Another Poppy Finished today

36" x 24"' acrylics.  copyright McCarroll

Joining Paint Party Friday

Gift Enclosure Cards and Fiber

Everyone has favorite images saved on their computer, just because.  So take a few of your favorite pictures, sandwich them between plastic laminates or clear plastic sheets from recycled products and make some interesting gift tags or book markers with the help of your sewing machine and left over bits and bobs of ribbon, buttons or bows.  (Clear plastic sheets can be purchased at any craft store.)

Images are held between clear plastic pages, then stitched to separate pictures. Cut beside the stitching lines to create open topped envelopes.

Now an enclosure card, your business card, or just a quick "thank you" note can be slipped into the opening of the card you made.

Here are a dozen made within an hour.  (Be sure to discard your needle after sewing because the plastic will dull the point of the needle when sewing through the plastic.)

Joining in Finished Objects Friday and Fiber Arts Friday, here is a finished Looped Loop cowl made from Shetland hand dyed and hand spun wool.  It was completed right before going to Phoenix for the Scrabble tournament, but it was too warm there to wear it.  Never fear, more snow will blow in Colorado this March, so it will get lots of use.

30th Anniversary: Phoenix Scrabble

Barbara Van Alen started a local Scrabble Club in Phoenix, AZ, then progressed to become a director and then went on on to host her first tournament for Scrabble players.  That was 30 years ago in Phoenix, AZ. Last weekend marked her 30th hosted Phoenix tournament, along with her co-director and husband Larry Rand.  93 participants attended the tournament and represented five levels of player accomplishment.

Barbara and Larry with a cake for celebration

It was a great tournament, Phoenix hit record highs for temperatures in the mid 80's, the venue was excellent (Chaparral Resort in Scottsdale) and here are new words to add to my memorization list that were played on me, some of which I challenged:

• pilei
• bubu
• seinite
• moots
• liger
• serine
• diene
• uredial

Site for all pictures of the tournament: vanrand1 at smugmug dot com

I won a prize simply because my player number was "30".  Again, my score results over 28 games were about dead center in my group, which was division "C" of divisions "A" through "E";  dead center of dead center.  Talk about middle of the road and average.

I am only an average man but, by George, I work harder at it than the average man.

Theodore Roosevelt

A good time was had by all.