Cleaning Up Loose Ends After a Busy Week

I am back in more familiar surroundings after a week on the road. Nice to be back home, but it seems like weeks since the York show, and it's hard to believe that only three days ago I was still playing golf in Tennessee. And I'm left with a few loose ends to clean up.

I got an e-mail from Mary Garvey while I was on the golf trip that explained the "double bugging" technique in more detail (see the previous post for photos). So I will share . . .

Double Bugging w/Metal Sheets and Copic Markers

Metal sheets are coated... select color of choice and a "background" folder & run thru machine of choice (cuttlebug, big shot, etc.)....

Then sand to reveal the silver under the coating.

Flatten by putting thru again with the metal on the outside of the folder -- for Cuttlebug, the "sandwich" is "A - B - metal - folder - B" (It is best to flatten and not rely on the next folder to flatten)

Put metal in 2nd folder.... run thru once... then sand the raised areas (this is your foreground)

Color with copic markers.


Hope that answers some questions. Meanwhile, I was playing golf at Fall Creek Falls State Park near Pikeville, Tennessee. My friend Jack and I drove down on Monday morning and met our friend Ben at his place in Spring City. Jack invents surgical tools -- he and I grew up together and our parents used to double date back in the '50s. Ben used to live in Ohio and he and his wife Renee retired to Tennessee about six years ago. Ben is a character -- he was a Maytag repairman and not at all like the guys in the commercials. The other five golfers in our group are retired folks Ben has met since he moved south.



Fall Creek Falls is out in the middle of nowhere. We ate at the lodge a couple of times, but the best food we found was at a gas station/carryout/lunch counter with a barbeque smoker out front. Great pulled pork barbeque -- we went twice. I had forgotten that there are areas of the country where there is virtually no cell phone signal. The photo at right shows part of the hill Jack and I had to climb each evening so we could get high enough to get enough signal to send out a text message to let the folks at home know we had survived the day. Phone calls? Not a chance . . .



This is how the park got its name. Fall Creek Falls doesn't have a lot of water, but I hear it's the highest falls in the eastern half of the country other than Niagara Falls. And it's a looooooong way down there. There are overlooks with railings, but the best view is from this rock outcropping. That's Ben in the middle, Jack on the right, and Ben's friend Leonard on the left.



The scorecard at the golf course shows a picture of several deer grazing in the second fairway. It was no joke -- there are deer everywhere, and they aren't a bit afraid of the golfers or their errant shots. Trees line both sides of every hole, and we saw deer and wild turkeys all over the place. They were probably laughing at me -- I hit some good shots, but more bad ones. But it was really fun and I'll do it again sometime.



And this is why Ben and Renee moved to Tennessee -- the view of Watts Bar Lake from their front porch. They bought a place that was little more than a smelly dump with a view (I saw/smelled it) and have turned it into a beautiful home. I love to visit when I'm on my way to southern shows.


Friday was my birthday -- I am another year older than dirt. I have asked for the same thing every year for the past ten years or so . . .



My brother and I have lunch with our parents at their condo. No wives, no kids -- for about an hour and a half it's just the four of us again. It's very special and I look forward to it every year. But we had to make room for a fifth this year . . .



Zoe goes to work with me on Fridays, so she came along for the ride.