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I'm HOME and as tired as can be from traveling. Delay after delay in airports and on planes... Alan picked me up at the Dallas airport and we pulled into the driveway this morning at 4:30am.
Here's quick note to wish all of you a VERY happy New Year! 2009 is going to be super! I've already got a stash of fun projects to share with you -- stay tuned!!
For the past couple of days, Mom, Aunt Patty and I have been busy being crafty. When I came up from Texas, I brought some of my crystal snowflake supplies, and we've been having a great time making all kinds of snowflakes and chipboard ornaments! Here are a few of the projects we've finished (we've made about 50 ornaments, so this is just a small sampling)...
Mom glittered up several punched snowflakes, along with a painted wooden snowflake when she made this one. She used white crochet thread and a cute little metal button for the center.
Aunt Patty chose fresh colors for this snowflake. It's so pretty in peach, light turquoise and yellow! And would you just LOOK at all those sparkles!
I covered this chipboard star with patterned paper and added some faux stitches around the edges. I added a tin heart with a small brown button for decoration.
Mom made this large SPARKLY snowflake using a wooden snowflake and more paper snowflakes covered with lots of sparkly glitter. She used a pearl brad in the center - so CUTE!
Patty sanded off the edges of her wooden snowflake and added distressing inks to really darken up the wood. She used pretty gold embroidery thread to tie on a button center.
One of the ornaments I purchased earlier this month at Target was this little pair of wood skates. They were so plain, so I took them apart and added sparkly glass glitter and replaced the lacings with nicer twine. I love the little rusty bells, which were already part of the original skates.
The last ornament I'll share on this post is this little tin heart ornament I made. I covered a small chipboard star with patterned paper, added some buttons and hemp twine to finish it off.
And there are so MANY more to show ... stay tuned!! *grin*
I'm still visiting my parents in Northeastern Washington, and we woke up this morning to over a foot of new snow, in addition to all the snow that has accumulated over the past two weeks. It's amazing! Snow, snow, EVERYWHERE!
I walked around taking photos -- the fresh fallen snow in the driveway was well above the top of my boots.
The icicles on the front of the house have started to connect with the snowbank below. The windows on the front of the house are 5' above the ground -- but not any longer with as much snow as we've got!
Even the birdhouses and the squirrel houses are "buried".
And the snow just keeps falling!
It's a winter wonderland, for sure!
Today, the mountains across the small valley in front of the house are hidden from view. Too much snow in the way to see them!
Mom and Aunt Patty and I have been busy crafting though! We stay warm by the fire and enjoy the snowy view through the windows. We've been making SNOWFLAKES -- I'll post photos of some of them soon...
Here are some more photos, taken this Christmas morning at my parent's house in Northeastern Washington (north of Newport, Washington). It's a white Christmas here, for sure! (and it's STILL snowing!)
The front of the house has a lace curtain of icicles. When the snow finally comes off the roof, it's going to be LOUD! To give perspective, the windows and the front porch on the front of the house are 5' from the ground.
The little red building is Mom's chicken house. Behind the hen house is the chicken yard. Mom hasn't had any hens this year. Unfortunately, a raccoon helped herself to some chicken dinners last year. *sad* The small building next to the hen house is the grain storage shed (a converted outhouse!). It's filled to the brim with chewed pinecones, from the squirrels!
Wild turkeys in the yard wait patiently for Dad to feed them some corn.
The snow was really coming down this morning, filling the valley with MORE of the white stuff. The mountains seen from the front yard were mostly hidden by the falling snow.
And the snow just continues to pile up... Beautiful!
Hope wherever you are, you're enjoying this Christmas day with friends and family!
...yup, still snowing!
Alan and I want to wish each of you a very merry Christmas and the happiest of new years! This year has been full of adventure and fun here on the farm, and we're thrilled that you enjoy sharing it with us!
Peace on Earth... cheers to you!
We've been busy busy busy making more felt ornaments! Here's a cute little blue bird I made last night who's snuggled up in a red wooly scarf. I stitched on some sparkly beads and added a little white jingle bell. The birds body is lightly stuffed with polyfill stuffing.
I also made this flatty wooly snowman wearing wooly muffs and scarf. I stuck the ends of a piece of wire in between the layers of felt to finish off the ear muffs. I made a couple of stitches around the wire to hold it in place.
The weather here in Northeastern Washington is still a mess. My parents live about an hour north of Spokane in a small mountain valley. The snow has yet to let up and continues to stack up - everywhere! It's chilly chilly CHILLY! Thankfully, Dad got himself a new snowblower and has been able to keep the driveway clear. The photo above is the front porch (taken about an hour ago). You can see the snow drooping off the railing, and the ice hanging off the eves in layers! So pretty!! The amount of snow we've seen fall this week is unvelieveable! And they're promising 8 to 20 MORE inches of snow tonight and tomorrow...whoa!
Merry Christmas Eve, to you!
One of the things I always look forward to during the holidays with my family is CRAFT time! This year, we decided to make felt ornaments. Mom's been making super CUTE ornaments of snowmen, tea cups, gingerbread men, etc... and me? Well, I've been making CHICKENS, of course! Sorry if the photos aren't as good as usual -- it's tough to do things like usual on a itty bitty laptop I'm traveling with instead of my big desktop computer that I use at home.
Mom has a great assortment of wool felt in all kinds of colors. We draw a pattern on scrap paper, then use the pieces of the paper pattern to cut out the wool shapes. Once all the pieces are cut out, we hand stitch them together! These are so fun to make!
This is Tiny Tim, in his flashy wool coat.
I also made a tall rooster that's slightly stuffed with cotton batting.
And you can't have chickens without a sitting hen! This little fat butterball of a red hen happily sits on her three eggs.
Here are a few of my Mom's designs! She's much better at stitching than me!
Isn't this a cutie of a snowman!?
Look at her gingerbread kids! Ric-Rac and everything!
And finally, her Santa! I love his big red nose!
Oh, and by the way... it's still snowing. *grin*
The sun came out briefly today, so Mom and I walked down to the mailbox to see if we had any goodies. The sky was bright blue and the trees and ground sparkled from the snow. You can see some of the wild turkeys standing in the trail in the above photo. There are about 50 birds that come down to the house when Dad is out giving "treats" to the turkeys and deer in the yard.
On our way back to the house, we noticed several turkey snowangels left in the deep powdery snow where the wild turkeys landed in the yard. They make me LAUGH!! They come flying down off the hills behind the house and beg for my Dad to give them corn. I think the deep snow has been a surprise to many of them -- POOF!
Front yard views from Mom & Dad's, at about Noon today.
It's so quiet with all this snow! ...and it's STILL snowing!
Well! I've finally arrived at my parent's house in Northeastern Washington! My first flight left Dallas at about 5pm on Tuesday, late because we had to go through the de-icing process. I had to change planes in Salt Lake City, but when we landed (late) my connecting flight to Spokane had already departed. I spent Tuesday night in Salt Lake while I waited for the next flight out to Spokane on Wednesday at noon. When we got to Spokane, the airport was closed due to snow and low visibility. We ended up circling the city for 45 minutes while we waited for landing clearance. Amazingly enough, we were allowed to land, AND my suitcases both made it (this is a VERY rare event!)
Mom and Dad picked me up at the airport and we started our way home. It continued to snow. And snow some more. Oh, and look....more snow! Here at the house about 20" of snow has fallen since yesterday morning. And it's still snowing! It's beautiful! Schools are closed. It's white white white! I'll see about getting some photos of the yard.
This morning, the wild turkey's flew down from the trees and landed in the driveway. The snow is so deep, they buried themselves in a poof of white when they landed. It was quite a sight!
More to come!
Yesterday evening, Alan went out to move some round bales into the pastures for the cows and donkeys. As he drove along the fence line, all the critters gathered around the water troughs eagerly waiting for their hay (they love new bales!) He thought to himself "Man, I've got a lot of donkeys." And then did a double-take.... there seemed to be one more set of ears than usual.... time for a headcount... yup, two more ears than usual!
Remember back in early August when tiny little C-Biscuit was born (with no warning), and Muffin (her mama) wouldn't let her nurse? Knowing that IF Molly was pregnant (she's always been rather "round"), she would have gotten pregnant at about the same time as Muffin, so we were hoping that Molly would have her baby soon so that C-Biscuit could possibly nurse off of her, or at least have a little friend her size!
Unfortunately, Molly didn't have her baby and sadly, we lost C-Biscuit. We didn't know exactly just how pre-mature C-Biscuit was... now we know it was easily several months. It's been so long that we haven't even been sure that Molly was even pregnant! I guess she WAS!
MOLLY HAD A BABY!!
Yesterday morning, Molly looked no different than any other day -- there was no reason for us to even suspect that she was going to deliver ... we didn't even have reason to believe that she was in fact pregnant (I emphasize, she's always been rather round). Today, post delivery, she's NOT round!
Meet Nick! Born just in time for Christmas! This is a wonderful thing to see for any young animal -- successful eating!! He seems happy and healthy and strong ... but LITTLE, just like his papa!
I don't know what it is about the animals having babies either when I'm traveling, or just before I leave for someplace, but that's how they seem to do it... I'm leaving for the airport in just a couple of hours, headed up to Northeastern Washington to spend the rest of December with my family. I'd better START packing!!
If you didn't get to read about C-Biscuit, here are some links for you:
Surprise, A Baby Donkey!
Baby Update
Some Mornings Are...
C-Biscuit Update
Alan and I usually make homemade goodies for our friends and neighbors, but this year we just haven't had time for all the baking and candy making. So instead, I put together some simple gifts using store bought goodies for our neighbors instead. These little clear pails come in various sizes - this one is LOADED with various flavors of kisses. This pail is just perfect for a 12" paper band around the center. That made for quick assembly - one cut and I was ready!
The tag is two layers. The front is obviously the sentiment, but the red tag behind says "from Alan & Anna" (or something like that....)
After I took this photo, I slipped a pretty red and white candy cane behind the knot on the ribbon and the button. The candy cane dressed it up just a bit more.
Easy Peasy!
It's the BEST time of every month when I get to introduce you to new Whipper Snapper sets!
I've been busy busy BUSY this past week working on a couple of deadlines and holiday gifts, but I managed to sneak in a few samples using the new sets.
I created this card using the house and "smoke" images from Hello Neighbor. Because my to-do list has been a MILE long (maybe more), clean and simple stamping was a must! Bright colors, dimension, subtle texture, and a cute little 4.5" square card help "cutsie" up the design.
Here's the card I posted earlier this month as a "sneak peek" to the release. This card features images from Bear Hugs. See my original post about this card, here.
There are three new sets this month, and I can't decide which I like best. Maybe all three! Click on the images to view larger.
What's more exciting is finally being able to see what the other designers have been up to! That's my favorite part! Be sure to check out the galleries and blogs of the November/December Featured Designers:
Cindy Haffner
SCS Gallery: http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/go/cindy_haffner
Blog: http://cindyhaffnerscorner.blogspot.com
Cindy Lawrence
SCS Gallery: http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/go/one_happy_stamper
Blog: http://onehappystamper.typepad.com
Kim Teasdale
SCS Gallery: http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/go/blondie090277
Blog: http://paperintheworks.blogspot.com
Lana Lepinski
SCS Gallery: http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/go/LunarLana
Blog: http://lunarlana.typepad.com/livelaughlove
Tori Wild
SCS Gallery: http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/go/wild4stamps
Blog: http://wildsprinkles.blogspot.com
and me!
Anna Wight
SCS Gallery: http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/go/sweetmissdaisy
Blog: http://sweetmissdaisy.typepad.com
By the way, did you know you can see all of the projects current and past Featured Designers have uploaded to their SplitCoast galleries by viewing the Whipper Snapper Featured Designer Gallery? It's true! You can! Have a look -- it's a great place to find all KINDS of inspiration!
Have fun!
We had excitement on the farm today, in the form of BABIES! Little Brown Barn Hen (LBBH) has been sitting on 18 eggs for some time...about 21 days, actually! And this morning, 5 of the eggs hatched!
One of the chicks didn't make it, but the other four did. Alan and I needed to move her and the babies to a warmer location in the barn. Unfortunately, LBBH wasn't interested on sitting on the remaining 13 eggs. Two of them had started to hatch, and we couldn't chance leaving them there with it being so chilly. So, in the house they went.
We also decided that we'd take the rest of the eggs too (that hadn't started hatching). They wouldn't have a chance for survival if mama hen stayed off the nest much longer. So, in the house they went... We put them in an incubator. I'm not sure how many will hatch, but we'll give it our best shot.
The two chicks that had started hatching were successful, and they're doing GREAT! The photo above is them, fresh out of their shells. Another one is working on escaping from it's shell currently, and I expect it to be fully hatched by early morning. So, that will make four chicks outside with Little Brown Barn Hen, and three in the house so far... You know how much I love chickens, and BABY chickens are even BETTER!
Take a look at how CUTE they are! You should be able to view the video here on my blog, but if not you might have better luck where it's posted directly on YouTube.
I love baby chickens! *grin*
Tonight, you might be able to tell!
We're fortunate to have clear skies tonight, and let me tell YOU! The moon is IMPRESSIVELY large tonight! Howww Howwww Howwwwwwwwwwl!
Check out this interesting story of why the moon seems so much larger tonight!
I don't have anything newly made that has been photographed, so I thought I'd dig up something from the archives. Here's a Thomas Kinkade Light of Peace image I watercolored. The image was stamped in black Stazon on smooth watercolor paper and painted with various re-inker colors using a water brush. To not distract from the image itself, I kept the rest of the layout very simple.
Happy Friday!
Can you handle another gift idea using a jar and a crystal snowflake embellishment? I hope so ... I've got more to share! *grin*
This time, I packaged up some deeeeee-lish chocolate truffles in this cute little candy jar. I added a few shakes of crystal sugar and colored sprinkles to the jar too -- edible glitter!
I think the truffles resemble reindeer droppings, so it seemed fitting to use my "reindeer delivery" stamp from my North Pole Post set for Whipper Snapper. The paper has reindeer on it too! Super BasicGrey paper from last winter.
I added a little rusty jingle bell for charm, but it also doubles as a truffle alarm. Serious!
Here's another Reindeer Delivery project I put together for the season.
We have such a variety of eggs on the farm. We have one hen, one of the young Cuckoo Marans ladies, who has been consistently laying HUGE eggs.
Here is one of her HUGE eggs next to a medium sized egg from one of our Silver Laced Cochins, and one of Cinnamon's eggs (a small Red Frizzle Bantam hen).
The Frizzled Bantam egg isn't much different than the Medium Cochin egg, just a bit smaller in size as you could expect from a smaller egg.
But, SURPRISE! The HUGE Cuckoo Marans eggs are double-yolkers! Two yolks in one shell! I guess she's an over-achiever! Occasionally a hen's ovulation cycle is too quick, and the result is typically a double-yolker egg. This is another example of what can occur when a young hen's egg laying track works out the kinks!
In case you missed the video showing Rebecca Bower successfully hatching two chicks from a double-yolker (a very rare event), see it here.
Target always has great candles (not just during the holidays), and I was happy to see that they brought back their birch bark candles this year for fall/winter! These candles are great, and so easy to dress up!
I wrapped the candle with a fun rustic plaid ribbon and hemp twine. I added one of my rust and crystal snowflake ornaments as the center piece. I'd be thrilled to receive this as a gift, and I hope it's enjoyed by the person it's going to!
The 'peace on earth' sentiment stamp is from my unmounted set called North Pole Post.
Here's a quick little (4.5" square) card I put together last night. I have been meaning to get this card done for days! I had all the pieces ready, but just didn't have the time to finish it until last night. A couple of big projects were at the top of the priority list -- once they were completed, I could finally move on to this card!
The red snowflake layer is fabric that I roughly cut into a square with my pinking shears. I stitched it to my card base, along with a strip of striped ribbon from Stampin' Up. The chicken image is from my stamp set Cozy Critters, and the sentiment is from Winter Schminter. I found a wood button in my stash o' buttons. It was a bit too plain, so I inked it up a bit with some distress ink. Much better!
I've noticed quite a few button/bow combinations on people's projects lately, so I gave it a whirl! Fun!
I even added a bit of glass glitter to the chicken's hat.
I can't even begin to tell you just how hard I've been laughing, for two days now! Yesterday evening, Tiny Tim started crowing. We've never heard him crow before, and it's likely that he's just now figuring out how.
The nights have been in the low 30s to high 20s, and that's just too cold for Tiny Tim to be out with the others, so we keep him in a small kennel in our utility room at night. I took this little video this morning, while we waited for it to warm up enough for him to go back outside with the rest of his chicken friends.
The little "hiccup" he does at the end of his crow is there every time! It's a stinkin' RIOT!!
Oh, and by the way, to make the entries about Tiny Tim easier to find, I've created a Tiny Tim the Frizzled Roo category - you'll find it over on the right side, in the categories section. Who knew such a crazy little chicken would have such a following! I'll get the other posts about Tiny Tim added to that category as well.
The video:
You should be able to view the video here on my blog, but if not here is a link to the video as posted on YouTube.
PS: Looks like it's time to toss Tiny Tim's coat in the wash! *grin*
That's what I've been this week -- BUSY! Don't get me wrong ... busy is a good thing, especially with the kind of busy I've been. But when the UPS man showed up this evening at 6:45pm, my to-do list came to a screeching halt! Glen (our UPS man) had a Whipper Snapper box in his hands, and that can only mean one thing -- new rubber!!
Inside the box were copies of my new December Whipper Snapper stamp sets and the inserts that I so lovingly hand sign. I could NOT wait to try out the images! Lucky you, here's a sneak peek of a set called Bear Hugs that will release on December 15th! I *love* it, and can't wait to play more!
If you're not on the Whipper Snapper mailing list, I suggest you pop on over and add your name to their mailing list (look in the very top right hand corner of their site for the newsletter field). Good things happen on the mailing list and I wouldn't want anyone to miss out on Whipper Snapper goodness!
I stamped the images in black Stazon and painted them with a water brush and re-inkers. The patterned paper is BasicGrey, from the Urban Prairie line. And speaking of BasicGrey, I got a peek at some of their new fabric coming out early 2009, and ooooooh-la-la! *pitter patter*
I've got a busy weekend ahead... clock's tickin'!
AMAZING..... not 15 minutes after I made my last post regarding the wind egg and the yolk-less egg, I went out to check on the hens before turning in for the night and LOOK WHAT I FOUND UNDER THE PERCHES!!
This is a DOUBLE Wind Egg!
It's a pretty good guess that the hen that laid this is a Silver Laced Cochin -- and what's more amazing is that she laid this while on the perch, at least 4' off the ground! At nearly MIDNIGHT! (She's in the exact same spot she was in when I checked on them a couple of hours ago.)
I'm sure the 4'+ drop to the ground is what caused one of the eggs to break. You can see that they're attached in the center, and their shells are soft and squishy. The yellow goop on the still-whole egg is the yolk from the broken egg.
What's even MORE amazing.... at 8:15pm this evening, I saw THIS photo online and sent the link to Alan saying "Can you imagine!".
HOW FREAKY that I would find one so similar in our hen house just hours after seeing one online! VERY WEIRD!!
It's so exciting to have our hens starting to lay eggs! We have 10 Cuckoo Marans hens who lay lovely dark brown shelled eggs. Here are some of the eggs from the past few days. It's a riot to see some of their first eggs as their bodies figure out how things are supposed to work.
Yesterday, I was surprised to find the little yolk-less egg right in the middle of the chicken yard! (The small egg in the center.) Some people call small eggs like this wind eggs-- but I don't think that is the correct term. They're really just yolk-less. According to Wikipedia, yolk-less eggs are usually formed from a bit of tissue that is sloughed off the ovary or oviduct. The tissue stimulates the secreting glands of the oviduct and a yolk-less egg results.
Wind Eggs on the other hand, are eggs that don't have a shell -- just the membrane that surrounds the white and yolk. We actually had one of those in the nest box yesterday, but I didn't get a photo. It was a regular sized egg, but instead of having a hard shell, it had a very squishy thin shell.
Usually wind eggs get broken before they're found since they're so delicate, but Flopsy (one of the Cuckoo Marans hens) was just leaving the nest box when I found her shell-less egg. Sometimes hens who are lacking in calcium lay shell-less eggs, so I added a bit of calcium to the feed. But more than likely, Flopsy's egg mechanism is still working the kinks out.
Eggs make me happy... *grin*
Here's another fun project I finished up this past weekend. I tell ya, since it wasn't snowing outside, I went all out for snowflakes inside!
The large snowflake is a rustic laser cut wood ornament, 5" wide. While it was nice as bare wood, being dressed up with glass glitter is even better! The wood of the original snowflake ornament was really quite light in color. I used brown inks to warm it up a bit before I added the glitter, and several layers of snowflake goodness. I even glittered up the wooden ball at the base of the divine Martha ribbon (which was also replaced from the original icky gold string).
This close-up photo of the center of the snowflake shows the various layers I added. There's a cream colored snowflake, followed by brown branches, followed by a crystal wine colored snowflake, followed by the jingle bell wires and a fun faux-wood button. It's all held together with hemp twine.
I think it's important to finish the back of ornaments too, so while I was assembling the layers on the front, I made sure to weave the twine through this fun Pierre Cardin button (see! it is a Designer Snowflake!) to dress up (camouflage) the hemp twine wrapping I had to do to secure the items attached to the front. I even added glitter to the back of the large snowflake. Plenty of sparkle on this sucker!
I attempted to photograph this hanging on one of our trees, but it's been so windy it just hasn't been possible. Oh well! *grin*
The big question is do I sell this ornament, or keep it for myself ..... ack!
I warned you that you'd see more snowflakes from me this week! I am so addicted to snowflakes these days!
Here's a quick and easy gift item for friends or co-workers. I picked up this fun square jar for a buck at Michael's last time I was in town. It's not the smallest size they had, but both sizes were the same price, and this one seemed a bit more generous as a gift. More room for more chocolates!
I also picked up a few bags of the oh-so-deelish Hot Cocoa flavored Hershey's Kisses. Mmmm! I filled the jar with kisses, tossed in some faux-snow, and wrapped the outside with Cosmo Cricket paper and crystal snowflake goodness!
I chose the "let there be peace" sentiment for this jar. The sentiment is from my Snowman for Peace set from Whipper Snapper.
'Tis the season...
