Whimsy Stamps Challenge - Anything Goes!

Howdy -

Big chances of rain today - I have a ton on my list of what I should get done today... but wouldn't a long rainy day inside working on projects just be lovely. :0) Maybe.....

Today is the Whimsy Stamps Challenge - It is a very easy one so no excuses for not joining in this week. Anything Goes! For me I took that as a challenge to try something new... new artist for Whimsy and a new style of card with a technique I have not tried in a long time. Use to love making leaves and things with my VersaMark stamp pad and embossing powders.

Here is my card -

Told you it was different for me!! I love the new images - The new artist is AshlanValor Tangles - you can see all of her new images HERE. I used "Fall Maple Leaf" I printed three leaves - and colored with my Copics. (colors below) I then printed out a sentiment and then colored it with three copic colors I used in the leaves... then blended them. I kept things as simple as I could. Brown card stock base. Olive Green Core'dinations card stock sanded. I doodled the lines around the edges.

Then went to work on my leaves again - I love this technique... and these leaves really sparked the dusty cobwebs in the back of my brain to pull it all out. I cut out the leaves after colored. I press them upside down onto the VersaMark stamp pad to get them juicy. Then sprinkle with clear embossing powder. Heat... while still hot sprinkle again.... and then one more.... the last time I added just a bit of Iridescent embossing powder for some added sparkle to them.

They become hard like and have great sheen to them.

You can see as they move in the light they change.

Love that!

here are the Copic colors.

OH it was so nice to "play" Especially after being in bed for two days... Had two wisdom teeth out end of last week. Went really well... and got lots of great rest with the help of nice meds. But totally enjoyed playing once I could function... and color in the lines! LOL

Now you need to click on over to the Whimsy Stamp Challenge and join us for ANYTHING GOES!

Have a great day... I am hoping for a rainy day and more crafting!!
HUGS and-

High Hopes Challenge - Snowmen

Howdy -

This week the High Hopes Challenge is fun with lots of Snowmen! I have always wanted to make my Christmas tags - always on my list of things to do... and never got to. Well this year I have a head start and love how cute they are!

This is the "Snowy Tag" stamp!!  Isn't he adorable. I stamped out a few, and then colored them with my Copics. (colors below) After I colored I cut them out, and then added lots of stickles to his hat scarf and fringe along the bottom.

Such a happy little face.

Here is the Copic colors.

I think I need a whole bunch more, I love them! Have you tried the tags at High Hopes - there are a bunch of great ones.  You can click HERE to see them!!

And make sure to pop on over to the challenge and see all the snowmen and then join us for some fun and a chance to win!!

Hope you are have a great day planned!
HUGS and

Animal Crackers - here a little toothless

Howdy,

Well this week I did not intend on missing my post - but well.. one visit to the Dentist and then the next day I was at an oral surgeon and well... then last few days I have been re-cooping and eating very soft foods. Yep... had two teeth removed. I am hoping that besides getting rid of my last two wisdom teeth that were starting to give me issues... it should, oh please I hope, stop my migraines. Maybe they say. But honestly I didn't mean to miss the entire week. Even forgot or didn't realize that it was already the weekend. So we will be using a few of the photos from last week that I didn't use. Still had a few that were too cute to not share -

This one of our youngest Flavio through the fence was too cute -

Youngest and still the only donkey that is difficult. I have no clue why we have worked and worked with him, but he is still skittish - but he is starting to let me pet him through the fence. Hey it is a start. 

I just love seeing all my kids in groups like this. I adore each of them.. yes even Flavio... LOL 

They are so pretty aren't they. And getting fat on all the green grass they are eating.

Jolene is a looker, one of our black faced girls. She was a nut crazy girl when we got her. Very skittish.

Couldn't touch her with a ten foot pole. And now, she loves attention and adores back scratches. She shows me that one day I can get Flavio to be the same.

Now one girl that the day we met and brought her home, she has been totally obnoxious friendly is Lacey....

And every baby she has given us since is the same way. She may be considered a plain brown miniature donkey, but she has gold stars for personality. And she is pregnant and will give us another great personality next year. :-)

Here is a photo I took while out feeding one day. There were the prettiest shadow and light from the clouds. Most of the shots I took didn't show it at all... but finally I caught one!

Love watching clouds - Especially when they are like art!!

Still taking it a little slow today - I am so craving some crunchy food... but soup and applesauce again I suppose.

So what is on your schedule this weekend? Anything fun? Exciting? Crafty? Can't do much so I would love to hear what you are doing.

Have a Blessed one -
HUGS and

Animal Crackers - Visiting the Girls

Howdy -

I think I already told you about our visit to the property next door this week. You see all of our Girls are "Mowing" her pens there. Really fabulous thick green grass for them to eat. We created a tunnel like area where they can travel from their pen on our property to the neighbors property, where they can graze on 20 acres. Grass that they are loving so much that they don't come home as often as I would like. So Hubby and I walk over and visit them. Being that we had been gone most of the week before doing an antique show we missed them terribly, so we really were excited to see them all. But not quite as excited as they were! People ask all the time if our donkeys are dangerous. YES! If you don't pet love and give total attention to them. They will push shove and nudge you until you literally fall over! A few are worse than others. I am kidding to a point... LOL

Here Hubby is telling Gabby and Juliet that we missed them too... and he is explaining to Gabby that she doesn't need to nip on his shirt to hold on to him.

See how calm and good Macie, Irene and Sonia are...

Waiting their turn.... and making sure we didn't bring anything good to eat... sorry girls just us this time.

They followed us across the property - keeping as close as they could while staying in their line....

Hubby went off to the side to check on the boys in one of the front pens, and make sure their water was nice and clean. He hates when their water is nasty. Buckets are checked daily and scrubbed usually at least once a week if not every other day. Sparkling clean water here!

 The girls watched closely to make sure Hubby didn't give the boys any treats...

When he got back to us they lined up again to follow..

I hung back... cuz I just love to see them all lined up.. one day I am going to get Hubby a flute or something.... LOL

Now the girls were not to happy when Hubby went through the other neighbors gate. (He was feeding their dog for them for a few days, and checking on their cows.)

Uh Hello.... where is he going. They all stood around waiting to see why he went on without them.

They were happy to see he came back really quick and then followed him back across the field towards me.

We then decided to check on the neighbors house while there. We had lots of storms and rain for a few days before and we just like to make sure everything is good and no surprises for our friends.

You have no idea how hard it was for them to not follow us up on the porch and come on in... LOL

They knew they did not belong on the porch, and I don't doubt that they have even snuck up there when we weren't around... but they know better.... and so they were good and just stood on the first step and waited for us. LOL

Of course the three standing there are the nosy, pushy girls.... The most obnoxious and spoiled as babies. Juliet the standard girl, we felt bad that the other standards would let her hang with them and she was so young so we gave her extra attention.

The one in the middle is Felicia, her and her mom were really sick just after born so they lived in our back yard and I fed her for a while every 4 hours until Macey could take over again.

Then on the left...Gabby.... she is my high fever baby. For about 4 weeks she lived in the back yard with her Mom. Fans on her 24/7 - ice baths 3-4 times a day. Got use to having her temp taken 4-6 times a day. And no she doesn't say ahhh and stick out her tongue. Yes... she got very use to me working with her. In fact Gabby has the proud title of "The Donkey that actually came in the house". Family always said one day I would bring one inside... I said no... but her temp got so high one day that we had to bring her in the air conditioning. She lived a whole day in my bathroom, air cranked down and fans on her. So these three...they think they should have invitations in the house for sure.  But sorry girls, this isn't my house and I think you muddy hooves would not be good on their nice pretty rugs. LOL

We love these girls all 23 of them... and then there are three other girls in other pens... and then there are 14 boys we adore.  A few babies coming next year... and we won't even go into counting goats... chickens... dogs.... cats..... no wonder the feed store loves us so much!

Hope you have a wonderful day planned - a blessed day -
HUGS and

Whimsy Inspiration - Cooking is Fun!

Howdy -

Rainy few days here - and it was fabulous! Laundry all done - house semi clean - And I crafted to the sound of rain on the metal roof of my craft room.

This week for my Whimsy Stamps Inspiration card I decided to have some fun with the image from LiaStampz - "Cooking fun" I just love those chickens!  They are just not happy she is cracking their kids there!

To funny - I colored with my Copics (colors below) and then remembered some papers I had from Farm House called Country Kitchen.  Those vintage cooking and food ads were too fun with the image I thought. Was also in a doodle mood. Remember when every card had doodling on it. I sometimes miss doodling...

Inside is more papers from the same collection

And here are the Copic Colors used - oh and that white gel pen ;0)

I really do like to cook. Despite some people around here thinking I don't. But it just seems that with us always on the run and only two of us.. that eating out is what we do a lot of. This week I have done more cooking at home. The kitchen has been more of a kitchen instead a antique workshop. Been nice.

What do you like to cook? Most of the time it is fast here no planning ahead - Need more things like that in my cabinet. Recently got hooked on Trader Joes Grocery store - never been before there is only one in town. But went in a couple of months ago just to see what it was like and love it. Their prepared foods are great to have in the freezer. I just have to chant to keep myself away from all the cookies and candy... so hard. LOL

Hope you have a wonderful day -
HUGS and

High Hopes - Give Thanks

Howdy -

Well I don't think I followed the rules very well for this week's High Hopes challenge. I missed the "Give Thanks" and just saw fall somehow. So my card I guess will have to have a hand written Thank you inside ... Cuz it is a "Happy Fall Y'all!" card - oops.

The adorable image is "Wagon Full of Blessings" just love how sweet it is... big brother pulling his little sister and their pumkin. I colored with my Copics (colors below) and then used Papers from Graphic 45. Love the deep dark orange color - I then stamped out the sentiment "Happy Fall Y'all!" Love the Y'all... :0)  I added a green gingham ribbon, some very old Prima flowers, punched leaves and branches. Then I found a button for the center of the card and an pumpkin button for the corner. Way Way old in my stash... LOL

Inside was scraps from the front -

Copic Colors used -

Fun challenge with the Fall colors and don't forget the thanks... Join us at the High Hopes Blog and win more High Hopes!!

Have a wonderful blessed Tuesday - HUGS and-

Animal Crackers - A Little Privacy Please

Howdy -

Snapped a photo of one of the Reds in the nesting box yesterday morning... she wasn't happy about it. They like it quite, dark and calm for their egg laying process. I opened the coop door to check to see if there were any eggs yet and found her telling me to get out and close the door! A Little Privacy Please!

So I disturbed her... then later in the day I was working with a few photos for our eBay and Ruby Lane stores..... Gato decided a little pay back and would not let me work with out jumping in the middle of the photos -

Came home the other evening, the sun was starting to go down, and we found the three stooges shoved back into the trees and weeds on our dirt road. Valentine was laying down, Cocoa and Teddy were sleeping standing up - by the time we got the camera out to snap, Ted decided to start walking to us to see if we had gotten him anything good to eat while we were gone. Sorry Ted no food for you this time. We didn't even have a peppermint in the truck... felt bad. :0( 

Not like he needed it though - 

Chica is a sweet little girl, but no lady when outside playing. She is a mess....

Runs, barks at everything, rolls in "things", digs in the dirt, eats things she shouldn't... She just loves it outside - LOL

We went to visit a client earlier this week to look at some antiques to buy for upcoming shows... I spent almost as much time in her back yard playing with her peacocks! Yes Peacocks!! They were so beautiful, and tame!

But as beautiful as the ladies were... their BABIES were just adorable!! AND TAME!

They stayed close to Mom, and when she made a noise that meant to far get back, but they would come right up to us! They even pecked on the bling on my flip flops... LOL

So So So cute! They don't actually belong to this lady, she says they just live in their neighborhood. Roam around and stay where they feel the safest. Well her yard must be safe... well that and the food she leaves out for them. She said some nights there are up to 28 full grown peacocks there!!! And a bunch have babies right now... I want a peacock!!!

I wanted to take this little one, but I figured Mom wouldn't be happy with me...

Super friendly... may  have to look into getting one some day.... wonder what the Guineas would think? LOL

Have a super blessed weekend - we are suppose to get more rain - so today will be getting a little outside work done so we will be ready for the glorious rain!

HUGS and -

High Hopes Challenge - Make a Box!

Howdy -

This week the High Hopes Challenge is all Boxed up! Meaning we would like to see a box - I am still not totally 100% from the long week last week and just couldn't get my creative juices going well... so I relied on my Silhouette for being creative. I had a box already downloaded into my library - a Hexagon box, that I thought would look cute with Candy Cane Penguin on top -

He is a very cute penguin isn't he? I colored him with my Copics - so sleepy I forgot to snap the photo of them sorry. I cut him out and then pop dotted him onto the top of the box. I added some large adhesive pearls on the corners. And then added some stickles on his scarf and hat.

Here is the side of the box - I used the High Hopes "Seasons Greetings" Sentiment around each side.

Turned out pretty cute and will make a nice small box for a Christmas Gift this year... wonder what I will put in it and to who it will go... hmmmmmm  :0)

Make sure to visit the High Hopes Blog and see all the boxes from the DT and then join us! You could add to your High Hopes stamp collection just for playing!!

Have a blessed wonderful day - The order of the week around here is mowing... all that rain last week and then the sun ... wow you can see the grass growing out there! LOL Then catch up on the house so I can have some crafty time tonight. Getting a little inspiration for a few things.... how about you? You working on anything new??

HUGS and-

Animal Crackers - Its Dark Here!

Howdy -

Well this past week we were doing an Antique Show... we left before the sun came up and came home after the sun was down... I haven't seen my fur babies without a flash light all week!! Just kills me, and I think they are missing us as much as we are missing them. Will be spending some quality time later this weekend for sure!

I was planning ahead and thought I would have lots of photos that I took last weekend for you - I am just so organized and prepared you know... I took almost 60 photos Sunday afternoon.... NOT ONE came out!!!! There is something seriously wrong with my camera and I am very upset about it. I haven't had a moment to figure it out this week - but I plan on working on it ASAP as I can't not have a camera around here can I?

So this week is thin - I have a couple from my phone, one from last week, and then one from the show that I took of part of our booth.....

Here is what has been referred to as the "girls" side of our booth.

LOL yes they actually do say our booth looks like 1/2 is "girlie" and then the other 1/2 is for "big boys" you know .... military, duck decoys, manly looking items. I say one side is toys for little kids and the other is toys for big kids... girls can hunt and do military things too? LOL  Was a good show - tired, but happy to move on to the next now. Glad I took this photo before the show started... it was different at the end of the show :0) -

Here is a photo I don't think I showed last week - I love that I didn't get her all in the frame when I snapped quickly - kind of artsy...

Sweet Mary - She has gotten all grown up - And I do believe she is going to have her grandma's "pop" eyes.... sigh... LOL

Found this one on my phone from last week -

 Alice and her big ice blue eyes... Hubby and I have been talking and this next week we are going to start putting some of the girls in with Frank and Peso.... So start the count down!!! just over 5 months we should have bouncing kids!!! YEA!!! Alice will be a first time Mom - can't wait to see what her and Franks babies look like!!!

I snapped this one with my phone as well... I loved the coloring.

Isn't the best photo - little blurry... but the sun was setting behind me, and Fraidy Cat and Big Moe were out enjoying the nice evening, and watching the gorgeous orange sunset...  Nice life huh? Lounging watching life is the big activity of the day - nice...

One more photo...

Hubby brought this in too me this week - He checked on the garden in the dark after we got home... was very proud that he brought this in to me...

First strawberry from this crop. I have pouted and made fun of him because of the last crop - You see we got LOTS of yummy strawberries... but I say "We" loosely.... I only got maybe 3 or 4 of them. So he was very generous and brought in this gorgeous 1st strawberry for me to have... I was so proud that I really hated to eat it, but it looked so yummy.. so I snapped a photo of it, then washed it and took a big bite... OMG... It was so BITTER it gave me the shivers!!! LOL It was just a day or too early I think.... LOL Hubby said he would test the next ones that are ready before he brings them in to me. Great... now I may never get more... LOL  He says I need to be in the garden when he picks them. LOL Guess so huh?

Hope you have a great Saturday and a wonderful weekend -
HUGS and-