Joan's Butterfly

Locally, we have the most amazing tomato grower, her name is Joan. Yesterday, Joan brought me 10# of her yummy tomatoes and it the box was this little beauty. As soon as I saw it I knew I needed to take a picture and share with you. Does it look like a butterfly to you? My dear hubby just couldn't see it!

My garden (lol) has produced 5 cherry tomatoes and 1 pear tomato. Thank goodness I have Joan! My salads would be naked without her.

Another "sweet" post up next :)

hugs,

Snack Time

I thought I would share a picture of the little fella who was snacking in my front yard. I know he was headed for my flower bed. After snapping a few pictures of him, he decided to leave. I am sure he will be back!

Stay tuned, I have a card to upload next!

Hugs,

I thought it was Spring?

I guess someone forgot to tell Mother Nature that the first day of Spring was Friday and it wasn't supposed to snow! Saturday night we had lots of rain, thunder and lightning and when I woke up on Sunday everything was white outside. It snowed off and on all day long. We ended up with about 4 inches of the white stuff. My poor daffodils are in shock!

The card I am sharing today was created with some random bits that were left after I made this card. The snowflakes are covered with glass glitter and are so purtiful in person. The saying is from Verve's Beautiful You set. I just love the stamps in this set!!!!

I have a few more cards that I have made and I will get them photograped and uploaded in the next few days.

hugs,

More snow!

Well, they said it was a comin'. It started to snow here about 7:00 this morning and didn't stop until early afternoon. Here is a new picture showing about 8 - 10" in the driveway. I don't think they ever came and plowed our neighborhood. David was stuck in Coarsegold for a few hours because Deadwood grade was closed and he couldn't get home. I called the school and had Jon come home early as I didn't want him stranded either. So here we are holed up for now. A good night for chili and cornbread. Yum!

hugs,

Snowflakes make me smile!

The top two pics were taken this morning just after the sun came up. We have had snow off and on since Monday. We are expecting some more snow through the weekend.

I had created the snowflake background that I used above quite some time ago and when I saw the snow this morning, I couldn't wait to pull it out and use it. All of the cardstocks used were from my stash. The snowflakes are from my Cuttlebug Snowflake die and a Martha Stewart punch. The small snowflakes are covered with Art Institute Glass Glitter. The stamped snowflakes are from a clear set by Gelatins. The sentiment panel was cut out with my nesties. The phrase is from Inky Antics.

Have a great day,

Snow Day!

Well, today sure did start out interesting! Last night it started snowing and when we got up this morning everything was so pretty and white outside. Our driveway is pretty steep and curvy and David couldn't get his truck up the driveway (company truck isn't 4WD), so he was pretty much homebound for the day. The power had gone out sometime in the night and well, when you live in the country there are some major pitfalls about not having power. No power, no water. No water, no nothin'. So, I put on my big girl britches, packed a bag with my make up and hair products and headed out to work. David called about 4:30 to let me know the power was back on. Dang, I thought I might get out of cooking dinner.

More snow is expected during the week. I hope I get a chance to take some pictures!

I am off to work on the Mojo Monday sketch.

hugs,

Skunk De-Stinky

What do you get when you cross a terrier and a skunk? Yep, you get a stinky dog, and because it was a warm night, we also got a stinky house! My MIL is the queen of all recipes and here is her recipe for Skunk De-Stinky:

1/4 cup Peroxide

1/4 cup Baking Soda

1 Tablespoon Liquid Detergent

I hope you have a great day and remember to hug your stinky dogs!

You know it's hot in California when......

my Momma deer is standing in her water! I took this picture about 10:00 this morning. It will be good when this heat wave passes us by!

Amazing Sunset

I almost always have my camera with me in the car and I was sure glad I had it with me the other night when I was on my way home from work. As I turned onto the road to our house on Monday night, I looked through the trees and this is what I saw. I backed up the car, put the window down and snapped the view. If I didn't know better, I would have thought I was looking at a forest fire. (not something I want to see).

Only one more day and then Robin and I will be heading to Anaheim to attend the CHA show. Sharon and Al will meet us there on Sunday. I can't wait for a few days away. Robin and I have a few classes scheduled and we are going to check out the Copic Marker workshop on Saturday afternoon and we are going to an SEI preview Saturday evening. We are hoping to do some make/takes on Sunday and then will meet up with Sharon and Al and hit the show floor running! Comfy shoes are a must!

I am taking my computer and hope to share pictures along the way. Which booth should we check out first?

Sharing a couple of older cards

Okay, so they are not ancient or anything but I did make them awhile back. The first one fits a #10 (letter size) envelope. The base card is black linen and then I layered with yellow dot cardstock from My Minds Eye (I think). The black print cardstocks are from Treehouse Memories. The bees are of course from Stampendous (aren't they cute?). I used a black glaze pen to give the bee's bodies a little shine. A little glitter glue on the wings, some ribbon and a tiny Jolee's flower and it was done.

This one I did awhile back for a three by three challenge we had at the store. You were to use 3 print papers/cardstocks from 3 different companies. My base card is Bazzill cardstock. The large blue/green floral print is from K & Co. , the smaller floral print is from SEI and the green mottled print is from My Minds Eye. The ribbon was from my friend Debbie and the green clipiola was in my stash. The "happy birthday" stamp is from Hero Arts.

On the homefront, We went to the "Christmas" party tonight for one of my jobs. It was a nice dinner complete with gifts for all. You see, one of my jobs is at our local department store so until the holidays pass and inventory is done, no partying for us! While we were at the party, it started snowing again. The satellite dish is covered, so no TV tonight. Thank goodness for my computer. I hope we don't loose power! TTFN!

A little snow

Here are a few pictures of the pretty snow we got on Thursday. It is still all around and on the ground, but the driveway is clear now and so much easier to get up. Eventhough I have 4WD in my Yukon, I have only had 4WD 101 according to my son. He says "basically, Mom you know how to push the button to make it go into 4WD." Man talk about gettin' shut down by a 16 year old! Oh well, on with the show.

This pic was taken w/o the flash and I liked it much better than the "flash" pic. It was taken a little before sun up. The only light was from the flood light on the corner of the house. Thankfully, we never lost power!

This pic is of

some of the trees in the front of the house. Jon says that this tree reminds him of Mt. Crumpet from "The Grinch Who Stole Christmas"

The picture on the left was taken from the same point I took the pic of the limb in the power lines. The power lines are to the left and this is to the right, looking toward the backyard.

I hope you have enjoyed a little of my world. I have some card pics to upload a little later. My dear son Jon is helping me to learn the settings on my camera so I can't wait to play with it.

Blossom Eaters!

Although we have lived in the mountains for many years and it isn't unusual to see deer near the yard feasting on grass and limbs of nearby trees. That was before we moved last year. You see, we don't have a fence now and this beautiful doe and her babies (two of the cutest spotted fawns I have ever seen) have been dining in my garden. I have a pretty pink geranium that I have been nurturing and then I bought a couple of beautiful mums and placed them near the front walkway only to discover that they were going to be the next appetizer for my deer. Here are a couple of before and after pics.

My friend Anne told me to put new Bounce drying sheets in my plants because the deer don't like the smell. So far, so good. Now, if only it would work for the bears!

On a good note, the mum on the top still hasn't been eaten and the mum on the bottom is starting to bloom again.

Remember in Bambi when Thumper tells Bambi that "Momma says to eat the greens, but I like the blossoms!"

Nature Night

Woo Hoo! E-ticket ride last night. I went to pick Jon up from work last night and when I was driving up the driveway I saw a white plastic bag in a bush and the first thing I thought of was the bear had been back. Then it dawned on me, there wasn't a bush between those trees. I backed up and shined my car lights and there was the Black bear holding my trash bag. He looked like a kid with his cold lunch at school. :) I never thought I would see "The Bear" in person. I drove to the top of the driveway, turned the car around and honked the horn a couple of times. The bear turned and started to walk away. I called my house to tell my hubby that the back door was unlocked, the bear was outside and that I wanted him gone before I got back. DH had gone to bed at 8:00 and it was now 9:40. No luck. I couldn't wake him up so to Miller's I went.

On the way, I saw about 3 bats. Not too unusual, but they usually don't swoop down in front of the car. After Jon got off work, we saw a little spotted fawn going down to the lake for a drink. I sure hope his Mom was with him! A little further up the road was something with a black head and glistening eyes in the foliage on the side of the road. Maybe a cat, possibly a raccoon.

We turned off of the highway and were about 1/8th mile from the house and what crosses the road in front of us. THAT DARNED BEAR!. It was now 10:40pm and he crossed in front of us and stopped and looked at us like we were nuts for being out that late. Oh the joys of living in the mountains!

ETA: It was the bear I wanted gone before I got back, not DH.........he can stay. :)

The Bear

We moved to this house in August of last year and a couple of months ago we came home in the middle of the afternoon to find that a bear had been in our trash, having the proverbial feast. We called the Fish & Game and were told to put Pine Sol and ammonia all around the can because it would mask the smell of the garbage and would help to keep the bears away. Here are a couple of pictures that we took. The first one is the trash lid after we pulled it out of the bin. We are guessing that he sat on this side and went on his treasure hunt from the other side. The next pic is of the paw print on the front of the can. It was about 6" x 7 1/2". There have been a couple of visits since then, but nothing like this. That was until last night, The Night of Nature! More about that in my next post.