Friday, Nov. 12

Up really early this morning, at 6 a.m. Skipped my exercises and even breakfast, because another lady from our scrapbook club was to stop by at 7 a.m. to go with Mother and me to a Craft Extravaganza in another town about an hour away. We picked up another member of the club, too, on our way out of town.



It was a lovely day for an outing...sunny, with autumn colors still on display. As we approached the exit to the town where the event was held, we noticed an older truck on the other side of the highway with smoke billowing from under the hood...engine fire, we assumed.

At the end of the exit ramp sat two cars, and two police cars blocking them. Police approached and talked to the person in the first car. I eased to the right of the cars, not knowing if the police were doing a spot check, or what, but when they didn't try to stop me, I drove on.

Just as I was merging into traffic, an ambulance and a fire truck, with lights flashing, raced to the entrance ramp. We guessed they were headed to the truck that was on fire.

We arrived at the church fellowship hall where the event was held around 8:15. We were the first to get there, since registration wasn't to begin until nine. However, the hosts had already made coffee, and they soon set out pastries and bananas.



Wow, the coffee was almost strong enough to hold up a spoon. I tried to tame mine down with creamer and ice water (the only water provided) and even sugar substitute, but it was still pretty strong, and then nearly cold after adding the water. I yearned for orange juice and a greater variety of fruits, but settled for the mini-muffins and half a banana.



The first craft we did was sponsored by our county...marti gras masks. We were supplied (for a small fee) plastic eye masks and a large array of feathers, colorful sequins, ribbons, and glitter paint. We glued and stapled decorations to the masks, and then we danced around the room to suitable music, while the hosts threw bead necklaces at us. A rather childish exercise, but it was a craft that kids would enjoy. We'll keep it in mind for the future.



The second craft was making bows by cutting circles from gift wrap, folding, cutting, and taping points. This is also a craft that family members would enjoy.



The third craft was making a necklace from a fabric tube and marbles. Marbles are fed into the tube and the fabric is knotted between the marbles, making beads. I did an animal print one, and Mother did a white one (the only fabrics left by the time we got to the table where the supplies were). Both turned out pretty cute. I bought one extra kit for Daughter, if she wants to make one when she's here during Thanksgiving weekend.



After that, we were on our own for lunch. We went to our favorite buffet restaurant, which was packed to the rafters despite it being only 11:30. Fortunately, we were able to find a table pretty quickly. I was glad, since I don't think Mother could have stood around waiting for long.



There were no benches for waiting customers. People were hovering here and there, silverware and napkins in hand, waiting to be seated. Once we finished eating we wasted no time leaving, and were out of the restaurant just after noon.



From there, we went to a big discount store to see if there were any scrapbook items. We found a few scrapbook supplies we could use, and all of us found other stuff useful to us. Mother and I picked up tins of Christmas hard candy, as well as tins of cookie straws to use in gift packs. I also bought mini candy canes to use in making graham cracker Christmas houses in December.



After that, we returned to the craft event. We weren't there in time to do the dryer hose pumpkins, which didn't matter, because we've already done that craft. We also didn't do the beaded night lights, since we've already done that one, too. But I did pick up printed info about preserving fall leaves.



The event ended with a drawing. Neither Mother nor I won anything, but one of the ladies who went with us did. In fact, three of the ladies from our county won prizes, which was nice.



Before we left town, we stopped by a scrapbook store, but we didn't find anything we wanted. So we were on the road back home by 2:30, and arrived home an hour or so later.



Later, Hubbie and I went to the movie theater downtown to see "Secretariat." Tickets at this theater are only $2, quite a discount from the senior price of $7.50 at the Cinema Seven theater. The theater was crowded for this must-see PG movie, starring Diane Lane and John Malkovich.

We got back home around 9 p.m. It was a long but fun day for me.