Candy Time with Rachelle Anne Miller!

Candy Time! I wish... LOL I have to be really good today with my Weight Watcher points.. as this week I cheated a few times and I really want to have another good weigh in this week! So I will just color up some Candy Time - almost as fun as eating it!
This is one of my favorite images from Rachelle Anne Miller and Stampavie - I think it is just the name..well and that cute little puppy! I colored with my Copics and then cut out with my Nesties and added a scalloped mat.
Now you may have already seen this card.. it was in the August Stampavie newsletter this month - but I thought I would go ahead and show it here.. cuz I liked how it came out with those bold flowers. (IF you didn't get the Stampavie Newsletter you can sign up here... you really want to get these they are full of all kinds of wonderful info, images, projects and interviews!)

All of the papers are from DCWV Nanna's Kitchen stack. I used white card stock and red card stock with them. POPs huh? Those red flowers I found in my stash. I think they came from a swap years back... knew I saved them for something special.

The bottom is different... I did not punch all the way across the card I made sure to leave the sides... then I attached a red card stock behind - a different look for a border punch I think. Does that make sense? Let me know if not and I'll try and explain it better.

The sentiment is again from digging in my stash - no clue where it came from.

Hope you have a wonderful Sunday - we are getting a truck of hay delivered today - we don't want to discuss how much it is costing to have it trucked in from other places... Lets just say if we don't get some rain and the locals can grow and cut some hay locally.. I may have to give up my left arm and both legs.. I will try and hang on to my right arm so I can still color... sigh!

HUGS and-

Donkey/Libbie Day - no babies - no rain - just heat!

NO I know can you believe it no babies yet, no rain all we have had a lot of this week is heat! it has been over 100 every day this week and no sign of rain in the forecast!

We are seeing some changes in the Mom's to be... Macie is starting to look a little less wide, the baby is turning - slowly but turning so things are moving along.. sigh... Jazz and Cheyenne are about the same -

How is this for Cute? Rosie and Irene... Rosie got really bad a few weeks back scary bad. I didn't say anything cuz it just upset me to much to even talk about it. We again were ready to call the vet and have her put down. Then we found this new food, and Hubby (Dad) decided to push meds again try the food and see if we could get some weight back on her. This is a special equine food made to help them gain weight - with lots of vitamins and lots of FAT! Well it is working!! She is looking better than she has in a long time, gaining weight and she has started playing with the ball and hee hawing again!!! If we ever figure out what works we may kick this or at least keep it far in the distance!
Here is "Dad" giving Rosie her Meds - twice a day we walk her into a small side pen, give her meds to her and then feed her her food. We have to get her in a pen by herself, that food must be really good cuz all of the other donkeys realllllly want some! She is pretty good about taking her medicine - heck she has done it twice a day for almost a year off and on -

Now after she gets the medicine - Dad holds her head and then opens her mouth - she has learned how to hold it in her throat and then spit it out after Dad walks away... she usually does this with some of it 1/2 the time! That is another sign she is getting better - when she is bad.. she just doesn't even care.

OH and I wanted to show you a photo of Cali... she is starting to shed some of her baby fur.. a bit early but hey it is over 100 degrees remember? Well we have started noticing her mane.. look at how dark it is coming in... and she even has one dark, almost black spot on her neck. You can just see it here in the reddish/brown stripe.. I have looked really close and it is really dark hair growing in. Cutie huh?

Here is Libbie... I told her to go and get Purple Dog and show him off to the camera.. this is her special toy. NO ONE is aloud to touch purple dog, especially Gato. She takes it to bed every night and then in the morning she goes and gets it and brings it to our bed to wake us up. Yes wonderful a wet.. little ... semi fuzzy toy in my bed.. LOVELY way to wake up.

Then I was asking her to pose for the camera... we got to laughing and this is her cute pose... we do this when happy to see you.. when we did something wrong.. when we want something.. this is our go to pose... for any issue!

But then she decided that she was done and kept turning her head and not looking at me.. I think this is the stars way of saying.. "Please no more photos..."


And then she just started barking at me... "I said no more photos!!"


Hope you enjoyed.. and thanks for putting up with my Saturday photo days... I love sharing my babies with family and friends - and yes that means all of you -
HUGS and -

Just Magnolia's Friday with a wonderful Sketch!

Hello - from a little late person this morning... oops! We went out this morning to feed and water, and give Rosie her meds and special food. ( she is really doing better and actually putting on weight! ) anyway back to why I am late... well there were two really nasty looking Racoon's just out side the pen... we had to make sure they were run off, and then check then pen and see if they had gotten in. I don't want to offend any Raccoon lovers here.. but they are just nasty here now, and the diseases they carry are just scary - I don't want my donkeys to be affected at all! Especially when we have the new babies.. cuz a couple of raccoons could take down a baby donkey. Remember they are only about 20 inches tall when born. Oh well that is why I am late - donkeys first... now to today's card!

If you will pop over to the Just Magnolia's Challenge blog you can see lots of wonderful cards with and the sketch from fellow DT Martine - great sketch... I just really got out of control and well the basics are there -

I started with my Tilda.. she was one I haven't used in a long time and she just looked like summer to me. So I colored her up with my Copics and even pulled out my Flower Soft to give her some fun flowers this time. Problem... well she was just a tad big for the sketch, and if I made her a tag like the options, it would cover over 1/2 of her up. So I decided to not make a tag and just let her be.

I then moved on to the card - this gave my flower soft time to dry as well. The Making Memories Chloe's Closet was still sitting on my desk and the colors were wonderful for summer. I followed the sketch and used a Bazzil Swiss dot blue card stock as my base. Inked the edges of all the papers and then sewed everything down. I used the EK Success Retro flower punch and Martha's frond leaf punch with MM button brads. I put my image on the card and ahhh uh oh... She is still so big that I have no room for my sentiment. And I really wanted to use a piece of the matching twill ribbon... oh well her shoes just had to be covered and don't tell anyone.. but I was really ok with that cuz I had colored them bright yellow and they were driving me nuts.. just too bright! LOL


Now pop on over to the Just Magnolia's blog and see all the gorgeous work from the other DT - they didn't have trouble you can tell by how wonderful their cards are!

I do hope you have a wonderful Friday! The weekend is coming! I am doing some laundry and trying to help Hubby with "construction" of my craft room.. figure all I can help the fast it moves right? LOL He might not agree....

HUGs and

EnCOURAGEment!

Hello! Last night I sat down to make my card for the PaperCraft Planet Alota Rubber Stamps Challenge (BTW... this time it is a wonderful sketch! with a great prize... check it out HERE!)
Any way back to my story... well I was so full - We had eaten dinner out, I did ok, grilled fajitas just a bit of queso cheese, but didn't go over board. And I was well within my Weight Watchers points - and then it was so hot and after running a few errands we stopped to get ice cream. I only ate 1/2 ... so not like me.. but I just didn't want any more, it was too sweet - I think I am changing!!! AHHH!!! LOL I just can't eat all the gooey sweet things I use to. As I sat down to work I just needed, my ice water and went to work looking for an image to color for the challenge. And ran across the BEACH LADY oh just too perfect to put me back into the right frame of mind.


I stamped her out and colored up with my Copics, and then cut out with my Nesties. I also cut a larger mat out of yellow Core'dinations card stock. The same card stock I used as the base for my card - the pattern papers are from my new K&Co. Stack Gypsy Baby - I just thought they were perfect for the calm beach image.
I used a scrap of a medium blue card stock and punched it with the EK Success wave border punch top and bottom twice to make two bands - This is following the sketch. I matted the yellow pattern paper with the same blue and then sewed everything down. Now the sketch did not have flowers... it was more simple... I just had to have more, again more with me huh? So I added three flowers, with button brads and Martha Stewart frond leave punches.

And the sentiment... TO funny huh... for some reason it just goes with BEACH LADY!!

Now off to have some breakfast and get some chores done. Then later I hope to have some time to catch up on some blog hopping!
HUGS and -

A Floral Fantasy at A Spoon Full of Sugar

This week at A Spoon Full of Sugar this week it is a Floral Fantasy.. that is pretty easy, and fun! We just need to see some sort of flowers on your card.

For my card it was just perfect timing to use another new Stampavie image!! This is from artist Helz Cuppleditch and is called "Teddy Say it with flowers". How wonderful is she??? Perfect for Nesties Oval die cuts huh? She is colored with my Copics.
For the card I started with a light pink card stock as the base, as well as a scalloped oval to mat behind my image. I doodled around the image with a white gel pen.

Now how pretty and soft are those papers? They are a new stack from K & Co. and I think it is called WP Gypsy Baby - I just feel in love with it, such pretty patterns! I picked three patterns, the stripes I added a Martha Stewart Double Dot Scalloped border punch and then sewed down everything, oh after I inked the edges with a pale pink ink.

Now it was time for my "Floral Fantasy" .. I could not find any flowers in my stash that matched perfectly.. too pink.. too yellow... just nothing! So I pulled out my white flowers and then used my Copics and my air compressor and two shades of pink (R81 & R83) and made the perfect color! Love that! For the centers I used some Making Memories pearls, these are wonderful they are flat on the bottom, easy to just add a glue dot. They came in a little box of "gems and pearls" that I found last week. Might have to get more of these.... And now those leaves. They are a Martha punch, a leaf that I have had forever! Why haven't I used it before??? Well I will now cuz I love how they look with the flowers!

The sentiment... again another little plug for my friend Jessica's stamps The Greeting Farm sentiment collection called "Butterfly Wishes" I am so loving this set, it is so fun and different! You get quite a few wonderful sentiments and quotes for the inside of your card. Check it out! OH and while there... Greeting farm just released new stamps again... you are going to love I am sure!

Now you can pop over to Spoon Full of Sugar to see a whole bunch of flowers and wonderful cards from the other DT... We all just love flowers! And don't forget to make up your own floral fantasy and join in for the prize!

Better get my grove on and get busy.. today is MIL shopping day and lots on the list of places to stop.. including JoAnn's ... and I don't get to go there very often!!
HUGS and have a wonderful Tuesday!

Celebrate!! - Lots of fun STAMPAVIE stuff!

CELEBRATE!! and with Ice Cream is the best! Well except that I can't have this much for my Weight Watchers points! LOL - This is one of the new Tina Wenke Images Mouse Carrying Ice Cream - Wonderful huh?
Now I am sure you asking what are we Celebrating? Well Stampavie has lots of new images in and coming and now we also have THREE new Design Team Members!!! The original Design Team Call was looking for one new DT Member, well there was so much talent Stuart and Heidi decided that they would add THREE! and guess what else... They are going to pull Guest DT members from the list of applicants!! How exciting is that! So we are Celebrating... OH I almost forgot to share who the new DT are...

Kitty (USA) : http://kittiekraft.typepad.com/kittiekraft

Monique (Netherlands) : http://www.lokhorstcreations.blogspot.com

Leann (UK) : http://leanns-ramblings.blogspot.com

Congrats to all three! And for more info.. and to see lots of fun Stampavie cards? Make sure to visit the Stampavie DT Blog!

Now you want some details on my card?? LOL

Now I colored up the wonderful Stampavie Tina Wenke Image - with Copics. And then cut out with my Nesties - The base is a white card stock, and that wonderful Making Memories Chloe's Closet pad was still on my desk - so it just worked out perfect. I picked the blue and white gingham pattern as the background. Then do you love those stripes of all the pattern papers? I just cut a small piece - and sewed down everything. And then found a matching ribbon from the same collection and tied around the middle.

Then this was a perfect chance to use some of my MIL's crocheted flowers.. aren't they wonderful! I sewed on two buttons and then punched three Martha Stewart frond leaves and high lighted with white gel pen.


So anyone up for some ice cream??? Mine will have to be low fat, no toppings please - just way to many points to have the real stuff....

Have a great Monday!
HUGS

Donkey Day... rain... so close and yet so far...

Well I did not get any "good" photos this week - I went outside last night to take photos and noticed the sky.... This was at 4:30 in the afternoon -
Now we are under severe drought, we have had no real rain for months - and things are pretty serious. We have even started noticing that very old trees in our area are turning brown and dying. Very sad. Well as I was loving on donkeys... we realized that there were some really wonderful clouds coming toward us. Now this is the third day we have seen these clouds... no rain. So we went on out and were feeding and watering, and I was getting ready to take photos - I snapped just a few.. and then the wind.. dirt blowing everywhere... we headed in.. huge rain drops.. and then NOTHING! It all stopped. Later in the evening.. it did it a second time, this time loud thunder, lightning, wind and we watched it go right by us. Hubby says our wire fence just keeps it from getting here! Crossing our fingers today it will find its way across our fence!


So here are the few photos I snapped -

AnnaBell "Bella" had an inch... you can see this poor tree is used a lot for scratching... and sometimes even chewing on. We don't like that - and most trees are ringed so they can chew on them, but this one.. well they have claimed it -

I think I have told you that Josie was weaned last week. She is in the youth pen now. She still calls for her Mom from time to time... but she now has a very good friend - Irene - watches over like a Mom - and makes sure that no one picks on her. As you can see at almost 8 months old she is still VERY tiny.

Now I thought I would show you Cheyenne.. she is so miserable - poor thing. The Heat and humidity is really doing a number on all of the Mom's to be...

I have had a few ask about my Mom's to be and that it seems like we have been on "Donkey Watch" for a long time waiting for babies - I thought I might explain. Donkeys are pregnant 11-13 months and well I am a nervous nellie when it comes to my babies. I have gotten better over the years - but we started off with some really bad luck and we lost a couple of our first babies and that has made me really cautious when it comes to birthing. I have only missed one baby over the years - and that was Jolene's Josie - she showed NO signs before delivering.

What are the signs? They bag up, the baby starts to turn, the belly gets pointed, and the nipples get really large. They start getting "grouchy" and staying off to by themselves. Those are signs... all can happen, or none. At the 11 month mark there are a few that I really start watching. Macie is one of those, a few years back she went into labor just before that 11 month date, it was a breech baby - and we lost the baby and almost lost Macie. She has delivered a healthy baby since then, but I still get on guard. Plus well... I just feel for her - she gets SO WIDE, she is a "big boned" girl as it is, so the baby really does add weight to her -

I guess what all of that means is .. I start watching the donkeys as they get close to their date on the calendar, we start getting excited.. at the one year mark.. we get serious, and start keeping a closer eye on them, then when all the signs start showing and the bells start ringing.. I go on "Donkey Watch" when Hubby thinks things are really close... I get grounded - no leaving - and we put them in the Momma pen so they are ready to deliver. Now all the books and the breeders will tell you "you can't tell when a donkey will deliver" and that is true - they fool you a lot. But Hubby has "guessed" on about 1/2 of our donkeys within a 24-48 hour window. So this system works for us - Some times we are on lock down red alert for a week or more - especially with those that we have never had a baby from before. But some.. we are getting pretty good at know what time of day they like and seeing their personal signs.

I know some of the breeders just shake their head at us... We get kind of nuts about wanting to be there - many just let them birth in a large pen and find the babies next to the Mom's ... but hey... our donkeys are special.. they are our children and again... I am just nuts -


I have a friend coming over to craft all day and night again today.. house is a disaster.. so better make a run through and pick up and vacuum before she gets here! Hope you have a wonderful Saturday.. what are you up to today?

HUGS and