Category Archives: craftiness

Aug3

Need a baseball bat?

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All the rain kept us out of the garden for a number of days and lookie what Brian found over the weekend:
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Yep, a biggie! We also harvested about 4 cucumbers so far. Next week we’ll be digging to see if I got any fingerling potatoes! I see some green beans that need picking too.
Unfortunately, many of the tomatoes in my container garden and a few in the big garden are getting blossom rot from the rain. We need some hot, dry days to hopefully remedy that! Tomorrow and the next should help.
For the second Sunday in a row, we had a terrible storm that knocked out the power for 5 hours each day it happened. I tidied up some art supplies and made this as one of the four I made that day. It’s my friend’s grandmom-I don’t think she reads my blog and she’s away right now:
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Don’t put an old photo of yourself or a relative on your blog or in Facebook or I may use it! I’ll gift her with this. I’d say it’s about 1908 or so.
Sean and I went down to my mom’s and did a few things around the place. She bought yet another bagless vacuum which I scolded her for. I hope this one doesn’t ‘blow up’ like her previous clunker did! We went down to the liquidator store and JoAnn’s and I bought a few things namely paper crafting things at JoAnn’s (40% off) and 70% off windchimes and a few little gnome figurines. We went to The O*live Garden and the portions were very slimmed down. I always had some left to bring home, not tonight.
So that’s my last few days. Plan to stay in and cool tomorrow!

Jun11

Thursday Thunks

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1. What is your least favorite candy bar?
If you can call them candy bars-l think they are Mary Janes- the gooey molasses based ones-no chocolate and sticks to your teeth!
2. If I were to call you, what would you say?
Hi, do you have fun answering silly questions too?
3. What is your favorite type of leaf?
I love all the various leaves on coleus plants.
4. When was the last time you….
– had sex?
wouldn’t you like to know!
– swam in a lake?
don’t think I have, just a pond or two.
– went barefoot outside?
last night!
– ate peas?
within the last few weeks.
5. Since Father’s Day is right around the corner, tell us about the person that you are celebrating.
He was estranged from us all and has been deceased since Feb. 08. My son does look a bit like him, I don’t hold that against him, I just tell him not to act like he did.
6. Were you dropped on your head as a child?
Not that I was ever told.
7. How often do you clean your toilet?
Several times a week as it’s old…pulling for a new one!
8. Have you ever been sunburned?
Tell us about it.
Oh yes…lobster red…hurt like heck.
We were staying for a week down in Wildwood, NJ and I got burnt on the only sunny day. I suffered the rest of the time and it rained-no fun!
9. On average, how many hours a sleep do you get a night?
I never sleep straight through. I try to lay there at least 7-8 hours.
10 How many hours did you get last night?
The above, but I got up a lot-dang ice tea.
11. Take a picture of something. Post it.
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This is an altered key I made for a swap group on Flickr. The rhinestones and piece at the top were my from grandmother’s old jewelry. A friend sent the wings. It’s hard to see that I rubbed the key with a plum colored alcohol ink.
12. Are the bottom of your feet dirty?
No, but this time of the year that’s a possibility.
13. Do you know the names of every member of the family who lives next door to you? Yes-only two, but I know their son and his family too.
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We had beach-like weather today meaning it would drizzle a bit and then the sun would peek out and go in again. I mainly went through catalogs and old papers for recycling.
Here’s a cool thing-Sean and I went down to T*D Bank with a big bag of coins. You get to guess how much you think you have-I said to put in $110, and he by mistake typed in $111. Didn’t we have $111.88 and won a neat eyeglass case! : )
Made a good sweet and sour chicken dinner by Wanchai. I added Maraschino Cherries and baby carrots. It was better than take-out!
Did some art after dinner, including the above key.

Jun8

Finally

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Finally got three bags of red mulch down today. I had to pick a day when it was 65% humidity. I did not feel too well when I came in, but after a cool shower, was more like my old self. I was fine sitting on the bag and dispersing the mulch, but as soon as I started dragging the bags around (I did two tonight and one last week), I became drenched in sweat and got a stomachache. The mulch really helps to protect the flowers and I can see a big difference in my Sweet William garden just in one week. I felt better later as I polished off the last Breyer’s vanilla dipped in chocolate bar-it says lower in fat on the box! : )
Earlier, I finally put together a graduation announcement card for Sean and was pleased how it came out (I used a 10 yr old card program):
gradcard
The inside is special too. I found a neat PSU Nittany Lion logo and a nice graduation announcement to gain inspiration from on the web.

I have strived for and accomplished
an important goal in my life
of which I am very proud

I, Sean M. C.
am pleased to announce
my Graduation from
The Pennsylvania State University
which took place on
on Friday, the fifteenth of May
Two thousand nine
Degree Achieved:
B.S. Geography
minor Climatology

And they are one-of-a-kind cards!
Oh-I got a trial from Sta*mps.com (which was a bugger to get working as I had to get our anti-virus software to accept it) and ordered personalized stamps with Sean’s grad photo on it-the one on the front of the card! They should be here in a few days.
I sent off a ton of mail today…one is going to South Korea in a Artist Trading Card swap to an Australian lady who lives there teaching English. You should have seen that address! I hope it gets there in good time. Can’t wait to see what she makes for me.
Swapping is fun!

May5

Violets, stitching and cards

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Since it’s so wet and wild outside, I decided to clean my bay window that holds my African Violets. I had an entire plastic bag of dead leaves and flowers. I really need to repot and give some away. Anyone want a few? My mom got me the same violet variety three times that she went to the Philly Flower show as I wanted something different. It’s has white and green leaves and the white flowers have a touch of green in them-shown in both corners of the photo.
Here’s my cleaned up window:
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Cleaning this was a job and a half and I shouldn’t have done it as I have a ouchie and didn’t go to mom’s to help her. I probably will venture to mom’s on Thursday.
And here’s my herb garden bouquet cross stitched piece that is the only piece I’ve been working on lately. I think I like completing one and moving on to another. Not much left to do:
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I’m hoping, really hoping to make this a crafty summer so I can put up things to sell online. I need to narrow down my choices and buy what I need to make the things. I just need to get the gardening out of the way.
One for the road…I do weekly Art Trading Card/Skinny challenges on Flickr. Our challenge this week was to do a card based on the song ‘Rhinestone Cowboy’-yikes! This is what I came up with and I think he’s cute as a cowpoke!

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Mar29

Spring is really here!

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Here’s the finished gift I made for my niece who will turn 10 the day before Easter. Let me tell you, it’s not easy to make an egg shaped ornament, especially since I had to make it bigger as my piece was larger than the template. I added some chiffon peachy ribbon to the light green corded thread.
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Right outside my front door were these sweet little crocus flowers:
Right outside the front door-crocuses!
And the forsythia bushes are a bit damp, but ready to open. We planted these from ‘slips’ of our moms’ bushes. Either yard has any left now.
The soon-to-be-in full bloom forsythia bushes

Mar20

Show and Tell

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Skinny card swaps received, originally uploaded by DianthusMoon.

For the last several months, I have been in a Flickr group where the moderator picks a theme and we make a skinny card (3″ x 5″) to correspond with it. These are the 14 (I think I have a few more) that I have received from the states and Finland-so far. I just love to flip through these and admire each and every one!
Can you guess the theme for any of these?
Updated-
Each card represents a different theme-a few were-fashion, children, transportation, winter, feminine, red, celebrities, music, fairy tales…
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Be sure to watch the video about Christian the lion in my Vodpod. The two men who raised Christian (back in the 1970s when it was legal to buy wild animals) were on The View today. I thought I’d watch it through Youtube, and of course was deeply touched by it as I was with the movie Born Free.

Mar10

Mainly chillin’

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Since Sean is home and probably won’t be home again for a month, I have been on vacation myself. : ) Well, I want to spend time with him. We both are still tired from the very full day Sunday. I haven’t uploaded all my flower show photos yet, but will be finished soon.
I woke up with a ‘helium’ head and had to take a nap in the afternoon. Our temps here keep going from the 60s to the 40s to the 60s-not good for me. I really think I need to get outside now, move more and get fresh air. I’ll be going to Longwood Gardens a few times in the next few weeks to see their orchid display and attend their orchid sale.
The guys went over to see Bri’s dad tonight. I worked on a few art card swaps. We were going to get some favorite hoagies for dinner (I take a break from cooking too) and they were all out of rolls! What! So I had to order from another place which isn’t as good.
Sean ran the vacuum around for me earlier which is nice. Guys are good at vacuuming because of their strong arms.
My mom is over my uncle’s house for a few days-with the puppy. My uncle is use to peace and quiet and isn’t enjoying having Kelsey around. Mom went over to food shop and cook for him. His neighbor was sick, so he couldn’t help my uncle out this week.
My cross stitched pieces are framed at JoAnn’s, so we’ll go down there on Thursday to retrieve them-so excited! I just finished ‘Herb Garden’ a small piece by Shepherd’s Bush I did on linen. I figure I started it at least 4 yrs ago. I did the best I could do with the satin stitch:
herbgLet me know if you’d like the chart.

So that’s all I’ve been doing! Hope all is well.

Mar6

Show & Tell

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Stenciled slates, originally uploaded by DianthusMoon.

I had the opportunity several years ago to earn a little pocket cash by stenciling ‘Welcome’ signs on slates. We had to base coat them with ecru acrylic paint first. Stenciling is a precise craft. I can see where the hummingbird could have been neater. I ended up doing at least 500 or more of these over the course of almost a year. The end of my stenciling career wasn’t pleasant-I mentioned this before. The lady had a meeting with all her ‘workers’ and nit picked everyone who didn’t copy the stencils perfectly. I added a few touches like foam on waves, which looked nice and made seashells a bit pinker to show up against the ecru. She didn’t like that. My former friend copied perfectly and got lots of praise. Another friend cried. Why I mention this is a few days later, the woman went out of business. Why she had to have that meeting is beyond me when she was going out of business! I thought it was pretty awful.
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Bri still doesn’t have his car. The tow truck guy mentioned that sometimes the alarm system goes fluky and causes the car not to start. Maybe Bri should mention this to the repair guy.
I feel lots better! I made a yummy Rachael Ray chili dish last night and slept well.
Cheesy Hash Brown Chili
Sometime down the road, I’ll get my back checked out. Back in September, the chiropractor thought I didn’t need an x-ray. I have been lifting and moving things since December and I’m not small in the front, so those ‘factors’ can’t be overlooked either. Plus one Tylenol seems to fix me up for a while. That is pretty good. Thanks for your concern and I will definitely take care of myself.