Two Days!

The 17 year old hot water heater that finally croaked.

Yes! Two days... that is how long it took to get our hot water heater replaced. We had never done a replacement ourselves and it took several trips to 3 different stores to get the right materials.And we had to contact a plumber friend of my bosses to replace the valve at the side of the house as when Scott went to cut the water off  the valve cracked. The Plumber made fast work of the replacement of the valve  and only charged us $125... very reasonable for it being the start of a Holiday weekend and short notice.

I cut this bush way back and we will be taking this bush to the ground so that we can get to the cut off and the water hose connection more easily.

The new valve "bucket"/cover

The new water cut off valve

 After Scott got home from work we got the new hot water heater installed.
Isn't it GREAT!

The new beauty!

We sure thought so! And a HUGE thanks to my Mother-in-law for helping too! Why do things like this hit between pay days? Time to build our savings back up so that we will have cash available for such occurrences.

Earlier this month Scott caught this picture of me mowing the front lawn... the stinker! Funny what you find on a disc sometimes.

Here is another wonderful photo Greg took of himself with his buddy; Tesla...

Aren't they cute?

Things happen...

Let's see... on August 21rst my Uncle Charlie died... on  his 87th birthday. I have mixed emotions about it and that is another long story that I won't share here as it's not nice to speak ill. I'm sad for my Aunt.

Last night our hot water heater croaked so it's cold sponge baths until we can get it replaced. It's another case of "nothing lasts forever"; the thing was 17 years old. I can hardly believe we have lived in this house that long. We put it in shortly after we moved in here. Also last night our neighbor needed help with a flat tire and Scott changed it for him.

I've made some more progress on my "witchy dwelling".

The witch, cat and potions are all made out of polymer clay.

The light is a battery operated votive that slides into a "fixture" at the top.

Evil toad keeps watch to be sure  un-witchly vehicles are "toad off".

 I've also begun a mini-album made out of envelopes.This is one of two that I will be making as gifts for someone.

We've taken a couple lovely walks along the river and at the last one we saw the set up for a proposal that we saw the couple walking back to their cars... I do not know if she said "yes" or not but the proposal was so sweet  not to record after they had left.

Of course my silly man got in the video... he is a keeper!

Time to get ready for work. I'll post more later today... IF I survive training a Newbie! Just hoping she has some Retail experience!

Progress Report

First I want to share some progress on my little witches dwelling. This is for an online friend that wanted to do a Halloween swap.

I'm planning to build a "witchy" bookcase for her potions and will be creating some "spell" books for her as well. The eyes are stickers that I am debating on whether or not to add to the walls. Scott says perhaps they would be a little much but I wasn't planning on using the entire package of eyes just 2 or 3 pair. What do you all think... add some eyes or no? I'm also going to rig a light fixture so I can add a battery operated votive to the ceiling. And there will be "creepy cloth" curtains added to the front.

I've also knitted a dishcloth and scrubby for her to "clean her cauldron" as another small gift to add to her box. We decided we'd fill a medium sized flat rate box with Halloween goodies for each other. This is going to be such fun to receive in the mail.

Now for a little gruesome update; Greg's leg is healing but still looks quite ghastly.

The wound was quite deep and we keep watching for any signs of blood poisoning but so far so good. It just looks so awful.

Now for a little gruesome from Sunday  along the river... 

Vulture - one of several that flew across the river toward us and landed in a tree near us. Such a handsome fellow don't you think?

 

 And a bit of pretty!

We so enjoyed our Sunday walk by the river!

A share and a scare

I got a couple paper pads to make some mini-albums out of paper bags for a cousins Grandchildren as her daughter always loves my crafts.

And Greg (son)  wrecked his Moped yesterday. He is all right... thankfully. But it still scared the daylights out of me. He has quite the raspberry on his right knee and he is going to have some wicked bruising and soreness over the next few days. I'm so thankful it wasn't any worse. He had just looked over his shoulder to check his blind spot and the folks if front of him came to a stop and with the wet roads his bike didn't stop in time. They were pulling a U-haul trailer that they had just emptied getting their son set at college so they put his bike in the back and brought him home to us. We didn't recognize the truck so when Greg got out of it I knew something had happened. Scared the bee-jeepers out of me thats for sure.

Using my scraps...

3x3 - inch note cards

I made up a "few" little note cards from the scraps I had leftover from making the larger cards. I am thinking about including three little cards along with  the larger cards for the swap. I'm trying so hard to use up some supplies to make room for some new ones. HAPPY CRAFTING!

Nearly the Weekend Again!

So what have I been up to you may ask?

Sunday Scott and I went for a walk on the new walkway down near the boat ramp. It was a beautiful day for a walk and the deer flies didn't start biting us until we were nearly back to the car. Here are some pictures from that walk.

So inviting!

Fungi in the sunlight

Majestic tree in the sunlight

Silly us.

As in life there will be curves ahead.

Looking up river from the boat landing.

Looking down river

"Turtle" knot

Tiny mushroom forest.

Painted Lady

Damsel fly

And I've done a bit of crafting...

Cards for a swap.

A hone for the little witch.

And last night we went to a Goodwill store in a town near us and I found 3 pair of pants for our niece, Abby... all for under $9... 3 pair!

EARLY Saturday!

Well my body was ready to get up at 3 this morning... on a SATURDAY! A day when I should be fast asleep until the sun comes up at least. Ah well I'll surf around the Net until Scott gets up about 5 or 5:30 as he has to be to work today at 7.  He has been sick all week from all the dust they have stirred up with all the packing up of equipment and all. I'll be so glad when they are all moved to the new location and he can return to just repairing things again.

Yesterday I ate way too many carbs/starches and last night's blood sugar was 210 it was back down to 118 this morning. Today I'm going to be extra careful about the carbs and what type I eat as well. Scott and I are both doing really well with managing our levels just through diet and exercise. The exercise portion of our routine could stand some improvement and that is something we will work on.

I've got some projects in mind to use up more of my "stash". I'm really focusing on using up this stack of 8x8 paper at the moment...

I've had this stack of paper for YEARS! I will go through it this morning and pull all the pinks/purples and reds/blues for a couple projects for my cousin's daughter. That will use up quite a bit of this paper. I'll post more on that at a later date.

I've also got several Christmas gifts in mind and need to get busy on those. As a crafter mid-August really needs to be when I start on making gifts as the time involved can really add up. "We are Santa's Elves..." just sprung into my head.

Later today I'm planning to attend some free Demo's at the local Stamping store called The Stamping Place which is located not far from my house and across the street from Hobby Lobby. Some of the local Card and Crafting group are planning to attend and it will be nice to see some of them again since I will be missing the August meeting as it falls on Greg's birthday and we are planning to take him out to eat to Cracker Barrel to have a small celebration for his birthday. I'm adding links to these places for my over seas readers.

Well I'm off to see what all is going on in the World. HAPPY SATURDAY everyone!

Hello~

I'm such a horrible Blogger anymore. But I've been busy crafting after work and before I know it another day has passed and I have not posted a thing. I have been taking pictures though and will share a few here now.

A Polymer Clay Witch that I made for a project when I couldn't find a tiny witch figurine.

I had a lot of fun making this little witch and I have plans to also make a little black cat, a broom and possibly a small cauldron and Spells book.

My original plan was to make a "Captured Witch" in a jar but after finding what I thought was the "perfect" jar today at a thrift store for 99 cents and setting her inside it I've decided that I will create a small shadow box for her to sit inside.  The shadow box will travel better as this project will be shipped out West to a gal that is doing a Halloween Swap with me this month. I have to work a little on this each night as I have to mail the package to her by the 30th of August. I hope that the gal will like her. What do you all think?

I'm just not "feeling it" so into a shadow box she will go!

OH! And I made a few things this weekend

Chunky Charms to add to altered projects or mini-albums. These were made with dominoes, beads and charms.

These were made with beads, charms, chain and ribbon.

Just a BLAH Sunday

We took a "BLAH: day and just sat around doing absolutely NOTHING! Yesterday I mowed the entire lawn and did a little trimming on bushes. Scott made some repairs to both our cars and the truck. My door handle had come loose and he glued it back together with JB Weld. ANd his car had a bolt loose in the distributer so he reinstalled it with some Locke Tight but before reassembling it he put in a new cap and rotor. He also changed the oil in his car and the truck. They are all running smoothly now. And that is why we took today off as a "Blah" day. Scott and I did work a walk in along the river and saw many things to enjoy.

Slider/Cooter Turtle

Another shot of the turtle

Looking toward the Gervais Street Bridge - aka - "The Pretty Bridge

Paw-Paws - they are ripening and falling to the ground.

Fungi

Snake skin

All that remained

Fungi on a stump