Jingle Belles - The Holly & The Ivy

I bet you can guess from the title that this Jingle Belle challenge involves holly and ivy.  Well, it doesn't have to be both holly and ivy and it can also be other seasonal foliage.  I found a booklet of vintage style postcards in my stash and there were four of this particular motif.  What I decided to do was try a little paper tole.  That involved determining what the layers in the design were and a lot of fussy cutting.  Since I wanted more layers than I had cards, I was able to use some of the lower layers for the upper pieces as they would be covered.  

I used some of glimmer paint to highlight all the dots on the red base.  

I mounted the finished panel on a gold foil card base.  I bought a pack of those gold cards on clearance one year and still have a bunch of them.  The only thing I don't like about them is that they are very curled and hard to uncurl.  I've had them under heavy objects on a shelf for quite some time without very good results.  So I try and do a lot of hand manipulating to get them flattened before use.  If anyone knows a better way please share.  

It's not easy to see all the layers in the photos - but I tried.

When I gave up trying to photograph it and sat down across the table from it, I could see the layers better.  I hope you can see how I had used a stylus to burnish the petals and leaves from underneath before gluing them on to give them an embossed feeling.  

I'm going to see if I can sneak in another simpler card before the cut-off, but won't promise anything.  The weather today is perfect for some seed sowing in our raised box and we have to do a trial run to a find a new place I have an appointment at soon in between HWNSNBP's meetings today.  But I will be checking out all the other fantastic foliage cards at the Jingle Belles when I get the chance and you can too by clicking here.  

Kirby

When I woke up yesterday and came downstairs HWNSNBP told me that he thought there was something wrong with Kirby and I could soon see that he was right.  The last couple of years Kirby had taken to sometimes sleeping/resting on the bottom of his cage rather than on one of the perches because sometimes he would fall off.  Yesterday was a little different though.  He couldn't get himself up the side and was walking in circles, often losing his balance as his leg would go through the bars on the bottom.  I took him out of the cage and he made no attempt to nip at me and let me stroke him without a fuss.  He closed his eyes off and on and I found a basket with a dishtowel to put him in so I could watch him while I ate breakfast.  He periodically got up and walked around in the basket but didn't attempt to jump out.  I held him as much as I could all day.  Towards the evening he was starting to have tremors or it could have been seizures, but he wasn't eating and I knew it wouldn't be long.    It was very hard putting him back in the cage last night because I was certain that he would be gone in the morning.  Well, as HWNSNBP told our daughter, he must have wanted to say good bye once more because he waited until I came downstairs this morning and picked him up.  It was a matter of a few minutes when he took his last breath and his little head rested for the last time on my fingers.  

My sister had given each of my kids a cockatiel when they were pre-teens.  She thought that they were both males but they weren't.  Kirby was Rachel's bird and the male of the pair.  When they were a couple of years old Pepper, the female, started laying eggs on the bottom of the cage a couple of times each month.  We would remove them because there was no way that she could incubate them on the grate.  After I did a little investigating, we decided to get a roosting box for the side of the cage and sure enough, she laid four eggs in there and began to incubate them.  

I really didn't think that they would hatch, but one evening when Rachel was at band practice and Chris was watching tv I heard a peeping noise.  The first egg had hatched.  And within the next day or so two of the others did also.  The fourth egg failed to hatch.  I don't have any pictures of the babies as I was told that it would not be good for their developing eyesight to use a flash. This was all before digital cameras.  They grew pretty fast and after the first two weeks we had to separate the babies into a cage of their own so that we/I could hand feed them from that point on.  The reasoning behind that is so they become easier to handle and aren't afraid of human touch.  It was an almost round-the-clock job keeping them fed.  I was lucky at the time that I was substituting and could come home at lunchtime to feed them.  

I fed them with a syringe and had to be careful to get it in their mouths at the right angle or they could choke.  I had visited a woman nearby who raised cockatiels to learn how to do this correctly.  She had told me how to prepare their food and what kind of schedule that they needed to be on.  

It was all going well until they began to fly.  The first time one of them took off, he went splat right into the wall and I thought for sure that he injured himself but he didn't.  I couldn't keep them uncovered after that point.  Eventually they graduated to the same pellets that we feed their parents.  We had people lined up to take them but they backed out and we were left with all five of them.  

We kept the females in one cage and the males in the other.  The females were the first to pass on.  And then it was my little Pidge - my heart broke when he died because he was so imprinted on me.  He would snuggle under my chin when I was watching tv, loved to be handled, and he was a talker.  I cried for days after he died.  

Kirby, the dad, was the last of the brood.  All the while that he and Pidge were together in the same cage Kirby was learning how to talk from his son Pidge.  But, he wouldn't talk to us, he would stand on the top of the cage and face the wall and talk under his breath - so low that you could barely hear him.  Then when Pidge died he talked a little more, but gradually he stopped.  He did continue to mimic our whistles and at one point could do a few bars of Happy Birthday.  But mostly he was an echo to our whistling.  Kirby wasn't as cuddly but could be affectionate when he wanted to be.  Especially when his crest feathers were being replaced.  The feathers have a coating to them when they're new and when you stroke them, the coating will gently fall off.  Cockatiels are considered very dusty birds because of this constant feather regrowth.  

I will miss sharing a Cheez It with him every day.  I will miss his whistles, and watching him sunbathe at the top of the cage.  I'll miss his tickling my ear(s) when he sat on my shoulder.  I'll miss his narcissistic love of himself in shiny objects.  I won't miss his screaming when he was upset or when those certain commercials with horses, hawks, football whistles, basketball sneakers, or screaming children got him going.  But I'll no longer have to tell him that it's okay and he's safe because he's forever safe now.  

Thank you for all of your love Kirby.  You'll be forever in our hearts.  Fly free with your family now.

The100DayProject - Week 7

I got some sweet comments on my last post about these tags.  Sunshine asked if I will be displaying them when I'm finished and yes, I plan to.  Right now I have them on a metal shower curtain hook.  It is comfortable fitting the first 50 of them.  I will have to use a second hook for the next 50 as they are completed.  At the end I plan on adding back the metal rings that these tags came with and making a garland with them, perhaps on a length of ball chain or something like that, and then hang it in my craft room.  (Or maybe on my gypsy rod - we shall see.)

Full disclaimer here that besides using some of my own photos as inspiration for these, I also check on the DMC site for free embroidery patterns, and royalty free image sites.  I do try to put my own spin on the patterns to "make them my own".  

There was a photo of a chicken on Facebook that inspired this one.  

Had to have a rainbow on St. Patrick's Day.

I saw some pysanky eggs in a photo that had chickens like these.

I have swatched all my fine line pens onto 4 x 6 index cards so I know the colors that I have to work with.  I have also traced the key tag onto the same size index card - it can fit 10 - and use that to audition my drawings and color choices.  I'll share those in my post next week.

Looking for a Little Color This Week

It's been a busy week here full of appointments and still experiencing cooler weather.  Finding the color inside instead of outside for the time being.  Like this flowering Iron Cross Oxalis that I treated myself to on our last trip to the Great Swamp Nursery.  I must say that the blooms were quite unexpected as none of them were flowering at the garden center.  I basically bought the plant for the "four-leaf-clover" leaves.  I'm just loving this color though. 

Finding color in the grilling pan with some yellow and orange peppers to go with some salmon steaks.

HWNSNBP did pick up a bunch of daffodils at the grocery store and they added some cheeriness.

And here is a little rainbowmaker at work at school.  He does love doing art projects at school and at home.  Crossing my fingers that we'll get to see him this weekend.

Well, not much color here, but these turkeys came around on St. Patrick's Day.  There were a lot more of them to either side of the picture.  Here is their conversation as I heard it in my head......

"Keep looking girls. I'm pretty sure there's some Irish soda bread crumbs around here. Those leprechauns are lucky. They get to be a holiday mascot and don't have to worry about people eating them. No one's having leprechaun for dinner tonight! Can't find any crumbs? How about that pot of gold? I'll treat you all to a Shamrock shake if you find that pot of gold. "

For the record, I did have a Shamrock shake without finding the pot of gold.

The100DayProject - Week 6

Another eclectic group of key tags for my 100DayProject.   

It's hard to decide sometimes if all of the tag needs to be filled in.  I thought this would be too busy if I added a background..... and you'd miss the cactus spines.

I was going for a field of poppies but it might look more like tulips.

And here's the second 20 days (days 21-40) all together.

Jingle Belles - Merry Sketch-mas

 Last Minute Lorraine here again.  This fortnight there was a sketch challenge from the Jingle Belles.

I  still had those macrame dies out and got to wondering how I could use them for the sketch.  The sketch is turned on its side for the first card.  The focal point is an IKEA gift tag that I trimmed down and added some Eyelet Outlet deer brads to.

The second card has a bit of a flip to it too, but basically the same ingredients.  

I'll have to look through my sentiments and find something small and suitable to add to these.  Until then, I plan on visiting the Jingle Belles and checking out all the other sketchy cards.  You can join me by clicking here.  

Happy Birthday HWNSNBP

I got these new macrame dies from The Greetery - these are only a couple of them.  They layer up nicely and can either be masculine or feminine so I thought they would be good for HWNSNBP's birthday card.  I didn't do much playing around with them as I'm still nursing a sore jaw and really not feeling myself (who knows what that's like anymore).  The colors were meant to be a bit springy.  We still have a backyard covered in white which I hope to see less of over the next couple of days.  He did tell me yesterday that we do have a crocus blooming alongside the house, but I forgot to go out and check it out.  Today for sure!

Just so you can see how that bottom die is I made a little musical video for you.

HWNSNBP has been working with his buddies on the interior of our garage over the last month or so.  He had put up the insulation and they came over to help him install the sheetrock.  He paid them off with 2 beers and chocolate each time they came over.  They worked a couple evenings each week for about 2 hours and finally finished up last week.  The next phase is taping and spackling which will be done by a contractor.  And then they will be back to paint...... I think.  Or make Adirondack chairs or some other Garage Boys project. Yes, that's what he was calling them.  The Garage Boys.  He had me come out to take a picture of the three of them on the last day.  I'm pretty used to the work clothes he had on, but I told him the hat looked ridiculous (he's on the left).   He wanted me to put something together for them and this is what I came up with.  

The letters are die cut from some thin wood that I stained with a marker.  The rest of the items were amongst the discards of their time together.  I replaced the backing of the shadow box with an actual piece of the leftover sheetrock cut to fit into the frame.  That turned out to be a good decision as it gave me something solid to glue everything to.  The shadowboxes come with a padded insert that I didn't want to use.  

The day that I took the picture he sent it to our kids to see and our son sent this back letting us know that this is how our grandson went to school that day dressed for Wacky Wednesday.  It must run in the family!  But I do like his hat much better.  

The100DayProject - Week 5

Luckily I worked a little ahead on these because I had some oral surgery on Monday and the recovery has not been good - more at the end.....

I had to have a flying pig for March 1st.  You can't see in the picture, but there are some metallic silver highlights on the wings.  

This was based on a photo that I took of some flowers behind the fence of a sand dune.  I think I should have used a darker green for the foliage or something.  It's just a little vague - what do you think?

The suet cake thief is back.  Normally HWNSNBP would put the suet feeder in a plastic bag in his truck every night so the raccoon wouldn't get it.  He wasn't able to get through the mound of snow every night after that first big snowstorm and left it out and surprisingly, for a few weeks it was safe overnight.  Not anymore.  The snow is melting and it's easier for him to reach it so he's back to the old practice.

So here's what I learned after I had my tooth removed and the implant started.  I was prescribed an antibiotic which I knew that I could take after having the Covid vaccine, but I was also prescribed a non-narcotic pain killer (for pain obviously) and a steroid for swelling which, after talking with the pharmacist, I found out that these drugs were not recommended to take within two weeks of having the vaccine because they could limit the effectiveness of it.  And we had just had our second dose three days earlier.  So naturally, since I hadn't thought to ask the endodontist about it before I left the office being in that condition where you would just like to get out of there and get home than sit there and try to talk with a numb mouth, I called him and asked him and his response was that "he hadn't heard that" which really wasn't very helpful.  Basically he left it up to me and I chose to not take them so that I could feel more secure about the vaccine effectiveness.  He had also given me a scrip for a narcotic pain killer which I tried, but ultimately it made me feel worse so I've been basically relying on Tylenol and ice packs.  

So this is my PSA in sharing my story - do your homework better than I did.  I would have delayed the oral surgery for two weeks had I known about the possible drug interactions. 

Happy Flying Pig Day

 

Thanks to my blogging buddy Sabrina for this wonderful stamp and die set. It was so much fun to stamp, cut, color, and assemble for all my Pig Ladies.

These little 2x2" canvasses also flew off to the Pig Ladies this year.  

This is another one of those projects that I dared to be imperfect.  No perfectly pink pigs, or perfectly formed wings.  They are meant to be a little slap dash.  My only regret, well there are two of them, is that I didn't add more glitter paint to the wings, and that I didn't make a set for myself (yet). 

Pigs and their positive outlook have come up twice in tv programs I've watched lately.  On "This is Us" the husband of a covid patient who couldn't visit his wife in the hospital but sat in the parking lot every evening had a collection of pigs on his dashboard explained to one of the main characters who also was waiting in the parking lot to hear of the birth of his soon-to-be adopted daughter that the pigs were his and his wife's good luck charms.  The gentleman in the car gives one of the pigs to the main character  as a token of good luck.  The wife recovers and the main character gets to choose the middle name of his new daughter and chooses the man's wife's name.  

The Hallmark movie  that I watched Saturday night (It Was Always You) had a scene in it where the two main characters were in a store and choosing items for her bridal registry - he was her soon-to-be brother-in-law who was standing in for his brother who had been called away. She had been picking out very simple and practical items that she thought that her fiance would rather have than what she really wanted.  He wanted her to be more adventurous and go for what she really wanted instead of always the "safe" choice.  There was a display of copper flying pigs on the wall. The future BIL told her that she needed a copper flying pig because she should believe in the possibility of positive outcomes from being more daring and doing what she wanted. Guess who wind up together? 

I think most of the pigs have arrived safely by now though there's still one over the Pacific.  She should be touching down any day now.

Remember - A Pig That Has Wings Does Impossible Things!

BELIEVE