Biffle Day at the Races Shadow Box

In July, hubby and I spent an enjoyable night at a dirt track not terribly far away (it certainly would have been more enjoyable if I had a cushion to sit on and blanket for when it got cold when the sun went down - I had no idea that the races would go so late or that the benches would be so hard!). The track doesn't look like much, but it had a big draw that night: NASCAR driver Greg Biffle.

He's never really been one of my favorites, but I didn't dislike him either. He was just okay. But it isn't very often that a driver makes it to our neck of the woods, so favorite or not, we came to see a NASCAR star and even paid extra to ensure that we would have the opportunity to get an autograph.

He may not have been one of my favorites when we got there, but he was quite a nice guy and I have to say that won me over. It didn't seem like he was just "going through the motions." He cracked a joke when I asked if I could get picture with him and my husband and generally just came across as a really nice guy. In my book, personality and manners are more important that money and looks (maybe that's because I don't have tons of the last two or maybe that's just because I realize they are both superficial - yeah, that's the one I'm going to go with).

So I've had this autographed card and some autographed tickets sitting on the edge of my craft table and a shadow box all picked out sitting on my craft room floor for quite some time. I've been carrying around the picture of him with hubby as a bookmark for weeks. But I've never gotten around to arranging the items in the box until Saturday night.

I was on a cleaning jag because, well, the house was freaking dirty. It's amazing how much work it is clean up after two adults and five cats. So after loads of laundry (which I'm proud to say is completely done with the dryer empty and the laundry room empty except for a few shirts hanging on the bar because I refuse to dry them in the dryer), vacuuming, dusting, sweeping, mopping, carting a dishwasher full of glasses down from the master bedroom, finally hanging the new artwork in our bedroom and the cross-stitch a client made for me years ago and the candle holders in the guest bedroom, well I'm sure you all get the picture, I plopped down exhausted in my craft room, where I listened to the hockey game (they lost - thankfully it's only pre-season) and watched a muted TV to see Tony and Jr. make the chase (Whoo-hoo!) and finally put together the shadowbox. I didn't want to put any adhesive on anything with a signature, but that was pretty much the only challenge (conquered by photo corners). I was too tired to be terribly creative. I just matted the photo of hubby and Greg and printed out a picture (taken on a Blackberry of all things) of the car that Biffle drove that night and called that good. Maybe some day, I'll jazz it up, but hubby was happy with it and that's all that really matters.

New camera and Greg Biffle (yes, the NASCAR driver)

For those of you who don't know, my trusty little purple point and shoot Kodak "purse" camera (you know, the kind you can just slip in your purse or your pocket and take with you anywhere) disappeared some months back. The last place I remember having it was in the RV on a winter-time trip. I remember it hanging on a hook on the wall directly over the garbage can. I haven't seen it since then and boy have I looked for it. I half wonder if it didn't fall into the garbage, but I think we would have noticed if that had happened. I've thought about replacing it and have looked at little cameras from time to time, but just never got around to it since I keep thinking the purple camera would turn up. Plus I keep thinking we have a great SLR, what do I need another camera for. Okay, so yeah, the SLR certainly wouldn't slip into a purse. Okay it would slip into one my purses but, honestly, so would half of the closet and I'm beginning to think that maybe the reason I'm shorter on one side is because my purse is compressing that side of my body... hmmm...

Well last night I realized exactly why I need to buy a new purse camera NOW. After work, my husband and I hopped in the truck and drove to this little dirt racetrack a few towns away because Greg Biffle, the NASCAR driver, was going to be there racing that night. We got there and he was signing autographs and all I had was the camera in my cell phone (also known as a piece of crap phone that I must replace since the little track ball no longer works unless I'm standing on one foot in a crouched position, touching my nose with one hand, and holding the phone in the other hand at precisely 47 degrees, or and it also must be a blue moon). So I took my pictures anyway, but vowed I was buying a replacement camera and a new phone as I spent 20 minutes trying to figure out how to set the picture of the hubby and Biffle as my wallpaper without the use of the trackball.

So today we went out to do a little shopping (Michaels clearance Cricut cartridges and a display case for the freakishly expensive die cast car that Biffle signed for the hubby, Cash and Carry for Lighthouse Thai Peanut dressing that has no peanuts in it - don't understand that one but love the dressing and that's the only place I can find it, Craft Warehouse for the mat I forgot to buy for my Sew Easy and supplies for Christmas projects now that everyone and their brother is doing them on their blogs and making think about getting started on my cards and shopping, and then Costco for chicken sausage for next week's clambake over the open fire - yummmm!). So at Costco, hubby maneuvers the cart over the cameras and I finally decide on this little Olympus. It's not very expensive but it has good zoom and megapixels and the reviews on everything but Costco.com said it's a pretty decent camera for the money. I have to say that I had reservations about it and wasn't sure that we made the right choice considering that every single person on Costco.com said they took the camera back. But I knew I was buying a not so expensive camera and I don't expect it to take perfect pictures. I just need something that will take a decent photo, be small and light enough that I can carry it around with me in my purse, and cheap enough that if I lose it, I won't feel terribly guilty. Now that I've gotten to play with it, I think it's going to fit what I need.

So in this blog are pictures I have taken with both cameras (I bet you some of you were wondering what the pictures had to the do with the story, admit it...) when I was playing this afternoon to make sure my new camera was going to do the job I needed. Why don't you leave me a comment telling me which you think it which...?

P.S. The flowers are the ones that dear hubby bought me when I had that horrible, awful, no good, really bad day earlier this week and he went to the store to get french bread so I could work on the Creating Keepsakes one-hour challenge. Aren't they pretty?