Inspired by Martha Stewart

I have been away from blogging for so long I hardly know where to start.  The layout of this card is from a card in the new CTMH catalog.  I had made one but it just wasn’t what I had in mind.  I kept thinking orange for some reason.  Well, the other nigh when I was watching tv there was a commercial for the Martha Stewart show and there was a basket of orange tulips.  Colors used are orange,  citrus leaf, hygrangea & white.  The stamp is from Stampin’ UP.  I colored image with Marvy markers.  The orange gems at the top are from a Hero Arts Halloween set. Ribbon is from JoAnn’s.  I used my Cricut and the Wildcard cartridge to make the 5 1/2 circle. 

Now for why I haven’t posted or made a card in a coon’s age.  The month of December I was so tired all the time I could hardly do anything.  My hand was hurting aching something fierce so it was hard to make cards.  In fact I only got out about half of my Christmas cards. 

Found out I have a benign nodule on my left thyroid but according to all my test results that shouldn’t make me tired.  However my doctor put me on a low dose of thyroid meds.  Annual physical showed my kidney function was off so I am working with a kidney specialist to figure out my meds (high blood pressure and cholesterol).   But I do have some good medical news.  I saw my orthopedic surgeon Jan 11  and  he said he could do a procedure called Arthrex Tightrope. He  pulled and pushed and manipulated my thumb and the next day my hand was very sore.  but then it started to get better and just for the fun of it I tried doing some things that I haven’t been able to do like chop veggies etc.  When they called to give me a surgery date I told them that my thumb wasn’t bothering me and they checked with the doctor and he said at this point I could cancel.  If I had the surgery I was going to be in a surgical dressing for two weeks and a splint for 6 weeks and very little use of my thumb for a total of 4 months. 

Weather here right now is fine but come Sunday night we are supposed to get rain and freezing rain then back to lake effect snow and cold next week.  We need some fresh snow for snowshoeing.

Santa Frog

 

I saw a frog image very much like this one in a Christmas card catalog.  The card was kind of plain with just the frog , hat and lily pad.  I added some pizzazz to it.  The saying at the bottom says “Toadily Cool, Truly Ribbeting” and is stamped with Black Staz On.  The HO HO HO I did while I was editing the photo. 

Striped paper is Frances Meyers, Green CS is New England Ivy from CTMH, the frog is stamped with New England Ivy on white.  That stamp is All Night Media, the stocking cap is stamped in CTMH’s Cranberry and the stamp is from the All Decked Out set by CTMH.  Lily pad and saying are on New England Ivy. The lily pad is done with Lasting Impressions dry embossing.  I put red stickles on the cap pom pom.  Red ribbon is from JoAnn’s.  I popped  the frog and lily pad up with 3M mounting tape to give it some dimension.

Today was a very dreary day weather wise.  I got  the kitchen cleaned up and a bunch of junk thrown away and the pantry tidied up.  Tomorrow I am looking forward to cooking a nice Thanksgiving dinner.  We are having  a rotisserie chicken already cooked I just have to warm it up.  Happy Thanksgiving.

From Penguins to Polar Bears

The inspiration for this card came from Allison’s blog.  I didn’t  have a penguin so I used a polar bear.  The image is from CTMH’s Chillin set.  He is stamped in Outdoor Denim.  His scarf is cranberry.  I put the cranberry cardstock through my snowflake cuttlebug folder.  Striped paper is Yellow Bicycle.  Ribbon is from JoAnn’s.  I used foam tape under the navy but you can’t tell it from the photo. 

Yesterday I had a couple of medical tests in Petoskey and I couldn’t eat before I had them and my dear husband also went without breakfast. 

I went to therapy center to see what the Get Moving Program was about.  The first time I go, one of the therapists tailors an exercise program based on my needs and shows we how to use the equipment.  I can go as many times as I want for a month.  I wish it were closer than 75 miles away.  But if I can go at least once a week (I’m hoping for twice a week) it will be worth it.  I want to work on my right glut  and left hamstring.  They also have a pool but I don’t know if that is part of the deal.  I go for my first session Nov 30. 

I am reading Sarah’s Key by Tatiana De Rosnay about a 10 year old girl in 1942 France. 

Snowman and Cardinals

I got the idea for this card from a catalog that had sweatshirts.  The snowman is a wooden Penny Black.  The cardinals are also Penny Black from a Christmas clear stamp set.  The paper the snowman is on is the middle of PSX Snowman border.  It is layered on burgundy from the Paper Factory. I stamped the birds in Brilliance Rocket Red. The snowman is colored with Prisma Colored Pencils.   I might put some stickle on later but it never shows up in the photos and my  hand is hurting and swelled up some and squeezing the stickle bottle really does a number on my hand. 

My card area is mostly clean, just a few papers laying around here and there. 

I tinkered around some outside this afternoon.  Tomorrow it might rain.  We have certainly gotten spoiled with all the nice weather we have been having.   

Think I will go read the book that came with my new computer about the touch screen stuff.

O Holy Night

When I saw this stamp by Inkadinkadoo a few weeks ago I fell in love with it.  I stamped it in Cranberry on Bamboo.  That is layered on some gold shiny paper.  The striped paper is last years Christmas pack from Die Cuts With A View.  Just a simple gold metallic ribbon finishes it off. 

Today was another gorgeous day in northern Michigan.  Temps in the 50’s and bright sunshine. 

Last Saturday a friend and I went to Petoskey to take a card class.  One of the gals there said there was a craft show at the fairgrounds.  After the class and lunch we went to check it out.  We each got a free 10 minute massage  and I participated in a Silent Auction and won a month at the therapy center, along with a tshirt, water bottle and bag.  They have a program called Get Moving so will see what that is about. 

Slowly but surely I am getting used to my new computer.  Yesterday I bought a 16 gig flashdrive to store all my pics from my old computer. 

One of our thieves waived his right to a prelim hearing and is going to Circuit Court and the other guy is going for another prelim hearing in 21 days. 

I put up my outdoor front porch tree decoration.  It is a bunch of evergreens, pinecones, red berries and dried milkweed sprayed silver in an urn.  Our porch is covered so it stays good all winter.  Last year we put in cedar and one deer came and ate all the cedar so this year I didn’t get any cedar. 

Guess that is about it for tonight. 

Bird Nest

The other day a friend and I were walking in the woods and saw this bird’s nest.  Don’t know what kind it is. The nest is right next to the trail.   I was going to post a picture of a card I made but my camera battery needs charging. 

Slowly but surely I am getting used to this new computer.  Some of my programs don’t work like Boggle and Microsoft Picture It.  With Boggle I can just download a version on line but with Picture It I am going have to learn a whole new editing system.  Also I don’t have MS Word, now that one I can get if I am willing to pay big bucks.  So far MS Works seems to be very much like Word. 

We are still having fantastic weather.  Firearms deer season started today and I am sure that the hunters would like colder weather and some tracking snow. 

Tomorrow the guys that stole the copper wire are going to court and Jim has been subpoenaed.

Dinner Time

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you look close  you can see two gold finches eating seeds off the cone flower seed heads.  I have read that you should leave the heads as the birds like to eat them.  This is the first year I have seen them eating.  There are several other finches eating here and there but they just blend in too well with the background.

I spent several hours working on getting files etc on my new computer and I have hardly made a dent.  Then I had a printer problem but I finally fixed it. 

It snowed, rained, sleeted etc off and on all day long.  This weekend is supposed to be really nice.