Popping in

RIP Elvira

Would you believe I haven't put ink to paper since my last post?  I've been learning the ins and outs of Photoshop Elements 10 and I am really loving it, especially the Organizer. Speaking of organizing, I have organized my craft area again! I think I have finally gotten it to where I want it. Just a few final touches and I should be ready to post photos.

It hasn't been all fun and games unfortunately. Elvira, my Black Australorp hen, began laying her eggs internally, developed peritonitis and had to be put down. Didn't find a vet who treated chickens so had to do the deed myself. Not fun but I couldn't let her suffer. I ended up buying 2 baby chicks to cheer everyone up. OK, to cheer me up but I think Hazel and Penny are a little happier too. This is my first time raising chicks and I can tell you that I will never buy another chicken already raised. It is such a joy to watch them grow and develop.

Here is Wanda and Dotty at 4 1/2 weeks old. This is an awkward stage with their sleek grown up feathers coming in but their fluffy baby feathers still on. They are most likely Easter Eggers and should lay either blue or green eggs. When I bought them I didn't really care what breed I was getting. I picked the two who were the most people friendly. Wanda is darker in color and has the dramatic eyeliner.  Dotty is lighter in color and doesn't have any markings on her face but is more friendly.

Wanda

Dotty

They will need to be kept apart from Hazel and Penny until they are about 5 months old but I have them in a very large dog cage out in the chicken yard on warm days so they can all get used to each other. 

Hopefully I will get time to stamp in the near future but in the meantime I am having a blast learning new things and raising my chicks.


Til next time...

Family Craziness

Sorry I haven't posted anything in a week. A friend has been out of town and we have had to care for her dogs. Then we had to rush our daughter-in-law to the hospital with appendicitis. On top of that, while I was waiting at the hospital on Saturday for my daughter-in-law to be discharged, my wonderful husband ran down to Petsmart for dogfood.  CAWS happened to be there with rescued dogs for adoption and "The Dogfather" found one he just couldn't walk away from. He had been abused so he's a bit skittish but he follows me everywhere. We took him to the vet yesterday for a complete checkup, shots, medicine for his eye and dewormer for his tapeworms.  Other than the irritated eye and the tapeworm, he is in excellent shape.  Once he learns to negotiate the staircase to my craft room, I'll be working on a few techniques I have wanted to try.

So here is MacTavish Muck-

New Kitties

I've been up since 6 AM so why am I just now posting to this blog? Well, actually, between cleaning up after the dogs, weeding and watering, feeding the birds and doing litter boxes, I haven't had breakfast and it is now 1:30 in the afternoon. And I had a bazillion other things to do which have all been checked off my To-Do List. Now I get to blog then do some scrapbooking. I may even get in a little reading before it is time to begin cooking dinner. Yay!!!

Anyway, back in February, our dog Toby was bitten by a very nasty spider which infected a joint in his leg. We ended up having to have the leg opened and drained so we were at the vets every few days for a month. During one of our visits, the Utah Animal Adoption Center brought in a van full of animals to be checked and fixed. The Vet Techs were swamped so I lent a hand by helping with the intake exams, weights and forms. One pet carrier contained two 6 month old kittens who happened to be littermates. They were so sweet and had been rescued just moments before they were to be euthanized. My heart melted and I just had to have them so I adopted them.

I won't go into too much detail but the first 2 months were a real trial. They had been exposed to a really bad respiratory thing but didn't show symptoms until after they were introduced to Bailey & Thaddeus so I nursed 4 very sick cats for several weeks. They had spent their entire lives in a cage so they were terrified of being on the loose, couldn't climb or jump, could not negotiate stairs and they had never been nose to nose with a dog let alone two of them. I handled it all, the eye and nose wiping, the pilling, the force feeding and the refereeing and I did it all with only one hand. What some of us will do for our animals!

Everyone is now happy, healthy and well adjusted and I can't imagine a life without them. So without further adieu, here are the girls.

This is Snowflake, who is super tiny even now at 11 months old. And she has a gray letter "K" on her head! She was meant for me even if she does think she's a princess.This is Maddie who now weighs nearly as much as the boys do. Obviously her favorite pasttime is eating and then beating up her toy mice when she isn't trying to beat up all the boys.
I put a bird feeder right outside of this kitchen window so here is the whole gang watching The Kitty Food Network. From left to right is Snowflake, Thaddeus Kosiuszko, Maddie and Bailey.

Til next time...

Curious Cat and a Major Booboo

Last week I got out my Parchment Craft tools and proceeded to make my wonderful husband a new bookmark to replace the one he lost. I decided to make one with his Zodiac sign, Libra, and his initials. Oh how beautiful it came out but I decided to back it with some cardstock which is usually no problem. There is a spray adhesive specifically for vellum and it works like a charm. Hmmm... let me rephrase that. It works like a charm if you do not get sidetracked and use the wrong can!!! Yep, you guessed it. I grabbed the wrong can and used regular spray adhesive which can be spotted by a blind mouse from 30 yards away.

Oh well, stuff happens so I went ahead and set up to photograph it. I guess Bailey must have smelled those blind mice because he came along and crashed (literally) my little photo session.So now I am making a "New" new bookmark to replace this mess and will limit my photo sessions to afternoon naptime. Live and learn.


Till next time...

AWOL from Extreme Conditions

Sorry to be gone so long but things just got in the way again. Last week I was given a cortisone shot in my hand. NOT a pleasant experience in the least and I honestly can't remember the rest of the week after that! LOL And the shot didn't do much good either. Bummer!!

Saturday I went to a friends Open House/Stamp Sale and I was her best customer (no surprise there). She was getting rid of last years SU In Colors which I hadn't bought so I got everything - pads, reinkers, 2 packs of Pink Pirouette cardstock - for a great price along with a Hostess set that I somehow missed, a few brass embossing templates and other miscellaneous stamp sets. A great haul!! Sunday we went down to Riverton for a wonderful visit with some friends. It has been so long since our last visit that I almost forgot just how much I love being with this couple.

Monday I had a visit from a delightful woman who needed some instruction on Parchment Craft Techniques. Somehow she found me through the Internet and gave me a call. It looks like I will be picking up my needles and embossers again. In fact, that is what I've been doing off and on for the last 2 days - making my husband a new parchment bookmark to replace the old one that he thinks he left in a library book. Throw in a visit to the dentist, gardening, canning bushels of string beans, reading a darn good book and all the other assorted things I do around here and there is my week so far.

And while doing all of the above, I have to contend with this obstacle. Now just how am I supposed to get anything accomplished while working under these extreme conditions??? If I can work around this beast I will be posting my Technique Junkies One for One Swap for July, the Parchment Bookmark once it's done and hopefully getting around to this weeks Sketch Challenges.

Til next time...

Trying Again

It has been a year since I have posted anything which is totally ridiculous. Why have a Blog Account if you're not going to use it? Well I am determined to change that. My bestest buddy and A#1 Stampin Up Demonstrator bought me a Technique Junkies Newsletter Subscription and CD #6 for Christmas. That alone should give me plenty of reasons to blog. I have done so many projects through the years but haven't shared them but this year will be different... I hope.

And now to start off ...

3 years ago, this Valentines Day, we adopted a kitten, Bailey and a puppy, Seamus. This is what they looked like back then. Aren't they a hoot?

Now here they are all grown up. Bailey is keeping my purse warm and Seamus is Gopher Hunting.