A Beautiful Day in February

Today I went out and felt the day. The sun was shining on my face and the slight breeze was blowing my hair. I noticed some milkweed plants were sending out seeds. A tiny seed hanging onto a little fluff flying through the air. I could smell the pollen in the air.






A lot has happened in my life since the last post on this blog. I attended and graduated from the University of Florida. This is a picture of me of and some my classmates




I got a new car (Maleficent) -- a black beauty. 

I injured my wrist and developed De Quervain's tenosynovitis and basal joint arthritis in my thumb. I have lost all the strength in my hand and find normal everyday movements like turning a knob and opening a door next to impossible. I installed voice recognition software to my computer so I can eliminate typing as much as possible. I tried to stamp gift tags for the holidays and found it very painful. So with that I realized I will need to find other hobbies to enjoy. 

 


Right now I am trying my hand at crochet and so far it has not caused me any pain or discomfort. This is a sample of a 12"x12" square block I donated to a woman adopting a child. She wanted to give the child something made by the community so he/she would feel loved and welcomed.





I am reverting this blog back into its original purpose -- a journal for my daily adventures and interactions with nature. This is going to be the year of good health and I am living more mindfully and paying closer attention things happening around me.

I am also linking this blog with my other blog Becoming Belladonna. This blog will carry book reviews some of which appear in the Global Goddess Oracle ezine. In the Oracle I have revived my herb column and found the writing so rewarding.

May you be blessed with a beautiful day wherever you are. Happy belated New Year.

Welcome to the Sparkle N Sprinkle Deco Divas/Love Is In the Air Blog Hop!

Can’t you feel love in the air! Soon we will be surrounded by flowers and candy as we celebrate St Valentine's Day. I can smell the roses already. But there shouldn’t be just a single day to share our feelings with loved ones. We should tell them every day how we feel. This year my husband and I will be celebrating 18 years together and I am proud to say romance is still very much alive! If you arrived here from Jessica's blog then you are in the right place!

For this blog I used the #454S Heart Wings stampette stamp set. I wanted to do something different so I thought I would try out a new product.Recently I bought a Fiskars Compact Stamp Press. This was the first time I used it. I used the four lines of text by placing them on the clear grid of the stamp press. I removed the second and fourth lines and used a Memories Pink dye ink and stamped on white card stock. I removed these lines of text and replaced them with the first and third lines and used Memories Imperial Purple dye ink.

I then stamped a VersaMark pad over the entire piece of card stock. I poured Super Thick Clear Embossing powder (EP230) over the VersaMark and used a heat gun. Once all the embossing powder was melted I used ½” double sided “Tear-ific” tape (#SAT04) to attach the white card stock to Stardream Amethyst cardstock and wrapped a pink ribbon around it. Then I used the tape to attach it to the Stardream Rose Quartz card base.

I cut a small piece of pink ribbon and wrapped it around the attached ribbon to create a small bow. I then placed a Conversation Heart sticker on the top of the ribbon. I used the Spellbinders Classic Hearts Nestabilities to create a Stardream Rose Quartz heart. I then stamped Always & Forever with Memories Imperial Purple ink and attached it to the card front with dimensional pop-dots. I then used a shank remover on a white pearl heart button and used a glue dot to attach it to the Rose Quartz heart.

I hope you enjoyed my card. And remember, enjoy the people in your life and show the love!

Your next stop is to April's blog. Please leave a comment on my blog in order to qualify for the prizes. This is a list of all the participants in the blog hop.

SNS Home Blog

Barbara Bruder

Julie Zippel

Lana Clarke

Karalee Ingram

Charlene Driggs

Amanda Reed

Shanna Shands

Shona Erlenborn

Gerlinde Townsley

Angie Blasingame

Marie Berquist

Karin Martin

Jessica Griffin

Dawn Thomas (you are here!)

April Williams

Jill Jacobsen

Brenda Smalle

SNS Home Blog

Welcome to Sparkle N Sprinkle: Its a Cultural Thing Blog Hop!

From sunny Florida!! We are finally experiencing some cooler weather. I cannot say how happy I am about that. If you hopped here by way of Sandy Meier, then you are in the right place! You may want to start at the SNS Home Blog to become eligible for four great prizes.

I am so excited and have been looking forward to this blog hop for a long time. I love working with these stamps as you will be able to tell from my cards. You can change the look of the card just by changing the color of embossing powder and paints. These stamps are as diverse as we are.

 I used the Elements stamp set #316 to create my card. I rubbed the black cardstock with an anti-static bag and then stamped with VersaMark ink. I covered the image with embossing powder (the first card has Silver Detail and the second has Gold Detail) then shook off the excess over a coffee filter then used a heat gun. Use Smooch ink or metallic paints to color rest of the image and set aside to dry. Use scissors to cut out images and attach to card front.

Believe it or not the backgrounds are created using napkins. I love this technique and use it often. Once you try this technique you will see napkins in a new light!

1. First start by unfolding your napkin and if it is a multi-ply napkin, carefully pull the layers apart so that you only have the top decorative layer for your project.
2. Cut a piece of freezer paper a little larger than your napkin (about 1/2 to 3/4")
3. Heat your iron while you first lay your freezer paper, shiny side up, on your ironing board. Next, lay your decorative napkin (pretty side up) onto your freezer paper, and then lay your copy paper on top of your napkin.
4. Heat with your iron (set on medium - no steam) for about 15 to 30 seconds, moving your iron over the copy paper, applying gentle pressure until your napkin is adhered to your freezer paper.
5. Now just apply your pretty napkin to your cardstock, (just like you would if you were using patterned paper) and complete your project as desired.

Thank you for visiting my blog. I hope you decide to try this technique in the future. It is an easy way to create beautiful patterned background.

These are a few other cards I have created using the same stamps. As you can see, just by changing the colors or the background changes the way the stamp looks.

Please leave a comment to become eligible for a prize. Your next stop on the blog hop is Donna Ellis where I know she has something wonderful planned.

These are stops in the "Its A Cultural Thing Blog Hop"

SNS Home Blog

Linda Loew

Amanda Reed

Shona Erlenborn

Angie Blasingame

Barbara Bruder

April Williams

Julie Zippel

Eleanor Jenkins

Karin Martin

Gerline Townsley

Marie Berquist

Patti White

Sandy Meier

Dawn Thomas (You are here!)

Donna Ellis

Then return to the home blog page SNS Home Blog

Svartalheim (Day of Adventure)

November 9^th: Today is another beautiful day with low humidity. I tried to move a caterpillar walking across the sidewalk but he wasn’t interested. There was a smaller caterpillar walking up the wall near the other two chrysalises. There was this awesome but very scary looking spider on the soffit.

When I reached into my bag to pull a rune, I was drawn to three runes. I pulled them out and turned them over. The runes were: Berkana (birch, new beginnings), Fehu (cattle, prosperity), and Eihwaz (yew tree, protection). These are great runes and when pulled in combination are even better.

I had calculus today and got test #3 back. I got a 74. Considering there were several word problems. I have a difficult time trying to figure out where to begin. I am happy with my grade and my average is an 81.6. After I add the 5% for attendance I have an 86% average for the class. Today we started the topic of Implicit Differentiation. It just makes my head spin!

Muspelheim (Day of Vision)

Today I spent most of the day working on assignments for the Exploring Sensory Perception course. I continued my work transferring caterpillars to Milkweed plants. I went out tonight to take advantage of the sale at a local store. I spent way more than I should but that’s what shopping sales is all about. I bought four Nestabilties and two border/corner punch sets.

My rune today was Nauthiz (needfire, survival). This could be my work with the Monarch caterpillars. I have been working to transfer them to healthy plants when they have eaten all the ones near them. It is getting late in the season and I want as many as possible to survive.