Jingle Belles - Look Who's Coming to Town

Those papers that I had to have from Hobby Lobby a couple of weeks ago also had this nice Santa graphic on it which was just what I needed for this week's Jingle Belle Challenge. If the edges of that circle look a little wonky it's because it was drawn that way on the paper.  All's I did was follow the line. 

And since I had those other coordinating papers (see there is a method to my shopping madness), I put them all together using the sketch from the Paper Players challenge 288 which I've missed the deadline on but that's okay, I really like the sketch anyway, 'cept I took a little creative license with it and turned it on it's side.

One would think that without any actual stamping or coloring on this that it would have been a quicky - ah, but did you notice all the die cut greenery.  Surely I must be nuts or having fun.  Or maybe both!

Okey, dokey, let's go visit the rest of the Jingle Belles to see all their Santa's and friends.  

Don't forget to check out my Pay It Forward Post.  

Paying It Forward Because..........

I had a wonderful, relaxing week last week off from work despite the mess you see below. This has been in the making for a llllllllooooooooonnnnnnggggg time.  This is the room I fondly call my "Stamp Cave" sans the shelves and another large table.  It was my son's room and after he moved out I slowly took ownership of it, removing the bed and unsystematically adding more furniture for storage of my ever-growing craft stash.  There were dings and dents in the walls, not to mention staples galore from posters and pictures that once decorated the walls.  So after we removed the shelves, table and an embarrassingly large amount of stuff, HWNSNBP had a lot of patching to do. And I had to pick out a color.  And I have to be sure that it's what I want to live with for a very long time according to the painter (aka HWNSNBP) because given our age and stage of life, once the stuff goes back in, it ain't comin' out.

For the time being my worktable was left standing in the middle so I could possibly use it in an emergency if need be.  But it had to be shrouded in plastic from the dust and paint splatter (from the ceiling being painted too).

Of course, while I was packing things up and moving them out I was coming across all kinds of things like these birds and the die cut tree.  So, while he was out playing in the yard (waiting for me to finish up) I dug out a blank white card and some inks to make a background and then assembled this quick card.  A little bit of procraftinating!

And speaking of finding things, the following are a few of the things that I found that I had doubles (an in one case triples) of.  So, I've decided to Pay It Forward.  I would be glad to share these items (all of them unused) with the first person who requests them in the comments below.  Just make sure to tell me which item it is that you would like and I will get back to you for your mailing address.  

The stamps below are 1" x 3"

The stamp below is 1" x 3"

The leaf stamp below is 2 1/4" x 3"

The Jingle stamp is 3 1/2" x 5"

I will get them out as soon as possible, I promise.  

And another reason I am sharing is because I had a bit of luck this weekend.  My godmother sent me some lottery tickets in my birthday card and I won $20 AND I was the winner chosen in Darnell's April Fool's Big Boo Boo Card Blog Hop and I am using my prize to get some new markers.  Thank you to all the blog hoppers who visited and commented on my card. I certainly had some giggles visiting each and every one of you!  And thank you Darnell for sponsoring such a fun event!

April Fool's Day - My Big Fat Card Boo Boo Blog Hop

Darnell at djkardkreations is hosting a blog hop today featuring cards that might have made you feel like an April Fool because of a boo boo you made creating it.  Goodness knows that mistakes have been made and cards have been discarded, but there was this one...............

It wasn't an ugly card.  I like the colors.  The problem was that this was intended to be used as a sympathy card.  And I was going to use it that way until I started fixating on those three punched shapes......... lined up in a row........... side-by-side............. just like..................... headstones!  Looking back on my blog post, my daughter agreed with me (and so did one of my commenters).  Yeah - who would send something that looked like a cemetery as a sympathy card!  I think it's still in my box of cards - just can't get past those headstones..... for any occasion.

Don't forget to check out the other Boo Boo's at

djkardkreations

A Colorful End of the Month

I didn't keep up with my photo challenge this month, but I did get some good, colorful shots this week to share.  The first are the violets that appear each spring ...... wherever they want.  Really.  They are volunteers at this point.  I added them to certain areas of the yard many years ago and each year it seems I find them in different places and not where they were last spring.  

A friend had given me yellow violets from her yard which she had gotten from her sister's garden.  This was the first one to bloom this year.

And the blue and white violets, or confederates as they're sometimes called, came from my childhood home having been planted there by my grandfather who found them along the river banks he fished. (There's a little tiny spring beauty in there too!)

These scilla's have spread like wildflower wildfire.  I told HWNSNBP today that it's amazing that all of them we have all over the yard came from a bag of about 20 bulbs, the size of an acorn.  They must like it here.

As do these chionodoxa's, or glory of the snow.  I must admit that I have a weakness for blue flowers, especially this shade of blue!

These pink primroses haven't bloomed like this in years.  

And I'm not even sure the name of this flower, but don't those blossoms look like some sort of animal with their mouth open?

We have a few hyacinth's blooming.

And HWNSNBP potted up some Johnny-jump-ups that we got over the weekend.

There are daffodils blooming in the yard also, and the forsythia is perking up nicely.  And just as these flowers are beginning to open we're once again expecting a possible freeze.  Oh well, glad I got out to enjoy them this week.

And I also enjoyed having tea with two good friends this week at Teaberry's.  Their entryway hanging tree was decorated for Easter.  So pretty and colorful.  

And speaking of colorful, have I shared this little gadget.  I think I wrote about our office being without heat for a week recently, and then it happened again last Monday.  This time, it turned out to be a simple fuse - yes some of our school still runs on these kinds of fuses.  The maintenance worker showed it to me and I asked for it and put a piece of washi tape around it.  Now it sits on my desk.

And one last burst of color is the latest wind map that I worked on last night.  Admittedly, this is not for our region, or recent for that matter.  I googled wind maps and images and found the one that this is based on which I think was over one of the poles.  This one was a little more complex that the others.  Please excuse my current obsession with doing these.  I'm just having a lot of fun doing them.  Now I just need to find a good light pink marker - I thought I had one, well actually two, but they're kind of dried up.  Maybe I'll have to do some marker shopping this weekend.

I'm sharing this with Our Beautiful World - this week's prompt is "part".  You can see the parts of the flowers and the fuse, which is part of our heating system.  If you have a few moments, check out the other entries from around the world here.

Happy Easter

We woke up early today to attend a sunrise service on the dock and despite the cold we were blessed with the vision of the sun rising as we celebrated the Son's rising. 

Two little silver rabbits found on one of our journeys.

Some springtime colors and supplies ........... to make .............

(This was what I needed the bird for.  I cut off the sparkly stuff and trimmed down the tail feather.)

And another little Easter project courtesy of Pinterest and A Kailo Chic Life.  A sheet of mosaic tile (about $2), some plastic eggs (about $1), a sharpy, and some E6000 glue and, oh yes, soil.

I had these little broken off pieces of succulents in a bowl on the kitchen counter since the fall - there actually had been many more of them but these little ones were what was left.  I did use all six eggs, just didn't get to photograph them all together.  

We visited my son and daughter-in-law last night along with Rachel.  Today, it was just the three of us at the condo for Easter brunch/breakfast because of the turmoil my craft room project has created here.  But it turned out well as we were able to catch that service and sunrise this morning and after we ate, we headed back home and she back to DE.  

I already feel so much more relaxed than a normal Sunday knowing I don't have to go to work tomorrow.  Hoping to make it a good week.

Just a "Little" More Journaling

Looking back I know I've posted this first one before, but I just wanted to show the difference in the medium that I used.  This one is with pencils - Caran D'Ache Pablos. IRL you might think that it is stitched with colored thread. (Hmmmm, could that be the next way I try to do these?)

A different set of markers for this one.  I don't know the manufacturer.  The markers are double-tipped and the barrel is unmarked and silver. What I do know is they are an inexpensive set.  I tried these because there were a couple of shades of the blues and the greens.

Today was the last day of school before our spring break.  Ten days!  Sometimes, at the end of the week, I key up a song to play over the intercom as the last bus group leaves school.  Most often it's been Pharrell Williams' "Happy".  Last week it was "I Wear My Sunglasses at Night".  Today one of the teachers in the office this morning started singing "All You Need is Love" by the Beatles.  This was in response to it having been a very, how should I say.....difficult week as far as personalities getting along go.  I told her that I was going to play that song at the end of the day - it was agreed.  And I did.  

Our wiseacre gym teacher, who is young enough to be my son was in the office and wanted to know "what era" that song came from because "he had never heard it before" as the rest of us were singing the refrain.  I told him jokingly he needed to get out!  Then the phone call came and I thought it was just going to be a teacher telling me that I left the mike on and they could hear the music, but no, the day and week had to end with letting me know that two students who were supposed to stay for tutoring were unaccounted for.  Sheesh!  I am soooooooooo ready for 10 days break!!!!!!

Jingle Belles Vintage Christmas

Taking a short break away from my craft room redo on Saturday morning, I managed to coax HWNSNBP to take a drive to Hobby Lobby because I just needed 1 thing.  Seriously, I only needed one little bird to finish a project I started last week and the selection was not what I had hoped for. (Not to mention that I'm sure I have some birds around here that would have been perfectly fine for the project but putting my hands on it would have been near impossible.  And the bird I did find came in a package of three - like I really need the two extra!)

So he helped me pick out the bird and then somehow we got separated.  If it wasn't for the fact that he had the basket, I would have thought that he would have gone out to the car because he did bring the newspaper with him.  Sadly, even though I'm cleaning out my craft room and have become overwhelmed and almost sick to my stomach at the amount of paper that I have accumulated, I did walk down the paper aisle.  I don't go out to Hobby Lobby too often so I wanted to see what their stock was like and that's when I spied this vintagey Christmas paper. The background and the image panel came from two separate sheets.

But I liked the colors and knew there would be something on the image sheet that I could highlight.  I found the Cherry Cobbler netting in my stash as well as the crocheted trim that was a purchase from the dollar spot at Target, um, yeah, well a while ago.  The leaves are from a Sizzix holiday greens die and I used a textured coffee sleeve from Panera.  (Ya never know what you're going to find in my stash!)  Not sure if you can see that I took some gold shimmer paint to the edges of that holly.

And let me just add that when I did find him, he had picked out a couple of things (for the yard) and actually spent more than I did!

Okay, let me mosey on over to the Jingle Belles blog to see all the beautiful vintage creations.

We Have Bluebirds!

There's the mama - hanging upside-down and sharing the suet cake with a white-breasted nuthatch.

And papa likes the suet too!  They've both been spending time in the mornings and late afternoon hanging around this suet feeder.  We haven't seen this to this degree before.  But we certainly are enjoying it.

And then I watched him dive down into one of the flower beds and jump up onto the tie with something in his beak.

Some sort of juicy bug I presume.  And he can have as many of those as he wants.

Back up in the tree he just kept posing for the camera and I just kept clicking away.

Happy to report that they are interested in the nest box and that they started building their grass nest in there on Saturday.  I have a short video but I can't seem to get it posted. I'll keep trying.  They are so much fun to watch.  

We were hoping that they would start nesting, then there was the threat of a snowstorm this weekend which, thankfully, stayed away.  Only a dusting of snow was visible this morning and it quickly melted.  Of course, March is still very unpredictable.  I remember several years ago when they actually had eggs laid by the end of March only to have them freeze.  

Whatever happens, I'll keep you posted.

Card Catch Up For March

With spring on the way I was glad to use some softer colors for these cards.  Three different occasions - sympathy, birthday, and bridal shower.  My stamp cave is all topsy turvy but seriously, I just cannot bring myself to buy a card.  Not because I think my cards are better than any I could buy but because I have so much invested in supplies that ........get the picture!  And, while I have been cleaning out, I am finding all sorts of good things that I'd forgotten I had, like this heart die,

and this stamp set with the spring wreath, and

this embossing folder that it seemed like I waited forever to come in.  

I spent a few hours, yes hours, on Saturday afternoon sorting paper - cardstock scraps.  Scraps.  All sizes and shapes of scraps. I have to question whether I'm being frugal or a hoarder?  Am I being green by reusing or should I be adding to the recycle bin? What I have come to realize is that it is much easier to have ideas and spend time buying supplies than to actually find the time to put all those ideas in motion.  I can only hope that by getting this room, this stamp cave, this craft studio organized that I can focus on being more creative and more stress free.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

My new pink shamrock plant (oxalis) in it's new pot put on quite a show today.

All the green and flowers today reminded me that I have not shared this fun gift that I received from one of my blogging friends Dorrie.  She sent me this beautiful adult coloring book a while ago and this is one of the pages that I have finished.  I think I used just about every single green pencil and marker that I have on all the different plants in this garden.  

Coloring is relaxing.  The hardest part is choosing the colors you're going to use!

St. Patrick's Day wouldn't be complete without a shamrock shake. Thanks to my office co-worker who had to make a bank deposit, she was able to pick up shakes for us on her way back.

It was a lovely almost spring day here today and I got my sorry self outside early this evening to do a little walking. I found this scilla peeking out in the driveway..........

and this patch of green moss which reminded me of a balloon on a string.

Spring is just a few days away and would you believe that they're forecasting a snowstorm for our area on Sunday.  Estimates go from 1-6" and depending on when it starts whether it will actually stick or just be a "white rain".  The bad part about these storms has been the coastal damage that they come with.  Our New Jersey shoreline took a real beating in 2012 from Superstorm Sandy.  A lot of damage was done to our barrier islands - Mother Nature wants them back.  And even though there have been a lot of beach replenishment projects, each of these nor'easters changes the topography again and again.  Millions of dollars have been spent and will continue to be spent to save the beaches and the homes that line them.  We are lucky that our place is on the mainland and well above ground level.