Val’s-outside-voice: I have THE BEST son-in-law and..

Happy Friday!!

Since discovering I have arthritis in my hands, both osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis, I've been trying to find some comparable alternatives. Having quit smoking 20+ years ago, knitting was what I did with my hands. Now..when watching tv, I eat. Not a good idea since I've lost close to 20 pounds so far doing Weight Watchers and I DO NOT want to gain that back.

So far I've been working on puzzles, I started a junk journal and a paint by number. I am going to work on some watercolors too. Possibly this weekend.

On to my story of why I have THE BEST son in law. The other day, I brought out a paint by number set I had purchased YEARS ago.

as most of you know, I have a thing for doors.

I brought out the little paint pods (not sure what they're called) and I was thinking, how do hold these and paint at the same time? Maybe I could make something to hold them out of a cardboard box. But, then I thought, Dan and family got a 3D printer at Christmas time. I wonder if he could come up with something.

And lo and behold! Check it out! It even has the little slots for the side pieces of the pods and he personalized it for me!!!

Needless to say I love it! I did discover the paints are dried up. No surprise there. So I contacted the company who I bought them from and come to find out they are under a different name now. They used to be Simple-Painting and now they're Art Spark. I explained that some of my paints were dried up because of not using them and would they be willing to sell me some that go with my particular painting. Can you believe they are sending me a whole set? Free of charge!! Now that's what I call excellent customer service!!

I've also been working on my storytelling. I got a couple more pages done for January..

Looking at this journaling card is a little reminder of why I usually don't write in my own handwriting and I type on the computer. Not only do I not like my writing, I make mistakes LOL.

Working on puzzles. I found this little acrylic puzzle in the secretaries desk, it was in there during the move so it's been a long time. I bought it years and years ago at Barnes & Noble. It is little, only like 4"x 6" but super fun!

After finishing the little acrylic puzzle, Paul and I started a one I got for Christmas from Bev. It's fun and challenging at the same time. It's not real big, but the puzzle pieces are wood and ALL different, with a large amount of animal shapes. Paul's doing really well with it in spite of his color blindness.

I recently started Junk Journaling. They call it that because you can put all kinds of ephemera inside. Ticket stubs, postcards, buttons, beads, pictures, stickers etc. I think for this year, this will be my journal. I don't think it will be called my junk journal but rather my diary.

So, I got a couple of pages done.

The other day as I was making a cup of tea, I noticed the labels on my tins. Doing a junk journal has me looking at things around the house in a whole different light. Anyway, I saw these labels and immediately thought, I can add those to my diary! Recently I bought a book (or magazine) at B&N called Daphne's Diary Paper Creative Book. Filled with so many fun cutouts, stickers and paper. It's a treasure!!

And, that's where I got the little teapot cut outs! I decided to put a quote from each character on the inside of the tea pots. I think they turned out really cute!