Keeping busy

Last weekend, Don and I visited the  Los Angeles County Fair. We used go every year, but for a number of reasons, this was our first visit in three years. We picked a good weekend, as both this weekend and all earlier weekends in September were quite a bit warmer than last weekend. But, as always, we only saw about one-fourth of the fair, including the pirates and parrots show illustrated here. Before this show we also checked out the wine and the "natural resources" area behind the garden/wine building. This year, the area included displays of birds and reptiles from around the world, and information on the history of the Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Forest Service, and what these federal government agencies do today. This included a replica of a Forest Service lookout, a small nature trail, an opportunity (which we declined) to saw logs like a lumberjack and more. We finished the day by checking out some of the art, and by eating at the sit-down restaurant at the fair, which is something different every year, this year Italian food. I may have said on my other blog that I was going to enter nut breads in this year's fair, but I procrastinated too long, and did not mail the entry in. Maybe next year. I just have a hard time cooking nut breads in August though, when it's usually hot enough without firing up the oven for an hour or more.

These are two of the three two-page scrapbook layouts I've made about the fair.The background paper for both are from a really old stack of paper I bought in Target in 2005.The layout I have not photographed used paper almost that old that I bought at Michael's about the same time, one of those many times I've bought far more sheets for a specific project than I would use on that one project. Some scrapbookers will throw away papers they have had even for as little as a year, but not me. I love being able to mix old and brand new things for a scrapbook page that is all mine.

The page with the parrots I made with help from CSI Color Stories Inspiration, which provides free printables every week, including the wood-grain paper, the journaling card and the bird, which I enlarged 200 percent before printing. All of their printables match a specific color/embellishment/journaling scrapbook challenge offered each week. Although I have done a page for the challenge, CSIs is one of the trickiest scrapbook challenges out there, and this particular scrapbook page did not meet all of the challenge requirements. So I made another page, not about the fair, that did, but I'm still glad when the CSI weekly printables work on my "real life" pages as well.

This Saturday, Don and I were again busy, as we were interested in two events in Jurupa Valley. One of the two turned out to be a big disappointment, but I will soon scrapbook 15 photos or more from the other event, the Flabob Flying Circus.