The FIrst One

Today I found the first California poppy in bloom for this year! I've seen some alongside the road, but this is the first one in my backyard this year.



Of course, I found it around Noon when it was fully open, and forgot to take a photo until around 4 PM. Once the plant is in the shade (from the fence or other plants, for instance) the flower closes up.






Last evening it looked like this, and I KNEW it would be open today.









It was a LOVELY day to putz around out in the yard today.

I spent most of it tidying up potted plants - you know, cut off the dead wood, pull the weeds (myriads of them!!!!), move the pots around so that they're where they'll be happier.

When Dr Destructo re-did the patio last year, everyone got moved - and just put ANYWHERE! Most of them were not happy. They didn't get the attention they were used to (for the most part, I couldn't GET to them for one reason or another), and the weeds had just taken over...

Luckily, we got lots of rain this year, so there are more survivors than I'd anticipated. So, time spent grooming them will be very worthwhile in the long run.

The honeysuckle fell over during the rains, too, and it just sat there for about two weeks - it was on "the list" every day, but I found lots of excuses not to do anything about it.

Last week I hacked the heck out of it! In the time since it had fallen over, it had started showing some new shoots closer to its base, which was helpful. I knew how far back I could cut it without killing it. So I spent a little time today, re-hanging the netting I want it to grow up, and trying to convince those long runners that they'd be happier if they let me weave them thru the netting to get them started going where I want them.

While I was putzing out there, the cats all came out to join me.

They like it when I'm working out in the backyard. See?



Smudge wants me to pet her and follows me around (or just sits on the patio coffee table)...







Smedley plays "flat cat" ( or just sits on the patio chair!)...






And Velvet just sits on the patio chair and watches and naps...





And then, to top it all off, we had this gorgeous sunset, complete with a new moon!


I know - you probably can't see the new moon, but, trust me, it's there!

New moons are supposed to signify new beginnings.

I hope I was able to give a few of my plants some chances for new beginnings today.


And speaking of new beginnings - you haven't forgotten about SALE-A-BRATION (SAB) have you? I haven't heard from you about what you'd like to order to receive your FREE product! And new stamps and accessories are the doorways to new beginnings!

Call or email me and let me know what you need!

Mr. Big and Vinyl

Hi everyone!

On Saturday, my stamp club ladies got to play with Mr. Big (i.e. Big Shot) and the vinyl we now sell as a separate product.

At this time, it's available in 21 of our 48 colors!

The vinyl we sell is what is used to make our Decor Elements, or as it's now called, Definitely Decorative line of products.

These include the items you can place on your walls.

But, personally, I'm not that ready to commit my walls to something like that - first of all, I should wash them first (not gonna happen, trust me!), and secondly, most of them are fairly large - although most of them are available in three different sizes.

You can browse thru the Definately Decorative catalog by clicking on its image on the left side bar of my blog. Or, alternatively, contact me, giving me your snail mail address, and I'd be happy to pop one into the mail for you.

There are some REALLY cute things in this catalog - and I DO use some of them for projects. I just haven't put them on my walls, as yet.

What I DO use them for are things like mirrors, tiles, serving trays, glass blocks, picture frames, and anything else that's a fairly smooth surface.

The discount stores are a great place to find these items at an awesome price. I showed some of these decorated items here. You'll notice I used a mirror, a tray, and charger plate for some Christmas ideas.

And here, I actually used the Gable Green vinyl to decorate a glass block. I was quite pleased with how this one turned out, since I used the negative image of the Tulipe die on the block. Notice I also ran some of the Pixie Pink vinyl through the Wonderful Wings embosslit to decorate it a little more.

While browsing at a local 99 cent store, I found these cute little containers that were just screaming out to be decorated.

And I thought, what a great thing to use for the vinyl!

I didn't think to photograph everyone's projects before they left on Saturday, and for that, I'm sad. I know how cute they were, but you won't!

So, let me show you the two I did as samples to get the club ladies' creative juices flowing.

I used the Swirls Scribbles Sizzlet die for these.

Used Pumpkin Pie, Gable Green and Taken with Teal to decorate this container.

I'm envisioning this as a trash can (with lid) that you can use when you're stamping or scrapping.






And here's the other one I made. As you can tell, THIS one's MINE, all MINE! LOL

I think I used every flower die I have on hand to make the pieces for this container.

I cut everything ahead of the club meeting, then attached them to the container while everyone watched.

It was SO EASY!










I even cut some extra leaves out of the leftover vinyl from the Little Leaves sizzlet die - that die seems to waste a lot of material, which drives me crazy, so I generally try to cut more out of what's left.

For these, though, I just took my scissors and cut leaf shapes - they look pretty good, don't they?










You've seen just about all of the container.

And it's now sitting on my stamping table, open and waiting for all my scraps!

If I want, I can put the lid on it to take it on a stamping trip with me...








One of the ladies used the Swirly Sizzlit Decorative strip on their containers. It fit perfectly around the bottom of it! Another used the FLowers Sizzlit Decorative strip. It's the same size, and she attached it around the middle - it didn't quite meet, so she covered it with another flower.

Things are ORANGE these days around here. Here are some of the flowers that are blooming in my backyard right now...

The California poppies are in their glory out there, and there is also a Watsonia (also orange) that's just starting to bloom.

It was raining today, so I didn't venture out into the tall weeds to take additional photos. But the sun's supposed to shine tomorrow, so I'll try to show you more then.

I saw on Patty Bennett's blog that she'd photo'd her new rose leaves with rain drops pearling on them. They were absolutely beautiful!

We Californians do value our rain, since we don't get much. Patty lives up around San Francisco and gets lots more than we do in San Diego, but apparently it's valuable there as well!

Do you want to start playing around with Mr. Big and our vinyl? Email or comment to this post and I'd be happy to help you obtain either product!

Thanks for stopping by.