Sunday, June 27, 2010

What I did this weekend:

Doug and I escaped the heat in the valley this weekend and headed for our property in Young, Arizona. I thought I'd share a few of the pictures I took, and show you how we roll on an Arizona weekend.
As soon as we get to camp, Old Glory flies high.
In our little building where we store our supplies {and also where we sleep} we have this little mirror that I painted a few years ago. Pretty silly, but I thought I'd share it here. I used a gel pen to write "Happy Camper" on it. {Funny - I think this is the ONLY thing I ever used those pens for!} Anyway, every time I use it to fix my hair it makes me smile because, well, every time I'm there I'm HAPPY!

I made some yummy sun tea and brewed it in the middle of the wild flowers currently in bloom. Pretty little purple flowers everywhere this time! By the next time we visit these will most likely be gone and replaced by the next round of flowers.
We took our quad out for a ride and along the way we saw wild life! This time a 4 foot long king snake. He wasn't poisonous, so I wasn't afraid. {I did shoot a brief video of this bad boy crawling away, but in the interest of not creeping my blog readers out, I decided to share only a still shot. You're welcome.}

We had a picnic lunch by "The Boulders." This place is about 5 miles from our property and set in some beautiful tall pine trees. There are these huge round boulders in the middle, just random big rocks that don't match any other rocks in the area. You can see them in the background in the photo below...
{clink} "To us!"

We took a delicious nap. The wind was blowing through the trees and the weather was SO beautiful!!!
Then we took a walk. I spotted this tarantula web in a tree stump:

This morning after breakfast we took a little hike downhill on our property. We are working on creating a hiking trail that goes across the top of our property, down along the fence line, back across the bottom and up the other side. You can see the path going between the trees below...starting to take shape...
And we made this trail head marker at the start:

We packed up and left our sanctuary around noon, and as we were driving out I snapped this photo of our fence along the front property line. Doug and his brothers have been working on cutting sticks and wiring them in for a while, and the fence is now complete all the way around our 5 acres. I love it!
Since one side of our property backs up to forest preserve, there are cattle that graze there. They wander all over the place, including up onto our property. We wouldn't really mind, but they really leave some big messes behind. This fence should keep them out...time will tell...
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Driving home, exhausted and a little sun-burnt, I still had Doug stop the truck so I could take a picture of this cholla cactus in bloom. I was wearing flip-flops and couldn't hike in to get a better shot (you need protective footwear when walking in the desert!) so this is as good as my zoom lens would get. It was so pretty!

So there's my weekend re-cap. The upcoming week will be a busy one for me and it includes several craft projects (hooray - I'll have crafts to share on my blog!!!). I have two birthday gifts to put together, a 4th of July banner to make, and ice cream sandwiches to make with a red, white, and blue theme.

How was your weekend?
xo

Thursday, June 24, 2010

Sometimes it's the little things.

It's easy for the children in my life to remember that I like turtles.

This morning my boss's 6-year old daughter {Molly} was in our office for a few minutes and she pulled this little goody out of her backpack and announced, "It's a turtle."
Me: "Oooh! It's SOOOO cute!!! Can I have it?"
Molly [smiling broadly]: "Yes. It's for you."
Me: "Thank you, Molly! I LOVE it!!!"
Molly [quite satisfied]: "You're welcome."

This little token of affection really made my day.
What little things are you thankful for today?

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Oh, the highs and the lows...

Carrie spotted this little shadow box frame yesterday at our local thrift store. I carried it around for a while and ended up putting it back on the shelf, only to think about it for the rest of the day and regret that I hadn't picked it up.


So this morning I rushed back to Goodwill
and started looking for it.


Low: Couldn't find it any where. :o(

High: Found it!!! It had been moved.

Low: Sweet young cashier asks, "Are you a senior?" Eh-hm... Me: "Nnnnooooo?"

High: Walking out of the store a good looking young guy asks, "How you doin'?"
~sigh~
(Later found out from Carrie that today is senior discount day and she thinks I should have said 'yes' but I'm not ready for a senior discount, thankyouverymuch!!!)

So, what to do with this cute little shadow box? I was thinking about decorating it, scrapbook style with small pictures and bits of coordinating paper. Now that I am looking at that wonderful red velvet, I may do a Christmas theme... Something to think about.

Sunday, June 20, 2010

Counting critters {and a day-trip re-cap}

{Yes, Mother, that is my hand holding a horned toad.}
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My husband {Doug} and I take a lot of weekend road trips. Sometimes these trips include camping for the weekend, and other times we'll take a little day trip. We always look for wildlife along the way, and our drive back home always includes a re-cap of the animals we spotted on that trip. Our typical list usually includes a cottontail or jack-rabbit, lizards, a ground squirrel, tarantulas, and on occasion deer, elk or javelina. One time we actually saw a brown bear in the road! Now mind you, it's mostly common for us to maybe see ONE animal in an entire weekend...if we're lucky.
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Last Sunday we packed a picnic lunch and headed to Mt. Ord (it's the mountain in the above photo with the radio towers on top...back right portion of the photo) - a 1-hour and 15-minute drive from our home. During our 5-hour trek away from home, we actually saw three different types of animals! And even better, I got pictures of each of them.

These two white-tail deer were on the side of the road and I actually spotted them before Doug did (not that there's a competition thing going on here, but he just has a keen eye for spotting animals and I rarely get to see them first)! The really cool thing is that we stopped the truck and I took several pictures before these two beauties sauntered off into the woods.
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We parked the truck and decided to hike for a while and on our trail Doug spotted this horned toad along the way. Tricky to spot (I told you he has a keen eye!) but fairly easy to capture and photograph - as evidenced by the first photo of this post. (Can you spot the toad in the photo above?)

And! We spotted two bright yellow birds (I thought they were wild parakeets but Doug disagreed) that had the sweetest song and fluttered around in the trees while we ate lunch.


It was such a beautiful day, and a really fun trip! I'm thinking of making a "Critter Journal" for us to keep to document all the wild animals we see along the way...
Yes. I'll add that to my list...

We love living in Arizona.

Thursday, June 17, 2010

The end {and beginning} of a new era.

Ok. So maybe my post title is a bit dramatic,
but I'm feeling sentimental today.


Over the past couple of months during Carrie's house transition, we've had a small table set up in my craft room for her so she'd have her own work space. And while she's been here, we've crafted together only a few times...not enough! {insert mommy-pout here}

I took this photo of a craft project we started the other night...and like a lot of the projects we start with good intentions, this one remains to be completed.

Carrie signed the papers for her new home yesterday.
She'll get her keys tomorrow.
We'll move her this weekend.

I'm going to save these unfinished bird houses and spring them on her in a couple of months when I'm desperate for craft time with her. One of those "we really need to finish these!!!" type of deals. Only next time, we'll be crafting in her house!

Hey. I wonder if I'll have my own little
craft table over at Carrie's house...

Monday, June 14, 2010

Quite possibly the most fun project ever.


My sister's birthday was this past weekend, and to celebrate the occasion I made a mini-beach-book for her using the photos she took of her kids in Hawaii. You'll recognize some of the pictures from the beach book I made for my nephew last month. There were so many other CUTE photos and I was dying to use some of the canvas and painting techniques I learned recently. So I decided to throw in another beach-themed book before I put my supplies away and move on to my next project.
I cut several pieces of canvas fabric (4" x 11") and gave each of them a coat of gesso. (You can see the beginning stages here.) Then I used acrylic paint on top of that to add background color.

When the pages were dry I sewed pictures onto some of them, and then sewed the canvas pieces back-to-back (my sewing machine really needs to be serviced now!!!).

Then I embellished.

The "sand" on these pages was done by using acrylic paint mixed with some gel medium, then I sprinkled some distressed embossing powder on top while the paint was still wet.

LOVE this picture of Presley on the bow of the boat!

And Stone, dripping wet, holding his daddy's arm.

Prima flowers with rhinestone centers.

Buttons. Of course.

{favorite color combo here!}
And as Presley says, "Here's the part
where Aunt Deb says she loves you."
This project was SOOOOO much fun!!! I already have plans for a camping themed canvas book to give as a Christmas gift.

And by the way, my sister loved her gift. :o)!!!
xo

Saturday, June 12, 2010

Oh, Saturday, here you are...

Good day, friends. I hope this finds each of you enjoying your Saturday.
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I had a post ready to publish this morning but had to hold off. You see, it was all about showing you the gift I made for my sister's birthday (Happy Birthday today, V!!!) but she hasn't actually received it yet, so I didn't feel right posting pictures here before she has a chance to see it. (She and her hubby left for a weekend getaway yesterday before her mailman arrived, against my wishes to wait until the mail arrived!!!)
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On my plate for this weekend:
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* Going to the bank this morning to figure out what kind of copy of my account statement Carrie's home lender needs from my account even though I'm not co-signing on her loan. ugh! She put an offer on a townhome on April 23rd and was told it would close by the end of May. Then by June 11 (yes, we were supposed to move her yesterday). Now, it looks like it will be sometime next week. Poor thing. All she wants to do is move in and get settled. She has spent the past two months sleeping on the couch in our front room, living out of a plastic closet, and all of her personal belongings boxed up in our garage. The banks are so overly cautious because of all the home foreclosures over the past few years, and there is SOOOOOO much red tape to cut through before the deal closes. She's stressed and I want to fix it for her but I can't. :o(
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* Resting my shoulder in hopes that the pain will subside. Yes, four weeks of stabbing pain and restless nights that even my boss (a chiropractor) can't seem to fix. I'm probably going to have to go to the doctor this week (which I HATE doing).
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* Tidying up my craft space. If I can't craft (because of my stupid shoulder) I might as well get organized.
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* Feeling sentimental about Carrie moving into her very own home...really leaving the nest for good.
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* Deep breathing and trying to be light hearted in the midst of everything...

Carrie: "What's wrong, Mom-friend?"
Me: "I don't know...I've been in kind of a funk lately..."
Carrie [rolling her eyes]: "Dude. You do this every time I move out."
Me: "Well, quit moving out!"

Friday, June 11, 2010

Just a quote for Friday

{me on the left, my sister Valerie on the right}


"To the outside world we all grow old. But not to brothers and sisters. We know each other as we always were. We know each other's hearts. We share private family jokes. We remember family feuds and secrets, family griefs and joys. We live outside the touch of time.

~ Clara Ortega ~


Happy birthday {tomorrow} to my sister, Valerie!
Love you, sis!
xo

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Who knew a hula hoop could be a work of art?

A friend of mine from work has a friend who makes hula-hoops. Yes, she {Renae} makes them! She uses some sort of tubing, connects it to make a hoop and wraps it with pretty tape. The result is an adult sized hoop with a little extra weight that actually makes it easier to keep up and spinning.
I've always loved hula-hooping, and when my friend {Samantha} brought some of Renae's hoops on a recent camping trip, I knew I needed to own one myself.
I suppose the act of hula-hooping is probably good exercise...

I just think it's fun and kind of magical...

And with pretty tape that sparkles? ~sigh~ It's "my thing" for sure.

PS: Notice I'm wearing the bracelets Ruth sent me? And my top is one that I bought from Donna Downey when I took her class. :o)

Monday, June 7, 2010

Thrift store makeover

I got this bird cage at a local thrift shop about a year ago and it's been sitting high on a shelf in my kitchen since then...waiting for something different to happen.

Carrie's new house {that she will be moving into this coming weekend!} will be done in teal blues with yellow accents. So for her birthday Doug and I re-vamped it for her. He used paint, I used buttons...


I hung a little bird in it for the photo, but will leave it up to Carrie for further embellishing.

I just love the bright yellow color!
And she likes it too.

:o)

Sunday, June 6, 2010

Birthday wishes for my only child...

Conversation a few days ago:
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Carrie: "I can't believe I'm going to be 22."
Me: "I know, right?"
Carrie: "Thanks for birthing me."
Me: "You're welcome. Thanks for growing up so good."
Carrie: "You're welcome."

{Carrie @ 2}

Happy 22nd birthday, Carebear!
I love you to the sky {and beyond}.

xoxox

Saturday, June 5, 2010

On my worktable...

This:
Plus this:

Equals this:

Ever have one of those projects that is so much fun you just can't walk away from it? That's where I am right now, and I almost finished it last night. I just can't show you the final deal until next week because it's a surprise for someone I know.
:o)!!!
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