juliemcguffee.com Blog

Someone asked me (on air no less) if we had July 4th in England.  Well of course we do!  We just don’t celebrate……. duh    I love odd comments like that – kinda like the one on the bottle of Ambien (a sleeping pill I took during chemo);  “Caution – may cause drowiness“  Well I flippin’ well hope so!  That’s why I was taking the darn things!  I certainly didn’t stay awake wondering if they would work or not.  Finding humour in everyday life is such fun and laughing is a wonderful and healthy excercise, as well as a great stress reliever.  I remember the first time I came to the US.  We were driving along the freeway outside Dallas and I was captivated by the huge billboards along the side of the road. Every few miles or so, there was one for Stuckey’s, apparently a place to fill up with gas and get something to eat.  The last billboard cracked me up though. It said:  EAT WITH US AND GET GAS.  Over the years I’ve definitely become known for my puns (and oddball wit) both at home, when I teach classes and even on air.  The kids have been telling me to write them down for ages, but I forget most of them as soon as they’re spoken.  It goes without saying I guess, that I love British humour; mostly a play on words and innuendos – clever stuff.

The roofers are coming tomorrow to put a new roof over our heads.  My hi-speed internet (and I use the term loosely) may be interrupted for a while since I have to connect via satellite and the dish is on the roof.  Just the thought of being without an internet connection makes me wonder what we ever did without it.  We’ve certainly come a long way from the days of the Pony Express and wandering minstrels.  Makes me wonder what the world will be like when my grandchildren are my age!

Happy Fourth of July every buddy!  Be careful when you’re setting off fireworks and please don’t point them in our direction – we have a new roof……………

Yours truly, Julie

What a beautiful day it was! This was the day we said hello to our granddaughter! She is adorable – like we expected anything less, just not quite so soon. She was born three and a half weeks earlier than expected and will have to stay in NICU for a few more days, but mommy and baby are both doing great. As you can imagine, I’ll have my hands full for a couple of weeks, but I did promise to let you know about the Arlington scrapbook show, so here’s just a few highlights,

It’s always been a great show with a wide variety of vendors, great workshops and crops. People have been coming to this show from all over Texas and neighboring states for years, but with the price of gas on the rise, I don’t think there were quite as many people there this year. I may be wrong though, since I was there on Thursday which has always been the slowest day. There were a few scrapbook stores who had booths there and I was really glad to see that – so many stores have closed in this area I wasn’t sure which ones were still left. I know I can buy anything online these days, but I’m one who likes to see things up close and personal. I may be exaggerating, but it seemed as if 50% of the vendors were selling acrylic albums and word albums, other than that there wasn’t anything new that really jumped out. There were more vendors offering online services to professionally print albums for us and a couple of vendors offering to put slides and old reel to reel film on CD or DVD. I have lots of old film, so I’ll probably give them a try, but I’m not sure about slides. Our projector still works and we have literally thousands of slides (my film of choice in the 60’s & 70’s and I had a half frame camera). I think we’d have to take out a 2nd mortgage to get those on an electronic file that may be obsolete 5-10 years from now. Technology is moving so quickly, I still like my 35mm negs! I know they’ll still be around. Hybrid was THE buzzword at the big trade show in January, but I didn’t really see it being promoted at the consumer show. Digital Scrapbook Memories had a busy booth – I really love their CD’s – lots and lots of great images to use for all kinds of paper crafting. One booth had a great selection of 12″ x 12″ lace paper from Ki Memories and there was lots of felt from Queen & Co. Spellbinders was busy, busy, busy. If you aren’t familiar with the company, they have a die cutting machine (the Wizard) and the most remarkable dies. They look like brass stencils, but they both cut and emboss and the designs are great. Best of all, their dies can be used in other die cutting machines.

Well, that’s it for now, have a great day everybuddy and happy craftin’………….

Yours truly, Julie

Gee whiz it’s June already and we all know what that means, right?  School is out for the summer and it’s time for summer camp – if you’re lucky.  We didn’t have summer camps when I was growing up in England, but we didn’t have 3 month long summer vacations either.  Six weeks was all we got!  I feel very deprived…..

June 21st is the longest day of the year, after that the nights will get shorter and shorter and shorter and before you know it, it’ll be Christmas!  Take heed, plan ahead and all that jazz.  Better shop now while we can still afford to put gas in the car!  Gas is $8 per gallon in England BTW. It’s always been high, but the cars also get about 50 mpg so it kinda equals out.

June 24th is Midsummer’s Day, however in the ancient calendar it was celebrated on the 4th of July!  How’s about that for a strange coincidence.  Midusummer used to be a time for festivals and all kinds of celebrations with lots of magical, mystical customs associated with them. Other than that, June is a very unassuming month.

For all you scrapbookers out there, the Gt. American Scrapbook Convention is in Arlington this coming weekend, so I’ll be heading over there for a day, or maybe two.  I’ll let you know how it was later.

Cheers, Julie