Babies........and moon........

I know, I know..... it's been awhile since I posted! Life just keeps rolling along, and I just can't seem to keep up. Intentions are good, but when not carried out, not so great (like meaning to do a blog post 3 weeks ago)!!!!

FIRST AND FOREMOST - more babies born into my family - twin boys! my great nephews from my sister's son.  Although twins, they were born on different days so they each get their own birthday now!

Precious angels.............

Their 1st July 4th!!!  at one month old. Cute T-shirts.

Here they are one week old... do mom and dad look sleep deprived???

Well.. this is what you get when you BOGO!!!!

 Here's great auntie Marilyn with Andrew, the first born.

And my sweet little step granddaughter, Izzy, is doing well, but we haven't seen her since the day she was born! She is now 7 months old and going to be walking soon. Due to the Covid.. we haven't taken the 3-1/2 hour drive to see her. Makes me very sad....

Izzy doesn't look too happy here, but she really DOES like this walker! I think this was her first time in it!

On July 4th, we came home from a BBQ with my sister and her husband, my nephew, his wife and the twins (yes.. we did travel the 75 miles to see them - HAD to see those twins).... and were surprised to see (and hear) that our town was continuing on with their fireworks tradition. We stood in awe on our front stoop, as the huge orange moon arose from behind the trees! Wow what a sight. 

I took several "blurry" pictures and all I got was a distant shot. 

My hubby then grabbed/took the camera and said "here, let me see what I can do"........ and somehow he got this shot! I couldn't believe it. My little camera only zooms to 20X.... he did "something" to get it to zoom at 80X and got this perfect view. He doesn't even know what he did!

I managed to get a picture of the fireworks exploding right in front of the moon.

An ongoing project we have, as you know from my May 22nd post, is our yard redo and gravel moving and spreading. I'm happy to say that it's mostly done, except for one spot where we ran out of gravel, and one area at the back of our house that hasn't been leveled out yet. but... we're getting there and the yard is looking pretty darned good.  Lots of work!

In my next post, I'll have some pictures to show you.

Until then, hope everyone is well and safe, and moving along with the flow of summer as best as they can.

Faith and Doubt both are needed.....

Not as antagonists,

But working side by side -

to take us around

the unknown curve.

~Lillian Smith~ (1897 - 1966)

American Novelist and Educator

~Marilyn~

Nothing big but lots of fun!

Hi friends.........
I  thought I'd take a few minutes to share with you some of the fun crafty things I've made in the last couple of months. Seems like I've been glued to my TV watching YouTube videos (on mostly paper crafting of course!) way more than normal!

I'm really into buying digital printables from Etsy right now - words and phrases, journaling tags, vintage images, etc.

I don't know why this Shelter in Place has caused me to do that (be a couch potato). I think at first it was just an excuse to sit more and stay inand watch more YouTube! And the weather wasn't that great  in March and April, so lots of rainy days gave me even more excuses to just sit and make "stuff". 

Altered paper clips with "dangleys"

Most things I've made were "just for the fun of it".. with no particular person or reason in mind. I just made something because I saw a project I liked and wanted to try my hand at. I should have kept a list, because now, when I look around my craft room, I don't see that many new creations.. I have given some away "just because", made a few gifts that have already been sent on their way, and tuckedhidden away other goodies I made here and there. 

I made some Tiny Little Books. My Porch Prints on Etsy sells the digital downloads that you then cut out and assemble the covers and little pages inside. These were a birthday gift for my son's fiance. She absolutely LOVED them!

I will be getting some more of these printables as she has several others that I didn't purchase. She even sells a digital printable for a tiny bookshelf to hold them all!

Some of my favorite YouTube channels have been posting tutorials more than normal... some everyday! I love that! And some are having giveaways and challenges, which I usually don't take part in, but I decided I would do a few because I had the time. That was BEFORE all the yard work started!

Gift bag I made from Posh Paper Lady's tutorial - using plain old copy paper! Amazing huh? I printed out the image from one I found on the internet (free).. and then put together her gift bag. She did a series of tutorials on making things with plain white copy paper.... gift sacks, notebooks, tiny boxes, tiny gift bags, etc. I willhope to  make them all!

Here is the link to Posh Paper Lady's channel: Posh Paper Lady. If you want to just play and craft with paper, go give her channel a look. I love her! I love what she makes.  Here is an envelope card I made following one of her tutorials, and it's part of a giveaway she's holding that ends on June 6th. I earn extra chances to win by posting my project on my blog, so here it is!

Front of envelope "card" (which is made using two envelopes of any size).... I used some digital paper that a friend of mine gave me to cover the envelopes.

I'm linking  HERE ON YOU TUBE  to Posh Paper Lady's specific tutorial for making this card if you are interested. It was fun and fairly quick, and came out so darling.

Inside of card. On the right is the 2nd envelope. The flap opens up to hold some money or a gift card or a special note. The "burlap" is really just some digital papers I downloaded from a purchase I made on Etsy. It looks so real!

Back of card. Such pretty digital papers.

Front of card, using a digital printable tag from Gi Kerr's Etsy shop, Happiness in Crafting.

I love the YouTube channels Posh Paper Lady, Scrapbooking with ME, Septeria18, Rejoice and Create, and Lyriclover Crafts (among many others). Gi Kerr (Happiness in Crafting), Shabbydabbydoodah, and My Porch Prints are three of my favorite digital printable shops on Etsy. Their papers and ephemera are so SHABBY and lots of pink!

I made this little folder/folio using a digital download freebie from the Happiness in Crafting Facebook group (Gi Kerr). She has started a Friday Freebie every week on her FB group and then she does a tutorial on something you can make with it. This little folio is so sweet - I love her shabby designs and papers.

Here are a few other things I've made. Gee can you tell I love pink???

Some small envelopes (tutorial by Scrapbooking with ME) for an album or journal, using old book pages.  I sent Edith at Scrapbooking with ME some of my old book pages that I had. She sent out a request on one of her videos and I guess she got all sorts of old books and old sheet music and book pages. 

A flip open tag or photo holder - tutorial by Scrapbooking with ME for her #maychallenge. I'm taking part in her challenge and trying to make several of her items and posting pictures on her Facebook group and Instagram. She's having a giveaway at the end of the month! 

Inside - has pockets for tags and goodies.

Before this post gets too long, I want to mention and THANK my blog friend, Marilyn at  Mountain Top Spice for this darling Scripture Journal that she made and sent to me recently. I absolutely love it! She lives in Northern Idaho in the most picturesque and beautiful area around the Pacific Northwest! 

She used tea dyed papers inside with torn edges, and added some of her favorite scriptures.  I also spent some time going through one of my Mornings with Jesus magazines and added my own loved scriptures. I also added some doodling here and there.

Marilyn has also written and added her own (stunning) photography to a book entitled Through Love's Eyes. It can be purchased through Westbow Press, and I think it is also on Amazon.  The front cover is a photo she took of her own property, and that is her barn! Her photography is incredible, and many of her photos can be viewed on her blog. Her recent blog post of a couple of days ago, has a short video of Marilyn introducing her book and showing some of her pages inside. Her poems and writings inside accompany each picture, and she does have an wonderful way with words. It would be a book worth having, or to give as a gift. 

I want to say that I haven't ONLY been sitting and watching TV and videos! Much more is going on behind the scenes here now that Spring is finally here... much yardwork, cleaning, organizing, trying to do a few "good deeds" and sending happy mail out now and then.  I'm also working on crocheting two baby blankets for twin great nephews who are due on June 4th! I have one done and the second is about 2/3 done.... I need to hurry up and finish that one! So much to do.... so little time..........

My crafting "roll" kind of ended around May 8th, when we got the 12 yards of gravel delivered and we started working on our back  yard gravel and dirt area. We have worked ourselves silly, and are still not done, but making some good progress! (but I have still managed to squeeze in some paper crafting...........) 

More to come on our yard progress.... on the next post!

Have a good weekend everyone!

Rolling along.......the battle of the weeds

Hello friends!
Short post today (well maybe..........).  I seem to have been really busy, even though we're staying home for the most part.  I really want to respect the social distancing at this time, and I may continue to do so for quite awhile.

This is what I've been doing.

Creating and making.
 (more on this in my next post) 
Illustration by Mary Engelbreit.

Digging up my Iris bulbs, separating and planting about 60 singles all over our yard!

This bed was so PACKED with Irises that it was like cement! 

Digging a new flower bed below our rock wall (for Iris bulbs).

Transplanting single bulbs and pruning down the leaves.

Buckets and buckets of Iris to plant... I still have many left and nowhere to put them.

The "newbies" even sent up new flowers! I was surprised.

Chopping up the white garden  hutch (darn... I left it out for two winters and it was just falling apart, so decided to take it to the dump).

BEFORE... falling apart and rotting wood. 

AFTER.......

Bye Bye hutch... sniff sniff..... a new one will be coming soon (hopefully).

Cleared out entire back yard "patio" area to ready it for new gravel.

Moving all our yard stuff, tables, chairs, planters, and junk tools to behind the house and on the back lawn (which needs mowing by the way).

Cleaning up weeds in our back "dirt" area (soon to "maybe"? be gravel?)...... it's the dirt area we tried to reseed twice last year, and the weeds took over again, so we are giving up on it! No lawn there... just gravel.

A right fine mess........ will we ever win the battle of the weeds?

Planting two new blackberry bushes..... thinning and transplanting my raspberries (they've LOVED the heavy rains).... and weeding flower beds. Note: the yellow Iris I bought last year is doing great!

(And yes, I do want blackberries! Where we lived in Washougal, WA (in the wet climate), blackberries grew wild everywhere. I loved having them! I made jam and pies galore. I really miss them here as there are none to be found. I'll keep them pruned to a reasonable size (hopefully).

Going to the gravel pit and ordering rock! Whoo Hoo! And having it delivered.

And this is what we WILL be doing - as soon as the rain quits!

Shoveling all of THIS stuff, by hand, into a wheelbarrow, and hauling it to our back yard - after we lay down the HEAVY tarps! Not looking foward to it.

We're hoping the gravel laying will start on Friday, the 22nd... we've been waiting a week for the rains to quit. We've had unseasonably high amounts of rain and "gully washer" type rains. 

We also need to get a new gutter by our back garage door, as when it rains so hard, our garage gets flooded! ...... which means more work, and more digging and cleanup around the back cement slab outside our garage. There is nowhere for water to drain that pours off of our roof. That's another story...........so we need to dig trenches before laying the gravel... maybe put in some drain pipe.... etc. etc. etc. 

With all the digging I've done, my neck has been killing me.. so hubby will have to do most of the gravel shoveling and hauling. I'll at least be there to supervise...... :-)

More to come on my crafty adventures! I've loved holing up in my craftroom (when I could)........... bye for now.

~Marilyn~