It was a BLAST---and no bears...!

Good Wed. morning all! First, let me clarify some of my "ranting and raving" from yesterday. I had poor Sarah of the UK confused when I mentioned Pella Windows. I am house sitting and doing some bookkeeping for a friend who is wintering in FL. She had a window that needed some repair. Pella Windows is the company I was -note WAS--dealing with. It took at least 15 phone calls for them to understand I work in the morning and could not meet a repairman until afternoon. We finally established a date and time (last Thurs.). My good friend Theresa came with me as there are no neighbors real close to this gal's house and I didn't want to be alone with a strange repairman. We waited, in an ice cold house for 2 hours. No show. I called the company. For whatever reason, when they didn't reach me at home (how could I be home and at my friend's waiting on him to show up--that's the lack of logic I was dealing with--!), they called the other person that is a contact for my friend and she informed them that they didn't need to come out until spring! Meantime, here I sit wasting my afternoon freezing to death. Needless to say I was not very nice towards the end of that call and I won't be dealing with them. My friend can handle it when she comes home as its not an urgent matter! So-that was my Pella Window experience! If you want repairs done should you need them, you are in for lots of stress. I broke out and my fibromyalgia kicked up as a result of the stress. Not a fun week-end in that regard.

Now--on to the BEAR story! Last month "Buzz" told us that she was headed to her daughter and son-in-laws house when all of a sudden this HUGE thing was in the middle of the road in front of her. Turned out it was a bear! No one was hurt but she was a bit shook up (even locked the car door!) We got a good laugh over it as the fright had worn off by then. Theresa was not at that meeting but when I told her Buzz's story, she started leaving little white trash bags out for her husband at night. He asked what was going on. Turns out that Theresa's lives next to an empty lot and their trash can is on the edge of it. Not wanting to meet up with a BEAR, she would set the trash outside the door for her husband to take over there. She had me laughing so hard over this I had tears streaming for a half hour or better! So---I was going to buy them each their own bottle of bear repellant. Until I found out they were like $ 50-60 each! So---I made them their own Bear REPELLANT KITS...I included the glasses with the fake eyebrows and moustache --because, as the TEDDY BEAR'S PICNIC song says, if you're going into the woods today, you'd better go in disguise...! I also included a printout on BEAR SAFETY TIPS that I suggested they memorized. If that didn't help, they had a TRAVEL CUP, A BOTTLE OF WATER, A SMALL BOTTLE OF RUM, AND A SMALL PACKAGE OF PAT O'BRIEN'S HURRICANE COCKTAIL MIX. They were told to put it all in the cup, shake it well (as if they wouldn't be doing that already!) and drink it quickly. They wouldn't care if there was a bear there after that! But, just in case that didn't work, they should be prepared to THROW the cup at the bear and run like h-e-double hockey sticks!! They are really good sports and got lots of laughs out of this! That's Buzz on the right, Theresa on the left modeling their "disguises"! On the bags, I used CTMH yellow cardstock and punched it with Martha's Drippy Goo Punch. I then covered the parts of the border that showed with Liquid Effects to make it look like sticky honey dripping down. A Shout Out to JULIE for letting me borrow her CTMH bear stamp set to mask and stamp the border-the background is the words to the song "TEDDY BEARS PICNIC. The quilled bee's have been in my stash forever---and the paw print was perfect to stamp the bags! The ribbon was from Wal-Mart.

I had been planning this since our last meeting in early January and was about to POP if I couldn't have shared it with them last night! I love these gals--ALL the gals in our group. We have a great time stamping and laughing and being girls! Thanks Ladies for being such good sports and letting us laugh with you!

Until next time, happy stamping and scrapping. Blessings, Sharon