Look What My Valentine Gave Me!

My day started out with Jack bringing me this beautiful orchid to wish me a Happy Valentine's Day:

I love how simple and Japanese-style it looks! It was a typical thoughtful gesture and made my day!

Amazing Egypt

I have been watching events unfold in Egypt for at least the last week; and I am overjoyed for the Egyptian people who are celebrating in the streets today the departure of Mubarek. Their weeks of peaceful and determined demonstrations -- even in the face of violence against them and disappointment in lack of a suitable response --  have been completely amazing and inspiring. I wish for them a successful transition to the democracy they so long for.

Butterfly Sisters trip to Busch Wildlife Sanctuary

Last Saturday the Butterfly Sisters toured the Busch Wildlife Sanctuary. This place has been open for many years in Palm Beach County; but I'd never seen it until the kids were in town recently, and it seemed like a fun place for the Butterflies to spend an afternoon.

My Butterflies could be called wild life themselves: Back to front: Liz, Lynn, Sandi, Natasha and Pam. Now where did Cathy wander off to?

Busch rehabs as many creatures as it can and returns them to the wild if possible. Some, like these eagles, are unable to return to nature. Three eagles call Busch home now. One was shot, one electrocuted and the third hit by a car. Beautiful to see up close. Pam was greatly amused that the feathers covering part of their legs look like pants, and kept going back to their cage just to see them walk.

Brown Pelicans and a beautiful Roseate Spoonbill (which I've only rarely seen in the wild) live in this enclosure, along with various herons, egrets, ibis, a wood stork and a few ducks.

Apparently I have the wingspan of a turkey vulture. The eagle has the largest spread on this display.

Besides a whole menagerie of birds, we saw deer, raccoons, black bears, bobcats, skunks, gators, crocs and snakes. We also stayed for the animal encounter, where volunteers presented various critters and walked them around to touch and see close up. My very favorite was this adorable screech owl. Actually, there was a whole cage of 5 or 6 of them; but this little guy is accustomed to encounters with people in the show. He had been captured as an owlet and raised as a pet along with the family parakeet, and was quite malnourished by the time he came into the care of Busch. I've seen a few of these in the wild, but I never get tired of them:

Now I've got to sort through and edit my pictures and share them with my Butterflies. Hopefully some of them got better shots than I did!

Crop Challenges Completed

There were lots of fun challenges this past weekend at Coordinates Collections' online Winter Crop, and I took part in all of them. I also went to my regular all-day crop on Saturday; so I had 12 hours to work on these. As it turned out, all of my projects were of the Canton crew:

Challenge #1, use "white space":

Challenge #3, scraplift another layout. Funny, when I was cleaning out sewing supplies recently I came across these two little fish buttons; and I smiled to remember they were left over from little outfits I made for these two when they were tiny. The outfits didn't come out all that well; but the buttons were the perfect accent for this page!

Challenge #4, use 75% products from one manufacturer. I used Bo Bunny:

Challenge #5, use 2 or more tools. I used my Cricut and the Fiskars circle cutter:

The other projects were cards, but primarily I wanted to put these up so I could show them to Lauren, PJ and Ashlyn (and they can show Elara if they want to) without tagging them on Facebook. I have one more layout in progress that's all Ashlyn in her new sweater, but it needs finishing touches.

The crops, online and in person, were lots of fun as always!

Look What's Blooming!

After killing any number of lovely gift orchids indoors by showering them with tender loving care: fertilizing, misting, wiping down the leaves, changing their position in the light, I finally learned some years ago that the secret to beautiful, reblooming orchids is to throw 'em outdoors in a spot with dappled shade where the sprinkler hits them. They get a slug of fertilizer several times a year when I remember and if we have a freeze they get put into the shed for a night or two. They thrive on the neglect and bloom their little heads off! This little guy is currently propped up on the birdbath where I can see him through the patio door.

 

Back in my orchid corner, I see I have two others that are beginning to produce buds. Yay!

Coordinates Collections January Blog Hop Challenge

The January challenge was to make a layout using circles. I used the stamp that came with the kit to emboss three circular medallions, then cut them out with my stamp-edge scissors. There's another circle on the kraft tag which hopefully gives balance -- that's the idea, anyway!

My beautiful granddaughter, Lauren, is on the right, and her friend and neighbor, Elara, on the left. Elara is a little younger than Lauren, and a little older than Ashlyn, and is friends with both of them. This pretty winter day the three of them were having a fun photo shoot on the clubhouse grounds. I found lots of great photos on Facebook, including some I'll be scrapping of Ashlyn in her new red sweater, and Lauren in her new gray coat (and Elara in her cute boots).

I am completely in love with this Amish Quilt kit. The stamp is going to be a favorite of mine. And maybe it's just because I have so many winter photos right now of snow scenes, gray coats and sweatshirts and red sweaters; but I really really love these patterned papers and I'm ordering a few more to supplement what I have. I always love CC kits; but sometimes I get one that's my favorite ever, and this has to be my new favorite!

Coordinates Collections $1 Kit Grab Bag and my Contest Prize!

I had such good luck last month with various grab bags from Coordinates Collections that I decided to order a $1.00 kit grab bag along with my regular order this month. The one I got had plenty of double-sided paper (including a plaid that came in a previous kit and I loved). There was also a complete alphabet, an overlay, some of those great Maya Road sheers, glassine envelopes, chipboard shapes, and a package and a half of Prima flowers. I can use a lot of these right away to make valentines. I would say this is an awesome deal for just $1!

I also won one of the CC contests this month and won this prize -- a whole pack of patterned black & white paper, which I can think of a lot of good uses for: