Need Inspirations this month to get busy? Check out Blue Moon Scrapbooking.com

Blue Moon Scrapbooking has some great challenges this month and you still have time to play along. They are giving away 6 prize packages for you to win and  there are so great  gifts to be won. You need to go take a look because you still have 5 days to put some thing together and play along.

 We have 6 count 'em 6 giveaways for you to Win!



First the prizes ... then the details:


1 winner for the best mini book., altered item, best card, best layout, 1 winner for entering all 5 contests and a random winner.

Rules:


1. You have to have something BLUE in your entry. If we can't see the blue item in your photo very well, make sure to mention it when you upload your entry.


2. Spread the word about our contest and post our Car Badge around town with a link to the BlueMoonBlog or store!


You can pull the car logo right from this blog.


3. Be a BlueMoon Blog Follower


4. For the Random contest only, you must have shopped at BlueMoonScrapbooking in the past, or at least before this contest ends. We will confirm with your address upon notification of winning.


Contest runs from July1st thru July 31st. 2010.


Each category is listed in our gallery so you an upload right away.


This is a best of in each category -the Design Team and Scott and I will choose their


favorites -we'll see who wins!


You can win more than 1 giveaway.


You can enter each contest up to 3 times.


The artwork cannot be entered on another site's challenge or sketch.


Open to all US and International Scrappers. Free shipping to US residents -international


would have some shipping charges.
Post your entry anytime before July 31st in the BlueMoonGallery. Upload a 4x6 with 72 resolution - this works best. If you're having issues uploading it's usually because the image is too big/large a file. Resize it and you're off to the races. If you are still having problems just email lisa@bluemoonscrapbooking.com.


The winners will be choosen the week of August 1st
 
Ok Ladies so get busy and win some free stuff.

Pink Paislee, Shimmerz Paint and Hambly Studio

I have looked at this photo of my husband for a long time and finally decided to scrap it with the
Pink Paislee collection from our preferred partner. I wanted to create a party them so I created a banner with pom pom using the Pink Paislee papers. I also incorporated the Hambly Screen Prints transparency with the green elephants in the design.The two base Pink Paislee papers are attached with Helmar Quick Fix Adhesive Runner and then I stitched around the page. The Transparency is attached with Helmar V2 Vellum Adhesive. I have to say ..... This product is new to me and I love how it works. It is a must have if you use vellum on you projects. The banner is built on a piece of cord called rat tail and the banner elements are attached withHelmar 450 Quick Dry Adhesive. The photo was placed on top of the transparency using the same Helmar Quick Dry Adhesive.

Another wonderful feature with Helmar adhesives are the screw top lids. No more looking for the lids for the bottle when you have completed your project. I have actually had bottle caps snap off during travel and I ended up with a huge mess of spilled glue in my bag. Talk to you next week!

Gayle Martin
jgwm.blogspot.com

Lily Bee - Play all Day

Working with HelmarHelmar Adhesives and their preferred partners could not be better. I have an entire collection of adhesives at my finger tips and a beautiful diverse array of prodcuts to play with. I love our preferred opartners and the gifts they give us to work with.

This weeks vendor as you know by now is Lily Bee Lily Bee . I am a girls that needs intense color and these papers just vibrate and inspire your senses You can see the entire collection here Hello Sunshine.

The colors in the Lily Bee collections are colorful and FUN and it was a pleasure putting this page together. I have had the photo of my nieces and nephew for a couple of years but have never scrapped it despite the fact that I loooove the photo. They had been playing out side all day with me following them around taking photos. Just your typical play all day on the farm tyoe of day. Swinging on a rope swing,swimming, climbing and dragging your feet thru the Florida sugar sand. You probably can not tell from this view but they are little dirt monsters at this point of the day. We were getting ready to go inside for the day when they all layed down on the concrete driveway. Think they were all exhaused.

To put this page together I first stitched 4 long stitches of cotton thread around the perimeter of the page.

I added a little Shimmerz Spritz paints on the corners of the page. I used after midnight and Concrete.

I then cut the blue and yellow pieces of Lily Bee paper Lily Bee to size and glued it down with Helmar Quick fix adhesive runner. The yellow rectangular paper has bobbin stitching around the out side of the page and were adhered with Helmar Quick Fix adhesive runner Helmar Adhesive explained. The top photo is mounted on cardboard and then attached with Helmar Zap dots and the embellishments used a combination of Zap Dots, and craft Glue to adhere everything on the paper.



The variety of patterns and colors in the papers made them very easy so easy to put together or a page. Be sure and go to the Lily Bee web site and check out their new collections .



New collections from Lily Bee.







Thanks for stopping by and have a great weekend. Take lots of fun pictures and record memories.



DON'T forget to enter our contest to win some great prizes from Helmar. You still have a few days to get your submission in.

Helmar "Flips" for Videos!............GIVEAWAY!

 Ok Video friends this is the contest for you. I hope you all play along because there are some great prizes.


Helmar "Flips" for Videos!............GIVEAWAY!

http://helmarusa.typepad.com/blog/2010/06/helmar-flips-video.html

You have seen our designers and Donna Downey use our products in videos........It is time for you to be the star of the show and show us what are doing with Helmar adhesives & art mediums. We are looking for the best promotional video using Helmar products. This can include a special technique, a unique project, new ways to use our adhesives/art mediums or anything that comes to mind. Share your YouTube or Vimeo video on your blog and send a direct link to info@helmarusa.com. Every entry must include "Helmar" in the video title.

We will share your videos with our Facebook fans and on our Blog. The Helmar USA Design team members will select the top five videos and YOU will vote on your favorite. So make sure to subscribe to our blog and Fan "Helmar" on Facebook to watch for video up-dates.


Check out these Fabulous Helmar prizes including a Pink Flip Video!!!!

First Prize:

Flip Video (pretty pink/white one), Helmar prize Pack, and one month as a Guest Helmar Design Team Member

Second Prize (2 Winners):


Helmar Prize Pack

We will share your ideas on our Helmar USA Design Team Blog and Facebook for all our fans to see. It is time to share your creativity so flip on those video cameras! Sorry Design Team members are not eligible to win.

http://helmarusa.typepad.com/blog/2010/06/helmar-flips-video.html

Crazy Rainy Day Photo Shoot

I love my camera and I love taking photos of everything especially my family.

My nieces were staying with my mom and dad for the weekend so I told her I would pick them up after lunch and do something with them. When I got there they were prepared for me to take their pictures. I have been on the look out for unusual places to take photos. I like interesting textural back grounds and had seen a couple of old buildings on my way to town.

When I got there they had some ideas of their own so we took off for our afternoon adventure. Samantha had on a Beatles t shirt so she wanted to to find a field of flowers to take photographs. We live in an area that has wild flowers along the sides of the highways and they are just beautiful. Once you are out in the country side it is common to see entire fields of flowers.

We finally found one that we wanted to take photos in and found the perfect place to take photos of the girls. We had been playing around for about 10 minutes when out of the blue it started to rain very hard.

Needless to say we all were soaked by the time we got back in to the car.

After about 10 minutes the rain passed so we continued to take photos and I think we got some really cute and fun photos.

I have posted a few of the photos that we took that day. My sister  called and told me that she wants me to take Senior photos of my niece when they are here in July. Apparently Senior photos in Ohio are $1000 a session. I am excited to take her photos and have already started looking for the perfect places and props for her photos. If you have any ideas of suggestions of great ideas let me know.

Sew Somerset Summer 2010 from Stampington Studios

My artist copy of  Sew Somerset Summer 2010 arrived today and should be on the news stands June1.

Wow it is seriously a beautiful magazine and is packed with inspiration. Beth the new editor at Sew Somerset has really put together a wonderful collection of projects and articles in this edition. This is a bi yearly publication filled with creative altered projects that incorporate sewing.

The entire magazine is like a feast for your eyes and the variety of projects in this publication covers a huge range of mediums.

 

I am going to post some of the photos from the magazine so that my daughter can see The Wedding pages that I had published. Fascinating You was actually one of two pages that I created for a Pink Paislee contest.The challenge was to use their products and incorporate the name of one of their paper lines as the title.  I did not have a lot of left over products and my local scrapbook store had none of the products. I cut the floral designs from the paper to  create embellishments on the page and then added french knots to the center of the flowers. The stems and swirls are chain stitches. 

My scanner did not capture the colors very well on each of the pages. The papers on this page are from K and Company and the colors are vivid and beautiful in person.

3709 is a few shots from my daughters wedding, the middle photo has a Hambly transparency over the photo. The paper collection is Graphic 45 the black dot paper is flocked. I think I bought it from Hobby Lobby.

The numbers are aluminum that I crackle painted and attached to the page.

I hope you have a great week. I am so excited my Helmar design package will be arriving on Thursday. I received an email that the package weighed 18 pounds. It is loaded with goodies from all of the preferred vendors.. Eva from the design team sent me an IM on Skype and showed me everything in the box. Wow what a stash!!


Stay tuned we will see what is in the package on Thursday!

Couture Cardstock and Prima Marketing- I won!!!

Last week Couture Cardstock and Prima Marketing had a give away on the Couture Card stock blog.

 http://www.couturecardstock.com/blog/primacouture-winner-2/

http://prima.typepad.com/

Their  challenge was to create a collection of cardstock from the Couture collection that you liked and  then give it a name. My collection was called Give Me Color!!!

I entered last week and tonight I received an email  from my friend Lucy letting me know that I had won.

I went to the Couture  Cardstock web site and this is the blog post.

Prima/Couture Winner!

Are you ready to find out who one our Prima/Couture Giveaway? Ok, drumroll please…
The winner is Gayle Martin

The collection that she created is titled “Give Me Color” and includes these papers:

1. Legend

2. Fire Light

3. Rosy Cheeks

4. Harvest Basket

5. Charcoal

6. New Leaf

7. Frog Prince

8. Quest

9. Day at Sea

10. Lagoon

11. Pick Up Line

12. Enticing

These papers are vibrant  summer colors and amazingly BEAUTIFUL!

The prize package contains Prima product and a huge selection of Couture Cardstock.

I can not wait to get my hands on these wonderful products and play.

Thank you for the wonderful prizes.
This prize pack includes:This is the list of goodies that I won!!

2 Sheets each of: 12×12 (Total of 46 Sheets)

Marlene

Olivia

Katherine

Versailles

Eiffel Tower

Foot Print

Ticket Booth

Drizzle

Lineal

White Linen

Sugar Cookie

Tuilleres

Meadow

Oregano

Old Rake

Porcelain

Blushing

Midnight

Black Pearl

Cumberbun

Dusty Rose

Devotion

2 Sheets each of 8.5×11 (Total of 4 Sheets)

One Sheet Wonder

Detail Blending Paper

Prima Product ( 1 package each)

Camilla Flamenco flowers

Voila Felt Ribbons

Lilliput Roses in Marshmallow

Fiesta Flowers in Water Lilty

Say it in Pearls

Innoscence Collection Flowers

Andorra Gray Flowers

De Vines Felt Stems

Calcutta Mini

Donna Downey Foam Stamp

Be sure and go to their blogs and look at all of their new products.

Eyes of Blue

For the thrid Color Room challenge I created this page using the color pallet lime green, periwinkle, and turquoise. Now if you know me at all or you have seen my work I am just not a pastel sort of girl. If I use pastels I usually add black, brown or grey some where in the mix. I just can not help it! I love strong color. Which is not to say that I live with strong colors in my house or even wear strong colors. I love black! I have tons of clothes in black. I would have black hair if my physical coloring allowed it.  But any way....... there goes that gap brain off on a tangent.

So these pages were created for The Color Room challenge #3  http://thecolorroom.ning.com/
For these challenges I used some of the prodcuts that I won in January from Creative Imaginations. I was selected to be the guest Designer for the month of April.

The first page I used some of the new Luminart mica  to color the cardboard behind the photo. Photo is of my daughter who had her 26th birthday last week. She said at work they all tried guessing her age and the guesses ranged from 21-24. I told her one day she would be happy for that blessing!


The paper is Basic Grey, Websters and October Afternoon. K and Co, Lux Design, with a Creative Imaginations rub on and a little Hambly thrown in. The black is Prima cut from a feltie. I painted the cardboard with Luminarte Mica's for an intense color. My daughter is the baby of the family and the only one married. She and her husband are both still in college.  She came by tovist tonight and I forgot how much I miss having her around.

 This is my niece Michaela and I am so proud of her  and her sister they are the first  athletic woman in our family.
I would be surprised if Michaela is 5' tall, but who am I to talk I am only 5'1" tall. Any way she plays Lacrosse, coaches Lacrosse for younger children, is a cheerleader and a gymnist. Her talents amaze me.

But let me tell you about this tag. I used Creative Imaginations foils in Blues and Helmar adhesives to create it.


For this  page I created the tag using Creative Imaginations and Helmar products. The blue dots on the tag are Helmar Zap Dots that I pressed Creative Imaginations shades of blue foils in to the glue dots. The edges of the tag are self adhesive dry wall tape that I ran a Helmar permament adhesive runner over. I then  pressed multiple colors of Creative Imaginations blue foil in to the glue. For the Maya Road Bird house I coated the entire cage with the Helmar permament adhesive runner and then pressed the copper foil in to the the bird cage making sure to cover the sides of the cage. This was a really fun project and added a fun embellishment to the scrapbook page.

Stay tuned as I get more adventerous with the foils.

Helmar USA Design Team

Last Tuesday April 20th was my daughters birthday so my niece ( who's birthday is Wednesday) my mom and I met her in  Gainesville for the day. We had a great day shopping eating and having fun. About 11:30 I checked my email and saw that Tracy form Helmar emaile and said she had been trying to reach me. I emailed back and told her " I am still up if you are" Give me a few I am on the phone with my sister.

In about 10 minutes she called me and let me kn0w she had selected me to be on the Helmarhttp://www.helmarusa.typepad.com/ design team. WOOOOO HOOOO I love their products and I use a ton of it. Becky Teichmiller  at  http://www.scrap-tastic.com/ first sent me samples of their product to use and I fell in love with the products. Tracy let me know that in May she would be sending out a box with Helmar products and design team products from supporting vendors. I am so excited to  be able to work with Helmar and their arts and crafts products.

 These are their preferred partners-Preferred Partners
They have such a diverse range of products to play with.


Bella Blvd™
Clearsnap

Cosmo Cricket

Buzz and Bloom

Creative Impressions Inc 

Elle's Studio

Fancy Pants Designs

Hambly Screen Prints

Jillibean Soup
Kiki Art

Lily Bee Design
Maya Road
MyStampBox

Paper Trunk

Pink Paislee

Nikki Sivils Scrapbooker

Punky Sprouts
Purple Cows, Inc.
The Robins Nest


Upsy Daisy Designs
 

Check this out.


450 Stainless Adhesive tube

Acid Free - Neutral pH glue
Antique Acrylic Sealer Jar

Clear Acrylic Sealer Jar

Clear Gum

Crackle Medium- You know I Love my crackle finish
Craft & Hobby PVA Glue
Craft Glue
Crystal Kote Fixative spray
Crystal Kote Gloss spray
Crystal Kote Matt spray
Crystal Kote Picture Varnish Gloss spray
Crystal Kote Picture Varnish Matt spray
Crystal Kote Re-touch spray
Crystal Kote Sealer
Decoupage & Craft paste jar
Fabric Glue (solvent-based) Fabric Stiffener & Draping Liquid
Foam glue
Gemstone Glue
Kid's School Glue
Liquid Scrap Dots
Master Brush Strokes Jar
Metal Tube Squeezer
Quick Fix Adhesive Runners Paint/Glue Spreader
Remove Cleaner Spray
Silicone Adhesive Sealant tube Spray Adhesive
Super Strength Aliphatic PVA Wood Glue
Super-Tac EVA
Tacky Craft glue
Tiger Grip
Tradesman's Professional PVA Woodworking glue
V2 Vellum Adhesive
Wash'n Wear fabric glue

 Ok I am offically in Heaven.
 
I can not wait to show you all of these products!
 
Gayle
 
 So here is the offical announcement from Tracy
Congratulations Every one!!!


April 26, 2010



Announcing the 2010 Helmar USA, Design Team!!!


Thank you everyone who applied for the Helmar USA Design Team. We were amazed at the talent and the selection process was a tough one!




We are proud to announce our 2010 Helmar USA Design Team:


•Tracy Weinzapfel


•Becky Teichmiller


•Laura Achilles


•Marci Knecht


•Cristal Hobbs


•Shelly Hein-Simmons


•Erika Taylor


•Aymee Gandy


•Pamela Young


•Eva Dobilas


•Tanisha Long


•Karen Maldonado


•Tina McDonald


•Cathy Le Hay


•Gayle Martin


We are also happy to announce our Helmar Guest Designers:


•May – Amy Teets

•June - Jamie Cripps

•July - Kathy Northrup

•August - Ellen Sosnoski

•September - Jing-Jing Nickel

•October - Julie Walton

•December - Lynda Lindley

Helmar USA, Inc. welcomes and congratulates our designers and guest designers! We are excited to share their creations in 2010!

Thank you!

Tracy Weinzapfel

President, Helmar USA, Inc.

Creative Imaginations- April Guest Designer

In December I posted projects in the Creative Imaginations gallery and was selected to be the guest designer for them. I received a package of goodies from CI and some of their fabulous wood veneers and Foils. Cheryl posted some of my projects on the CI blog.http://creativeimaginations.typepad.com/ for inspiration Monday and will add others through out the month. The collections of papers they sent for me to work with were perfect.

 Yesterday I went to my friend Lucy's house and we played around with some fun techniques using  the foils. I  had used small amounts of the foils on a couple of my projects but really wanted to see all of the possibilities. I told Cheryl that I am playing now on tags and will eventually combine them in to a book.

 This is the Christine Adolph Mon Ami Collection.http://creativeimaginations.typepad.com/ The colors are just this beautiful in person.

This paper is from the Christine Adolph Felicity Line and Marah Johnson. The rich colors and designs in her collections are like a work of art.

After that I still have the beautiful woods to work with. Tooooo many ideas in my head right now and I need to pick just a couple. So many decisions????

Somerset Memories Spring 2010

Wow and Thank You Somerset Memories. I have been published numerous times by Somerset Memories and their sister publications. The lasted  Somerset Memories magazine was simply amazing. I feel so very honored  and my family is all over the magazine in numerous articles and  layouts.

To top it off several of my friends and other talented artist are featured in the magazine, which is
Lucy Edson
Bethany Kartchner
Natalie Kalbach
Stacy Cohen
Dena Coe

I have 3 featured articles, a photo spotlight and numerous other projects in the magazine. All I can say is Thank You, Thank You Somerset for appreciating my work. They have my work on 14 pages in the magazine. I am so honored.

Here a few glimpses of some of the work you have never seen.

What's Cookin

This is a book I created for an altered art club I belonged to a couple of years ago.

Through out the book there are pages about my childhood with my brother.

Meghan and Allen  was created for an challenge

I will share more later!

Scrapbooking and Beyond Spring 2010

Have you seen the  new Scrapbooking and Beyond  magazine in the stores. I have two articles in the magazine that I wanted to share with you.

The first page Emma ( Lucy's little girl). I took photos at a mutual friends wedding and caught Emma sitting on the concrete and dirt in her beautiful white dress.

The papers are Webster's and the page was painted with Luminarte paint.


















The second page is my sister's youngest daughter and all that I could think of when I saw this photo was her blue eyes.

Thanks for looking at my work. Working with Scrapbooking and Beyond has been a wonderful experience. They have already requested numerous other projects from me that will be published in their bi monthly publication. 

LoVe is EVERYTHING!

Altering Paper with Shimmerz Paints


I love layering paints and then removing some of the layers in spots just to see what sort of textures that you can create with multiple paints. For this project I started with a sheet of Webster's papers and white washed over the design with watered down white gesso. I then painted a very light design of flowers, leaves and vines in the left corners. The combination of Shimmerz colors I used are ( Hottie Pink, Coffee, and Mossy Stone)






http://www.shimmerz.com/retail-shimmerz-shop.php the colors were all painted directly from the jars. paints


The photo was matted on a piece of cardboard that had been spritzed with Shimmerz Ruby.
The matted photo was then placed on top of a piece of water color paper.
The get the color combination on the water color paper I first spritzed the paper with Shimmerz Spritz- Ruby and Caribbean Sunset. Let the paper dry completely before you start layering the Shimmerz paints. Determine your photo placement on the paper and pencil in a line, so that you will know where to add the paints. There is really no need to paint the entire paper is you photo will be covering the paper. I used a combination of Shimmerz Jilted Jade, Mossy Stone, Silver Bells as my second paint step. Basically just use a light touch and randomly brush the colors over the paper. Do not worry too much about the placement because the next step will change all of the design.
Once you have the Shimmerz paint on the paper your will spritz the entire painted area with Shimmerz Baby's Breath and Concrete you want the paper to be wet. The next step is to sprinkle regular Morton salt on top of the painted area and leave it over night to dry. Apply the salt heavy in some areas and light in other for a mottled effect. When the entire piece is completely you can brush the salt off of the paper with a dry paint brush.


The fabric roses were a very light baby pink so I spritzed them with Ruby to darken the pink color. I used wired ribbon for the orange flowers on the page.
Thanks for looking and have fun with you paints!- Gayle

The Fun things in LIFE!

Lately I have been feeling like my age is catching up with me. I am tired and it is difficult to find a body part that is not sore or achy. I decided it was time to waste some money on a doctor and see it any thing is going to fall off in the near future. My first stop was the yearly Mammogram.

My mom and I went  for our annual Mammograms a couple of weeks ago. We had a 3:15 appointment in Gainesville which is about 45 minutes form her house. I told her I would be at her house around 12 and I arrived just as she was getting home from an errand.  She of course had to have lunch and get read ( which means coordinating her Michaels and Joann's coupons).  We decided to drive her car and as we are getting off the interstate in Gainesville I look at her clock. I rarely wear my watch on days that I am not working.  Oh my gosh.... it is 2:45 so we decide we may as well head to the dr for our 3:15 appointment.

 You will love this...
When we get in the office the receptionist comment to me.
" Wow you ladies are really early, but we love early patients."
I look at the clock on the wall in the office and it is 2:00.... that is when I realized the clock in her car had never been adjusted in the fall for day light saving time.

We do our usual shopping, lunch etc. and head home.
When we walk in My dad says did you girls have Fun?

I decided to give him a full blow by blow of the procedured for a mammogram. I equate the machines to  his wood working tools so that he can have a full visual picture of the procedure. You should know that my dad is 79 years old. As I am giving him this visual, I am being my usual sarcastic self and laughing.
My mom chimes in with

OK, Lean in to the machine,,, place your right hand here... as the two plates are clamping down ( I compared it to a plexiglass wood press in his garage). Ok now relax so that we can get all of the tissue under your arm. Ok ready ,,, I am taking the shot so don't breath or move. Like we are going to go deep breathing exercises or run away with the machine attached.

Everything was fine they will see us in another year!

My mom  with my brothers jacket on and her energetic granddaughters at Christmas.
Have a good week

Jeni Boisvert: Pop Quiz | Shimmerz Paints

Shimmerz Paints PoP Quiz

....this is not a contest....but it won't be graded either, ;) I just love how Shimmerz Paint Products blend so beautifully together so I used each of their 5 products on a different flower....{Vibez, Pearlz, Spritz, Shimmerz, and Blingz}....can you put them in the right order? It's a little tricky, (click on the photo to enlarge) but if you are addicted to Shimmerz like I am, you can see it.....;) I'll post the answers in a couple days."

Go to the Shimmerz web site and post your answers.
http://shimmerzpaints.blogspot.com/

Excerpts from a Dog’s Daily Diary from If Johnna had a Blog

Happened on this blog and felt this lady had been visiting my house. We have 6 dogs

Excerpts from a Dog’s Daily Diary:


8:00 am – Dog food! My favorite thing!

9:30 am – A truck  ride! My favorite thing!

9:40 am – A walk in the park! My favorite thing!

10:30 am – Got rubbed and petted! My favorite thing!

12:00 pm – food! My favorite thing!


1:00 pm – Played in the yard! My favorite thing!


3:00 pm – Wagged my tail! My favorite thing!


5:00 pm – Milk bones! My favorite thing!

7:00 pm – Got to play ball! My favorite thing!


8:00 pm – Wow! Watched TV with the people! My favorite thing!


11:00 pm – Sleeping on the bed! My favorite thing!

Excerpts from a Cat’s Daily Diary:

Day 683 of my captivity:

My captors continue to taunt me with bizarre little dangling objects.They dine lavishly on fresh meat, while the other inmates and I are fed hash or some sort of dry nuggets.

Although I make my contempt for the rations perfectly clear, I nevertheless must eat something in order to keep up my strength.

The only thing that keeps me going is my dream of escape. In an attempt to disgust them, I once again vomit on the floor.
Today I decapitated a mouse and dropped its headless body at their feet. I had hoped this would strike fear into their hearts, since it clearly demonstrates what I am capable of. However, they merely made condescending comments about what a “good little hunter” I am. The audacity!

There was some sort of assembly of their accomplices tonight. I was placed in solitary confinement for the duration of the event. However, I could hear the noises and smell the food. I overheard that my confinement was due to the power of “allergies.” I must learn what this means, and how to use it to my advantage.

Today I was almost successful in an attempt to assassinate one of my tormentors by weaving around his feet as he was walking. I must try this again tomorrow– but at the top of the stairs.

I am convinced that the other prisoners here are flunkies and snitches. The dog receives special privileges. He is regularly released — and seems to be more than willing to return. He is obviously retarded!

The bird has got to be an informant. I observe him communicate with the guards regularly. I am certain that he reports my every move. My captors have arranged protective custody for him in an elevated cell, so he is safe…for now…

 So this This is  my life with Animals...
My husbands dogs- Cheech and Chong
My daughters dogs (  she moved out dogs moved home)- Cledus, Eady and Ally
My son dog (he moved out dog moved home)- Bogey
My other sons cat- Squirt and Bird Kenny

Tuesday was my day off and  one of the dogs ( Probably Ally) pulled a garbage bags out of the can and  over the fence. Then  it became a full canine  affair to string the contents of the day over the entire yard. Leaving evidence for me in every concievable areas. By 8:30 am ...  Mission accomplished chew everything in to tiny little jiblets.They were all so proud that they each had their own  yogurt cups and water bottles for toys. Only the best  TOYS for our animals. They actually think water bottles are the ultimate toy!!

The cat as usual over ate and rewarded me by reminding ME to tell his father that he was feeding him too much.

And last but certainly not least.

I let the bird out of his cage to fly around a little, so when I opened the door he flew on to the top of the exterior door. I called my son to get him down for me.

I look up to see him reaching for him with a yard stick as he flys off in to the pine trees at 5:30 pm on a 35degree night. We look for him off and on Super Bowl night..... knowing fully well that he is not coming home until he ( Kenny the Conure)  is good and ready.

Kenny  has a grand time flying around and return home around 4 pm the next day.

I need a Photo of Me so I need your vote!!

Ok I know this will come as a shock since I am the only one in the world that feels this way.

I hate my photos... no matter how my I take or have taken I Hate them all. Shocked as you may be to hear this I  am not young, tiny and cute any more.

I am only 5'1" tall and that does not even qualify for petite ( 5'2"- 5'6"). So now that I am too short for my weight, like how I put that I need help!

 I went to my friends house the other day and had her take photos of me so that I could send a photo of me to CI. Not the best time for photos..... 2 pm in the after noon Fl sun  only accentuates my constant dark circles. But... we hoped for the best and she took about 100 photos so I could possibly decide on 1 photo.

A.

So give me your opinion on these two photos until I find something I like better. I have progressed since my original non photo, to the one of me holding my nephew ( not a face shot).

Does any one else have this issues with posting photos of yoru self. Maybe I should have to post a photo a month because any photo is a good photo!???!  Are there any photographers out there that can help me with a new photo?

Ok so I have plenty of great hair and  crystal blue eyes.

Thanks for checking in and have a great week! - Gayle