Thursday's Tidbits

My usual Thursday post is actually on Friday today, but fate played a part becuase I snapped these fantasic photos this morning in what I call my "Irish Garden".  You see, I have fennel and rue planted in here among other plants, and these two plants are the most favorite feast of a very ugly green and black caterpillar.  They will eat my huge fennel plant clean in about 3 days.  However, despite the fact that they are so ugly and destroy my fennel and rue, I know that soon they will turn into a beautiful Swallowtail butterfly.  So I let them eat and eat, after all, I really don't need all those fennel seeds and most certainly not the rue.  Today when I went to check the mail, I noticed something fluttering about in the "Irish Garden" and upon investigating I found a few newly emerged Swallowtails.  I ran in to grab my camera and got these pictures to share.

A pupae on the fennel.

This one was on the back of my planter on the front porch.

What’s on your Workdesk? Wednesday

 

So I am running a bit behind schedule with my post, but it is still Wednesday, so technically I am still on schedule.  Anyway,  I am still working on my dapper little bird mini wall hanging and trying to get some flowers made for the lower right hand corner.  This one is made from wired organdy ribbon and it still looks a bit ugly in its current state.  I am waiting for the glue to dry.  I keep telling myself to purchase a hot glue gun but once I get to the shop and see how many different kinds and temps, I just get overwhelmed.  I am playing around with making the paper rosettes as well and if I can find a color I like those may find their way to the wall hanging as well.  Hope you enjoy!

 

Splendor in the Class

Sometimes I am so clever ; )  Scrapbooking class is ending it’s Splendor Workshop so I am posting the layouts we created.

What’s on Your Workdesk? Wednesday

Not too much for a change.  I am still settling in to my new office and work area, arranging and rearranging, but I think I am going to be very happy here.  You can see I have a couple of projects I am working on.  I am completing a second mini-album in a different paper pattern, and I am following along with Tresa’s class making the wall hanging with the fancy bird.  Enjoy!

Back To School with H2H

For this week’s Heart 2 Heart challenge the theme is Back To School.  I am always excited for this time of year, but not for the obvious reasons you may think.  Actually, it heralds my favorite season, Autumn.  Growing up in Northern Wyoming, autumn was a rarity.  Usually in August, the prairie grass along with anything else that may be green, turned brown and stayed that way until the following June; Autumn was the two weeks after school started then it was winter, with snow.  Here in Eastern Kansas I see beautiful shades of Autumn among the trees and the weather is still mild for a couple of months.  I absolutely adore it. 
With school starting soon, I always think of when I was young and packing my backpack with all my new supplies, so I chose to make a mini backpack for my project.  I had gotten this pattern quite some time ago from SplitCoastStampers.  Enjoy!



Supplies (all CTMH)

• Paper:  School Zone, Cranberry Cardstock
• Embellishments:  Outdoor Denim Eyelets and Button, Outdoor Denim Twill Ribbon, Embroidery Floss Blue & Purple Assortment
• Other:  Velcro attachment, Sticky Strip to hold it together really well.

Thursday’s Tidbits

It’s so hot and dry in Kansas

the birds have to use potholders to pull the worms out of the ground.

the trees are whistling for the dogs.
the best parking place is determined by shade instead of distance.
hot water comes from both taps.
you can make sun tea instantly. you learn that a seat belt buckle makes a pretty good branding iron.

the temperature drops below 95 F (35 C) and you feel a little chilly. you discover that in July it only takes two fingers to steer your car.

you discover that you can get sunburned through your car window. you actually burn your hand opening the car door.
you break into a sweat the instant you step outside at 7:30 A.M.
your biggest bicycle wreck fear is, "What if I get knocked out and end up lying on the pavement and cook to death"?

you realize that asphalt has a liquid stage. the potatoes cook underground, so all you have to do is pull one out and add butter.

the cows are giving evaporated milk. farmers are feeding their chickens crushed ice to keep them from laying boiled eggs.

Heart 2 Heart Challenge - Week of August 9th

It's time to get sketchy!  This week's challenge involves making a design based on the sketch below.  I had every intention of doing something with the circles, but it really just turned into something quite different.  Enjoy!

Supplies: (all CTMH)

• Paper:  Splendor, Grace (document paper), Chocolate textured Cardstock
• Other:  Die cut flowers are from Serendipity (retired), flower punch
• Stamps:  Say It In Style (sentiment)
• Inks:  Chocolate
• Embellishments:  Colonial White Mini Medley (tag), Chocolate Waxy Flax, brad made with Splendor paper
• Tools:  Waterbrush, scissors
• Technique:  brush water along edges of flowers and distress gently with scissors while still wet for an extra tattered look then crumple the paper up several times then flatten out.

Major Overhaul

I somehow managed to completely mess up my blog layout last night, I really don't know what I did to it.  I think I have it back in order, though a different design as I could not get the other one to work correctly.  The next major overhaul will be my workroom and office.  Those of you at scrapbooking class last night will remember I mentioned I would love to move downstairs to have more room, but that would require DH's pool table to be disassembled and put into storage.  Well, I thought "it won't hurt to at least ask him".  So, that is what I did and to my shock and amazement, he said YES.  Hooray!  This of course will require a lot of work on my part, but I will continue to make my regular posts and challenges.  I will first start by cleaning and reorganizing the storage room to make room for the pool table, then the long process of moving all my supplies downstairs, then the desks, shelves, etc.  I will be sure to post pictures once everything is in place.  This is so exciting!

Whats on your workdesk Wednesday?

What ISN'T on my workdesk?  Wow, I am almost afraid to post it.

It has been a rather busy week, and it is only half way through.  To begin, I had a nice chat with my Team Leader, Mary, discussing some things I can do with my overwhelming amount of paper.  So, after I made my H2H card first thing Monday morning, I set straight to work.  I cleared all of my paper packs off the shelves and picked out my most favorite.  Well, that didn't work out so well, so I tried to get it down to my top 10 favorites.  That ended up being more like 30.  In the end, I decided to keep what I know for sure I will use for layouts and the rest I divided in half, that way I am reducing what I have, but not really parting with it. 


With all my cardstock scraps, I stayed up late last night cutting them into manageable sizes, ranging from 6x6 to 3x3 and standard photo mat sizes.  This will be my go to cardstock for stamping, embossing, shimming or steadying a wobbly table. 

I feel much better having faced my paper hoarding problem and now I have a few empty shelves for new things. 

Heart 2 Heart Challenge - Week of August 2nd

Tag! You're It!  That is this weeks H2H challenge and if you haven't guessed yet, it involves tags!  My card uses a small tag in a pocket to relay the sentiment. 

Supplies:

• Clear Cards
• Paper:  Caboodle Level 2
• Stamps:  Tender Tags and Girly Girl
• Inks:  Sweet Leaf and StazOn Opaque
• Embellishments: Sorbet Designer Ribbon, Sweet Leaf Brad