Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Where have I been? How about some Candy?

Where have I been? Man, I can't believe Saturday was the last day I posted! I have no excuse really - I took Sunday completely off. Didn't even turn on my computer. Spent the day with Hubby helping him bring in loads of hay. I say helping very loosely :0) I still only have one hand to work with. My rope burned hand is getting much better but I still can't use it as much as I would like. So I spent the day riding around with Hubby and holding gates for him. Monday and Tuesday - I have no clue where those days went. LOL

So to make it up to you I thought I might offer up some candy. Bribe yes... but a really great one!

After the close of CHA- the very generous Heidi  from Stampavie gave me a few of the brand new Stampavie images to bring home and share with you for some blog candy.


What do we have here?
Tina Wenke's - Bunny with Butterflies (pop back tomorrow to see this in color wink wink)
Sarah Kay's - A Little Bit of Country
and one of the new sentiments - Tina Wenke's Celebrate!

So you interested in winning? :0)
Just make sure to leave a comment here on this post - how about if you visit the new release page at Stampavie HERE and then let me know what image is your favorite! There are quite of few pages of really wonderful image... may be hard to narrow it down to just one I know - LOL

Oh while you are at the Stampavie site - if you haven't signed up for Stampavie Creations, our newsletter make sure to do it HERE - the latest issue will be sent out later this week - you don't want to miss it!

So just leave me a comment here, and what stamp you like and that is about it, I'll ship world wide :0) And I'll pick a winner next Tuesday night ok?

HUGS and Good Luck!

Saturday, February 25, 2012

Animal Crackers - Puppies - Bye Bye Ammo and Nature on our Pond!

Today I have no Donkeys or Goats... it is a sad post where we say goodbye to one of the puppies. Ammo left last night to live with his new Mommy and Daddy.... my BF Tracey and her Hubby. So it isn't really too sad, cuz I will get to see him often I am sure. But it will be hard for a few days for his brother Tuco to deal with not having his brother around.

We will miss Ammo... he is such a handsome man like his dad :0)
Adorable yes?
You would think by this photo that he is calm and in thought... 2 seconds later he took off and totally wiped out is brother Tuco....

Again - his brother Tuco is going to miss him terribly
These boys LOVE to play! And Tuco holds his own with Ammo - considering at their vet appointment this week Ammo was a whopping 3.8 lbs and Tuco only 2.8lbs.

Funny photo of Tuco... just after his very first Good Boy Cookie....
Yes, both boys are doing pretty good in their potty training outside. Really well when I remember to take them out after every nap - and I mean as soon as their eyes slightly open and they stretch, we right away make the way down the long hall and out the back door and they do so good! LOL Hey they are barely 7 weeks old!

Tuco did get snagged on one thing this week...
Since we have redone the house and I have a new living room - we have a puppy gate across the door between our dining room and living room to keep the dogs out of my new room. Well I guess Puppy Gate if the puppy isn't 2.8lbs.... and can go right through the bars! Really upsets his Mommy, cuz Libbie really wishes she could get through there to climb in my windows... LOL

But how can you get upset at all at a face like this?
Totally love that I got a great outdoor photo of Tuco! he was playing in the freshly cut grass. Man he is going to be a killer at getting out of trouble isn't he?  Just shoot me a look with that face, one blue eye and one brown and smile and that is it! Out of trouble...

So we have had to say good bye to Ammo - hope he had a good first night in his new home.

ok.. now some nature on our pond, or tank as we call them here in Texas. I don't think I have said much about our tanks have I? We actually have two small and one good deep tank on our property. But they had pretty much gone to never never land the past 3 years or so. Dried up in the Drought. Well we have had about 12 inches since the first of the year and the ponds are back. Frogs are back and Hubby is totally thrilled that now the Ducks have arrived.
Sorry you can't barely see them here... I SO desperately need a new lens for my camera! I have wanted a good lens to capture the birds and wildlife out here and just never taken the jump to get one. I am nervous on what to get and will it do what I need... if you know cameras, and what I need for my Sony AX - please shout out and give me some advise. Hubby has said I can get one this spring, I just need to know what I want.

So we have the ducks and then on his way to our pond earlier in the week this big guy had me stopped waiting on him to cross our driveway, after I went to the grocery store. For a few minutes I worried my frozen food was going to melt before he would make it across the driveway and down the little hill to the tank - LOL

ok, need to run. Today we are going to the Rodeo! The real rodeo, we were given box seat tickets to see Extreme Bull Riding and then see Trace Adkins. Not huge country music person, but I am sure we will really enjoy it. When we go to the "rodeo" and I say the "rodeo" I should say Fairgrounds. We never attend the actual "Rodeo" But hey... great tickets can't be wasted can they? Can't wait... extreme bull riding should be a blast to watch!

Have a great day -
Back to regular scheduled Animal Crackers next week... weather is getting better so I hope to start getting some great out door shots! Baby goats are getting real close, and hey maybe soon I'll have that new lens for better shots!
HUGS and-

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Good thing I have a few Made up Projects -

HI - the Rodeo on Monday was really fun. Totally loved watching the sheep dog trials! And we enjoyed a really nice day together, Hubby and I.  Well until late in the day.... well accident prone Michelle entered ! But honestly this wasn't my fault - Really it wasn't! Working with the horses - I was holding a rope for Hubby and in a totally flash - my hand was pinned to the fence post and the rope was spiraling out of my hand and well... OUCH! I have rope burns on all four fingers on the inside of my right hand. Bad Rope Burns. I am actually doing pretty good considering I am not a Lefty and can't figure out how to do anything without my right hand. How do you lefty's do it? :0)

So no coloring for a little while, in fact I tried to use my scissors today and couldn't even open and close them once... so I moved them to my left hand and well cut right into the middle of what I cutting, so I think scissors will have to wait a little while as well. Sigh... Good thing I have a few made up Projects left from CHA!

Here is one of the new Stampavie Sarah Kay images  - "Bath Time"
I went vintage with this one. Colored the image with my Promarkers, then tore her out and inked the edges. I used scrap pattern papers one that looks like cardboard, and one with script pattern. Sorry lost the names. I backed it with brown card stock that I punched with a Martha Stewart border punch. Now do you recognize that chandelier? YEP another Stampavie image. From Penny Johnson - Now this was totally cool - I took a piece of the brown card stock, and I stamped with bleach! Yes plain ole bleach! Now I made sure to wash my stamp well after using the stamp. But the effects were totally cool - will be doing this again for sure. I stamped the brand new Tina Wenke Dream stamp with bleach as well on a scrap of blue paper.

Some sewing, pearls and dotted swiss ribbon and I like how this card came out! And I love that it was already done to show you!

No worries... I'll be ok, and my private nurse "Hubby" has been taking pretty good care of me... following me around asking if I have soaked my hand and checking my boo boo's every time he can. I feel so bad that I can't clean the house and do my chores around the house... really I do. LOL

Have a great day -
HUGS and-

Monday, February 20, 2012

Giddy UP! by Tina Wenke

I love this time of the year.. today is one of Hubby and I's favorite things to do. The Rodeo is going on here and today is what we fondly call.. "Donkey Days"! Every year we take a day as our special day and go sit in the stands and watch the Donkey competitions - Showmanship, Confirmation (how the donkey is built compared to a perfect donkey), obstacle courses and much more. But we are even more excited this year, as never is Donkey Days the same days as the Sheep Dog competitions.. but this year they will be going on today as well! I have always wanted to watch this at the rodeo. And it is never when we can attend. We are so looking forward to it all this year.

That is enough about us and the Rodeo... I do have a card to show off today too :0)
This is one of the new Stampavie Tina Wenke images called - Giddy Up!  I thought it was appropriate for the Rodeo :0)


This card was a lot of fun - Normally I get a little stressed doing "boy" cards, but I so totally love this adorable guy and his doggie it just flew together. I used a piece of Core'dinations impressed paper that I sanded heavily - then I found a scrap of this awesome cowboy paper... sorry have no name for it. I blanket stitched around it and the image, pop dotted to the card and ran twine around the entire thing.

The image is colored with my Promarkers, and the sentiment is from the New Tina Wenke sentiment set called... well called "Happy Birthday" LOL I also added a Tim Holtz metal embellishment that reads wonderful.

I like this boy card, and it is hard for me to be happy with those un-flowered, non pink male cards. Ha!

Ok... OFF TO THE RODEO!
Hugs have a wonderful day!

Saturday, February 18, 2012

Animal Crackers - Rain, Rain and more Rain

So after two very hard dry years with very little rain... 2012 it started raining and it keeps on. Not that I am complaining, the rain is making things green and will give us grass and hay for the animals this spring. But man it is standing everywhere and is just plain soggy here. I didn't get to go out and photo yesterday like I normally do. It rained all day and it was cold. Good thing I took some photos earlier in the week... otherwise I wouldn't have a thing to show today!

Estella up first -
This girls bangs crack me up! I didn't brush her part in there folks, nope her bangs just fall that way! She has her own unique hairstyle that is for sure!LOL

Got a photo of our original buck Frank -
Now he knows he is a stud, handsome and just stunning, what he doesn't know is that he isn't the brightest... LOL but it is ok, his personality will keep him a member of our family for  a long time to come. Love ya Frankie!

Frank's daughter Lucy -
She was one of our first babies. Part of the set of quads that Paintbrush had. She had her first kids last summer. And she is getting pretty wide again. I think she will be the first to have her babies this year. Can't wait! Her and Peso should give us some really pretty kids!

Gato... a cat in her own world.
She lives in a house with three adult dogs, two puppies and out her window a whole bunch of goats and donkeys... but this cat she lives in her own world. Here she was asleep on her window bed, She always sleeps on this bed upside down..... oops the flash woke her up.

Messy Autie -

My man Autie... he is a mess, and a bit stinky here in this photo. Been rained on and played outside. His gorgeous long hair isn't so pretty more matted and tangled. But this shot shows my little boys "horns" LOL  He has two bunches of hair just over each ear that stand up... we call them his horns, but he isn't a devil, of all three of the dogs this boy is a sweetie a true lover boy.

Took the puppies out to play one evening this week. Normally the puppies would play outside everyday. But with all the cold rain I just can't take this little ones out. But Thursday evening it was a bit warmer and dryer than it had been. So we had some fun! They had a blast running around the yard. Chasing the adult dogs, and running up to the goats and barking then running to hide behind us when the goats would approach them.

I tried to get some photos with my camera phone and honestly they were just blurs in the photos. Between them running and me laughing so hard.

Here Hubby slowed them down for some petting -
And here they are following him when he was leaving the yard to feed the screaming donkeys that you can see in the background.
They are just too cute for words! Only have one more week with Ammo ... next Saturday he will leave and move to his new home. We are gonna miss him, but going to my best buddy Tracey I'll get to see him lots I am sure :0)

ok.. now I have to show you a present I got from Hubby a couple of weeks ago.  Do you know what this is?

ok, other than a Donkey do you know what it is?  Now we don't smoke, hate it. (Sorry Mom you know we do) But this Donkey is a cigarette dispenser!! Seriously he is. The red box is for the matches, the green box is where you load up the cigarettes. Those long ears... well you pull forward the front ear, the tail lifts up and well... I guess you can figure out the rest. I just love that it is a very old metal donkey! He goes in my donkey collection, love when I get something totally different for my collection! :0)

Well... hope you have something fun planned for this weekend. Me. I have to work, and then do some house cleaning. Blah.. I know but much needed. All though with all this mud outside I think I am going to just scratch mopping the floors from my list - no point until it dries up a bit.

Have a great weekend!
HUGS and-

Thursday, February 16, 2012

New Releases - Tina Wenke - A Bird House -

Hello - Today I wanted to show you a bird house I made for CHA. You know I love bird houses. Well I found  a bird house with lots of sides to hold lots of different images! So I colored up a bunch of the new Tina Wenke Stampavie images and had some fun.
 So I started with a blank wood bird house - painted it brown and white. Then I took my colored images and cut them out and glued them down. The roof... I punched out a million Fiskars Medium heart punches and inked the edges. I then glued them down (upside down) added a border punch around the bottom, I then modge podged the entire piece. Then I added the metal frame around the opening, quickutz leaf border, flowers and buttons.



I hope you liked my bird house. It ended up in a good home, I gave it after the show to my new friend Suzan as a Thank You for take me to Disney and a shopping trip :0) Gotta totally love a person that takes you to the happiest place on earth and Shopping! Thank you so much Suzan she is a total sweetie, and oh she has a great Husband and Doggy "Woody" that also deserves a big thank you for a grand time!

Have a great day!
HUGS and

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

We've been married for 25 years- My best Friend and I

Happy Valentines Day to each of you - This is a special day in our house. You see Hubby and I were married on this day 25 years ago - Seriously, I can hardly believe it myself. I was very young when we married... no really I was! LOL I was 19. Horrible blurry photo, I have showed it before, but I cannot find any better ones to scan in...


He is my best friend, my heart and soul. I have been very blessed to have such a wonderful man love me as much as I love him - But this day is even more special because it is the romantic holiday, our anniversary and it is Hubby's Birthday! What can I say he is really bad remembering dates so I made sure he would never forget our anniversary.. wink wink.

Here are a few of my favorite photos of my guy -
 Love how peaceful this photo is, and he would say this is one of his happiest places on earth - The end of the Jetties jumping large Tarpon.

This is one of my favorite "fishing" photos of him, but he would say "Don't show that one it has such a little Tarpon in it"... ok so for him is the next photo -

 Not nearly his largest Tarpon but a good photo -

But my favorite photos of him are with our babies - Love these -




So Happy Birthday Sweetie - and Happy Anniversary - I love you - 

Hope each of you have a wonderful Valentines day -
HUGS and-

Monday, February 13, 2012

New Sarah Kay - Another Scrapbook page - Tea Please

Hello- today I wanted to show you another scrapbook page I made for CHA - this page is showing off a New Stampavie Sarah Kay image, "Tea Please" As soon as I saw this image my brain was going nuts thinking of my little niece a few years back in her absolutely adorable dance costume! They were meant to use together.. seriously... LOOK
 This page was so much fun to put together! It felt like it just went together all on its own. The image is totally wonderful I love it, but with my nieces photo I really love it!

I used Black cardstock, Pink cardstock, A piece of Tim Holtz Core'dinations embossed card stock that I sanded. The lace is a piece of vintage lace that I adore - It is pretty large for using on cards, but perfect for scrapbook pages, don't you think? Then a large black rhinestone flourish. The title is one of my very old Thickers - black glittered of course.

Here is a close up of the Sarah Kay image, you know you are going to have to have this Sarah Kay aren't you?

She is colored with my Promarkers. Cut out and then inked around the edges.

Hope you like my scrapbook page, it was really a ton of fun to put together.
Have a great Monday -
HUGS and

Sunday, February 12, 2012

Dust it off Sunday - Door to Door - Papertrey Ink

All right I will fess up - I didn't dust this image off... it is a brand new set from Papertrey Ink that I got right before I left for CHA.  I just love all the "pieces" that come with this set, and they have the coordinating set of dies to punch out all those fun pieces. This is truly like making the doll house for our paper dolls.  But I did Dust off a few of the things I used with this new set of stamps...
This set of stamps is just so fun! I comes tons of stamps to make the front door to lots of styles of houses. And tons of fun things to dress up your front porch! I pop dotted the planters and the banner across the top of the door. And then a piece of wooden fence was just too perfect to run across the front right?

Here is my easel card in full -

 I used some new My Minds Eye papers from the Miss Caroline Dilly Dally set. Sewing down all the pretty patterns with a zig zag stitch.

The pieces I dusted off...

 Some really OLD Making Memories stickers and then a old time looking skeleton key. Both were really deep in my stash of stuff, and I love them with this card.

This card was inspired by my Best Buddy and her Husbands new home they just purchased - I am so excited for them, Congrats to you guys!

Have a wonderful Sunday-
HUGS and

Saturday, February 11, 2012

Animal Crackers - Photo Shoot Cute

Hello - ok, so I told you the puppies have grown a ton while I was away... I tried to get a couple of shots last week to show you. Well for some fun I decided the boys needed to have a professional photo shoot. Sort of Glamour shots for the boys... LOL  So I scooped them up and placed them one at a time in my photo tent with a mirror and lights - Love how they photos came out! Even if the entire time I was in a panic that they would have an "accident"... LOL

Tuco  -
 Hubby is totally thrilled, it looks like Tuco is going to have one blue eye and one brown. And Look at all the color he has!
 Now Ammo - He is such a handsome dude - more adorable that handsome now, but I can see that he is going to be really a handsome man when all grown up :0)

Now some donkeys - This is a FABULOUS site. GREEN... With all the rain we have been having, we have lots of green around here and lots of mud too, ha! Green is a color we haven't had in more than two years. And despite it being "winter" with all the rain, grass is growing like crazy! And the donkeys are loving it! 
Now in one of the storms while I was at CHA a dead tree in one of the donkey pens ( dead due to the drought ) anyway one of the dead trees fell over during a bad storm. Hubby has it all cut up and ready to load up and get out of the pen, but until it dries out he can't get in to load it up... The baby donkeys are climbing all over it and playing :0)  Here Bella and Yolanda are taking a look at what was left of their tree... Good thing Hubby has new trees planted on the other end of the pen -
Headed over to the Girls pen next, Again will all the rain I haven't had a lot of chances to go out and love on everyone since home. But there was a nice afternoon this week so I took advantage and said hello to each and everyone of my babies.

Cali, Lydia and Marissa - all three are really pretty girls don't you think?
Ok, so they need baths they have been rolling in the mud a bit, but still pretty -

Juliet -
This girl nearly crawls through the gate trying to get you to love on her - Super sweet... and Love her eyes. They are always so big with excitement.

Then I went over to the goat pen. A little bit about Goats.... they HATE the rain, I think they believe they are going to melt if they get rained on. Totally freak out when it starts to even drizzle. And with that they hate Mud... no rolling in mud for them! But when the sun comes out they are all up on top of everything to enjoy with warmth... Here is Annie and her daughter Chloe. Both are pregnant again... Can't wait to see what the babies will look like with Peso as the Daddy....

And then I saw Jill - up on top of one of the wooden spools... gotta a itch? No problem...

So that is why they have the horns! Very useful! LOL  Jill is also pregnant... we are gonna have lots of kids this spring!

Hope todays photos made you smile. It was great to be back to my babies.
Have a great Saturday!
HUGS and