Ocean Birthday Cards. . .

These are two birthday cards that I made for my niece and nephew, who turned four this past week.

I was in the mood to do something a little different and chose to do an ocean theme for their September birthdays.



I use the Under the Sea stamp set (C1500) and the Footloose paper pack (X7151B), along with some Wooden Badge buttons (Z1703) and other little embellishments from my stash.

Happy Birthday to my favorite twins!

Photographing eyes. . .

I am an EXTREMELY amateur photographer. My brain sees the picture I want to take, but my camera skills don't always allow me to translate that image to pixels.

When I view portrait photography I looooove the pictures that make the eyes really stand out.

Unfortunately, these pictures often involve doe eyed, blue eyed kids. . .

My babies have beautiful brown eyes. I think hat makes is hard to get those dramatic pictures.

I like a challenge! I am on a mission!

I feel like I achieved reflectivity and some clarity on these two pictures, but they are far from perfect.

I had to lighten them up during processing and that faded some of the detail. I had my f stop all the way down to 1.8, but I always forget to adjust the shutter speed!
 Shutter speed is my nemesis. . . .curse you thumb toggle!!!

Any suggestions are welcome. I am gonna keep practicing!

You don't always get what you pay for. . .

Our girls started laying this week! 

As of this morning three out of the nine hens are giving us eggs. 

They are awfully cute little things. 

Like little presents we get to go and discover each day.

This leads me to the title of this post. We have been buying "free range, organic" eggs at the grocery store in an effort to give our family the healthiest egg we can buy. 

Below is a picture of one store bought "free range, certified organic" egg and one free range (non-certified) organic egg from our girls that spend their days scratching under bushes and clucking around the pastures at our house.

Can you see a difference?

You don't always get what you pay for!

Here are some interesting facts about backyard chickens eggs:

• 1/3 less cholesterol

• 1/4 less saturated fat

• 2/3 more vitamin A

• 2 times more omega-3 fatty acids

• 3 times more vitamin E

• 7 times more beta carotene

You can read more here at MotherEarthNews.


The moral to the story? If you are able to have your own chickens it is definitely worth the effort! If you can't (or don't want the responsibility) have your own flock try to seek out a local farmer that offers true free range eggs. The difference is something you can see with your own eyes.

Summer evening. . .

Went for a walk with my fellas around the pond a few nights ago.




I then had to run back into the house for my camera!!!

This was the amazing sunset over our pond through my camera lens.

Not to be out done, Farm Boy took his own version from a different spot. Perty!

Next thing we knew the kidos busted out the Barbie Jeep

And went for a cruise. .

Happy trails, Lil Pardners. . .

Simple Scrapbooking. . .

The thing I love about Close To My heart is how easy it is to use their products. I loooove the Workshops on the Go kits!!! They are the first things that I purchase when the new Idea Book comes out. I love being able to grab the bag and create a fantastic project without any hassle.

Each kit has a little bit of stamping, dimensional elements, and teaches a new technique.

This is the Stella WOTG kit. It looks slightly different than the directions, but that is the cool thing about these kits. You can change them up a bit to make them fit your pictures and then you have a layout that is uniquely yours!!!

 

If you are interested in joining one of my clubs and working on these amazing kits together, please contact me! Happy Crafting!

Once Upon A Time. . .

Ever since I was a little girl I have been in love with Golden Retrievers. When I met, fell in love with and then agreed to marry my husband, he agreed to love, cherish and provide me with a
"floppy yellow puppy."

Thirteen years and thirty days later. . .

This handsome boy is named Jack.



This lovely lady is named Daisy.

They fell in love and had eight puppies.

On June 14 we drove to WV and got to meet their sweet girl. 

We also named her Daisy. It was the name that I had picked out years ago.

She is so sweet and cuddly and perfect!

 She is is the floppy yellow puppy I have always wanted!

We brought her back to my mom's house for the night.
Here she is just before we put her to bed. She got all tuckered out and fell asleep in the grass.

The next morning we packed up and drove to the farm.

I wasn't too worried about introducing her to Daphne, but I kept a close eye on them for a while.

We had some bone chewing. . .

Quite a lot of butt sniffing. . .

Some water drinking. . .

Some rope playin'. . .

And finally some. . . nursing?!?!?!

I think they are going to get along just fine!

Two days later, we are settling in fine and Farm Boy has finally
 checked off the last box on the prenup.

Life is good.

Cousins. . .

As grateful as I was to be able to move to KY, I knew that there were going to be things that I was going to miss when I left SoCal. Beyond the obvious things like family, good friends, our church and a job I loved, there was going to be this little guy.

I grew up watching for birds outside our window. My mom always had bird feeders around, so it was natural for me to grow attached to seeing him. 

This is a Black Phoebe. It is only in the Western US and if you see one outside your window it is probably the same one everyday, since they are territorial and solitary nesters, often remaining year-round in an established territory.

I knew that when we moved I would no longer get to enjoy watching him.

http://www.audubonbirds.org/species/Birds/Black-Phoebe.html

About a month after we moved into this house I started hearing a bird out on the front porch. We were sitting at dinner one night when I finally saw her. I grabbed the bird book to look her up and lo and behold. . . .

Meet the East Coast cousin of my little Black Phoebe. . .

the Eastern Phoebe.

 

http://www.greglasley.net/easternphoebe.html

Turns out all of the ruckus was her finding a place to build a nest! She decided that the transom above our front door would be a great spot. While we knew it would be messy, we couldn't help letting her finish and lay her eggs.

We had such a unique view, and got to watch throughout the day as she built her nest and then sat on the eggs.

A few weeks later they all hatched!

And the feeding began! She flew back and forth bringing them flies and bugs.

They started filling the nest to the top

And finally started overflowing. . .I swear there is a fifth bird in there!
 I think it was stuffed down into the middle.

I got up this morning and started working on this blog post. I realized that some of the pictures were still on my camera and as I walked through the living room to get it I couldn't believe what I witnessed!

I got to watch every little bird take its first flight from the nest, and

 I actually had my camera in my hand!!!

First one out!

Second one.

Number three.

Here are the last two.

Number four ( you can see the tail of number three).

The last one getting ready to take to the air!

Fifth and final flight!!! 

We now have an empty nest.

 I feel so blessed to have gotten to witness God's little gift from the first piece of moss

 to the very last flutter of wings.