Hay is for Horses

So, the other day the Farmer Dude that cuts our back field showed up.

There is really no call before, you just look out back and a big ole green tractor is cutting the hay.

Can you see the hay there in nice little strips all laid down?

Farmer dude will then come by for a few more days and fluff it with a special attachment on his tractor so it all dries.

It also means it's very hot and dry too when they start cutting.

And boy was it ever hot and dry here for a couple of days straight.

I thought my brain was gunna boil!!!

My sis in law from South Africa I mean South Carolina I mean North Carolina texted me and said, WHAT HEAT ADVISORY for Potsdam NY?

I texted her back and said I was working nude.

Honestly, no not working nude, but our houses really aren't built for heat.

We build them to HOLD the heat in the winter, which means they also hold the heat in the summer.

OK, so I may have been working semi nude when the UPS guy showed up. Just wearing a bra (AND SHORTS THANK YOU VERY MUCH), which covers more than a bikini top when I hear KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK.

The dogs of course then start their barking. Fat lot of good that does. I have no warning.

Smart girl I am, I do not freeze, I yell ummmmmmmholdon!!! And run for the stairs which are in a direct line of the open door that the UPS dude was standing at.

I think I gave the guy a heart attack as he threw my package on the deck and I heard stones flying on his way out the driveway...

Thankfully, the heat wave has passed and the hay is all rolled into these lovely shapes.

If I was more Monet like I'd paint them. I love looking at them. They will eventually show up with a skid steer and load them into a huge hay wagon, which I suppose means I should keep my shirt handy....

Trouble in Paradise Or a Hater Letter to St. Lawrence County

St. Lawrence County Attorney &

Mr. Honorable Highway Dude 

County Court House

48 Court Street

Canton, NY  13617

Dear Mr. Honorable Highway Dude &  the St. Lawrence County Attorney:

We are sending this letter to you with regret that previous efforts to settle our issue with our mailbox were unsuccessful despite numerous conversations via the phone and e-mail. 

We contacted you by phone and by e-mail on June 22^nd concerning damage done to our mailbox.

The contracted paving crew that was the responsibility of Mr. Honorable Highway Dude pushed our mailbox post causing our mailbox to be unbalanced. Please see photo 1 & 2. Upon discovering the damage, I e-mailed and called. We then fixed the damage over the weekend ourselves. Even though I was home all day, no one stopped in to let me know of this damage.

Yesterday we discovered our mailbox in the ditch. Please see photo 3 & 4. Again, this morning I called and e-mailed. 

At the point of my e-mail, a third person hit our mailbox leaving their truck mirror in our ditch. Please see photo 5. Again, I called. 

My husband came home from work and again I called to find out what we were to do because despite Mr. Honorable Highway Dude's assurances that his lackey would be “right over” I was left without any communication. It seemed critical to me that our mailbox be moved to keep any further damage from occurring to vehicles. Evidentally, safety was not a concern of St. Lawrence County. 

It is clearly obvious that due to road alignment changes from the paving project, our mailbox had now become a hazard for vehicles travelling on our road at high speeds. 

Being good citizens, we have fixed the issue ourselves at a cost of losing a half day of work and $94.57. The mailbox has been moved a good 10 inches back from the road. WHICH WAS NOT THERE PREVIOUSLY BECAUSE YOU WIDENED IT WITH MORE BLACK TOP DUH! (That was when you pushed the mailbox back because, hey, it was in the way of the paving machine)

I will say I regret my interactions with Mr. Honorable Highway Dude. I initially found him an honest and sincere individual but now believe him to be confused and misled as the evidence clearly indicates that something has changed causing motorists to hit our mailbox repeatedly. That change would be widening the road. 

And to you fine folks that hit our mailbox twice in two days, thanks for stopping in to let me know.

Oh that is right, you just kept on going. Well, I am pretty sure our cost to replace our mailbox was a bit cheaper than your mirror. If you want it back, we are holding it ransom looking for an apology. 

Sincerely,

THE MAN and his VERY angry wife

P.S.  A cleaner version of this letter going out tomorrow certified mail to the county. SUCKS when you annoy a blogger, right? 

P.P.S and St. Lawrence County? I hope you are ashamed of yourself. This is nuts. We are good honest hardworking taxing paying people here. I would have invited you in for coffee. Not anymore. After two nice years here, I am now a bit of a hater. 

Sandstone Book

So, last week I blogged about a multi media challenge over at Zeus & Zoe.

YOU have lots and lots of time left to get it done. The 15th of July to be exact, so have at it!!!

I did want to pop back in and show you what I am using my little Potsdam book for. I am storing it on a scrapbook page in a book I am making all about me. So, lets start with the title:  Sandstone. I am referring to Potsdam Sandstone.

The Town of Potsdam is well known for this beautiful rock formation. Bands of Red and White sand make this rock highly sought after. It was originally mined for buildings in the 1800's.

As you can imagine, plenty of the town is made out of this building material.

Here is the local cemetery. I would LOVE to take some photos with these rocks as backdrops.

And another shot of the building out front.

Of course, my FAVORITE building in Potsdam is referred to as the Little Castle and is on Fall Island. How romantic is that!

It's for Sale. For $150,000. A steal. Take a look at the photos on the listing. The inside is really cool done in  Victorian Art Nouveau style.  LOVE IT!!

THAT is where I got my tattoo and might explain partially WHY I got it. I fell in love with the romantic notion of getting a tattoo in a castle on an island on our adventure up here in the North County. Well, that and several very strong Margaritas from the Cantina sealed the deal. 

And right about now, Lizzy Hill is saying.....AND....where is the photo of SAID TATTOO.

Oh Lizzy I will give you a hint!!!

It's a dragon fly like the one I used on my page!!!

At some point, I will do a page on it which means I'll have to actually get a photo that I like....

I made that dragon fly out of this clear film that can be molded with a heat gun. 

Used a similar technique I found out here on Anna's Layers of Ink blog.

So, this page & mini book are storing some photos of downtown Potsdam for me. As I snap more when I am out and about, I will add them to this book. 

Here are another couple to give you a feel for Small Town America. Photo of Main Street in Potsdam. 

AND, here is one of the little craft store I hit every now and again. Like most things in the North County, it's very understated from the outside. Let me know if you figure out what that graffiti says. Something about Art BLAH BLAH BLAH guns. I tried asking, but they didn't know in the store either.

I have taken at least one photo of that very weathered looking door with thoughts of turning it into background paper on my 12 by 12 printer at some point. 

As our adventures take us through life, I never know when we might find ourselves off elsewhere. For now I am enjoying our little town made of Sandstone. And if at some point we wander off elsewhere, I will treasure my little book even more. 

Treat Page for ScrapFriends Color Challenge

The random thing I like about color challenges is that you never know if you have the right stuff until you start digging. 

And I found I didn't have a lot of paper in these colors so resorted to cardstock with the right shades...and made them into an interesting shape.

LOOK at these colors!!!  There is still quite a bit of time to play along with this challenge over at ScrapFriends, so have at it!!! 

Of course the photo reminded me of when I treated myself to these lovely raspberry colored roses around Mother's Day. THE MAN is not big on being ROMANTIC, so if I want flowers....I'm on my own!!!

And the really neat part to me on this page is the texture I added with the magic stamp foam block that Lizzy Hill sent me from ScrapFriends. 

Let me show you a close up of the texture I stamped. It was a piece of plastic table cloth that she sent me and I just heated the block up with my embossing gun. Took two seconds. 

Here is another photo of my title. I didn't have all the right letters left over still from this set, so I opted to trace them with that mustard yellow, cover with glue and glitter. 

And, one more photo of the little rose embellishment I made ages ago with crackle glue. Was so happy to use that up on this page with the some embroidery floss.  

And one last photo of my roses. I really do love to find a patch of light and take random photos. 

AND!!! Is it HUMP DAY? Did I beat Helen to it? HAPPY HUMP DAY!!! WHoohooo!!

The Wild Center using the Creative Scrappers Sketch

Had so much fun with this sketch from Creative Scrappers! I had some photos to use that a small boy brought home from his field trip that were perfect!

They were nothing amazing, but were ones he took himself with a borrowed camera. MY OLD CAMERA, in case you are wondering. He has a propensity to take things apart so I was thankful it came back whole. 

I of course have other photos he took too I didn't include. An extreme close up of his best friend's face, eight videos of the same frog, you can imagine the rest.... 

I wanted to document his field trip to The Wild Center because he never believes me. In fact, he had gone to The Wild Center a few years back and was pretty sure I was the one confused. AS IF. I have a scrapbook page from that visit too!!

A close ups of my die-cut pine trees that I have used many times over. But when you often have to scrap The Adirondack Mountains, they are a good go to shape!

I printed the logo on the bottom. I don't use my 12 by 12 printer nearly enough, but when I do, it makes me so happy!

Another shape I used was a bird silhouette photo that Luke took and I fussy cut around it. Wanted that to give my page more of a flavor of the mountains and the wildlife. 

Honestly, it looks like  really neat place to visit. I have never gone but have great stories about the Otters and that bridge looks AMAZING!! Happy Tuesday!

What happens in Vegas....gets blogged about?

ohhhH! Hope that title struck fear into my Father In Law's heart...I do have a couple of good photos of him from when he stole my hubby for 8 WHOLE days for a boy's trip to Vegas...that I am sure he would like to not have posted on the internet...

Anyhow, I do have ONE funny photo that I would like to share.

What is wrong with this picture?

This is right on the strip and to give you a hint? The horses were wearing flashing lights on their harness.

Yes, they pulled that poor dude over.

I would not like to come home with that story. YUP, ran a traffic light and got pulled over by cops on horses.

Did make THE MAN a page for the scrapbook with the photos that did not contain any girls dancing coyote ugly style on the tops of bars.

Am not in love with the scan of this page, since it's very straight in real life. I would take a real photo of it, but it's raining here after a lovely sunny weekend, so I guess this is how it's getting posted.

If are wondering why it says "total" for the title, that is because it's part of a double page spread.

The other page was blogged about here.

In case you don't want to flip back...

Thanks for those baby playing cards Irini!!! And that sweet flower that I placed under the accordion flower!

Well, hope your Monday goes FAST!!!

Where did all my stickers go?

So, I am not a HUGE fan of stickers, but these Amy Tan lovelies that came along with my Scraptastic Kit as did these oober amazing Christy Tomlinson rub-ons had me a bit excited.

NOT that I got to use them. See, they were learning skate boarding in gym and I was asked nicely by Lexi if I would buy her a helmet. It was either that or she wear one from the school with a shower cap. The shower cap would keep her supposedly keep her from catching those little critters...you know like lice??

Now, I can honestly say we've dodged that bullet here, but for the cost of $16, I was more than happy to provide one!!!

Of course, they had nothing exciting at our local store. Less than exciting. Thankfully Momma Scrapper here to the rescue and I (BIG SIGH) handed over my package of stickers and rub-ons.

Yes she color coordinated the Popsicle with her shirt AND helmet, LOL.

And here is a photo Lexi took of her creation. I really wanted to use that poppy myself...oh well.

I guess I can always restock my stash!!!

Altered Frosted Bottle Using Nice Crane Designs Image

So a while back I fell in love with a bottle of blue cheese dressing. Of course, it was that I had discovered that I actually LIKED the store brand blue cheese at Walmart. Being both cheap and good, it was awesome.

BUT I must admit the bottle caught my eye first.

Do you ever buy groceries with the intent of reusing the netting or container?  Please tell me I am not the only freak on this earth that does that.

So, kept this bottle on the edge of my desk for 312 months. Finally one Friday night I asked THE MAN if we could sand blast it. I mean, I knew we had a sand blaster...how to use it and whether we had sand was another thing. And yes, we lead exciting lives here at the Pratt house.

Ten minutes later I am holding a wand wearing safety glasses and a huge face mask. An hour later, the darn thing was finally frosted.

THE MAN left out the part where it would take a bit. He sat on the lawn mower (very good seat) with a glass of wine and watched.

It is always amusing to watch your wife get pelted with sand.The next best thing is when she asks you to cut a piece of scrap lumber at just the right spot that is the right shade of grungy...but I am sure he could tell you all about that...

Here is a close up so you can see the image with the shells I used on the bottom.

This is another of the series I used yesterday from Nice Crane Designs. I LOVE THE WHOLE SERIES.

Please go check out what Ignacio has for sale. GOOD STUFF!!!

Not sure the violets are the right thing for my jar, but they too came from a thrift store, so were the right price..and perhaps the perfect item will come along...

And one more photo so you can see what I did to the image. I had originally printed this image out on plain old printer paper and covered ever so gently with modge podge. Things will run if you aren't careful. Lucky for me, it only ran just a bit when I added the crackle glue and gave me this water colored look. Very sea like you think???

AND, for all of you enduring winter, I'll post a flower photo to cheer you up. Keep in mine we have like 10 weeks of summer here....so I have to enjoy it while I can!!!

HAPPY THURSDAY, creeping into the weekend.....

Growing Sunflowers & Children: Layout at Once Upon a....Sketch

Soo a very long while back, I was asked to create a page for Once Upon a...Sketch as part of being on the design team for Zeus & Zoe as we are sponsoring their challenge.

 I say it was a long time ago for the main reason the sun flowers I made a page about are now knee high!!

So, the challenge over at Once Upon a....Sketch is:  Birthdays


Ideas for Journaling: Most memorable birthday celebration for you or anyone in your family, the last birthday you celebrated and tell us your thoughts on turning this age, your child's/other family member's birthday and your thoughts on their age, a birthday that was a turning point in your life and your excitement/fears or other thoughts you had, an upcoming birthday for you or anyone and your thoughts, the best birthday present you ever received/gave and why?. You can also base your layout on a non - person birthday. This means your birthday theme can be based on : a pet, a business venture, a milestone anniversary etc etc. Its up to you how you interpret "BIRTHDAYS"

So you may be wondering how sunflowers pertain to birthdays...ah yes. Let me explain by showing you my hidden journaling card. In a nutshell (and yes, I am making a joke here) at our last Fall party, the kids that were running like wild dogs around the place decided to eat fresh sunflower seeds right off the actual sun flowers. This spring we had little baby sunflowers growing everywhere!!! 

Like kids, sunflowers grow fast!!

Here is a close up of the new seedlings I added to my layout.

See? Just babies. 

AND same baby is now ginormous. Kinda like my kids, just give them a little sunshine and some good food and wham bam, they are dating. 

Here is a side view of my page so you can see the depth. AND, more importantly, Marivic's amazing delicious tag for sale over at her Etsy Shop. Can you see my bird tag sneaking out from under it? Love hidden journaling!

Here is also another photo of my title that I added gesso to to make it blend in with the paper.

And one more close up of my hand made flowers and some netting from an onion bag that matched nicely. Loved throwing this scrap of paper I had left over under them as this was right around Halloween, but I didn't want to use those colors!!

Anyhow, Happy Hump Day!!

Our Creative Corner DT Application: Bessie Frame

Goodness gracious I love this frame.

Last weekend I was mucking around down town Potsdam and thought I'd take a quick run into the store where I consign some of my creations.

Of course while they were handing me money, I was taking a quick peek around and found this sheet music with this lovely cover.

HAD a small little moment right there in the store.

Last night, it was on the chopping block for this frame and lickety split, it was my new background.

OK, yes, will give you a before shot of this frame. I have had it FOREVER and decided to take it apart now it was all sun faded.

A few more close ups are in order, so hang tight. 

LOVE LOVE LOVE that butterfly. It is an old Stampin' Up Set I have had forever and I stamped it on a piece of photo paper with Stayzon brown ink. Then used some photo markers I had to color it, then spritzed it with some glimmermist to get the colors to run a bit. How it turned out made me really happy.

And here is a close up of a little framed image I included. It is from Nice Crane Designs and is called the Fascinating Bessie Gutman. LOVE all the little images in this collection. The beach image I'll be using on my next project. THANKS IGNACIO, YOU ROCK!

I am applying at My Creative Corner as I heard they are oober cool AND last week or was it the week before last, I had a win over there.

I KNOW!!

I was shocked. Here is the project and the link back to their site.

Anyhow, wish me luck! ;-)