Painted Buntings

I usually see one every year, but this year there is a pair of painted buntings that come regularly to my yard. He usually hides in the shrub outside my kitchen window while she flits to the feeder. Sometimes he gets brave and makes a run himself. She is slender and a lovely olive green; he is, well...magnificent! This isn't my photo, (I'm not quick enough to get one!) but one I found on the net to show you what my visitors look like:

It sure starts our day off with a smile to see these two!

Arizona Adventure!

One of my scrapbooking friends, Liz, travels quite a bit with her job. A couple months ago at a crop, she asked me if I might like to travel with her sometime, to which I replied, "sure!" and promptly forgot about it. In early January she e-mailed me that she had to go to Arizona, and that if I wanted to come with her, perhaps we could make a week out of it and see some sights. Jack encouraged me to jump at the opportunity. Yes, yes and YES!!!

So that's what we did! We flew into Phoenix and drove to beautiful Sedona, where we spent 3 nights. On one of those days we took a Pink Jeep tour to the Grand Canyon. It began snowing as soon as we reached the entrance, and at the rim we saw -- NOTHING!

Our guide tried his best to find a spot where we might see a little something, and eventually the mist/fog/snow lifted slightly in spots just enough that we could see what we were missing. It did have a pretty watercolor effect though.

Sedona was beautiful and we loved it. The spectacular red rocks are everywhere! Our hotel had a beautiful view from the balcony, and was in the heart of Uptown, a short walk to all the shops and restaurants.

From Sedona we poked around the shops at Tlaquepaque, and enjoyed the view from airport mesa. Tuesday morning we took a Pink Jeep tour to the Honanki ruins, where Sinaguan Indians lived perhaps 1000 years ago:

We also visited Holy Cross Chapel, built into a rock face, with a gorgeous view of surrounding rock formations.

We were brave girls one night, and shared this fun appetizer at the Cowboy Club. Rattlesnake meatballs, buffalo brochettes, cactus fries with prickly pear sauce and cilantro flatbread with chipotle peanut butter. All good. Really!

Liz had to work Wednesday and Thursday, so we drove to Scottsdale on Tuesday evening. On our way down, we stopped at the amazing Montezuma's Castle, which has nothing to do with Montezuma; nor is it a castle. I was able to buy a (lifetime!) senior pass, which got us both into this National Monument. Had I lived up that cliff, I would have made that climb just once; and then someone would have to bring me food and water forever after!

I chilled out at the hotel on Wednesday while Liz was working; but on Thursday I got the hotel courtesy van to take me into town to a Native American culture event. The costumes, the music, the dancing and the explanations of some of the native culture were all fabulous.

Friday was to be our last day in Arizona. We had originally planned to visit the Phoenix Botanical Garden, but decided we simply couldn't go home and say we had been AT the Grand Canyon, but didn't SEE the Grand Canyon. We found a tour with Arizona Frontiers that would take us there, now a 4 hour drive from Scottsdale, and as luck would have it, we were the only two on the trip that day! Our guides were great, and we learned a great deal about history, geology, flora and fauna, anthropology and the like, which made the trip go fast. AT LAST, we saw the Grand Canyon. Pictures can't begin to show it's depth or breadth or beauty.

Liz and I were very compatible traveling companions. We decided in the beginning that if we came home tired, it would have been a good trip. We both came home exhausted! There are things we would have liked to have seen that we just didn't have time to get to. Sunrise and sunset in the canyon. Mule train to the bottom of the canyon (if I could work up my courage!) In summer I'd love to take the white water raft trip down the Colorado River. We would have liked to have toured Tucson. There are also a number of wine tours, and an olive factory, and of course the botanical garden we missed. And lots more Indian ruins.

And I'd go back just to buy the t-shirt I didn't buy while I was there: It pictured five Native Americans in full regalia on horseback, and was captioned:  "Homeland Security. Protecting our borders since 1492"

Homemade Doggie Toy

I had a lot of fun making this toy for Muffin for her first Christmas. She loves tags and strings, so I went around the house snipping labels off of pillows, mattresses and clothing, then added bits of ribbon and string and pieces of an old toy she had destroyed (by chewing of course). My circle templates were useful to trace some circles, which I stitched together with the tags and bits hanging off the edge. I even had a chance to use some  of my decorative stitching cams that I haven't used in years. One of her old squeakers from another destroyed toy was sewn in the center.

Muffin seems to enjoy it and has already decimated that blue string. Now my entrepreneurial son wants me to market them. Hah! He forgets that I'm retired!

OWH "Thanks to Our Heroes" Challenge

"Thanks to Our Heroes" is the theme of the current Operation Write Home challenge to make a thank you card using one of their sketches and a stamp. I used OWH sketch #57 and a thank you stamp from the new Hero Arts Year Round Sentiments set:

I had to laugh at myself, though. I first created some cards thinking I remembered the challenge criteria, and made several love cards using the same stamp set. No problem, they're off to my OWH shipper tomorrow too.

I'm loving my new Hero Arts sets. They stamp a sharp, clean image and they stick strongly to the acrylic block and then back onto the carrier sheet.

All This Gear?

I brought all this stuff to my last crop, including my Cricut, my Cuttlebug, a bunch of Nestabilities and embossing folders and all my embossing powders and tools:

And finished ONE CARD!

Ok, I finished the back too, so maybe that counts as two cards? This is a special one for my daughter's upcoming birthday (and she doesn't have time to read blogs so it's safe to post!). There's plenty of room left to leave her a special birthday message. The card base came together pretty quickly, but figuring out how to decorate it took longer. Of course, it was also our annual holiday party, so there was a lot of eating and talking and gifting going on too!

December in Florida

While much of the country is breaking out their warmest winter clothes and driving through snow to do their holiday shopping, I had a knock on the door last week from this man, asking if it would be OK to take the coconuts off my tree:

He was up the tree in no time, and pretty soon I heard coconuts plopping to the ground, bouncing off a piece of foam. We both win: he got coconuts to sell, and I no longer have to look up and protect my head every time I have to walk under the coconut tree!

OMDB challenge for Operation Write Home

Imagine my surprise to find out I was one of two random winners of a $25 gift certificate from Daily Bread Designs as a result of my entry into their November challenge for Operation Write Home! I picked out two great background stamps: a honeycomb and a doodle. ODBD goes one better than that: each month they will donate $25 towards shipping for each 25 cards posted in the OWH thread, up to $50. Last month we had 50 entries (one to a customer)! The December challenge is called "Get Sentimental", and we are to create a card where the sentiment is the main focus. Here's my entry:

The silver rectangles are my current favorite (free!) supply. I emboss coffee can liners and cut them up and mat them.

If you've never made a card for OWH, hope you will take a look at their website. It's a simple thing to do with all those bits and scraps we all have, and the cards are much appreciated by our men and women in uniform.