VERVE VSWCMD3

My card for this sketch uses the PSX sunflower botanical. I matted it with green and chocolate truffle brown. I covered the background with SU yoyo yellow and edged it with the Martha Stewart Swirling Lace punch and some small rhinestones. I used the SU 2002 sentiment, "It's Your Day" (the sentiment square is smaller than the sketch so the flower could be seen.) The ribbon is some from my stash.

VERVE VSWCMD2

My card for this sketch uses a Stamps Happen stamp and is titled, "Bumble, the bee keeper". I colored it with SU markers but used Copics on the wings and face and skin. The sentiment is a Judith stamp I bought off of Ebay. I used the Martha Stewart Embossed Scalloped border and the SU Ballet Blue and SU black for my matting. The ribbon is from Walmart and has been discontinued at some Walmarts. it is my favorite ribbon because it is half sheer and half satin with a tiny shiny thread down the center. The ovals are Spellbinders Classic oval and Scalloped oval.

VERVE VSWCMD1

My card for this Verve Release sketch uses shades of orange and some Bazzill Chocolate Truffle brown. I used the Cuttlebug folder of Autumn Words for the background and the EK Success "Swirls" punch. The vertical brown is textured using the Cuttlebug Herring Bone folder and I used the Swiss Dots folder on the light orange. Everything is matted with SU Dusty Durango (retired). The pumpkin image is a PSX from 2000 and colored with SU markers. The bling flourish is from Walmart and I used it instead of ribbon. I added the punched corner and rhinestone jewel to the upper right.

Thanks for stopping by.

OCTOBER IN WISCONSIN

Here we are back in Oshkosh. Our family is such fun for us and keeps us moving! I attended swim lessons this Sat morning. Emma is doing well with her back float kicking. She has a strong kick! Matti is practicing the crawl stroke and becoming more accustomed to water in her face. The three little boys in her class love to splash and all the time, much to her frustration.

After swimming, we made a quick trip to Hobby Lobby and the girls each picked out two colors of embroidery thread. Emma has two stuffed animals who need some repairs to their faces and Matti just "needed" some thread "for her picture". Not sure what picture and what she intends to "create" but she likes to experiment with things. I let them each pick out a stamp in the discontinued ones. Emma chose a walking mummy with bandages all around except for eyes and some bandages are unraveling. Matti chose a 2x2 Stampabilities stamp with 2 haunted houses. She asked me if I have turquoise ink and I do, so we will have to see what she makes from that.

I am playing around with both of their stamps. I used the houses and created a night time scene with the houses in black over a sunset sky and I did the whole card in 10 min. I was experimenting directly onto the card front and it just happened. I will wait until Matti makes her card before posting mine, and will put them up together. Mine uses Cat's eye chalk inks for the sky, and I made a circle mask for the moon before inking the sky. I drew the clouds, the spider webs, and the spider. The rest is pretty simple.

Here is Matti's card, all bright and sunny just like she is! The only part I did for her was to ink up the stamp for her(so she didn't get it on her clothing!). She picked out all the colors and where she wanted to put them. The turquoise house is close to the pink one and she did not stamp it hard enough to get the full color, so I outlined it with her permission. We talked about the sidewalks and the punched flowers for the flower beds. She wanted some birds in the sky, so I showed her on another piece of paper how to make birds from the letter "M", but the points are rounded. Matti made hers more like "M's" but that is OK. She did it herself! I think for a 4 1/2 yr old, she did a super job and is learning so much. It is amazing that one stamp can be used to create such different looks. We had a blast being together and "stamping".

We are making ourselves available for picking up the girls to help the family when needed. Jodi is finishing up her second masters and so there is a time crunch some days since Matti is still in the daycare, and Emma is in kindergarten. We help when we can.

Thanks for stopping by.

UNUSUAL

My backyard is about 1/3rd of an acre with about 10 mature oak trees (60-80 ft tall) A few are red oaks but they are mostly white oaks which are resistant to oak wilt disease. We used to have lots of elm of various sizes but now most of those have been cleared because of Dutch elm disease. And we had to remove a couple of oak trees in the 23 years here. We have a bit of the woods cleared with a cement curb edging around to separate the grass from the wooded parts. I have planted some hostas, shrubs, and a few Colorado blue spruce to give us a variety of trees , bushes and flowers. My neighbor says it looks like a park in my backyard.

This week was unusual as we had two sitings of birds not typically found in my backyard. For the last two weeks we have seen a large pilleated woodpecker on the suet feeder and in the tree. Now this bird is about 15" tall and has a red head. It is very wary of any movement and the picture, although not clear, at least will show you what he looks like. Bill snapped the photo from inside the family room and about 10 ft away from the window. We hope to get a better photo at some point. He has been here three times, so is hungry. I plan to leave the suet feeder full when we go over to WI soon, so there will be suet for all the woodpeckers and other birds who like it.


The next unusual bird I saw, is an eagle! YEP! and I've got the picture to prove it! I was up early that morning this last week, and as I sat in my recliner looking out the window, I thought I saw a stump or something large up in the tree about 100 ft from the house. It had been raining and all the trees were wet. Then this thing moved and I quickly grabbed my camera and snapped this one photo. I ran to get the binoculars and as I tried to get closer to the window, it must have seen me. Just those few seconds and it was gone. Bill enlarged and enhanced both of these photos so you too could share in the unusual birds from my back yard. Thanks for stopping by. M

THE FLYING FAMILY

Our son and his family were able to come over for the long Labor Day weekend and it was such a blessing to have them here. Here is a photo of them at the airport. They all are so precious to us!

The airplane was pretty empty on the 40 min flight and each girl was able to sit by the window and look out side! Emma commented they even flew through a cloud! They also commented how small houses and trees look from the air. We all need to see the world through the wonderment and eyes of a child and hang onto those feelings.

They were able to make a couple of trips to the Mall of America where I rode the Log Ride with Matti and Emma rode with her daddy. That is their favorite. There was hardly anyone at the mall which made it nice...no lines! We also visited a Park Reserve that has some fun climbing towers. The girls spent a couple of hours playing there and we all had dinner at the Cheesecake Factory (Jodi's fave!) after wards.

Thanks for coming over! You made the weekend wonderful for us! Love you to pieces!

COMPUTER GIRLS

Give a girl a computer at any age and STAND BACK! They will learn at such a rate as to make your head spin! These two love their Mamaw's little pink computer aka. PINK. They have a few games on it that they really seem to enjoy (Winnie the Pooh Pre School game where they can paint pictures, and learn numbers, and counting and adding and subtracting and looking for pictures that are alike for Owls picture album, and more!) They also enjoy their moms iPad and Matti (on the right), has been sending me pictures she colors on her mom's iPad using a free app for drawing and coloring. I think we have another Jackson Pollock here. Matti seems to love color and applying it to where ever is available. They both love drawing on the driveway. Emma is in Kindergarten now all day, and Matti in the 4K program at the daycare where teachers from the school district come out and teach the 4 yr olds half a day. It is mandatory by state law and some children who are not in daycare get bussed to school for half a day. Should give them all the preparation for being successful students the rest of their school careers. GO EMMA! GO MATTI! We are so proud of you both!