Whimsy Stamps - Rain or Shine?

Howdy - another one of those weeks were things flew by - Hubby has been helping a friend with Coaching Little League. Well we all know that Hubby eats, breaths and sleeps baseball. So he is having a ball! (pun intended) But I had no clue that means THREE nights a week we are at a little league game! I am gonna have to get things a bit more organized and start doing more things over the weekend I am thinking.

But I have made time this week to work with one of the new Whimsy Stamps Images :0)

Adorable image isn't it? This is "Ari and Toby" by Katheryne, StampArt Designs - love he stuff don't you? That puppy just has to make you smile. The sentiment... well that is a one of three that are bonuses with the image!! BONUS! I had fun with some spring colors from First Paper Editions Black Canvas paper stack. I added a matching ribbon from my stash and then found a pearl flourish in my drawer. I cut out the sentiment with Whimsy dies.. first Notables 4 die, then I matted it with Notables 6 die from a scrap.

Here are my Copic Colors.

Hope you are having a great Friday - I'll be back tomorrow with Animal Crackers
HUGS and-

High Hopes - Celebrate Something!

Howdy! First... we didn't get as much rain as they said we would. Darn it! We got just enough to get the ground slightly wet. Then by mid morning the sky was clear and sunny. That was nice but really I wanted a entire Sunday of rain... needed it. Maybe next time.... Sigh... Don't you hate me whining about rain? Life of having animals and needed hay.

Today is all about Celebrating though - High Hopes Challenge today is asking for a card to show off celebrating something - anniversary, birthday, graduation.. whatever as long as you are celebrating!

Me I will do some serious celebrating when Spring is officially here, love spring when everything is growing and blooming!

Here is my card -

This is one of my first and favorite High Hopes images. This is Miss Marissa. I love her! She is just so darn cute, and I adore her large flower. I have always popped the flower. This time I decided I would just color her and let it go... then at the very end I went and stamped another one and popped it. LOL

I really had a ton of fun with all the bright colors and flowers... maybe went a little too much with the flowers? So the papers are from Blank Canvas. With mats from Core'dinations White wash card stock.. all though I used the colored side not the white wash side :0).  The die cuts - vines from Whimsy, and flowers from Memory Box. Some added lace, and then my sentiments. Celebrate is a cheap $1.00 stamp from Michaels. The fabulous "Take time to Smell the Flowers" is a High Hopes Sentiment.

Here is the card from the side so you can see the POP...

You will have to peek at the inside in this photo too as I forgot to take a photo of the inside, and the Copic colors used, sorry was watching a good movie and just got side tracked :0)

So what will you be Celebrating? Common you need a card - use a High Hopes image and join us at the challenge! Common we want record people to join us this week! Celebrate!!!

Whats up in your house today? We are working today... me on estate collections Hubby on mowing and the farm.... normal day around here. It is a good thing though.. normal is nice.

Have a great day -
Hugs and

Me and My Space - A Few Good Dolls...and/or Action Figures?

Howdy - thought I would show of a few fun items from the Estate I am working through - I think I have finally sorted through most everything except for a few of the fashion boxes. Everything else has been sorted and reboxed in "like" items. Basically decades.. LOL It really has been amazing the items coming out of the boxes has taught me so much. I am even finding myself looking at shops and auctions at more "mid-century" dolls and toys.

Here are a few things that I thought were fun this past week -

Lots of GI Joe items have been found - Some really awesome.

This guy use to be a talker, his string is missing. He may still talk if someone can repair him. The great thing about him... He is a fuzzy head with beard - early GI Joe... and his fuzzy head is great with no rub worn spots.

Found a couple really fabulous collector dolls -

This is an early 70's Sasha Doll - Brunette Hair Brown eyes - Her hair is amazing, really thick and full. Many of these dolls have to have replacement hair from what I have read. They get hair cuts to make them more fashionable. Sadly I couldn't find original Sasha clothes for her (yet) but she has a cute outfit and snazzy shoes.

Another really fabulous collectible  - Very rare find here!

This is an Anette Himstedt doll - Made in Germany, this is one of the first released. This is Bekus. Now I am just learning all about these "mid-century" dolls - more modern dolls than I am use to dealing with. Bekus is rare because most of the Himstedt have production in Germany and then a certain number for release in the U.S., Bekus though... he only had 60 made, all for sale in Germany and then he was no longer produced. This one is still in the box and in all his original clothes. He really is a good looking doll, with bright big bold eyes. Can't wait to see what he does on ebay... hopefully someone that really loves these dolls can add him to their collection. A very special doll -

Small but really pretty -

Found a small box with about a 1/2 of dozen Beatrix Potter Figurines. All date from the late 1940's and early 1950's. They are all in perfect condition. and the paint is bright with no rubs or chips. They really are wonderful -

Now this one baffled me for a while I knew who he was but just couldn't come up with it...  You know right off right?

 I am sure you just shouted it out to the screen right? Make me look silly I know...

This is Uncle Remus! From Disney's Song of the South. And he is a handmade Folk Puppet. I don't know if the lady that owned this estate made him or if she purchased him. But he is handmade. And the details on him are really wonderful. I don't know a lot about Folk Art - or Black American Collectibles but I know this is a great little puppet. Hope he finds a home in a great collection.

I wish I could show of all the stuff... takes me forever to get things done as I just keep ooh and awing over it all. Have condensed and re-boxed a ton of it and I actually can see the floor in almost 1/2 of my living room floor now! LOL

If you would like to follow my items on eBay and see more of the goodies you can find my store HERE.

Suppose to be rainy this morning... was just nasty here yesterday. Wasn't raining, Wasn't clear, just plain nasty and drizzling. I'll take the drizzle as it does help keep down the fire dangers as that is becoming a scare again. But really we need some measurable RAIN. Finger and toes all crossed for some real downfalls!

Hope you have a great Sunday -
HUGS and-

Animal Crackers or Quackers?

Howdy - Little different today - First though I have to show your our THREE new family members -

Still Working on names for them.. Eeny, Miney, and Moe maybe? Or Larry Curly and Moe?

Hubby has started building my NEW chicken coop!! Since the one he built last year became his cat condo... and in reality it was too big for what I wanted. So we drew up new plans and he started building this week. We went to look at the chicks and planned to get a few... they were out. Yep.. sold out! But they had these gorgeous Guineas. Hubby has always wanted Guineas. Now I don't think we will be able to let them run free like he would like. Between the Coyotes and the outside dogs I don't think they would have a chance. So they will probably have to live in a pen too. Wonder if they can live with the goats? Probably will be better with the chickens... Anyway, They were too cute to leave. So we picked out three and they have been living on a folding table in a cage in my house. Yes... lovely messy things are in my house. Driving Miss Libbie just totally nuts. The cat... she just watches and looks at me like if you let them out I will catch them for you - only if Libbie doesn't get them first! They  have doubled in size since we got them. By the time Hubby finishes the coop this weekend they actually might be big enough to go outside and live in it! Chickens hopefully will come next week... they too will probably have to live inside in the cage for a short time. They are just so little when you get them. And totally adorable...

Now for the something different - You may remember that Hubby and I LOVE to drive around and find the ducks on ponds in our area. We were lucky enough two years ago to have a group living on ours. Too dry now though. Well we found out that one of the towns near here has a ton of ducks passing through now, and so we saddled up this week to go and see them and get some photos.... This is just a few of my favorite... I took about a million :0)

One of Hubby's favorites -
Bluebills -

The Bluebills have pretty girlfriends. Really gorgeous brown coloring.

 But he also really loves to watch the Coot's. They are funny with their bobbing heads.

May be boring, but I love to watch the Mallards. They always look so happy and I love the coloring on the hens.

The guys are handsome - vibrant.

Close ups of the Mallards - they were very friendly... until they found out I didn't have bread for them.

Hubby was thrilled to see the Shoveler - Is that a beak or what??

Fabulous feathers!

All though Mrs. Shoveler ain't so bad herself..

 Wish I could have captured how bold their coloring is... they were all stunning. And so fun to just watch their movements and interacting. 

Then a gentleman showed up and starting throwing bread in the water... so much for calm simple swimming ducks....

 I think this is my favorite photo though... Just makes me smile for some reason. You think Mr. and Mrs. Mallard was watching Me and Hubby and talking about us?

LOL... wonder what they were saying... LOL


Hope you enjoyed the ducks this week. Our family will be back next week promise, but these were just too fun to not show off this week. Hey maybe I will have chickens to show off next week :0)

Have a great weekend! Suppose to rain this weekend here... please please please rain!!
HUGS and-

High Hopes - Anything Goes - HOGWASH

Howdy - Today would have been my Grandma's Birthday. Sure miss her. I was pretty close to my Grandma. Been told many times I am a lot like her. Most of the time I take as a compliment, other things... well anyway - I realized yesterday though that this would have been her 101st birthday. Wow - isn't it just amazing how long ago that was, but in the grand scheme of things it isn't that long ago at all. I look at photos of my Grandma when she was young, posed on top of a model T Ford or in her Flapper dress and I realize how much the world has changed. Ok, that is all of my deep thoughts for now.. better get to my card - Happy Birthday Grandma -

Today is the High Hopes Challenge and this week is an easy peasy one! Anything Goes!! So just pull out any High Hopes image and then have fun! For me I had a High Hopes image that I had not gotten a chance to ink up and it was just driving me nuts! So Whoo Hoo... it now has been inked!

HOGWASH!

No Really...

As soon as I saw this image I giggled. Why? I don't know four  pigs in a tub taking a bubble bath, just makes me giggle. LOL It is called "Good Clean Fun" You know you love it too don't you? Had lots of fun coloring up this one. Copics to color ( below are the colors ) Then I went back with lots of Viva Decor Sparkles and then Dimensional Glaze for my water - My papers are all from First Edition, called Spring Drop. Love the pretty colors. Some of the papers have a shiny or glitter glaze to them. Pretty... And my mat is core'dinations sanded. I sewed the layers together, cut out my image with an oval nestie, but I made sure to cut out the shower head first so it would pop up above the oval.

Close up of the piggies in the tub so you can see all the "wet" look and sparkles. :0) 

Inside of the card - Same papers - layered. With a sentiment from High Hopes to match the image -

Hog Wash! great High Hopes sentiment!

Here are my Copic colors used -

Was a gorgeous day here yesterday - actually got up into the 80's!! I am so ready for full time Spring to hit! So So tired of wind and cold. Ready to have WARM SUNNY WEATHER! How about you? I know I complain and I don't really deal with much winter at all here in Texas. But I am not a cold weather person in the least. Heck don't like Hot summer either... LOL Spring and Fall those are my seasons. 

Well lots on our list today - so better get my groove on and get busy! 

Have a wonderful day

HUGS and-

Whimsy Stamps - Want to Fly a Kite?

Howdy - This is going to sound shocking... but please believe me it is totally true. This weekend I got to sit at my craft desk. Which is cleaned off BTW. I got a chance to sit for over 3 1/2 hours and just color and "create". It wasn't anything rushed, last minute for a dead line. Just sat and crafted. It has felt like forever since I really just took an entire evening and played.

And with the new Digital Release going on over at Whimsy Stamps I had lots to play with and ended up choosing the new Chrissy's Digital stamp "Want Fly a Kite?". With the huge winds we have had here the last few weeks... flying a kite would be a breeze. Pun intended.. LOL.

Love this image - He is just too precious. I colored with Copics (colors below) And cut out with an oval Nestie. I found some pattern papers that I liked with the boy image. Love the one with the newspaper print. They are all from FarmHouse. The newspaper print reminded me of the kite I made with my Dad once out of newspaper. He was trying to show me how he made them as a kid... we bought my next kite :0) - Anyway I thought it would be cute to paper piece the kite with the "newspaper" like my Dads. That just lead to using real twin and creating the roll of string twine. And then finding a piece of tiny ribbon that matched to use as the tail. Was fun to put together. I layered he pattern papers, sewed them together. The created a mat behind my little guy and cut out Whimsy Corners - love those. They are one of my favorite sets of dies. The sentiment is part of Whimsy's Simple Everyday Greetings. 

Here is a side view so you can see the roll of sting and ribbon - 

And the inside -

 Here are my Copics used -

Fun and totally adorable image - Then again I am a total sucker for all of Crissy's Images! :0)

So what is going on today - Hmmmm  work on the estate and a little laundry. Hubby is going to help his brother with a few things so I'll hopeful get lots done. That is the plan anyway.

So what is on your list to do today? Anything fun?

Have a wonderful day -
HUGS and-

Animal Crackers - A New Prospective -

Howdy - Now when trying to find a title for this weeks Animal Crackers post I came up with A New Prospective - a few reasons and they all fit with the title in different ways -

So lets see what happened this week that have me thinking this way -

Nallie is up first  - she is so good riding in the car - :0)

We took her back to the vet this week, her third visit since "getting into it" with the coyote. She got her many stitches out of her shoulder, examined and said to be 100% back to herself. Now I don't honestly think she ever was not herself. Even the morning we found her she was like it was no big deal. After surgery, and all the stitches and an over night stay at the Doc's she came home and went to running after rabbits and it was all no big deal. She is one tough girl - And my new prospective? Well the three outside dog's "were" the neighbors dogs. Hubby and I were the ones to find all the puppies the day they were born. And we have loved them as the neighbors dogs from that day. Now that we have adopted these three since the neighbor has had to move away, we have always loved them and they live on our property. But they "were" the neighbor's dogs. But in the past month it has changed. These three dogs are ours now. They can never leave here - They are part of the family - They protect our family and we are very happy about them joining us. We have always loved them, but now... now they belong here.

Next this week... we sold a bunch of goats.

First to leave us was Tonto, Joanie, Leiah and Gidget. How we said yes to selling Gidget I don't know. She is not one of the "kids" that we planned to be selling. But we really liked the people that purchased them. And they really wanted to start doing some breeding and since the two little ones are still too young... somehow it came around to how much she loved Gidget - and with in a few minutes we were loading her on their trailer. Hubby has been depressed ever since. Gidget is our "special" one from last Spring. She was a single baby, late and picked on by everyone else. Hubby became her pal. She is skittish, but curious and talkative. I know she will be happy in her new home. And in reality Hubby and I have decided that now Gidget has a new prospective... she is no longer the last one, the single, the one picked on. Now she is the older sister... the leader and the one to look up to. So we are happy about that! We also sold two more late yesterday afternoon - I didn't get a goodbye photo of them as I wasn't here while they were loaded, just barely got to say goodbye at the gate as they were leaving and I was coming home. Lady Di and Camilla left for a new home. Yes.. I said I was going to keep them both. But honestly - we have a pretty good size group right now and I decided that I would only keep two out this years girls. One to replace Gidget, Mary... and then for some reason I just can't let Jennifer go. Now if we could only sell a few more boys we will be good for this season. Only about 5-6 weeks before we start all over an split some of the girls up between the Bucks.

A new view and perspective of a few donkeys - You see yesterday afternoon I ran into town to do a little fast shopping (needed new jeans as the only two I have that I can still wear are seriously falling off of me, soon to have none that I can wear in public! :0) !!! )  Anyway I also got a pedicure while out. Things were taking a bit longer at the nail salon and I was worried I wouldn't get home before the sun started setting and no photos for today could be taken. So I texted Hubby and asked him to go out and snap a few for me. I love them... they are different angles than I normally do and he decided that it had been a while since I walked out to the front pen and snapped photos... so here is his prospective -

Fancy Pants -

I know I have gone into length in the past about Fancy Pants - Gorgeous red/brown donkey. Never has been able to get pregnant. And She is so controlling that she doesn't allow anyone else to get pregnant either. Runs off the Jack and beats the tar out of him. So she has lived in our front pen along with her 1/2 brother Miguel and Rico for the past couple of years. Both boys are geldings. Now she is the leader of them. And they really don't seem to mind. They just let her think she is in control so everyone is happy, and they go about their life doing as they want.

He snapped a great close up of Miguel and Rico - totally different than I would have -

Our useless geldings .. we love them dearly and they are basically just pets. If we can ever get the front fencing redone we will let these two guys roam with the standards hopefully. But where the standards don't try and get out, Miguel and Rico would just walk under the wires and what is basically fencing and be gone. So for now they are ok in their pen... with Fancy in control.

Hubby then snapped a photo of one of our studs, Black Jack. Funny angle on this one too -

Love this old man - I think he is getting close the big 17 or 18 years old now. But he is still one great Buck. He has really given us some gorgeous babies the past few years. And one day he will give us more I am sure... it is planned for the future -

I think Hubby had a great prospective I may just have to let him snap a few in the future again.

One more for today - I snapped this one with my phone from the car the other day - Now if a sky like this doesn't make you sigh and take a new prospective on life in general...

Honestly is that a gorgeous but unusual sky or what? Really does just make you slow down and think about life huh? It was really stunning in person - I took about 30 photos and none of them really showed it off as well as it really looked. I think skies like this make me slow down and remember just how big the world is and how blessed I am to have the life I do - the Hubby I do - the farm and animals - the job.. yea it was a really big sky it gave me a lot to think about ... LOL

Hope you have a wonderful day and can get a new prospective on things around you -
HUGS and -