Hanging with the Dukester

Duke wants to know if you would like to come play with him. He says I'm no fun any more

Butterfly

I have a hook out in the back yard that used to hold a plant. Now it holds nothing but I like the butterfly on it and eventually I may hang something from it again. So there it stands and occasionally I take it's picture.

It's actually just green with maybe a bit of rust but I occasionally take those pictures and play with them. Sometimes you just need to color your world even if it's just a butterfly

Be careful of what you let me get my hands on

Wade should have hid that sledgehammer from me.
I started pounding away on the railing of the deck steps

Next thing you know we had a pile of wood like this.

That led to men with chainsaws and the deck looked like this

Finally it was reduced to this.

The new deck is up but unfortunately I'm still working on old pictures (like a month old almost) I'll get pictures of the new deck up as soon as I can

answering a question

A while back when I posted the first page in my new art journal Joan asked how I got the gold sunbursts.

This is the page I'm talking about

You can see one of the gold sunbursts she was asking about in the lower left corner. This is what I used to paint that page.

Plastic caps off of various bottles, a wooden spool and for the sunburst I used a nylon mesh bag rolled up. I had bought some wooden spoons and they came in that bag. I had read somewhere else about using different things around the house to paint with so I thought I would give the bag a try. I liked how it worked

I'm screening my calls

I knew that bark outside my door belonged to Duke so I didn't ignore the call to let him in but I did take his picture through the screen first.

Saturday was not a good day. My mood took a negative turn at the corner of late morning and early afternoon and coasted downhill from there. By early evening I parked myself in front of the computer and started playing. That is a perfect way to shut out that which annoys me. It also helped to get lots of posts ready to schedule.

Here's to a positive day today.

If you don't see me

I can't believe how fast the past year has gone by. It's already almost time for another craft show. I have one week left to finish things up. Between working, and trying get things ready for next weekend I may be making myself a bit scarce in blogville. Gotta run TTFN (ta ta for now)

Why do hens lay eggs? 

If they dropped them, they'd break

What is a crowbar? 

A place were crows go to get a drink!

Why did the turkey cross the road? 

 To prove he wasn’t chicken.

Why did the rooster cross the road?

 To get to the chick across the street!

Whatever floats your boat

You all know about Duke's love of the pool. Well the little boat that he had last year didn't survive so he needed a new one. The only one I was able to find on one trip to the store was a very little one.

Wade said this was for a girl dog because it was pink. Some would say this isn't for a dog at all but seriously it's got dog all over it.

Duke didn't care what color it was or who it was for. He said he fit and he wanted to float his boat.

This boat is no longer sea worthy. Duke put a hole in it and it Wade tossed it. Since he threw it out he really can't complain when Duke takes his raft.

That's the key

Technically it's not the key but the key chain. These have been sitting around for quite some time waiting to be shown on the blog

I made others like these a while back but in different colors. The loops holding the ring are a bit crooked on these but sometimes you'll have that. I think of them as just a little wonky like me.

Oh heck, why not

I was going to skip yet another day of posting but as I'm sitting here on my butt doing nothing this morning I said "Oh heck, why not. Pull something out of the folder and slap it on up there for the world to see" So that's what I'm doing.

Today is the last day of my 4 day weekend. I didn't accomplish nearly as much as I wanted to while I've been off but it was nice not having to go to work. Tomorrow I'll drag myself out of bed and force myself back in to the daily grind. SIGH

Yesterday it rained all day long. We did some shopping in the morning and then a whole lot of lazing around the house for the rest of the day. I did manage to get some craft projects completed and some others started.

So now it's time for me to get my act together and get moving. There are things to do and I've procrastinated enough for one day. Or maybe I haven't.

wherever you go I go

Mom has a long weekend. She was home all day yesterday, again today and then Saturday and Sunday. I was very busy following her all around yesterday and that's why I didn't have time to make sure she posted.
I'm going to make this brief because I have to go catch up to her now.

He'll never miss that t-shirt

I've seen lots of projects made using t-shirt yarn and I've been wanting to give it a try. You need to start with a t-shirt that doesn't have seems in the side and then you cut it so that it ends up in one long strip and you can crochet with it.

I got one of Wade's t-shirts (with his permission) No seriously I asked him and he even picked one out that I could cut up.

I didn't really make anything with it but I did crochet a circle. I used a large hook and the ball of yarn didn't go as far as I thought it would.

I do believe I would like to do more of this though. I'm thinking that a thrift shop with super cheap XL t-shirts might be the way to go.

Starting over. Page 1

It seems like everything I'm blogging about lately is ancient history. I'm so far behind with everything. I've let pictures sit in folder for an eternity before getting them ready to post.

Any way, the art journal I was doing is history. Yep, that's right, I'm done with it and I'm starting over. Thanks to the generosity of a wonderful blogger I know I have 2 brand new actual sketch books and a set of brush markers. I started over with my art journal and today I have page one for your viewing pleasure.

Thanks Grace.

I hope that today you all do more of what makes you happy

Monday morning yoga

Won't you all join me for some yoga exercises. It's a great way to relax and unwind.

The last few days have been very stressful for me. I was so busy keeping my mom away from the computer. I told her I would allow a small amount of time to visit her friends but aside from that she was not to go near the computer. I couldn't take my eyes off her for a second. Thankfully she'll be working today and I can catch up on my napping.

Busted

I was walking by the sliding glass door one day and spotted something that didn't look quite right on the bird feeder.
This guy tail feathers were all wrong

Cardinals rule

Cardinals have always been one of my favorite birds. I love their bright red color. They normally don't sit long enough for me to get any pictures of them though. Now that the bird feeder is closer to the house I've had better luck.
The one day when it was raining I happened to catch one having his lunch

it's all about Duke

So sayeth Duke

So sayeth us all

Maybe, maybe not

As nice as a three day weekend was, I didn't accomplish a darn thing and spent most of it being totally lazy. I'm not complaining about that mind you but that is the reason for my little disappearing act. I just couldn't bring myself to sit at the computer.

So it's back to work this morning and I'm wishing I had some kind of remote control for my day

I could use the power button for more energy to get my through all the work that will be waiting for me. I would like a fast forward to get through all that work and maybe a pause to extend my lunch and break time. Come quitting time I can guarantee I'll be hitting that home button faster than you can say "Wow, Ann actually posted today"

Happy Monday everyone

Happy 4th of July

Whether you are a U.S. citizen or living in another country, have a wonderful day.

Gift card holders

Back at the beginning of June I had a birthday card sitting on the table for my daughter. I hadn't put the money in it yet and she had stopped over while I was sleeping and snagged the card up. She told me she could give the card back so I could put the cash in and she would pretend like she hadn't read it yet but I declined her offer.
Instead I made a cute little felt sleeve to slide her  cash into. It's actually made to fit a gift card into but since I was giving cash that's what I put in

I liked the way this one turned out so I made some more

There are several more that I did after these and I have a total of 20 of them in all. They'll be going to the craft show with me in the fall.

An artsy background

This has been sitting in the blog picture folder for a while now so it's time to use it and move it out.

A while back while playing with my paints and other assorted materials I came up with this artsy background in the old art journal.

I used and assortment of brushes, sprayed on some red paint and dabbed on the circles with plastic caps and wooden spools. This is as far as this got and now it sits.

Just another finch

I have taken so many pictures of the gold finch this year that they are all starting to look alike but I'm going to push my luck here and post another one.

I probably still have another 101 pictures of these little yellow pretties but I promise I won't show them all