Cards

I managed to get in to my room today (Clyle is gone for the weekend) and do a couple cards. Scallop Circle cut with the cricket. Flower is folded under the edge of the card. I picked up this paper a couple weeks ago at a scrap store. I was inspired by Godleive's (Samping Mathilda) tutorial on using vellum. This is a scallop circle cut on the cricket, clip between the petals, fold in quarters. The base is another smaller circle folded and attached with a mini brad. Her tutorial was much better than that! I like the simplicity of it, bt yet it still has lots of texture and dimension.

February out like a lion?

Or a cub anyway... This is certainly not what I expected to wake up to this morning. Though I shouldn't be surprised, the Northwest is notorious for February snowfall. One of our worst snowfalls on record was Valentines Day a few years ago. I remember it because I was suppose to drive to Tacoma for my neice's funeral and I absolutely panicked and stopped at the mall and got Dave to drive. Other than that, nothing much more to report. My petunia's are very.... I repeat..VERY slow growing. Now I know why I always bought plants for Plantation. At least here I only have to buy two flats for my little areas and not 120 like I did for Plantation, plus the alysum and snaps or whatever to complete the area. Do you think I over did it a little? Well, everybody liked it anyway.

I haven't done any card making this week, though I am anxious to get back to it. Clyle has been here and I always feel like I'm invading his space, even though he is very understanding about it. I did get my order of paper flowers from Oriental Trading. What a great deal! It was bulk pricing on all the little jars. I saved about $20 by buying all the colors. There are 60 monochromatic paper flowers in each one and some are polka dotted. Black flowers have been really hard to find (and expensive), so I was very happy to get them. The brown is actually more like a terra cotta color than brown, but the others are beautiful. the larger jar are printed flowers and have larger ones than the others. They are very pretty and when I get back to my room again I'll post some cards with them.

I've ordered a couple other times from Oriental Trading and some of their stuff is kind of cheesy, but they do have some cute stuff. I always wait until they have a special on shipping. I really hate paying shipping on anything, you know?

Northwest Flower and Garden Show

When you enter the show you smell these wonderful spring flowers and it just sets the tone for the day. The display gardens were beautiful as usual.

I loved this blue grass and just have to find it.

One of my favorites (and the booth that got a good percentage of our $'s), the succulents.

Here are the orange grasses that I would like to get.

We attended Cisco and Meegan's seminar and it was informative and entertaining as always. Both Cisco and Meegan are just as nice in person as they appear on tv. We've met some other local celebrities and they have left us with a bad taste in our mouths, you know? But not Cisco and Meegan. Cisco went out of his way many times to have his picture taken with some of his fans.

This is my booty for the day. Three pots of succulents and an airplant. I'm a sucker for those airplants but have never had a lot of luck with them, hope this one goes better. I'm going to plant the seedum in a circle and put the airplant in the middle. I also got one beautiful daylilly called Frosted Vintage Ruffles and two Oriental Lilies. One Tiger Woods (white/dark red rays and speckles), Star Gazer and an Asiatic hybrid Lily Landini which is a dark dark purple. (You can see the pictures of the lillies if you click on the picture below) Landini came from the "Chocolate" shop where I bought seeds of the Chocolate Flower, a yellow daisy with a strong chocolate smell; a black hollyhock and black nasturshums. Of course, black is actually a very dark purple.

It was a nice day away while Clyle was here painting our office stairs....haha.

Petunia sprouts

All of the sprouts are sprouted now. The baby petunias are have all stuck their little heads up now. The plugs have a "dibble" in them where you put the seeds and they are not covered, so this is the first time I've been able to watch the entire process.

The tray which is styrofoam is reusable, but I started thinking the other day, that I would have to get some more plugs to start more seeds. I went to the website and a bag of plugs are $19.99. Ouch! That is for 75. There are 66 holes in the tray. If it wasn't for the fact that I just enjoy doing this and watching the little babies grow, I really don't think it would be worth the price. The starter tray was $29.99 which came with plugs for each hole and the nutrient tablets which you don't use for the first two weeks. You get nutrient tablets with the replacement plugs. The big problem is that this has been so popular that they can't keep them in stock and now the plugs are back ordered also. Here's the "whole family".

Sprout update

Little cracks in the petunia seeds are getting bigger and there is actually one little petunia sprouting! It's too small to photograph, but it's there! All of the asters and scabiosa are now sprouting. I wrongly labeled yesterday as day 5, but today is actually #5.

Day 5 sprouts

Now you can see the original sproutling and some new ones. The scabiosa is starting to sprout too. Still just cracks in the shell of the petunias, but it's still very early. My fear is though that I will get them all sprouted, transplanted and when I take them out that they will die. Guess I'll have to wait to find that out, hey?

Sprouts

Can you see it? The Asters are sprouting 4 days after planting. No sign of the Scabiosa (the big seeds on the right) but the petunia's are just starting to crack their shells a bit.

Messy Scraproom

I saw a post on TwoPeas (a scrapbook site) about this woman's REALLY messy scraproom. After recovering from laughing myself sick I decided to document mine. The funny part is that many elitist scrapbookers post these pristine pictures of their "art studios" that would be published in any house beautiful magazine for scrappers. I did that once when we first moved in to the house in Marysville and I had my first real scraproom all to myself. It was lined with tables and iris carts and even had a couch on one side. It was so beautifully organized.... for about a month! Then I started working in it and it was never the same.

So, now I share a room with our on again off again resident grandson but obviously his stuff is not pictured here. I think that's called selective photography. So, this first picture is where most of the mess....uh...work is done. That's why it's such a mess. The pegboard on the wall is great and holds the little tins that have all my ... well, not all, but the small tools I use most in them. The pegboard was requisitioned from an abandoned home. Next to that is a house shaped wall rack that I bought in a trip to Oregon one time and actually never hung it for about 5 years until I figured out that it holds my CTMH inks quite well. Next to that on the wall is a rack that I picked up at a garage sale a few years ago and also never used until I found out that it holds my Martha Stewart glitter really well.

On the table, besides the mess, a cute little drawer thingy picked up at a garage sale that holds more tools. Then I have the top part of the computer desk that we bought after moving here and I didn't like it because it set the monitor too high, but it works perfect for another surface to hold the tools that I am working with at the moment, plus my wonderful little Ot Light.

Underneath and to the left are carts with more embellishments and what'nots. One the wall is a rack that my Dad made me many many years ago, probably 40 years?? It has held many things over the years... thousand eye glassware, China cups, Cherish Teddies and other bears, but it works perfect for holding some of the boxed ribbons and paper flowers. The two filing cabinets below hold misc STUFF like more inks and stamping supplies and on top are more ribbons and tools. Iris rack holds precut card bases, envelopes and other necessities. On top of that is more ribbons. The two paper racks came from Craft Mart in Marysville throw aways. Well, I actually had to buy them, but they were used in the store. On top of them are jars with more ribbons. Can you tell I like ribbon?

This table holds my occasionally used tools like Cricut, Bind It All, Pixie sewing machine, heat tool, and Big Bite which I still haven't figured out how to use except for punching holes. The book case holds my completed albums and some magazines. The rolling file folders under the table hold my Christmas papers left over from last years cards and ready for next year. I used to use it for paper scraps that didn't fit in neatly in the paper racks, but found I was not using them and when we moved I .... gulp... gulp.... threw them away.

The walk in closet with my two life saving plastic racks holds other less used items, but more used than if they were hidden away in boxes. You noticed I used selective photography and did not show you the other half of the closet.

So that is a brief tour of my "art studio" as it is. It won't make House Beautiful magazine, but it sure suits the purpose for me. It's still a work in progress and Sam's Club has a nice little 4' table that raises high so you can stand and work on it that I've had my eye on for a few months now. Unless I can deflate Clyle's bed though, it's not going to work unless I get rid of the current 4 footer.

New Aerogarden project

So, I was trying to decide what to post about today, aerogarden or cardmaking, so decided to do two posts. I finally got my aerogarden seed kit. It came by FedEx camel! I wanted to document planting day (yesterday actually). First of all I about fainted when I went to the store and found out I had to pay $2.57 for 15 petunia seeds! I guess you can see it's been a while since I tried to start them from seed. The directions tell you to put 4 small seeds to a pod but I did just two of the petunias. I planted 3 packages of petunia Restera (purple) Tidal Wave, One pack of Aster Oceanstar and one Scabiosa Summer Berry Mix. I've never done Scabiosa before but they looked so pretty on the package I thought I'd give them a try for my yard. The petunias if successful will be for the entry. After they have sprouted sufficiently I will transplanted them into small pots and hope that they get enough light until I can start moving them outside during the day.

More cards

I started out with these two funky thanks cards.

I love doing these glossy cardstock resist cards. The scan doesn't do them justice, they are really very pretty.

I had a little distraction between the cards tonight with having to call the police for an attempted break in of one of the residents. All is well though, they didn't get in.

Aerogarden Update

We had to raise the light and I've already harvested the Basil (left) twice. It would be up to the top of the picture here if I hadn't. In fact, I can smell it as I write, I used it in some chicken soup that I'm making. The date is wrong, the month and day are mixed up. It is 4 days short of one month since I started these plants.

Another dress card

This one doesn't have the sentiment on it yet, I was in a hurry to get it posted.

Dress card

This was so fun. I saw it in Paper Crafts and it said there was a pattern online that you could download but I couldn't find it. So I made my own. It took me hours! But the next one shouldn't take as long because the pattern is done. The apron is white polka dot vellum (dots are hard to see), the "buttons" are mini brads. cuffs are ric rac and the bodice is sewn. Sentiment is attached to ribbon with a safety pin that you can't see here, but would allow for changing the sentiment. The collar was a little tricky to figure out, but I cut a circle, cut the neckline, cut it in the front and rounded the corners to make it look like a collar. The card opens at the shoulders.

Cards

I saw this card (one very similar) in the new Paper Crafts Mag (my all time favorite) and just had to do it. I didn't have any black flowers so I went to Scrapbook Nook and the only black flowers they had were in a fancy little box with 15 flowers (red, white and black) for $6.99. Outrageous! But I did it anyway. I'm just awful because I get something in my mind and I have to do it. I think the one in the magazine had black trim above the lace and mine is a stamp. The stamped flower is slightly different and I added the little dots. But I really liked the way it turned out. I liked it so much that I wanted to do another, but I have this thing about not doing two cards exactly the same, so I changed it out a bit. Actually, I stamped the black trim upside down on accident, but there are no accidents in paper crafts are there? I like the first one best, but for a variation it's okay.

I've literally been dreaming about doing some resist techniques for some cards and was going to pick up some glossy cardstock and forgot, then found some in my rack. The sentiment is a rub on. The flower is stamped on the glossy with versamark ink and heat embossed, then the blue is sponged on over the top. The embossed areas don't take the ink so it comes out white.

When I was active with Close to My Heart I was in a monthly kit club and would get all these different kids with pieces and patterns for two 12" layouts and a couple cards. With 12 months of kits I never made even one. This is the paper from the last kit but my own pattern. Usually with a resist method like this, after heat embossing I would use the brayer to apply the ink color, and that is what I did with the juniper (turquoise) ink but it came out with lines on it and I didn't like it. I was going to toss it, but tried sponging on some sorbet (orange) over it and really liked the results. It gave it more of a modeled look.

Spring?

The weather has been beautiful here for two days! Yesterday I had a landscaper come and trim the trees at the entrance and I planted 2 flats of primroses. I sure hope we don't have too many more serious freezes.

This summer I will take the primroses out and put petunias in their spot.

Missing Mom

I wanted to post a picture here but don't have one in this computer. Her face is still very sharp in my mind after 6 years of her absence. I miss her every single day. I still have those three second thoughts "I've gotta call Mom and tell her..." and then the reality sets in again. Our lives have totally changed since she lived with us, or since she made that big step and moved her home up to Snohomish County to be nearer to us and to help Dave and I with our family. I don't agree with Hillary and her "it takes a village" but it sure helps if you've got a Mom on your side. I wonder how I ever would have made it through the teen years three times without having her support. I knew that our lives would have to change totally before I could ever make it after loosing her on February 3rd, 2003. So, just one month later we moved from Lake Stevens and the home we shared with her to Marysville. The first two years were the most difficult of my life. For the previous two years I had a purpose to my life, and that was to make her's as comfortable as possible under the circumstances and to help her fight her disease. We talked, we laughed, we made funeral plans, we cried, we remembered and there were many revelations. I wouldn't trade that two years for any two in my lifetime. But the next two were pretty bad. But despite myself, I made it through. I made a lot of bad choices in that time but nothing that left permanent scars. But I know that even in the lowest of lows that God was with me and helped me through.

If I could leave my kids with even half of the affection and respect that my mother has left with me, then I feel like I would have accomplished something in my life. I had the pleasure of her presence for the last 20 years of her life and in the last two months of her life I saw how totally pure her heart was. I can aspire to that, but don't think I'll ever make it. I miss her now and I'll miss her forever.

Sewing on cards

So, I have been eyeing up this little Singer sewing machine for a couple months, and after Dave talking me in to it (ha!) I decided to take the plunge. This is my third attempt at a mini sewing machine. The first one I bought new off of HSN and sent it back because it was a piece of expensive junk. The second one I bought at a garage sale and I'm ashamed to say I never took it out of the package because it didn't have directions with it, so it might work... and it might not. I figured this one has a good name behind it. It has a real bobbin unlike the other two I bought, and you can sew fabric with it too. It doesn't have a real quality sound to it, but it works. It has 8 different stitches. I think I will get some use out of it. This is my first card with it. I'm still recovering from a nasty cold so my creative juices are stifled but this is what I came up with.

Herb Report

If you click on the label below it will show all the posts for aerogarden and you can see the progress better. Some of them are big enough now to use. I may still get rid of the cilantro and put a plug in the spot to give more room to the others that I will actually be using. I'm still waiting on my last order from aerogarden. They are back ordered on the seed starter kits, so hope I get them in time to actually start some seeds for this year. The date on the picture is wrong again. The month and day are mixed up. It is 4 days short of one month since I started these plants.