Hello Lovely Hummer Surprise!

Hi there!

Thank you all so much for your get well wishes for my upcoming surgery tomorrow. Between your good wishes and prayers, the learned hands of the surgeon, and the tender care of the Mister, I will be up and about and jumping around in no time! Mwah!

This is a scheduled post relating to Monday's NBUS Challenge #9 post. (If you are looking for it, click here.) I mentioned that one of the optional themes was the "hidden word" technique. The card I posted Monday was actually my second attempt at this technique. Today I'm showing you my first attempt which failed so it didn't count!

But first, let's look at this card:

I colored this NBUS stamp ("Hello Lovely" by Concord & 9th) with my Ziggies. I gave it a very pale blue background wash. I love this beautifully drawn bouquet stamp and was pleased with my watercoloring.

So what happened was, I decided foolishly (because Hammy had abandoned me to go on his Christmas hols) that it would be a good idea to use this pretty little card as a candidate for my first time trying out the "hidden word" technique.

Okay, great. I looked through my word dies and choose a beautiful NBUS die from Papertrey Ink's "Graceful Greetings" set.

Well, ahem. Who knew that this beautiful floral image and the beautiful NBUS sediment that I picked were not a great match? Not me. The words were SO well hidden that they were impossible to read even with the layer of tangerine-colored fun foam I had used to make the words stand out!

(Sorry, I didn't think to take a photo at that point what with the shock and all.)

What a bummer. Still, I didn't want to bin the card so I thought if I inked the coordinating stamp and stamped it, at least then a person would be able to see the greeting. What did I have to loose at that point?

So I inked the stamp and very, very gingerly stamped the greeting on top of the popped up words! By some miracle, I was able to stamp it cleanly and now the words can at least be made out.

Sorta.

What the what?

"Sending Things?" "Sending Huge?" "Sending Fhugs?" (A couple of you said, "Sending Thugs!" I can't believe I didn't think of that! I get the best comments!)

In case you can't read it, even though it is stamped, it says, "Sending Hugs," although the lines of the stamp and the lines of the "Hugs" are strangling each other. It is still better than when it wasn't inked. Oy.

We live and learn!

I wanted to share this with you in case you are trying this optional hidden word technique and having issues with it. Now you know you aren't alone, but I do hope you persevere!

And if you aren't trying the optional technique, that's fine, too! Just feel free to use your NBUS and play along here!

~~~

Hummer Surprise

I have to share some becitement that is happening in the backyard, even though torrential rains have poured down and nights are getting at or close to freezing. Those of you who have been friends for a long time know that I love hummingbirds and we have been very fortunate to have had them in our backyard for years. A few have even become quite tame.

Some hummers fly south for the winter, but some hang around because they know we will always have food for them. So this past Christmas, the Mister got me a pretty new feeder:

We placed the old feeder right outside one of the Playhouse windows so I can enjoy their visits up close and personal. These photos were taken from my desk.

A coupla weeks ago, I spotted a female hummer making a nest in the oleander tree just to the right of my window.  The skill and workmanship amazes me. And they make them look so pretty!

Here is photo looking out of my window at the tree. I placed a red circle around mama on the nest.

Here's a closeup:

On Sunday, I had the Mister take a peek in the nest while mama was away and he found a single wee baby, already hatched! (Normally there are two chicks, but we are happy to have one.)

I'm so blessed! Yesterday I was able to get this photo right through the window:

This is the fourth nest in two years we've discovered in different places in the yard. The other three nests all ended sadly. Twice a scrub jay took the eggs and once a scrub jay took twin babies. I know that's nature's way, but as you can imagine, I am SO pulling for this mama and baby! The odds MUST be in their favor, right?!

~~~

Enjoy your day! No, seriously, enjoy! LITS!* 

I'm delighted you are enjoying the NBUS Challenges! I will see you on the other side ~ er, wait, I don't like the sounds of that! Let's just say I'll see you on Monday with NBUS Challenge #10! I should be able to do a quick edit to let you know how I'm doing. Again, thank you for all the prayers and positive thoughts! I feel the love and fhugs!!

*Life is too short!

To open the pop-up comment box that let's you jump to the end w/o scrolling:

Click CTL + Home. 
Click the Home tab under my blog banner which resets the post.
Click Page Down to reach the end of the post.
Click Comments and a pop-up box opens.
Click "Jump to Comment Form" and wallah, no more car pool tunnel!
Mwah!
If you ask me a question in your comment, please remember to leave me
your email address so I can respond. Thank you!