New Card Techniques

I have recently seen several new techniques and products for making cards and have been so eager to try them out. Here are the ones I have managed to find time to make so far. The flower may not show the hint of gold dusting on the background. Or the glass beads for the flower center but it was certainly fun to make.

These two cards used a border punch in different ways. The shiny green paper below is actually wrapping paper from a dollar store. I got a variety of colors each with it's own 'pattern' so I look forward to having fun with those.

Remembering VJ Day

Today American Legions across our nation honored our WWII veterans on this anniversary of VJ Day. My daughter and I attended the one at the post where my son belongs to the Sons of the American Legion. It was a very nice ceremony and many people had displayed photos etc. of their family members. This is a photo I took of the display David brought:

Pictured from the top left corner going clockwise is my father-in-law, Galdo Pavini followed by his brother Bruno. They served in the Pacific Theatre and Bruno died on the Arizona. My father, Obed Cramer pictured in the bottom right corner served in the European Theatre as shown in the map from his combat diary.

New Bird

The dog started barking this evening while I was on the phone so I looked out and discovered this big fellow on the fence in my back yard. I am guessing it is a young Heron though I am not sure. He was looking my yard over closely but apparently found nothing tasty looking and soon flew off. He was a pleasant diversion. Perhaps he heard the local birds saying that I had finally refilled the bird feeder.

Sometimes he's so sweet looking

"If I am very still maybe she won't make me get down."

new fabric

This is the beautiful bug print fabric that we finally found. A couple of years ago bug prints were everywhere but when we went back for more they were all gone at store after store after store. Finally Hancocks had a few left. They make such cute lab coats for my daughter the science teacher/coach.

And before we left we noticed this lovely organza. If you click twice on the photo you may get a close up that shows how some of the flowers are three dimensional.

Not sure what it will be made into yet but it was a great deal

and too beautiful to pass up.

Ever wonder?

Ever wonder what the little critters do when it rains? Well this group of squirrels that hangs out in my yard were hugging the tree during this morning's shower.

Who knew this was a squirrel chair?

The second one also was just sure I couldn't see him. Either they are studying "The Techniques of Chameleon" or playing freeze tag,

because when I spotted the third one, he was hiding on the other side of the tree trunk and sneaking an occasional peek.

The poor little things are probably getting bored with this weather. This is the 11th straight day of rain. Some of it has been quite heavy. I am too. I think I will go bake some cookies and make some jewelry. There will be plenty of yard work to do when things dry out.

After the rain...

This past week we have had a lot of rain in the Houston area as a result of hurricane Alex. I know we were not in the path of the storm but it brought in all the moisture from the Caribbean and the Atlantic and the Gulf and due to a high pressure we have been experiencing what is called training. It's as though the thunder storms were a train and we are sitting on the track getting run over by one car after another!

Now mind you we needed a little rain and we are fairly used to the street flooding etc. In fact people were still getting out in it. Personally the only thing I rescheduled was taking the dog to the vet. No it isn't so much the rain as it is knowing what comes next.

Mosquitoes. And they aren't wasting any time.

Schatten Meets Robovac!

Today I tried out my RoboVac. Just 6 months after I received it for yes, that would be Christmas! One thing and another prevented the grand entrance. But today is the day. Schatten was not at all thrilled with the invasion. But good sport that he is, he did not bark too long. However when it found his little spot on the carpet where he likes to carry his food out and drop it to eat he did get a tad bit upset that it was stealing those leftovers! Serves him right for making such a mess.

After about 30 minutes with no strong evidence that it was making headway against his layer of dog hair I began to wonder if the dog would win the battle for the carpet. After all he can follow behind a broom in the kitchen dropping huge stringy black hair balls faster than you can sweep them up. About that time the poor disk abruptly stopped in the middle of the room, beeped once and defiantly pronounced that it needed it's brushes cleaned.

Seizing the opportunity I first emptied the dirt bin which had been overflowing gobs of black hair for some time. Then after cleaning out the brushes I righted the little guy and pushed his button. Off he motored good as new but it wasn't long before he maneuvered back to his dock where I once again emptied and cleaned his parts so he will be ready to try again tomorrow when he has a full charge.

The battle is ended and it would appear that the dog is the victor this day. However the war for dominion of my carpet will wage on and with perseverance and daily skirmishes it is possible that machinery will win over dog hair! One can only hope!

What are you looking at?

Sitting on the patio the other evening I could not figure out what my dog was doing. He kept looking up but not at the tree for possible squirrels or birds or cats. No he was obsessed with the umbrella I was sitting under. Now that can make you a little nervous wondering just what it is that he sees that you don't that is just over your head! But finally this bright fellow came out from behind one of the metal ribs and the mystery was solved!

(I am soooo very glad it wasn't a big bug!)

Zebra Cake

I generally, well almost always, make cakes from a mix but this recipe for Zebra cake enticed me to make one from scratch. Of course it had to be decorated in Red, White and Blue and I brought it to my son's BBQ.

It looked pretty plain until you cut it and then you can appreciate the stripes. This was particularly helpful since half like white and the rest like chocolate cake.

Here it is before I frosted it. Pretty cool. It makes a very dense, rich cake. We all decided some cinnamon flavor would be helpful. And all I could get was regular cocoa instead of the Dutch that it called for and I prefer. So that may have made a big difference. At any rate it was fun and different. And my son's burgers are a hard act to follow!