Catching up on the latest....

Okay, I'm trying to change my background on my blog but it's not working. It should be a simple matter of choose and click. I get a response that says my change has been saved. But, when I look at the new page, its the same old background. Urgh!

According to Mikey, the latest Harry Potter movie came out this morning.

The children and I are big Harry Potter fans. We have seen all of the movies and read all of the books. I have reserved the new book, in hard back, for the children. I usually like to ask them to read it out loud to me when we go to sleep. It's a fun family thing to do. We're trying to see the movie sometime soon. My son wants to go today but I think it maybe too crowded. Plus, when the five of us go to the movies it costs about $100 by the time we buy the tickets, popcorn, candy, and drinks! Movies aren't cheap. That reminds me--I miss going to the drive-in movies. Do you remember those? Those were great. You got to see two movies and a cartoon for one flat fee. Of course one of the best things about drive-ins was getting out to get food.

I was/am a total food addict. I guess I can say I'm on the wagon but it's a struggle. My current weakness is chocolate ice cream. I used to say it was chocolate candy but the mass market candy (Hershey's, Nestle, and Mars) is too sweet and lacks the deep, dark chocolate flavor I love. I do like Junior Mints though. It has a dark chocolate exterior with a creamy mint filling. Yummy!

I'm excited about this weekend. I've planned a crop at my house! For those who aren't scrapbookers, a crop is a gathering of scrapbookers who all work on their individual projects. Some crops have a party atmosphere, some have food, some music. It's all up to the crop organizer how to hold the event.

I'm having it in our basement which isn't furnished yet except for my studio. It's one big, open space just waiting for a room full of croppers. I figured I could hold up to 24 croppers. I made plans and started promoting it about a month ago. Nothing like a short turnaround project like this. I promoted on three local scrapbooking email lists and 3 international email lists. I sent out a note once a week for the past four weeks. Plus, I sent a note to all of my contacts by email. I even gave the information to a couple of young girls I met in CVS a few weeks ago. I signed up two other vendors, along with me, to set up product tables, donate items for the goodie bags and gifts, and to teach free classes to the croppers.

Well, about 9 croppers have positively responded saying they'll be attending. This is a far short of the 24 croppers I have space for. But, it's a good start and better than having no one. I did my best to promote the event. I'm not sure why I got such little response. I'm hoping the other vendors aren't too disappointed about the turnout. Even so, the vendors will also get to scrap, eat, and have fun with the other croppers. They may even get some sales. So, it won't be a total loss. This will be a learning experience indeed. My goal is to one day hold crops at the Accokeek Fire House which could hold possibly 100s of people.

I have a great line up scheduled with goodie bags, hourly door prizes, three meals plus snacks, dessert, and beverages, and free classes (we call them make and takes) every 3 hours or so. The day will be packed full of fun. Because of the smaller number of croppers I can place all of the activities and tables in the basement instead of having them on two levels. My friend E.V. has been sharing ideas and suggestions that she's gotten from attending crops at the Cropper's Corner. Thanks E.V.! She has been to some awesome events there. I'm also drawing on my experience from attending Caryn's crops and some LaPlata crops. Caryn has awesome crops as well.

My two older children and my niece will be helping me during the crop. I gave them stern instructions that I don't want to hear any whining or complaining and the jobs better be done right or they won't get paid. Yes, I'm paying them a little bit of something for their help. I really want to try them out to see how they'll work for future events. They're responsible for helping the croppers in with their bags, taking them downstairs, helping prepare food, refresh the food tables and drink containers, and answer general questions and requests from the croppers. I want to be able to have fun and scrap too and I know how stressful having an event can be. Meeting planning is one of my "official" responsibilities at my day job.

After having a dry spell here in Maryland, we've been hit by thunderstorms and lots of rain these past few days. It's been great because the plants need the water and I don't have to spend money or time doing it. The neighbors on either side of our house have in-ground water sprinklers and their lawns look beautifully green. On the other hand, we don't have an in-ground sprinkler system. Our sprinkler system consists of me trying to get up early enough to go outside and turn on the sprinkler before work I go to work. Then, I try to move the sprinkler around the lawn to get different areas. The sprinkler we have is so ineffective. It's similar to this one.

The problem is that it waters well nearby and at the far end of the spray but all points in between don't get enough water to make the lawn green. So, I try to compensate by moving the darn thing around, overlapping areas. We end up getting a patchwork of green instead a lawn of green.

Well, that's it for this post. I going to post pictures of my scrapbooking projects later.