a red rubber stamp. I combined it with a sentiment from the new Coffee Cafe from Stampin' Up and the Tim Holtz coffee cup embossing folder. The word bubble is from the bumblebee punch from Stampin' Up. The bee was made with this piece, but when I saw it, I instantly thought it looked like a speech bubble.  This guy was colored with Copic markers. The embossed area was brushed with brown ink to highlight the coffee cups.

My friend Jan, has a card ministry at a local nursing home. I work with her to make cards for the residents to use. The daisy card is one that I'm making for Nurse Appreciation next month. I truly enjoy making these cards and giving them to the residents.

This card was made with the retired Stampin' Up small and medium daisy punches. The designer paper is Delightfully Eclectic. The sentiment is from Sweet N Sassy Stamps.

A group of my friends also make cards for one of the local hospitals to give patients with their evening meal. What a great idea, huh? 

Verse of the Day: Ecclesiastes 5:10

Whoever loves money never has enough; 

Whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with their income.

This too is meaningless.

Blessings of the Day:

I was able to stamp with a dear friend today. We spent a few hours talking, stamping and laughing. It is so much better stamping with someone else.

I got two samples done for next month's card classes.

Tim and I got to spend some time together.

I got a lot of research done. I love learning new things to pass on to my Card Classes.

Thanks for stopping by today. I hope you enjoyed your visit.

Blessings,

Bensarmom

Cavs, Cards and Craziness

 Crazy finishes for our Cleveland Cavaliers this week.  When they can hit threes, they're so much fun to watch. To come from behind and win is very special! Check out these two games the Cavs played this week against the Mavericks and Celtics.

I love to watch basketball and baseball games. 

In another sport here in Cleveland, my son took me to a Monster's Hockey game. He has a great deal on his seats. Parking is paid for and you have access to a room filled with all sorts of food. Before the game you can get dinner food. We got ribs, chicken, salad and mashed potatoes.

 During the first intermission they serve desserts. They have whatever you'd like to drink.  We waited about 5 minutes into the break then went down. It was less crowded. We were able to get all sorts of goodies to have with our coffee.  Cheesecake in different flavors, lemon cookies, cream puffs, fudge, brownies, were all there to tempt us.

The Cleveland Monsters are a professional ice hockey team in the American Hockey League. The team began play in 2007 as the Lake Erie Monsters and since 2015 has served as the top affiliate of the Columbus Blue Jackets of the National Hockey League. Wikipedia

Monday and Tuesday of this week we had sunny weather and temps. in the lower 70's. I checked out my garden which is ready for Spring.  Daffodils are peeking out as well as the field onions that remain after almost 30 years of a housing development being built on fields of a farm.

This is the afghan put together with a border on it. Earlier in February I posted pictures of the squares laid out to be put together. I love how it came out. I wanted an easy Granny Square afghan to make. I used multi-color yarn for most of the squares instead of changing the color of yarn each round.  I highlighted the colors in the afghan with plain squares as well.

My husband loved the white afghan so much that he asked me to make one for a chair in our family room. Here it is finished.

This pink and gray afghan is for a chair in our living room. This chair is by the window and sometimes it gets chilly sitting here.

Here is my sweet cat, Phoebe. She's been more like a dog lately. She searches me out and wants to sleep near me. Here she's sleeping in a cat bed in our bedroom next to the heating vent.

I began to make Easter cards for a nursing home nearby. My friend asked if this facility could use greeting cards. They loved the idea. I told my friend I'd love to help make cards for the people there to use. Here is one of the cards I made with a new stencil. There are 4 different sheets that make up the flowers and stems. I made about a half dozen of these in different colors.

Gerda Steiner is a talented artist with her own line of photopolymer stamps. Most are cute animals. This bunny is a digital stamp that I printed. colored and cut out using my scan n cut machine. I love how these little guys turned out.

I was playing around with a baby wipe technique then added embossing for texture.

This is one if the cards that we'll make in my classes next week.

This is another card we'll make. You pull on the tab and the card stretches out to reveal the greeting. It is made with designer series paper.

I saw this on a friend's post and had to have it. I just love hanging out with my adult kids and now my granddaughter. I'm so blessed.

I hope you've enjoyed your time her.

Blessings,

Bensarmom

Happy Valentine's Day 2024

What a fun day Tim and I had today. First, he gave me this rooting box that he made from acrylic and wood. I can put cuttings in it to root them. These Coleus really root quickly in water.

We went to an area called Grand Pacific Junction. It's a small village like shopping area with restaurants and all sorts of things to look at and buy. We went to the toy store to see if we could find something for Mia.

This store also sells miniature houses and furniture. Tim is interested in making a miniature doll house for Mia some day and wanted to see how precise the pieces were. When he looked at the windows, he found they are made like a real window.

Next, we went to lunch at one of our favorite places, Cafe ah Roma in Berea. Berea is a small college town with a great downtown area. We discovered this place when Tim worked in Berea. I used to meet him for lunch in the summer. We'd get sandwiches and sit in the town square to eat.

After lunch we went to Maria's Greenhouse in Strongsville. Now that Tim likes plants he's eager to look at plants with me. These plants were very expensive. We couldn't justify spending so much for plants.

Not far from the greenhouse, is the mall. I can't tell you how long its been since I went to the mall. We went to get Cinnabon. I haven't had one of those in years, either. I got a small one just to get the taste of it. There's nothing like it for sure.

None of the coffee Tim got while we were out compared to coffee we make here at home, so we headed home for a nice, hot cup of coffee.

What a nice day we had. We've been married 30 years and he surprised me with this special day of outings.

Thanking God for such a wonderful day.

Blessing of the day:

I was able to spend time with Tim out and about.

Thanks for stopping by.

Blessings,

Bensarmom