Last post for today.....

A view of my house from the road.  I've got another image of the mailbox flower bed but don't have the time to work it up this am....will do it this weekend.  The Shasta Daisy and the Coneflowers are just beautiful down by the road.  I need to plant more of the coneflower as I really love it.

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Please resize for me...LOL...

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Two more Shots of the LaceCap

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Took a couple more shots of the LaceCap but this will probably be the last for this year.  It's started it's decline and putting out only a few blooms now and they are pretty small.  I wasn't sure which one of these images I liked the best so posted both of them.  I tried a texture behind the top image but it didn't look good so just left it as is.

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Blue Beauty

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Just another shot of the Lacecap with a texture added.  More rain today but maybe it will bring some relief from this oppressive heat and humidity.  Even the plants are struggling with the weather.

Ok...I give up!  I've sized this dang image three different ways and still can't get it to fill the block like you do.  I even checked your dimensions and sized it like yours and it is either too small or it hangs over the type on the right.  



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Beauty in Nature

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Just a shot I got on the 4th.  My hydrangea in the back yard has got several blooms on it but the one in the front only has a couple.  It's the bigger bush but its out in the hot sun too long and its always wilted down when I get home at night.  I keep babying it till my tree gets big enough to cast some shade on it.

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After the rain

Took this one after the rain today. Added a texture from Kim Klassen.
I think I'm done playing around for the day.

Lazy...Hazy 4th of July

Hope your 4th has been better than ours. Nothing going on, kids out of town or working. It's been a rainy gloomy day. Walked out back a few minutes ago and snapped this.

Making Hay

Stopped to snap this on the way home from Marietta today.

A couple of snaps from this week

Ran an action or two on this image and added several textures at different blend modes and a few others things added  in. In general I just played around with it.



Started to go out to get the mail today and Mr Bunny was sitting outback beside the pond. Grabbed my camera and he was still there.....LOL.....That's generally not the case. Snapped this through the window with the 70/300 lens.  Was surprised and pleased with the way it turned out.

Through the years.....

Just browsing some old images and decided to show you the difference that 4 years makes.  The bicycle is still there....you just have to look harder to see it!  LOL....I've taken a few plants out of here....they got too big or just didn't do good in their spot.  I've also lost some of the Veronica that used to be in front of the Peegee hydrangea. 

Scroll down....I've posted twice today!   Making up for being absent so much!

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Black & White

Just a shot I took early morning before work.  I found this unusual fern at a greenhouse in the KC area.  I didn't save the tag so can't tell you the name of it.  It almost looks artificial and even feels a bit like plastic too...LOL...but its not, it really has roots and needs water! 


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Lacecap 2011

Finally a shot to post.  I should have taken this early in the morning cause by the time I took this shot the wind was blowing.  But....wanted to get all the boxwood shrubs trimmed back while it was still half way cool and it was almost 1 pm by the time I got them all done.  Anyway, this still isn't the shot I have in my head but at least I've got one posted....LOL


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Break Time.......



Million Bells

Snapped these as I was relaxing on the patio with a good cup of coffee after a hard days work

First one SOOC 2nd one ran Florabella's Sweet Vintage action.

Cookie Splash

I have been looking for a great looking coffee mug to do the cookie splash with. Finally found one the other day so Brent and I went out in the back yard last evening and made a mess. He dropped a lemon while I did the snapping. I get so into taking the picture that I always forget something...this time it was composition wish it all had been moved over more to the right but that's the way it goes.

This is one of the practice shots with water and I loved the heart shape in the middle of the splash also like the water color better than the coffee with the dark background.

I am SO Sorry!

I can't believe how long its been since I've even had my camera out of its bag.  My life has always been busy but lately, its turned into a wild zoo.  Gavin has had ballgames 2 and 3 nights a week, work has turned into a nightmare and life, in general. is extremely exhausting! I'm mowing grass twice a week and watering of the flowers has started.

This morning is the first morning I've had to just sit and read mail or browse the web.  My computer even thinks I've disowned it.  We have had some obsessive heat for the past few days but it finally broke yesterday and was pretty pleasant until last night and we had some huge storms.  A couple tornado's were reported a bit south of town and we had baseball size hail in a lot of towns around us but we came through unscathed. I had left work to drive 30 miles north to watch another ball game but turned around and headed for home when they came over the news with the severe thunderstorm warnings.  I drove through torrential rain all the way home but never saw any of the big hail.  The water was over the road in several areas.  We ended up with almost 4 inches of rain and have a few limbs down outside. I am glad the temps have come back down.  It's suppose to be pleasant today. 

My nephew is getting married tomorrow afternoon and its an outside services.  They were calling for rain but as of this morning, they have taken the rain out of the forecast and the temps are suppose to be in the upper 70's so it should be a perfect day for the ceremony. 

I hope to get some shots taken soon....will try and get some posted.


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Double Hibiscus

I have a terrible cold and feel really bad. Yesterday wasn't to bad but I think I over did it and paying for it today. Just going to take it easy and snap a few shots.

Bought this double Hibiscus at Lowe's and love it. It's beautiful. I need to do some reading on care so I don't kill it.

New Kids on the Block

A quick snap out the window of these two cute baby squirrels playing around in the back yard. I think they are about 3 or 4 weeks old. They are so fun to watch running and jumping all over out back. Just hope a dog doesn't get them. They can sure flying up that tree in a hurry. 

Don't make fun of the grass......it's has been raining forever.

Easter Mosaic

These are the Easter baskets that I did for the Grands this year.

Found the tubs a Big Lots and loved the bright colors.

Used the Silhouette to cut the names from vinyl (need to buy black). Also used it to cut out the chick treat bags, carrot candy boxes and gift card holders. I'm going to like the machine but I still have a lot to learn. It's nice not to have to cut all those little shapes out. I haven't made anything for so long that my hands were a little shaky.

Followed the tutorial here for the Easter Oreo Suckers but I needed someone here to hold my hand.....didn't do so good with these but the kids will like them. I would like to practice making more of these. As long as I didn't eat them. To sweet.

Where I've been lately!!!

Just letting you know I'm still here, just been busy as a beaver....my nephew is getting married in June and they wanted me to do the invitations.  They had some pictures taken and uploaded them to me but they were very poor resolution, thus not useable for print so I made a flying trip to St. Joseph on Sat. afternoon and we had a small photo shoot.  I was happy with most of the images...some could have been improved on and I really need to learn how to pose them better but all in all, we come up with some pretty fair stuff...So...here is their invitation as it stands right now. I'm waiting on approval from them before I send the final file to his mom for printing.  She is going to print them at her work place as it will take me way too long.  So...these could change but you get the idea!  LOL

These are a trifold invitation with the top being the outside of the invitation and the bottom one being the inside. I've been looking it over more and I'm thinking I'll change the font of their names on the inside to match the font on the outside.  Will see what they think first!

It's raining cats and dogs today...hope it clears out by tomorrow as I want to do some more painting.  I want to get the second coat on the house before my Spring vacation.  I've got 3 more sides to do!

New Cabinet

I've been needing some more storage in the kitchen so I picked this cabinet up on my last trip to the Ohio Amish country. I love this style of furniture.

Wonder how long I can keep that Ivy alive......LOL.....

Had a hard time getting enough light to snap these. Had the ISO up to 800.

Put a little Easter Out

Finally put a few Easter decorations out. It's hard to get in the the Easter.....Spring mood with this weather. Got up yesterday to a ground covered with snow....It didn't last long but still that's not good.

The new Craft desk

Well, here it is...finally complete.  I gave the top 6 coats of black paint!  I need one more shelf to hold the rest of my ribbon.  As you can see, the bookcases work great for putting my machines on and keeping them within easy reach when I need them.  The other bookcase holds some of my nice paper from Papertrey.  I love their paper, its so nicely colored and a great thickness for cards. I made the desk so I can stand at it if I want or sit but my computer chair doesn't quite raise high enough.  I'm going to look for a bar stool chair.  Now to get more of my craft stuff moved out to this room.  I get tired of going to the hall closet to get stuff and then having to put it all back when I get done.  I want to put my most used stuff in that little desk under the window.  If the heat register hadn't been so long under that window, I would have been able to leave the top the same height as the door but as it was, I had to cut the door down by about a foot.  But, its still much bigger than the little desk I had there  so I should have a lot more space to work.

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Tufted Titmouse

It's nice to see the birds at the birdbath again after the winter although the only water in it is from the rain.

Had a hard time with the theme (darks & lights) for this week for project 57 so I'm just posting this snap that I took Thursday out the back door.

It wasn't much of an image so I added a few textures to it. A couple from Coffee House and one from Isabelle Lafrance. I think they help.



Pinball machine

The theme  for MCP project 52 week 10 is Childhood toys. This is more for the older child but it's about the oldest toy I have around here.  This has been in the basement for years. It doesn't get played much anymore but it's fun.

Express yourself

I love these little things. I eat one almost ever evening.

The theme this week is Express yourself.

Well you know me I can't leave anything as is. I did the usual tweaks on this image but the main thing I did was add a layer filled with 2e3192 exclusion blend mode and lowered the opacity some. That's me expressing myself.

Happy Anniversary, my dear friend

Hope it's a great day!


Edited by me to add the designers...had to leave for work before I could get that all done but wanted to get the card posted!

The paper is by Katie Pertiet from a free color kit challenge pack.  The buttons and flower are from 2 Peas as a free kit but there is no designer name in the file, just Hero's Art.  The sun is by Nitwit Collections.
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Birthday Card

 

This card has taken me 2 weekends to complete...LOL....mostly just trying to come up with an card I could make with my supplies and equipment.  I got the card idea from someones blog and for the life of me, I can't find the address again.  If I find it, I will edit this and post a link to it.   Anyway, the cardstock, ribbon, and buttons are from Papertrey Ink  and the label cut file is from Birds Blog 

I broke the label apart in my Sure Cuts a Lot program and cut it out on copy paper so I would have a template to add my saying and the clipart that I got from this site.

Something is going strange with this blog....my cursor keeps wanting me to center my text.  Hummmm...

I printed my sentiment and the floral design on Column paper from Neenah that I had left over from Jerri Ann's wedding.  Then I cut out my label from cheap paper and left the paper on the cutting mat until I got the printed copy situated underneath of the cutout so that I could run it back through my Cricut to cut it out.  It worked great!  I made the scallops myself and cut them with the Cricut but I bought the paper for them and the background from Katie Pertiet at Designer Digitals.  The dictionary page paper came from 2 Peas. 

I think that is all of it....LOL

My image didn't come out as nice as the card is.  The blue is a bit off in the image..its a little lighter shade of blue.  Bill liked it a lot!  Maybe he was just saying that to get me out of the craft room...LOL

My cards would be so much easier to make if I had the time to sit down and really learn my equipment and software.  The Cricut has me pulling my hair out most of the time and PS is almost as bad!  

Tickets

I've never won anything but my luck changed on this.  On our local channel 9 news, they give away tickets to the 9th caller.  I was sitting here watching the news and happened to have my cell phone in my pocket.  I never dreamed I would be the ninth caller cause I just instantly dialed the number.  When he told me I had won, I was truly shocked.  This concert is during Bill's busy time, so Jerri Ann and I are going to go.

Our dry, brown ground is all gone again.  We got about 6 inches last night and due to get about 4 more tonight.  I'm so sick of white!!

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From the Grands

Our new refrigerator magnets that came in the Valentine cards from the Grands. Love them!
Also used it for my Project 52  week 7 theme....Open Your Heart.

Happy Valentine's Day to You!

Words

MCP Project 52 theme for this week is"Words". This is my take. Wish the words at the top was a little more out of focus but I take what I get.  This dictionary is around 35 years or so old and both of my kids used it all through school. It no longer has a back on and it's so big and heavy and with spell checker I hardly ever get it out anymore. Maybe I should....LOL
It snowed so hard at times today I couldn't see the house across the street but luckily it didn't last long. We only got about an inch or so. It's now going to turn bitter cold. I'm ready for spring.

Sock Yarn

I have been participating in "MCP Project 52".  The theme for this week was "Muse" and I had a very hard time coming up with anything to snap. With this lousy weather there's not much going on to inspire a person,but I do want to start another pair of sock as soon as I finish a scarf that I have been working on for to long. So.....this pretty yarn is my "Muse".

Blizzard 2011

This has been one active winter since Christmas got over.  For the first time in 27 years, I had the day off due to weather.  The post office was off because their freight didn't come in either.  Today I drove through tunnels of snow...just wide enough for my package car to fit and just barely able to see over the tops of the piles.  Heaven forbid I meet anyone on those roads....one of us would be backing up!  The first image is of my bench and the snow is up to the bottom of the seat.  In the second image, you have to remember that my flower box is 2 feet tall and then the flower bed in front of the porch is another foot taller than that.  Notice that only half of my pump is sticking out. I have drifts on the north side of my house that reach 5 feet and my side front yard is now completely level with the rest of my front yard when in reality, its about 3 feet lower. 

The next two images were taken back about 2 weeks ago.  This is the second time we've had hoar frost since Christmas and its always so beautiful!  Of course, that building is almost one of my favorite sites to photograph so I couldn't pass it up again.  But, I was on my way to work, so it was just taken out of my car window.  Makes me think I should buy a window tripod..

And that lovely family in the bottom pic...they are some of my wonderful customers!  They have cold hands but very warm hearts!

If I have time tomorrow, I'll try and get a shot of some of my tunnels of snow...unless I don't have to drive through them.

Thinking about Valentine's Day

Starting to think about what to do for Valentine's Day for the Grands. Hope I can come up with something cute this year. Haven't done to good for a couple of years.

My take on the Poinsettia's

Here is my take on this lovely plant.  I think I got water on the leaves and they left those spots.  I can't believe I've had these for 2 months and they are still alive!  Took this image outside on the deck.  The snowman is painted on a window that is sitting on the deck behind the chair.


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Poinsettia

Brent brought this Poinsettia home to me from the Lion's club Christmas dinner and I haven't killed it yet.
It looked so pretty today with the sun shining so bright and the snow outside that I had to take a snap.
Can't decide which one I like best.....Nothing done on the first one......the second ran a vintage action then tweaked a little. Which do you like????

My Beautiful Bella

My beautiful, sweet Bella.  I've never, ever taken a good picture of this adorable little girl.  She is not big on having her picture taken and usually just gives me a frown or a smirk.  But, not this time...this time, she gave me a smile that melted my heart.  She is such a charmer and has such a giving, wonderful heart.  I see her dad in so many of her expressions....This image is being printed and added to my family room wall.  I've had 4 frames just waiting for some good images.  I got one of all of them this time!  Now to get them printed and framed.  Don't forget to scroll down....posted twice today!

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Christmas 2010

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Jackson 2010

Not a great image but one heck of a great memory!  I just happened to be pointing the camera at him when he pulled these socks out of his stocking!  These were his exact words and the look on his face was priceless. I was still trying to adjust my camera settings and flash for the early morning light and didn't have my shutter speed high enough to stop the motion but I wouldn't delete this memory if my life depended on it.  It was just too funny.  Now to figure out a better layout for it!

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Chickadee in the snow

It's snowing like crazy here today and we already have about 4 inches. It so pretty if you are lucky enough to be able to stay inside and watch out the window. Next year you will be one of the lucky ones.

I love seeing the Chickadee come in for food but wish they weren't so fast. They dart in grab a seed and off they go. It's hard to get focused they are so fast.

Squirrel in the bird feeder

This was outside having his lunch in the bird feeders. Maybe this is why I haven't seen many bird lately.