Testing Testing... 1...2....3....

Hi everyone.... this is a test to see if you followers get my blog post. My last one (or two) didn't seem to go into subscribers' email inboxes!  So here's a couple of pictures, just for fun.. and will publish this and see who gets it!  If you do receive it in your inbox, could you let me know via a comment?

Sure would appreciate it!

One lone tulip in my backyard flower bed.... plus LOTS of grape hyacinths! That's about "it" for flowers in my yard.... other than.............

..................a yard full of dandelions!  This is the backyard lawn we so diligently worked on last year... we scraped and hoed and dug and dug out weeds, and sprayed weeds, and seeded the lawn (3 times!)... and then we get this. I'm at my wit's end!!

Guess I'll just keep "weeding and feeding" (and digging out weed roots).......... and hope eventually we will have a real lawn. I've always lived in the country and never had to deal with lawns!

Please let me know if you get this post in your email inbox. (And of course, if you don't get it, I'll never know!) 

Thanks!

~Marilyn~

Rosettes and Princess

UPDATE ON THIS BLOG POST!  I don't think this post hit many peoples' inboxes, so I'm posting it again, just in case you did not receive it. I checked with a few of my fellow bloggers and they hadn't received this post. So here it goes again! (posted on April 13, 2019)

Another month gone by,

Where did it go?

Did in hide in the clouds?

Or did it hide in the snow?

Did it hide in the sunshine?

NO.... the sunshine was broken!

Did it hide in the flowers?

NO.... they had not yet awoken....

From a long winter's snooze...

I kind of had the blues....

So I hid in my craft room...

Took off my shoes.......

AND MADE STUFF! 

Yup... I've been making and making and making. I feel like I've been living in a cave for a month! 

I did venture out in my yard today and inspected everything, and I do see that (finally) a few things are starting to bud out. I'm so happy!  Maybe I can come out of my cave now!

My big lilac bush on top left, Irises, Grape Hyacinths (I think?) lower left, and one lonely tulip.

I've made a few things for the little shop here in town, called The Hummingbird Junction. What a darling shop! I've made some Prayer Boxes, a Princess Treasure Box, Easter pillow treat boxes (forgot to take pictures), and some pretty rossette wands. 

The Prayer Boxes are origami boxes...... and I made all of the little prayer request tags to put inside the boxes.

Found these darling little animal buttons at a local 2nd hand store. They are perfect for the little boxes. I have some pink and blue elephant buttons too.. so will make some more Prayer Boxes for those.

I had some pretty "Princess" papers with sentiment tags, so I thought a treasure box would be very appropriate for a little Princess!  I made the tags also....... and once done, they were so cute I put them (digitally) in my Etsy Shop here.  They come six to a sheet and you can print them out and cut them for tags for the little Princess(es) in your life... for gifts or tucked into cards or notes.

I also printed out some pretty colored tags from digital papers I purchased from Etsy. I use my Stampin' Up Scalloped Tag Topper Punch to punch the pretty tops to the 2" wide tags. Makes quick tags!

I'll definitely be making more sweet Treasure Boxes and Prayer Boxes, now that I have all of my prayer request cards made.

My tulip (again),  top right are strawberries just barely peeking up, lower left is some sort of really HARDY geranium that can survive over these cold winters, and lower right is my peach rose. That geranium has gotten HUGE. They grow to become large shrubs that can be about 4 feet across and 3 feet high!

I've become obsessed with paper rosette wands again (and rosettes in general)! I've made tons of rosettes for my Etsy shop (probably 3-4 years ago). I see them on YouTube, and they come and go, but alot of the gals seem to be making them again, so I joined right in!

You can also use cupcake liners or crepe paper to make the rosettes.. so I, of course, had to immediately run to the Dollar Tree to buy cupcake liners and crepe paper!  Oh I'm such a sucker for trying something new and different.

This wand above has a clear cupcake liner on the back (white) but it was kind of cheap and thin (from the Dollar Tree). I'm going to get some nicer ones to use.. and of course, there are TONS of them in all colors, polka dots, stripes, etc. to buy online. I'm in trouble.

I used paper straws for the wands. The are very sturdy and found some at the Dollar Tree. Now I've learned (from YouTube of course!) that I can make my own paper straws! Any paper I want, any color, etc., so I'll be doing that too.

I'm on a mission this year to use up some of my older papers and stickers for various projects. Except um.m.m.m.m.m.  that doesn't count buying digital printables from Etsy (and other sites) does it?  I may use some of the rosettes in my Etsy shop to make some rosette wands for my shop... but they may be too costly to ship.

My little fairy garden needs revamping. The one little clump of daffodils is from my neighbor's yard. So at least I have a little pop of yellow.

I made a sweet little "Life" photo album for my (soon to be) daughter-in-law. She's the one who has the gems/rocks/jewelry shop in Astoria, Oregon. She loves dragonflies, so I used a little charm she had given me for the front cover.

I've also made two good sized photo albums for my Etsy shop. They were so fun to make and I used up some of my older vintage style papers and emphemera.

"Shabby chic 6x8" photo album, sturdy paper, with pockets & (8) 5" x 8" photo mats, vintage girl, 22 tags, roses, pinks, greens, yellows."

The above sweet album can be found HERE in my Etsy shop.

"Vintage style 4x6 photo album, 7 pages, 14 pockets, 7 top pockets, tags, photo mats, Mother, birthday, pink, rose, gray, cream green, lace."

The above vintage style album, perfect for Mother's Day, can be found HERE in my Etsy shop.

I also put this pretty, very sturdy (on 110 lb. paper) vintage "thinking of you" card in my Etsy store. I love these clock faces (free digital printables) I found at Shabby Art Boutique. Kerryanne is from Australia, has a wonderful blog, and store, and quite often has free "shabby" printables that she makes herself. 

This card has its very own matching (very sturdy) envelope!

Well friends... that's what I've been up to. I may have to come out of my cave one of these days, put on the gardening gloves, and do a little sprucing up in our (very tiny) yard.  I know most of you are already seeing many signs of Spring where you live. We are SO behind here... the snow just melted a couple of weeks ago.

Happy Spring!

~Marilyn~