Stars and stripes

Here's the stars. Die cuts from glittery foam

The stripes on a burlap bow purchased from Walmart

And my version of the wreath I saw at Walmart but was too cheap to buy.

This one is much smaller. I used a foam wreath purchased from Dollar Tree and it's only 10" across.

Rescued

Using a USB cable I was able to rescue those pictures that were being held hostage by my SD card. I'm not sure because I've switched cards around from different cameras but this may be the same card I had trouble with before. All of them are a bit old so it may be time to get a new one.

Any way, when I finally got the pictures off the camera I realized that there really wasn't all that many that were really worth rescuing.

A couple shots of a robin that was looking for lunch in my front yard

A picture of a basket of flowers hanging in my neighbors yard

And the best one of all, Gibbs. He doesn't look too pleased with me though

Remember

Spend some time today remembering those who gave their lives serving their country.  We don't know them all but we owe them all a debt of gratitude.

Change of plan

Yesterday was a beautiful day. I got out early and did my weekly shopping then came home and did some cleaning. After that I headed outside to do some yard work. When I was done with that I walked the yard with my camera and took all kinds of pictures. Some good some not so good. Unfortunately my SD card is holding them hostage. For some reason my computer wasn't detecting any pictures on the card.

Well there went my plan for today's post. Instead I went to snappygoat.com and grabbed a few pictures to do a little edit. Since tomorrow is Memorial Day here in the U.S. I used that as my theme. I probably could have done better but it's not bad for 10 minutes worth of playing.

It's not about the season or the picnics it's about remembering those who gave the ultimate sacrifice for their country. Remember our fallen heroes

Iris

Yesterday after work I noticed that the Japanese Iris were blooming so I took some pictures for you.

Green stuff

One of the customers that comes in the store where I work was telling me about some tomato plants that he was growing. He said they supposedly grow 6 lb tomatoes. He brought me one the other day. Now if I can keep it alive we'll see how big the tomatoes actually get

Mildred and I had an email conversation about a plant called Lambs Ear It has soft velvety leaves that I guess are supposed to be like a lamb's ear. I told her I would take a picture of mine. Pay no attention to the grass and weeds growing in with it. I obviously need to do some yard work

Here's a closer look. Don't you just want to reach out and pet those leaves?

Getting away from it all

I think we all have a place where we like to go to get away from all the hassles of the day. A place where we can kick back, relax and just feel at peace.

Even Gibbs has a place. The other day I couldn't find him. I called him several times and he wasn't coming. I thought maybe he got closed in the bedroom by accident. I went upstairs but no he wasn't there. Then I looked in the last room left to look in.
Can you guess where I found him?

He has a thing for the tub and frequently jumps in.  It's extra special if he's just come in from outside and has muddy paws. He decorates the tub with paw prints.

I should teach him how to turn on the water so he can clean up after himself

Just stuff

I'm wondering if it might be time for a blog break. I'm really digging bottom of the barrel to come up with anything. Chances are there will be no break though so try and hang in there until I get back on track.

For today I found both of these wreaths in Walmart that I liked but am too cheap to pay for. I took the pictures as a reference to try and copy them

Found this on facebook and it pretty much describes how I feel at work most day.

Something else I read on facebook

7 rules for life

1 Make peace with your past
   so it won't disturb your future 
2 What other people think of you
   is none of your business.
3 The only person in charge 
   of your happiness is you.
4 Don't compare your life to
   others. Comparison is the thief of joy.
5 Time heals almost everything.
   Give it time.
6 STOP thinking so much.
   It's alright not to know all the answers
7 SMILE
   You don't own all the problems in the world.

Don't you hate it when...

you get behind a car that can't even go the speed limit

and yet doesn't bother to slow down when they get to a school zone? Some people should just not be allowed to operate a vehicle.

Yo Yo Flowers

One of the girls at work is having a birthday this week. She went rather overboard on my birthday and now I feel obligated to get her something for hers. I bought a few things and made one. This will go in to the mix of gifts I'm giving her.

I used the fabric yo yo's and attached the buttons with a piece of wire and then covered the stem part with florist tape. I painted the spool then added the paper strip that I cut from an old calendar.I stuck the bouquet of flowers in the hole of the spool and added some spanish moss then glued on a couple of fabric leaves. The center for the biggest flower is a button that I covered with fabric with a half a cotton ball stuffed in to make it puffy.

I hope it makes you happy

Upcycled Solar lamp

Not long ago I was browsing Pinterest. Ok, to be honest, I'm always browsing Pinterest but for the purpose of this post we're talking about a couple of weeks ago. Any way I saw this picture and fell in love with the idea.  The source for this project is Thee kiss of life

 So as much as I liked these I didn't have any lamps like that and I figured any I found in a thrift store most likely would be more money than I was willing to pay.

Imagine my surprise then when about a week later I was driving up my street and saw not one but two lamps sitting next to someone's garbage can on the curb.

I pulled over and scooped those babies up.


This is the one I made. The other one still needs painted and I want to check Lowes or Home Depot to see if I can find a different solar light for the top. I'm not totally happy with this one but it was all Walmart had when I was there.

Now I just need to decide where I want to put them.

T.G.I.G.F

Thank goodness it's Gibbs Friday

No other words are necessary

For me?

I told you that I had to work mother's day, which was ok. Not a big deal. When I got home I heard from my daughter. She said happy mother's day but she wouldn't be over because she wasn't feeling well and didn't want to get me sick. No problemo. I can just chill on the couch for the evening.

Tuesday she came over to give me my gift. She's such a good girl.

This is what she brought me and it was wrapped so fancy in a white Walmart bag. I taught her how to do things with style.

I had put a box of those perfect for 1 brownie in a mug mixes in her Easter basket and she said they were really good. Can't wait to try them out.

Love the mug. It's a Pioneer Woman mug. I love the look of her stuff. This is a really big mug too, just the way I like them. 

Did it again

I plugged my fitbit in to charge on Monday night and forgot it again. All day Tuesday all those steps that weren't counted. It really does seem a shame. Lucky for me the lawn needed mowed so when I got home, right after I put my fitbit back on my wrist, I went out and logged some steps.

Gibbs says that he just can't even look at my right now, he thinks I'm that pitiful

made up

It's a slow day for blog material so I had to make something up real quick. Playing with my phones camera in facebook messenger I took a selfie. I'm all made up

It took me a while to figure out that there's also some kind of tattoo on me also. I'll try and do better tomorrow

flower power

Saturday while I was in Walmart I looked at all the beautiful flowers they had on sale for mother's day. I couldn't help but take some pictures with my cell phone. The picture in yesterday's post was of some of these flowers with a little photoshop magic.

Here's a collage of the pictures I took

If you follow me on facebook you probably already know about these.

I made a total of 48 of these pins. I took some to work on Tuesday and Wednesday to pass out to some of the girls I work with so they could wear them all week. Yesterday I took the rest of them to work with me and passed them out to mothers who were shopping in the store. It was fun for me and I think they were pleasantly surprised when I offered them one. There was only one lady who seemed a bit indifferent to the whole thing. Makes no difference though, I enjoyed giving them out.

Mother's Day

Whether you are a mom to humans or animals today we celebrate you.

Skipping

I decided to skip posting today but I'll leave you with this video of  Hungary's best rope skipping team

Sepia

Gibbs in sepia. It's easy to be lazy when there are pictures of Gibbs that no one minds seeing

A cry for help

I do hope someone out there will hear me and can help.

I'm such a neglected pup. No food or water or toys or treats. No one to play with me either. Please come quickly. The door is open and I'll sit right here and wait

Uh oh. I think someone is home. Maybe you could drop by tomorrow and don't tell her I said anything.

Various stages

Aside from the curtains I made on Monday I also worked on some more of those Mother's day pins I showed you the other day. I passed some out to "some" of the girls at work yesterday and my plan is to to make as many more as I can before Sunday. To make working on Mother's day fun for me and the mothers who are shopping I'll be passing them out to moms who stop back in the deli/bakery.

Here are some in various stages of completion

I didn't get any further ahead on these last night but hopefully tonight and the rest of the week I'll find time for them

Make do

Yesterday started out cold and I suppose if I think about it, it stayed cold since it didn't get past 50. But first thing in the morning it was only 30 and there was frost on the ground. It made it easy to see the path my neighbor took to mow his lawn.

The sun came out and cleared out all the frost but as nice as it looked there was a chill in the air with the wind.

It meant another good day to spend in the craft room. I worked on some more mother's day pins and then threw together a  real quick set of make do curtains. I have blinds on the window in the craft room but I don't like to have them closed all the way. I also don't like to be on display while sitting at my desk at night. I grabbed some fabric I had in my stash, did some quick measurements and whipped these up.

 I know bad picture but you get the idea. They're just plain white because that's what I had. The problem with doing quick measurements and flying by the seat of your pants is that they weren't perfect and I did have to pull out the seam ripper to make some adjustments but all in all they work for now. I was also thinking that since they are plain white, at some point I could take them down and maybe use markers or paints to add some fun and color. We'll see if that ever happens or not.

Pleasant surprise

The other day I found this in my mail box

Now what could be in that delightfully happy envelope for me? I just love getting happy mail.

The wonderfully talented Katie sent me one of her handmade go green grocery bags.

Thanks so much Katie, I love it

How to spend a rainy day

If it's your day off, and it was, you can start your rainy day by spending way too much time sitting in front of your computer in your pajamas, drinking coffee, reading blogs and browsing pinterest.

Once you've had your fill of that you may wish to do some laundry. After all even though this is your day off you'll be needing clean clothes tomorrow. Once it's folded and placed in a basket carrying it to the proper room and putting it away is entirely optional.

After that a little craft room play time is in order. These are the next pins that I'll be passing out at work. Mother's day is coming soon so these are perfect.

There was a benefit dinner for one of the girls at work who has cancer. I went out and got a couple of take out dinners to bring home. Rather than dirty any dishes we ate it right from the take out containers. Before I grabbed the dinners I purchased some 50-50 tickets and some chinese auction tickets. 

After that it was a little tv time, a little more computer time and a little more craft room time. Who cares if it's raining outside. I had plenty to keep my entertained.

Wasted steps

Thursday night before I went to bed I plugged my fit bit in to charge. Friday morning when I got to work I realized I forgot to put it back on. All those steps that didn't get counted. Kind of makes them feel like a big waste

Spring colors

After a long dreary winter it's always so nice to see color again.
There's pink

and blue and yellow

and of course green which I don't have a separate picture for but there's a tiny bit of green in each of these.

Now that we have everything coming back to life would you believe that there is wet slushy snow in the forecast for this weekend? If this is someone's idea of a joke, I don't find it funny.

Happy Friday

Random

We've been getting rain the last few days. The worst was on Monday. It was very heavy with strong winds. It wasn't fun to drive in. I was getting ready to pull off to the side when it finally slowed down enough that I could see where I was going. There was one tree down in the road and lots of small branches. Other than that I don't know of any damage in our area.

My seasonal allergies are in full swing this week. The worst of that was Tuesday. Itchy eyes, stuffed nose, soar throat and in general just feeling blah. I love this time of year but the allergies I could do without.

And that is about all I can come up with for today.