Why yes, yes it is.

How about kicking the weekend off with a little....

confusing times

I can't help but wonder if mother nature might be suffering from dementia.
My yard looks summery adorned with dandelions while my tree still looks a bit wintery.

I don't think I've ever seen the trees this bare at the end of April. They are starting to green up but still they've got a long ways to go.

Come listen to my story....

....bout a dog named Gibbs. Poor scruffy pup... (can't think of anything to rhyme with Gibbs so gotta end my song right there)

Any way, Gibbs is looking pretty scruffy and let me tell you why. It's a battle that I lost.

Wade will always say to me "He needs a haircut. If you take him I'll pay for it"
My response is "OK, call and make the appointment and I'll take him"
He will not call even though the card with the groomers number is right there on the refrigerator. Instead he'll say something like "It was just a thought"
This infuriates me and being the stubborn person that I am I dig my heels in and refuse to make the phone call.
Alas, poor scruffy Gibbs is the one who pays the price. Of course he really doesn't mind that he looks scruffy but I think the neighborhood dogs are starting to laugh at him so I broke down and made the call. He'll be headed to the groomers on Monday.

Buzz off

What a mixed bag of things my day off was.

First I got to get up early to go pick up my daughter. She's having problems with her car so I picked her up, brought her to my house for her co worker to pick her up.

There was a little playing in the craft room but I had a hard time getting in to it.

A quick trip to Wal-Mart.

A little sitting outside to read and enjoy the nice weather. But, while I was sitting out there a bee kept hovering right in front of me.
See that little black dot just to the right of the chiminea? That's the bee.

Here's one cropped in closer. Gibbs considered for half a second trying to catch him but when the bee turned and started hovering in front of him he changed his mind.

I finally got the hose out and sprayed him a bit and he decided to leave us alone. He probably went off looking for reinforcements. Maybe I should be careful the next time I go out there.

Archive dive

I took a little archive dive through my laptop and guess what I found?

Remember this guy?

I still miss this guy.

The List

Yesterday while I was putting items on my bakery shelves at work I noticed a rolled up piece of paper on the shelf behind the cinnamon bread. Being a curious sort of person, rather than throw it away, I had to see what was on it. I mean seriously, it could have been a map to buried secret treasure. That treasure would allow me to quit my job and spend my days leisurely sipping exotic drinks on  sandy beaches. OK highly unlikely but I get bored at work and my mind tends to create exciting adventures.

Turns out it was a shopping list that was no longer needed. Heaven forbid someone should take their list with them or maybe even put it in the garbage that was located less than 10 feet away from the shelf. No our customers are far too important for such things.

No matter because their inconsiderate behavior gave me blog material and the change to make fun of them.

I read through their list and I'm pretty sure that we don't carry the third item down on the list. I mean I've worked there 19 years and have never once seen buggies in the store.

What do you do

What do you do when your mojo has taken a hike and you've run out of things to post about?

First you pull out your cell phone, then you take a picture of a clump of mud that fell off of someone's shoe

Then you make that mud clump look all artsy like  (Looks like hay and stuff in that clump I'm guessing this fell of a farmer's shoe)

 Then for the grand finale you find a few jokes or sayings and throw them in.

For exampe:

Everyone is gifted-but some people never open their package

What do you get when you cross an elephant and a rhino?

El - if -i - no.

And that's a wrap. See you tomorrow.

Because you asked

Yesterday Duni asked what kind of markers I was using to color my tart warmer and Jeanne asked if I was using Sharpies. So, because they asked and because I needed something to blog about I'm going to answer their question.

I am using Sharpie markers. I bought a big variety pack of colors

And because I couldn't decide which picture I liked better I'm using both. Even though these are a permanent marker it will smudge before it dries. I also found out that if you rub hard enough it will wipe off too.  You do have to rub pretty hard though.  

Did you know that Sharpies have have been around since 1964? They're almost as old as I am

Dandelion days

The weather has warmed way up and the sun is shining. We went from winter to dandelion days.

For my day off I should have been out enjoying the sunshine but instead I opened the windows and sat and colored my tart warmer. Still have a lot left to do but at least I started.

I figured I may as well do that since my enthusiasm for anything else has taken a hike. Back to work today. Yeah me!

Time to move on to plan B

Saturday morning I picked up my daughter and we headed out with specific plans in mind.

First a little breakfast at McDonalds

I know, totally not healthy but I was hungry.

Then we headed to Wal-Mart. I'm determined to get a cat but before I take one home I need to have a few necessities. I picked up a litter box, litter, food and Amanda picked out this dish.

I also purchased a few things that weren't totally necessary but any kitty getting a new home should be welcomed with nice things.

Next stop was the Humane Society. We walked through the adoptable cats and although they didn't have very many we did see a couple we liked. They have signs up that say do not touch the animals and if you want to meet a cat you have to go to the front desk.

Amanda went to the front desk to tell them we wanted to meet Fraya

not a very good picture but here's a little bit about her

Turns out that before you can meet any of the animals you have to fill out an application. So I sit and I fill out the application. I hand it to the girl and I say to Amanda I'm going to head to the bathroom first. When I come out she tells me that before I can adopt an animal Gibbs must be neutered. (No, I haven't had him neutered yet. I know I should have done it but I haven't). Any way, not much sense in meeting and falling in love with a cat that I won't be able to adopt because my dog still has all his manly parts. That's what I get for being honest. So I still don't have a cat but I've got all the stuff for one now.

Some people can not keep a secret

Yesterday while I was at work my daughter stopped in to see me. She is lucky enough to have Friday's off.  Her reason for visiting was that she had my mother's day gift and couldn't wait to give it to me. Yeah. I know mother's day is in May not April.
She said that she didn't realize the person was going to order this so soon and now that she had it she couldn't wait she had to give it to me now.

It's an electric tart warmer made by Scentsy. The scent she included was pink tulip.

If you aren't sure what a tart warmer is, it's warms wax scented tarts. It's kind of like a scented candle without the flame. There is a lightbulb in the base that warms and melts the wax.

This one is really cool. It's a color your own

She'll be so proud that I posted about this without her having to remind me :)

I'm not a conehead

I'm more of a cylinder head.

While I'm at work goofing off  slaving away Gibbs is guarding the home front.

I think he got wind of my idea of bringing a cat home. He's making sure none sneak in.

help from facebook

I have zero, zip, zilch motivation so I didn't have a clue what to use for a post. I decided to scroll through my facebook page and grab a few ideas.

This was posted by someone and aside from the fact that I don't take a multi vitamin since my last bottle ran out, this fits me

On second thought, I've been in bed at 8:30 quite a lot lately.

Then there was another post that had a sign that said to name a neighborhood game  you played as a child.
When I was growing up there were a lot of kids in my neighborhood all pretty close in age. We frequently all got together and road bikes or played games. I do remember playing Red Rover quite a bit.

Keep it simple

I finished another new plaque on my day off.

I started by covering the plaque with book pages and then threw on some green and blues coloring with an assortment of paints, inks and dyes. The flowers are buttons that I cut the back off of and glued to some green jute stems. I hesitated on writing the saying by hand because I always seem to mess up and although I won't point it out I did mess up a couple times here. Not to mention the word simple isn't even straight. 

 

To make the angel I started by drawing her on paper then I used that as a template to cut out the various pieces from cardstock. The dress and face had fabric glued to the card and then for the face I added inks to the edges a little blush for the cheeks and used a marker to draw her simple eyes and smile. Her hair is made from embroidery floss.

For the wings I covered the cardstock with foil then ran it through my cuddlebug to get the embossed design. Then I painted, dabbed some paint off and added some distress inks for added color. I glued all the pieces together then glued her on to the plaque. Her halo is currently removeable because I have yet to decide if I like it or not.

Way to make my day

While browsing through facebook yesterday I saw someone had posted this facial analysis thing. Of course I had to try it out. I liked what it says. Obviously it's way off and full of crap but a little flattery goes a long way.

What CATagory does this fall into

I'm still obsessing over wanting a cat. I considered going to the local shelter yesterday but we had snow and I didn't much feel like going out.
In the meantime I did a little practice run. I remember from when I had a cat before how it would love to hang out on my desk and often cover up my keyboard while I was trying to do things on the computer.
This one didn't really get in the way too much

My personal favorite

The 5th and final plaque happens to be my personal favorite. This isn't my own idea. I saw this on Debbie Doo's.  I fell in love with her scrap wood twine mason jar art.

Since I had a smaller piece of wood to work with the silk flowers that I had were all too big. When I received a belated birthday bag of goodies from my friend Debbie I found a package of little flowers that were perfect. Some wire for the stems and some greenery picked off of silk flowers I had and I was good to go.

I realized after I glued in the spanish moss that I had forgotten to add the ric rac that she had used in hers. I decided I liked it without it though.  I have another one of these started and I'm not sure if I'll use the same flowers or if I'll make yo yo flowers for it.

Getting the look for the background was pretty easy. I started by painting the whole thing with a tan colored paint. Then I randomly painted spots of blue and red. When that was dry I painted white over the whole thing. Again after drying I sanded to reveal some of the different colors under the white. I finished it off with some distress stains around the edges

I didn't think this one needed any words. It looked good just the way it was

Pour me a cup

The inspiration for today's plaque came from something I saw while browsing Pinterest. When I went in search of the picture so I could give you the source I couldn't find it. Any way, after seeing this picture I pulled out a book page and roughly drew a coffee cup. Then I went over the pencil marks with a black sharpie and finished it by coloring it with colored pencils.

I painted the plaque brown then sanded the edges to reveal some of the bare wood. I glued on two different scrapbook papers for the background then glued on my cup and words that I had printed from my computer. The steam coming off the cup is a piece of wire. I can't remember if the source picture used wire or if that just had the steam drawn in that shape..

Tomorrow you get the 5th and final plaque. After that I'm in trouble cuz I have no idea what else to blog about. Guess I better start getting crafty again

A key ingredient

I started off with the other plaque that had been painted using crackle medium. Then came the saying that I found online which was perfect for a key that I had picked up as an impulse buy at Michaels a long time ago.

I coated the entire plaque with mod podge and then laid down the piece of burlap. To keep the burlap from fraying I covered the top of it with more mod podge. I had intended to hot glue the key down after everything had dried but in the mean time I had just laid the key down to see how I liked it. Later when I went back to glue the key on I discovered that it did the job itself. The mod podge  surprisingly created a pretty strong bond.

What's growing in your garden?

Plaque number two was inspired by the saying that I found somewhere online and I can't remember where.

Some time ago I had painted two of these plaques using crackle medium. I had an idea in my head and painting the background was as far as I ever got with it. It was time to use them.

I printed out the saying and then glued it on to the background. I made yo-yo flowers in 3 different sizes. The stems were green jute twine that I coated in glue to stiffen them and then the leaves were made from a green glittery pipe cleaner. I also used the pipe cleaner for the hanger but I'm not sure if I like it. I may switch it out later for plain wire. I finished it off with the piece of burlap ribbon along the bottom to cover up the bottoms of the stems. Simple yet cute.

I got to thinking about these and the 5 that I did I drilled holes and added a wire for hanging. I was wondering though if maybe it might be better to attach  a hanger to the back and then that gives you two options. You could either hang it or put it on an easel. I don't know, what do you think?

Moving right along

But first a wee bit of whining about the weather. Mother nature has a very cruel sense of humor. She teased us with 60 degree weather and then Saturday gave us this

OK now on to the plaques. There are a total of 5 and I'm only going to show you one at a time. I would hate to use up blog material all in one post.

 These were all done on a 5 x 7 wood plaque (cheapo on purchased at Wal-Mart for 97 cents a piece)

I was rather pleased with the way this one turned out. The odd bits of paper thrown around under the trees are supposed to be fallen leaves. If I were to do this again I would have cut them up in to much smaller pieces.

The flock

The last of the magnets I made are the birds. Here's the whole flock

I started by painting these then gluing on a layer of tissue paper for texture. After the tissue paper was more paints and inks to add interest. They all have the gold glitter beak and gem eye.

The saying on the blue bird "Always stay humble and kind" is from a song I just heard last week that I loved. It's a Tim McGraw  song entitle Humble and kind. Not only do I love the song but he's easy on the eyes.

Flowers and Hearts

Today I've got more magnets. These are flower and heart wood shapes that I found.

The flowers I painted then covered with tissue paper for a little texture. Then it was more paint and some blending and shading of paints and inks. On the yellow one I added some extreme glitter paint and on the pink one I added a few white puffy paint dots.

The hearts were covered in book pages then painted in layers. The sayings were printed on my computer and then glued on. The heart on the left I added a bakers twine bow and gem. The one on the right with all it's white circles didn't seem to need any more added to it.

Stay tuned for more magnets tomorrow.

March was mixed media month

My March craft project was to do some mixed media pieces. I made magnets and plaques. I did quite well, completing a total of 18 pieces. There were 13 magnets and 5 plaques. I'm going to break this up in to several posts rather than give it to you all at once.

I'll start off with magnets. Today I'll show you the round and square ones

This was pretty much just playing with paint and layering. After the painting was done then I added assorted things that I found in my stash to decorate. The green one on the top was my least favorite out of these. I liked the way the background looked but I'm not quite sure what I was thinking with the embellishments that I added. I can't say that I "achieved" the best look possible on that one.

Tomorrow I'll show you flowers and hearts

I guess I should have played some kind of April Fools joke on you today but I couldn't come up with anything.