Beautiful Daffodils

Today it has been raining hard at times, it is gray, over cast and very windy outside. Temperature is in the 40's, but it sure feels like winter. This morning as I was looking out my slider door I noticed some of my larger daffodils in the rock garden had started to bloom. Such a beautiful display of color. I wish the sun had been out, because it would have been easier to get a good photo.
My aunt had ordered daffodil bulbs from Breck's Dutch Bulb company several years back and she gave me some of the bulbs she ordered. In the photo below is a  clump of daffodils that have a frilly, apricot colored trumpet, and others have a yellow with orange trumpet, and others just a yellow frilly trumpet. I love these gorgeous daffodils, but unfortunately I can't remember the name of the bulbs as the names. After these flowers are done blooming and the leaves have died back, I need to transplant some of the bulbs.

close up of the frilly center
weird...all different from the same package of bulbs with frilly yellow, apricot and apricot orange centers.
apricot centered with cream colored petals

Breck's Chartreuse daffodils
The large yellow King Alfred daffodils are also blooming and the very old double centered bulbs that I dug up from my grandfather's house when I first got married 43 years ago.
April 2011, has been cold and rainy. The grass has really greened up and spring is slowly awakening the flowers and flowering trees. Leaves are starting to appear on many of the trees. But the bright pops of color from the spring flowers are a ray of sunshine.

Quarantined

I had to take my Fluff Puff kitty to the vets yesterday, because the day before he started to limp. His left front paw was swollen and he was limping on 3 legs with his left leg off the floor. Fluff Puff wouldn't let me touch the paw, and if I did he would cry.

FP is so furry that the vet had to shave the lower left leg and foot. The vet found a slice type cut on the pad of his foot and it was infected and kitty had a slight temperature.  After cleaning the foot, getting a shot of antibiotics, and a rabies booster the vet told me, the state has become real strict, and since I don't know how he cut his foot and FP is and inside-outside cat that they have to report his injury. The vet told me it didn't look like a bite, but it had to be reported and he can't go outside for 45 days. So kitty is on quarantine.
This morning FP is feeling better and not limping and isn't lethargic like he had been, and he is crying at the door to go out. Thank goodness that he was current with his rabies vaccine or he would be condemned to stay indoors for 6 months.  I can imagine he will be driving us crazy with his crying to go outside. Poor kitty, this quarantine business will be punishment for him and us too. I've marked off the calendar and will be anxiously counting down the days till Fluff Puff is free.

I did ask the vet if his friend, stray kitty is allowed inside to visit during kitties enforced confinement inside the house, and the answer was yes.  Now that just doesn't make any sense to me, but neither did just a slice/cut on the paw that wasn't a bite ending up as a quarantine confinement.

Big 4-0...

My oldest son's girlfriend is turning 4o, and we are going out to celebrate her 4oth birthday at a Italian restuarant. We will be in a banquet room and I wanted to make something for a table centerpiece.  Wasn't sure what to make, and after some thinking I decided to make a table topper for a centerpiece.
Photo of the top of the table centerpiece made of fabric.

I also made a black silk flower corsage with ribbons hanging and a pin back.  I know it is very hard to see the flower, because its black on black. What a job trying to find a black silk flower to use. I wish I hadn't added the silver Viva sparkle glitter writer to the leaves, but it was too late after I put it on. I do like the Viva product as it doesn't run and flatten out like Stickles.
 
I used a black and white bag that I stuffed with black tissue. Inside I nestled a black sparkle drink coozie with a piece of styrofoam inside. I had a kids wand that had a foam sparkle star on the top. I cut down the star to make a circle. I added glue to the stick and wrapped black ribbon, and then added some more black ribbon for streamers. I used Beyond Birthdays and ABC cricut cartridges to cut out BIG 40 that I layered and added to the bag front.
I then cut out 2 black sparkle cardstock circle pieces and glued that to the cut down foam piece. I then ironed black iron on heat n bond to polka dot and black fabrics. I used my Big Kick die cutter and Tim Holtz flower dies to cut the fabric pieces for my flower. I also cut out black tulle with the dies. The tulle was then scrunched up to make the flower center, and I stapled the tulle to the flower pieces, and glued a black rhinestone to the center.
I took several pictures, but it is a very dark day and I just couldn't get a good photo.
Birthday card I made...layered cardstock, sponged Tim Holtz Black soot distress ink, with a crackle stamp for the cards background. Then Happy Birthday and the present were cut out on my cricut. I ran the words thru my xyron and they were added to cardstock. For the flower...I used a silver satin vellum that I stamped with black pigment ink and embossed with  clear embossing powder. I cut out 3 flowers and wrinkled the cut out flowers, then I stapled the 3 flowers together and added a black rhinestone to the center of the flower.


Tommy and Kelly who was celebrating her 40th birthday.

Contest: Give our stray kitty a name..naming contest is still open

I have written before about the stray kitty we have been feeding for about a year. Actually, we seem to be feeding an opossum, the neighbors cat, and 3 stray kitties that come to eat on my back porch and another cat that shows up from time to time.

But, what we call OUR stray kitty is the only one that seems to have overcome her shyness towards us and the only kitty that tags along with our Fluff Puff Kitty. If you see one, the other one is nearby. The kitties all look about the same with the exception of a white ring on the tail, a black tipped tail, and lighter faces. I think our SK is the prettiest...just saying. :-)
Here is the latest Stray kitty update: More progress...well a lot more actually. SK comes when called, and meows at the kitchen door when she wants to come in.
Stray kitty is now coming into the house all the time, and last few nights she has spent the whole night in the house. She was really well behaved. SK sleeps on my leather recliner and cries at the doorwhen she wants out. Isn't she smart, for being a kitty born in the woods and never having been inside.
SK is still very timid, but lets my husband pick her up, and wipe her down when she comes in
wet from the rain. SK is still timid, but now that she is coming in she really doesn't want to go outside. Maybe because her playmate can't go out because of the quarantine.


Anyway, my husband, Tom thinks SK isn't a good name, and so we have to come up with a name for our new kitty as I think she has found herself a home.

To win:
Leave a comment with a name for our Stray Kitty. If we chose the name you suggest..I will send you a prize.    In the past I have been told that some of you who have tried to leave a comment, but for some reason it just never shows up, and I don't get to accept your comment. I don't know why that happens, but if you can't leave a comment here and want to help name my stray kitty...email me your comment with the name you selected for my SK and I will add it to the comments for you.  My email address is EAkers@aol.com
PLEASE MAKE SURE THAT I CAN CONTACT YOU IF YOU WIN. Thanks!!!!

It's been awhile

I haven't been online much the past few weeks. Have just quickly checked my emails. Since my last post the grass has turned green, more and more flowers and shrubs are blooming spring is here in New England. We have had a lot of strange weather and each day we don't know what we will get...warm and sunny, cold and very windy, heavy rainstorms with high winds, and today for Palm Sunday it is gorgeous, warm and sunny. It is so nice to have the windows open.

I have been busy taking my elderly parents to either eye doctors, regular doctor or lab appointments. I am just thankful that I am no longer working and can do this for them. I am also thankful that I still have my dad who is 92 and my mom who is 88.                                           
My mother has Alzheimer's and her condition is getting worse. Watching the downhill progression  is so very hard. Mom's confusion is  increasing and her short term memory is basically gone. My grandmother, ( my mother's mother) had Alzheimer's, and I so hope that that isn't going to be my fate in life. 

I have had no time for art, but want to share with you some lovely art pieces that I received from the yahoo group, Art Haven. I won the monthly lottery for March. I chose an anything goes theme. I received my last art piece the other day in the mail. I certainly received some beautiful artwork from some talented ladies in the mail.  Hopefully, tomorrow I will be able to sit down and create something artsy.
A lovely journal from Diann
A fantabulous armoire made of cardstock with posies on the top. The 2 drawers filled were filled with buttons, beads, brads, and spools of ribbon created by Celeste.
awesome flip card from Celeste
Beautiful card from Shirley
  lovely little book that the inside pages have pockets from Clara
open book
beautiful tag from Clara
lovely sewn fabric postcard from Vic
  beautiful hanging ornament from Angie. You can't really see in this photo, but on the insides of each rolled paper piece there is  painted on metallic green. So pretty.

Bella, Robin and Steven stopped by this morning. Little Bella enjoyed some fresh pineapple that I had just finished preparing. Our little granddaughter has 8 teeth now, and will be a year old on May 24th. WOW!!! How time flies. Bella still doesn't have much hair, but most of the time she has a beautiful smile on her little face.

For the Birds

Yesterday afternoon while I was walking around the yard picking up the dead branches that had fallen over  the winter. I found my hanging bluebird house on the ground. The old apple tree branch that the house had been on didn't make it thru the winter. I will need to find another branch that I can easily reach.
  In the mean time I have the birdhouse house  sitting on my planting table on the back deck.  Can you see the bottom of the house has a notch? A moveable nail  fits in that slot to keep the front  panel of the house closed. When the nail is moved the front swings up so it can be cleaned easily.

Unfortunately, I have never had a bluebird nest in the box. But tufted titmice, chickadees and house wrens have used this nest box every year.  The apple tree that the nest box hung from is near the edge of our property that has open space with woods close by.  I cleaned out all of my bird houses last fall, but since the house was down, I opened it up to see if it was still clean.

Photo of feather...enlarged. The feather is approximately 1 1/2 inches long.

When I opened the house, I did find a little debris inside the nest box, and in the back right corner, standing up  there was a small feather, black with white spots. I'm not sure what bird lost this feather, but I guess another bird liked it enough to bring it into the nest box.
Do you think the feather  is from a downy woodpecker? Anyone have a guess? I love the little feather that I found.
This morning it is raining, and I had no   plans other than doing some laundry and starting a pot of pea soup. While the soup is simmering and the clothes are in the washer and dryer, I decided to make a bird tag. I used my Big Kick, the Tim Holtz tag die, Sizzex bird die, and along with other embellishments I used the little feather that I found yesterday.

When I finished the bird tag, I also put together this photography themed tag that has a picture of my brother fishing in a canoe...Hoping to catch a very big fish.
 

For the Love of Peeps

Can you tell I just love Peeps from the photo I am using as my blog header? I will keep the Peeps marshmallow candy package as my blog header until Easter.  Just a little tribute to my favorite Easter candy. I guess you either love Peeps or hate them. My sons never cared for them, so sad for them. :-)

Last March, I posted a recipe that I received in an email from Taste of Home magazine. The recipe and photo were for a cute Peeps sunflower cake . Are you are Peeps lover? My favorite colors are white or yellow. I think the other colors leave a faint after taste in your mouth. Although I saw some light orange Peeps in the store the other day, I might have to give those a try.

Last week on the TV Food Network show, Kid in a Candy Store,  a segment was done on the Peeps store, and on Unwrapped,  there was a segment at the Peeps factory in Pennsylvania on how Peeps were made. I found the shows interesting, and of course the Just Born company who produce Peeps  have a website marshmallow peeps if you care to look.

Did you know that there is a Peeps cookbook?  I saw one is A C Moore and briefly flipped thru the pages. Cute ways to use Peeps to decorate cakes and cupcakes.
Personally, I love Peeps when the are very stale and hard as a rock. To speed up the process, I tear open the package to let the air get at the marshmallow chicks and bunnies. Yum!!!! So, I have to ask...Have you had your Peep today? :-)
Elaine

Huffin and Puffin for Art

Yep, that was me using kids Blow Pens. Have your ever tried these pens? Actually, they are quite fun to use for backgrounds on your art once you get the hang of how they work. I have had some of the pens for years, and they were tucked away in an Iris cart drawer down in the basement.  As they say...Out of sight, out of mind.
I came across the container of the pens last night, and sadly some of the colors I would have liked to have used today were dried out. First I had to figure out how they worked again, because of course I didn't still have the directions and it had been so long since I last used them. Once I figured out how to make them work I was ready to blow on the tubes and start making my background. The look you get depends on the distance away from your paper...further away...you get a fine spattering or close to your paper...you get bigger dots.
pen closed
pen opened with tip of marker pen still in the end cap so the felt tip doesn't dry out
pen removed from end cap, and place with felt tip in the open barrel. Don't place the marker in too tightly or it won't work. Put the cap onto the barrel and blow gently into the plastic end cap. The end cap has little air vents to blow air gently down the tube and across the felt tip pen. 
Easter is April 24th. this year, and I wanted to get a head start on making some cards for swaps or to send out.
PEEPS ATC with Blo pen background. While at A C Moore on Friday I picked up a $1.00 packages of clear stamp sets  One had the word PEEP and so I added an S after I stamped PEEP.  I wanted the dots of ink to look like candy sprinkles.

Easter check list card with a chocolate bunny rubber stamped image

Used 3 rubber stamps to create this ATC:

Have you ever had fun using rediscovering a child's toy to enjoy making your art?  It was another morning of being up real early, because I couldn't sleep, so I sat at my art table and played.

Think Spring

That's what I have been thinking and wishing for some time now, and today it is sunny and mild. We so needed a day like this to chase those winter blahs away.

Tom and I were both up early and we decided to go out for breakfast. After we ate, and since we were already out we then headed to the polls to vote in our town's election, and then we came home. Tom went downstair to potting and starting seeds for his garden. I started a load of laundry, how fun is that? Not very.
While the clothes were in the washer I sat at my desk debating what I wanted to create this morning.

I came across a seed package rubber stamp that I've had for ages by Posh Impressions, buried in the back of drawer in my Iris cart. I usually use the stamp for a shaker card, but I didn't feel like making a shaker card this morning. I grabbed a Marvy marker in grass green to ink up the big stamp. I stamped the image onto white cardstock, and then cut out the center of the image. Folded the paper to fit around the card, and cut the cardstock down to size. I taped a package of candy cane zinnia seeds to the inside of the card. I then inked up a stamp of  gardening Kliban cat with a rake to add to the front of the seed package.

My second piece was a Easter tag. I glued tissue to the tag and then covered the tag with scrapbook paper.
 I found a lovely vintage picture that was offered on a blog, and so I color copied the image. Then stamped Happy Easter. I added Easter eggs stickers. Added ribbon and a very fine ecru tulle which hardly shows in the photo below. Last a button was added to finish off the tag.
 

I also printed off some more images onto fabric canvas, heat set the ink, and sprayed a fixative onto the surface so the printer ink won't run. Debating whether to start on fabric postcards or wait and do some tomorrow. Decisions, Decisions.

April Fools

Today, is April Fool's Day, the first day of April. A day for playing  jokes on others. I had my joke last night with the snow storm. 
There is still snow on the ground this morning, but the rain we had during the night made for a slushy mess, but I am sure it won't be here for long as we are suppose to have more rain today.
I didn't sleep well last night, as the wind was really howling. I got up real early as I couldn't sleep and decided to make a quick layered card.
Since it was raining, I thought the new $1.00 wood mounted stamp that I bought at  Michael's would be appropriate to use on a card for the first day of April.  The umbrella cardstock with tiny raindrops on my card, I picked up last weekend at Michael's on a clearance rack. There were several racks of cardstock to choose from, and they were all priced at 14 cents each. Couldn't pass up that deal and I bought several papers.


Michael's also had wood mounted circus themed stamps for $1.00. I love checking those dollar bins at Michael's, A C Moore and Target. Joann Fabric's had packages of cardstock for $1.99 in lots of different colors, but the package of blue-greens the weight wasn't very heavy, but it works great for layering.

On another note...the stray kitty that I have mentioned before is now coming in the house. She remains extremely cautious, but comes when called and goes right to the food dish, and will even lay down and take a quick snooze. She follows my kitty everywhere. We are making progress.

P.S...I took the 2 photo's below this afternoon. I was letting my kitty out the back door onto the deck and stray kitty came to greet Fluff Puff. You can still see some snow on the deck.

Fluff Puff going out and stray kitty coming inside.

Stray Kitty peeking between the legs of the glider on my back deck.

 

Happy April Fool's Day!!!!!