Multiplication

I told you on Monday about the hydrangea hitting me on the head and jumping in my cart, remember? Well get this. I planted the darn thing and hidden low on a branch was a pink tag that states the name, species and genius of the plant and a warning that said, "Asexual reproduction is prohibited by law". First of all, I know what reproduction is, it is the opposite of division, multiplication. I didn't realize a plant could add or subtract let alone multiple and divide and then the bells went off, oh, they mean "that"! How do I prevent such a blessed event? 

I am a law-abiding citizen in fact, to prevent any infraction of the law I keep every cushion in my home turned in such a way so the "do not remove"  tag is showing in case the mattress patrol knocks on the door to see if I've removed any labels. Must I stand guard over this plant? And what about nighttime when I am sleeping? What a dilemma!

Today's card is a flower that I can reproduce to my heart's content. 

Challenge #9

It is my turn to host Challenge #9 for our blog group. The challenge will run from today through July 4. The entries will be posted July 5 along with a poll to select the winner.


My challenge is to alter designer paper used to make the background. I am posting before and after cards to clarify my challenge.

The first card  is a brand new neighborhood not to far from where the gnomes live and everyone has just moved in. The second card is the same street many years later. The local municipality paved a road, erected streetlights and installed a fire hydrant. The residents planted trees, flowers and scrubs. It was a lovely neighborhood until it was decided to build an airport not too far away. 


At least the sun is still shining. 

Red, White and Blue

Tangled Up in Creativity has been issued a challenge to use red, white, and blue to make a card. I don't know about you but when I hear red, white, and blue I cannot help but think of our flag and what it stands for. As it would happen, yesterday I found myself in a store that sells rubber stamps and while I was walking to the check-out, a rubber stamped jumped out of the bind and hit me first on the head, and then on my shoulder before landing onto the floor. Since this stamp went to such lengths to find a home, I could not put it back and now it is proudly displayed on my red, white, and blue card. As a side note, the same thing happened to me when I walked past a hydrangea and a hollyhock. Today I am black and blue all over and thankful that I did not wander past any bricks. 

Cherry on Top

My mother was an excellent pie baker. Cherry pie was my favorite. Every 4th of July my mother and dad would find an orchard and pick enough sour cherries to last us through the winter months. My father was quite the kidder and he would tell us not to eat the pie because mom put soap powder in it anticipating that he would get an extra piece. But my brother and I ate it nevertheless. I was nearly an adult when I learned that soap was not an ingredient used to make a pie.

I can't give you a pie but I can give you a cherry on top!

Today

Today, I'll be thinking of you!

Challenge #8

Even though our blog group "Eyelets, Ribbons, Paper-Oh My" has merged with another group to form "Tangled Up In Creativity", we are still continuing with the original challenges. Challenge #8 is being hosted by Stamping Mommy - Up All Night Stamping. Her challenge was to create our own designer paper. I embossed various sizes of stars on red card stock to create this card. To see what others have created, please visit Stamping Mommy's blog. 

Happy 40th

Happy 40th Birthday Sam and many more fill with love, laughter and good health. 

One Get-Up

Just a pretty card for another hot and muggy day in Pennsylvania. I also want to remind my son so he doesn't forget, you have one more get-up and you will no longer be 39. 

Impossible Task

My daughter Alecia and her husband, Josh, are faced with deciding which of their possessions they will need in the next three years or what they can live without  and either ship them to Japan, place in storage or discard. They are only permitted to ship 8,000 pounds including clothing, dishes, pots, pans, personal items and furniture. To remind her that she can do it, I sent her this card. 

Love Bug

For whatever reason, my mother, whose name was Margaret, was never called Margaret. She had a variety of names, from Monnie to Peg and all the names in between and to add to my confusion my father called her "Honey". Fortunately, I grew up in a generation that did not call adults by their first name so I was always safe introducing her as "Mrs.".  After I became an adult I would often asked her what she preferred to be introduced as and she replied each time with an "I don't know" so she continued as "Mrs."  And then came Sam. Each time she saw Sam she would say, "You're my little love bug". When Sam started talking, he called her Love Bug and until the day she died, everyone called her that. She loved being called Love Bug and started sporting assorted items of clothing with "Love Bug" written on them.  So, when I saw this stamp it was a natural impulse to think of my mom and buy it for her. 

Happy Father's Day

On the third Sunday of June each year we set aside the day to honor fathers. Did you know that today marks the centennial of Father's Day? After being inspired by a Mother's Day sermon in 1909, Sonora Smart-Dodd, one of six children who was raised by her father after her mother died during childbirth, wanted a day to pay tribute to him.  Mrs. Dodd encouraged local churches to participate in the first Father's Day observance the following year. From 1916 until 1966 attempts to make the day recognized failed. In 1966 President Lyndon Johnson issued the first presidential proclamation making the day official, but, it did not become a permanentt national holiday until 1972 by President Richard Nixon. 

To fathers everywhere, enjoy your day. 

Mixed Feelings

I think I need to send myself a sympathy card. Although I cannot be positive, I believe our friend, Gert the Groundhog, met its demise on a road a short distance from our home. I have mixed feelings about Gert not being around anymore. I won't have to worry about an actual confrontation with my K-9 girls or holes dug under and around the front porch, but I think, living in close proximity to the groundhog and giving it a name somehow made it part of the family. After all, Gert provided entertainment for me and excitement for Rozie and it did give me one sweet, sweet moment to see Xena act like a dog. 

Pear Tree

On the third weekend of each month, the trash company picks up yard debris that township residents put in big yellow cans and placed at the curb. I have a pear tree (absolutely I put a partridge in it at Christmas time) that had branches dangerously close to violating the township's law of being five feet above the sidewalk. My son, John, and I pruned the tree in conformity with the law and now I must gather the branches and tie them into bundles. Do you think the township would prefer them tied with checkered or plain ribbon?

No Reason

I love making cards and a favorite of mine to send is a card for no reason at all. Today's card is such a card. 

Feeling Down?

Let me lighten your load.

What a Thrill

Sunday, Xena, Rozie and I marked a three-week anniversary without much change. As Xena adjusts to everyday sounds inside, being outside is still terrorizing for her. The sounds of birds yacking, someone shutting their car door, kids on skateboards or bouncing a ball send her into a frenzy. But we continue to press on. Last evening Xena had a real breakthrough that I am excited about. Rozie and I were down at the end of the yard and Xena was at the backdoor doing her circle dance begging to go in and Rozie barked. Rozie's barking has not been something that Xena has responded to but last night, she decided she needed to investigate and ran from the backdoor to Rozie and stood beside Rozie with her tail wagging and watched Gert the groundhog meander across the neighbor's yard. What a joyful event, Xena acting like a dog!

Garden Tour 2010

Exciting day yesterday, after all the months of preparation and anticipation, the Master Gardeners' Garden Tour was yesterday and what a day it was. Two hundred nineteen people came to see my friend, Barb's, lovely gardens and left in awe. To give you a taste here is a picture of her pool garden. The white flecks you see are labels identifying each of the plants. 

My photography skills does not capture the serenity one feels as you pass through the shade garden to enter the home. It is a place to absolutely rest your soul. 

And this is my card for today, pretty flowers and a birthday wish. 

Purple

Our blog group's latest challenge was to make a monotone card. This is my entry.  The card is  clean and simple, suitable for a son who has eleven more get-ups before he turns forty (gasp, that makes him older than me?), he would prefer a card in the color of an Eagles' jersey.  And I did not use purple because I have a daughter who is obsessed with the color and her birthday is coming soon. No I used purple because I like purple and that's that.

Mother Nature

Yesterday I witnessed Mother Nature at work. I was at Barb's house and we saw a mommy bunny on the pool deck and when she saw us, she ran off, exactly what you would expect a bunny to do. Max, one of Barb's dogs, started to follow the bunny and stopped and was about to put something in his mouth when Barb told him to leave it and he did, very impressive. Then we saw what he was after, a dead baby bunny. Barb went to get something to put it in and I walked over to it and saw that it was not dead, in fact, it had just been born, the placenta still intact. Barb and I took off for high ground hoping that mommy bunny would return and take the newborn to her nest. We sat some distance away and waited. After a while, two more bunnies came out, maybe one was daddy and the other a maiden aunt but no mommy bunny. We decided to let Mother Nature take its course and we went into the house. When it was time to leave, I couldn't resist going to where the baby had been born and, happily, it was gone. I looked up and saw mommy bunny on the other side of the fence contentedly washing her paws. What a good mommy. 

Dragonflies

Dragonflies have always fascinated me. Naturally, when I saw this stamp years ago, well, I needed it. The dragonfly is a friend to man inasmuch as they eat mosquitoes. Although dragonflies have six legs, they are not capable of walking. Now, how about that.

Constant Reminder

Bookmarks are a great way to remind someone you are thinking of them. This bookmark is finished on both sides and I used a piece of ribbon at the bottom to hold the bookmark to the card until the recipient decides to use it. If my expectation is correct, each time the book is opened, my friend will know that I am thinking of them. 

Happy Birthday

In all the world, I have the very best daughter-in-law and today is her birthday. Kathy is beautiful inside and out and if the task had been mine, I could not have chosen a better wife for my son. Happy Birthday Kathy and many more filled with good health, love and laughter!

Your Support

There have been so many people in my lifetime that I should send this card to. I am very blessed with friends and family who have helped me through thick and thin and kept me going. You know who you are, you cannot hide, this card is for you!

Quick and Easy

I enjoy paper piecing. I started with an embossing folder and the rest is history. Other then getting some glue on my fingertips, this card more or less put itself together. 

Daisies

These daisies from my garden are for you but please, return the vase. 

Treemendous

That's what you are!

Challenge #6

Our blog group, Eyelets, Ribbon, Paper - Oh My, challenged its members to create a card inspired by a movie. My inspiration was Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds".  To view other submissions, click on "Paper Maven Projects" on the right of my blog.

As a post script to yesterday's post about Xena and the magical pill, we had a thunderstorm last evening and all I can say is WOW! Instead of running out of control, she tucked herself between the couch and the end table and stayed there. When the storm passed, we all went outside and she wandered around smelling the sweet scents left after a rain, then we played our little game where I go to the end of the yard and hide behind a bush and she finds me. I noticed Rozie was not playing and when I saw her she was trembling and backing up from something. When I got to her I saw what had managed to scare her so badly, it was a tree frog. Oh Rozie, such a silly girl, at least she didn't decide to go for frog legs. 

Droopy Ears

Xena made her first trip to our vet yesterday and did rather well. When I got Xena, they told me not to separate Xena from her mentor dog, Rozie, but because it was 87 degrees and my fear of being unable to handle two dogs in the event that Xena would decide to go up the walls to escape, I decided to go against this advice and left Rozie at home. Xena got in and out of the car without protest and flattened herself to the floor staying there for the duration. The appointment was a "well-puppy" visit and to get a prescription for valium to help her through thunderstorms. Instead, we left with a prescription for a yeast infection in her ears, Golden Retrievers are prone to ear infections because their ears droop preventing air circulation. The vet nixed valium and opted for a medication that is not a narcotic or an anti-depressant, but was developed for dogs exhibiting nervousness or stress as a result of the environment -- in other words, just for Xena. She has had two doses and I must say, she is a little less skittish. Right now, she is sleeping in the middle of the floor without the protection of something over her head or against her sides, a totally new experience. I am keeping my fingers crossed that this medication is going to help Xena master the art of being a dog and loving it.

Another Birthday Card

Another birthday card. Can we make too many? I think not. 

Happy First Day of June

t is hard to believe that today is the first day of June. Seems like only yesterday it was May. To start out the month, and just to be safe, today's card is a birthday card for those of you who celebrate their special day in June.