Tuesday, January 31, 2017

Think Spring!

It snowed last night!  About an
inch.  I don't know if we will
get any more or not, but I don't
think so.  So, to bring Spring a little
closer (I wish)  I have a card
with cute little birds on it.


They are tweeting (get it?  LOL)
"Spring,  hurry and get here!"
 They're my birds so I get to
decide what they are singing
about!  My story.
 
The cat is out of the bag with
Coleen.  She texted yesterday
and wanted to know if I was
signing "This I believe" on Sunday.
I said, yes, but I thought I might
like to try "Only King forever" as
well.  She loved the idea!  Everyone 
has much more faith in me than
I do.  We are going to meet Thursday
for dinner so she can show me a
couple things she changed to make
it easier to sign.  I like that idea!
 
Tomorrow the birds are going to
get groomed.  They are getting
very sharp!  Especially Lili.  It's
more noticeable on a 2 lb. bird.
Well, I'm not exactly sure how
much she weighs, they do it
in ounces and I'm too lazy to look
for last visit's paper.  But she's
at least a pound and half.  She's 
heavy at any rate.  She's moulting
like crazy, so it's a good time to
get it done.  Anyone want a 
bunch of small red feathers?
 
My father has come into the 21st
century, gotten a smart phone and
I taught him how to text!  It's not
a good way to have a long conversation,
but he can send quick messages.  He's
enjoying it.  Also the emoticons.  I
call them smilies for him to make it
easier.  I didn't think to show him the
microphone, my sister mentioned
it.  So the next time I see him,
I think I will show him that.  It will
make it much easier.
 
Happy Tuesday!
 

Monday, January 30, 2017

Another little note

Sorry I was MIA yesterday.  It was 
a difficult day.

As you can probably surmise, the
little note, just a note, etc. are my
favourite stamps!  So here is another:


The paper behind the stitching is some
more of the glitzy glitter paper.
It looks much better used this way.
Less is better sometimes.
 
My song was OK yesterday.  I faltered
on a couple of the verse parts, but I looked
over at Coleen and got them, even  if a
 little behind.  The chorus I had down pat.
I'm thinking of doing two next week
as I think I can do the first one we're
singing.  Judy, don't say anything to
Coleen . I want to wait until Saturday
to see if I can pull it off, LOL.  But I'm
sure I can do the second because I've
done that one before.  I think it's 
important for me to try at least.
 
The roads were fine yesterday.  Saturday
when I came home from practice
there was an icy mist going on.  I got 
off the highway early so I could go 
slower and nearly slid off the exit
ramp.  Talk about scary!  I was praying
the whole way and God got 
me home safely.
 
No other news beyond it's still cold.
When, oh when will summer be here
again?  LOL.  I'm glad we haven't
had much snow and even the cold
isn't too bad most of the time but
the wind cuts right through you.
It's not too great to drive in, either.
 
Happy Monday!
 

Saturday, January 28, 2017

Amazing friend

Well, first and foremost, I have
to say that Jesus is an amazing friend.
Since I can't send the card to Him
I don't know who to send it to
because I have SO MANY
amazing friends! I love how it 
turned out!


And speaking of amazing, I'm planning
to sign "Amazing Grace (my chains
are gone) on Sunday.   I went to
deaf chat last night and an amazing
friend, Judy, (keeping with the theme,
 lol) went over some of the signs with
me and we'll go to practice tonight.
I am pretty comfortable with most
of it, but there are a couple things
I'm not sure of.  A couple things I
would change, too, if I had glossed
the song.  For instance, for the
phrase "unending love"  I
would have signed it "continue love"
rather than "forever love" but
that's me.  Since the other
signers will be signing "forever
love"  I'll go with the crowd...! 
I've never glossed a song, so I
don't know what I'm doing anyway!
We had a little bit of snow flurry
last night, but the wind was
terrible.  The drive to Auburn is
a little more than half an hour
and my car isn't aerodynamic.
So I'm all over the road.  Very
annoying.  It makes everything
worse in the dark.  I'm not fond
of night driving anyway. 
Happy Saturday!


Friday, January 27, 2017

Winter is back

Fortunately all we got was a very
light dusting of snow.  I  heard
possibly 1-2 inches.  I'm sure it's
not over.  I'd prefer it wasn't on 
the weekend as I have a lot to do....

So to bring Spring a little closer,
another hummingbird card.  It
didn't turn out the way I meant
for it to so I had to revise my
idea.  The paper I got at JoAnn's
and is called glitzy glitter.  I
ordinarily don't use paper like
this because it's hard to adhere
anything to it, but this is flat and 
accepts adhesives.


That's some serious bling, huh?  I like
it but a little goes a long way and I
think the entire mat being that
paper is probably too much.    Trial
and error.  But I still like it.  This time
I remembered to chalk the bird.
You can see light pink along the
throat and belly.

 
Tonight is the deaf chat.  I wish
I could get over my shyness with
people I don't know and get more
confidence in my signing.  One lady
talked to me a little last time, but
I have a tendency to not put myself
out there if the people are deaf
or hearing.  You'd think as much
as I've been there I'd be better
at it, but I'm not.  I mostly just
watch, but that improves
my receptive skills so it's not
like it's a waste of time or
anything.  If I see her tonight
I've determined that I will smile
and say hello to her.  I always worry
that people will think I'm standoffish
when I'm actually just shy.  Now, anyone
who knows me will say I am NOT shy,
but given the circumstances of not
knowing people and also not being
secure in my signing makes me
that way.  Or if I'm in a crowd and
new experience for instance, going
to a new church or dinner party, etc.
Enough of that!  I'm going to hit
the treadmill.
 
Happy Friday!!!
 

Thursday, January 26, 2017

You're gonna make it after all!

I was so sad to hear that Mary
Tyler Moore died yesterday.  Such
an icon that they cut into regular
programming to announce it.  I
loved the Mary Tyler Moore
show where they were in the
newsroom.  My favourite show
was "Chuckles the clown".  What
was yours?

I have a couple bookmarks to
show today:



I bought a new corner punch the other
day (one of the things I treated myself
to when I realized I'd shorted myself
$60.!)  It has three different punches
in one.  It was also on sale so I
could hardly pass it up.  I don't
have a clue why I have been making
bookmarks lately.  I almost never
read, but when I was younger
I was a voracious reader.  I could
go through 4-5 books a week.  As I
got older I got more into TV.  They
have better shows on-and many more
channels.  Although on Saturdays 
and Sundays even with all those channels
there's still nothing on!  Go figure.
 
It's cold and rainy out this morning
but I hear it's supposed to snow
tonight.  There goes that "S"
word again.  And my wonderful
brother texted me yesterday
lamenting about laying around in
front of the pool.  I'm still in the
market for a new brother.  Any
volunteers?
 
Happy Thursday!
 

Wednesday, January 25, 2017

I won the fight (sort of)

I fought  this card for hours yesterday
trying to make it since I couldn't
find a tutorial for it.  It's still not 
right, but it's right enough.  I got
tired of trying!  So for better or
worse, here's the card:


I'm not going to say where it's still
not right.  I had to hold it closed so
you can see my fingers down at the
bottom!  But all in all, I think it
turned out OK.
It's still not too bad outside, but I 
hear that's not going to last for
long.  Why oh why can't it be
summer again??
I made a $60. mistake in my checkbook
which I just found out about yesterday.
In my favour!!  So I treated myself
to a little trip to JoAnn's.  While I was
there I ran into the manager (Or owner?)
Anyway, I asked her if they were planning
on not selling as much scrapbooking
stuff because it was all on sale and seems
to be diminishing.  She said absolutely
not, that they were expanding it!  I
was really happy about that because there
are things that you can get there that
Hobby Lobby doesn't carry.  I was afraid
that with Hobby Lobby there that
they might lose some business and stop
selling scrapbooking things.    There's a
JoAnn's superstore but it's in Fort Wayne.
I only go there if I have to get bird food
or very occasionally if I want to get
out of the house and drive for an hour....
Happy hump day!

Tuesday, January 24, 2017

Smile!!

I do love my word dies.  I brought
out another die to play with as well,
my lattice background die.  I love
it and don't use it enough.


Apparently I cut off the bottom of
the card when I photographed it,
and didn't notice.  Sorry about that.
But you get the idea.   I'm sure
everyone is getting tired of the 
stitched cards even though I'm
not, so I thought I'd throw in a
couple "regular" cards.
 
I've been fighting all morning with
another style card that I think
I finally have gotten right.  I'm
missing my engineer right now.
John was always good at looking
at something and figuring out
how to make it work.  He really
loved my cards and encouraged
me.  He also would go to craft
stores with me and if I was looking
for a particular thing he would zero
in and find it if it was there.  Give
him a mission and he was a happy
man!  I miss him.
 
The weather guy was saying the
"s" word last night.  I hate how they
swear on TV.  I do not want to
hear the "s" word.  I thought maybe
we could just segway into Spring
and have it done with, but I knew
that was probably too much to
ask for.  I can hope!
 
Happy Tuesday!
 

Monday, January 23, 2017

Family.....

Yesterday I got a text from my considerate
younger brother informing me that it
would be 81 in Florida that day.  Then
today I get a text from my sister saying
that they are having thunderstorms.
I currently in the market for a new
brother and sister.  Any takers??    Well,
Maybe someday soon it will be 81
with thunderstorms here.  I can only hope.

Speaking of Hope...


The jury is still out on if I like this card
or not.  It's different.  It was hard to get
a picture with the gold cardstock.  And
working with it under the light was blinding!
I love how it looks on a card, but you can't
see what you're doing in the dark or the
light with the shiny gold.  I saw a 
couple pictures on pinterest today that
I want to try.  They are really pretty
cards.  One of them, though, I don't
have a clue how she made it so I
will have to surf around and see if I
can find a tutorial.
 
The song went well  yesterday.  I faltered
just a little at one point and let's just say
I did it all better at home, but then that's
expected, I guess.  All in all, I was happy 
with how I did.  One step at a time.  It's
huge enough for me to just turn around
to face the congregation!
 
Happy Monday!
 

Sunday, January 22, 2017

Junior mints hot cocoa!

I was getting rice yesterday at
the store and across the aisle was
the coffee.  I glanced at it as I was
walking by and saw junior mint
hot cocoa!  I just had to try it and
It is SO GOOD!!!  If you have
a keurig I highly recommend trying it.



Aren't these cute bookmarks?  My friend,
Coleen, has a weiner dog so when I saw
this I had to make it for her.  I should
not say this, but the reason the dumb
hearts are there is because when I was
inking it I got a smudge of ink right
in the middle.  Then it didn't look right
with only one heart so I put a couple
more on. I see I forgot to ink the other
one, so I'd better do that before I forget.
This time I was careful not to get ink
where it didn't belong.
Today in church I am signing "Worshiping
You".  I was going to do another one but
I kept messing up the signs.  It's not a
problem of knowing HOW to sign something,
the problem comes in trying to  keep up
with a song and getting multiple things
like "I believe" with different words
behind.  (In God the Father, in Jesus 
Christ...etc) Then I start getting them
mixed up.  Not to mention that when
you sing "Our God is greater" the gloss
has you signing "You best" .  That's very
confusing.  Singing one thing and signing
another is not as easy as it might seem!
But I am comfortable in doing this song.
As I sign more songs I'll get better at
it, I'm sure.  I also  have a low
frustration level and that doesn't
help.  I expect to be perfect and 
that's not possible.  As my dad says,
"There are only two perfect people
that ever walked the earth and that's
Jesus Christ and John"!  Inside joke, lol.
John thought he was perfect and 
wasn't afraid to say so!  He didn't
have many self esteem problems, let's
just say that!   
Happy Sunday Enjoy this weather
if you're in this neck of the woods.  I'm
afraid it's not going to last.

Saturday, January 21, 2017

Behind the mask

Our church showed this movie last 
night.  It's not really my cup of tea, 
but Pam and I went out and had a
coke later and visited so that
was fun.  It's an action film that
has a lot of fighting and killing,
a little loving and some talking
of God and His love.  Not a bad
movie if you like that kind.  

I have two styles of cross cards
that I made.  I think I like the oval 
one the best.



It looks like I have the gems crooked, though.
Oh, well. you can tell it's hand made if
by no other way than the mistakes!  I
generally don't make/send Easter cards
but these crosses lend themselves to
cards like that, baptism, etc.  How often
do you use things like that?  Not sure
why I got them....Because I could and I 
had a coupon, of course!
 
Cody and Pam posted a pic of them on
facebook:
 

It looks like they're at dinner somewhere.
Aren't they cute?!  He's got the best wife
ever and I can prove it because I picked
her out!  They say they have an arranged
marriage because her mother and I worked
together and used to joke about them getting
married someday.  After they met
they started dating and the rest is history!
I have to say, I won the lottery in 
daughters in law, though.  The other
two are pretty amazing, too!  If I couldn't
have daughters then they are the next
best thing!  Besides, I didn't have to
change diapers with them!  LOL!
 
It's pretty warm out there!  Still a little
foggy, but that will probably dissipate  
before the morning is over.  Is it too much
to ask for no more cold and snow?  Probably.
 
Happy Saturday!
 
 
 

Friday, January 20, 2017

Happy ignauration day!

How many of you will watch the
TV coverage?  I have some movies
I would like to get caught up on.
Before you burn me at the stake,
who cares about all the pomp and
circumstance?  Show me what kind
of president you will be.  I think if
he lost his blow-hard attitude and
quietly and with a dignified air
proved all the nay-sayers wrong,
he would probably be better off, 
but that's just my opinion.  Personally,
I keep myself out of the political 
ring, but since this is a big day, I
felt I would weigh in just a little.

Now on to less controversial
things.  Here is my card for the
day.  I decided to post a "normal"
card, but there are more stitched 
cards to come so I hope you are not
sick of them yet!


My friend, Karen, sent me a bunch
of these swirls.  There is a name for
the die, but I can't remember and 
am too lazy to look for it.  At any
rate, I think it looks fantastic on
the back ground of distress inks.
I wonder how it would look on the
marbeled paper?  I guess I'll have
to try that out.  I like the card.  It
turned out just like I expected.
 
It's been raining a bit today. I hear
it is going to be more later.   I also
heard that we're going to get a 
warm up!  Maybe it will stay that way
and Spring will come early.  We
have Winters that come ridiculously
early, why not Spring?  Well, a 
girl can hope, can't she?
 
Happy Friday!
 

Thursday, January 19, 2017

Yellow and orange

Here are the flowers that
are NOT in pink!!


I'm not sure I like the corners but
I needed something different.  I was
getting tired of the same old thing.
I found a site that has tons of
pricking patterns--for FREE!!
Some of them are just the patterns
and don't tell you how to stitch but
as many are just abstract, borders,
etc.  I can figure those out for myself.
I am so excited!  I just think the stitching
is so pretty and it's relaxing.  Another
bonus is that I can do it in the living
room rather than my craft room.
Speaking of which, I finally got a
new cutting pad for my desk.  The other
one is soooo old and keeps coming up 
on one corner, even if I turn it around.
They're expensive so I've been putting
it off but finally I'd had enough. And
then stupid me, I realized I had a
20% off coupon at JoAnn's and could
have gotten 40% off at hobby lobby.
I was in Walmart and I just decided
to get it.  I really need to think these
things through more carefully.
I took B'Elanna out this morning
and I swear it smells like someone
sprayed perfume in the air.  Sickeningly
sweet perfume.  I have no idea where
it's coming from, but I'd rather smell
the break from McDonalds!  Yum!
Going out to lunch today with my
friend, Dianne.  How about you?
I hope you have some fun plans.
Happy Thursday!

Wednesday, January 18, 2017

Colo the gorilla

I saw today that Colo, who lived in
Columbus, died yesterday.  At 60, she 
surpassed the normal gorilla age
 by two decades.  I don't know how
Ringling brothers treated their
elephants, and I'm sad to see
the circus go, but (and forgive me
if you are a PETA advocate) this
proves that animals are doing
well in zoos.  We went to the
Columbus zoo several years
ago and the animals there
had lots of stimulation,
toys to play with, and seemed
to be enjoying life in enclosures
that resembled their lives in
the wild as closely as possible.
Yes, things go wrong.  But overall,
having these animals in zoos not
only helps keep them from going
extinct, but as Steve Irwin was
fond of saying, "If you see the
animal you want to save it".
Animals in Africa, the rainforest,
wherever, are wonderful.  But we
don't have any personal knowledge of
them and will probably never
travel to Africa or the outback
of Australia.  This will be the
"normal" person's only chance to
see them.  OK, I'm off my soapbox
and my sympathies go out to everyone
at the Columbus zoo as they  mourn
the loss of this beautiful animal.

Onto the card:


This card has the marbeled cardstock
background.  I think it would have
been better with a darker colour
because it doesn't seem to show off the
corner die cut as well, but it's a
little darker in person.  If I do
something like that again, I may
do a black and white and then
the sentiment in red.  I think that
would be striking.  I like those
three colours together.
It's rainy and windy out this morning,
but I hear it will be in the mid 40's later.
As long as it's not snowy and icy I
guess I'm not complaining-too much!!
Happy hump day!!

great design, not so great colour!

This card didn't come out like I hoped. I don't like the colour of the card stock. But it's still a great design. ...