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I just found this on Semafor:

I tore up all my late husband's undershirts to use for rags instead of paper towels. Especially helpful for cat barf! 😁 Easy to throw in the wash every week.

Recycle, recycle, recycle! And make sure you clean out your cans and plastics before putting them in the bins. Purchase refills instead of brand-new products. For instance, if you use liquid hand soap, don't buy a new dispenser every time you run out of soap. You can do the same thing with many common products.

We have Markus and now Olaf as mascots! Love him.

So nice to read how you all do a lot of things in the same manner. Where I live we have a village system for most of the garbage. I have 3 big separate bins; one for garden and kitchen waste that can be composted, one for paper and cardboard and one for rest. There is a pickup scheme when you have to put them a the street curb. Furthermore glass bottles and jars without a deposit have to be taken to big bins that are located in different locations. Plastic packaging, milk and drinks containers/bottles, tin and aluminium cans go all together in a big bag that goes to the same locations but in different bins. All the glass and plastic bottles with a deposit can be disposed of in the supermarkets; since a year all the little drink bottles and tins can be brought there as well and you get your deposit back. Old textile that can't be used for anything else can be disposed of at the same locations where the big bins are. For the rest of textiles there are places where you can bring it and what still is good enough goes into second hand shops for people that can't afford to buy in the regular shops. Of curse we use old towels etc. for dirty jobs and when those are in rags and very filthy they are thrown away. In our old house we had a compost bin and used what came out of it in our garden, but in this house we don't have a garden and on our small patio is no space for a compost bin which wouldn't work anyway because we don't have enough to fill it with.

Much to Tyson's "horror", we recycle his treats in that we cut them into smaller chunks and pieces LOL. At the prices that "duck jerky" is going for, it makes sense and lets the bag go ALOT further. I guess you could say, less of those plastic bags going out with the trash as well.

When I was visiting my family in the States we went to Yosemite National Park, I have mentioned that already quite often. Acces to the park is on a couple of places and one of the roads into the park is through a tunnel. When you are at the end of that tunnel you have the most amazing and iconic view of the valley. There is a parking lot and an area where you can absorb all the beauty before you. That spot is named Tunnel View and when we were there it wasn't crowded, so I and my son in law could take all the photos we wanted as was everybody else. When I think of a tourist spot this came to mind immediately. I was making a background and had something with lighter colors but somehow that didn't work. To let my photos stand out I used the background I had with the blend mode difference. The postcard is the freebie that Carole mentioned in the newsletter and it is in the theme of the month blog. I used a photo to make a postagestamp and I already had a postmark about Yosemite . The hand holding a phone is a free icon, from the site Free Vector Icons and the font is Algerian, which is quite similar to the font on official posters and other souvenirs in the park shop.

When I traveled back to Iowa for my nephews wedding (see Cooper Day 2.jpg in the Workshops/Masks gallery), I had a few hours to kill before the event required my presence so I visited a "museum/home" in the town in which my motel was located. Then I drove all over the county trying to "clock" as many bridges as I could get to before it was time to get ready and drive to the wedding. I'm ready to get slammed on one of the shadows LOL. Not sure in a scrapbook sense if it should have been "enhanced"...maybe just even LARGER than normal offsets with even less opacity and even more blur. Then again, in my head, I got it right for the effect I was going for. Shrug! I tried to keep the layout simple (except using those masks). Pretty much everything on here is from original papers/elements or from internet acquisition and modification. I took the photos. The fonts are Quentin Caps and Durango-western.

My daughters and I were exploring our French/Dutch roots in Ulster County, NY. this past summer. Historic Huguenot Street is part of the City of New Paltz. My French great-great grandmother was named Bevier who married my Dutch great-great grandfather, who was named Terwilliger. I did see an old photo showing a Terwilliger Blacksmith shop there. We had a wonderful tour guide.

In 2013 I took a 2 week vacation where I spent a week in North Carolina with my dad then went to Orlando and spent a week with a cousin's family. It was a driving trip. On my way from NC to FL, I took a side trip to see the Old Sheldon Church in Yemassee, South Carolina. I found out about it on a website dedicated to lesser known tourist attractions. Edit to add my journaling: I took a short detour on my trip from NC to FL. Less than 15 minutes from I-95 at Yemassee, South Carolina are the ruins of the Church of Prince Williams Parish. The church has quite a history and is in a gorgeous location. There was a couple having engagement pictures taken when I was there! Very serene location!

My hometown for 40 years, Warwick hosts an annual Applefest the first Sunday of October every year. For the first few, we lived right in the village and had to dodge the crowds to get anywhere on that Sunday. Subsequently, we left town early and never looked back! 😁

There are many ways to be "environmentally friendly". Some things can be done at the community level like recycling, repurposing, and such, but there are other things that we can do, as individuals. Every region in the world likely has some differences in what is available, what is common, and what is not. What about your area? Your community? Your own household? Let's share ideas.

What a view!

Mom did the same with dad's worn t-shirts. Most were stained because he worked construction so when the holes got too big, they became rags. I have in my stack of rags, washcloths that no longer have towels to go with them. I have flat sheets that no longer have fitted mates that I will put in the dog crate or even cover my bedspread (dog sleeps on the bed). My former employer supplied several small hospitals with linen items like bedsheets and blankets. They were taken out of inventory when they got ragged edges. I grabbed a bunch of them for my first 2 dogs. I still have them and again use them in the dog crates. I also have several old blankets in the pile of stuff to use for the dog. If they get ruined, they then get tossed. My city has had a recycling program since the 1980's. We have bins provided by the city that we can put some plastics and cardboard/paper in to sit out for pickup on garbage day. Years ago they also collected aluminum and tin cans curbside but no longer do that. However, there are big bins located in town where people can drop those items off. Dad actually made a can crusher that he put on the wall in the garage to crush the beer and pop cans before putting them in the bin. It is still on the wall but I no longer drink out of cans so it doesn't get used.

That's funny I do that with my husbands because they are great for really yukky jobs, like grease and oil too.....

We always did that when I was a kid. It's difficult for me to toss out old shirts now. 😄

Thanks for sharing the paperless towels idea, I mayn just do that as well.....there are towels put out in Walmart, sold in Meijer (USA) that are about 8-12 layers of paper, they are WONDERFUL, they come from Sweden I believe, anyway....they do great in the washing machine, they can be whitened with a bleach product, and used over and over and over:-) I tried them and don't want to be without them. I have one with a state on it, the others flowers and checks, I do have a total of 4, which yesterday came in handy:-) 3 got to be washed in the laundry together:-) LOL so again, thanks for the idea and YAY to your hubby for doing that!!!! Ellen USA

Love the choice of colours and the elements you worked in.

This is the layout I finished yesterday. It was amazingly fast, considering that nowadays, I take a long time to decide on colors, papers, and elements, so I have something I like or can live with. 😄 One interesting thing happened while working with the cat (Eyespire). I wanted to add a bevel and started playing with the "Randomize Parameters. " At one point, the cat's eyes turned red, which fitted perfectly with the theme (setting below). For the background, I selected the girls, promoted the selection to a new layer, and used the "Time Machine" filter (Effects>PhotoEffects>TimeMachine>Daguerreotype & Albumen) on the background and some of the elements/text. Credits: DiHiller: Papers and some Elements: 2019/2020 Fan Freebies --- DigitalScrapbook (ex-Pixel Scrapper) ThePumpkinPatch2023 black paper Corel 2018 Cliparts freebies Other elements: Eyespire (Halloweenies) / SheilaReid (Spookalicious) / ZaZa (Element_Scrap and Tubes19) Font: CF Halloween Girls

Here's my monthly Wild Cat Calendar. This one features two leopards, a pair, one spotted and the other black. The photographer, Mitha Hunugund, based in India, was published in National Geographic Nature. The title font is Babilonia and the story is Arial. The pumpkin sticker is from Sheila Reid. The calendar template is from Carole Cassel for our Calendar Workshop on the Campus in Nov. of 2023. The version posted on Facebook is full size and prints @ 8.5" x 11".

As I get older the less time I get to accomplish what I set out to do in a day. I thought I'd have more time on my hands, but apparentely not. It isn't as if I sit on my laurels either. Winter is the time to be more creative on PSP, once I have organized my photos, identified and documented insects, birds and other creatures I may not be familiar with. Long cold, dark Winter days and nights is the best time to while away those hours on PSP. Even preparing for the following year's calendars and cards.

Fantastic!

I thought of doing that, but I was too tired to do anything more. lol 😴

Likely the last layout for September. And another month passes by! Our fall days don't look like the photo yet. That will be later in October. Lately it's been damp, cloudy, but still very humid which keeps the temperatures in the 20s C. Old picture of my niece's daughter who is a lot more grown up now. Only things I made/did were background (blending papers), the ribbon, and outer frame with bevel. All other elements & brushwork from Janet Kemp (DS) or Erika Designs. I am simply too lazy or time-constrained to make many of my own elements. Especially when so much good stuff is available for free often.

The challenge this week in the Paint Shop Pro Maniacs is path and this is what I did. It took me a while to remember how to do that glow thing that I knew Cassel had showed us how to do. I went to the blog - tips and tutorials - and searched Glow and found the one about using layer styles.