Stanley helped me do things right

We've been seeing more and more spring like weather and even signs that spring really is going to grace us with it's presence this year.
A couple weekends ago I got out in the yard to do a little cleaning up. I don't know why I don't rake up all those leaves in the fall.

Just this past weekend I found things growing. Here's the Hosta poking out of the ground.

And would you look at that. The trees are going to actually have leaves on them after all.

On a side note. It was one year ago today that I smoked my last cigarette. I made it a whole year smoke free. Now if I could only get Wade to join me.

Where's the birdie

A couple weeks ago I was out in the back yard and noticed the bare branches of my tree against the background of the building in the next lot. I grabbed the camera and snapped a couple pictures because I liked the way it looked.

When I got the picture on the camera I saw there was a bird in the tree. Can you see it?

Even though the branches are bare the bird is kind of hard to spot. In the next picture I've highlighted it so it's easier for you to see.

Now do you see it? I wonder what kind of bird that is.

The truth, in black and white

The truth is....

It's Monday and that doesn't deserve color. Only a great big sigh.

At least someone appreciates me

Honestly, I haven't been to the dentist and I don't need a crown but this just made me laugh.  Since I have been such a neglectful blogger I thought this would be a good share. I know there's more than one of you out there who deserves a crown just like me :) Have a royally great day my blogger buddies

Happy Easter

comments off today. Just enjoy

The last of my Easter crafts

I suppose now I need to find something more spring or summery to make. Or I could even just move right in to the fall crafting so I'll be ready for the craft show in August.

For now though, I have the last of my Easter crafts.

I made this drawstring bag after doing the machine embroidery on the fabric. I had a couple other Easter embroidery files that I never got around to using. I guess they'll have to wait until next year.

The bad doesn't stand up by itself. I have a jar inside it to hold it up. I thought about putting some flowers in there but never got that far

The bunnies don't seem to mind either way.

Could it be

Could it be spring finally? The bird bath tipped over which is always a sign that spring has arrived. This crazy weather though sure has us confused

Long over due part 2

All excellent guesses yesterday. All were things that I would like to have going on here but money only allowed for this one project right now. There were two of you who actually guessed rights.

This is a job that should have been done a couple years ago. Our roof has been in seriously bad shape. My yard has been littered with shingles every time it gets windy. So finally the funds were available and we were given an exceptionally good deal.

They started work Thursday morning and by the time I got home at 2:30 they were almost done.

What remains of the old roof.

This crew not only worked fast but they were the cleanest work crew I've ever seen.

I no longer have to get nervous every time the wind blows or it starts to rain.

long over due

We finally got around to doing something that should have been done a long time ago.

Wednesday this showed up in my driveway

Thursday this pulled up in front of my house

Any guesses as to what was going on?

Come back tomorrow and I'll give you the answer

Pinned

I pinned a picture of a pin on Pinterest. Can you say that 3 times fast?

But seriously, I did see a picture of a pin or shall I say brooch, while I was browsing Pinterest. The only link for this is to a flicker page for the Bunny Love brooch.
 I thought it was really cute and since it was such a simple design I knew I could draw out my own pattern.

Here is the finished pin

The first tulips of spring

I got tired of waiting for them to pop up out of the ground so I made my own.

These are made using a pattern from the March/April issue of Create & Decorate magazine. Don't you love my fancy vase? Old jelly jar with some pink tissue paper stuffed inside.

Code word

Do you ever use code words? I do sometimes without even knowing that's what I'm doing. For instance, the other day when I said I was taking the weekend off to "catch up on some things". Apparently that was code for I'm not going to do anything in particular.
Even though I lacked the focus all weekend to accomplish anything I may have intended to do, I did happen to catch the little spy who was hiding in my coffee

He thought he was oh so clever hiding in there but I saw him. Do you see him?

Maybe now you can see him.

I don't know what he thought he would catch me doing but I was careful to do as little as possible so that he wouldn't be able to witness a thing.

Taking the weekend

Won't be posting tomorrow and may not be commenting over the weekend. I'll be using the time to catch up on some other things. Have a great weekend.

Enjoy these old shots of Duke in my absence

A few craft projects.

I've had way more ideas and desire to craft than I have actual crafting time but I did manage to get a few things made.

In the basket in the back are some eggs. Those are the cheap plastic ones from the dollar store. I wrapped them in jute or sisal twine and then decorated them with some ribbon and buttons.

Moving to the right is a toilet paper roll bunny. He's covered in Easter scrapbook paper then I added the face, ears and feet. As I'm typing this post and looking at the picture I just noticed that the paper he's wrapped in is upside down.

The two Easter baskets are made out of peat pots. One I painted the whole thing then added polka dots and the other one I just added the dots. I finished them off with some lace and a pipe cleaner handle.

The last craft is a little banner. The shapes were cute using my Cricut machine. I added features to the bunny with marker and put a flower sticker on the one egg. I ran the two baskets and the one egg through my cuttlebug to give them some texture. Lastly I glued all the pieces on to a piece of jute twine and added a couple little bows on each end.

Pops

Cake pops that is.

So what am I doing making cake pops when I'm supposed to be dieting? I'm weak and I admit it. Actually I've been not doing so good with the dieting the last week or so. I've been cheating more and more, exercising less and gained back 3 of the pounds I lost. I am not going to get back into my summer clothes if I keep this up.

Honestly though these little cake pops aren't that bad since they are made with a chocolate cake mix and a can of pumpkin and nothing else.

Birthday lunch

I suppose this is old news but pretend like I didn't take so much time off and this just happened. Or not.
Any way, Amanda (my daughter) took me out for a birthday lunch the day after my birthday. She even let me go in the craft store AND Joann Fabric.

We ended up going to Cheddars for lunch. It's the first time I've ever been there and I liked it. What made me happy was that they had a section on their menu of light meals and gave the calorie count for each entree. Very helpful when you're keeping track of those sorts of things.

I took a picture while we were waiting for our food. I added a texture to this one and I really like the way it looked.

This is what I ordered. It was called Sweet heat chicken and shrimp. I could feel the heat by the end of my meal but it was delicious. Now if you are big on hot foods this may not have been too spicy for you but a spicier flavor is rather new to me

I also had a picture of what Amanda ordered but since I don't know what it actually was I decided not to post it.

April Fools

No joke, it's another post from me. To prove I have only good intentions today I'm even giving you a picture of Duke.

I hope you all make it through the day without falling victim to an April Fools Day prank.