Torn Newspaper Giraffe

The fourth animal in my series made with painted and torn newspaper is a giraffe. Click to see the tiger, monkey, and lion. 

Painted Newspaper Giraffe

Materials: 

• newspaper
• acrylic paint (yellow, brown, black)
• glue

Steps: 

Find three newspaper pages that have small text, like sports scores, stock information, or classifieds. Use a single coat of paint to color one sheet of newspaper yellow. Do not rinse your brush. Color a second sheet with brown. The yellow left on your brush will make a light brown. As the yellow runs out, you'll get a true brown. Paint half of a sheet black and leave the other half unpainted. 

When the paint is dry, tear out the giraffe's face from yellow. The basic shape is like a footprint. Tear slowly and carefully because newspaper tends to want to rip in just one direction. 

Tear the giraffe's muzzle from light brown, then glue it to the face. Tear two nostrils and a smile from black and glue them in place. 

Tear two outer ears, two ossicones, and some spots from the light brown. Then tear two inner ears and a mane from dark brown. To make the mane, I tore a rectangle, then carefully tore one short end into strips, leaving the other end intact to make it easier to glue.  

Finally, tear two eyes from the unpainted newspaper and two black pupils. Glue everything together. 

Photo Fun with Vintage Candy

My sister gave me a box of vintage candy for my 50th birthday. What a great gift! Before trying anything, I spread everything out on the table and snapped a photo so I'd remember what was in the box. There's a fun mix of things I enjoyed as a child and candies I don't know that I've tried before. 

 

I decided I wanted a photo of just the candy without the birthday insert, so I removed the paper and rearranged the candy to fill the space. 

It was really fun trying to fit the candy together, so I challenged myself to arrange it by color in a perfect rectangle. I left out a few things that didn't have a dominant color. I think the candy looks so pretty arranged this way!

I made one final arrangement with my candy, from best to worst. I left out anything I'd never tried before. Of all the candies, Sugar Daddy is my favorite, so it's in the top left. I also love Double Bubble, Lemonheads, BarNone and Pixie Sticks. The next tier are candies I like, then ones I feel meh about. As you get toward the bottom, you'll see the candies I don't like at all. The worst of all are the banana Now n Laters, banana Laffy Taffy, and the wax lips. Gross. 

I don't think my sister anticipated that I'd have just as much fun, if not more, arranging the candy than eating it. Thanks for a great gift, Kari!

The Vintage Candy Company (affiliate link) has boxes like this for all the milestone birthdays, as well as candy by the decade. They have special occasion and holiday boxes, global boxes, and boxes featuring a flavor, like sour, spicy, or fizzy candy. They even have boxes where all the candy is sugar-free or vegetarian. Check it out!

Scouts, Fall 2021-Winter 2022

I usually create stand-alone layouts about Trevor's most memorable Scout trips and events, but every once in awhile I like to make a page that combines pictures from meetings, service projects, and trips. This page has eight events on it, including: Scouting for Food, California Coastal and Creek Cleanup, Scout Day at the Food Bank, September 11 flag ceremony at Rush Ranch, fishing at Doran Beach, the December Court of Honor, the lock-in at Rockville, and preparing boxes of food for the hungry. 

Scouts, Fall 2021-Winter 2022 (affiliate link)

I didn't leave much room for journaling, but I tried to cover the basics as best I could. In the case of the Creek Cleanup, I noted that the photo was "before the bee stings..." I know that will be enough to jog our memories even years from now, because it was pretty traumatic. 

We'd been cleaning that same stretch of Dan Wilson Creek annually for years. Each year the job was easier, with far less accumulated trash. Until 2021. It was evident that people had been living along the creek and treating it as their personal garbage dump. We were all sad and frustrated to see the creek that way. One of the Scouts picked up what he thought was an empty pizza box and almost immediately let out a bloodcurdling scream as multiple bees (or wasps - not sure which) stung him. Turns out there was pizza in the box, and a swarm on said pizza. One by one, the Scouts around him started screaming as they were stung. It was a nightmare. I was spared, along with about half the group. Trevor was stung on his ear, but fortunately only stung once. 

We all raided our first aid kits for sting relief. If you don't keep this on hand, both at home and in the car, use this affiliate link to buy Sting Kill immediately. It is very effective at numbing the pain of a sting, easily a million times better than the calamine lotion or baking soda nonsense of my childhood bee stings. Once all the sting victims were suitably numbed and calm, we continued our cleanup and ultimately the event was a success.  

I could have made this negative event a page of its own, but why would I? Trevor's Scouting experience has been 99.9% good. I don't need to make pages about the less pleasant 0.1%. The brief reference in the journaling is enough to jog our memories. Putting 7 positive experiences on the page along with the 1 negative is a more accurate look at his experience than if I'd made a page all about the stings. 

In case anyone wonders, I feel completely different about the page that tells the story of Steve's medical evacuation from a Scout hike. That is the worst Scout-related thing that's ever happened to any of us by far. I needed to tell that story, from my point of view. I need to have that awful thing in our album, just like I need to have this awful thing in our album. Both were traumatic, but both ended well. Both remind me to be grateful for each other, our home, and all our blessings.

Fall at Solano

I've mentioned before that Trevor attends high school on a community college campus. Back in November, I spent four days at his school listening to the 12th graders pitch their Senior Project ideas and providing feedback. During my breaks, I walked around and admired the beauty of the campus with its fall colors and dramatic skies. I had the place to myself. Ordinarily, it would be highly unusual for a college campus to be completely empty, but a pandemic has a way of changing things. Out of an abundance of caution, all college classes were remote, so the only people on campus were the high schoolers, who were in their classrooms. 

Of the many photos I took, I chose nine for this layout. 

Fall at Solano (affiliate link)

A fun fact about this page: literally every single letter spelling out SOLANO was cobbled from another letter. The S is actually an 8. The first O is a zero. The L is a Z cut into pieces and rearranged. The A is an upside-down V, with a chunk of the Z as a crossbar. The N is an upside-down U. The second O is a modified Q. I was ridiculously pleased with myself to have made 80ZVUQ spell SOLANO.  

Celebrating My 50th in Plymouth, California

After two years of very low-key pandemic birthdays, I was ready to celebrate the heck out of March 12, 2022. Not only was I turning 50, but my birthday fell on a Saturday. I found a beautiful Airbnb in Plymouth, California and invited two of my very favorite people, Jonna and Suzzi, to join the three of us for a weekend of fun. It was incredible. Everything about the trip exceeded my expectations. 

We stayed at the Historic Bunk House at Butler Hill. The bunk house was once the sleeping quarters for dozens of miners working the nearby gold mine, now restored with all the modern conveniences and plenty of historic touches. 

The 3-bedroom 3-bath house had more than enough space for our group of five. 

The large grounds include a lawn, an amphitheater area, water features, and a bar inside a granary.

The back fence is a replica of an old mining town.  

We arrived in Plymouth Friday night and enjoyed a fantastic dinner at the Plymouth Hotel. Definitely get the lumpia and a wood-fired pizza (or three). We spent the rest of the evening chatting and playing games at the house. Well, four of us did. One of us had to write an English essay that was due at midnight. I don't know why, but a lot of Trevor's homework is due on Fridays at midnight. 

On Saturday morning, Jonna, Suzzi, and I took a field trip to Donut Street Cafe. Look at their gorgeous donuts. They all tasted incredible. Lest you think I ate a dozen donuts by myself, let me clarify that I cut every donut into fifths so that we could each try them all. So I only ate 2.4 donuts. 

We dined al fresco. The weather was beautiful and it was a great way to start the day. 

We went back inside where I opened my gifts. 

  

Then we did a murder mystery set at the bunk house back during the mining era. That's one of the neatest things about this Airbnb - you tell them how many people will be there and they set up a murder mystery for you that is perfectly suited to the size of your group. We had so much fun trying to solve the mystery. I won't spoil it for you, but I will say that I guessed correctly!

Jonna and Suzzi worked together planning a gift that was absolutely perfect for me: a charcuterie board and a huge assortment of cheeses, meats, fruits, breads, crackers, nuts, and more for me to arrange for lunch. I LOVED it. I had no idea putting together a charcuterie board was that much fun. 

  

Here's a top-down view: 

Again, that was food for five. Despite the fact that I posed with it by myself, that most definitely wasn't a single serving. We didn't even finish everything on the board (despite our best efforts). 

We'd planned to go out to a fancy dinner, but I had so much fun making the charcuterie board that I asked if I could make a different one for dinner. There was so much food left that I hadn't put onto the lunch board that I thought it would be a great challenge to see if I could make something completely different for dinner. I'm skipping ahead a bit, but here's how that one turned out:  

So what did we do in between lunch and dinner? I put together my puzzle, we played games, and we walked through the town of Plymouth. After dinner, we had cake, watched a movie, and played more games. It was the perfect way to spend my birthday. 

We went to sleep way past my bedtime and lost an hour during the night (I'm not a fan of Daylight Savings Time), but we still had plenty of time on Sunday to continue celebrating. I'd requested a late checkout from our hosts, which they were happy to grant. 

I'd also requested their scavenger hunt. Not only do they have that great murder mystery you can do, but they also set up a hunt that takes you around the property and into historic sites in town. So cool! 

We hunted for rocks that spelled out the next clue. 

We visited the site of the original mine and used the sign to find another clue. 

  

We assembled a map and a followed a poem for more clues. 

  

The Dead Fly Diner was not part of the scavenger hunt, but I had to take a photo. I have no words.  

We found a clue by a grave near the Odd Fellows Hall. 

At the end, we found certificates declaring we'd completed the scavenger hunt. What a fun touch!

I loved absolutely everything about our time in Plymouth and specifically at the Historic Bunk House at Butler Hill. If you're looking for a fun weekend trip, definitely check it out. 

Huge thanks to Steve, Trevor, Jonna, and Suzzi for making my 50th birthday one I will never forget. It was absolutely perfect and I am so grateful.