BIRDS NESTS, FABRIC SCRAPS, AND RECYCLING

I was up hoppin' along the internet this AM following some links to the Artful Bag Challenge at Frosted Petunias and came across a posting at Ruby Moon Art. This lady has been involved in some very interesting swaps and challenges, but it was a post about fabric scraps and birds nests that really got me to thinking. Here is a link :  http://rubymoonart.blogspot.com/2011/03/spring-bunting-swap-sneek-peak.html  She discussed taking her fabric scraps that were too small to save or unusable, loading them up in a suet holder, poking a stick thru the holder and hanging it outside for the birds to take the fabric scraps for their nest. Such a cool practical idea !!  I know for a fact the birds would love it.  Here is a picture I borrowed from her blog (I added her name to it).

That set me to remembering when I had horses.  For about 20 yrs, I kept 3 horses (2 mares and a gelding) til they died of old age.  Cherokee (my gelding) would always put on a really heavy winter coat and every spring I would spend days and days til I got him completely brushed out when he started shedding.  We started noticing that a lot of the birds nests (we had 4 acres of trees, privet hedge and pasture) had white stuff in them.  When the babies had flown the nest, we took some of them down and guess what we found.  Cherokee's hair (he was a pinto with blue roan spots) was lining and worked into the sides and bottom of the nests.  Talk about recycling!! But the really neat nest was the one that had metal tags and wire worked into it.  My father had an aircraft salvage business and a lot of military aircraft bits and pieces would have these metal tags about the size of a postage stamp attached with safety wire.  Daddy would cut the wire to remove them and toss the wire and tags in barrels for scrap metal.  Apparently the birds wanted to add a little bling to their nests and would steal the stuff from the barrels. I wish I had pics of those nests.  We saved them for use at Vacation Bible School and the kids had a fit over them. I guess I lost them when I moved several years ago because I have no idea what happened to them. 
Being the pack rat that I am, I have alway saved fabric scraps.  I used to make string doll quilts with them to sell at craft shows and still have sacks of the stuff. Now I have a new use for those scraps. I will be hanging a couple of those holders out for the birds.
Thank you Amy for such a great idea.  I will be returning frequently to your beautiful blog. 
Have a great start to the holiday weekend and happy crafting.
God Bless all of you.
Mary

MINI COMPOSITION BOOK SWAP ~ MINE HAS ARRIVED!!

A couple of weeks ago Tee at http://creationsbytee.blogspot.com/ hosted a mini comp book swap.  My partner was Valerie at http://bastelmania-craftattack.blogspot.com/, and I received her package last nite (my husband didn't pick up Saturday's mail til last nite). WOW AND DOUBLE WOW!!!   Even the envelope she mailed it in is a keeper.  Such beautiful paper to cover the shipping envelope.  And then there are the goodies inside.  Here are the pics !!!

the envelope !!!

the package

the book front cover and the tag

the back cover

                                                                                     the inside ~graph paper !!!!

                                                                              I love graph paper !!!

This is the first swap I have ever been involved in.  It was a lot of fun and I hope to get to do another one in the near future. 
Dear Valerie : Thank you so much for such lovely goodies. I will always treasure them.
I hope everyone has a great week.
God Bless y'all!!
Mary

LILLY'S LACE WEDDING GIVEAWAY

This must be the season for lot's of fantastic giveaways.  Cindy at http://lillyslace.blogspot.com/2011/06/two-wedding-kit-lace-giveaways.html is having 2 giveaways on July 13,2011. Bits and pieces (some large) of wedding dress and lots of lace and other embellishments. 

#1 giveaway

 The kind of stuff you pray to find at a sale and just drool over.  Beautiful fancy stuff. Her blog is great and she is a very talented lady.  So be sure and check out her archives for lots of eye candy. 
mary

BLOG GARDEN CHALLENGE ~ TAG TUESDAY

Well, another challenge ~ and the lucky subject  ~ 7 ~ and here is my contribution to the challenge.  I stuck to the adage "keep it simple ". Here is a link to the challenge ~  
http://bellesouth-blogchallengegarden.blogspot.com/2011/06/tag-tuesday-number-7.html

I used Wikipedia for the languages and I rendered them by hand with a marker. I made the shapes by hand and hand painted them with Apple Barrel and Ceramcoat paints. Those shapes were not easy to reproduce.  My hat goes off to the folks that have to use those numbers all the time. 
Y'all have a nice weekend and God Bless you.
Mary

LYNN @ TEACUPSTITCHES IS HAVING A GIVEAWAY

Lynn at Teacupstitches is have a 'Just Because' giveaway of one of the beautiful decorated bottles.  The drawing is June 30,2011.  'Just Because' is because it is summer, vacations, sea shores, fun at the lake, all the good stuff of summer. Here is a link: http://lynn-teacupstitches.blogspot.com/2011/06/just-because-giveaway-for-you.html#comment-form  and here is a picture. 

Y'all hop on over and check out her site and the giveaway.  She is worth the time just look at all the beautiful pretties she makes.
Y'all have a Blessed day and happy crafting.
Also good luck in the giveaway.
Mary

A WEEK FROM HELL AND OTHER ADVENTURES

First of all I would like to appoligize for that horrible text color (neon green) last time. I couldn't read it either!! You won't see that color again.
This week started out OK. I finished my altered art mini comp book for the swap over at http://creationsbytee.blogspot.com/
 "The Altered Paper" .  That was fun. It is the first time I covered a book WITHOUT sewing on the cover.  I will post pictures when Valerie has had time to receive her package.  It went to Germany so it will probably take 10-14 days.
First I have to tell you that here in Alabama the tempature highs has not been below 90 + but one or two days at most since the tornadoes came thru on April 27.  That is actually very unusal for this time of the year.  Second I don't have airconditioning in my home any more. The central air died several years ago from too much lime (we have lots of lime quarries in Shelby county) in the air that ate holes in the copper coil and since the warranty had just run out on the unit and it would cost over $1500.00+ to replace AND the three different companies I talked to said it would probable happen again in 5-6 years and I didn't have $1500.00+ to spend, I have relied on ceiling fans in all the rooms, box fans, and more fans etc. etc.. Mostly I have survived pretty well except late in the afternoons when the sun hits the back of the house (mainly the kitchen and den).  You really don't want to do a lot of cooking at that time of the day.  We have adjusted our life style to accommodate that.  Well this week the refrigerator in the kitchen with the ice maker started acting up and it has gone downhill fast. Now it does not work at all. Makes weird sounds, drips water and for some reason the water cut off doesn't cut off completely.  Everyone wants at least $75 just to look at it plus more to fix it.  Luckily I have 2 side by side refrigerators and looks like I am going to have reduce down to one.  The one with the ice maker isn't cooling as much as it should. 
Then the riding lawn mower decided to throw a pulley off the cutting deck and we have to get that fixed.  I have a VERY GOOD FRIEND that has volunteered to fix that.  Thank you Sandy.  You are the sweetest guy in the world. And a real lifesaver.
Anyway it is only Wednesday so I am holding my breath.  We are supposed to have thunderstorms the rest of the week and SLIGHTLY lower temps.  We really need the rain because we haven't had but about an inch in the last month and a half and this is usually a rainy time of the year, instead we have had a drought.  But if the storms are anything like yesterday I worry.  I was nearly blown of the road coming back from the library and post office.  Wind rocked the van. Really was afraid.  Any way I will let you know. 
I am working on some new challenges ~ tags etc.  Will have pics maybe this afternoon.
For now may God Bless each of you and keep you safe.
Mary

DRAGON'S DREAM CHALLENGE~ IT'S ALL IN THE NUMBERS

Another day and another challenge.  At Dragonsdream 'tag it on' challenge they want you to use numbers.  I found this picture of 2 birds and a nest and at the bottom of the picture is a nest with 4 pretty eggs.  Too good to resist.  The Graphic's Fairy has some of the best clipart.  I check with her atleast every other day just to see the new pretties she has found.  That is where I found this picture.  I painted the tag with blue pearl paint from Delta Ceramcoat and added some vintage lace, the bird pic and at the bottom I used a leaf punch by EKSucess. I hand lettered the numbers on the leaves and glued them to some purple ribbon. I strung some selvege trimmings with lots of pretty colorful numbers to finish the tag. 
Dragon has some pretty interesting challenges each week.  You can find them at this link: http://dragon-dragonsdream.blogspot.com/2011/06/tio-83-numbers-game.html
Here is my entry.  Hope you will check out the other entries (they are from all around the world). They are worth the time.

Hope you all have a great weekend.  Come join the challenge if you have time. 
Hugs
Mary

MORE CHALLENGES & MY VERY FIRST TAG!!

I am really getting into this 'challenge' thing.  I found another one that does a weekly challenge making 'tags'.  Now I have seen all kinds of tags on ETSY and other blogs.  Lots are very elaborate and lots are very simple.  Some use lots of paper, ribbons, yarn, pics, and sometimes lots of lace and beads.  I have looked at lots of tags and decided I wanted to try to make some.  Well, here is my first tag. The challenge over at  http://bellesouth-blogchallengegarden.blogspot.com/ uses a focus word for the theme and you can do anything you like.  Now that is not hard at all. Luck would have it, that I had already been thinking about birds for a 'swap' on another blog (more about that later this week) and had printed some copies of vintage post cards to start playing with.  So this afternoon I got out my box of tags, a bottle of glue, some lace and trims, and started putting my working sketch together.  When I finished the parts I had sketched I decided it need a little bit more and pulled a couple of feathers from an old boa on the shelf.  So here is my entry for Rebecca's challenge at 'Blog challenge Garden' Tag Tuesday. I call it "Bird in a Gilded cage". I used white Ceramcoat 'Pearls' paint for the background,  Aileens 'Twice as Tacky' glue, some gold trim, gold ribbon, a paper bird from a vintage Christmas card, a pink ribbon flower I made, a sharpy pen to draw limbs for the bird to sit on, some old lace, ribbons and of course the recycled feathers. Come and join the fun and create your own tags.
 Please go and check out Rebecca's challenge blog (and check out the past challenge entries) to see some beautiful art work from a bunch of very talented folks.  http://bellesouth-blogchallengegarden.blogspot.com/

Here is my entry:

ARTFUL BAG CHALLENGE AND LOTS OF FUN

Once again I have gotten myself involved with a monthly challenge. For several years I participated in the monthly challenge at 'MindWideOpen'. But, alas, Gail closed the challenge.  Now I have found a new one to try my luck in.  Over at Frosted Petunia's, Anna has a challenge to make a handbag or purse out of anything except a purse. Here is a link to Anna's site:  http://frostedpetunias.blogspot.com/2011/06/june-artful-bag-challenge.html  
 DVD cases, paper sacks, etc, etc.  I decided to use a Nestle's Quick Chocolate container for my entry. 

I covered it with some batting and cotton fabric, made a lining, hinged the lid with ribbon, added a bead tassel, ribbon rose and bow on top. 

I added a ribbon strap. The lid is padded also.  It made an interesting little bag.  (I carry tote bags all the time, too much stuff for little bags.) I really had fun with this.  The other ladies that have entered bags so far have some really cute bags and ideas.  I can't wait for next month.  Thank you Anna for hosting this challenge. 

MEMORIES, TRUE LOVE, AND 59 YEARS

Norman and Louise   1941

On June 4, 1942 Norman had just received a 3 day pass and arrived in Birmingham, Ala. in the evening.  Louise was attending a bridal shower being thrown to celebrate her upcoming marriage. 
All the ladies in their family were at the party.  Most of the men were either off stationed out of town in the military or home in bed.  Both of my grandfathers were home in bed.  My father (Norman) arrived at my grandfather Nelson's house and found out mother (Louise) was at the party.  He headed to the party and found Louise and told her if they were going to get married before he shipped over seas, it had to be tonite. Thus started the hunt for licences, a preacher, the fathers of the bride and groom. A friend of Grandfather Nelson was a detective for the Birmingham Police dept and knew a clerk in the marriage license dept. and they got the clerk out of bed to issue a marriage license to the bride and groom. The preacher was rounded up and my parents got married at her bridal shower. There were no pics at 11.  In all the excitement no one thought about a camera.  It didn't matter.
After a 2 day honeymoon at the Tutwiler Hotel in downtown Birmingham my father reported back to his squadron and not much later he departed for Italy and the shooting war. 
That marriage lasted until July 29, 2000 when my father died.  Sometimes my mother said she felt like she had been married all her life.  They had their ups and downs (my mother was a redhead) but overall I believe my parents were deeply in love.  They were not very demonstative in front of my brothers and me, I think it was a old fashion feeling to them.  They were devoted to each other and neither one could not go more than several days without the other one.  When Mother and I would go out to work craftshows, she couldn't wait to get back and Daddy would meet us at the door wanting to know what took us so long to get home.  I believe my mother pined away after Daddy died.  She honestly didn't know what to do without him.  She just slowly faded away.  Fifty nine years together was just too long to start a new life.  She never looked at another man after my father died. I honestly don't believe it ever crossed her mind. She died in 2005.
 I read recently some of their old letters to each other before and after marriage.  True love NEVER dies.
God Bless all of you.
Mary