The Elements are getting me down...

OK, I do not profess to be very computer savvy. I can do the basics and so far that has been good enough to do what I want to do. When I wanted to produce my own brochures I learned how to do desk top publishing. Now I want to do digital collages so everyone says to get Photoshop Elements and it is a piece of cake. Saying that is like giving someone directions and saying "you can't miss it." Kiss of death! I bought Elements, I bought Somerset Studios Digital Studio, I have tons of photos, graphics, and vintage ephemera. I pride myself on being able to follow directions............but this Elements stuff might as well be written in Greek.......layers, brushes, magic tools..............arrrrrrrrrrrrrrghhhhhhhhhh! Just when I was about to give up I stumbled into this blog. Don't know how I got there but she has some wonderful graphics and she does really neat stuff with them besides just store them in a file somewhere. So I am encouraged to give this Photoshop Elements stuff another whirl and besides all that she's having a Valentine's Day Blog Party and I signed up. No gain in just tiptoeing around the edges, might as well jump all the way in.
Hope you'll stop by and leave a comment sometime.

Why is it always the middle of the night...

when I get my best ideas, or what seem like good ideas at the time? I woke up the other night thinking about having a "Crafternoon" at the Bay City General Store. I thought that was a very clever play on words, so clever in fact, I am wondering if I dreamed it or if I saw it somewhere else. Whichever it is I'm having one - a Crafternoon, that is. On Sunday, February 22nd from 1 pm to 5 pm. Hosted by the Bay City Babes Rescue Society - that's us up above. We "rescue Granny's silver, buttons and lace and make pretty things for you and your place." We're bringing out all the tools (or toys as some might suggest), all the supplies and goodies - buttons, lace, trim, ephemera, scissors, rubber stamps, papers, glues, punches..........if we don't have it, you don't need it. We're serving refreshments, having giveaways, door prizes, a free gift for everyone and for only $20. Sounds like a great way to combat cabin fever. See we're right in the middle of the worst ice storm to ever hit this part of the country in forever. Some people are still without power and water. So shake off the winter blues and come gab, munch and craft at the Bay City General Store.
Hope to see you there.

Treasures from Tennessee

Nashville Flea Market

Before Mama Nature interrupted this program to bring us Ice Storm 2009 Part Deux, I was talking about our trip to the Nashville Flea Market. Day 2 took us to Franklin, TN and a wonderful antique mall located in an old former ice house. Just the kind of mall we all like - nooks and crannies, lots of little rooms and treasures hidden around every corner. And around one of those corners I found it - a beautiful oak rolltop desk in my price range. In the trailer it went, followed by a copper fish weathervane (perfect for our Ohio River store), an old sewing chest filled with lots of old sewing notions and there was still room for a vintage suitcase. You can never have too many of those. This stuff joined all the treasures from the flea market - sack of cork-lined bottle caps, two gravy boats, a sack of old hardware, and a fixer-upper dentist cabinet. Our journey home took us off the interstate (we really detest interstates) and onto the blue highways where the real America lives. A stop in an antique store located in an old livery stable brought us to an old shabby oak mantle - in the trailer it went. 40 Norman Rockwell plates were calling our name so in they went too. Two metal card file cabinets later and we were back on the blue highway. Our last stop of the day was an antique mall located in an old elementary school -a two story Marx metal dollhouse, a set of vintage flash cards and two old documents boxes joined the group in the trailer. Now if we had stayed on the interstate we would have missed all that.
That's the news from the Bay City General Store.
Come see us!

Mama Nature is telling us something...

We must have done something to really honk Mama Nature off. She dropped buckets of ice on us for a couple of days and we are just now digging out. And we are way more fortunate than others in our region that are still without power, heat, water - all the comforts to which we have become accustomed. Kentucky was really slammed in this ice storm. We went a few days with no TV, no internet, no newspaper, no radio, and no mail. You talk about feeling isolated when we are so used to the constant bombardment of information from all directions. Even our cellphones wouldn't work because of the ice build-up on the cell towers. That I didn't miss, not one bit. It was gratifying to hear stories of grandparents, parents and kids of all ages coming together to play board games, cards, or charades and totally unplugging for a few days. Maybe we need more of that..........maybe that is Mama Nature's message. Maybe we should listen, but we'd have to put our Ipods down first.

That's the news from the Bay City General Store Daily Ledger!

When you thaw out come and see us!