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

The100DayProject - Week 4 and Selfies With the Grandson

It was a busy week for phone calls and I also spent the better part of a day cleaning out my e-mail accounts.  It's amazing how fast they accumulate.  Admittedly there are some daily e-mails that I pass over so I can go through them maybe once or twice a month.  Those are from some crafting sites that do daily mail.  But I would say that the majority of my e-mail comes in the form of advertisements for new products or sales.  That said, because I don't go through them right away, sometimes those that are purely correspondence sometimes go unanswered for a bit.  I must improve on this.  

Here are the tags from the last 7 days.

This one is a fail.  I call it "Deconstructed Orange".  I don't know what I was going for but unlike real stitching, once I put the pen to paper I cannot take the stitch out.  I do practice what I'm going to put on the tags before I actually do them, specifically so I can chose the right colors and size of the subject.  But I just don't know what happened here.

And another faux stitching lesson learned - I regret the direction of the stitches in those petals.  I think it would have looked nicer (and neater) if they were all from the center outward instead of horizontally.

This one is based on a photo that I took several years ago.

 

We made a quick trip to DE on Saturday and got to spend some time with our daughter and her family.  This little guy is a bundle of energy and so much fun.  He is still grabbing at our glasses so they gave him a pair of his to play with to try to keep his hands off ours.   He is such a ham. 

Papa's phone is in a waterproof case that has seen better days - can you tell?

We got out second vaccine on Friday with no apparent side effects - just a little bit of a sore arm for me, but not like it was the first time.  I will say that we're tired today, but that may very well be just from travelling yesterday.  We left in rain yesterday and returned in sunshine which was nice, but the rain is back today.  And though the weather here is yucky, it's nice in Florida where the Yankees are playing their first spring season game - it's definitely a nice diversion.  

The100DayProject - Third Week

 The next week's set of The100DayProject started on Valentine's Day so there had to be a heart.

The first 20 day's worth.  Kind of looks like a Girl Scout sash of badges against the green of my cutting matt.  They are all dated and numbered on the back.  

Jingle Belles - Text Me Christmas

Words, words, words.  Are you a word nerd?  I am.  This is the KOOK in me, the one who collects words on a dedicated Pinterest board.  One of my favorite words - absquatulate - which means "to leave abruptly".   This seems to be a family trait.  HWNSNBP, who is an ambivert is very good at absquatulating.  And our daughter, who considers herself an introvert admits to also practicing absquatulation.  But let me absquatulate from this conversation and get to the Jingle Belle challenge at hand - using text/words on our Christmas cards.

I found some texty background papers in a paper stack along with some coordinating papers and put them to work.

On this first one I added a red pick-up truck brad from Eyelet Outlet in front of some die cut trees.

And to the second one, I created a little Santa from punches that reminds me of a Weeble (you know - Weebles wobble but they won't fall down).  He even has googly eyes.  I actually spent a fair amount of time gathering up the googly eyes I had in a couple of spots in my craft room so they could all be in the same place from now on.  I didn't realize just how many different sizes I had.  I kept them in tiny ziplock bags by size and quickly ran out of room in a recycled peanut butter jar.  Luckily I found a larger clear plastic jar I could use instead.  Now they are all together and I won't need a search party to find them anymore.

I was only using half of the sheets so I figured I'd go ahead and make a second card for each whilst the supplies were all at hand.  

 

More for you Word Nerds - This morning both Kirby and I were enjoying the apricity while listening to the melting ice clattering through the downspouts.  He on his flank, me on my acnestis.

Okay, enough words here, time to go spread some around to the Jingle Belles participants.  If you would like to join in click here.  

The100DayProject - Second Week

Yikes - I had this ready to post on Monday but forgot to publish.  I have been keeping up with this so far and don't want to get behind on doing them or posting them.   

Days 7-14 - Finally found a pretty pale pink fine line marker to use.

An Ox for Lunar New Year

More Backyard Birds

The birds have been very active in the backyard this winter.  I'm sure the snow has "hidden" a lot of their food which is why we make sure to keep the feeders topped off and at the ready with a fresh suet cake. 

This Cardinal couldn't help but stand out against the gray backdrop yesterday.  It was snowing and when I went to edit the picture to zero in on him more, I could actually see the "streaks" from the very fine snow falling so zeroing in on him really didn't make it any clearer.

At one point there were about 7 or 8 Bluebirds around the suet feeder waiting their turn.  I was transferring pictures from my camera card to the computer at the time and didn't realize that the card wasn't in the camera and was snapping away.  I was excited that I got a really good picture of 5 of them on the clothesline and then realized that the card wasn't in the camera.  Luckily, I was able to quickly install it to get the remaining 4.

There were two Northern Flickers hanging around yesterday.  When they approach the feeding area straight on their yellow underbellies and wings really show up.  I hope to get a picture of that someday.

 

Junco, Bluebird, and Flicker just hanging out.

It's a mealworm party going on.

And here's a sneak peak at something with wings I've been painting.