Foto Friday

No words necessary......Enjoy

Foto Friday- Winter Storm

Today, we are enjoying some beautiful sunshine.  But yesterday, was a different story.....

 Outside my door

Linked to..

http://www.the-chicken-chick.com/2014/02/clever-chicks-blog-hop-73-with-three.html#

Cricut Crafting

I've decided it's time to just make lemonade!

You know...

 when life gives you lemons-

Make lemonade!

So I've decided

I'm just gonna take all these harsh, wintry days..

and just do some things I enjoy doing....

things that give me 

JOY!

With several inches of snow on the ground,

and more in the forecast...

I can't get outside to work in the yard

or even get the chicken house cleaned out. 

my garden and raised bed :(

So, I've been doing some crafting!

I love to create...

My favorite crafting tool is the

CRICUT.

With Valentine's Day this week,

and a wedding this weekend....

I've been busy. 

One of my favorite things to do with the Cricut, is to cut vinyl.  

That machine cuts vinyl like butter. 

 Love it!  

And the sky's the limit on what you can do with vinyl.

For some Cricut inspiration, check out my Pinterest page.     

For the wedding couple,

I created this wall hanging....

I started with a frame.

Sprayed adhesive on the backing of the frame

stuck on a piece of white burlap 

cut out the vinyl and 

very carefully applied the vinyl to the front of the glass. 

Getting the vinyl on 

Just Right

was the hardest part. 

I sure hope the  lovebirds... 

love it!

I even used the Cricut to make some of the parts of this tri-fold wedding card.  

Friday is Valentine's Day

(in case you forgot)  

Here is a sneak peak

of just two of the cards I made.

For my sweetheart...

And for my son and his soon to be bride...

The cricut was not used to create this card, 

instead 

I downloaded this template

and used a craft knife to cut it out.

It's perfect for my deer hunting couple!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We will be getting more snow tonight and tomorrow,

so I'm hoping I will be able to make some more lemonade and

enJOY the free time 

and creative burst

it brings!

What about you...

How have you been spending your winter days?

Linked to 

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A Very Wintry Foto Friday!

Welcome to Foto Friday!

Grab a cup of something warm and enjoy!

Winter in these parts has been grueling.  

We had become used to mild winters in recent years.  

With all this Arctic air and white stuff, we have had ample opportunity to just 

STAY HOME!

Winter has definitely afforded me the ability to do a lot of camera clicking

...and might I add....

with the new camera hubby bought me for Christmas!

In my last post, I promised more backyard winter bird pictures. 

 Since winter is 

For The Birds.....

Lets' start with those bird photos....

(These photos were taken out the window- from the comfort of my warm and cozy living room)

On Monday, we had a fresh coating of wet snow.  

As I was admiring its beauty, I noticed a flock of (very confused) robins in the trees. 

Beautiful!

On another day, we had a hawk circling during one of our doggie play dates.





 He may have been looking for a chicken dinner.  But he left hungry!

Monday, we had wet snow, and on Tuesday......a coating of Ice.

This gives new meaning to ICE SKATES

This morining.....

everything was that

 walk -on -top -of- the- snow -crispy!

But a little bit of ice never stopped Josie girl from havin' a little bit of fun!

Well, that's all for now folks.

Thanks for stopping by....  

Please stay tuned-

 for more

FOTO FRIDAYS

are coming soon!

Linked up to 
http://www.the-chicken-chick.com/2014/02/clever-chicks-blog-hop-73-with-three.html#

Post Christmas Busyness (and a trash to treasure!)

Greetings....

Let's do first things first and allow me to apologize for abandoning both you and this blog.
Where does time go?
 It seems as though the older one gets, the faster time flies.
Why is that??

Okay, so allow me to catch you up.....

We had a lovely holiday.  I hope you can say the same.

 We rang in the new year with friends.
We had a great time, just staying in and playing games.
 You know...
good friends + good food = great time!

Hubs really gets into playing Wii! 

For me, the new year has always been the perfect time to do some organizing.
It's the time of year, when we're held up inside.
 No gardening to do.
No holiday preparations.

So once the decorations were taken down and replaced with our home's usual vintage-ish decor,  I got busy on some re-organizing and purging.  As the title of this blog implies, I'm very into keeping things simple.
 While I can't really call myself a minimalist,
I do like to keep things simple, clutter free and organized.
So I started with the closet where I keep the wrapping paper, since it was a mess after all that holiday wrapping.

With all the snow (and cold) in these parts, we have had ample opportunity to play in the snow.
The dog loves the snow!
Okay, so she really doesn't care.
 She just likes to play.
When we take potty breaks, allowing her time to burn up some energy is a must.  Some days, we even have 

doggy play dates 

with a friendly German Shepherd.

I have been enjoying watching the birds this winter,  I have taken some awesome pictures out my front window that I plan to share with you each (Foto) Friday.   Hopefully, I can follow through on this!  :)

So as promised, 
a trash to treasure.  
While cleaning out a closet, I came across this cosmetic travel case.

 I can honestly say, I never use it anymore.
However, I deemed it keep-able.
But it was in need of a makeover.
 Sorry I didn't get a before picture of the inside.
Suffice it to say it was worn and ugly.

So a little scrapbook paper and a piece of burlap gave it a 

cute and quick fix. 
(I used spray adhesive for both the paper and the burlap)

At first, I thought it might make a good magazine holder for the bathroom.

But in the end, I needed something for some miscellaneous stuff in my bathroom.

Walah!

 In case you're wondering about this case....
 Yep, it was mine.... 

Given to me on my first day of beauty school some 35+ years ago.
 It seems like a lifetime ago.  

Since then.... 

I have raised and homeschooled 2 children....

and am currently caring for 2 darling grandchildren...

teaching water aerobics at the Y.....

 and yes, I am 

head chicken keeper and gardener.
One just never knows where life will lead them!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!