A Feel Good Story

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of Ramblers Way. All opinions are 100% mine.

This is a story about a feel good company, from the products they make to how and where they make them. Ramblers Way Farm produces Made in America wool products. They make super fine worsted wool that feels good next to you skin. Whether warming you when it’s cold or breathable in the heat, Ramblers Way Farm wool products are high quality products that you can feel good wearing.

But the good feeling doesn’t stop when you take the wool clothing off! Ramblers Way Farm is an American company that creates its apparel with 100% domestic resources. The company’s home office is in Kennebunk, Maine in a restored building from 1792, preserving the historical architectural in downtown. And the building is refurbished to meet the current day economic and environmental standards.

Rambler’s Way Farm has brought manufacturing facilities into distressed areas and NOT outsourcing, but providing real jobs for the those outsourced by other companies or whose employers and jobs were muscled out by the current recession. They further help those who need by donating clothing during the winter holidays. Profit – yes, but people first.

In a day and age where profit usually does come first, Ramblers Way Farm concentrates on providing quality products that are produced with high standards and equally high ecological standards. And they work to provide more jobs and a better life for their workers, customers and neighbors.

Try out some of the Ramblers Way Farm garments. They’ll make you feel good outside and in!

How’s July goin’?

I hope everyone is having a great summer so far. It’s been on the crazy side in my world, a big part of the reason I’m blogging a bit less! Every ten days is CONSIDERABLY less for someone who often blogs daily and has blogged more than once in a day before!

David and I just returned from a long weekend in Maryland. He had a plan for trains he wanted to see while there that didn’t go anywhere near as planned! Train wise, the weekend was saved with a few choice catches at Sand Patch in Pennsylvania. We had dinner Monday night at Eat-N-Park, one of my favorite family restaurants because I love the fish dishes! I splurged a bit on the calories and had the Nantucket Cod, my favorite of them all!

Saturday was National Photo-Walk Day. Yeah, I hadn’t heard of it either, but it was a neat idea that I read about at Designs in Digital. There were organized photo-walk around the country in trendy or otherwise scenic places where p0hotogaryhy hobbyists gathered and took pictures together. I thought it sounded fun, but we already had plans, so I did an independent one with my hubby! Saturday afternoon, we took some photos in historic Port Deposit, MD.

Here are a couple of my photos from Port Deposit:

I’ll be doing some research on Port Deposit for journaling for the scrapbook page I’ll make for National Photo Walk Day. It was a fun idea and I’ll try to find out which day it is sooner for next year so I can plan for it!

We left Thursday night, which means we technically milked and extra day for Nanifest this year! Actually Nanifest started at 5pm on Friday, but since we were on a trip…

Tomorrow is my actual birthday, my first day in my mid-40s! I’ll start the day with a dental appointment! It’s not a bad way to start my birthday, really! I’m getting the second fitting for my partial. The whole in my teeth on the bottom shall be filled and I’ll stop biting my cheeks when I chew!

After the dentist, I’ll go to the BMV to get my license renewed. I’ve lived here three and a half years and this will be my third license! That’s because my expiration didn’t change when I got the new one with my married name on it. At least I’m sure that they won’t get the middle initial wrong tomorrow!

Siena Heights University, is having their annual Mud Hens picnic tomorrow. When I got my alumni invitation and saw that it was on my birthday, I had to go! David and I will go to the ball game as soon as he’s out of work. Pawtucket is in town and Mike Lowell has been rehabbing with them. The Red Sox could reactivate him as soon as Friday, so we don’t know if we’ll see him play tomorrow, but it would be cool! It otherwise will be the Tigers AAA vs the Red Sox AAA and a farm version of our first date!

Saturday, I’ll be going up to Michigan to celebrate Nanifest with family. So far I have lunch, afternoon coffee and dinner booked. It’s going to be a fun day!

Now I’m off to finish up a couple of reviews from last week’s study work and get on to reading this week’s sections!

Home Field Advantage – Cincinnati!

Congratulations NL All Stars! On behalf of the fans in Cincinnati, thank you for the home field advantage in October!

While I don’t like this whole garbage with the winner of the All Star Game having anything to do with the post season, I am enjoying the fact that for the first time since I’ve known him, David’s laugh comes from being entertained, not from sincerely laughing at me, when I talk about the Reds in October. We are barely in first place after a rough last series before the All Star Game, but in first place we are!

David asked me tonight what would happen if the Tigers and Reds faced each other. Well, in Interleague garbage, I find myself leaning more towards the Reds, but I do my leaning while sitting on the fence. I am a National League fan, but I’ve loved the Tigers as long as I’ve loved baseball, since I was 2. I’ve loved the Reds about 4 years less than the Tigers. I was the same kind of torn in the 1995 NLCS. I went in sure I was cheering for the Braves because they had become my home team to be. But I ended up only being able to enjoy the games and celebrate every victory and sting from every defeat. I’m sure the same would be true in a Reds and Tigers World Series. Either win would be a little bittersweet, but I’d win either way! Honestly, It’s not a bad way to be torn at all!

Speaking of the Braves, it was Brian McCann who cleared the bases and posted all the runs that won in the 3-1 victory and was the game’s MVP. There were some great defensive plays. David would comment about the play and I’d respond “All Star…” Not as in “they’d better be great,” but as in “of course they’re great!”

I haven’t really watched the All Star Game in a few years. Too much hype and not the fun it used to be. Tonight was all that hype, but some good playing too. Yes, I scrapped while the game was on, but I ended up scrapping slower than planned!

Now tomorrow is a day off, or maybe watching the AAA All Star Game. Then the second half of the season starts. I’ve been telling David for 5 years that Cincinnati is a second half team. THIS is the year I’ll be proven right!

Beat The Heat

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of Charter. All opinions are 100% mine.

With the stifling heat that’s been going on in these and many parts in the US lately, a little bit of indoor recreation is a good idea! Charter has a great way for you to unwind in the comfort of your own home!

Now On Demand TV is not just movies! You can catch up on your favorite shows, pick music video, pinpoint shows for the kids to watch indoors during the hottest parts of the day and of course, there are movies too! When Rina and I were at my Dad’s a couple weeks ago we enjoyed the magic of movies at you fingertips!

My aunt’s grandkids were there, so when we felt like a movie before we left and they went to bed, Pop clicked the “kids” tab. Voila – a list full of movies that were family-friendly, many even ones the adults would enjoy! We picked the Original Herbie movie from the 1960s. That one was a favorite from MY childhood and the under 10 crowd loved it as much as I found I still do!

I checked out Charter’s On Demand home page and found tabbed listings for movies, premium movies, music, kids TV, HD programming and even a tab just for free On Demand choices. You will ‘Like’ their Facebook page as well, social networking brings convenient entertainment to your homepage! An air conditioned evening at home is fun, convenient and not muggy!

So pop a bag of popcorn and relax while Charter entertains you On Demand!

Noisy Friday!

This has been quite a week! Lots of challenges, most the "worth it" kind that will have bright results!

I am watching workers dragging a large bundle of PVC pipes into our basement. We’re getting a full water-proofing and foundation strengthening done on our sweet 1950s house. Wednesday was a day of loud power hammering in the basement in preparation for installing the piping and repairing cracks. I’m not going to pretend that I really know exactly what they’re doing. When David and I met with the rep for the inital consultation, we really did notice what was wrong beyond what we’d already known! The rep was great at answering every question we had and explaining all the details, twice if we asked.

So, today is another day of loud power hammering and drilling. There is a crew of about a half dozen bare-chested and sweaty 20-something men around the outside of the house and in the basement. There are also three cats bunkered in our bedroom! Carla seems okay on the bed as usual. I think she had some experience with loud noises and strangers before she joined the family. Baggle is spending most of his time under the bed and Kaline is mostly snuggled between the luggage in the closet. Their Daddy brought up a little box that’s in the office and water in the bedroom for them. When I went up to check on them and give them treats, they all came out for me. Up two floors from the drilling, it’s cushioned from the noise a little. They came down at lunch when the crew was on break, but scooted quickly back upstairs when the noise started back up.

Today is a scrapping day for me. There is too much noise to concentrate for studying and I can’t exactly leave for the library or anything with a houseful of workers! I’ve had a nasty cold all week and I really don’t want to go out anyway.

That was my AG souvenir! Yanno, I’ve been sick only twice since I moved to Ohio in 2007 and both times it was a bug I caught in a Michigan Hotel. I haven’t been gone from the Motherland so long that the governor isn’t one I voted for. Maybe I should write Gov. Granholm and ask her to look into it! But “germs in the hotels” is probably a distant low priority in a state that’s in economic crisis. I’m in the little stuffy and coughing phase now anyway. I’ll be like new by Monday. All this dust is cleaning out my nasal passages one sneeze at a time to help my recovery along!

I’ve been building my Progressive Scrap page at The Studio this week. Jeanette, Designs by mITSYBELLE, is hosting and created an add-on for her kit, Another Year, for the scrap. All, her kits are on half-off sale this week and I picked up the full kit. It’s a great kit for birthdays and trains so far for me!

Speaking of great stuff at The Studio, DARLENE HAUGHIN IS BACK!!!! After a break to catch up on some offline things, both of her online stores, Digital Scrapbooking Studio and Scrap Bird, are open again! She has a new kit out to celebrate the reopenings called Memory Lane.

This is a perfect kit for vintage layouts, with soft, dusty colors to really make black and white photos pop! My first layouts are pages of memories from one of our cleaning weeks at Grandma’s house. We did some reminiscing and I photographed a lot of things to do pages with some journaling for scrapping.

Credit: Memory Lane by Darlene Haughin

Memory Lane is introductory priced at 35% off at both of Darlene’s stores at Digital Scrapbooking Studio and Scrap Bird!


Now I’m going to pop another Benadryl and some Advil and make lunch. If the pills don’t make me too sleepy, I’ll hit this month’s challenges at The Studio and Designs In Digital with some more of my catching up in 2007! I don’t think even a Benadryl side effect will put me to sleep with all this noise. I just hope it doesn’t make my scrap pages look like unintentional Picassos!