Nancy Drew Mystery Game - EDM #6

The Nancy Drew Mystery Game - c. 1957

This was back in the day when Nancy read her telegram sitting on the divan in her new frock with her beau who drove a roadster.

If you're old enough to find humor in that statement, take your Geritol, hitch up your Depends and roll the dice. It's your turn.

Everyday Matters Challenge #6 is actually "Draw your favorite well-loved object...or a childhood toy." Well, that stumped me for most of the day. I've already drawn all my favorite well-loved objects and gotten rid of them. I have little patience for "stuff" these days.

However, digging around in the closet I found this old Nancy Drew game I loved as a kid. It was a sense of adventure without leaving my bedroom. I got lost in the little scenes on the board - the Haunted Bridge, the Moss Covered Mansion, and the Tolling Bell bell tower. It was dark and creepy and loads of fun.

I loved the little heavy metal sedan playing pieces. They came in the strangest colors - coral, magenta, and turquoise. Kinda weird and kinda neat.

I noticed in all the graphics on the game Nancy appears to be about 55 years old. That's odd considering she still lived with her parents at the time. Hummm....

The modern day Nancy probably has a condo, cell phone, and high speed Internet and dumped that loser Ned a long time ago.

EDM #5 - Draw Your Bed

Journaling:

Here's our bed in its usual state of unmade glory. OK, housekeeping is not my strong suit.

It has a pillowtop mattress, poofy down mattress pad, six pillows of various poofiness, a sprinkling of cat hair and an old worn quilt, all smelling faintly of Downy fabric softener. It's our snuggle nest.

I'll don't mind sharing things with Hubby (sodas, hairbrush, toothbrush) but I WILL NOT share my pillow. His pillowcases are tan and mine are sage green so we can tell the pillows apart. My pillow must smell like me, and *only* like me!

(pointy arrow note)
Hubby's slippers and his industrial-sized vat of Heel Rescue Superior Moisturizing Foot Cream. The man is fanatical about having soft feetsies.

EDM #4 - Draw a Mug or Cup

Journaling:

There's not a single teacup in the house and all our coffee mugs are plain, straight-sided and white...too boring to draw.

This is one of Hubby's travel coffee mugs. It has a big honkin' 3-D metal emblem on it. Full of coffee it weighs in at 1 lb., 11 oz. (I weighed it). That's a lot of heft for just a morning cup of joe. No wonder he never uses this one.

Succumbed to the allure of the polka-dotted needle case on a shopping trip today. It was a deal for just $3.99. It works great as an art case for my essential sketching supplies. Woot!

Also picked up these fruity scented soaps to put in my dresser drawers to give them a happy, girly smell. It just makes my day go a little better when my socks smell like lemons and my knickers smell like pears.

Polka-Dotted Art Case

Squeeee! Momma went shoppin'! I couldn't resist the polka-dotted and hot pink knitting needle case for only $3.99. What a bargain!

It works great as an art pen & pencil case.



It has two big, deep pockets for papers and photos. My favorite calligraphy markers actually fit in them! At 8" long they don't fit in most spaces designed for storing pens.

The slots are generous enough to hold the Pentel Pocket Brush Pen and Niji waterbrush. Both are so fat they don't fit in any loops or slots designed for pencils.

Granted it's a little excessive for *just* pens and pencils, but my little folding travel watercolor palette nestles in the top part where there are no pencil slots.

Squee!

Now I don't have to go fishing around in an open pencil box to find the correct Implement of Destruction because each one has its own designated slot. Most Excellent!

The Boo-Boo Bag - EDM #3

The Boo-Boo Bag, made for me special by my mother-in-law, it's love and a hug disguised as a simple tote bag.

She was on a quilt-making binge, but we already had six quilts and really didn't need another, nor did any of her other daughters-in-law. I suggested she make tote bags for everybody for Christmas instead. I was the only DIL who got a tote. Everybody else got store-bought sweaters. :)

A few months after she made it, she asked how it was working for me. Was it deep enough, roomy enough? The only thing I would have wished differently was to have the straps a smidgen longer so I could easily sling it over my shoulder.

"Oh!" she says, "Just leave it here with me and I'll extend the straps a bit. It won't be any problem at all."

"Nothing doing" I reply. "You'll have to pry it from my cold, dead hands. I'm not giving up this bag for a minute."

She just beamed.

I've forgotten why we started calling it the Boo-Boo Bag, but that's its name. It stays packed with essentials for road trips. We wouldn't get out of the city limits before Hubby would ask, "Do you have a tooth pick in your purse?" or dental floss, or fingernail clippers, or Tums, or...you get the idea.

Well, no, I don't carry any of that in my purse. But I have it all now in the Boo-Boo Bag:

-4 pairs of glasses (his and mine),
-hairbrush and hair accessories,
-toothbrush, toothpaste, toothpicks, dental floss,
-2 bottles of Tums,
-manicure kit,
-hand lotion,
-Band-aids,
-Kleenex,
-alcohol swabs,
-Breathe Right strips,
-phone charger,
-butane lighter,
-toilet paper (for street festivals, there's never any in the port-o-potties),
-cassette tapes,
-notebook and ink pen,
-girl stuff, and
-an odd assortment of empty Ziploc bags.

We sit it by the front door as we get ready to go and add stuff: sodas, snacks, hats, change of clothes, and various stuff we need at the destination. It's usually bulging.

It's a little beat up, grimy, and worse for the wear now but that's OK with my mother-in-law. The grimier it gets, the happier she becomes because she knows it is well-loved and well-used. What higher praise can there be for a hand-made gift?

I think she secretly hopes it will be loved to tatters so she will have an excuse to make me another one.

I adore her so.

EDM #2 - Draw a Lamp

Journaling:

This is the lamp beside my end of the couch that is my TV watching nest. It is "wrought iron" with a "leather hide" shade.

The shade came in a box only one-inch thick. The structure of it was a top and bottom ring and folding metal ribs. The ribs are hinged on the bottom ring and snap into brackets on the top ring. When all snapped in place the shade is pulled taut. I thought it was a really cool design.

The itty bitty table the lamp is on is too itty bitty for all my nesting clutter: phone, tissues, coaster, glasses, magazines, sketchbook, various pens and pencils, palette, and remote control (when I can get it away from Hubby.) Now it has crocheting tchochke on there too.

I need a larger table.

EDM #1 - Draw a Shoe

Journaling:

I've been a member of the Everyday Matters sketching group for two years but have done only about a dozen of the 270 challenges.

Liz Steele (aka Borromini Bear) is working through the first 31 challenges as part of the Every Day in May project (drawing something, anything, every day in May.) She invited all to join her.

I'm not sure I can keep it up all month, but here's the first challenge at least, EDM #1 - Draw a Shoe.

My shoe wardrobe is rather sparse - plain black and navy pumps and flats, some beat up Crocs, and some tragic flip-flops. Oy. I need to go shoe shopping.

I hardly ever wear this pair of sandals. They're worn only when I need to "dress-up" a little more than a flip-flop appropriate outfit. I think they've been out of the box maybe six times in the past six years.

Yeah, I'm pitiful.

Jeanne Louise Calment

Jeanne Louise Calment is a French woman who had the longest confirmed human life span in history. She lived 122 years and 164 days from February 1875 until August 4, 1997.

At age 85 she took up fencing, and at 100 was still riding a bicycle. She lived on her own until just before her 110th birthday.

She attributed her longevity and youthful appearance to olive oil, which she poured on all her food and rubbed on her skin. That and a steady diet of port wine and one kilo of chocolate every week.

Her photo was on the front page of the hometown newspaper to accompany an editorial on how to live longer. My little Neanderthal, reptilian brain saw it and thought, "Oog. Face. Must draw that."