Panda Gets his voice

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8zFSahMFFo



I don't understand youtube well enough I guess, but the link to Panda's video is above.  It's really cute.

My New Love

Three more days until we pick up our new puppy, Panda.  Isn't he just too adorable?  We went to visit him last Saturday.  He will be 8 weeks old this weekend so he gets to come home.  We're all ready with all the puppy necessities, plus a few non-essentials.  Getting just a little nervous about a new puppy in the house and wnat to make sure that he gets trained right.  But we just love him to pieces already.

Auburn Hills Community

One of the residents in the community that we manage took this picture and I thought it was really beautiful.  I wish I could do this good of photography.

Card for Patty

Every few weeks I make a card for one of our residents/neighbors.  She is suffering terminal cancer.  I have wanted to do a card with lots of flowers on it so figured this was a good time to do it.  She loves purple/lavender. 

Check out my peas

There are two different varieties, a snow pea and a dwarf pea.  But check out the color o the blossom!  It is lavender and purple, I've never seen that.  I think that it is the white blossom that is the snow pea.  For being a dwarf, they are already about 5 feet tall. 

Copics

My first finished creation with my new Copics markers.  For my non-paper crafting friends, Copics are the best thing that ever happened to someone like me that really struggled with coloring in my stamps.  For my paper crafting friends, bear with me, I know they aren't perfect, but I'm learning.  I tried a few different blending techniques on these cards.  I signed up yesterday for a class but it doesn't happen until August.  So in the meantime I just struggle through with Utube videos and hints from friends on how to best use these babies. 

I've been thinking a long time about getting these markers because they are a good size investment, so I wanted to make sure that they were something that I would actually use and not just put in a drawer.  I started looking on ebay and craigslist and just happened across a guy that was selling 20 markers and he said 'make an offer.'  So I made an offer of $40 (there were 20 of them), thinking that he would counter-offer.  But he didn't!  I was totally shocked.  This is actually $140 worth of markers.  Now you see why I thought long and hard before decided to jump in to this.  There are three styles of these basic alcohol ink markers; Originals that are square, Sketch that are oval and Ciao which are smaller and round.  I am supplementing my original 20 with the Sketch markers now.  The Originals are not as popular as the other two, but are very nice to work with and have a chisel tip and a hard pointed tip (I forget what they all that).  There are 323 colors in all and I hope eventually to have them all.  There is also a new "Wide" copic, but I doubt that most card makers would use this as it makes a one inch swath.

Now I have to re-think my stamp purchases.  I have always bought stamps that don't have to be colored in because I am so bad at it.  The coloring comes from the miriad of stamp pads that I have.  A lot of my Christmas stamps involve coloring so I will have a lot of fun this year.

Oh yes, the border is done with my other new passion... border punches.  I love the designs of the EK Success punches and some of Martha's.

More flowers

Just a couple quick picks of some flowers today.  Things are starting to come together now.  I know that I took one of this lupine last week, but it has darkened up so much since then. 

  It looks so pretty to look out my office window and see this.

 I do not have good fortune with roses, so I am thrilled to see this blooming in my garden.  I took this one from the vacant lot where we moved a new home in. 

This dianthasus has grown nicely in the last two years.