Stalker Tree Frog & the Tarantula

Today started off with a bang. Got my first work email at o-dark-thirty complaining we had mis-spelled a road. Since we were using official Department of Transportation maps for the name, it was confusing to me that we were wrong. HOWEVER, in the interest of making everyone happy we renamed the road to what THEY wanted. ;-)

Having got that settled right about mid-morning, it was time for a potty break. Wandered to the bathroom in my room and was about to settle in, when I noticed a tarantula eye balling me.

Ok, so maybe it was just an extremely large wood spider.

Anyhow I already personally felt trampled on so decided that the tooth brush cup might be a good vessel to use to save the tarantula. You know, go outside where he's not watching me pee and roam free and all that. Plus isn't smashing 'em bad luck or something?

So, still having to pee stomped up to the front of the house all the while keeping an eye ball on ye old spider in the cup. Saving is a good thing but a saved spider crawling up your arm while you trying to set him free is not good at all.

Still keeping an eye on the spider I carefully tugged open the front door.

Had to give a rather good tug 'cause it sticks a little.

Just as I got it open and was ready to release the spider, something really wet and sticky fell on my head.

First impulse was to fling sticky wet thing as far away as possible and scream like a little girl.

Might been a little stomp in there too.

Turns out it was a tree frog.

Cute 'lil bugger!

We let him go in the bushes but some time I caught him stalking me!

I think I'll call him Doolittle after the road name we got wrong. ;-)

Fire Tower Layout from PA Grand Canyon

The owner of the campsite we stayed at a couple weekends back during our trip to the PA Grand Canyon told us about the fire tower that was just a short hike from camp. 

She said she had never climbed it even when she weighed a lot less due to fear of heights. Now, I normally don't have a fear of heights unless of course are you asking me to climb off the ladder and onto the roof....and that I vote no on.  

It didn't seem too high from the ground. Looked pretty cool even. So we payed our $2 to the unmanned visa machine and entered into the thicket at the bottom. I even had the kids crouch down in the jungle! See them below?

At some point half way up when we ran across something that had left jinourmous droppings containing small mammal bones and someone else reminded us all about the scene from Jurassic Park where they were in the 

pterodactyls cage...I felt myself start to sweat and feel jittery. 

Scene from Jurassic Park

I was much more excited when we got to the top and I could sit in the MIDDLE of the tower away from the sides..

What a great view though and not a dinosaur in sight!

Happy Hump Day!

Patti's First Beef Ice Cream: IN HONOR OF NATIONAL DOG DAY

Two weekends ago we went camping at the Pennsylvania Grand Canyon. Reviews of the campground had us worried, but since we hadn't planned ahead, it was that or stayin home! Basically they said the owners were grumpy with kids.

Turns out they just ran a tight ship, which is nice if you are looking for quiet, relaxing and drama free!

Anyhow, the kids and I walked over to the camp store to pick out ice cream. Now normally I'd send them over with money since they are old enough and keep toasting my toes by the campfire. Instead, I picked out my own ice cream.

Lexi pointed to an ice cream cup labeled dog ice cream and said we should get it for THE MAN as a joke.

Of course I was in! He wouldn't fall for it of course, but it would be worth a giggle.

The owner who cashed us out pointed out nicely that it was DOG ICE CREAM not meant for people.

Without thinking, I said oh I know. I am buying it for my husband.

Poor lady gave me a hairy eye ball.

Patti was not too sure about the beef ice cream when we got back, but she gave it her best shot!

THE MAN did think it was funny but wasn't fooled. Didn't offer to try it either!

Happy Tuesday & Happy National Dog Day!

PA Grand Canyon Layout: You Are My Greatest Adventure

Last weekend we got out of dodge. Just an hour's drive over the New York border and we were camping out at really cool quiet campground.

It was so nice hanging out at the campfire! I made three layouts and then came home to match up photos!

This is one of my favorite from the trip.

The camp ground had a trail that took us directly to the Grand Canyon. We all hiked over to work off all the marshmallows we had the night before!Well, Patti our dog did not have any. She had another treat!

Snuck in a whole lot of goodies. Love the leaves and gold washi feather!

Here is a photo of the VIEW just in case you are thinking of the real Grand Canyon! Looks NOTHING like the it! ;-) I can't wait to see this view in FALL!

Happy Monday!

Back tomorrow with a page on Patti the Dog from our trip!

Happy Crafternoon & Over the Top Affirmation Step Card

So here in the US women have parties FOR EVERYTHING.

There are cookware, lingerie (sex toys OMG), nail wrap, dips & mixes, and of course scrapbooking parties.

The hostess earns "points" toward free stuff after her guests order.

Mainly, and I know this might come as a shock, they are just plain fun regardless of how many points you earn.

A group of us in this area four years ago formed a group that met monthly and the person who hosts rotates.

After a four year gap, it's my turn again. One of the girls is a consultant for Close to My Heart which is a scrapbooking company that sells in the US and Canada.

To say I am nervous is an understatement.

Which quite possibly is why I designed an over the top card! I used mainly products from Close to My Heart with a smidge of mixed media fun thrown in.

A huge thanks to Regina over at THE CUTTING CAFE who designed this cutting file and encouraged me back in the winter to give it a try. The file can be found here along with many other versions of step cards.

You can see the steps of the card here! Of course, it does fold flat, but with the amount of bling, it's almost better for a hand delivery!

My Mom who is finally feeling better after a recent surgery she had is coming to visit and will hang with us while we make this card! Pop on by if you're local to have a play with us!

Happy Thursday!

Keep Calm and Plan Dinner for THE CUTTING CAFE

Lately we have had an on-going debate between Lexi & THE MAN. She feels quite strongly that both of the male members of our household need to contribute to dinner suggestions. As she is generally the only person in the house who cares what we have to eat, it falls on her often to come up with ideas when we are out shopping. The fact that the "Big Man" is unwilling to help in her mind gives the Little Man excuses. Little does she know that most guys in my experience just don't care....but anyhow...

We eat a lot of chicken and mac & cheese.

It usually feels like I am rushing off Saturday am armed with a scribbled list and frantically grocherying. I grab what looks good at the time without a plan. Sometimes I forget the lettuce when I wish to have salad....

Now, imagine Regina from THE CUTTING CAFE way over there on the other side of the US magically stepping in with her Magic Wand to make my life easier.

Voila!

I present to you the Kitchen Meal Planner! Printed out on kraft paper which reminds me of those brown paper bags from long long ago....we have no excuse to come up with some original ideas.

I have a calendar in the front (need to print a few more pages off for the rest of this year) as we are always trying to figure out dates during supper.

And in the middle, I have my favorite. Nice Sturdy Lists ready to go! I am very pleased with the fact my little people will have to write in the lines. Nothing like having a list with eight items and a huge piece of crinkly paper wadded up in my pocket.

Alright, now a photo of my kitchen for all of you (Lisa) who are stalking my kitchen. ;-)

I have a LOT of yellow so used yellow roses on the front. I also used one of the graphics Regina provided for the cover! Love it! My very Brittish Lexi will love it!

I have just used a couple of the files from this planner! You could use it to create a daily planner or calendar gifts, or dream journal. Fun stuff!

Here are the specifics:

The PLANNER PRINTABLE SET comes with the following planner pages:

6 ASSORTED COVERS

MY DOODLES

DAILY SCHEDULE - TO DO LIST - APPOINTMENTS - NOTES - WHATS FOR DINNER

2015 YEAR CALENDAR

MONTH CALENDARS - yr 2015

DAY PLANNER - yr 2015

WEEKLY MENU PLANNER

SHOPPING LIST

CONTACTS

PERSONAL INFORMATION

IMPORTANT NUMBERS

SPECIAL DATES

MONTHLY GOALS

RANDOM THOUGHTS

NOTES

TO DO LIST

36 TITLE TABS - 1 BLANK ONE (THIS PAGE ALSO COMES IN JPEG FORMAT)

1 HOLE GUIDE for placement of pages when making a book

8 TAB PAGES - these templates come in pdf, wpc, mtc AND svg formats

Hope your day is going like you planned! (It's punny! Ha!)

Happy Tuesday!

Bored Mommy Art Case & Scrappin with a Campfire

I finally got around to putting map paper in my little shabby metal suitcase that I made a couple of weeks ago. I wanted it all happy & ready to bring some goodies with me camping. Yes, I finally figured out what I wanted to use it for! ME!

I packed it right up too! I even put my Spirograph that I picked up junking before we moved. Got myself a couple of new pens to use with it too!

Just in case I get confused, I put ART in big huge metal embossed letters on the side.

You can fit a scrapbooking kit in there too! It's not a great fit, but keeps things straight! And you have NO IDEA how nice it is to scrapbook BY a campfire! (Scraps just get tossed right on the fire!)

I killed a kit! Made three pages and two cards! Can't wait to fill them up with photos from our trip to the Grand Canyon! It's funny to make a page when you took the photo just an hour ago!

No, we didn't go all the way out west! We have our own version right over the border in Pennysvania!

Happy Monday! I'm back all refreshed and ready to take on a new week!

Oh Baby Layout for Another Freaking Scrappy Challenge

My Mom passed these photos to me the other day along with the baby booties I am wearing in the photo.

I believe her intention was that I used them on the page, but I had very intentionally packed them somewhere safe....and couldn't find them for the page. Have them now. They were in my AFSC bag that I keep for these DT pages. ;-)

Anyhow, the sketch was calling for three photos and my Mom had given me three cute ones from way back in the day. I LOVED the star that Anne had in the sketch.

The sketch is the newest challenge up over at Another Freaking Scrappy Challenge. I decided I need GOLD stars to reflect the sketch. Love their shimmer! They match my letters! I love those sparkle letters!

I also decided to use white on white for my page. I wanted things to pop! And then I also wanted some soft colors too! Love the layers, you can see them below.

And that's it for me peeps! I am off to the wild wander of PA camping! Two moody teenagers, a dog and marshmallows...will be fun, I hope!

Pencil Layout: May contain inappropriate words ;-)

In all honestly, the garage has been busting our balls. Well, not that I personally have them....

Shortly after we built these new benches, we discovered that the roof leaked around the new chimney of the new wood stove we had installed. Being fixers, we fixed the leaking part of the roof last weekend and have all the stuff to redo the stove pipe.

It has made us grumpy though to keep fixing and fixing, not to mention that we sweated buckets on Sunday fixing the roof. However, this layout made me smile.

See, when we were building these benches together, THE MAN kept referring to his pencil as a penis.

Since you need a pencil A LOT when you are cutting boards to fit, it got to be quite funny.

Have you seen my penis?

Oh no, the penis just rolled on the floor and under the cabinet!

Oh my, the penis is quite small!

If you have a 6th grade sense of humor like I do, you will giggle every.single.time.

Ok, so I might be laughing as I typed this even.

And yes, I kept the penis, I mean pencil.

Along with some silver splatters, roses with blue centers, red twine, and some metal foil, I also encorporated a super old nail I pulled out of some boards we were scrapping. It's rust made me happy. See it sneaking in there at the top?

Anyhow, hope this made you laugh on this fabulous Hump Day. (ok, giggling all over again!)

2 Much Fun: Patti the Dog Layout

Moving here has been ruff on our dog Patti. With ceiling to floor windows in my office, she spends from dawn to dusk watching out for infiltrators. She is usually found under my desk on her dog blanket, but not sleeping.

By infiltrators, I mean:  stray cats, chipmunks, rabbits, a groundhog, blowing leaves, birds, UPS guys, you name it...anything that could possibly violate the peace and quiet.

She has lost weight running after the chippies but has a shine in her eye.

























I don't necessarily think she wants to EAT them, just befriend them. Which is why I used the little telephone and the hey friend tab.

Fell in love with these accordian blooms all over again. Wish I had cut a ton more. Also love that little bow on my title!

Hope your Monday was terrific!

Violet the Dragonfly: Altered Art Spindle for LESSology

A while ago I blogged about my creative process. I showed two of these spindles and some locks. To be honest, I thought the project with the top part of the spindle and the locks would be done first....

However, the bottom part of the spindle that I had cut off was calling me to make it into a dragonfly!

Dragonflies are one of my favorite bugs. We have several different varieties at the new house and I'm constantly saving them out of the garage when they accidentally get stuck.


































This piece is that it can stand on its own which really made me happy. I used some really heavy gauge wire to twist up feet. I also love the delicate wings that I cut out of plain white paper on my Silhouette. Some alcohol inks & shimmer paint make them extra awesome.

I had fun posing my dragonfly a few different places. Here she is on my gazing ball. Maybe we should call her Violet.

Used some upcycled flowers from the second hand store, some that were hand made by Lizzy Hill, fellow DT member, and also some rolled roses that have been inked up.

Don't forget to check out Violet's twisted wire antenna and her pretty purple gem eye balls!

Hope you get a chance to play along with our Butterfly challenge over at LESSology!

Lovely Rockstar Burlap Jean Green Bag!

Check it out! Jean Green made me this awesome-sauce bag! I can't stand it it's so cute! I squeeled! It's designer! ;-)

It even smells good! (Well, who doesn't like the smell of burlap!)

Hold on, I will get you a close up!

I know, it's super cool! Right now I have it hanging up next to my purse in the hall so I can LOOK at it. I know you are supposed to USE it, but I am in the admiring it stage!!!

And here is the deal! I have just visited Jean on Facebook and Paula (her daughter) writes that Jean has fractures in her foot and knee! We need to send her healing power from everywhere! 

GET BETTER SOON JEAN! (that is my yelling voice so you hear me all the way over here in NY!)

By Chance or By Appointment

I knew something was up the moment we pulled up the driveway of our new house a few weeks before closing and we saw the orange stakes on the side of it. In my work world, wooden stakes with marking paint in bright colors mean dig here, don't dig here, we're putting this here, etc.

Asked the owners IMMEDIATELY when we got to the top of the driveway. They knew nothing. Walked down later to eye ball them up myself. Did not look like much but stakes are stakes with flagging tape no less.

Called Did Safe NY and asked nicely if they had any record of a one call being done in my area. See, buried things are bad to dig into for obvious reasons so by law, you must request clearance for any project and I had my suspicions...

I was told that perhaps they were telecom due to the orange color and they had recently worked in the area. Thought it sounded fishy fishy in my brain but let it be.

See, THE MAN when he looked at the house without me told me about the gas pipeline right of way that ran along the driveway and even took me down to look at it via facetime on his iphone. I told him to relax. It had been there for frigging forever (1963 to be exactly) and likely just fine. BUY THE HOUSE ALREADY were my exact words.

So when the pipeline land guy showed up the door and said, this is not going to be fun for you....I was a bit sideways. I mean I had PROMISED all would be good. Having worked in this industry, I thought of eight good reasons things wouldn't go well. If it were a DIRT driveway, one wouldn't likely care except the part about not being able to get out. Blacktop = $$

Thankfully Chance, the project lead on the dig up the side of Mitra's new black top driveway was pretty clever and got a nice rubber track back hoe to do the job. See, turns out it was just a scratch on the side of the pipeline. In fact, things are buttoned back up already and just waiting for some grass seed.

I am glad the excitement is over because for a few days I was quite worried. THE MAN was giving me a hairy eye ball everytime I brought it up.

Alright one last photo. Who doesn't like watching men work? Besides you need to see the pipeline.

By tomorrow there will just be grass seed to show for all the fun. No doubt the birds are already making plans. The wildlife around here keeps a good handle on where the food is!

Happy Tuesday!

Vintage Movie Film Canister with THE CUTTING CAFE Files

The other day I was bopping around the second hand store. I had just gotten my shingles shot, which by the way did not hurt much except in my wallet. Since my leg pretty much doesn't hurt anymore either I was tempted to skip it since I really hate doctoring & even worse is paying for doctoring after you also pay for health insurance. So I made a deal with myself if I got out early enough, I'd do just a smidge of shopping over at the ReStore.

Well, they close at 5 and it was nearly 5 and I wanted SOMETHING to come home with.

Spotted little film tins for $1. Mine!

I used TWO files from Regina's THE CUTTING CAFE to snazz up that plain gray metal tin!

The file I used is the CAMERA PHOTO SHAPED HOLDER TEMPLATE that comes with a cutting file for a camera and has ALL THESE CUTE LITTLE CIRCLE images! 

Check out the summer photo image I used on the cover. They blow up so nicely from a PDF file & do not distort. The second click-click-click I made much smaller and is at the center of the film reel.

This little project has a small secret!

It has recycled feet!

Those are old fuses. In fact, they came out of the fuse box we just replaced in the garage. It reminds me of a little table a squirrel might use! But, instead, it will be making it's way to Tommy's Mom who had my kid to her house for a couple of days ago for some serious fun!

Look at all those fun times! A fire, ice cream, hanging out with Daisy the Beagle, and the pond!

A big thanks to Regina for awesome files and a second big thanks to Tommy's Mom for having him come hang out!

Happy Monday!