CASology #12 ~ A Shoe In

And we're back around to Saturday ~ Whoosh!

 

I had to say that since I missed saying it yesterday like I normally do on Fridays.  I thought this week was set out in normal little week-name squares seven abreast, this being the last string of squares in September.  Apparently, however, when I bent down on Thursday to get a closer whiff of that delicious fresh-mown-grass smell, Friday was handed out, and by the time I stood up, I had missed it.

 

It's so conflicting to stop and "smell the roses" while keeping your eyes skyward so you don't miss anything.  And besides that, it's a good way to inhale a bee or prick your nose on a thorn.

So Hi!  Hope you had a great Friday and you are enjoying the beginning of your weekend!

I made a card, finally, for this week's fun CASology challenge.  The cue word this week is "SHOE."  Yup.  Yuppers.  Shoe.  I wished I'd had one of those stinkin' cute witchie shoes, but I don't.  You should check out the witchie-boot cards that are linked, so perfect for this time of year.  The other non-Halloweenie cards are really great, too! 

 

~~~

 

Speaking of CASology, I want to take a moment and announce that the creator of this unique and delightful challenge blog has joined our party as a follower!  Please welcome and visit Melissa at her CASology and Oh! Smudge! blogs.  Her creations are fabtastical!  Thank you, Melissa!

 

~~~

 

So, here's the thing.  My shoe stamps are few and teeny, so I was really stumped by this challenge word until I remembered a rarely-used great big boot-scootin' cowboy/cowgirl image I have.  It's so rarely used, I'm not going to pretend it was easy to find in the Playhouse.  Or defend why it was so difficult considering it ended up being in it's own case, labeled "Cowboy Boots," smack dab front and center in the row of stamp cases, Alfa Betty.  Slap.

 

That boot image is amazing, isn't it?  Even if you weren't country, who wouldn't love these?

~~~

Some of you might remember the time one of the neighborhood squirrels went cray-cray and chewed clean through a big branch of one of our potted jade trees, thus, the dirty rat:

 

That was a big 'ol chunk.  Well, DS said it might work in the ground, even though we have to over-winter the potted jades in the garage.  "What do you have to lose?" he asked, tossing back at me a phrase he's heard me say a bazillion times in his life.  As it happens, I had a place for the jade, so I stuck it in the ground.  I thought you might like to see how well it is thriving two months later:

 

Fingers crossed that it survives the winter, but I'm so tickled it's living now.

 

~~~

 

"What have you got to lose?"  "What's the worst that can happen?" 

 

Such great self-talk phrases to have up one's sleeve for those times when we get stuck on inaction by over-thinking and over-analyzing.  And isn't it interesting that the word analysis contains the word anal?  In my case, I tend to over-simplify the problems of others (to get to the bottom line), yet I anally over-analyze my own problems. 

 

Hmmm, I think I'll have some hot mulled cider and mull that over.

 

~~~

 

Okay, I'm down mulling.  I'll leave you with a snickerdoodle, my fellow crafters! 

 

 

Hee-Hee.  To be honest, I didn't turn DS's room into a craft room, since I was situated in the garage, but I did turn it into a home office PDQ. I don't think he had even found the college cafeteria by the time I began ripping down the iconic all-boy-all-sports wallpaper in his bedroom. When he came back home that first Thanksgiving, it was quite a shock for the poor boy, having to sleep in the guest room!   He is still in analysis because of it.

 

Enjoy!   As always, thank you for stopping by to visit.   Special thanks to you if you take the time to join as a follower or leave a comment!

Paper:  PTI kraft; DCWV bp;
  Stampland glossy
Stamp:  Mostly Animals 904-S8,
  "Kick 'em Off
Ink:  Markers
Misc. twine, star, pop dots

DD #21 ~ Mono Chrome; and LIM #86 ~ Recipe

Hi There, Thursday!

 

I am racing in here today, screeching to a halt in front of the Dynamic Duos color challenge which is Always Artichoke and Certainly Celery (DD#21).  I think that makes me Flushed Fig. 

 

Just to make it more challenging for myself, I molded my card around this week's Less Is More challenge, which is "Recipe."  The delightful duo of Mandi and Chrissie are cutting us loose this week and allowing us to make whatever treat we want with a whole kitchen's worth of inspirational challenge ideas!  Go there.

 

After yesterday's creation, which truly was fun, I crawled firmly back into my zone of comfort and made this:

 

 Recipe:

 

#13 ~ Congrats or Thank You

#32 ~ Seeing Double

#55 ~ Punches or Die Cuts

 

I want to thank all the mighty fine and talented ladies at these two challenge sites!  They work very hard to keep us interested and inspired and we should all take a minute to give them a round of applause.  Oh gosh, that was quite resounding and I'm positive they heard us!

End of card.  TFL!
 

~~~

 

It was past time to clean the area rug in the Heart of the Home, so with my dicey back, I asked Mister to move the chairs out of the way and into another room.  You know how sometimes, even with a dicey back, in hindsight you wish you'd taken the risk and done it yourself? 

 

Being a guy, apparently Mister thought I was asking him to ward off the approaching Enemies of the State.  He grabbed hold and hoisted that easy chair chest-high and marched straight forward for all he was worth.  Straight into the door frame.  He bounced off the offending door frame with a plumb, but he took out a big chunk of it in the process.  Not the plumb, the door frame.  Right there in the Heart of the Home where it was as noticeable as a ho in church.  By gum, that door frame surrendered.

 

"Tut, tut," Mister soothed, dropping the chair and backing up with his hands in front of him as I advanced with widened eyes and gaping mouth.  "I'll get the paint," I heard, as he flew through the door to the garage.  Wise man knoweth I sometimes still take a drag off the menopause pipe when I'm greatly alarmed.  It's not pretty. 

 

Wise man also knoweth to stay out in the garage way longer than necessary in order for wifey to cool off.

 

That's not even the point of the story.

 

Of course, there was no way I was going to let Mister get anywhere near anything with white paint and a brush.  My gracious gophers, no.  I'm quick to fire, but quick to forgive when it's not worth an onion.  So Mister was demoted to support personnel as I set about turning this fiasco into an opportunity to dab paint on all  the little chinks and chisels that inevitably appear on cupboard doors and baseboards and door frames. 

 

Like, for instance, here's part of the hallway. 

 

 

Looks fine from up here, right? 

 

Well, after a few dabs in this room and that room, for some dumb reason my eyes decided to focus on this baseboard.  Big mistake.  I mean, who LIVES here?  It is filthy, filthy dirty! 

 

 

Like a wolverine, I dropped low and retraced my steps.  This one, too.  And, yup, that cupboard there.  And, ew, look at this!  Even though I have enough practical sense to realize only a visiting toddler would be close enough to the ground to notice all this pfuey pfilth, as a homemaker I still ashamed myself. 

I can't believe I've become a costumed to not seeing these things!  You would think I made cards and played with my online friends 16 hours a day.

 

Oh.

 

Enjoy your Thursday!  Remember, don't focus unless it's on your art!  As always, thank you for stopping by to visit.  Special thanks to you if you take the time to join as a follower or leave a comment!

Paper:  PTI kraft, SU alway
  artichoke and certainly celery
Stamps:  PTI Signature Greetings
Die:  Memory Box Prim Poppy

WOYWW 173 ~ For Annie

Hi Gang!

 

We're WOYWWing here again, being Wednesday.  This will be quick, for me, because it's quite late and I'm having to type very quietly so's not to wake up Mister.  It slows me down.

 

Last Thursday my friend Annie, known to most of you as Redanne, dedicated her blog to me and it was a huge honor!  I'm returning the favor today and in doing so, I'm also sending her all the best wishes in the WOYWWing World because she's been run over by a truck.  Not literally, I mean, figuratively, in a manner of speaking.

 

I tend to favor clean and simple cards and crafting, less is more, one layer, that type of thing.  But I colored outside the lines for Annie and got down and dirty.  I dropped some blotches of ink on a piece of glossy cardstock, then some drops of blender, then I rolled the drops around and felt a little like I did in the 60s, man, like dude, man, look at it, man, then I smooched it all together with a rag, then I dumped clear embossing powder on it and shot it with my heat gun, and that was so fun, I did it again with purple embossing powder, and then I cut the sheet into two tags and put this and that and the other little thing on them.

 

Here is a quick photo journey of my journey, man.

 

 

 

I'm pretty sure this isn't grunge, even though my desk got pretty grungy in the process. I think grunge is just not in my wheelhouse, outhouse, or Playhouse, so I will leave that to other talented artists.  However, I can see where the Layerers get addicted.  I had trouble stopping myself from adding another one of these and another one of those, once I got started!

 

So Annie, this is for you! I hope you like what I made when I got all "inky" for you.  I expecially hope that you feel better soon!!

 

Enjoy the WOYWW tour at Julia's What's on Your Workdesk? Wednesday! ~ or your day, whatever you're doing!  As always, thank you for stopping by to visit.  Special thanks to you if you take the time to join as a follower or leave a comment!

 

ColourQ 155 and Retro Sketch 30 ~ Thank you!

A Where-Did-Monday-Go Hello!

Was your Monday memorable?  Maybe I should keep for myself one of the journals I make and put a lovely lapel on the front called "Memorables."  It might be nice to collect them, like marbles.  I love marbles and I hope never to lose mine, as you'll see later. 

I survived yesterday's molar crowning by the DDS.  Turns out Novocaine makes me want to bake and there I was with half a case of pears which were all going yellow at once.  I've never cobbled, crumbled, crisped, or buckled pears before, but when I found this recipe for a Peach and Raspberry Crumble, I was intrigued, so I rolled up my elbows and ooh la la:

Double-Dog-Dangit, razberries are SO good in crispy, crumbly, buckles!  I had no idea.  I've mixed cranberries with apples, and blueberries with peaches, but never razberries with anything.  (BTW, I didn't have fresh citrus on hand per the recipe, so I just used the dry citrus peel spices in the leettle jars and lemon juice and it was super fine.)

~~~

I went to a great workshop last week so my card for you today is a thank you card I made after wards for the fab hostess, Sara.  I'm entering it in ColourQ challenge #155* and Retro Sketches challenge #30 by Wendy.

My card:

I love this sweet image for Sara.  Walking up to her front door for the first time, I noticed she had a child's swing hanging from a tree in her front yard.

~~~

Speaking of marbles, I have a childhood memorable of my friend's father who used to scare the crap out of me the few times I went over there to play.   Her name was Glennie June and her parents were very old.  Glennie June had a sister who was in high school for heaven's sake!  Her father had a booming voice and one time he walked into the kitchen where we were having Kool Aid and he yelled at his wife, "Emma Louise, you have lost ALL your marbles!"

She whipped around and whacked him with good nature, but not before I saw the look of fright sweep over her face.  I was conflicted between thinking it was cool that an old lady still collected marbles and thinking it was weird that an old lady still collected marbles. 

Either way, I knew that for some reason it had scared her for a second, so after that I made sure I kept track of ALL my marbles.  I still have them.  Even my special bottle of metallic marbles. 

They are ready for playing, proudly on display as memorables on either side of my Lil Bo Peep pitcher, and proof that I still have my marbles, no matter what Mister says.  However, one of these days I'm sure the twins will sell me my own marbles out of one of their cardboard retail shops, which would be proof that I'm wrong and, in fact, I have lost my marbles!

~~~

Arteests, head's up!  We have another new crafter come to follow along with us!  Please welcome Sandy of Simply Sandy!  Thank you, Sandy!  She's just made a crack-up card featuring Captain Von Undervare! 

~~~

Enjoy your day and make it memorable!   As always, thank you for stopping by to visit.  Special thanks to you if you take the time to join as a follower or leave a comment!

Paper:  SU so saffron, old olive,
  rich razzleberry, pale plum;
  Stampland glossy
Stamps:  Stampingbella ars 102,
  "Matilda on Her Swing"; and Penny
  Black 00107D "big thanks"
Ink:  Marvy and SU markers
Su  punches

*So, turns out I should have posted first and then baked yesterday as I went and missed the deadline for the ColourQ challenge.  I'll link it later during the After Tour so it's all good.

OLW 106 ~ Sponging; CASual Fridays 71 ~ Fall Fun; Simplicity ~ 2012 Gratitude Campaign

A Sunny Sunday Hello!

 

I morphed around with today's card.  It was like one of those Make Over shows on TV.  Why am I never walking down the street and lucky enough to have some celebrity host or hostess offer me a free make-over, head to toe?  Whadya mean it's because it's only a one-hour show?  Brute L.

 

This week's One Layer Wednesday is being hosted by the Sponge Queen, Heather Telford of bits and pieces.  If you haven't seen her sponge work, you are missing out on a treat!  Click it.  She shows you how she does it and you gotta love that kind of generosity!

 

So here is my attempt at sponging, masking, and embossing all in one caboose:

 

 

It's sort of what yud call Elementary Sponging.  I'll confess I tried to do a snowbank in the manner of the beautiful inspiration cards posted, but my efforts, to date, are not ready for Worldwide Webbing.  My rolling snowy hills looked more like a plate of elbow macaroni what had been left outside in the full moon.

~~~

 

So then, seeing as how the distress ink colors I used for my sponging are fallish, even though the rusts and oranges aren't as vivid in the photo as they are IRL, I added a leaf embelly to my card for this week's challenge (CFC71) over at CASual Fridays which is "Fall Fun."  Go over and have some fun with them!

 

~~~

So then, seeing as how I'm trying to enter a card a week in Susan Raihala's thoughtful 2012 Gratitude Campaign on her Simplicity website, I morphed my card again, thus:

 

The linkie for the Campaign is on Susan's sidebar.  Please do read her compelling thoughts here and join in with your cards of thanks.

 

~~~

 

We had a fun day yesterday celebrating Mister Papa's birthday.  All cameras were once again forgotten, but I did manage to grab one cell phone shot of the twins on the soccer field:

Aw, sweet, I seem to have captured a nice brotherly moment.  As least I prefer to think that it's a moment of brotherly encouragement, as opposed to a push about to happen.  Boys, you know.

 

BTW, I'm happy to report that no one lost control in the eating of deviled eggs, the California HASMAT team did not need to be called in to control emissions, and no one had to sleep alone on the couch.  It was all good.

Enjoy your Sunday!   I hope to get crafty again today as tomorrow I have a crowning ceremony to go to at early o'clock.  I could leave you imaging I've won some brilliant beauty contest, hahaha (see opening paragraph), but alas, no.  The crowning in this case is being done by a dentist.  When he is finished, I will honestly be able to say that I have more gold up in my grill than I do in my jewelry box.  That's just wrong. 

 

As always, thank you for stopping by to visit.   Special thanks to you if you take the time to join as a follower or leave a comment!

Paper:  Stampland glossy

Stamp:  Hero Arts K5517 Tall Wheat;

  and A3079 Gratitude Seldom

Ink:  DI:  spiced marmalade; rusty

  hinge; tea dye; mustard seed; and

  scattered straw

Rusty leaf from Dollar Store bag;

Yellow leaves from backyard

The Paper Players #113 ~ Clean and Simple Banners; Mister Magnificent Rides On!

Hi there!

 

And we're back around to Friday!  Whoosh!

 

That "whoosh" turns out to be a perfect caption for my card today.  I made a special card for a special guy.  Today is Mister's birthday!

 

I'm linking up with The Paper Players #113 challenge by the talented Nance, which I just noticed closes in 56 minutes!! 

 

 

Besides the challenge, I have an inspiration photo:

 

 

Here's the card I made:

Whoosh!

The motorcycle picture in the scallopini circle is from Word clip art. Mister has a red bike, too, but I don't have such a foxy picture of him with the red bike, so the photo and the card are not all matchy-matchy which gives me a couple of hives, but I'll be all right.

 

You could say there is only one banner on my card and ask the authorities, "Is that enough?"   I don't know.   You could say there are two other banners, one on each side of the track.   You could.   It might be stretching banners a bit, but you could say it.

 

~~~

 

We're going to celebrate with the family tomorrow since it's a school day for the twinks today.  We will be watching their first soccer game.  No, that's not right.  It will be our first time watching one of their soccer games and we can't wait! 

 

Then it will be off to lunch at a really upscale restaurant ~ not!  Mister wants to head for a "rustic" joint where the speciality of the house is deviled eggs.  When he emailed DS to let him know where he wanted to go, witty DS wrote back, "Sounds good, Dad.  You can look forward to a lonely night by yourself on the couch."  Think about it.

 

But, hey, it's the man's special celebration, made more special given his risky choice of hobby.  Go, Dude, Go!  My friends don't understand why I'm so supportive of Mister's hobby, given that life is too short.  I say, ah hah, that's exactly the point, life IS too short ~ you need to be IN it!  And he is that and good for him!

 

~~~

 

I'm as twinkled as stickled star to introduce you to our latest friend!  Please be sure and welcome Deb of Scribblin' and Scrappin', which is another adorable banner name!  Thanks for joining the party, Deb!

 

If I changed my banner name to something adorable, what do you think it should be?  Oh boy, this oughtabe good . . .

 

Enjoy ~ I hope your day is special for you and that you make sure you're in it!   (Just don't eat too many deviled eggs or you'll be in it all by yourself 'til the gas cloud passes!) 

 

As always, thank you for stopping by to visit.   Special thanks to you if you take the time to join as a follower or leave a comment!

 

Paper:  SU real red, crushed curry;

  PTI rustic white; black and gray

  snippets from stash

Stamp:  Hero Arts C2926

Ink:  SU real red

CASology #11 ~ White; and Pixie's Snippets

Mornin' Peepers!

This week (#11) at CASology, we are challenged with the cue card word WHITE:

I LOVE white-on-white cards, but I don't usually make them because they never look as pure-and-snowy-white, whipped-cream-white, freshly-made-frosting-white as the cards I see on other blogs.  But I put all that anxiety at the doorstep to the Playhouse and went for it anyway.  It helped me immensely to CASE this stunning card by the extraordinary Loll Thompson.  Loll's card has color, which mine doesn't, but I followed her design layout. 

 

I decided to go really wild and use non-matching embossing folders for the three layers, trying to add interest and texture.  I think it's cool one minute and too chaotic the next, not unusual considering the conflicting personalities up on here in my head. 

 

Thank you, Loll, for the inspiration!

 

I was able to use some snippets for this card, so I'm also linking to Pixie's Crafty Workshop  Challenge 38.  Lots of goofy great fun over there and it's so easy to join us just by using a snippet of paper or ribbon to make your card!

 

~~~

 

I'm going to get all thoughtful and serious and mushy here for a few minutes.  Today I had the pleasure of having a dear online friend, Redanne, dedicate her blog to me!  Picture me humble and delighted!  Thank you so much for the honor, Annie, you made my day by making a beautiful plaque for your daughter in a style you knew I would like.

 

I find this online stamping community to be so warm, supportive, and nonjudgmental.  There are more woman than men in this community and it's awesome to see women commingle inside monitors without rancor.  Too often, in real life, we women do not support each other's talents, or looks, or styles, or viewpoints.  That's rarely the case with this group.  It's a wonderful "happy place" to escape the petty bickering, the ungrateful whininess, the political bullarky in the news ... all of it so stupid and exhausting.

 

If there is any complaining done in this community, it's about not having enough time in a day to visit each other's fab blogs and leave encouraging comments.  Now don't get me wrong, there are blogs that we might only visit once because we find them way too far afield from what we like, but more often than not, I find stamping bloggers to be a lot like me and Annie.  She follows me and enjoys my blog, even though her style leans toward grunge, and I follow her and enjoy her blog, even though my style leans toward clean and simple.  We can still appreciate each other's talent and recognize Art when we see him!

 

Right, ladies?!  We're good people who are good to each other!  Pat yourself on the back.  The rest of you, too.  I never understood why only Pat was allowed to do that.  Anywiddle, that's my Waffle, and here's my Bottom Line:  Too bad we aren't a model for our world leaders to follow!

 

~~~

 

Now about this grunge business.  I'm going to have to see how this got started and how it went from being something unsavory on the bottom of a shoe to an art form.  I do like Pink and her new single, Blow Me (a kiss).  Is she grunge?  I'll have to go look it up.  We never stop learning if we take the time to have a cup of coffee with Mrs. Google. 

 

Now in my day, girls and boys, we had to walk, or hop on our bikes, and go to a place called a "library."   . . .

 

~~~

 

Enjoy your day, both inside and outside your monitor!   As always, thank you for stopping by to visit.   Special thanks to you if you take the time to join as a follower or leave a comment!

 

Paper:  PTI white

Cuttlebug EFs: Branches; Dotted

  Swiss;  2011 Heirloom Ornaments

Ribbon:  Mostly Animals sheer white

Pop Dots

 

WOYWW 172

Welcome!

By now most of you know that Wednesdays are pretty much reserved for Julia Dunnit's  What's On Your Workdesk? Wednesday and you know it is a huge and amusing (humusing?) blog hop around the world where we hop from desk top to desk top, snooping, and spying, and leaving love notes behind.

 

A couple of weeks ago, Deb posted to WOYWW about using her sewing machine for her scrapbook pages and she said, "Originally bought about 20 years ago to make my bridesmaids' dresses, all it stitches these days is paper!"  Well, that was a true slap-my-forehead-epiffaninny moment for me.  Thanks, Deb!

 

You see, it was 42 years ago that my dearly departed MIL gave me her old sewing machine, a little Singer Featherweight.  It was on that machine that I made my two bridesmaids' dresses out of royal blue crushed velvet and my wedding gown ~ yes, true, my wedding gown!  More about that later.

 

So thanks to Deb, I remembered that old sewing machine was out in the garage, being of no use to anyone, so I brought it into the Playhouse:

 

Isn't it too sweet?

 

That thread could use a little tension check ~

 

The foot pedal

 

The case, complete with spare parts, zipper foot, and oil.  You might notice the torn leather around the bottom?  It's worse on the other side.  That was caused by a little tiny yellow Labrador puppy named Salty.  Unfortunately, the sewing machine case was sitting on the floor one day, within puppy's reach, and it must have been mighty tasty chewing while mommy and daddy people were out running errands. 

 

Luckily, he didn't suffer any ill effects, but he messed the heck out of that case.  The whole caboodle might be worth something without that damage, but that's okay.  Him was only a puppy and now I can sew on my cards if I want - zippee!!  A new technique I can do!

 

~~~

 

Would you like to see my dress?  Back in 1968, there was a popular movie called "Romeo and Juliet" and the people at Simplicity Patterns took note, making patterns with empire waists and long sleeves, some with many "puffs."  Shirley, you remember Juliet's gowns?  Well, some of you must do.  It was 1970 when I made the gowns for our January 1971 wedding and I was still into Juliet. (I was not what you'd call ah courant.)

Here's a favorite photo from our little album.  (The Mister and I snuck off into the tiny church office  and the photographer caught us!)

I like it for the obvious reason, besides being a good picture to show you the dramatic sleeves, which were a booger to sew.  If I do say so myself, I did a good job considering I only took a semester of sewing in a high school Home Ec class.  But what I really love about this photo is the conventional picture of Jesus in the background.  In this case, doesn't He look like He is rolling His eyes heavenward as if to say, "Oh, God, please help these two young goofballs!"  I hope it's not sacrilegious of me to say it cracks me up every time I look at it!   And His prayer worked, considering the life we've had together.

~~~

 

Lastly, for those of you who saw my recent WOYWW posts about Rae's pressed flowers, the cards I made from them and (thanks to Annie) framed, and my decision to take the framed art over to Jerry for him to hang on his wall, I thought you might like to "meet" Jerry.  He loved it and we both had a good cry.  Needless to say that was a gift that I know felt better to give than to receive!

 

 

Enjoy your WOYWWing!  I know I'm late to the party being out here on the California coast, so thank you for stopping by to visit.  Special thanks to you if you stayed for today's entire episode!

 

Dynamic Duos 20 ~ Color; Clean & Simple 208 ~ Sketch; and Hero Arts ~ Fall Feast

Hi There!

 

I'd like to thank you all for your good wishes and ink wiries about my creaky back.  I'm happy to say that I went all of yesterday without any narcotics!  And, best of all, I woke up this morning able to move with Ease and Grace.  Hallah!!  Today I shall take a teasie so I don't lapse.

 

I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that I had a few little Halloween stamps and for today's card, I pulled them all out for these three fun challenges in no puticular order:

 

Firstly, we have this week's colors at the Dynamic Duos challenge:

 

Lucky Limeade & Basic Black

Optional Halloween Theme

 

Secondly, I'm playing for the secondly time in the Clean & Simple Stamping (No. 208) sketch challenge:

 

 

Thirdly, I'm entering the September contest at Hero Arts which has several options for your playing pleasure:  Fall Feast, A Stamp for All Seasons, or a Color Challenge.  The details are on their blog.  I optioned for Fall Feast.

 

Here is my Halloween All In card:

 

 

I have to say they are really cute images with the exception of that bat what looks like a squirrel what turned into a bat which creeps me out and I wish I had placed him in a less focal locus.  It was a free UM I got with an order and I see why it was free.  Some of you who hate squirrels will think it's an appropriate rendition.  If you want it, just let me know and I will send it to you.

 

~~~

 

I think most of us who share this addiction will continue to make cards and send them by snail mail in spite of this Intertube thing.  We've come to accept the Intertube is not going away and, sadly, people are going to be using it more and more to send their loved ones nontactile cyber greetings. 

 

However, I saw something recently that indicates it is not entirely the fault of the Intertube and some of the blame for the decline in sending tactile cards through the mail rests squarely on the sagging shoulders of parents who have not been properly teaching their children.  In wit, I give you this bit of evidence:

 

Sigh.

 

In my day, when stamps were three pennies apiece, children were chored with the work of applying stamps to envelopes.  At Christmas time some mothers, who had particularly noisy children, were known to send cards to every name in the town telephone book because they knew the kids wouldn't be able to speak for days afterwards due to the thick residue of glue on their tongues.

 

And we kids considered it to be a grown-up Big Girl or Big Boy Moment when we were able to stand on our tippy toes and push those three pennies across the wide post office counter towards Mrs. Halenbendger, who would ceremoniously hand us a stamp with an amazing miniature picture on it.

 

Source

 

Another day, class, Granny will explain what "telephone books" were. 

 

~~~

 

I haven't had the gleeful glee of welcoming new friends to the Playhouse for a while now and so it gave me a bit of a whiplash this morning to glance over and see one!  Please help me give a warm welcome to Kathy K of Purple Princess Diaries.  I love that banner name!  When you actually look at Kathy's URL, it says "Purplicious ...  !"  (I think I found another sister!)  Thank you, Kathy. 

 

Enjoy your Twos Day everyone ~ I hope you have two times the fun!  As always, thank you for stopping by to visit.   Special thanks to you if you take the time to join as a follower or leave a comment!

 

 

Paper:  SU! black and lucky limeade;

  Stampland glossy

Stamps:  Hero Arts; Good Stamps;

  SU!; Art Impressions; Hooks, Lines,

  and Inkers

Ink:  Memento tuxedo black

SU! and Corner Chomper punches

Less Is More Week 85 ~ I'm All Oval That; and Addicted to Stamps #3 ~ Make Your Mark!

Heydee Hoedown,

I hope everyone had a lovely weekend!  I laid low yesterday and made a simple card for this week's Less Is More challenge.  The adorable team of Chrissie and Mandi want us to make an oval presentation, incorporated.  Whoops, a ball bearing just popped out of my keyboard rollout tray.  Yoo-hoo, Mister . . .

The ladies have some fantastical inspiration cards and so do the peeps already linked up.  I hope you can play, too!

I made this:

It's an old stamp and a fun one to color.  The stamp has a sentiment above the vine which reads "gather friends like flowers."  I masked it off in order to make an oval sentiment which fit my oval punch to meet the oval requirement. 

And since I used my markers to color my basket of flowers, I'm also linking to Challenge #3 at the funsome Addicted to Stamps.  Kewl.

~~~

While I stayed home, Papa had a delightful "men only" day with DS and the twins at the Maritime Museum.  What a beautiful sky that is! 

Below are the twins, sunbathing after lunch.  That's Adam on the right, Henry on the left.  Just kidding.  They are San Francisco pigeons.

Okay, I've got to get up and move around.  I'm hoping this tray won't fall to the floor when I push it in to get up. 

~~~  Oh, wait, I have to show you this. 

I was going outside to take my card picture and when I opened the patio door and stepped out onto the deck, Hitler the Hummer did not fly away from the feeder as he usually does.  It was quite exciting to get so close to him.  I think it was because I was wearing a red shirt and I imagine he was quite excited, too, thinking, "WOW, that's the biggest feeder I've ever seen!"  I held out my finger to see if he would hop on, he was that close.  He hesitated for a second, but then took off.  It was trilling!!

Enjoy!  Take time to enjoy the birds around you!   As always, thank you for stopping by to visit.   Special thanks to you if you take the time to join as a follower or leave a comment!

Paper:  Bazzill; unknown glossy
Stamp:  Stamps Happen, Inc.
  #80042 Gather Friends Like Flowers
  sentiment:  SU, unknown set
Ink: Memento black; Marvy markers
Oval punch; pink bling from stash
Corner chomper