Happy Thanksgiving!

To all my followers who are in the United States:

Happy Thanksgiving!

Don't eat too much turkey and enjoy the football games

Cathy 11/ 22 / 2011

Greeting Card Maker Of The Month: Royal Regards

I'm Sara, of Royal Regards Handmade Greeting Cards and I am a member of the Michigan Trolls on Etsy. I was born and raised in Michigan and have lived here my entire life. I grew up on the East side of the state, attended college in the middle of the state and moved to Southwest Michigan with my husband after we got married a little over 8 years ago. I work full time in the commercial real estate industry (not a realtor though) and spend my weekends and evenings (often into the wee hours of the night) making cards and working on my etsy shop. I enjoy scrap-booking, reading, shopping, movies, photography and interior decorating.

My motto when making cards is that "less is more." I like a clean, simple yet cute and elegant look. I especially love the look of embossed cards so I have a pretty large selection of those in my shop.

Fallen On Hard Times

When I was a teenager, Big Boy's was the place to go on date night. I remember ordering from our car and the carhops who brought your food. Usually, a Big Boy sandwich, onion rings and a coke. Our local Big Boy's closed. We didn't even notice they were closed until they took down the sign and the Big Boy statue was gone.

It was rumored that it was due to failure to pay their taxes. More likely they are just collateral damage caused by the recession.

An article in the paper last week said that Big Boy and Denny type restaurants, classified as Family Restaurants are having a hard time, they are aging businesses with an aging customer base.  Places like Applebee's, T.G.I. Friday, and Max and Erma's the next tier up who run specials and serve alcohol are taking their lunch customers.

The flagship Big Boy's on Hall Road in Clinton Township revamped their menu and redid the interior. The colors are brighter, the over head windows are gone, they added a wide screen TV, and they have cute glass cups for coffee and hot drinks. Unfortunately, revamping is costly and will franchise stores be able to afford to do it?

Notes From The Road: International Peace Garden Sept. 11, 2011

It is the 10th Anniversary of  9/11. There is a service in the garden today, where they have laid i-beams from one of the Twin Towers. The flowers are blooming, the day is hot for this time of year so far north. Both Americans and Canadians are present. The RCMP look impressive in their red dress uniforms.

The Peace Garden lies at the northern edge of North Dakota and Manitoba. At times you are in Canada, and other times you are in US.

I will never forget Sept. 11, 2001: We were in Wichita, Kansas, on the 10th we celebrated my birthday. The next day on Good Morning America we watched a plane hit one of the Towers. Later we got caught up in a gas panic and had to wait in a long line to fill up, all they had left was premium at a premium price.

It was a long day. I refused to stop until we heard from President Bush. Then we could eat dinner and find a hotel and decide whether we should head home or go on to Colorado.

Cathy 9 / 11 / 2011

Notes From The Road: Minnesota

Actually, we are still in Wisconsin, in Superior, our hotel is the last one before you cross to Minnesota. We go over the bridge to Minnesota every night so we can go down to the harbor in Duluth for dinner at Grandma's Saloon. The building right next to the Aerial Lift Bridge in the harbor is where the saloon is located. The bridge goes up when a Freighter needs to go back out to Lake Superior.

Tonight I walked down to the canal into Lake Superior and a big lake Freighter was coming through. It was a nice bonus, I was actually down there to get the two lighthouses on each side at sunset. Due to road work we had to give up going to Split Rock Lighthouse and did the Wisconsin Point instead.

Driving through Wisconsin and Minnesota going west is a wonderful trip for photographers. The weather is still unusually warm for this time of year. Unfortunately, for me, my 7D is having a battery problem. Time to switch to my back up camera body.

We hope it will continue with good weather and no snags in our trip.

Cathy 9 / 20 / 2011

Notes From The Road: Michigan

 I am on the road again. It has been a year since my last trip. Travel is fun and exciting, I love going to new places and seeing and photographing wonderful things.


My one problem with a trip is getting going. I have trouble getting out the door that first morning. I worry about my house, my cats and a million small things. We have a very competent house/cat sitter. So I really don't have anything to worry about.

We are taking I-75 up to the UP,  there we will pick up Hwy. 2 and head for Manistique. It was raining when we left home, it is a beautiful summer day now. I have spent many a gloomy day up here at this time of year.

Everything is picture perfect, warm and sunny.


I hope the rest of our trip is as nice.


Cathy 9/ 12 / 2011

The Fun Part Of Summer Art Shows

This is our last year to do out door summer Art Shows. Both my partner and I are tired of putting up a display tent. It was 100+ on Friday night when we set up. The heat didn't bring this change for us, we discussed it earlier in the year and decided to only do spring and autumn shows. Inside, with no wind storms, rain, or heat.

This weekend at Algonac Michigan on the St. Clair River, we had rain on Saturday about 5 PM. I went to get the van, and was just driving back when it started to rain, then it went to a full summer storm, a driving rain with wind blowing into our tent. You know it is a bad storm when the photos are blown off the peg boards. Couples shopping helped us. Also to hold us down at the height of the storm.

The next morning driving to Algonac we discovered that there were more and more trees down along Highway 29. Trees down, lines down, a mess on the highway and yards along the way. We didn't get much further, the road was closed. We had to go around the long way, get away from the water, go inland and come around.

I could imagine what we would find when we finally made it to the Art Show. Would our tent be smashed against the railing along the river, in the river or would it be in the post office parking lot across the way.

Fortunately for the many artists, Algonac had been spared, The park along the river was fine.

Everything went well. Unfortunately, it rained again at 4 PM. So the show was over!

I won't miss summer Art Shows. I will miss talking to people who visit our mobile shop.



Cathy 9 / 4 / 2011