Tools, Techniques, and Treats 2014

I know. It's been forever. I'm a senior in high school and the work has been piling up and there have been so many scholarship applications and such I've had to do. Well now that we have seen the last of this winter(hopefully) it's time to get out and letterbox.

Mother Hen and I went to the Tools, Techniques, and Treats event hosted by Gypsy Ladybug and Cookie Cutter. I am so glad that we went to this event. I learned so many things that I've been wanting to learn and everyone was so helpful.

I got all of my stuff ready and together to leave Saturday morning at 7am for and hour and a half drive to Greenville. 

We decided to wait until we found a Time Hortons to stop for breakfast. I was trying to find a TH location on my phone along I-70 and just could find one. We gave up and was ready to get off the next exit for some food and low and behold a Tim Hortons. While there, eating my blue berry muffin and smoothie, I realized I forgot the suet donation for the park at home. I knew I would forget something. I always do. Luckily there was a Walmart across the street so we picked up some suet and bird seed. However, this made us late(plus we got a little lost...) and so we missed the first log making class but that was ok.

Got there and the nature center was pretty cool. It's different from the one a volunteer at but it has a lot more classroom space which was nice(plus a kitchen).
 

 

 

I tried packing all of my supplies in the fewest and smallest bags I had. I hate having so many bags and stuff when I travel. I ended up with my little scrapbook travel case full of my ink and stuff and then an old laptop bag I keep all of my carving stuff in. I also had my personal bag, magnify glass and large paper cutter. My plan was to carve at least one stamp and cut out LTC cards from card stock. Yeah that didn't happen.
 

As soon as we got there we were swarmed by people who wanted to do exchanges. After the first few exchanges I found out I grabbed the wrong logbook. I have two little orange logbooks. One is for exchanges and personal travelers and the other actually goes with one of the boxes from my event I hosted from last July. So I ended up doing all exchanges on regular paper so I could then cut and paste them into my exchange logbook.

We did a lot of exchanges for about the first two and half hours and it was a bit overwhelming. Cookie Cutter showed me how to do the acetone transfer but the images I brought were print on an inkjet printer so we had to copy the image and print it on a toner printer. The transfer was awesome but I have a inkjet printer at home so I still need to find a different type of transfer. I think I may try the parchment paper transfer. I did get to carve a little bit of my new stamp. I've decided that there are some solo LTCs I want to do so I've dropped most of the LTC trackers I'm in. 

Mother Hen got us some needle carvers and Gypsy Ladybug taught us how to carve with them. I think they are pretty cool and who would have thought that you could have using a needle! I've just been getting into knife carving, which I like, and I'm hoping that the needles will help me do the tiny detail I'm doing now. I did manage to get some more of my Bigger on the Inside stamp done to make more LTCs. I've been using StazOn ink which smells bad, is very expensive, but have a very good color to it.

Lunch was great. People are so good about separating the peanut products from the rest of the food(mostly). There was so much to eat. I love pot lucks with so many options. The night before I spend 3 hours making homemade corn bread muffins and 4 dozen of them. About 2 dozenish were eaten but that just means I have plenty for the next few days(I love cornbread). Someone made this shredded creamy potato stuff and it was soooo good. So good. There was like a million cupcakes too but I didn't have any. I didn't know if they were lemon or some other gross flavor so I spared myself from that tragedy. But with most potlucks, you eat until you are full but you want to continue eating, so it becomes a toss up of "to eat or not to eat."

After lunch was more exchanges and some chatting and such.
 

 

 We went to Cookie Cutter's paper painting class which was really cool. I'll just have to figure out what I will do for my next cards.

 

We also went to the logbook making class. I was so happy to get to learn to make log book. I've been wanting to learn how to make them. They are an upgrade from what I usually make. 
 

 

In the room we were doing classes in has some pretty cool animals in little exhibits. My favorite one was the turtle one. You could get underneath it and see the turtles from below.

 

After the classes we were planning on getting the traditional boxes at the nature center but they already took out the outdoor boxes. We ended up stamping those in at our table but we got to find the ones hidden inside.

I really enjoyed the event. On the way home we accidentally ending up in Indiana...but we were only there for a short while. We stopped at Steak 'n Shake, which was packed, and finally got home. Boy was I tiered but had such a great time. Can't wait to get some new LTCs and boxes done.

I don't think I've mentioned it before, but I have a little dog names Chuck that travels with me and I'll take pictures of him and post the on Facebook. Feel free to check out his page!
 

~Catchow

SOHT 2013

It was a dark and stormy night...... Wait, no. It was a cloudy and dreary day, perfect for SOHT 2013.

This year the theme was Alfred Hitchcok movies. It was cold and cloudy and we were out in the country. Perfect setting for a horror movie. But fear not! 'Twas just a bunch of letterboxers gathering together for an event. No murders or ghosts.... Well, there were 13 ghost there that night...

 Tyrus and I piled into his parent's new car the morning of October 12, 2013. It was very cold and luckily the fire was going by the time we arrived. Eventually it got warm and sunny. This year the entire event was held at Cat's place, which I liked much better. We weren't running around or getting lost this year.

This year I wore my tail to the event. People got a kick out of that and the kids had fun playing "Pin the Cootie on Catchow's Tail." Half of the time I forgot I was even wearing my tail.

 

Food. FOOD. I love events so much because of the food. People were ever so kind to label food with peanuts so I wouldn't eat them. No trip to the hospital for me! Pretty much everyone picked at the food the entire day. There was more than enough to go around. I really liked these rice crispy pumpkin treats someone made. However, it had a tootsie roll in it for a stem and I don't like those, so I gave them to Tyrus.

 The day trails were pretty cool. Tyrus and I went with a couple of other letterboxers to find one of the two day trails. It was fun letterboxing with people you don't normally letterbox with. It was also nice that I wasn't reading the clues. What I liked about this trail we did was that there were these crows at most of the boxes.

When we returned we had lunch and then went on the second day trail with Tyrus' parents. It was his dad's first time being at an event for the entire time. It was interesting letterboxing with his parents. It was a first boxing with both of them.

 

The trails were so pretty during the day. I love Autum so much. The property was beautiful and the rebuilt houses were so cool. It was so tranquil except for the neighbor's dog that wouldn't stop barking!!

 

The nice thing about arriving at the beginning is getting all exchanges out of the way so you can hang out for the rest of the time. Although, you still end up doing exchanges throught the day but not in one big chunk that takes up most of the event. I love seeing everyone' signature stamp. It's so interesting.

 Night boxing. Oh night boxing. We were the third or fourth group this year to go. Last year Tyrus, Indiana Tim and I were the last to go. Indiana Time wasn't able to make it this year due to car troubles. Oh well.

Tyrus, his father, and I were on our toes the entire time while boxing. Mother Hen read the clues while the three of us scanned the woods for anyone who wanted to try to scare us. Tyrus's father was a military cop, Tyrus is in school to be a cop and has had some training, and I'm going to be studying to be a park ranger.we all were pretty much acting like cops on a search while we were boxing. We found the two just about every time and avoided being scared. However, when we finished the trail, that's when he got me. Came up behind me and scared the living crap out of me. I spun around and almost socked him in this face. Luckily, for him, Tyrus had his arm around me and so I wasn't able to go through with the punch.

 

All the stamps were excellent like always. Some of my favorite stamps were actually personal travelers. There were a couple of trail stamps the got me on a rant about some of Stephen King's movie... That's a story for another time.

 

I want to say thanks to all that carved. An event isn't the same without stamps and I know as a host, you don't have a time to carve a dozen or so stamps. I wished I could have helped out but I didn't know anything about Alfred Hitchock and his movies.

 

I really liked the 13 ghost night trail based off a movie about 12 ghosts trapped in a house and they needed 13th to open something that led to something bad. I don't know. I want to see the movie though.

 

I had fun this year. I can't wait until next year where I will seek my revenge(muhahaha).

And next year it should be Supernatural(the TV show) themed. *hint* *hint*


If you want to see more pictures from SOHT 2013, check out my Event Photos tab here on my blog!

~Catchow

50th Aniversary of Doctor Who Event

I know, I know, it's about time! I've had so much to do these past months since the event. I've started my senior year of school, gone on college visits, worked on summer homework, worked on my etsy shop. So much stuff going on!!
However, I've saved this post for my 50th blog post!

On July 27th I hosted my first event, 50th Anniversary of  Doctor Who. Took me about three days to set up and only three hours to tear down. But like any large event, you didn't do it all on your own. I had help from Tyrus(who sadly got sick on the second set up day), Mother Hen, Tyrus' sister, and my mother. Planning and organizing event take up so much time and aren't has easy as they seem!

 

 

 

The event was held at my church so I was able to spend that much time on it. I decorated almost every inch of the church that I could. Indiana Time and Bananas in Indiana came over the night before and helped us with the finishing touches. Indiana Tim even build and brought a TARDIS! If you don't know what that is, it is a time machine that is bigger on the inside.

I moved a million miles per hour the entire event. I arrived easily and hid the boxes and wrote up the clues before it started. Then we had people showing up and hour earlier that were not expected. I kept running around showing people where to go, where to put things, plans for today, and so on. I don't think I actually slowed down until the last couple hours!
The news said it was going to rain and rain it did. Muggy and wet beginning to the event but it didn't rain the entire time. It a tally was beautiful weather after everyone left! We had 10 traditional Doctor Who themed letterboxes hidden on the property. There isn't a lot of trees or hiding spots at the church so everything was hidden pretty close to the building. This issue with this is that everyone started snatching up the boxes! An announcement was made to leave the boxes be until people got clues. I had three sets of clues printed and out for people to find the boxes. However, no matter how many times I repeated myself, people kept asking when I was going to give out clues. Having all of the boxes in a small area I didn't want everyone to flood to them so I only had three sets. I announced that all the clues were out. People still asked. Oh well.

 

We had tons of food. I made many announcements online to those attending to check to see if anything they were bringing contained peanuts so they can be put on a separate table. I am allergic to peanuts. No one brought peanuts, which was nice.

 

We had a trivia PowerPoint and music running for the beginning which was pretty cool. Later we played some episodes of Doctor Who. There were many people there who didn't know anything about Doctor Who and some who did. We even had people dress up!

The only scheduled event we has was the raffle. I got many donations from all over for the event raffle. Logbooks, gift cards, Doctor Who stuff, and a lot of other cool stuff. I wrapped everything up so that no one knew what they were getting. However, in order to participate in the raffle you had to bring a can good for my church's food pantry. Each person could get one ticket per item on the list that they brought, for up to 3 items. It was an awesome turn out! We raised 152 items to donate to the food pantry!

 

 

 

The closer we got to 6 p.m. more and more people left. In the last hourish I got to sit down and stamp the mound of travelers and trade sig stamps and finally calm down! The event turned out better than I thought it would. We had a great turn out and a lot of people came. I had a great time planning and hosting this event. I think I'll wait until I'm done with college before I host another!
When I got, home low and behold my letterboxing bag had cooties in it! That was quiet the surprise!
Just wanted to say thanks to everyone who carved and donated stamps for the traditional series. Thanks to everyone who donated items for the raffle and to everyone who helps set up and tear down. Special thanks to Indiana Tim for bring the TARDIS and of course, thanks to everyone who came!

 

 

 

teehee! I ended up with the 1st Doctor's face on my hand!

 

Check out more photo from the event on my "Event" tab on my blog!

~Catchow




*Notes to attendees:
The event series "Doctor Who: Then and Now" is listed as a Traditional series, not as event boxes. I listed them this way because they are traditional boxes and will be planted permanently; you had to have clues to find them in order; and I based it off a letterboxer who has been hosting events for years.

What A Turnout-The Franklin County Fair

A couple of weeks ago was my county's fair. I am a member of 4-H. This will be my 4th year at fair, I think...
Well, fist year I did a photography project, got state alternate. Now I really, really hoped the state fair girl wouldn't be able to go mainly because I didn't want to go to band camp(band's a whole different story!).
The past three years I have done Self-Determined Reptiles. This project is not eligible for state fair but can get Best of Show in the county. This project only gets best of show, no 1st, 2nd, or 3 rd place. First year, didn't get it. Ok, my first year, my friend got it. Next year, didn't get it. My friend got it once again. And I know I would have gotten best of show if I haven't of turned my paperwork in first, therefore going first. And I had an outstanding project. Most people do their projects on "what my reptile is, what it eats, how to keep it healthy, blah, blah." I did mine on how snakes move. Now this year my friend was not going to county fair. I still didn't get it. I lost 10 points this year because I forgot a sheet of paper I needed to print from the online thing for self-determined projects. I couldn't believe it. It was very depressing. I had judging a day later and I just didn't want to go. I was done. But I still went.

I also did another self-determined project, one that I could do on any topic. I chose to do letterboxing. Honestly, I took most of my informational How 2's post from my blog, changed a couple of things, then put them on a poster. I did what is letterboxing, supplies you need to go letterboxing, finding clues, and finding boxes. It's a really need poster. Went to the fair and wasn't really confident about it. I was there with Tyrus and my best friend and they kept on encouraging me no matter how down a felt about my reptile project.
We waited and waited in the hot Ohio heat(hottest week of the summer and it just had to be fair week!) and my name was finaly called. I was a bit nervous but I grabbed my poster and letterboxing bag and went to meet with my judge. She was an older lady who was a teacher. She didn't know a thing about letterboxing! I got into it and started telling her about the hobby I love. She often interrupted me and wouldn't let me talk, but she was so interested she pulled out her smart phone and took down the sites I provided for clues!!
I was there forever talking with this lady about letterboxing. I explained everything to her and even brought a sample box to show her. She flat out told me that she was going to give me a 100. I was so happy! But there were a lot of other kids in the Self-Determined Senior class(13 and up, I believe) and only one, ONE is chosen to go to states.
The three of us hung out for a while. Looked at animals, crashed virtual cars, arrested each other and sat in the cop car until it was time for judging. We headed back to the tent and waited through until they got to Self-Determined Senior. I was very nervous by then.
They listed the 5 or 6 kids for Honorable Mention......................... Then state alternate............................. Waiting...................... Only have one chance left................... Waiting.................. Then they call my name!!! I jumped up and practically ran to the back to get my ribbon, T-shirt, and state fair packet! Out of all of the seniors in the class they chose ME to go to states!!! Boy was I excited! I still am!

Nice big purple ribbon! State fair for my class will be on August 4th, 2013 at the Ohio State Fair. All the judging starts around noonish. Boy am I excited! However, I have to redo my poster because it's not the right size. Now, at states I can go as far as winning the clock trophy or something. But I can't wait to see where I go. All thank to Mamma Huntin Dog, she introduced my class to letterboxing and I'm the only one who has ever really tried and stuck with the hobby. And thank you, to everyone. To all the letterboxers. We are like one big family and I have gotten a lot of support and love though everything I have participated in. So, thank you. Without you guys, I don't think I would actually be here.

But that's not all the excitement! Two years ago, while on a scary Ferris wheel, Tyrus asked me out. We just celebrated our two year anniversary. We even rode the scary Ferris wheel again!

What a blast. I truly love letterboxing(and Tyrus too.... I guess :P).

~Catchow

We're Back in the Game!

I meant to post this a long time ago but I've been so busy! My event is coming up so all post will be delayed.



We finally got back to letterboxing!

It started with some planting. I carved a series we were going to plant back in December down in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. Unfortunately, we couldn't find a good spot to plant the five box series so we planted them in Ohio. Tyrus and I spent almost 2 hours planting Tribute to Hostess. I then spent another 2 hours or so writing the clues. I like writing clues. I really liked writing the clues for this series because everything just seemed to work out perfectly.
In the cemetery we planted the boxes, there is a large mausoleum in the center of the property. We looked inside and found this:

It looked like someone (or something) broke out. Kind of creepy....

The next day we went letterboxing! We went own to Greenlawn Cemetery for a couple of hours of boxing.
Our first stop was one of my boxes that needed a new logbook. It was the first logbook that I had to replace. I was happy replacing the logbook because that meant a lot of people found my boxes!

One of my favorite series we found there was Do You Wanna...? Series 2. Sadly one of the boxes was gone.
We spent a lot of time on one series. It took a long time to find because it was like driving through a maze. It didn't help either that there was a bunch of workers out cleaning the grounds.

While boxing we saw this plant...

Does anyone know what type of plant this is?

The last box we found was pretty neat. Had a cool story to go along too. It was about a haunted bridge on grounds.

The bridge obviously isn't being used any more and is pretty hidden. I though it was really neat. I would have loved to see it when it was first built.

That's one of the things that I love about boxing.  Letterboxers take you to places you didn't know about and introduce you to new thing and I love that.

Well, this series also took is to this rope....

 

Weird, huh? I really want to know why it is there and what it was used for.... and why it hasn't been taken down.

 

I really like Greenlawn. A lot of boxes there but also a lot of history and plants and animals.

Like groundhogs!

We found these burrow openings which were pretty neat as long as you didn't trip in them!

 

We also saw a deer on the way out. That was a first for me while letterboxing.

 

We found a couple of other boxes but had to leave soon. While stamping in our last box that we found, I was complaining to Tyrus about how no matter where I go, I'm always the one taking the pictures and so I'm never in them. So he took my camera while we were stamping in.



My mom said I was looking very Australian. It was hot out...

 

Tyrus stamping in.

 

Well, after our lovely time letterboxing we started heading home. Everything was fine and dandy then the wind began to pick up and the sky darkened.

The weather was turning and we left just in time to not get hit by the storm while letterboxing. However, we started noticing some tornado fingers forming.

 

Luckily, there were no tornados that afternoon! I'm happy to get back into boxing! The season has begun!

 

~Catchow