Happy BIrthday

It may look a little feminine with all those flowers, but this card is for HWNSNBP's birthday today. The stamped image of the birds in and on the nesting box surrounded by flowers reminded me so much of our box in the garden when the clematis trailed over it.  Of course I probably should have gone with a purple flower which would have been true to what we had here, but once I got started with the pink I didn't want to restart.  I loved this set so much that I splurged on the whole package from Heartfelt Creations as a birthday present to myself making this probably right now the most expensive card I've made. 

I had to secretly get this done while he was out officiating his basketball games and even took the pictures in the stamp cave so he wouldn't be able to see it ahead of time.  

Those birdies not on the box are rather large in comparison to the ones on the box but they reminded me of the juvenile blues who often look a little chubbier than their parents.  

We have not had any bluebird sightings here in the yard for several months, but the weather is turning and we are hopeful that they will be back soon.

Happy Birthday my love!

Pigs Fly and THE WRITTEN WORD

Pigs flew in from New Zealand last week.  They had a long flight but they made it.  The envelope they came in suffered a little mishap but all the contents were intact. My blogging friend Sunshine, one of my "Pig Ladies" send me this adorable package of flying pig seeds.  (I added the link to her blog but I think she's been having some computer issues lately.  But check her out anyway.  She's got some great projects.)

On the back were the handwritten directions............

And don't you just love the stamp on the bottom where she signed it!  I giggled when I saw it.

She always puts so much detail into her creations.  Just look at those sparkly wings and the shiny snouts and hooves.

Not only were there seeds, but she sent me this beautiful card too.  

I just love those silhouettes with that tiny butterfly.  And I'm going to have to remember to try that background on one of my next floral cards.  Thank YOU Sunshine for sharing your talent with me.

Today's photo prompt is THE WRITTEN WORD.  As I was moving things around in the stamp cave the other day - notice I did not say cleaning - I came across these newspapers that I picked up at a garage sale a few years back.  They were from 1969 - the day of the moon landing.  The pictures are not that great, but the papers are authentic.  

HWNSNBP still picks up two daily newspapers on his way to work and he has been complaining lately that the content is dwindling so much that it's almost not worth buying them when he still has to go on-line to find out things like the scores of the local sporting events.  Whether he's reading the paper in hand or on-line, he still relies on THE WRITTEN WORD.

FADED on a Sunny Day

Our poor tattered and FADED windsock has seen better days.  The streamers are tangled and tearing off, yet there it hangs on the clothesline day in and day out.  It not only adds a bit of color to the backyard, but it is helpful too.  One look can tell you how windy it is and of course what direction the wind is blowing. In the summer, during the balloon festival that is held not too far from here, it gives us a better idea if the balloons will be overhead or if we need to get in the car to chase them.  If a storm is predicted you can usually tell it's getting close by how horizontal the windsock gets.

We already have a replacement handy but will let this old girl finish off the winter and possibly the spring before she is removed from duty.

My little celebration today came in the form of a chocolate covered strawberry.  HWNSNBP and I went to the Raritan Exposition Center for the Home Show (got free admission from our power company and it's his birthday this week so I thought we should do something he suggested) and checked out some of the vendors there.  

We picked up information on a whole-house generator and bought some gardening items (a new bird bath, ceramic pot, and some cute bird feeders).  Not having lunch before we went was my excuse for indulging in the strawberry and, don't tell anyone, I also got some salted caramel chocolates. HWNSNBP taste-tested some yummy fish cakes and I encouraged him to get a box which he did.

The temps got up to 50º today making the walk through the parking lot there very agreeable and walking indoors was just the right amount of exercise for me as my early morning bike got cut short unexpectedly.  I was left in charge of waiting for the serviceman to come and check out our new water tank which we only had installed a little over a week ago.  I had everything timed out and then he called and wanted to come a half hour earlier so I had to scramble.  I think I took a record-breaking shower and was dressed and ready in 10 minutes only to have him show up 5 minutes before he originally said he would come.  

We have a well and yesterday the water was very cloudy and there was visible sediment in the tub (the tub has the only faucet in the house without a screen).  Needless to say, we were wary of drinking it until we found out what was causing the cloudiness so HWNSNBP put in a call.  

It seems new things aren't always as good as old things and they get you every time.  The old tank had an internal sediment filter, but guess what......... yep, you guessed right, the new one does not.  So tomorrow he will be back to install a filter. Oh joy!

But I had a very productive afternoon in the stamp cave which I'll share later on this week.  Hope you have a good one. 

FRESH

Okay, so here's what happened........I mixed up yesterday and today's posts, er, prompts.  That's what I get for not consulting my list before pushing publish.  So let me get back on track with....

FRESH - the tiger got a fresh snow hat.  

His old one was just about gone.

I think even the hawk that dropped in on the bird feeding area was eyeing him up. Friend or foe?

I believe this is a Cooper's Hawk that did indeed scare off all the birds from the bird feeding area by deciding to perch in their very tree.  Sorry for the milky picture, I was trying to focus through the glass door and screen.

NEW Baby, NEW Product

Today's photo prompt is NEW and friends of ours have a new grandson so I wanted to make a card to send to the happy parents.  I had the bundled baby already colored from awhile back so I just had to create the rest of the card.  I used a new stamp set from Essentials by Ellen for the background in Marina Mist, Wild Wasabi, and Daffodil Delight, added a Daffodil Delight bow and layered it on Wild Wasabi and Marina Mist cs.

I got a chance to play with some more new product during my "snow day" off yesterday.  The small leaves below belong to the Massa Leaf die from Poppystamps which I have used before, but this time I used my flower tools and gave those leaves some dimension so they are curved away from the background.  The flowers and bigger leaves are another new die set, or rather sets from Essentials by Ellen.  The Bold Blooms and Bold Blossoms Stand Alone dies.  I used some Tangelo Twist and Daffodil Delight ink with my aquapainter to swish some color on my Whisper White cs before I cut it out.  On the green leaves I used Pear Pizzazz and Gumball Green ink.  Then I layered the solid cardstock die cuts over them.  Looks springy I hope.... I am so yearning for Spring at this point!

I saw that the Paper Players Challenge PP234 this week is themed Spring so I'm going to link up to them for the first time.  I can't wait to see the rest of their gallery.  Like I said, with all the white stuff out there, I am longing  for Spring in a bad way.  If you can use a burst of color, join me there.

Photo Challenge - SIMPLE

My SIMPLE Snow Day Snack of fresh baked chocolate chip cookie (yes, only one) and mug of chai tea on my new-this-year plain white square everyday dishes.

Yes, we had another snow day today.  There's 5-6 inches out there already and it looks like it'll be snowing for another 2-3 hours more.  The temps are dropping and the Road Department sent out an e-blast that driving conditions are very hazardous so we're staying put for the evening.

When the kids were in school it was our tradition to bake chocolate chip cookies on snow days. There was even one time when I didn't have any eggs and it was pre-internet so I had to be inventive and used mayonnaise in place of the eggs and some of the shortening.  They didn't turn out too badly. 

Today, after I made HWNSNBP and myself omelets for lunch, I realized that I was down to one egg and the recipe on the bag of chips called for two.  I had inadvertently left the bag of chips on the counter next to my mini crockpot when it was on and melted half the bag of chips the day they came home from the grocery store.  I had thrown it into the refrigerator to solidify the melted chocolate and wound up with only about half the bag as usable chips.  So I halved the recipe and left out the nuts per his request.  I put that glob of solid chocolate aside to use for something else in the future.

So this is my little celebration for today.  I'll take the rest of the cookies to work with me tomorrow - if we have school.

Jingle Belles - A Very Vibrant Christmas Inspiration

Yowzers, that is vibrant but so pretty.  I think we actually have a wreath that I put together with some felt ornaments from the Christmas Tree Shop using these colors.  Sometimes it's so nice to get away from the traditional colors.  

Scouring my stash of papers, I was looking for those that had some of the hues in the picture above.  I found purple and pink cardstock, aqua dsp, and some green-mixed-with-blue glitter paper, as well as some ribbons in pink, green and aqua that had a silver stripe, so I decided to add the silver element.  

The silver paper is textured and I used it for both the trees and the die cut sentiment.  

I was concerned that the deer die might not fully cut through that glitter paper so I used a metal shim under it and had no problem.

I think you might be able to see from the picture below that I added Crystal Effects to the moon to give that some shine too which wasn't that easy because I was impatient and decided to do it after the trees were glued down instead of before and waiting for it to dry.  Thinking about it afterwards, since the moon was punched out of the dsp and the pink was behind the opening, I probably could just as well have inset a piece of window sheet/clear plastic to get the shine.  

Admittedly I wasn't too thrilled with this when I finished it two nights ago, but it looks much better in the daylight and the colors really appeal to HWNSNBP which could be good or bad because he's, um, color-challenged.  

I was having a hard time coming up with a second card for this challenge but I just noticed something in the inspiration picture that has.......given me some inspiration.  I'll be back with another one soon.

In the meantime, here is the link to the Jingle Belles blog where you can see all the other wonderful creations.  Click here.

WRINKLED

Not wanting to take pictures of myself or any part of me for this prompt I searched around the house for some inspiration. The roots of this orchid are very wrinkled.  Orchids actually have roots that are outside the pot which make them look even more exotic.  A few years back HWNSNBP and I went to an orchid show.  We had, at that time, maybe one or two orchid plants and were very new to the do's and don'ts of raising them.  For instance, were those roots supposed to be outside the pot? HWNSNBP asked one of the vendors if we should cut them off and her apalled response was "Noooooooo. Would you cut off one of your fingers?"  So there is no root cutting in this house.

Some softer wrinkles were found in this tissue paper that came in a gift bag.  It's the palest shade of blue and I'll smooth it out as much as I can with my hands, fold it, and it will be added to my stash of tissue paper. Because of course you know I save it.  I don't go as far as my cousin who irons it though. I've only recently gotten things like tissue paper, gift bags, and bubble wrap sorted and stored away in see-through containers in our front closet.  It will be a very long time before I need to actually purchase any of those things, but knowing my fondness for pretty paper things, I'm sure I will be adding new ones to the collection of new and used.

My celebration today was waiting for me on my desk when I got into work.  We had another delayed opening due to the weather and some of the teachers were in early anyway.  This comes from one of our 4th grade teacher's whose daughter just celebrated her birthday.  Can you tell what the theme of her party was?  Yesterday he showed us a picture of the cake their neighbor made for the party and he brought in the leftovers from the party for the staff.  This is always a good way to get rid of party leftovers - to leave them in the faculty room.  Someone is always hungry and it always goes!

We're awaiting another snow event this evening into late tomorrow.  We're in the 3-8" belt right now, but you know you can't count on the forecast.  I did my "spinning in my desk chair with my snow wands" thing today at work, consulted my crystal ball (thank you Rachel), and predicted a snow day tomorrow.  That would be good news.  I'm never at a loss for things to do at home.

I promised my Jingle Belle card today and it is actually done but I'm just feeling a little too tired to do another post this evening so it will have to wait until tomorrow.

What did you celebrate today?

DEEP

Today's prompt is DEEP.  You can see how deep the snow is around some of my totems.  I'm only sorry that they're so close to the chair because I couldn't crop it out.  HWNSNBP collected them from the landscaping to put away for the winter but as you probably can guess, he never got around to the putting away part.  They do look pretty in the snow though.

And as I promised, my February work calendar all filled in.  

It started snowing again this afternoon and now it's more of a rain on top of the snow.  The roads should be a mess in the morning so we'll see if school starts on time or not.  I would love another delayed opening and truth be told, I think we might not have school at all on Thursday based on the forecast.  Of course, we know the weathermen were wrong predicting the blizzard that wasn't in January, but this does look more promising.  Sadly, HWNSNBP broke the snowblower on Sunday. We share it with our neighbor and I'm sure they're not happy about it either.  But, alternate arrangements have been set for getting the driveway "plowed" this time, thankfully.

I'll be back with my first Jingle Belles for this fortnight challenge tomorrow.  Stay tuned.

Celebrating a Delayed Opening and February Tangles

It was a nice treat today to be able to sleep in for an extra half hour.  We had a delayed opening due to more snow and ice overnight making the roads unnavigable this morning.  I got to put in a full 45 minutes on my bike and still managed to get to work earlier than necessary.  Our students started taking the PARCC test today which made the delayed opening even more chaotic.  Buses were late and schedules had to be changed, but things settled down fairly early.  

I put together some little stress relief packages for the testing staff which I'll show later this week, and while I was preparing them I wound up with a lot of cotton string scraps in various colors.  I grabbed the variegated blue scraps and headed up to the stamp cave after school to make this.

I took a piece of 1" wide double-sided tape and laid the strings over it leaving the ends all different lengths.  I used a butterfly embossing folder for the white panel and then added the string piece.  I searched my shelves for something to add to the top of the string piece and came up with a package of butterfly stickers that I got at the $ store awhile back.  The colors matched the strings.  Then I found a rolled paper flower to add to that and decided to add some white sequins too.

HWNSNBP asked what the card was for and I told him it could be for anything except maybe a sympathy card.  It's nice sometimes to just create something that is not earmarked for an current occasion just to have on hand.  

No good segue here between subjects.  Just going to show my tangles for the month of February.

I decided to add color to the Valentine's week tangles below and also discovered that I had inadvertently forgotten to tangle the 15th.  I'll have to go back to that later this week.

The tangle below on the 22nd is an original and was based on one of the props/posters that I saw during the Red Carpet event prior to the Oscars that night.  If you look carefully you might see the envelope which was done in gold on the poster.  I'm naming it Oscar Envy.

I'll have to come back tomorrow with my finished February work calendar.  I forgot to bring my little point and shoot with me today and the cell phone pics just did not work out.

If you want to know any of the tangle names, leave me a comment or drop me a line and I'd be glad to let you know.  

Welcome March

This is a card by Dixie of Arranged Words that I won during the Grow Your Blog Event
Thank you Dixie!

It's March and I hear the wind blowing

Sometimes it whistles a tune.

It tells us cold weather is going

And Spring will be here very soon.  

Those are the words to a song I learned in elementary school eons ago.  Funny how there are those things that you take with you all your life for no particular reason.  We tease my youngest brother with the lines

 "Too bad, too bad.  

Not a blossom in time for Spring.  

Not a sign of life anywhere." 

from a school play he was part of when he was probably about 5 or 6.  All of us, my two sisters and other brother, were responsible for getting him to memorize his lines and we all knew them by heart. Funny thing is today we're the one's that remember them and he doesn't.  

But the theme of them both is Spring and oh, how I am looking forward to Spring.  There are many reasons - the re-awakening of Mother Nature, the warmer weather, the ability to get outside and walk without worrying about snow or ice.  

March is also a celebration month for me and I plan to celebrate every day in some way.  Today, Sunday the 1st as I am writing this before midnight, I celebrated National Pig Day (see my previous post).  I also started a photo-a-day challenge.  Today's prompt is YOUNG.  And tomorrow's is OLD. So I chose to compare the young and old stages of two African Violets that I currently have blooming.

There is so much promise in a youthful blossom, yet there is still beauty to be found in the old as it gives up it's splendor.  The circle of life - something to celebrate as we transition into a new season of growth. 

It's March and I hear the wind blowing........................

Happy Flying Pig Day

Remember - A Pig That Has Wings Does Impossible Things

I had to make a flying pig again and used the Curvy Keepsake die to make this one adding wings (also a die of a butterfly simply cut in half).  I only managed to put together a few of these so I could deliver some little gifties and candy to a few special people.

I did manage, however, to get more of these little cards done and hopefully got them posted in time for most of the recipients to have before March 1st.  

They are actually half the size of an A2 card - a little bigger than ATC size.  I tore some pages out of an old paperback dictionary and gave them a quick coat of gesso.  Then, not being able to get to my acrylics, got out my watercolors and added a blue wash.  The clouds and pig were stamped and fussy cut out and one cloud and the pig were popped up.

The cards were quite springy, thus the scissor on the corner below to hold it closed for a photo.

If you're new to my blog you may ask why the flying pigs.  Here are the links to my previous March 1st posts which should help explain the significance. 

National Pig Day 2008

National Pig Day 2009

National Pig Day 2010

National Pig Day 2011

National Pig Day 2012

National Pig Day 2013

National Pig Day 2014

Embrace the impossible and dream!