What Happens on a Girls' Trip...

If you've never gone on a girls trip you are missing out! One of my mom's favorite things was going on girls’ trips. And for those who knew her will know that they were always centered around shopping. Mom loved to shop! Two of my favorites were Mall of America and Gurnee Mills. She always liked to stay in the nicest hotels too. I really miss those days with my mom, my sis and myself just enjoying non-stop shopping and having fun. My most recent was a trip to Frankenmuth with my daughter-in-law, my sis, and our granddaughters. And yes, in the photo above you'll see my 60-year-old sister hanging from the luggage rack. It's hard to believe that no drinking was involved. But that's just some silly fun we would have never had if we had the hubsters along.

What makes for a good girl’s trip? A girl’s trip is anything you want it to be. You can go on shopping trips, state park trips, big city trips, small town trips, and even wineries. For the wineries just make sure you grab an Uber and of course, you must all be twenty-one. And whatever you do, you need to journal it so you never forget a thing. If kids are involved, it's easier when they are older. Just be sure to include as much fun for them as for the adults.

Another fun thing to include is something matchy. If you are the planner, you can give everyone a nice little gift such as fun travel accessories or piece of jewelry. On our recent trip you can see that we all had matching (temporary) tattoos. Quite surprisingly they lasted the whole trip!

OK, one more rule. When you do travel with your granddaughters and they want ice cream for dinner, you have ice cream for dinner!

Where will your next girls’ trip be?

Sign up for Sher's Creative News so you don't miss anything!

There's a free machine embroidery design in every issue (unless I'm running a sale). You'll also find links to free sewing tutorials and articles too. The newsletter goes out once a week.  

Dream Journals

Let's talk about one of my favorite subjects...dreams! I am so fascinated with this subject. I always have crazy dreams and some of them seem so real. A few years back I decided to start a dream journal and I'm so happy I did. I love to look back at some of them and read them. It's always good for a laugh. The photo above is from a dream a few years ago. My friend and I were riding our bikes to downtown Gary to visit the lakefront. And yes, we were carrying ironing boards. Just why?! And if you're not familiar with Gary, you don't want to ride a bike, car, or anything there. And the funny thing is that we could have easily grabbed our ironing boards and visited the lakefront that's 10-mile (maybe less) drive from my house. Same lakefront but safer area and it has a beautiful lighthouse.

I find that recurring dreams are most interesting because I'm sure there's an underlying message, they are trying to send you. For example, for years and years I kept having this dream that I was trying to find the underground shopping in Toronto. I've been there in my much younger years and I guess it left an impression on me. In my dream I can almost find it but something just doesn't seem right. Well, fast forward to 2023 and my husband and I went to Toronto, and I was able to show him the underground shopping. It's called The Path and he really loved it! But after my recent visit, I haven't dreamed about it again. Strange!

I could go on and on with a long list of my dreams from my journal but I'm thinking you have your own funny dreams to think about. I log mine in my notes app but they have some really cool apps for Android and iPhone that will help you create a journal that can be a lot of fun. Some of the apps come with AI features that will help you animate or illustrate them. For my dream images I used the AI functions of ChatGPT and Copilot. It's one of those things that you can get lost in and before you know it, you're late for dinner!

I do have a few suggestions though if you want to keep a dream journal.

The key to remembering them is to jot them down right away. You can even use the microphone on your phone to talk into. If you don't do this, there is a good chance you will forget it. I don't know why. In fact, when I look back at my journals, I don't remember most of them. I am so glad I wrote them down.

Sign up for Sher's Creative News so you don't miss anything!

There's a free machine embroidery design in every issue (unless I'm running a sale). You'll also find links to free sewing tutorials and articles too. The newsletter goes out once a week.  

Gallery Glass - Great Idea for a Kid's Craft

 

I don't mean to brag but...I am the lucky Nana to a smart, beautiful, thoughtful, and talented girl. OK, maybe I bragged a wee bit! She likes to spend weekends with us, and it always must be two nights. Her rule, not mine. That leaves lots of time to work on craft projects and she loves to do craft projects. I've already introduced her to my sewing machines.

One of the projects we recently did was with Gallery Glass. I purchased the kit at Amazon, but I also found it at WalMart. What's great about this paint is that you use it right out of the bottle. There are no messy paint brushes or dirty paint water. It's great for kids because they use the bottle for the painting, which is much easier than using a paintbrush. I did some research to make sure it's kid friendly and it is. It's non-toxic and water based. Of course you'll want to supervise, especially with younger children.

Always make sure that you use a protective product over your work surface. You'll also want to use some alcohol to wipe down the glass so there will be no oil or dirt left behind. Also stress the importance of trying not to touch the glass (painting area) with your fingers. If using it on a glass, candle cup or other type of holder, it's easy to hold the item placing your hand or fingers inside while you are painting the outside. 

Once your area and glass are ready, you draw your picture or design with the black "leading" which is kind of like a 3-dimensional paint. You need to let that completely dry before continuing. Once it's completely dry, you fill in the areas with the colored paint.

I happened to have these glass bowls left from a couple of parties that we hosted. They were used for the centerpieces, and I hated the thought of getting rid of them and I'm glad I didn't. I also have a box of flameless votive candles which worked perfectly inside. My granddaughter can use it in her room and doesn't have to worry about forgetting to blow out a candle or catching the place on fire. I personally prefer those over real candles lately. They really look real too. I'll share the links to these things below. 

If you are looking for a great kid's project, this one is easy and inexpensive. These would also make great gifts for the elderly or hospital patient when given with a flameless candle.

Links:

Flameless candles

Gallery Glass

Sign up for Sher's Creative News so you don't miss anything!

There's a free machine embroidery design in every issue (unless I'm running a sale). You'll also find links to free sewing tutorials and articles too. The newsletter goes out once a week. 

10 Super Silly Laws

Here are a list of 10 laws that are for real. While doing research for this post I found a whole bunch of funnier ones but since this is a family friendly blog, I'm only posting laws of an appropriate nature. And yes, these are for real!

Pennsylvania: It's illegal to sleep on a refrigerator outdoors

Indiana: It's illegal to throw your couch at your neighbor

Illinois: It's illegal to fish while riding on a giraffe's neck

Minnesota: It is illegal to cross state lines with a duck on your head

California: It's illegal to drink cement

Florida: It's illegal to set off a nuclear bomb in the city park

Tennessee: It is illegal to gather or consume roadkill

Texas: It's illigal to dust a building with a feather duster

North Dakota: It's illeagal to serve beer and pretzels together.

New York: Man boobs are against the law (I'm still laughing at this one!)

Photo Above: An old photo from years ago. I think they were watching a bird.

My Real "Dream" House

Did you ever have one of those dreams that you tried to go back to sleep so you could continue your dream to see how it turned out? Well I had one of those a couple of nights ago. I never could go back to sleep so I decided to create my own ending and it was so cool!

I dreamt that Brian and I decided to retire early so we bought this house in the beach community near where we live now. It was such a charming house on the outside with flowers and gardens. Looked so cute and cozy. When we went inside it was like, WOW! The place was huge! As I stood in the kitchen which was stocked with the coolest bake ware and serving ware, I looked through the big arched doorway and could see the dining room. It wasn't your average dining room at all. It had six big rectangular tables which each had six chairs. Nothing was crammed together, it was big and roomy!

To the right were windows and hutches. These hutches were filled with expensive antiques that we could sell for way more than the $50,000 we paid for the house. Like I said, it was a dream. These days you might get a big storage shed for that amount.

Straight across from where I was standing was this beautiful entry way with a Christmas Tree beautifully decorated. Why the Christmas tree in late summer? No clue!

Then to the left were lots of closed doors. I opened each one to find the cutest bedrooms, lots of them! They all had little desks and dressers and each one was decorated differently. Then I woke up! Darn! I wanted to see if there were more treasures, or what I ended up doing with the place.

Sher's "awake" finish to the dream:

If I did indeed find a treasure such as that I would have all the family parties and no one would have to drive home. But it doesn't end there. First I thought a bed and breakfast would be cool but I wanted to take it one creative step further...

I opened a Women's Creative Getaway Cottage! Yep! Women from all over the world could hold their creative conventions there. Clubs and groups could spend weekends, weeks, or just a day of crafting, photographing, scrap booking, cooking, praying, or whatever they do together. I'd also book baby showers and small wedding receptions.

So how would you write the ending to my dream? What would you do if you found a super cool house like that

Photo Above: Nothing exciting, just the cornfields behind my house. I see lots of them on my drive to work.

Three Quick Questions

 
One of my favorite things about blogging is visiting all the other talented and fun people out there and seeing a glimpse of their personal side. I came up with the idea of asking 3 quick questions. Nothing complicated or personal, just a couple little things that I think you'd feel comfortable sharing.  So here goes:

1. What is on your desktop?
Mine as you can see is a cat. It's my son's cat, Mr. Patches. He lives with my son now but he spent his first 5 years with me. This is my favorite picture of him. However, I change my backgrounds about every week or so.

2. What's the last CD you listened to?
For me it was The Best of Etta James. I love her! She has the voice of an angel.

3. What's the last craft project you finished (for personal or business)?
I made some napkin rings for myself.

So what about you?