Almost Summer

Hello friends! I'm still here, just been working on the house inside and out. We have so much to do and it's going to take time but I'm looking forward to things progressing, especially having a front lawn!

I know it's not officially summer yet but it sure feels like it lately. All the signs are there, mosquitoes, hot days, thunderstorms, snakes, ticks and green grass.

The snakes are the worst, I saw my first one a few weeks ago and now walk more cautiously when I go out, they will be around for 6 more months, yikes! We've had two rattlesnakes on the property in the past two years so I've started doing a snake check before I let the dogs out, it gives me a little peace of mind when they are running around. We have a resident 6-7 foot black snake that lives in a wood pile and is not scared of people, he completely ignores us. I've seen smaller black snakes too and as soon as they see you they take off like lightening. We have named the big snake Elvira just because it's creepy, could be a boy but I'm not getting close enough to find out so it's getting a girl's name.

Elvira decided to check out the dog kennels last week. I saw the snake before it went in the dog kennels and moved all the dogs before it went in. Then Elvira proceeded to go back and forth nice and slow visiting both kennels for about an hour. I stood by and watched outside the fence with rake and shovel in hand, not sure what I was going to do with a rake and a snake but it was my protection in case it came close because like I said, this snake is not scared of people. I was really glad when it left, that was a little too close for me. Since then I see Elvira quite often and keep my distance and eventually it moves. We also have a resident King snake that came out about two days ago and he's been hanging out by the guinea hens looking for mice. There is usually two king snakes, we call them Mr. and Mrs. King.

I do love living out in the boonies but I do not like the snakes. I have never seen so many snakes so early in the year and they are the worst part of my summer days.

With the weather being so warm I decided it was bath time for the dogs. We have 6 dogs so it takes a few days to get them all washed. I washed Kaila's mom Rachel first, she's a Sheppard so she's pretty big and takes a lot of shampoo. I learned a lesson not leave the dog shampoo on the ground as the other dogs will take it and run, first it was Marley who lost his grip on the bottle then Kaila stole it after he dropped it and was looking for a place to bury it, she loves to bury things. Rachel was half way washed and soapy while I'm running around trying to get my stolen shampoo and I finally bartered with a treat and Kaila dropped it. I ran out of shampoo after 2 1/2 dogs and gave up, plus the hose I was using had a big hole in it about 6 feet from the nozzle and I kept getting squirted and decided to wait on the dog washing until I got another hose. It was a hot day so I didn't mind getting soaked, I just need to plan my dog washing better! I think next time I'll get Terry involved to help, I think it will be a lot easier with two people!

I painted the dining room a few weeks ago and worked on the kitchen and entry way yesterday, it took all day long but I finally got it done, yay! We are planning on getting our hardwood floor installed on Saturday, it will be so nice to have a floor finally!

I got all my tomatoes and veggies yesterday, just need to get them planted. There's nothing like a fresh picked tomato from the garden, it's the best part of summer!

I've squeezed in a little crafting here and there, mostly been making cards.
The rose on this card was a large white rose from a craft store. I took it apart and cut all the petals off, threw the plastic parts away, then put it back together using a glue gun and made it smaller, added glimmer mist, acrylic paint and glitter. The center of the rose is a vintage pearl clip earring from the Antique store, I just clipped the backing off. The heart crochet doily was white and I added glimmer mist for color. The chipboard frame was covered in paper, then painted, inked and glittered. The leaves were a dark green and I painted and inked them and coated with glitter.


On this one I used a vintage Bingo card, painted and glittered chipboard frame, seam binding and roses. The velvet rose already had glitter and I added some stickles to the other rose so it would match. The paper rose and rose stems are ZVA Creative that I got from Custom Crops, you can find them here.



And a couple cards that aren't pink, can you believe it! I painted the chipboard frame red and added some white acrylic paint polka dots and then glittered. I made the felt rose and added glitter and a pearl bead center. I cut the leaves out of felt and highlighted with paint. On the second card the sheer rose was white and I added glimmer mist to give it color. You can get the sheer rose trim from the craft store and make your own colors using glimmer mist. The die cut images are Crafty Secrets.




I thought I'd share some photos of my new craft room, just got two for now but will have more in future posts. This is my sewing desk which Terry found for me at a yard sale. The legs used to be yellow and I painted them white. He got the desk from a lady who had to sell a bunch of her things as he toddler son was ill and they were trying to raise money to help pay for his medical bills. She said her dad made the desk for her when she was little and she used to do her homework on it, I love that it has special meaning to it as I just adore the desk even more because of it's history. I love having my sewing machine set up all the time, it's usually always has pink thread in it. I have to keep it covered though as Rocco likes to eat the thread, bad kitty! One of the large boxes is filled with Tattered Angels chipboard and the other with vintage doilies and lace. The round one was a Custom Crops project and it now holds all my paper doilies. Another favorite is my sink that Terry installed, I use paint a lot so it is wonderful to have running water so close. The paper towel holder was brown, a flea market find from Terry that I painted white. It holds a pretty pink crochet doily that my friend Jennifer made, a jar of buttons from the antique store and a Christmas paper mache' house that I made that I thought fit in with my decorating so I just left it up. You can see a little peak at my curtains that I made, I'll get better photos to post next time.



And one more card, I made this on a cold and gloomy day, I thought I'd bring a little sunshine to my craft room! The edges of the roof was a pine cone that I took apart and painted each piece white, then added to the roof after I had the lace down. The lace on the roof was part of some eyelet trim and I cut the scalloped part off. It also has some painted burlap trim, a vintage bingo card, real sea shells, sea shell buttons, and a Melissa Frances chipboard sun which I painted and glittered.


Hope you have a great week! Thanks so much for stopping by!
Annette

Where's the Birdie?

Our morning routine still consists of the cats running upstairs, anxiously waiting for the birds to fly in and out of the nest above the window in my craft room.

It's a race to see who can get the window seat first! This time, Jada won!


Rocco is patiently waiting his turn for the window!


I had to share this photo of Jada eating, she is too funny. She lays on the ground in front of the bowl, sticks her paw in the bowl and pushes a few pieces of food on the ground, then eats the food off the ground. She just lays there and repeats this until she's full, talk about a lazy cat!



Do you see my beautiful new banner?
The very talented Viola created it for me, I absolutely LOVE it! My favorite part is the kitty that looks just like Rocco sitting so pretty amongst the roses!

I've been into making my own flowers lately, it really is a lot of fun and the possibilities are endless! The first ones are made with fleece using the Sizzix 3D flower die. After I assembled the rose, I highlighted them with acrylic paint and glitter, I thought it would give them a sparkly shabby look. I made the leaves with fleece also, then highlighted with paint and glitter.



I made these using synthetic fabric and a Sizzix layered flower die, heated the edges with my heat gun, added acrylic paint and glitter. I cut the leaves from felt and also highlighted the edges with paint.



This card was made using one of the flowers but this time I used a pipe cleaner for the leaves. I cut and shaped the leaves, then sprayed the pipe cleaner with glimmer mist and did a quick dry with the heat gun. The photo is a little dark as I took it on a cloudy day.



And one last card using a butterfly die that I cut with felt and hand stitched around the edges. The flowers were made for me by my dear friend Jennifer in WA state, she is so sweet!



We primed the downstairs ceiling two weeks ago and painted the final coat this weekend. I am so glad it's done, I think ceilings are the worst to paint! Now I get to paint color on the walls, then the major painting will be done, yay! We are getting our floor soon and I need to paint before the floor goes down as I am a very sloppy painter!

Thanks for stopping by, wishing you a wonderful week!
Annette

Fly Away Ladybug

We have had ladybugs in the house for a few months, they especially love my craft room. I'll be typing on my computer and one will crawl across the screen, or I'll pick up a pair of scissors and there's a ladybug crawling on the handle. I must say they are definitely keeping the cats entertained! Speaking of entertaining the cats, the bird's nest above my craft room window has a family again. Every morning I open the door to the upstairs Rocco runs up and goes straight to the window and waits for me to open the blind, then he will sit there and look up and wait for the birds. As I am typing this post, there are three cats nestled in front of the window, patiently waiting, it is too cute!

Please excuse my blog header, I changed my blog layout which stretched the blog but the header stayed the same size and wants to stay to the left. When I resized the header larger, it got blurry so I'll have to work on a new header. Plus the Etsy store I purchased it from closed down so I'm on my own for now so please bare with me until I can get a new one.

I've been in and out of my craft room as the weather has been so nice and I've been playing in the dirt a lot. Terry brought several loads of dirt to our center tree area and I made some raised garden beds and have been transplanting bulbs and flowers. Our dirt is gravel and dust basically so if I want to plant anything, it has to be in a raised bed. He also broke up some of the clay rocks out in the front with his tractor but now we are left with alot of big rocks, which we will have to pick up by hand using a wheelbarrow. I have several piles of leaves, rocks and debris I have raked all around the property, waiting to be picked up. I am hoping I will wake up one day and they will just be gone! Lots of work to be done but I can imagine in the long run how nice it will be to have a beautiful front lawn instead of rocks, weeds and red dirt!

Just a few Easter things I've recenlty made. I cut the little chick out of chenille fur and he is so soft! I also used a white fuzzy fur for the bunny.





On the next two cards, I dismantled the wood egg and tulip, then embellished them and put them back together again. On the egg card, I made the roses with felt, then highlighted with acrylic paint and glitter. The leaves on the tulip card are felt and I handstitched around the edges.





I made the cupcake topping out of fabric by adhering fusible webbing to the back of the fabric first, then cut out the pattern. I also put a layer of quilting batting in between so it would be a little puffy. I put the webbing on it in hopes to help with fraying. The cupcake base is also fabric adhered to chipboard, then I sewed around it. And another rose made from felt with added glitter and felt leaves.





Also made some birthday tags. I just got the Martha Stewart scoring board and I absolutely love it! I did use my green Cricut bone folder instead of the one that came with the scoring board as it seemed to fit into the grooves a little better. The candle is an oldie but favorite sizzix die.





It's going to be a rainy weekend, a perfect time to hibernate in my craft room!

Wishing you a wonderful weekend!
Annette

Cupcakes and Sunshine

I'm on a cupcake crafting roll, working on a fun project that I'll share next post. I found some adorable cupcake and cake box paper mache shapes and have been decorating them. For the cupcake top I cut eyelet lace in strips and applied with tacky glue, then coated with glitter using a spray adhesive. For the felt scallop trim on the bottom, I used a Papertrey Ink medium scallop die and was short about an inch. If I had one more scallop it would fit around the rim. I cut the felt a little longer than the die and cut out the trim, then I layed the trim back in the die and lined it up in the scallops with the extra felt on the end piece of the scallop die and ran it back through my Sizzix and extended the trim by a one scallop. This gave me the extra length to fit the trim around the cupcake. I did use a piece of scotch tape to hold the felt in place so it wouldn't move when I ran it back through. You could probably do this and make a 12" piece of trim for a scrapbook page too, just make sure you have a longer strip of felt when cutting. I did a blanket stitch around the edges of the felt and added a little pearl bead in each scallop. The flowers were made with the 3D Sizzix flower die.


I also made some cupcake tags.


And a couple of the cake boxes. I used some Melissa Frances retro images and Tattered Angels chipboard frame, which I painted and coated in Martha Stewart Microbeads. The crochet flowers were sent to me from my sweet friend Jennifer in WA state.




I've been working on Easter projects too which I'll share next post.
It won't be easy staying in my craft room for the next week as the weather is going to be wonderful, sunny and in the 60's, I think we are in for an early Spring!

Happy Valentines Day!

Annette

Cat in a Bag

I just happened to be walking in the sunroom with my camera at hand and saw Rocco sleeping in a grocery bag so I had to get photo, they do the littlest things that make me smile!

I have no excuse for not blogging sooner, only just that I've been hibernating in my craft room alot lately, creating a little of this and that.
I love paper mache and had these little bears that I got many years ago and I thought they would be cute on a box and decorated them for a baby girl and boy. I have more paper mache' projects coming soon, I got some really cute shaped paper mache boxes that I can't wait to decorate.


I also started working on some Easter things for my little Etsy store. I made some more of my Chocolate Bunny tags but used fur instead of felt and added some paper grass and some tiny eggs I glittered.

I saw some yellow pom poms at the craft store and thought they would be so cute as a fluffy chick and this is what I came up with. I made the beaks with orange clay and baked them in the oven to harden. The eyes are little black beads and I hand stitched the legs. This time I used pre-glittered eggs!

Also made some cupcake tags using chipboard, beads, seam binding and more pom poms.

And lastly a couple cards made with some doilies from Belgium that I got from my favorite antique store.

We were expecting snow but they changed it to rain, I admit I wouldn't mind if it snowed at least one more time this winter!
Have a great week!
Annette

Happy New Year

I thought I'd get one last post in for 2010. I can't believe tomorrow will be 2011, this year has flown by so fast.

We had some snow that arrived Christmas Day evening. It starting snowing lightly about 9pm and by 2 am the next day, there was a little coating on the cars and grassy areas but not much and my heart sank because I was thinking we weren't going to get any accumulation and went back to bed. By 6am the next morning, we had 5 inches! An hour later I was dressed and out the door with my camera to get photos.



A little later Terry and I went for a walk in the back by the lake.

I took this while we were walking in the back on the railroad tracks. If you click on this photo and enlarge it, you can see our house in the background nestled in the trees.

I was ready for a snowball fight!

The dogs loved the snow and were rolling around in it. Kaila would lay down and duck her head under the snow like she does with water, it was so funny! I got a photo of her sticking her tongue out and it looks like she's trying to catch snowflakes. I couldn't get any of the dogs to sit still and pose for photos so I was lucky to get one of her standing still!


I really enjoyed making Christmas items, it's my favorite holiday to create for. I know it's time to move on so I made a few cards for Valentine's Day.


Wishing you all a very Happy New Year!
Annette

Happy Holidays!

I hope everyone is enjoying the holiday season. The holiday will soon be upon us and a new year is right around the corner.

I've been doing alot of soul searching lately, reflecting on my life, my dreams and my goals, what's important and what's not important. There was happiness and saddness this past year. Happiness with finally reaching our dream of moving into our new home after 3 years, it has been a blessing and we are so happy here.
This year has also brought sadness and loss, an uncle with diabetes, an aunt with pancreatic cancer a few months ago and recently a beautiful favorite cousin with complications from diabetes, I miss her so much but I know she is in heaven with her dad, (my Uncle) and our Aunt and it brings me peace. I have dear friends who have lost loved ones and a very dear friend whose husband of many, many years has a life threatening disease and his time is short, my thoughts and prayers are with her and her family every single day, I just wish I lived closer so I can be there for her in person. She is an angel, a wonderful friend I love dearly and has blessed my life, my heart breaks for her.

In 2011 I will cherish each day to the fullest and not take anything for granted, I will tell my loved ones I love them as often as possible and not sweat the small things in life. Family and Friends are precious, life is precious and is a gift, I will cherish each day to the fullest that I have here on this earth.

I wish all of you a happy Holiday and may God bless each and every one of you. Thank you so much for visiting my blog this past year and for your sweet comments, it has meant so much to me and I feel so blessed to have met so many wonderful people through the world of blogging.

This will be my last post until after the holidays but I do have a few crafty things to share. First are some tag/ornaments that I made with clay using a santa mold. I hand painted the faces and added some snow tex, wool beard and a little felt hat I made and topped it off with a rusty bell.



And a project for Custom Crops, you can find the instructions and supplies here.


Happy Holidays and a blessed New Year to all!
Annette