Fall down go boom

We lost half of our sand pine tree during the Hurricanes of 2004. The other half came down today. I noticed a couple of weeks ago that the bird feeders that I used to have to stand on my tippy toes (no short jokes from the audience, please!) to get to I could now reach with no problem at all. After further investigation, we realized the winds we had gotten in association with one of our afternoon thundertorms had blown the tree to the east and the roots were coming up out of the ground. John determined that it would hit neither the house or the small shed if it did come down and he was not going to climb it to attempt to take it down on his own. Well we got another afternoon shower today and with it came the wind and the tree is now down. It will mostl likely be next week before he can cut it up. One good thing, it can't go any further down and he was right. It hit neither the house or the shed. So no damage. That's a good thing. It's gonna be strange not having that tree out off the back porch. We have enjoyed the birds coming to the feeders since we moved here. Thankfully we've got a couple of good candidates to put the feeders in once we get rid of the sand pine.

Vacation

No. Not ours! I'm scrapping a pic Debbie sent me of Evan at the Covered Bridge Museum in VT. I got my new copy of Scrapbooks Etc magazine yesterday and I think I dog-eared almost every page in the thing! So many cute ideas I want to try. This is my take on one of the layouts in the mag. I used a piece of long-forgotten cardstock for the base, along with some of my new t!m Holtz Kraft Resist cs that I applied Tumbled Glass Distress Ink to. I found a template for a covered bridge online and printed it and paper pieced it. Once I had it glued down I realized I should have put it at the bottom of the page. Oh well! Stamp set is from the CTHM You and Me kit, as are the two small tags. Large tag is t!m holtz that I stamped Vacation on using CTMH Delightful Alpha.

Washi welcome

I knew I wanted to make something for JoAnn & Bill for Christmas using the Washi paper she sent me. I thought about making a "welcome" sign using the alterable wooden trays I'd seen at Hobby Lobby but once I got there and really looked at them, I decided they wouldn't work for what I wanted. And since it's already the middle of June, they not only have Fall merchandise on display but also Christmas! OK, I get that they have to get the stuff to the stores, but can't we at least wait til after the 4th of July to display it?! All of their Spring merchandise was discounted 60% so as I was perusing the aisles looking to see what I couldn't live without, I found an already done Welcome sign that I knew I could alter with no troubles. I got it home and covered the letters with the Washi papers and let it dry then cut out around each letter. I had some Japanese embellies that the Japanese family and friend Jill had sent me, so what better use for it. So everything on the piece is Japanese. The ribbons, the crochet flowers and the paper flowers and dots. Debbie had sent me the cutest silver tone sushi platter tchotkes quite a while ago. I've used a couple on other projects and still have a few left. So there is one on the "O" as well. JoAnn moonlights on weekends at a sushi restaurant around the corner from their house taking phone orders, so I thought that would be appropriate.

Chickens

It's been a while since I updated on the babiez. Though they aren't babiez any more! We still have them separated from Queen Biotch Survivor because she still picks on them. It will most likely be a few more months of that. I think once the little girls start laying, they will be able to fend for themselves against her. And it's usually between 4 and 6 months old when they start laying. They caught on very quickly to the "treats" routine. I give them bagged salads, the peels from any fruits or veggies. The tomatoes and strawberries that the birds so lovingly peck holes in. Bread. They actually act put out when I go out with nothing. Like the catz, they aren't spoiled. Much!

The two black ones toward the rear are Penguin and Joker. They will lay brown-shelled eggs. The yellow one and the one right next to her are Tweety and Sylvester. They will lay green-shelled eggs. Miss Independance off all by herself and the one to the right of Syl are Cocoa and Kiss. They will lay chocolate brown-shelled eggs. They are enjoying watermelon rinds! They eat all the way down to the green.

In my next life...

I should like to be a cat. Owned by me.

They aren't spoiled. Much.

Scenes from the garden

Out doing my morning chores this morning and we have some new additions in the garden spot. The peas are done. I think it got too hot too quick for them. We got 6 pea pods. So John and I each got three. Not bad!! The &%*%$*& birds (or sumthin) is pecking holes in my strawberries AND tomatoes. If I pick them green, they don't ripen. If I leave them to ripen, the instant they turn even the teeniest bit red, the get a hole pecked in them. If you're gonna peck a hole, eat the WHOLE thing. We have teeeny tiiiiny cukes coming. Hoping they get big enough all at the same time that I can make some pickles. But with my luck, somehow I doubt it! They'll be like the peas. One every 5 days or so. We had a couple of volunteer cantaloupes come up in the old chicken coop while we were demolishing/rebuilding it. I give the chickens the peel and seeds from fruits and veggies and sometimes we get a volunteer. So I carefully dug the plants up and got a couple of buckets of nice chicken poopy dirt from the coop and replanted them up next to the Earth Boxes. They are going great guns! Have all sorts of flowers on them. Now I just need for them to set some fruit. And last but not least is my Muscadine Grape plant that was closetodeath when I got it for $1.00 at Lowes. I planted it and babied it and it's got all sorts of new growth on it. Most likely won't get any grapes off of it this year, but hopefully next year and maybe I can make some Muscadine Grape jam. Yumm, yumm! Oh, and the passion vine on the fence is blooming it's fool head off. I leave the blossoms to set fruit and the squirrels eat them. Then "deposit" the seeds alllllllllll over the yard where they come up and the Gulf Fritillary butterflies lay eggs and the caterpillars eat the plants then somehow migrate to the shed where they pupate and turn into butterflies only to continue the cycle. So I mow around the squirrel planted plants! The things I do for my "critters!"

OK, somehow the pics of the grapevine ended up at the top!

thanks a latte

CTMH Team member Debi posted a cute thanks a latte card that she had come up with, so I emailed her and begged for the template. I got it the same day sister-in-law JoAnn sent me some Japanese Washi paper she found shen she was cleaning house. I have a couple of ideas of something I'm gonna work on for Christmas gifts, but I needed to make some of the latte cards for myself. Everything on them is Japanese. The green "cup" and the "holder" are the Washi paper that JoAnn sent. The "top" is Japanese Origami paper that the Japanese cousins sent. The origami crane and cherry blossoms and green dotted Washi tape, friend Jill sent while she's been stationed in Okinawa.

I have the best friends!

Walked to the mailbox the other day and there's a box. From Debbie and Evan. What are they sending me? I get inside and open the box and it's REAL Vermont Maple Syrup! And some real Vermont maple candies that are shaped like maple leaves. How ingenious of the Vermonters! And a pen from the NH Motor Speedway. See, they were on vacay up that way a few weeks ago. And they got this great stuff to send to John and I. Now I'd never had the real Vermont maple syrup. I've had the fakey crap they sell in the stores here. I told Deb I had half a mind (no smart comments Thitou) not to tell John about the syrup and just eat it all by dipping my finger in the jug! But I couldn't do that! It is yumalicious and I am thinking of all sorts of different ways I can enjoy it. Some whomp biscuits are on my grocery list for this week, that's a given! Thank you both. Again. And again and again!

Cards. cards, cards

Kari and her dd Abri came over yesterday to card. Abri was so afraid she was gonna "mess it up" and I assured her that there are no mistakes in stamping! She had nothing to fear! That girl rocked some cards. She looked at a couple of card guides I had and said, How mad are you gonna be if I do my own thing? NOT AT ALL! And she happily marched to the beat of her own drum and let the paper guide her. She found my t!m stash and HAD to have some of his stuff to put on her cards! Good thing she's a cute kid...err...teenager, cuz not just anyoldbody gets my t!m stuff!! Between the three of us, we made 27 cards in about 3.5 hours. The two sets are Abri's. The middle three sets are Kari's, and the last two sets are mine. We used two retired CTMH pp's Caboodle and Bella.

Gear Up...

For Baseball!

Decided to do a layout of the Rays game we went to last month. I used a very old CTMH Winter promo pack called Serendipity. I might have a pack or twelve left! I think that may have been one of my all time fave pp's ever.

I used my t!m Holtz gears die (and my new Vagabond!!) and cut some cork for the gears. The arrow is from my stash and emboss glittered it using embossing glitter from Sparkle N Sprinkle. I used some of the new CTMH Newsprint Rub-Ons for the "gear up" and the "4" is the Solo number 4 that I stamped on a piece of white chipboard and cut out. The "baseball" uses the CTMH Polka Dot alphabet.

Vest cards

One of the gals in our latest team swap came up with these cute as snot vest cards and enclosed the template for us to do them ourselves. So my father-in-law and two brother's-in-law will be receiving these cards for Father's Day. (So Kath and Thitou, don't let the boyz see them!!)

I used the now retired CTMH Back Country pp along with some Bakers Twine from my stash. I made the clock face by cutting out a small circle of white cs and after putting the numbers and clock hands on it, covered it in Glossy Accents and allowed it to dry.