Some things just happen that are so funny you have to blog about them….  Last evening was one of those times.  Here I am for a ‘crafting’ night with 2 friends.  When I arrived they were preparing to eat tails & ears – oh my – apparently I am ignorant in the buffalo chicken world.

Promptly after dinner both my friends started on their Apple laptops.   They paused briefly during my show-n-tell from my Sewing at the Farm weekend to ooh and ahh over the many gifts that I receieved and the things that I made.  Still the laptops stayed out until finally I had to point this out to them.  I grabbed my camera and stood up, tripped over a few cars and firetrucks lined up on the floor as I made my way around the table to take a picture.

So here is Abbie and Pola and their matching Apples….

Meanwhile I was playing with the Big Shot and die cutting chickens and roosters and playing with the paper.  I had brought along my stamping bag of goodies thinking that we were really going to create something last night.  

When Abbie took a break and layed down the laptop I asked to borrow it – I was itching to fit in!!!  But this gave Abbie idle hands and she started blowing bubbles.   Never saw bubbles like this before.  They just floated around and stuck to everything they touched – fingers, curtains, walls and even the dog.  Before you knew it the whole room was full of bubbles.  I put down my laptop and picked up the camera again….

Of course this just encouraged Abbie to continue blowing bubbles.  Meanwhile Pola was still busy on the laptop.  How can you do computer stuff in the midst of all these bubbles and giggles?  

I like friends that make me laugh!!!

I have a new campaign of my own going on now.  I get tons of spam on my blog and that is driving me crazy but it just happens.  It sure would be fun to have a few real comments mixed in there.  So I decided to bribe my readers LOL!!!   There will be a free www.LeafPile.org pencil for you to repay you for taking the time to comment.   That would just create the perfect bubbles in my world….

Since I don’t have an Apple computer I am off to eat a MacInstosh for snack.  May you all have many bubbles in your world today…. 

There is inspiration all around us.  Sometimes it leads us in the opposite direction but nevertheless it gets us moving.  I have chickens on the brain.  Been playing with MyFarm on facebook a little too much these days.  Been building up my fields to make enough money to buy a chicken coop and begging my friends to send me chickens.  Finally I got the coop on Monday and my first chicken arrived on Tuesday.  You could hear me hooting and holloring from miles away.

So when it came time to pack up my stamping stuff for a creative evening with Abbie, it was easy to decide what I would pack.   All kinds of stamps and papers and inks and supplies to make some chicken cards.  Also I brought along a picture from a magazine with the egg pattern that I had blown up to 170% the original size.  I am sure you will see more egg-citing cards that were ideas that started to ember in my brain from that little sample in a Papercrafts magazine that I recently picked up although it was from a few years ago.

My other inspriation is my Mom.  She lives in a retirement village and is loving it.  Recently she took over the position of manager of their little gift shop.  The shop sells toothpaste, greeting cards and other little items to the residents and staff.  Their biggest seller is candy – hehehe.  I decided it would be nice to donate a few cards to the gift shop.  My Mom would have fun telling everyone her daughter made them and it will help the cause as well.

With all this inspiration it was easy to create these cards…..

Things got a little over the top when I decided to add the peeps on the left hand side of the envelopes…..

But then there was Neil and the bunny!!!   This “Gotta Hop” bunny from Hallmark sings this catchy tune while his ears wiggle all around.  It had Neil dancing around the room in a hop-like jig.  I was laughing so hard as I watched him that I had to take a few pictures – which of course added to his excitement and kept him pushing the button on the bunny’s foot to keep it going non-stop.   Even Hendrix, the family angora rabbit, seemed to get excited about all of it and came out to hop along.  It was pointed out that I should be making bunny cards and not chicken/peep cards.  Guess I will use this inspiration for another Easter related card another day………

Hope all you peeps have a hopping good Easter!!!

Today’s OneMinuteWriter:
Tell a story that has been passed down through your family.

Howard was my great-great grandfather. I remember him from my youth. He used to be a carpenter and made furniture. The tale goes that he used all the little left over pieces of wood and glued them together to make more furniture. I have a black table that has been passed down through my family and it is rumored that this is one of those “little pieces of wood” projects. I am gonna redo the table to find out….

My niece was Gertrude McFuzz in Suessical Jr. and did an awesome job.  She has the most amazing singing voice.  This proud aunt waited not so patiently while all of the cast came out for their applause.  Finally the Cat In The Hat appeared so that was a little puzzling. Then she appeared shortly before Horton.  The crowd went wild including me and my whole family.  Very cool!  So here is a picture of the card that I made to give her in lieu of flowers.  Flowers fade but the card and the gift enclosed will last a little longer.  I hope she enjoys it after the excitement of the cast party is over and she gets a chance to open it.  A whirlwind weekend for the whole family since she is in all 4 showings. The paper used is from Stampin’ Up!  …of course…  The flowers and little flying bugs were cut out of the paper.  I love to cut paper and have quite the scissor collection.   It was fun creating a larger sized card with the clever closure.  I have a punch that makes that circle.   Of course I had to decorate the envelope too.   The rubber stamp used inside is also copyright Stampin’ Up! and states “life may not be the party we hoped for, but while we’re here we might as well dance.”  The verse seemed so appropriate for this talented 13 year old!  Gosh – am I bragging too much?

Stampin’ Up! products   http://creatinginslippers.stampinup.net

I have always liked to color.  I don’t remember when I started but I still color whenever I get a chance.  I stamp it – then color it.  I draw it – then color it.  Sometimes I just color without having lines to follow.  Now I just have all the fancier implements of color.  It all started at a young age but somewhere along the line coloring became the beginning of my journey into art.  So read on….

My appreciation for coloring made the gift I received on Sunday that much more precious.  While at church I had the pleasure to sit next to one of my young friends.  I was late (of course) because I was chatting in the parish hall and didn’t stop chatting in time to actually be on time.  A bad habit of greeting those who attended the early service.  So by the time I got into church Mackenzie was already busy with her drawing.  The dog was carefully done in a brown and she was busy on the house and trees.  We discussed her color choices and how much we both liked to color.  Of course all of this was in our ‘whisper voices’ – hahaha! 

As Mackenzie was finishing up her beautiful artwork her cousin, Julianna, wanted to join in.  So with a pen she was busy scribbling on a bulletin.  We had crayons all over the pew so I don’t know who gave this much smaller child a pen – not me!   When she showed it to me I said “ooooohhh – that is very nice”.  Mackenzie leaned over to me and announced “it really isn’t that good, you know”.  I assured Mackenzie that she had once colored just like that and I did also.  We laughed about it as Mackenzie handed Julianna a crayon to finish her project.

It was a pleasant surprise when the service was almost over and Mackenzie asked if I would like to take the picture home with me.  “Of course, it will go right on my refrigerator”, I announced.  I think I forgot to use my ‘whisper voice’ that time but no one minded the commotion at the back of the church.   She immediately proceeded to start ripping it out of the book but I stopped her and said in my hushed voice that it would be too noisy.  So we waited.   When the organ started the prelude to the last hymn Mackenzie and I got busy.  The music was much louder than 2 giggly girls ripping paper out of a coloring book. 

Here is the masterpiece that came home with me…..  I’m not sure if I mean the coloring or the time spent with Mackenzie while she created it.  Both are precious!!!

Sometimes inspiration comes to me in huge swooping waves.

That’s what happened yesterday.

One of the committees I belong to at church is Congregational Care. At its inception our discussion was centered around visiting members who couldn’t get to church to share Holy Communion with them. I got on this committee because I stood up at a congregational meeting and asked why we weren’t doing that anymore. Poof! That was all that was needed to get me on a committee. We are in the process of getting everything ready to do that. In the meantime it was brought up that we used to send out greeting cards to the shut-ins. I had a small group of ladies who helped me and we got together every other month or so. Somehow we had gotten out of the habit of doing that. Mysteriously money was donated for us to continue the purchasing of postage stamps and supplies. That combined with the plethora of stuff I have at home enabled us to make bunches of cards.

My schedule is already pretty full so it was a challenge to figure out how to add yet another thing and coordinate all these ladies to help out with it. Still somehow I found time to make cards to send out in early October. The pressure was on to find another card to send out around Thanksgiving but nothing was coming to me. I was feeling like it was just another thing to put on my already too long “to do” list. I knew that it was really more than that but that didn’t help my energy level to get it together.

Because yesterday was the 5th Sunday of the month we had a service of healing. It really is neat when we do this but I was scheduled to deacon this Sunday. That changed things. It meant that I assisted the Pastor and I could see the looks on their faces as she went around and placed oil on their foreheads and said a prayer for each one. Many of them had tears in their eyes. Even the children sat still for a little bit longer. We were reminded that none of us are exempt from the need for God’s healing.

Part of my deaconing duties was to carry the cross in the recessional of the choir and Pastors out of the church. When I arrived at the entry doors at the end of this meaningful service, the picture that appeared in the bulletin struck me and I leaned over and said to Pastor “hey, that would make a great card for the shut-ins”. We both let out a little gasp of excitement. I had seen it in the bulletin earlier and planned to keep it for my altered hymnal (something for another blog). I just figured it was part of my problem with throwing away paper.

Anyway, it motivated several of us to gather as many bulletins as we could. Others were catching the enthusiam in the room as we had beverages and snacks. I came home with 14 of them. One woman even offered to go through the trash to find more. I thanked her but figured we could always make copies if needed. Tonight I painted them all with acrylics. Each one is a little bit different. Usually an idea goes into my journal and then waits for time to allow me to pursue the inspiration. This wasn’t one of those times. It was like a bolt of inspiration to do something good and spread the service of healing to those who for various reasons cannot come to church.

Plans are now underway for us to meet after church next week to finish them and get them ready to be mailed out.