Cards for Ukraine - Sunflowers

Yesterday on IG cardmakers were asked to post Cards for Ukraine.  I took a little time in the stamp cave to go through my stash and found some leftovers from previous projects to put this card together.  The sunflower and flowers are die cuts from The Greetery.  The blue and yellow background papers - in the colors of the Ukrainian flag - were amongst many yellow and blue papers that I had used for our daughter's graduation scrapbook as they were her college colors.

I posted the start of my mini sunflower canvasses the other day.  I took the basic flower on the right and added linework with my Posca pens to make them more realistic.  

The squares are 4 x 4 and the rectangles are 4 x 6.  I'm debating whether to add any splatter to them before I package them up for Art and Found Day.  They've already been sealed with fixative but I can do that again if needed.  There's still time to decide.  

And whilst I was going through my stuff I found another blue and white card that was a duplicate of a card I used for Rachel a couple of years ago.  

I collect words, quotations, poems, etc. in a notebook and yesterday I added this with a little illustration.

I've been following Max from Dancing With the Stars fame on IG as I had seen that he was in Ukraine working as a judge on their DWTS show when this horror began.  It has been very eye opening to see what he and his friends are seeing and have been through - unedited.  Our news programs are very sanitized and they show you the bombs going off in the distance and the remains of buildings that were fired upon but they don't show you the carnage in the streets or the blood-stained faces of children.  And I'm sure that there are many that say that we don't have to see that.  But I think that this just contributes to a disconnect with reality.  It's not like a video game or a movie.   

Max talked about how it took 31 hours for him to get to Poland by train and how guilty he felt taking up space as a healthy man who was leaving to return to his home in the US amongst an overstuffed carload of mostly women and children who had to leave their homes and husbands behind.  How he watched the mothers try to comfort their children, especially those that were old enough to realize what was happening.  He talks about a dancing friend of his from Poland who has been transporting people from the Ukraine to Poland in his personal vehicle.  He has thanked the Polish people over and over again for their sacrifices to help the people of Ukraine.  And he has warned that if they take Ukraine they could also go after Latvia, Moldova, Lithuania, any country nearby.  

I made the cards and painted the pictures as a response to this trying time.  But that was for me to feel like I was doing something.  I've (we've) also made a monetary donation to help with gas and medical supplies for the refugees in the hope that it will actually help in some way.  And I continue to pray. 

Happy Flying Pig Day 2022

I have used "dream" as the sentiment for this year's Flying Pig Day card.   Over these last few years, and particularly now at this time when the world finally seams to be headed towards healing from the sickness that has plagued us, we now have another kind of world-wide catastrophe to deal with.  Our dreams include that of peace.  

Later this month I planned to participate in International Art & Found Day (3/12) - a day when artists from around the world will leave works of art randomly in their communities for others to find.  I was planning on painting some small canvasses with my flying pigs and as per the instructions, leave them safely wrapped with a note and the appropriate hashtag.  So today I did manage to do a couple of pigs.

But I was also inspired to paint some sunflowers on a blue background.  I have seen many posts from people using the colors of the flag and national flower of Ukraine in their artwork as a show of support so I directed my attention to these that are almost done. They're just awaiting some pen work and sealing and then I will prepare them for abandonment in the hope that someone will find it and take the time to post to the hashtag that it has been found.  I'll follow up with the finished products in a future post.

I did have another pig project today that I thought I would get done but didn't.  HWNSNBP found a pattern a while ago for a flying pig whirlygig which he did cut out of wood for me.  It got set aside for one reason or another and was recently refound when he was "cleaning" out the basement.  I know when it's done it will be a nice addition to the backyard.  If you remember, he made a shark whirlygig for GS1 a few years ago (click here for picture).  It should be ready for flying soon!

From Bunnies to Pizza

So, back before Christmas I purchased two of these microfiber mop clothes at The Dollar Tree to use as a beard for a gnome project.  I didn't quite like the way it turned out and wound up ordering some white fur for that but never refinished it to post... maybe for next Christmas.  In the meantime, I got another idea to use the one that hadn't been sacrificed already.  

I turned it over and made a slit down about 3 inches on one side and then took my hot glue gun and glued those together so you can see the fluff on both sides.

Then I took a short length of cotton string and tied it around the base of those two that are now ears.

I took another length of string and tied that completely around the cloth about 1 1/2" from the last tie to make the head and body.

And then I kept it simple by tying a layered bow around the neck and adding a flower-shaped button.  I decided for now not to add a face, but two button eyes and a pink pom pom nose with some whiskers might be in the future.  It is flat on the back for now, but I'm thinking I can glue the other saved 1/2 to the back on the bottom and weight and stuff it to stand up on it's own.  It's soooooo soft.

I did see a bunny out on the driveway the other night before I went to bed.  I usually turn that light on to check the back yard and there it was.  I think it was going to have a drink in the birdbath but I frightened it away.  

We had a coating of ice the other day and I stopped at the end of the driveway to take a picture of the branch that was heavy with ice and skimmed the top of the car.

When the sun did come out, there was a brief period of time when all that ice was illuminated before it quickly melted enough to tumble to the ground.

The roads were in good shape so HWNSNBP and I decided to take a ride to the Home and Garden Show at the expo center.  I told him that I would only go if we could get there when it opened because I wanted to avoid the crowd that would come later in the evening.  We were there as some of the vendors were still setting up, but no crowd.  

I picked out a pot of pink tulips you see here next to what's left of my Valentine's flowers.

On the way home you could see the sunlight spilling from the clouds.

When we got home there was a package from HWNSNBP employer containing all the ingredients for making a pizza which we'll probably do sometime next week, because on Saturday night we had one of our annual Table 7 events - pizza night where the guys make the pizza while the women sit and catch up.  It's always a fun time full of laughs and reminiscing.  The hosts supply the dough, sauce, and cheese and we bring toppings.  HWNSNBP wanted to bring some loose cooked sausage so I fried that up before we went.  

I also made a "cookie pizza" to bring for a dessert.  I used this recipe from Sally's Baking Addiction which turned out well.  This recipe has a little cornstarch in it which gives a nice texture to the cookie.  I think I might try adding some to my regular chocolate chip recipe (the one on the bag) to see if I get the same results.  I also brought along a bottle of caramel sauce to drizzle on - yum!

Hard to believe that we're already at the end of February!

February Color Flash and a Birthday

Though the days haven't all been that sunny recently there have been points when the color was found, like in this dollar store puzzle that I did.  I got the bug to start this later in the evening and wound up staying up much too late for HWNSNBP's liking.  But once I got going it was inevitable I wouldn't stop till I was done.

The view to my left one sunny midday illuminated the glass and beaded things scattered amongst the plant shelf.  Even the plants themselves gave in to a little translucency with the sun shining on them.

And not so colorful in itself, but on a colorful backdrop is the card I made for our son's birthday.

I found some scrapbook paper with fish on it and paired that with some map paper and the whale die cut to make a masculine card.  I thought I had taken a picture of the inside of the card where I stamped more fish in Versamark but I can't seem to find it on my phone or my computer.  It was a stamp that had both fresh and salt water fish on it.  I wasn't sure for a fact that these fish on the front were salt water, though they could be.  I'm sure he didn't know.  

Getting ready for another bout of winter overnight.  I had a couple of appointments in the morning and have managed to reschedule the earliest one so I don't have to worry about the forecasted icing.  Someone said they heard the spring peepers last night as it was almost up to 70º yesterday.  I sure hope they won't freeze.  There has also been an abundance of bluebirds hanging out in the back these last couple of days.  I think they might be house shopping soon.  We'll see. HWNSNBP has to replace the nesting box up on the hill due to the wear on the roof and hinges.  I'm hoping that they will not be deterred by "newer" digs.  I remember it took several years for them to be enticed to that original box to begin with - until it looked a little aged.  Fingers crossed.

Jingle Belles - Stocking Holiday

This fortnight we had a visual challenge featuring this cool picture of these colorful stockings hanging from a fireplace.  I love all the color in those stockings.

My fireplace is brick but it's white brick which, unfortunately doesn't photograph well, but I hope you can make it out.  I used a die set I had gotten a while ago and the stockings are also die cut from a different set that included them hung on a bed frame.  

The stockings were cut from some colorful scrapbook paper that had a smaller print on it in various colors which I hoped resembled the stockings in the photo just a little.  The mantel is decorated minimally with a sign as you can see.  

I'm really squeaking in under the wire today.  So please click here to check out all the other Jingle Belle entries for this challenge.  See you there!.

Edited to add:  Well, my fumble fingers screwed it up and I missed the deadline by about 30 seconds.  Still, I have another card to add to my stash for the holidays and that's what counts.

Just Minding My Business When........

Look who showed up at the little heated birdbath outside the sliding door.  It's been out there for a little less than two weeks and it seems Mr. Blue is the only one who is brave enough to come for a drink.

It has to be this close to the house to be used without an extension cord.  And it's only in the "on" or "heating" state when the temperature is at or below freezing (or so the manual says).  But we've had some pretty low temperatures the last two weeks and it hasn't frozen up.  The rock is in it for two reasons.  One - to give the birds somewhere to land if they don't want to sit on the edge.   And two - to keep it from being blown over as it is very lightweight.

Saturday afternoon our phones blew up with not one but two emergency alerts for an approaching snow squall.  We've never had such and "emergency" before to my recollection.  It was bewildering at best because the sky was clear and blue at the time.  I could see on the radar on the weather app that it was approaching  though.  

The wind was pretty intense, but we never got to "white out" conditions, at least not here on Bluebird Hill.  You can see the windsock was completely sideways and the moving trees were a little scary, but none of them gave it and broke.  Thank goodness.

I mentioned Bluebird Hill - that is the name that we have given to our weather station that HWNSNBP recently installed up on the pool deck.  We have a screen in the house with the weather info and we have it hooked up so that we also have it posted on the internet on the Weather Underground (click here).  I had been keeping track of the daily high and low temps all of last year and posted about it earlier in January.  I wanted to do it again but with data that was more accurate for our actual location so I looked into this weather station on Amazon and we got it.  There is no charge for the website which is nice, and it gives me the info historically also in case I miss a day or we're away.  I do have a definite project in mind for this data and I'm collecting my supplies for it before I can begin.  I'll share when it gets up and running.

Another project below that I'm presently working on.  For the first time that I can remember I'm disappointed with something that I got at the Dollar Tree.  Thankfully, HWNSNBP was able to get me a replacement so I can continue to complete this on time.

Happy Valentine's Day

 

My little Valentine vignette amongst the orchid display.  I recently bought that lighted tree on Amazon and plan to decorate it for each of the holidays.  Right now it is full of hearts.

I die cut some gnomes and dressed them up for V-Day.

This one's hanging by his hat.

Sabrina gifted me the woven heart die and I have about 8 of them hanging on the lemon tree. They are cut out of various shades of red and pink and some have white.  I added the ribbon flowers to them because why not.

These ornaments are made with glitter foam sheets.  I saw the videos on Pinterest and ordered the foam sheets before Christmas but didn't get around to making the Christmas themed ornaments so I found one for hearts.  You cut the foam into strips according to the pattern and they are held together with hot glue.  They are not hard to do.....only an occasional finger burn and very little errant glitter from the sheets.  Hopefully I'll get to the Christmas ones before Christmas this time.

There are 3 of the pink and 3 of the red on the lemon tree also.

And here is the other hanging gnome.... I wondered where he went.

And the word of the day today........

Hope you had a wonderful Valentine's Day!

Blogoversary

Hard to believe that I started this 14 years ago today.  Yes.  Really.  I got a bit lost looking back through my archives.  I was surprised to see that I have made 2,190 posts and that there are 7 more unpublished.  I didn't realize I had that many unpublished and that most of those were from 2020 which I also was surprised to see had the lowest number of posts for a year.  One would have thought with the state that we were in in 2020 that there would have been more, but no.  It took a bit of time to go back and see if indeed they were complete posts that weren't published or if they were duplicates or unfinished ones.  Most of them were complete and I'm debating if I should go ahead and publish them or just keep them in my queue.  We'll see how that turns out.  But as for today.....

We decided to take a drive up to the Great Swamp Nursery today because I had seen that they had the heart-shaped hoya cactus in for Valentine's Day and I have been wanting one.  And it wanted a little friend so we got that too.

They had a nice selection of blooming plants including a lot of orchids.

And one beautiful anthurium.

On the way home I coaxed HWNSNBP into a little side trip to a place we hadn't visited yet not too far from our house - Tim Horton's.  Specifically, I wanted to try their jelly donuts because I had recently read that they were very good.  First we had to determine if they had a drive-through because we had to get back by a certain time for a meeting he had and we didn't want to have to go in.  Secondly, I had to know what flavor the jelly was (I try to stay away from strawberry because I had an allergic reaction to it in the past although I can eat fresh strawberries).  The menu board outside didn't have the choice of jelly donut on it.... creme-filled yes, but not jelly so he asked and they said they did and it was black raspberry filled.  When we asked for 2 the attendant said "2 dozen" and we quickly corrected him to 2.  And then HWNSNBP ordered a honey crueller which came out of the blue.  But I could hardly contain myself when we pulled up to the window to pay and the attendant called my husband "boss".  "That'll be $.... Boss." and I got a side-eye glance from my husband as I was trying to keep from laughing out loud.  And then he handed him the bag - "here ya go Boss"- and I couldn't keep it in any longer as we quickly pulled away.  I have to say that that conversation alone was worth the trip but I am also glad that the jelly donut was very good and maybe I'll have to send "Boss" back again sometime.

And I'll share a little project that I recently completed.

My LOVE letters are made from recycled TP tubes painted and cut in the shape of the letters L O V E.  I saw this on the Super Make It blog.  They painted the letters in solid colors but I decided to do mine in a chaos pattern of reds, pinks, magenta, orange, and white.  I'm debating whether to do any paint pen decorations on them.  I've got a small stash of TP tubes so I guess I could do another set and see which looks best.  I put these in front of my tray of orchids that I've decorated for Valentine's Day and I'll show in a future post.  

I wish I had made this post earlier in the day but I kept getting distracted.  The last distraction was that HWNSNBP couldn't find his phone and he wanted to go up to bed.  So I tried calling it to no avail as he wandered from room to room getting more and more frustrated.  He even went out to the garage - TWICE - to check the car and his workshop.  Twenty minutes and 11 calls to his phone later I found it on top of some cleaning products in the bathroom as I was getting ready to go back to the last place he had been when he picked up our dinner tonight.  We don't do big gifts for Christmas, just small stuff.  And one of the things that I got him this year was the "tiles" that you can put on your phone or keys to be able to locate them, even if your phone is turned off.   His phone is on but the volume is down so low you can't hear it and the tiles would work around that too...... if I could just get him to set them up!!!  

I know what we'll be working on tomorrow when I get home from the dentist which I'm not looking forward to.  I'm supposed to get the post for the implant that was started last spring and I know that it will not be a pleasant experience.