Although there is no mention of Scrabble on our Fun n Games page, it remains a firm favourite, so is regularly played at home and when we are away. In our very early days together, Nick and I were both quite broke. We ate at home and played a lot of Scrabble!I had a standard Scrabble set for many years (ie. long before Nick came along)! We acquired Super Scrabble from an op-shop during our Victorian era - for the princely sum of $15.00. We have well and truly had our money's worth from the game. It does take a lot longer to finish, so both boards are packed cos some nights we prefer to use the traditional version.
We have tried travel editions of the game but find the letters too small for our fingers - and eyes!
Both Scrabble sets went away with us on our recent trip to Jandowae. You can just see them in one of my hand-crafted shopping bags, packed in below Elmer's back seat.
Since coming home I've been working on Nick's Gladstone bag (and doing a little more to mine). I was also scheming for a better way to pack our Scrabble sets. For whatever reason it didn't occur to me to take them out of the boxes when looking for a single case to store them in. Once I got past that sticking point, I remembered this $5.00 op-shop computer bag - and the project grew!
The two boards are stored in a back, divided pocket. Rules and an op-shop Scrabble book are in the front pocket. The more used components are in the main section of the bag. I used an online tutorial to make two flat-bottomed zip bags to hold the tiles for each game.
The bags are larger than I envisaged, so store two racks each. Usually it's just Nick and I playing, so four racks will be enough if all the family plays. (The other four will remain "spare" at home).
And yes, the tile bags are lined with our wedding outfit fabrics! Nick's shirt had a number of holes but I was able to salvage three dragon pieces (one is the lining for the larger dictionary). My top is long-gone and the pants had a laundry accident but I have plenty of fabric for when I'm feeling like sewing slippery silk!
I bought a fat quarter of Scrabble fabric and used that on the tile bags and two book covers for our dictionaries. We generally just use a notepad for scoring but I decided to print off some official score sheets. (The Scrabble pencils were a past birthday or Mothers Day gift). By checking through the old score sheets I was able to match some to particular places and that prompted the small photo album of game memories. I expect future photos may well feature our new 70-cent trophy, rather appropriately housed in a Smash container, cos often it's my score that is well and truly smashed by Nick's!
I spent just over $30.00 putting our Scrabble bag together. The largest single purchase was $8.00 for a new budget Macquarie dictionary from BigW. (For many years we used a pocket dictionary that was at least 40 years old)! I'd purchased the computer bag from an op-shop warehouse sale last year for $5.00 but have included that cost in the tally. (The two official Scrabble books were op-shop finds bought long ago). Tis a small outlay for all the fun we'll have!
