WHAT A GIVE AWAY

Hurry!  Don't walk - run over to Becky (formerly Chabot) Conley's blog to get entered in her give away of a Cricut Expressions.  Here is  her blog address: http://beckyconley.blogspot.com   Good luck to me and everyone....until next time.

ANOTHER CARD

Its another cold (cool by others standards) day in AR, so it was another good day to stay in my studio with the fireplace on.  At least we don't have that bad four letter word that out west and parts of the Midwest has gotten.  Whew!!!

I've been trying to use up a lot of my papers that I have lying around that isn't big enough for a card, but small enough to use as trim.  Do you have that problem too?  Well, the card to the right is one of those "scraps" you might say, but I'm happy how it turned out. 

I used a "Cornish Game" stamp of the month (Jan. 2010) stamp, and colored it with my Der Went water color pencils.  Before the coloring I just had to add some glitter to the snowballs and the huge snow balls.  I'm hoping you can enlarge the photo to see the glitter.   (Silver Fire Opal Embossing Powder by Embossing Arts Co. located in Tangent, OR is what I used.  I think I bought this at one of the conventions I've gone to in AZ. I'm sorry for not remembering.)  I also added via a Rubber Stampede double tipped embossing pen some glitter to the snowflakes that are in the green edging of the card.  This green edging was embossed with the Snowflake folder from Cuttlebug in my Wizard.  The lattice was punched using the Martha Stewart punch that I found at my local Wal Mart. 

I stamped the words "Sending you" (by Plaids Anna Griffin Seasons Greetings) at the top, and then inside I attached a white piece of plain paper (to somewhat hide the green area), and stamped "Greetings of the Season".  Viola, another card done...enjoy and comments are always welcomed.  Until next time...

WINTER CARDS

We woke up to 31 degrees outside and it felt that way on the inside too, but the thermostat said 65 degrees.  I'm still not used to this southern mid west weather.  So since it was so cold I buried myself in my studio with my fireplace on and started on some cards, and the "Winter" theme just came to mind...LOL.

I didn't have a pattern for these cards, so I was winging it.  Me measure anything - you've got to be kidding.  Well most of the time I do, but today I just folded the card stock and hoped it would all fit.  The hardest part was getting the folds all lined up. 

On the outside front of the white card (seen on the left) I used my Wizard and Snowflake Cuttlebug folder to emboss snowflakes.  I had a felt covered snowflake for the hanging one and that was my inspiration.  The blue part was embossed with the snowflake Cuttlebug folder and placed in the middle of the card.  I then cut out an oval on white card stock and hung the felt snowflake from this. 

The red card (seen on the right) is a Christmas bauble that I embossed with the snowflake Cuttlebug folder, and then used my white ink to go over the raised areas.  On the inside is white card stock embossed with the Snowflake Cuttlebug folder and finished off like above. 

I enjoyed making these and I just may form an "assembly line" and make more.  I just hope that the recipients will enjoy them as much as I did in making them.  Until next time stay warm....

THE SAME BUT DIFFERENT

 I made some Thanksgiving cards today.  They basically are the same, but yet the stamped object is a bit different in the coloring.  The first card (in orange) I used gold embossing powder on a calendar page that had some orange, green and brown in it.  The second one (in brown), I also embossed it with gold onto a calendar page that had green, brown and dark red in it.   In person it came out a lot better than what you see on the right. 

The green and red cards were punched with a Martha Stewart punch and then the punched part was backed with a green (or red) card stock.  On the inside I placed a piece of white paper (to hide the colored card stock), and stamped happy thanksgiving.   Again the stamped image is the same (basket full of fruit) but colored differently by using my DerWent water colors.

I enjoyed creating these cards, and hopefully the recipients will enjoy them as much as I did creating them.   I also hope that you will enjoy looking at them.  Until next time....

CHRISTMAS 2010 CARDS STARTED

I started my Christmas Cards and what gave me the inspiration was a swap card that I made for an Inky Fun Stampers group.  (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/inkyfunstampers/ )

I stamped and embossed the Christmas Tree stamp from Michael Strong on green card stock with white ink from Martha Stewart line, and white embossing powder from Ranger products.  I mounted that onto white card stock, which I mounted those onto a red velvet card stock.  I stamped/embossed Merry Christmas, stamp from Plaid, with white ink & embossing powder onto the red velvet card stock.  I placed a piece of ribbon, from American crafts, between the tree and word stamping. 

I then used my Cuttlebug Snow Flake folder to emboss snow flakes onto a piece of acetate.  I then use white ink and went over the raised images.  I used vellum tape to adhere the embossed acetate to the red velvet card stock. 

I hope the person that received this enjoys it, as much as I enjoyed creating it.  Thank you for looking and until next time....Enjoy.

A CHALLENGE

Over on Inky Fun Stampers group, (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/inkyfunstampers/) we have a challenge for November to use "recycled" objects to make a card.  I think this will qualify for this challenge as I used a magazine page to stamp the pot (stamp from Michael Strong), and left over bits to make the stems and leaves.

Others have joined the challenge also using bubble wrap and other found objects.  I hope you enjoyed my endeavor for this challenge.  Until next time.....

NEW TECHNIQUE - ANOTHER LOOK

I really like this Black Velvet technique.  To me it looks a bit subtle.  The colors are soft but vibrant, if you know what I mean...LOL.  I stamped the words "...You're in My Thoughts and Prayers..." by Stampabilities, on white card stock, placed two gold peel offs in opposite corners.  Mounted this all onto white card stock and then onto a black card.

Comments on my artwork are always welcomed.  Thank you for visiting.  Until next time....

NEW TECHNIQUE

Today was a very cool day outside, so I took the opportunity to try a new technique.  The technique is called "Black Velvet".  You use black card stock, stamp (by I Brake for Stamps) with white ink and then let the ink dry.  Next comes the "fun" part, as you color over the white ink with colored pencils.  After you're finished with your coloring you then apply a fixative.   I used the brand called Krylon Fixative.  I placed the finished art on to a white card stock and then upon a black card stock and placed 3 lavender (to match the lavender flowers) brads.  All of this was affixed to white card stock and trimmed with a lavender ribbon and bow.  Not a bad technique at all - not messy anyway...LOL.  Hopefully, I can continue creating today with a different technique, and if I do, I'll be sure to let you all know.

Thanks for stopping by, until next time.

NOTE TO GRANDSON'S WEDDING CARD

Just a note to tell you what I did to "finish" off my grandson's wedding card.  On the left side of the archway, I placed an organza (sheer material in white) bow and along with the streamers of the bow I placed iridescent pearls.  It seemed like the card really came to life.  Wished I had taken a photo of it before I mailed it out.  Thank you for looking and come again.  Until next time........

DON'T LIKE SYMPATHY CARDS

For some reason I have this mental block of  creating Sympathy Cards.
A dear friend of mine, one with whom I've attended school with since first grade and we graduated together, mother passed away.  While visiting in IN this past spring I attended a "mother/daughter" spring banquet at a local church and happen to see this friends mother.  It was a blessing in disguise as I got to personally thank her for her creation of a "K" (which signified our initial of our school) when we had our 50th high school graduation.  To the right is the card that I came up with.

I used a 5 x 7 inch white card stock for the base.  I used my Wizard by Spellbinders
( http://www.spellbinderspaperarts.com/ ) to emboss and cut out a scalloped circle in red & white.  I stamped the Bible (stamp from Inkadinkado - http://www.eksuccessbrands.com/inkadinkado/products/ ) and colored it with my Der Went water color pencils. I also stamped "thinking of you" (a miscellaneous stamp I have) just below the Bible.  I then added a sheer ribbon (miscellaneous ribbon I had on hand) to the bottom of the card.  I had some flower petals from my stash and mounted them with brads from my stash.  On the inside I wrote a very personal note to the family, enclosed it in an envelope and cried while addressing the envelope. 

Maybe this is why I don't like to create sympathy cards - I get all choked up, cry and wish that the deceased person was still with us.  This sympathy card is now mailed and I have my wonderful memories of someone that I happen to think very highly of.  Please enjoy, leave a comment if you care to, and enjoy each other.  Until next time......

GRANDSONS WEDDING CARD

I finally got busy and tried again in creating my grandsons
wedding card.  (The brown is from my dining room table.) After making this card I still have yet to make the wedding shower card. Well, I'd better get busy, but the following is how I did this card.

I did several things to the card - I colored the background with ink and a rolled over some screen material.  I then ran it through my Wizard with a cuttle bug folder (leaves).  Then I ran the arch type die (side dies) (floral borders) through my Wizard and punched out the pieces and placed them on the background paper about 1/2 inch in on both sides.  I then used a HIT (Hearts in Touch) stamp to stamp the flowers atop and placed them over the arch dies.  I then stamped a couple (from a miscellaneous stamp company), cut them out, and then placed them on the background being sure to place them so they looker further back.   The roses were colored an off white with my DerWent water color pencils and there were some daisies that I colored yellow with a brown center, also with my water color pencils. 

Thanks for stopping by, and please do leave a comment.  Until next time....

A SO SO WEDDING CARD

We received a wedding invitation to one of our grandson's wedding this next month.  To the right "may be" the card that I give to them - not sure I like the looks of it..  Their invitation came on a background of dark brown card stock, with cream card stock as the invite.  Then there was gold trim and brown writing, so I thought I would try to follow the theme of the invitation.

For the background of my card, I used the "faux" metal technique that I learned from one of the blogs that I follow - http://creationsbychristie.blogspot.com/. You cut a piece of metallic glossy card stock to the size you wish to use, ink up your stamp with Versa Mark, stamp the image on your card stock, sprinkle with clear embossing powder, and heat until clear.  The stamp I used is a flourish from Clear Stamps by rhonna farrer - I think I purchased this at a Hobby Lobby or Michaels???  I then took some dark brown card stock to frame my handwriting "..on your wedding day.." which was on cream colored card stock.  I liked that look so I stamped the couple (stamp from Hearts In Touch  http://www.heartsintouch.com ) with brown ink from Memories and embossed it with clear embossing powder on cream card stock and mounted it on the dark brown card stock.  I then took these pieces and mounted them with Art Institute Glitter glue ( www.artglitter.com ) to the faux metallic card stock.  Before mounting all of this to cream colored card stock, I placed three antique gold brads at the upper left corner.  


Like I said, "maybe" this will be the card as I'm not to thrilled with a card that is suppose to be a "wedding card", so I'll be making more wedding cards and then choose the one I really like, but I will be using their invitation colors.    Thank you for stopping by, leave a comment if you care, and do come back again. 

HARDEST CARD I EVER MADE

I knew that I was going to make a "nice" card for my swap partner of "hummingbirds" in Inky Fun Stampers  group swap, but what I didn't know was how long it would take me and the happenings that made it so hard to do.

The stamp is from Inkadinkado (http://inkadinkado.eksuccessbrands.com/ ) which I purchased from Hobby Lobby  (http://www.hobbylobby.com/) in Jonesboro AR.  It is a "sketch drawing" stamp is how it is described on the brochure.  

I colored the flowers first with DerWent water color pencils that I purchased from JoAnns while living in AZ and I chose to do them in a light purple/blueish color.  I then colored the leaves, and the hummingbird.is colored in blue with the watercolor pencils, and at this point there were no problems...
After deciding to cut away the "extra" markings I then cut the whole image out and placed it upon white card stock.  Well this was the first "hard" thing I did with more to follow.  I knew I wanted to have this show through a type of opening, so I got out my circle cutter and a cut circle around my stamped image.  Well this was problem number two as then the image was too big for the card stock I had chosen.  Well, the stamped image area was quite large and I couldn't cut it down, so what to do.  I tried cutting out a hole to place in the stamped image behind the opening, but I didn't have the right size of cutter, so I just gave up and glued it down with my glue (Art Institute Glitter glue at http://www.artglitter.com/ ) on a larger card the same color I started out with.

By this time I was out of the mood in trying to be perfect and creative and knowing full well it was lacking something - but what?  I reached for my "peel offs" that I received from a friend in England and viola' it came together.  I really like the finished project, and I sure hope my partner liked it as well. 

Please enjoy my endeavors at art this past week, and stop by again.

FRIEND NEEDED ANNIVERSARY CARD

The photo to the right is a card that I did for a friend who's brother
was  having a wedding anniversary.  She happened to be in my
studio when she spotted these two stamps from I Brake For Stamps
( http://www.ibrakeforstamps.com ) of motorcycle riders.  She started laughing and said..."Please make this card for my brother and sister-in-law who ride Harley's.  They'll get such a kick out of the card".  I told her
as long as they held me "harmless" I would.  The tree stamps came from
Hearts in Touch ( http://www.heartsintouch.com/ ) and I Brake for Stamps
(listed above).  The word stamp came from 7gypsies of which I purchased from JoAnn's ( http://www.joann.com/ ) when I was in Iowa.  The trees were stamped using colored ink, and the motorcyclists were colored using DerWent water color pencils that I purchased from Michaels while living in AZ. 


I really laughed, giggled and enjoyed making this card for her, and I hope you enjoy looking at it.  Please leave a comment if you care to, and stop by again. 

CARDS MADE THROUGH OUT THE WEEK

To right are is a card that I made for swap on Inky Fun Stampers  

( http://groups.yahoo.com/group/inkyfunstampers/ ) I used my Spellbinders Nestability ( http://www.spellbinderspaperarts.com/ ) for the fish and hook.  I used a Cuttlebug Folder ( http://www.provocraft.com/ ) for the plaque the fish is mounted on.  I colored the fish and hook with Prismacolor pencils ( http://www.prismacolor.com/ ) and the plaque was colored with chalk ( http://www.craf-tproducts.com/ ).  The fishing pole is a stamp from Hearts in Touch ( http://www.heartsintouch.com/ ).  I placed some fine silver wire (32 gauge) from the fishing pole to the hook

and passing it under the mounted fish.  All was then mounted on light turquoise card stock.  The word stamp "Happy Birthday" is from 7gypsies that I purchase from JoAnn's ( http://www.joann.com/ ) while visiting in Iowa. 

The photo of cards above right were mailed out as "thank you"  cards to some friends of mine. I had some card stock that I had played with different colors of ink.  I was attempting a rainbow pattern with these inks.  The stamps are from Hampton Art ( http://www.hamptonart.com/ ).  I really enjoyed thinking outside of the box to create not only the rainbow effect, but also the different styles of cards that I made.  I hope all enjoyed the cards I made for them.

Please leave a comment if you care to.  Enjoy and here's hoping you'll come by and visit again.

OH SCRAP

I've been creating all week long.  In fact I was using my Spellbinders Wizard and Nestabilities  (http://www.spellbinderspaperarts.com/) and had quite a few scraps left over.  To the right is only "some" of the cards that I made today.  The card on the left (with the horse) stamp came from I Brake for Stamps ( http://www.ibrakeforstamps.com/ ).  I stamped the horse image on white card stock and then stamped the head image on orange colored card stock and layered it all onto the yellow background of the "scrap" of white and orange Nestability.  The word stamp I masked from the whole of the stamp that came from I Brake For Stamps also.  This too was layered upon white and orange card stock.  All was then placed onto a black card.

The card on the right is basically done the same way, but I'm sorry I don't have the name of the stamp company that made the southwest pot.  (I believe it came from Taylor Art and purchased this from a stamp store [that is out of business now] while living in Mesa AZ.)  The word stamp was masked from a stamp by Hampton Art ( http://www.hamptonart.com/ )  I affixed the word stamp by slitting both sides near the yellow card stock and placing orange dotted ribbon through the slits.  All of this was layered upon a brown card.

Please enjoy and leave a comment  if you care to.  Thank you for looking and come again.

IT'S BEEN WAY TOO LONG

I have to apologize to one and all for not updating my blog site since February.  Oh my goodness, what I've been up to you wouldn't really want to know.  Here is a "brief" summary of what has been happening in my world. 

In April my husband and I traveled to Iowa to visit our kids there, and for him to be checked out at the Iowa City Veterans Administration Medical Clinic.  He received his new glasses and he received his new hearing aides.  After having a marvelous visit with the kids, and celebrating his 80th birthday, we traveled on to Indiana to visit with kids there.  My husband then had knee surgery on April 21st at the St. Joseph Hospital in South Bend, IN.  We stayed with our youngest daughter for the following month for him to receive excellent physical therapy and for us to celebrate our birthdays which are only 2 days apart.

We came home to Arkansas to find that our home needed much attention to.  The veggie and flower gardens were really in need of some TLC, as well as the lawns.  A friend of ours was watering our gardens in between the rain showers that she said we had, and with her help the gardens thrived right along with the weeds.  We have come to the conclusion that to be gone from  home that long sure isn't conducive to our health.  It seems we work harder and longer when we come back from "vacations" and that really wears on a person of our ages. 

After all of that work, I have been canning and freezing veggies and fruits for this coming winter.  Today for instance I canned 11 pints of peaches, and it was probably the hottest day of the year thus far.  What was I thinking when I bought those beauties, especially when I was on a roll of creating.  Oh when will I wise up.  I promise to try and post more often and my goal is to post at least once a week. 

Thanks for stopping by, and please come back really soon as I will be posting photos of some of the creations that I have created for you to enjoy.  Y'all come back ya hear. 

I'VE BEEN SCRAP BOOKING

I decided I have way to many "empty" scrap books lying around so I've decided that I better do something with the "duplicate" pages I make by filling up those books.  To the right is a page that I made today in observance of Valentine Day.  The paper is of unknown origin, as well as the lace (but I think I got that several years ago at Jo Ann's).   The hearts I made out of white card stock and then used chalk to color them.  I then used my Cuttlebug Folder called "Flourished Frame", and white card stock, for a place to insert a photo of my husband.  I  the used a smaller piece of white card stock for the journaling portion of this page.  I'm not sure if I'm done with the overall look of it, so it will lay around for me to "think on"...LOL.

The page to the right is for a scrap book swap called "The Luck of the Irish" over on Inky Fun Stampers ( inkyfunstampers-subscribe@yahoogroups.com )  I had a lot of fun making this page as the coins pouring out of the hat was made by using my Wizard (by Spellbinders) and placing quarter, nickels, dimes and pennies in the sandwich with heavy gold wrapping paper and then cutting them out.  The Shamrock I designed by myself also.  The paper is of unknown origin (I never keep track of the name of papers...LOL), as is the green card stock that I used for the photo frames, and the backing of the journaling area.  I used a green pen (unknown) to put lines on the journal part and stamped the word "Smile" using a See D's stamp, in green. Try using your coins, or whatever you have laying around, to make your own embellishments in a sandwich in your die maker.  You'd be surprised what you can end up with.  May the Luck of the Irish be with you and yours to enjoy.  Until next time..........

COUNTING MY BLESSING THIS WINTER

You would never guess that I live in the State of Arkansas by the weather we've been having.  We previously had 8-10 inches of snow and this past week it started melting to the point you could actually see patches of grass.  Well, we just got blasted with 6 inches of snow which started Sunday and didn't let up until this morning.  I'm so sick of winter that I have thought about running away from home...LOL.  Well, at least driving to a "warmer" non-snow State.

The first photo shows a cardinal coming in for a landing on the bird feeder, and other cardinals waiting their turn while sitting in the lilac bushes.  I think we have 6 or 8 of the cardinals, and they sure are beautiful to see with their red bodies up against the white of the snow.  That is one beautiful and nice thing about this winter, and I'll see if I can think of others...LOL.

The second photo shows the sun coming up through a cedar tree and some oak trees in our back yard.  Today the wind was really blowing so a lot of the snow you see in the trees is now gone and piled back where my dear husband had just shoveled.  Again, this was one of those beautiful and nice things about this winter.  Of course, knock on wood, we haven't had any power outages like we did one year ago, so that is another blessing I can count for this winter. 

Gee, never thought about counting all of my blessings in one spot, but I did manage a few today.  It's back to my crafting table to try and get creative, so please enjoy a little bit of my world and leave a comment if you care to.  Until next time.

BEEN BUSY & LAUGHING TOO

It's snowing, It's snowing, the old man.... well you get the idea.  Instead of sleeping (and "snoring") I locked myself in my craft room.  All of this snow (& ice) we have had gave me the dull drums to the point all I wanted to do was to lay around and watch TV.  Then someone sent me some cute and very funny senior cartoons and I laughed a good belly laugh, so I pulled up my boots by their straps and got into my stamps.  To the right are the outcome of my days in my craft room. 

The inks used were Memories Black Ink with clear embossing powder.  I used my DerWent water color pencils to color the images.  The stamps are from I Brake For Stamps - 
http://www.ibrakeforstamps.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=SFNT&Store_Code=IBFSSF.  Today I am going to spend my day in my craft room and try to create more than just a few pieces of art, and that way I don't have to look out to see this beautiful (yucky) snow. 

Today, after almost five (5) days of snow melting) we got more snow.  We woke up to about 4 inches of the white stuff with more to come this evening.  Yuck!!!  I will say it was a beautiful site to see all of the red cardinals sitting in the lilac bushes just waiting for my dear husband to spread the bird seed on our feeder.  In fact I got a chuckle out of a little wren who must have been extra  hungry.  This little bird must have seen me open the drapes, as he came flying up on the deck, and looked in, then flew back to the bird feeder.  I do think my husband has the birds spoiled, as they expect to be fed at a certain time every morning. 

Of course not only the birds are spoiled, but our little doggy, Molly, has been spoiled by him too.  He usually wakes in the morning before 6:00 o'clock a.m., to let Molly out to do her business.  This morning I was up early so I opened the door for Molly to go out upon which she looked out the door then looked at me and proceeded to go back to bed with my husband.  Needless to say, she won't go out in the snow unless my husband shovels a place for her to do her business in the grass.  Yep, I think he has all of them spoiled. 

Until next time enjoy and please leave a comment.  Have a blessed day.

PURPLE IS THE COLOR

I've had my mojo leave me for awhile, and I think she's back as I've been creating this week.  The photo of the "little girls on the sewing machine" is a HIT (  http://www.heartsintouch.com ) stamp.  I colored this stamp with a light red (almost a pink), violet and blue with my DerWent water color pencils.  I sure like how they lay down on most any paper.  I cut this out and affixed it to pink card stock which was layered onto a violet (purple) card stock, and layered onto some "unknown" paper that I found in my stash.  This was all layered onto some dark blue card stock.  The word stamps are from Creative Cafe clear stamps by Hampton Art.

The "Garden Lady" stamp came from HIT (http://www.heartsintouch.com) as well.  I colored this art piece with greens, oranges (salmon colored) and purple from the DerWent water color pencils.  I outlined the image with a Gold Leafing Pen from Krylon  (http://www.krylon.com/ ) which you can find in any hardware &/or crafting store.  I cut this image out and layered it on a Glimmer Mist technique card stock that carried the same color theme as the image.  I then made a bow out of some organza ribbon and affixed that with a brad onto my card stock that I had deckle cut, and layered all atop a purple Cuttlebugged card stock.  Cuttlebug is a product of Provo Craft (http://www.provocraft.com/ ).

 

The last photo is from I Brake for Stamps (http://www.ibrakeforstamps.com ) as are the words.  I colored the image with my DerWent water color pencils, outlined it with Gold Leafing pen from the Krylon company (http://www.krylon.com/ ).  (I did the same with the word stamped image.) With the images colored I layered these upon some purple card stock and outlined these in the gold leafing pen.     I  then used my Fiskars edge punch that I bought from Wal Mart (I believe), to give the edge a bit of a "lacy look" on the purple card stock.  I then layered the images onto this purple card stock and viola' I was finished.

Now back to my creating table for some more fun and creativity.  Enjoy and I do hope you'll leave me a comment.  Until next time...

By the way, don't forget to hop on over to Erika Taylors Blog ( http://taylordconcepts.blogspot.com/ ) as she's having a "blogaversary" and the goodies she's giving away - WOW!!! 

BLOGGING

I have been surfing the blogspots and enjoy most all of them as I can get really inspired by their art and comments.  How about you - do you blog?  If not maybe you could at least enjoy the art on these blogs.  I just joined as a follower the Erica Taylor blog at http://taylordconcepts.blogspot.com/ because she does give me a lot of inspiration.  She has some wonderful tips and techniques, let alone the art that she shares. 

There are other blogs that I belong to and someday I'll list them in a writing here.  Sooooo,

After viewing her site, I am now going back to my table to hopefully create something very artful in hopes that it'll get published or at the least be a nice artful swap.  Thanks for looking and until the next time.....

OLD MAN WINTER

Old man winter has really hit my part of Arkansas heavily this year.  For a week and a half, and into a couple more weeks, we've  had 20 to 30 degrees F. lower temperatures.  I couldn't help myself but wanting to share with you all, of course realizing that more northern states and Canada have it a lot worse than we can imagine. 

I had to find some beauty in this frigid area and it was found right in my yard. The first photo shows only "some" of the Cardinals that dart back and forth between the bushes (which are in reality, lilacs), and the bird feeder.  We enjoy watching them most of the morning and into the evening at times and how they "share" their food.  Of course there are other birds too, but they are the prettiest against the white "snow". 

My husband likes to be kept busy, and in the second photo you see him shoveling the snow off of our driveway.  This is something he thought he had left behind in 1993, but alas when you move from a "warm" climate like Arizona to what we thought was a "gentle" four seasons climate you really go back in time to what  you had when we were all younger...LOL.

Ah, yes, Old Man Winter, you can take your leave now, and in fact I think he has overstayed his welcome.  For me it is back to my studio to create and keep warm.  Until next time.