Da Birds

I've been playing in my craft room all day, and have nothing to show for it but pretty trash. So instead of a card, I'm sharing some photos of my crooked bird feeder.

You see, the feeder holds a cylinder of seed, and the birds roost on the base and nibble on the seeds. It starts out looking like this:

That's a full (new) cylinder of seed. I'm mighty proud I managed to capture papa cardinal, too!

As the birds work on the seed, you can see where they work:

I have short birds. Look at the guy on the right in this next photo:

He's stre-e-e-e-e-etching his poor neck to where he's likely to choke! Can't have that!

Oh, check out that bird on the left. Isn't he handsome?

My apologies to the bird on the right. You're handsome, too.

So to save them from their shortness, I do this:

Seed cylinder has been flipped, and the birds are once again happy.

In other news, tomorrow is the big reveal of my new blog feature. Y'all come back now, you hear?

Thanks for stopping by!

Card Randomness (mostly green)

I don't know about you, but I have no fewer than 43.2 card ideas in my head at any time, and no fewer than 4 in-progress projects, which is why my crafty space is a constant disaster. At least that's my story. Tonight, I thought I'd show you the cards I've been working on the past few days.

Last week I posted an Origami Christmas Tree card, and I thought I'd show you the version with a sentiment:

(Man, those folded pieces poof out when not stuck inside an envelope ... ) For this one, I cut the oval a little higher than center on the green paper, which left room for the punched parts. I think I like it better with the sentiment.

Then I decided to break into some of the new stuff I got at Angela's last week. I KNOW! I didn't even let the stuff get cold before I got my paws on it! I used a new stamp and some new-to-me Flower Soft:

The ribbon is some luscious SU two-sided Kiwi & Vanilla satin that I hoarded before it retired, and the sentiment is from an ancient Hero Arts 3-stamp set. I actually like this card, a lot! ;)

Then I got an idea to drag out his guy from several years ago:

... and I made this version. I'm still working on my Flower Soft skillz, and this card should demonstrate I have quite a ways to go. I'm not sure I should use it on both his hat AND the snow. It's a little confusing. I have decided, though, that I like the fine Flower Soft better than the original.

AND, (yes, there's more) one evening in between all of the above stampiness, I debated whether to go to bed or do something on my mental stamping list. This won:

I die-cut 30 of the pink ribbons with a Cuttlebug die, then glued them to 30 note cards. Done. I now have 6 5-packs for my October farmers markets and my Oct 16th craft show. Yay, me!

Tonight, I had plans to make a very cool card that I'm sure you'd all love, but my A Muse fish stamp has gone MISSING (LOCK THE DOORS!), and until I find it, the card will just have to live in my head. I hope to find it soon, though.

In other news, some of you may remember back in May, 2008, BR#2 came over with a few bags of moss, and we took plastic forks out into my back yard so we could scratch up the dirt between my flagstones and plant it. What the critters didn't dig up actually lived!


So this year, when she posted about her annual moss transplant adventures, I whined a little bit, and she delivered some to my door!


Sweet! I hope to get out back tomorrow after work (before it gets dark) and plant some more! (Psst: go read her post and leave her some comment love. Thanks!)

That's all I have for tonight. I need to go find my fish stamp. Thanks for stopping by!

A Pretty Autumn Day Drive, and a Partial Reveal

Back in March I posted a few pics of my drive from VA to MD via the ferry. I went to see June (Hi, June! *waves*) again today, and I took the same drive back to MD, so I thought you'd like to see some pics of my lovely, lovely drive.

This is White's Ferry Road. Just after you turn off the main road, you get this. It is not even wide enough to sport a line down the middle! So peaceful and quiet.

The road bends at a right angle next to the river, and this house is on the left as you take the curve. I covet this house.

With that house on the left, this is the shot out the right side of the car. The Potomac River. Just lovely.

Driving to the end of the road. At the very end, it makes a really sharp turn, which, coming the other way on a bike is a real b1tch. I speak from experience.

Just before the last turn is this sign, which must be new, or else I've never seen it before. The ferry was headed to the other side, so I had plenty of time. I got out of the car to take this shot. 1782! We're talking history here, people!

From under that sign, I turned and saw: my car - I am first in line! My car is pointing 180 degrees from the road I was just on. Told you it was a sharp turn!

Sitting in my car, and here comes the ferry!

This is the approach on the MD side of the river. See how steep that ramp is? Uh-huh. Try it on a bike some time, from a dead stop. I think I walked it on this side.

This is the store and snack bar. You can rent canoes here and all sorts of things.

See those high water marks? Yeah, difficult to believe, but the water got that high. It happens when you are this close to the river.

Side story: I just caught the top of a red truck in this pic. The guy stopped to ask me about the ferry, and how else he could get over to VA. I told him the ferry was only $4 one way, and it was a good deal. He grumbled. His GPS had told him he could take this road to get to VA. This is true, you can! If.you.take.the.ferry.to.the.other.side. The road has the same name on both sides of the river. He wanted directions to go around by land. I gave them. He went back to his GPS. It told him that was almost 40 miles. Uh-huh - yep. TAKE THE FERRY! It drops you at the same point you'd end up if you drove around. So he checked with the lady cooking my hot dogs on the grill. She told him the exact same thing. Geez, for $4, TAKE THE FERRY!

She said a lot of people stop in because their GPS has them at the dead end at the river. She has to convince every one of them to TAKE THE FERRY! I am so glad I can read a map. I mean, these are some serious back roads here, and he was taking his GPS instructions blindly. That's just crazy! But I digress. I am on vacation, so I chilled. Oooohhhhhhmmmmm... all better. Actually, we just laughed after he left. She watched my doggies and I made sure he got on the boat. Heh heh.

Yep, we are in the South. Check out that flag, bottom left. Uh-huh.

Okay, enough of the beautiful great outdoors! I was going to wait until I had all the cabinet doors installed before I did a reveal, but I am too tired this evening to install them, so I'll hold off on the official tour until I get them done. But for now, I'll give you an After view of The Other Room. I need a drum-roll please!

Are you ready?

Ta-Da! This is The Big Empty. I even vacuumed! Isn't it amazing? I just stood there and looked at it. But wait! The first thing I did was this:

I added a 4' table. Not 6', just 4'. Niiiice.

So! Whatdya think? I know, you never saw any Before pics, but let me tell you, I literally had paths to get to the closets. I'll see if I can dig up any of those to show you.

Once I get the doors installed, I'll do a quick tour of what is where.

Okay, off to get in a little stamping this evening. Thanks for stopping by!

Spring Colors

One of the best things about living near our Nation's Capital is the abundance of flowers and flowering trees. The National Park Service does a fantabulous job of keeping the District bea-u-tiful. We are in the middle of Cherry Blossom season, so things are particularly lovely right now. As the other 'regular' trees begin to grow their buds, and we can see a lot of new green growing everywhere, the cherry trees definitely steal the show.

So imagine the surprise of my co-worker when I actually brought my camera to take a picture of this on our way to lunch today:

No kidding. He actually said he could not believe I was taking a shot of a cable wheel during cherry blossom season. Hey, I thought it was a photo op. It is certainly not something you see every day, though we have had to look at it all week...

Okay, okay. Here is a tree I pass every day as I leave the office and drive down this street. Soooo, I took its picture. Pretty!

Depending on my route home, I get to pass this. Our fair city does a FAB job of beautifying our roadways. This is an entire berm blanketed with flowering daffodils. GORgeous. I mean, there you are, driving down a highway, surrounded by idiot drivers and cement, and then you see this field of yellow. Sigh .... (No, I did not get out of my car. Yes, I just pulled off onto the shoulder, lowered the driver-side window and shot it from there. Hey, cars were whizzing by me on my left, and I love life too much to die over a photo. Even for you guys.)

As I left the office today, I turned into this old-money neighborhood to take pics of the cherry trees. The trees line every street and make canopies of pink. There were people out everywhere enjoying the beauty. And the rain had stopped and the sun was trying to come out, so this pic should not be as bad as some of the other ones, but I think it is, anyway. Disclaimer: I are not a phot-grapher, I make cards, okay? Okay! By the way, these are fickle blossoms. A good rain or a big wind and poof - they are gone. It has been raining the past few days (but nothing too severe), but it is crazy windy tonight. It is supposed to be a beautiful weekend, here, and I even have maybe-plans (maybe, like if I feel like it when I wake up) to go for a walk on the canal tomorrow morning to check things out. Let's hope the blossoms hold on through the weekend.

Aaaaaaaaand, I stamped sumpin'. It took me all week to make these two cards, so I hope you appreciate them as they come by ...

I took out my un-inked Western set from The Cat's Pajamas that I have had for a looong time, grabbed some more scraps, and over about 3 days, I made two cards. TWO! Well, Wednesday night I was cooking, and Thursday I was near comotose from eating too much food at our Passover Pot Luck, which, by the way, went VERY well.

So I made one boy card and one girl card. That's it!

Tomorrow - ah, tomorrow - the scheduled Play Day with #2 and the Field Trip for the remains of The Scrap Heap. Well, it's OFF. #2 regretfully had to cancel because she has a life, even though it is getting in the way of her play time. We'll just re-scheduled for when she can attend. I mean, it is at her house, after all. So ya know what? I will run the few errands I had already planned to run in the morning, and then ... oh, and THEN .. I shall continue my quest to chip away at The Heap! Maybe not with the same level of energy as I have been exerting, but I will keep using as many scraps as I possibly can. I will!

Wanna know a little secret? I have been really, really good with this whole Scrap Heap thing, but on the side I have been placing online orders for new stuff. Yeah, I've been real bad. REAL bad. I plan to break into my goodies this weekend, so I'll show off as I go. Dontcha just love new stuff? :-)

Thanks for stopping by!

Too Stinkin' Cute!

It is all Lydia's fault! She posted this, so of course I HAD to look. OMG, if you like baby animals, then this is the site for you: ZooBorns.com. You can get your daily fix; you can get a widget for your bog with baby animal pics; or like me last night, you can just park for a while to look at the pics and videos, and laugh and say, "Aaaaaawwwww!" for a long time. They do not get a lot of comments, but they told me (because I asked, of course) that they get a lot of happy traffic, emails and links, but as we all know, comments ROCK! Right?! Just check 'em out! You know you want to ... ;-)

PS: I put their link in my blog list over yonder in the right menu bar, too. Just in case you change your mind, later.

Critter Update

Today's market was slower than slow. The most action we had was from the big wind and threatening rain that thankfully waited until I was safely packed up and on my way home before it let loose. I sold a few ornaments and one card in 5 hours. Like I said - slow.

So I thought I'd do a critter update today. I have lots of photos and nothing to do with them; what else can I do but share? ;-)

First we have my cat, who is snugly nestled into my customers' coats at Monday night's workshop. The Ladies know that if they put their coats on the chair, they risk an abundance of cat hair accompanying them home. Do you think she looks comfy?



Did you catch that pile of paper in the background of the first kitty pic? That is the Scrap Heap. Yes, I was brave enough to show it to you.

I took this next picture the day before the rest of the leaves blew off the tree:

I just love the color of the red leaves, especially against the back-drop of the yellow tree behind it. I get to see this every morning out my bedroom window. Until the leaves all fell off, that is.

Do you remember the Great Moss Massacre? Well, it looks like a few pieces of moss made it:

And remember the Big Reveal last weekend, where I showed you this:

Well, I put it out for the squirrels Sunday morning:


Here is one fat rodent working on stuffing himself for the Winter (I'd say this was Tuesday morning):

The corn to the squirrel's left is pretty much gone already, and the ones on the right are still intact. I tried to take a photo today of the cob carcasses left at the end of the feasting, but they turned out awful, so I opted to ask you to instead just take my word that they are gone, gone, gone. And I am sure there are some happy, happy squirrels out there, somewhere.

And lastly, the sun did come out for about 7 minutes today, and look who walked by the market:

I thought they were whippets, but no, they are full-grown Italian Greyhounds. I included their Mom's legs in the pic so you could get a feel for their size. I love their fleece coats!

So, that's it for today. I think I'll go stamp something. ;-) Thanks for stopping by!

The Great Moss Massacre of 2008

Welcome to the Chronicles of The Great Moss Massacre of 2008. First, allow me to show you what I believe to be the root cause of said massacre:

It is my pleasure to introduce: The Squirrel-proof Bird Feeder. Yes, folks, it works. I have seen squirrels hanging from the top of the feeder with their back feet in an attempt to reach the feeder openings, but the clever people who designed this baby made the body of the feeder just a bit longer than a squirrel's body, so they cannot reach the openings. HA!

The birds sit on the ring around the base of the feeder, and if they are not too heavy, they can feed out of the holes. If the birds are too heavy, or if say, a squirrel were to hang off the ring, the weight pulls down a metal bar that blocks the feeding holes. HA!

Note the cat behind the tree. This was moments prior to her escape. More on that later.

But those squirrels are not only mean, they are persistent.

Here we have the top of the feeder. Allow me to point out that the white stuff is not bird poop. No, sir. Those are scratches made by mean, nasty squirrels! They literally try to chew their way into the thing. And they have tried more than one time, too. My last feeder was plastic, and when their weight pulled down the sleeve that blocked the feeding holes, they succeeded in chewing new holes. (I noticed them when I filled the feeder and the seed poured out the new holes.) Too bad for the squirrels this feeder has some metal parts. HA!

Here's an unbelievable close-up of the top of the feeder. I do believe that eventually they will manage to chew through the metal, but that does not mean they will get to the seed. HA! It just means they will wreck my feeder and I'll get to buy a new one. (drat!) Maybe next time I'll get the one with the motor that turns the ring at the bottom so they are flung across the yard. HA HA!!!

So now that we have established just why these squirrels are so pissed at me, let's examine what I woke up to this morning, shall we?

Exhibit A. Moss does not grow on the flagstone. Something (something) has yanked it out of the gravel and put it there.

Exhibit B.

Exhibit C.

And Exhibit D. This one was just a mangled mess.

I carefully replaced all the parts-is-parts of moss and watered them to help alleviate their shock and pain. Then I brought out the secret weapon:

Cayenne Pepper. This was suggested by one of my two (maybe three) beloved readers. She said the squirrels hate to get cayenne on their little feet (so do I) and they will not be back. What do I have to lose? The moss will die at this rate anyway, so I seasoned them lightly with pepper.

I will report back if the massacre ceases and the moss is allowed to live without being dug up every other day.

On to the cat's escape. As I chronicled the Massacre, kitty managed to figure out a way to get out of the fence. I looked up and she was gone. GONE! Now that she has a chip, she no longer wears a collar, so I was just a wee bit worried. I opened the gate and began to scour the common area for a streak of white. I finally found her, all crouched down and ready to leap/pounce/run. She even had the nerve to hiss at me. Sheesh! As soon as I'd get close, she'd take off. Now normally when she escapes out the front door, she runs for the first blade of green grass and stops. She almost never really escapes and keeps going, so this was different for both of us. I followed her around the side of the building and back again. She finally went back into the open gate in our yard all by herself and headed straight for the screen door, still hissing. Even after she was inside she kept hissing. Even when I offered her wet food, she hissed. Personally, I think she was scared and really a little lost out there, and was just re-adjusting to being safe and warm and fed and loved. After a few bites of food she came out of the Kitchen and sat quitely, so she seems to be fine, now. Me, too.

Oh, and all of the above - the photos, the catching the cat, the feeding of said cat, and the slow-down of the ole heart beat occurred in the first 20 minutes of my arrival home. Sigh ...

As for stampin, I made these the other night while my StazOn was out, and I plan to color them between now and Saturday's Market. (Stamp by Stampendous.)

I sell these in packs of 5, and I stamped a pack of 20, so I'll end up with 4 packs of note cards to sell. The coloring will be a good, repetitive task to do after my massaaaaaage tomorrow evening. Or I could just take a hot bath instead. We'll see.

Some Wildlife and A Little Bit About Me

I woke up this morning to more mangled moss in the back yard, so before I even left for work, I had something to do when I got home.

I have a theory: If it is not the squirrels, it is those noisy grackles (is that how you spell it?) Those black/blue birds who make noise and steal bird food from the smaller birds. Just look at this:



Moss parts everywhere!







And over here, too. Sigh.







So Kitty and I went out back again this evening to replace the moss (me) and chew on grass (she). Check her out in action:

Here she has found a tasty morsel amongst the plethora of weeds in my little garden.

Note the sad, sad Hostas. They are supposed to like shade, but I think I have a little too much shade for them, the poor things.

And here she is being a stealth cat. She slinks around the edge of the yard, keeping me safe. I feel so much better about her being there.

Actually, as soon as I popped the can of cat food, she shot right towards the door and came in to feast. ;-)

Okay, enough wildlife. Next up is a list of questions I found on another blog as the result of a tag (hers, not mine). I do not tag, but if I find a neat list like this I feel compelled to take on the challenge. Things like this could easily become TMI, but I sometimes like to read about what other people do and where they came from, so I hope I do not bore you to tears here...

What was I doing ten years ago?

Lessee, ten years ago was 1998. I was working at different computer-related job within the same company I work for now. Boring, but true. And I had not yet discovered stamping. I still had my eyesight, and I was really into counted cross-stitch; the 32-count linen kind. Most of the ‘pictures’ in my condo are cross-stitched pieces I’ve done. Like this one:

This baby took me 2 years to complete. The buildings are over two threads and the windows in the shops are over one thread. Each window took me about 3 hours to do. Like I said - 2 years of my life.

Five snacks I enjoy:

Believe it or not, I am not a snacker. Crazy, I know! So where did all this weight come from? I guess if I do have snack foods, it is instead of dinner, not in addition to dinner. Possibilities would be something like:

1. Cheese and Crackers (Goat Cheese from the Farmers Market lately!)
2. Home-made guacamole or home-made salsa with Tostido’s Lime chips.
3. ummmmm …..
4. errrr .....
5. ??????

Five things on my to do list today:

1. Go to The Day Job.
2. When I get home tonight, take Kitty out back so she can eat more green weeds and I can put back the mangled moss. Again.
3. Make some more Graduation cards for Saturday’s Farmers Market.
4. Print labels for the recent Ribbon Share and divvy up the ribbon (this one may slip to Sunday, though.)
5. Clean up cat barf.
Wow, now that’s an exciting life, huh?

Things I would do if I were a billionaire:

1. Quit the Day Job. I have always said I’d keep working if I came into money, if only to stay in touch with the rest of the world. But as I get closer and closer to retirement, it starts to look better and better! As of now, if I could afford medical insurance out of what’s left of my partial pay check, I’d quit tomorrow. So yeah, if I had money I’d definitely give up the Daily Grind.
2. Buy a bigger place with enough room for a dedicated craft room AND classroom.
3. Make sure my kids do not have to worry about money for extended college careers or for starter funds once they graduate.
4. Give big bucks to cancer research.

Five jobs I've had:

1. Catalog department at JC Penney.
2. Waitress at a local Bar & Grill during college.
3. Long John Silver’s (for about two weeks. Long story)
4. Karate instructor during and right after High School. Really!
5. Computer programmer/analyst most of my adult life.

Five of my bad habits:

1. Biting my nails.
2. Buying all the ribbon and paper in sight.
3. Not putting away the folded laundry.
4. Not communicating well enough with Friends and Family. (And it's gotten worse since I began making cards - go figure!)
5. Interrupting people.

Five places I have lived:

1. Dayton, OH
2. Oxford, OH
3. Flint, MI
4. Naperville, IL
5. Gaithersburg, MD

Six random things:

1. I am not a clothes horse, and could care less about what is “in” this season. Or this week. I think this has been true all of my life, even when I was a skinny Minnie. I just do not care. I look like I fell out of a Land’s End catalog, and that suits me just fine. Some things never go out of style, and I am so there!

2. I am a dog person. The only reason I have a cat is because of my lifestyle, because a dog needs way more attention than a cat does. And my cat is very dog-like, so she is perfect for me.

3. I have always dreamed of living in a small town of some kind. Now that I am older, I am not sure I want to pull up stakes and start over again, but the idea is still in there, somewhere. I am not ruling it out. Maybe I have read too many beach novels about women running away from whatever and finding love in a small town. Though they were also 20-something, and I am not.

4. I cannot drive in reverse. Ask anyone who knows me, I just cannot do it. Being a crafter and having to negotiate bumper cars to unload my vehicle at shows gets pretty interesting. One year a bunch of us went to someone’s house for dinner, and they have a really looooong, one-lane driveway. It had snowed, and I was last in so I was first out. And I had to back up the driveway. After I hit the snow banks several times, my buddy offered to back up my car for me. It was quite a hoot to watch me.

5. I sewed all my own clothes through most of High School. Yep, pants, jackets, dresses, you name it. For Home Ec in HS, my girlfriend and I chose a plaid fabric for the obligatory jumper we all had to make. The teacher doubted us, but we lined ‘em up just fine, thank you. Around the age of 14 I bought my first pair of blue jeans, and the thrill of the sew dwindled from there. Right now I could not sew a straight line if I tried. I have thought about taking out the sewing machine to try it on cards, though. Why not?

6. Spring is my absolute favorite season of the year. It is in the 50’s in the morning and gets up into the low 70’s by the afternoon. PERFECT! I do not even bother with a jacket. It is clear and sunny and wonderful. If it stayed like this all year, I’d probably be happy.

That's it! More than you ever cared to know about moi, I am sure.

Now I am off to spend the rest of this evening making cards for tomorrow's Farmers Market; it should be a glorious day weather-wise, too! Oh, and my Brother's b'day is next week, so his card is officially late even before it's been made. I hate when that happens.