Pictures of Ruby

I'm in the bay area visiting friends and family until August 1st when I return home to Coarsegold.

My first visit was with Darcy and her 3 month old Ruby. I've seen pictures of Ruby but this is the first time I've seen her in person She sure is a charmer and a cutie too! I thought I'd take more pictures of Ruby but I was so mesmerized observing mother and daughter that I didn't even think of taking pictures. It sure is a special bond between a mother and a child and I'm happy I was able to visit with the two girls for an extensive amount of time over 2 days. It was great catching up with Darcy and seeing her little angel Ruby, her smile lights up the room!

I snapped the picture below just as Ruby was getting ready to sneeze, it's kinda cute and good timing on my part.

This next picture of her is how she looks after she's been fed, very content and just looking around.

This last picture shows one of her favorite things to do. She LOVES to put a few fingers in her mouth at a time and even tries to put her whole fist in too.

I'm going to visit Darcy and Ruby next week for a few hours, I'm really looking forward to it. Also, Darcy took a few pictures of me holding Ruby so when I receive them I'll post them here.

Crankbunny Etsy Site

My friend Rose sent me an email with a link to Crankbunny's Etsy site (http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5049568) and I want to share it with you all. This woman is very creative and sells pop-up cards, paper puppets and other things. Check out the link above.

My favorite pop-up cards are Let Them Eat Cake (the whole thing is just so clever)

and Red Blooming. The color of the flower is so vibrant, I could see it on a desk or table on display.

I want to see what she comes up with in the future so I've added Crankbunny's blog to my Craft Links on my blog.

My favorite thing about blogging is sharing websites, pictures, thoughts, etc. with everyone, it's alot of fun!!

The Shires are Here!

I went out to water the lawn this morning I heard the shires out in the field so I ran inside to get my camera of course. Ellen and Patrick board horses here on their land and the shires were brought here over the weekend when I wasn't here.

As you can see there are two adults and one baby shire.

I don't know why horses face opposite each other like this, maybe it's to keep each other cool while fanning each others faces with their tails? Don't think so but let me know if you know.

They are really BIG, alot bigger than horses. The adult tan and creme shire let me pet his nose for a while then backed off. The chestnut colored shire wasn't interested in being petted at all, not this time anyway.

The baby shire really liked it when I pet his nose, especially with both hands. He's a sweetie but needs a little bit of a comb on his hair up front, it was all matted and had weeds in it. Only a human female like me would think like that!

They are beautiful animals and it's nice to have them a stones throw from the cottage.

I've Moved Cards

I made five of these moving cards and am sending them only to a few people, even though I sent out an e-mail with my new mailing address information. I've never used this stamp set before and I really like it. I enjoyed using my paint brushes, water and the different ink colors on the chair stamp and the items on and surrounding the chair. Below is a picture of all the components I used. I got the idea of using the housing rental want ads from another moving card I saw, it's such a clever idea I had to use it.

Below is a close-up of the stamp using three different ink colors which I then matched with the corresponding cs. Since I couldn't find an I've Moved stamp (they all said We've Moved) I printed them from the computer. I used regular printing paper but you can also put cs through the printer. I used the large and small tag punches and an eyelet and you have your tags. They're very quick and easy to make.

Here is the card assembled. I like the blue card the best but then I'm partial to blue.

Bogart and Mace

I finally found the cable that connects to my camera and uploaded the pictures from pet sitting last week.

Mace the cat didn't do this the first time I pet sat but this time, whenever I was on the computer he would try and jump up on the desk where the computer was all the while talking to me so I understood what he wanted. To deter him from doing this I put some pillows on a chair and placed it next to my chair. He always laid on the chair when I was at the computer and even a few times when I wasn't. He'd sit on the chair and look out the sliding glass door or in most cases sleep like he's doing in this picture. I think he liked it there. For some reason I love it when cats curl up like this.

Here is a picture of Bogart the dog waiting for me to pet him. He is such a sweetie and so lovable and just loves it when I rub his tummy. He's fed twice a day and the first night I forgot he needed to be fed in the evening, but he had his way of reminding me. Around 5:00pm he would get all hyper and excited and kept running back and forth into rooms until I realized why. He's one smart cookie, especially when it comes to feeding time!!

I wasn't able to upload the video I took of my place. I've had problems uploading quite a few times and I need to check the Blogger Help section before I try it again. Also, I need to read the directions for the camera on how to take a movie, it was going in and out of focus and that's not fun to look at.

Finished Moving

I can't believe it's been 2 weeks since I posted here on my blog, it seems like a month ago! I forgot how taxing and draining moving can be, both physically and emotionally, but I got it done. Yeah!

I did some pet sitting last week and this past Sunday I finally spent the first night in my cottage. It's been a rough few days but I'm making progress and am getting things organized here at home.

I took some pictures of Mace and Bogart, the pets I did sitting for last week. And this morning I took a video of the chaos in my cottage, for a before and after look at it. Now all I have to do is find the cable that connects the camera to my computer, that may take a day or two but I'll upload everything when I find it.

As William Langland wrote in 1377 "Patience is a virtue".

Pictures

I've been sorting and packing boxes for my move and have come across some pictures I want to share now that I'm blogging.

This is a picture taken about 1958/1959 of me in my papa's arms in Endicott, New York, which is where I was born. The color of the leaves are so beautiful and with my dad smiling it's a great picture. In August 2005 I took a trip with my parents to visit the home we lived in when I was born, which is where this picture was taken. We visited alot of other places relevant to my mom and dads upbringing but I'll share those pictures at a later date.

The picture below is dated July 1961 and I'm 2 1/2 years old. I thought we lived in Los Angeles 1960 - 1969 but I don't remember living in any brick houses in LA. It could be in Alabama when my dad was still in the military, it's where Scott, my younger brother was born. In any event I really like the picture, aren't I cute and so innocent looking?!!

This picture is of my mom holding three chickens. It doesn't have a date though I think it was taken on the farm in New Bremen, Ohio, maybe on a trip home from when she was attending Ohio State University. My mom has many stories about living on the farm though she doesn't like to talk about most of them.

That's all I have to share for now, more to come later.

Card Technique Class

Ellen held the first of many card techniques classes to come. It was last Saturday evening and we learned four different techniques.

The first is Reverse Masking which is the center circle part of the card. Also, Ellen had punched some flowers out that we adhered to the cs with dimentional's. I love it because it's very easy to do and I love pink at the moment, it's very girly.

The next technique is Bleach Stamping which is seen on the dark brown cs below. This technique can be done with just about any stamp set but works best with non-solid stamps, ones that have outlines as you can see below.

The third technique is Brayered Rose using the Manhattan Flower die. For this technique the raised portion of the flower is faced DOWN onto the work surface and the rubber brayer is used to apply the different colored inks. The possibilities are endless with this technique because you can use whatever ink combinations you like. I am definitely going to make more of these in the near future, they are very and pretty and very easy to make.

The last technique is Faux Silk using tissue paper with StazOn ink. We also used the Aqua Painter to fill in the butterfly and leaves with various colors of ink. I like to use a paint brush to color in stamped images because it doesn't bleed as you can see in the image below. Of course this partially happened because we're using tissue paper instead of regular weight cs. This is also my first time using the Aqua Painter so with more practice I'm sure I'd be able to control the ink bleeding. It's all a matter of preference and what you're most comfortable using.

We all have a small binder where we put these 6" x 6" card sample techniques and directions so we can refer to them in the future. It's a great idea and I hope to incorporate more techniques in my cards.

It was a fun class with the gals and I'm looking forward to the next technique class. That's all folks!