Camping at Spring Mill

Kids playing stilts in the village

This weekend my family and I camped at Spring Mill State Park in Mitchell, Indiana.  It is hard to believe that we haven't been here in 5 years!

We came up Friday night stopping to get supper on the way.  Spring Mill is about 2 hours from home.  We set up in the dark and it was cold.  We made a small fire knowing that we needed to save the wood for meals on Saturday and Sunday.

Selfie with hubby

Saturday morning we got up, ate breakfast, and headed down to the pioneer village.  I was surprised to see that most of the buildings were open and there were a few reenactors so late in the year.  We spent a few hours exploring the village.

When we were done at the village we went back to the campground for lunch.  We were just having sandwiches because we needed to get out and look for letterboxes.

Boxing 

We have 2 boxes in the park and someone marked both of them as missing.  We checked on them this weekend and they were both right where they were supped to be.  We did update the clues and included pictures to help future finders get the boxes.

We looked for 3 boxes too.  The first one was in a pouch and the logbook was completely soaked.  We struggled to find the second one because there were so many rocks that looked the same.  But we did find it.  The last box was in a stump near a shelter house.  I believe that the stump was almost entirely rotted away and we could not find the box.  The previous boxer could not find it either. 

Stressful paddle boat ride

Don't tell, but we planted a box while we were there but I won't post the clues until next month. 

Sunday morning we got up, had breakfast, and started to tear down our camp.  It sprinkled on and off and at times there were really bad wind gusts blowing our stuff everywhere.  

We took our time breaking camp and had lunch at the campground.  When we were letterboxing on Saturday, we noticed that they now rent paddle boats, canoes, row boats, etc.  On our way out of the park we stopped and rented some boats.  Bantha Rider and Boxing Turtle took a canoe and the rest of us were in a paddle boat.  It was really hard getting around with the large gusts of wind.  

When we were done with the boat ride, we left the park and started looking for ice cream. 

For the weekend, we looked for 3 letterboxes and found 2.  Did maintenance on 2 of our boxes and planted another.  On the way home from the park I got some ideas for other boxes.  Maybe I can plant up this way for the next PAL Day. 

Embossing Powder Test

Some of my kids were out of school on Friday for Parent/Teacher Conferences, two of my kids had dentist appointments, and I took the day off.  One of the many things I did was tested my embossing powders.  I like embossing my cards and I guess I have a problem because I just keep buying embossing powder.

I started off testing white.  I have 3 brands of white embossing powder- Zing, Ranger, and Reflections.  You can't see it in this picture but the Reflections bottle has a note on it that it is "Better than Zing".  Why didn't throw the Zing away when I made this discovery?  Why did I buy another white when I knew I had one that I liked?  I like both Ranger and Reflections and if I had to choose between the two I would pick Ranger.  It just seems to fill in better.

The next test was clear embossing power and you can see I have 4 of these-Hampton Art, Ranger, Reflections, and Zing.  Hampton Art was the first embossing powder I ever purchased.  I was not 100% happy with any of my clear embossing powders but maybe the problem is the ink pad I used?  The ink was Brilliance Graphite Black Pigment Ink.  I can't pick a favorite of this group. 

The last set of tests was black.  Again, I have 3 brands-Zing, Ranger, and  Recollections.  These all were about the same.  I would say Recollections was my least favorite in this group. 

I probably should have ran the test with a stamp that had finer lines.  I think that would have made a big difference.  At one time I bought an anti-static powder bag.  You rub it across the card before you start embossing and it helps the powder to only stick where you put the ink.  But I can't find it. 

Based on this test I have no favorite brand of embossing powder.  Hopefully I can stop buying it when I see it on sale :)

Day trip to St Louis

My kids Fall Break was Friday, yesterday, and today.  For over a year I have been talking about taking my kids to the City Museum in St Louis.  The last time we went Lil Ewok was just a month old and he is now 6.  My oldest is 16 and I thought if we don't do it soon, the big kids will be to big.  Even though my high school age Girl Scout troop went and loved it.

I asked for yesterday off at work and a week ago I started doing my homework on what boxes I wanted to get in St Louis.  There is a Harry Potter series in a library that I though the kids would enjoy.  I get online to check their hours and discover they will be closed Columbus Day (the day we planned on going).  I checked the City Museum and due to their Winter Hours they would be closed too.  I checked on the Magic House and Grants Farm and they were all going to be closed.

I decided we would just letterbox and go in the arch.  The last time we went in the arch, the princess was a baby.  The kids would have been 6, 3, and a few months old.  I printed off clues for rest areas boxes there and back, Forest Park, and some graffiti ones near the arch.

As we are driving over the princess says she wants to go to an art museum.  I tell her there is a sculpture park with a few boxes and she got real excited.  I didn't have printed clues so we used my phone.  I prefer printed clues.

We got two rest area boxes on the way and went to Laumeier Sculpture Park.   The kids enjoyed goofing off here.  We looked for 3 boxes and found 2.  We left and ate lunch nearby.  I tried to talk the kids into going back after lunch to get 2 more but they didn't want to go.  It was pretty hot and the place was big.  As we were leaving we stopped in the office and discussed some of the sculptures from the clues that we didn't look for and I think we could have found the boxes easier after talking to the woman. Oh well.

Our tickets for the arch were at 4:50 pm.  We were the last trip up for the day.  As we get close to the arch I can tell that we are way to early for our tour.  We decide to look for the graffiti boxes near the painted flood wall.  The boxes were a little tricky to find but the kids enjoyed the graffiti wall.

When we were finished we went back to the arch and took a million pictures.  We were really tired from all the walking at the sculpture park and the high temps.  We didn't really pay attention to the stuff in the museum.  We got some goodies in the gift shop and sat down for a few minutes until our boarding time.  The kids loved it!  When we were done we went back to the bottom, the littles played in the fountain, we took more pictures, and headed back to the car.

Bantha Rider is in the process of getting his drivers license and drove us to St Louis and back.  He didn't like the stress of driving in the big city and all the signs we need to look for.

On the way home we stopped for ice cream and got another rest area box in the dark.  The sculpture park is so big, I wish I would have brought a box to plant.  An idea for next time.  We found 7 of the 8 boxes we looked for and left a hitchhiker.

Boxing in Illinois

2018 is the year of Illinois Bicentennial.  TeachJR posted an event asking people to celebrate by planting boxes.  I decided that I would do 3 and a bonus *spoilers*.  I carve my stamps, make the logbook, get the boxes together, and plant.  One week later I get a message that 2 of the boxes were missing.  I think this person is crazy, they have to be there.  So I drive an hour back to the park just to check and they were missing.

What do you do?  Retire? Re-carve? I decided to re-carve and add a box to the bunch.  I left 2 boxes on the trail, re-carved, returned to plant, and guess what happened?  One of the first boxes was gone!  I think the park is cursed!  What is with people?  Do they have nothing better to do in rural southern Illinois?  I'm not going back.  I'm done.  Get them while you can because I will not re-carve those.

Last box of the day selfie :)

Did I mention that G-MA and I drove over there today.  I picked her up about 1:30 and we drove an hour to the park.  I grab my bag of boxes and we take off to the trail.  As we walk up to the trail head a family is exiting the woods.  They mention that the mosquitoes are bad and we will need bug spray.

G-MA has some in her bag and we start spraying.  As we are standing there we are attacked by them!  It was worse than yesterday!  G-MA says she is not going.  I run off to plant the boxes that I have re-carved and discover that one of the others is missing :(  Unless someone else plants a few boxes in that park, I will not be back.  It has been nothing but trouble. >:(

My original boxes planted in Ill

When we are done, we head to Grayville.  There were 5 boxes that I needed and 6 that G-MA needed to find.  We start at a cemetery that has 2 new boxes.  We struggle with the planters description of the tree.  We even text someone for help.  I looked in one tree and G-MA looked in another.  We decided to switch and she looks in my tree and I look in her tree and we each find the box the other person was looking for!  It's a good thing we box together :)

We had no problems finding the rest and had an enjoyable ride back home.  For the weekend, we found 29 boxes and left a few hitchhikers.

Fourth trip to Scales Lake

Trail Selfie

Yesterday, G-MA, Daddy's Favorite Princess, and I went back to Scales Lake.  If you don't recall, it was the location of the 2018 GLG.  This was our 4th trip back to the park and we now have all the official boxes planted for the event.  I think there are a few other boxes planted by people who attended the event that we have not gotten.

G-MA and I drove separate to the park and arrived a little before 9 am.  We knew that the first trail we were walking would be long.  I parked my van at the end of the trail and G-MA drove us to the start of the trail.  The weather was beautiful and cool.  We debated if we should wear jackets or not.  We were looking for a Star Wars series and found all of the boxes but one.  There was a bonus, which was nice since we could not find a box.  We also found a geocache close to one of the boxes.  We looked for 16 and found 16.

After the Star Wars series we left for lunch.  We went to a local diner that had a letterbox outside but we had already found it.  Then we went back to the park and tried to figure out where to park the second car for an easy exit of the trails.  We ended up walking in and back out.

Cool fungi 

This time we searched for the Famous in Indiana series.  The temp had risen and the mosquitoes were out in full force.  We struggled to find many of the boxes.  Landmarks had changed in the short period of time and the wording of the clues was often an issue.  The stamp in the first box was missing and there was another box that we could not find.  We ended up with 8 out of 10 in this series.

While we were there I planted a box at a cemetery just outside the park.  This would have been my campsite stamp if I would have been able to camp.  But I was just too busy the weekend of the GLG and it was miserably hot.  After all the boxing we stopped to get ice cream to celebrate G-MAs 10th AQversary and her recent birthday.

Summer LTC Swap

I have been so busy that I have not participated in many LTC swaps lately.  But I had some free time and joined aMAZEing adventure frog's Summer Craft & Swap.  I looked on my Pinterest board, watched a YouTube video, and ordered some supplies on Amazon.  When my new stuff arrived I was too busy to work on the cards :P

Here is the video where I got the idea for these cards: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=YUwssE2rHTk.

My cards are called, "Camp Hair Don't Care."  I think it would take a while to master this technique but I enjoyed making my cards. Playing around with the "puffer" was stress releaving :)

I'll go ahead a walk you through what I did.  I cut Watercolor paper to size and taped it in a plastic box.  You sprinkle very small amounts of Ken Oliver Color Burst powder onto the paper.  Then you spray the card with water and puff with the puffer.

On many of the cards I used too much water.  Looking at the cards a day later, I probably could have used less powder too.

The next day, I carved my stamp and embossed the text.  I originally planned to emboss with black but thought some of the areas were too dark for black.  In the video, she uses white.  I punched 2 of the corners and mounted the card to black scrapbook paper.

I am very happy with how the cards turned out.  As with anything I ended up throwing a few away.  I wasn't madly in love with all the cards but I don't love all the cards when I do an alcohol ink background either.  This background technique probably works best on bigger paper.

Returning to Scales Lake

Box planted by someone attending the GLG

G-MA and I went back to Scales Lake today, the location of the GLG.  We still had 30 boxes we needed to get from the event.  There were also about 12 boxes in the area, planted by boxers who attended the event.

We got some of the boxes on the way to the park and started the, "Teddy Bear Trail."  We had heard that this was the most strenuous trail in the park.  It was tough.  There were 2-3 places where I had to pull G-MA up the hills.  They probably should not have planted on this trail.

After finishing this trail we went back to town for lunch.  We grabbed a few more boxes on the way.  While stopped for lunch we discussed our plan of attack.  We went back to the park for 3 more boxes that were planted by folks who attend the event.  By now it is 3pm and my kids are texting me about what to do for supper.

G-MA and I decide to leave the park.  We get a few more boxes as we leave town.  I ended up with 16 boxes today.  Our plan is to come back again right when the park opens.  We will get an early start and tackle the longest trail first.  Then we can leave for lunch, cool off, and start again.  We have 25 boxes to go.  I think I may take one with me to plant just for fun :)