Category Archives: ATC

Aug27

What a coincidence

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I’m working on the sleeping kitty xs design as I’ve shown you. A few days ago, I brought up a bag of old children’s books that were put and left in the basement-a no no to me. I found this one on cats from the 1960s-70s and look how much this kitty looks like the one I am stitching! Maybe the designer was inspired by this particular book? I just thought of all the books I own, I decided to thumb through this one.


Also made a few cards from the squashed flower blossoms. Here is one of them-I’ll call it ‘Serenity’

I’m killing some time before the dentist appt. Of course I had to get a bill in the mail from them today too-grrrrrgh. I hope whoever becomes President, makes healthcare more affordable. I think we spend close to 10% of our income on the dentist-after what the insurance pays and not counting what they take out of Bri’s pay each month.

Aug6

Art and cooking

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Different ideas same background ATCs, originally uploaded by DianthusMoon.

I was looking through stuff as I sorted last week. This week seems to be a bust because of my back issues. The sore spots like to move around, but Advil and the heating pad are my pals. It doesn’t bother my rest, just when I am sitting a lot which isn’t good.
I found a really neat page in a landscape catalog we picked up at the Philadelphia Flower show this year. These are what I made from the one page-all these cards’ backgrounds! I know, my imagination tends to run wild. I loved her eyes in the one image of Clara Bow, so they became the focus of the card. The other lady card is indeed Clara Bow again. She was gorgeous in my opinion.

The Michelangelo prophets are from a Dover Publications sticker book. I used both Isaiah and Jeremiah on my cards then did a google search to find out that Isaiah literally put the fear of God in people and Jeremiah was know as ‘the broken hearted’ prophet. Interesting!
Here is what we had for dinner last night called Frittata Al Tonno.
Frittata Al Tonno
Found it on the Chicken of the Sea website. I wanted to use tuna, and it also has eggs (of course), zucchini, onion, basil and tomatoes-mostly fresh from our garden. The secret was to cover the pan and steam the eggs for about 5 minutes. Both guys asked if it was quiche!
And speaking of eating-on the opposite end of the spectrum, our cute little mop top and bottom moths are cannibals! I found a completely bare stem of milkweed and there was only bits and pieces of a bunch of the critters left on it. Not saying a bird or two didn’t get to them. But I am sure I haven’t seen too many of the moths around.

My mom has loved paperdolls since she’s been a little girl and has collected Tom Tierney (also from Dover Pubs) for many years. Look what Mr. Tierney just came up with, no surprise to me. I’m thinking their clothes can’t be too exciting, maybe Senator Obama’s?

And three cute little girls-two fairly famous-you know who they are (belong to B and A):

and a little girl I found on etsy-on her mom Adrianne’s store:

I photoshopped this a bit. As you can see, I live vicariously through those who have daughters. : ) I’m still hoping for a granddaughter or two someday.

Sean and I are off to BJs Wholesale Club tomorrow. I broke down and bought a membership there. Dangerous-big quantities of things-must buy-!!!!

Jul23

What to do on a rainy afternoon

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Before and after the power goes out (for two hours-ugh)

From a 6″ Hershey kiss box and the candy’s ‘ribbon’ This was on Artist Trading Card Idea’s as card of the day. I’m flattered!

I was in the middle of clipping my mom’s old magazines (I wouldn’t let my brothers toss them) and the background image is from one of them.

That’s lavender in the background from a flower catalog.

And here’s the deluge. I grabbed the camera to capture the marble size hail, but it melted as soon as it hit the ground:


Jul20

Hail Caesar!

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For our mini, last of the summer, before Sean goes back to PSU vacation, we are going to Atlantic City for a couple of days and staying at Caesars! Many of you know, my father-in-law takes the bus down there weekly. I was getting tired of the ho-hum (but peaceful) last few places we’ve gone. I sit on the beach and that’s about it. At least there is more stuff to see and do here. We could only get a Sunday through Tuesday reservation. Bri’s dad has rewards, so that saved up tremendously on the room- a big thing. We are taking my mom. Even if she can’t walk around a lot, she can certainly see something different right in the casino. The beach is nicer too, so Sean says from his excursion last weekend. I’m not a gambler. I’ll play a little, but I keep thinking-gee with that $20 I could have gotten lots of stuff at Michael’s Craft store. : )

Not much else is new. I can’t do much outside because of the heat and humidity. The grass is drying up. The weeds are taking over. I don’t care right now. I’ve been making ATCs to keep me busy. Also been running out every night to water things I can’t enjoy during the day. Sean and Bri help a bit with that. I should be cleaning, but that’s too much work in the heat, even when you have air, you still get hot, especially at my age.

I may be going out with Sean in a few hours to do a little of shopping. His friends are all tied up doing other things, so he relies on me sometimes. I don’t mind one bit.

A couple of my new ATC-homage to historic figures:

And this Stargazer lily, which is in a pot, smells delightful!

Jul13

Treasure ATC

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Treasure ATC, originally uploaded by DianthusMoon.

I’m going to be seeing my niece on Tuesday, so I made her this ATC for her collection. It’s me and my brother Don, about 3 and 2 years old. We were living in Florida at the time. I love this photo as the pool is so tiny. We basically just sat there and stared at each other. There’s a good size boat under the plant that we obviously had to share.
We had a quiet day here today. Mom left about 12:30, but stopped off at a few stores (that we were just in yesterday). Shopping is her thing which drives my brothers batty.
I made a pot roast like last Sunday. Sean even asked if we had just had it not long ago. You toss the meat in an oven bag with the potatoes and things and it’s ready to eat in a few hours. Can’t beat that.

Jul9

Trying for happy things

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Live Happy ATC, originally uploaded by DianthusMoon.

Just having some fun with ATCs the last few days-I sure needed to do something distracting. This one was a bit challenging, but the fun part is making something cute out of it.

I have to use a rinse for my gums, which I used before and if they aren’t better in a few weeks, I have to go back. Also got one of those rubber pointy things to gently push along that area so the medicine gets in there.

Since I was out, I went to Wally World and bought some more plants to fill in colorless spots. I bought a few different color marigolds which will last until the frost and some Coleus for near Bri’s hot peppers that are under the evergreen out front.

I talked to Karin, a mutual friend of Char’s. She was in disbelief. Char had just sent her husband a birthday card and them a 1st anniversary card. We are just puzzled. Kar had talked to Char many times on the phone. She was in tears a few times. I believe she will call Char’s CL husband soon.

‘Hurricane Schwartz’, our local weatherman, said it is going to be less humid tomorrow, so maybe I’ll plant my new things to spruce up the front.

Jul4

Happy Independence Day!

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(If you’d like this as a desktop, click on the above image and then save the largest version to your computer).

Some ATCs-I made 4 altogether:

Celebrate for the 4th of July ATC

National Pride for the 4th of July ATC

Oh…and the tomato tepees are working-so far-that’s if they don’t get too much bigger. Bri didn’t put the mulch down thick enough and we have weeds galore. That’s his job, I have enough flowerbeds to weed. I do ‘clip’ up the tomatoes. The clips were suggested by Martha Stewart and they work really well. They are clipped to cording that is attached to the top of the tepee and a long nail in the ground.

I plan to make baby back ribs, wings, coconut shrimp (the wings and shrimp are prepackaged), green bean salad, cucumber salad and potato salad. I may toss a pan of brownies or lemon squares in the oven for dessert. Yum!

The weather is iffy, but I may go to the fireworks to try and get some photos as I was inspired by a few I saw on Flickr. We’ll see. All that cooking is tiring. : )

Have a blast!!!

Jun11

Tuesday night light show

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We had a wicked rainstorm with tons of lightning go through last night. Earlier we lost power 5 times which was a pain as we had to keep resetting the clocks. It did considerably cool things off in the evening, but it was warm again today. My father-in-law lost power and it’s still not on after 24 hours. When they had their windows replaced years ago (on the lower level), my late mother-in-law decided to put in windows that didn’t open for ‘security reasons’. I questioned her about if she burnt something in the kitchen and she said she would use the stove fan and open the back door. Well, he is really suffering from not being able to have proper circulation in there. Glad something like this doesn’t happen often.

Sean took me grocery shopping over in our town’s new Acme which is 6 miles away. I know, we live closer to the mushroom town-lol. I think he wanted to check it out. We ran into Lowes to get Bri hot peppers. That’s all he talked about last week. They are something he just has to grow it seems. Anyway, the store is huge and I just wanted to zoom around in there and grab what I needed, if it was priced right. I wanted lemons-79¢ each-picked up about 3 and the last one was moldy on one side. I put it back, mold side up-bought nada ! I can go to the farmer’s market and get some at 5 for $2 and they are perfect. What’s going on here?

Got strip steak for dinner-two pieces in a package for $11! Not a lot for 3 people, but we had enough of other things-red potatoes, peas and Focaccia bread (and mini eclairs for dessert) that we were quite happy. I cook steak in a pan, with a little butter and steak rub-just what you buy in the spice aisle. I brown it well to get a crust and pop it in the oven for about 10 minutes to cook the middle. Rachael Ray said not to put ice cold meat in a pan as it ‘seizes up’ and makes it a little tough. I have to remember that. It was good!

My brother hasn’t gotten around to fixing my mom’s car yet. Guess he got held up on something tonight. Now she can’t go spend the day with my uncle on his 85th birthday tomorrow. We sent him cards, but it’s not the same. I will probably go and help her food shop before Sean goes to night class. Maybe we can do something for him over the weekend.

I’ve been working on ATCs and have some cute ones to share, I just need to photograph them. I have a series called ‘Rose babies’. Jennifer over at Sweetpea Stitches had sent me beautiful rose stickers and they were my inspiration for the two I have made so far, but I have 5 new ones altogether!

Someone in my graduating class passed away over the weekend. She was a cheerleader and an art major. Not a friend, but it’s sad to know someone my age has passed-too soon. She had two sons and still lived in our hometown. They are asking for donations for the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation, so I am wondering if that was what took her too soon.

I wish the idiots who use my blog for spam would take a hike! I can see what you are trying to do and I just delete it from my spam finder. They stick URLS, etc in the middle of my posts-lame!