For Jenn, Zoey and Tootie
Mar11
Category Archives: ATC
Mar8
Not quite the calm after the storm
Please notice the face of ‘God’ in the clouds. : )
This is what Brian captured around 3:30 this afternoon after several torrential downpours. Now the wind is fierce. So fierce it knocked out the power at church about 15 minutes into the service. Talk about eerie! It’s interesting listening to all the different singing voices when there is no musical accompaniment!
We ran down to the Five Guys burgers and noticed the temperature had dropped. Man, those are great burgers and fries! Mom called to say she lost power about the same time as the church did. Weird.
I am finishing up the zebras quilt square, well they are finished, but I have the grass and letters to do.
Here’s a few ATCs I made out of junk mail. It’s amazing how you can be inspired by what you are about to throw away!
American Express (passport background and world letters) and Macy’s (women’s face)
Mar4
ATC gift
2-19-08; Vintage Gardening, originally uploaded by tootieu.From Tootie! Isn’t is sweet. : ) She’s get one or two back. : )
Mar4
The clean up begins
I was outside raking on Monday. It was close to 60 here and a bit breezy. My circular iris garden was all overgrown with field grass (you’ll see the pear tree in the background which won’t be looking that green this year). I am confessing to you all that I will mulch that garden this year! It would probably save me a ton of work. I have little box hedges around the perimeter of this garden and two or three of them are missing. I think Bri cut them down with the mower! So they will have to be replaced eventually. I also got out most of the old sunflower, zinnia and cosmos stalks next to the irises. I have a big blister from my raking- I should wear work gloves!
Made little turkey meatloaves and oven fried red potatoes-inspired by Everyday Food magazine. Yep, I was thinking about my post below and handled the turkey gingerly. : )
I’m on a roll with ATCs. I made 9 of them in the last few days. Making some gifts helps. Cutting up new books and having pretty papers is also a bonus I received a giftie ATC from Tootie over at <—-Honey Girl Studios (see above). Tootie has lots of her St Paddy’s and Easter art for sale right now.
I watched the show on the Royals last night. I have to say that I just adore William and Harry. They turned out so nice, their mom would be proud. And I watched them grow up as they are only a few years older than Sean.
Mar2
Snaps around the house
I call this the candy cane Amaryllis. I received it for Christmas from Brian and it finally bloomed! It has two stalks and 6 flowers each, though only one stalk just started to bloom.
This is a cute little ceramic piece-birds sitting along a dish which looks vintage, but it’s not (Big Lots). I just but these pretty eggs in the dish part for the time being.
Brian gave me this cloche for Christmas plus the crystal egg underneath another time!
I was browsing some old photos online and loved this one. The phrase ‘don’t throw the baby out with the bath water‘ came to mind, so I used it! (most of the words)
An ATC I made for my friend’s dad featuring a Red-breasted Nuthatch. It’s from a 62 year old Audubon bird book.
I thank another friend for sending some awesome papers which have truly inspired me! (background below). Thanks J! 
Mar2
Ah fresh air!
We mixed up our Sunday a bit and went to church today instead of last night. If I went one more Saturday night, I would have screamed! Really, it gets old. We headed down to a little coffee shop in Delaware for a sandwich afterwards and came home. I suggested Bri trim back the two sadly overgrown pear trees we have, but it may be too late for them. Fruit trees, especially the smaller ones, do take some care. They shouldn’t be over a certain height (I’m thinking 7 feet) and you have to trim out all the sucker branches. Plus you should spray them when they bud. We never did any of that. We lost a dwarf apple tree last summer when it fell over and pretty much destroyed half of the veggie patch. I helped Bri a little, but I suffered with a stuff upper back yesterday and didn’t want to aggravate that. I did promptly have to apply Icy Hot to my lower back though. My neighbor has cut down four trees (I think) 3 leaf trees and one evergreen. We still have a row of evergreens between our house and his (that belong to him).
My father’s half brother emailed me late last night and said that my father’s apartment was all cleaned out-all 6 boxes of the stuff. He gave away a table and a few other things. He had a broken 486 computer too. My uncle said he had some high school annuals, and things from the time he was in the Korean war on a ship. Sadly, he mentioned no photos. My brother wants the stuff, he can have it. The taxi driver who befriended him almost had the same last name as me, change out one letter and add a ‘s’ to his name-isn’t that weird?
I’ve been making some ATCs as gifts and really enjoying it. My one friend’s dad loves to garden and if I post a photo to tribe.net, she nearly always prints it out to show him.
Not sure about the Philly Flower show. I do want to go and I don’t . I have the pass to Longwood Gardens and usually don’t have to worry about crowds. My mom could go with her friend on Tuesday. I was thinking about Wednesday as I am getting my hair done and we could go afterwards. I was also hoping my brother could inspect my van and see what the funny hamster wheel noise is under the hood. I guess I’ll end up going. Any excuse to use my camera!
Feb27
Tried something new!
I bought the punch needle kit back in the fall and just today decided to try it out. The lady at my LNS (Strawberry Sampler) was nice enough to show me how to do it, although that lesson was far in the recesses of my memory. I did get the knack of it and turned out this ‘pink’ ribbon. For some reason I grabbed a brownish pink, probably because I didn’t think I’d actually finish the project in one night. I think it’s not half bad for a first try. (update 2/27-I pulled out the incorrect color at the very top and redid-in 5 minutes. I may pick a pinker pink for the rest-it’s really easy to fix). The only real pain was threading the needle. It comes with a hair thin wire with a loop on the end. Perhaps that reminded me of the needle they used on me in November-I remember it was pretty thin like this. I have another design-more folk art of a cat and a pumpkin I will have to do next!
It’s a limited edition pink punch needle to benefit the Susan G Komen foundation.
I’ve made a few ATCs in the past week too. I ran some printed scrapbook paper (with music scales) through the printed and printed some photos on it. I got some interesting results:
The baby’s photo just happen to print out right between the music notes! I used teal color tissue paper with a little glimmering chalk over it. Both my photos look a little out of focus. Hmmmm…guess I was going to close.
Feb17
Calming activity
I woke up with a terrible ‘storm’ in my sinuses. I knew I was probably in for a few hours of torture, and I was correct. It’s almost 3 pm and I just sneezed for the first time today. It’s my fault. We pulled out three pieces of furniture in the family room yesterday (oy vay) so I could pick up coins, scissors, needles and assorted things before the rug got a thorough vacuum. Me without my dust mask. I should have know better. But at least I have my beloved Gingher scissors back!
We went to church last night as we usually do, and I noticed a familiar face a few rows up from me (when she turned to the side). Here it was a lady I graduated from high school with! I hadn’t seen her in at least 20 years, but I know that she lives in the next town over, but I’ve never seen her anywhere! She was with her brother (I’m assuming) and his family and they go to church there all the time. She was with a guy about her age. Wonder if she’s tying the knot? I know she never has. Interesting. We didn’t speak as Bri and I leave most times after Communion. How do you feel about someone using Purell right after you shake hands during mass? I smelled the stuff and it was the lady behind me! I would never do that.
~Update-after doing a wee search on Google, found out the lady above just lost her father who was from the same town as my mom! So I called my mom and she believes she remembers the man from high school as being popular in shows! Small world. Both the lady and her brother do reside in the next town.
So my calming activity-paper crafts. I think making my clipboard collage (will show) and my little ATCs, really relaxes me. Cosmo the kitty tries to help to, but I know his fur bothers me. He cuddles up on my lap several times a day. Checking out Sean’s paper about polar ice, etc. didn’t do anything for me, just make me tense. My boy is smart, but not a writer. He’s technical minded like his Uncle Dave.
My next door neighbor is cutting down two huge trees. He will have no shade in the side next to us anymore. He is getting help, but he’s my mom’s age, late 70s, so he better watch himself. Probably healthier than a mule!
Clipboard collage I painted the moon graphics with this awesome shimmery watercolor paint from ‘Five Below’ which was $1 (same as the clipboard-$1)
Never grow old ATC
Sailor Boy ATC
Feb13
Playing with scrap paper
Just thought I’d show a few ATCs I’ve done lately:
Around the area last night, the roads became really slick and there were tons of fender benders. Brian did arrive home safely, but wish him well in a few hours.
~Update 3:44 pm~
I have 106 comments here for my One World, One Heart Giveaway! Wow!!! If you are a blogger, you don’t have to be giving anything away. If you are my friend who visits here often, you have until midnight to leave a comment on this post only. Please do!!!
Feb10
Two finishes!
Since it was such a brisk and good day to stay in, I made two flat holds out of cross stitched projects. I will post Ground Hog Day and my works in progress (Giggles in the Snow and Zebra) throughout this post. Watch for the other hopefully in the next week or so! I will say that I keep Von’s tutorial for making these up on the screen so I could refer to it many times. I can’t wait to try her other items! Please visit her at The Twisted Stitcher to see the awesome basket she just finished off!
I made little messes in almost every room, even Sean’s as his dad needed his bank statement for his taxes. Sean has the exact statement they need up at school with him and his dad needs it now. You have to do your income taxes before you can apply for grants, etc.
Speaking of Brian, he went to visit his dad on this freezing, blustery day. I made some meatballs as I had defrosted the ground turkey over the last few days. I’ll eat some tonight and tomorrow with him! I have some lobster ravioli I’ll toss in the hot tub! (Rachael Ray’s expression)
Last night, I watched Casanova, a movie that Heath Ledger starred in about 3 years ago. I had only seen him in Brokeback Mountain. He was so talented and had so many more roles to fill-so sad.
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For Erika, a little sick girl I read about on a Flickr group who would like some fairy art. My little calendar had fairies on the 5th, so I turned Becky Kelly’s fabulous watercolor into an ATC for Erika.
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A little bit ago, I answered the phone and it was a lady from a breast cancer org. I think they have been calling here for weeks and then hanging up! There is no number displayed on the caller ID. Does anyone else have that issue? I asked how she had gotten our # (unlisted) and she said the computer dials until they get a connection! So I heard BC and I told her about me and how we are paying a fairly large sum out of pocket for my procedure. She asked if I was ok and I said yes. But I did say that I click on the BC link on my blog everyday so women can get free mammograms, my little way of helping out.
Collages & Creative Goodness 
