Good Thoughts

Welcome back and happy Saturday!  We're into 48 hours of nearly constant snow, with accumulation of about a foot.  My daughter, who lives about an hour south of us, has two feet! Fun times, she says!  Ha!  I'll share some photos of our yard at the end of my post, but now I have a card to share with you that was made for Seize the Birthday.

http://seizethesketch.blogspot.com.au/

I wanted to use my Peaceful Petals stamp set, so I flipped the sketch 90 degrees so the top panel would be vertical.  I had masking in mind with the floral stamp but realized it cutting out a mask for it would be quite detailed, so I decided to make a mask for the long leaf image instead.

The flowers were colored with a blender pen using Crisp Cantaloupe, Calypso Coral and Tangerine Tango.  It's always tricky (for me at least) to color with reinkers on regular card stock, as I tend to get a bit heavy handed and the friction causes the paper to pill.  So, for this image, I used a very light touch so I could apply the various layers of color.

The tangerine and gray combination is really lovely together.  The little piece of Very Vanilla peeking out to the right of the main image was punched from the Doily Triple Layer punch. The Tangerine Tango ribbon is from last year's Sale-A-Bration Sycamore Street embellishments, and it was tied on top of a piece of Victoria Crochet Trim.

Well, that's it for the card photos.  The remainder are some snow shots from our backyard.

That's a little table in a seating area at the back of the yard, and you can see the snow is about a foot deep on top.  The dip in the fence in front of it is actually from a piece of driftwood attached to the fence that was brought home from one of our trips to the Oregon coast.  The birds have hopped up there and knocked off some of the snow.

My husband loves having bird feeders in the back yard, and with the snow, it's been a busy crowded place, with Towhees, Doves, Juncos, Sparrows, and Chickadees all sharing space to eat seed, plus we've had a rare visit from a juvenile Black headed Grosbeak.  Unfortunately he was a bit camera shy and every time I thought I had a shot (I'm sitting at my kitchen table trying to get shots out the sliding glass window), he'd scoot out of range. 

 We also have two resident Hummingbirds.  They need to keep eating in this weather and since there are no bugs to supplement their diet, Kevin has been vigilant in thawing their feeder when it freezes up (we've been in the low to mid 20's for days).

Late yesterday he had brought the feeder in to thaw and one of the Hummingbirds was hovering outside the slider, as if to say "Hey, where's my food?"  I swear it would have flown in the house if the door would have been open.

That's all for me.  I know our snow situation isn't nearly as desperate as other areas in the country, it's just that we aren't used to it (last substantial snow storm was in December 2008), so to us it's a big deal.  I hope everyone who visits is safe and warm (U.S.) or keeping cool (my friend in Australia where it's a scorcher!!)

Hugs,

Stef

Product details:

Stamps:  Peaceful Petals, Perfect Pennants

Paper:  Basic Gray, Very Vanilla, Tangerine Tango, Venetian Romance designer series paper

Ink:  Basic Gray, So Saffron, Daffodil Delight, Tangerine Tango, Calypso Coral, Crisp Cantaloupe, Pistachio Pudding, Stone Gray (Stazon)

Other:  Victoria Crochet Trim, Sycamore Street Tangerine Tango ribbon, Doily Triple Layer punch, Fancy Fan embossing folder.