Hey Luvs~ thanks for thinking of me since it has been rather slow over here. I do skim thru that and several other forums, but I haven't much the past 2 weeks. Too busy. The ones I usually check though only seldom post on are Garden Junk (of course), Trash to Treasure, Holidays, Crafts, Garden and Flower crafts, computer crafts, Home decorating, and hypertufa (if you haven't checked that one out it is way cool and I bet you'd have to try it!! I love the leaf castings they do.) but I always stop here first!! I'll try to post a little something instead of lurking so ya'll know I'm peeking in. :D

I have been painting, wonder of wonders! ha Still working on several things at once so don't have anything completed yet. Hoping to get a few things posted this week. It's always more active when there are holidays to work on.

Oh and btw, I think you are holding your own with those stacking plates! I've love them. Very creative and beautiful. I may try my hand at something like them for Easter. Have you seen those tall cupcake holders? I was thinking those would be something fun to work with in kind of the same theme. You could put tiny pots in each of the cupcake holders and fill with flowers, grasses and eggs, wrap with some vines and throw in a few spring flowers and chicks for fillers? Or have you ever done the string easter eggs? Wrap a balloon with string, add glue mixture and let dry. Pop balloon and you have a string egg? Those might be cute to put in each pot too. Maybe not as glamorous as the ones ya'll have been working on, but kinda fun?? Anyway, I'm still thinking on it. My mom did a beautiful crochet Easter doily and I want to try to do something for her table to go on it. As always, I always have more projects than time to work on them so we'll see if I get that tried out this year.
Better get busy on something. Later~Anj

Hi there! Great idea on the cupcake stands--I've looked at them before and thought the same thing--there should be a way to use them other than to just hold cupcakes. Your idea of the flowerpots and decorations sounds great.

You know me, I like fancy, sparkly--and very cutesy. I could see stacked plates in the dining room and cute cupcake stands in the kitchen.. See, I want it all! LOL

My DIL said she picked up some ornaments and other items after Christmas and wants me to do the stacked plates for her next year. I'm thinking that she might like the cupcakes stands too, especially for Spring.

My son bought me a Mother's Day gift last year that is made of metal. It is like a stand with a V shaped vase in the top middle, then little votive cups all around the lower part. Pretty contemporary for my style. I spray painted it white, put silk roses in the vase and moss to cover the stems. Still looking a little contmporary. The other day, I was wondering how it would look with a flower pot in the top instead of the vase--I'm thinking I might try that--doubt that he would even notice the change. Maybe it would work sort of like your idea for the cupcake stands. Hmmm!

I am so proud of you for painting. I've been trying to get my roses all trimmed--and I have allot of them. I've only got the ones on the side yard to go. Some of the other plants that got frozen will have to get cut back too. Was just waiting to be sure we wouldn't have any more freezes before I do. Would you believe it is 82 degrees right now? Supposed to get up to 84 today then drop back into the 70's. Weather is really unpredictable.

I need to get that TS duck sanded off so I can get it painted--should be an easy project. And that sign I got--just can't quite decide what to paint on it. Need to put my thinking cap on.

I love to sign on here and check out what's going on at all the forums. It's my way of relaxing and playing. ;o) Ths is my first stop each time. I haven't looked at Garden and Flower crafts computer crafts, or hypertufa. I've only checked out the Stained glass/mosaic forum once. I do hit the others pretty regularly. You don't have to post unless you want to--your choice-- I know you are really busy all the time--I just wanted to be sure you weren't left out.I always enjoy chatting with you. Have a good day. Luvs

Well, it's after 3 and I'm just sitting down for lunch. I really enjoy chatting with you too. The hypertufa used to be a kickin little forum, but it's ground almost to a halt, but I still like going over and looking at the stuff they've done. Maybe they all went over to garden junk. ha I like Garden Accoutrements too. As you can see I like so many that I usually only have time to scan them. ha
Well, I'm pretty jealous of your weather, but we have finally made it up to the mid to upper 40's here and the sun is shining full force. I guess I can be happy with that for now. :) At least from my window it looks like spring outside if it doesn't feel like it. I don't blame you for not painting and taking the opportunity to get outside. Soak up some warmth for me, will ya. ha I can't wait for spring to add some more things to our beds. We pulled all the ugly hedge type bushes and things out of the beds when we moved here. They hadn't been taken care of and were so out of shape there was no helping them. Now I'm slowly adding something to them every year. They are getting there. Wish I could find some ornamental grass that would live over the winter here.
I'm trying to picture your vase & holder. I say give the pot a try if you aren't happy with it the way it is. You can always change it back. You're probably right, men rarely notice that kind of thing anyway. ha
I forget, did you say you were putting your duck outside? I guess it's time to hit the books again to decide what's going on that sign. I'm sure it will turn out wonderful whatever you decide. I'm having a hard time with the sign I'm working on for some reason. I've also been doing a little practice on the one-stroke. I think it's going to take me a while to get it down. For one thing I'm used to watering down my paint and she says don't do that. And it's hard to just let it flow too. I'm too much of a perfectionist to just let the mistakes happen and go with it. ha I have lots of mistakes so far. ha Old habits die hard. I'll keep at it though. I'm almost done with lunch so I'll go for now. Later~Anj

Hi Anj, Glad to hear you are practicing the One Stroke. You don't have to live with your mistakes--because the paint is thick and creamy, you can just stroke right back over the wet paint if you have something you don't like. Trust me, I do that allot when I am doing my leaves. LOL

I need to do some One Stroke again soon too or I am going to forget what I had sort of learned. I have several metal trays primed and base coated, just need to pick a design and get busy on them.

After talking to you today, I decided to pull that duck out of the shed and get it sanded tomorrow. Yep, I figure it was a really cheap TS find, so I will paint it , seal it, and stick it in a flower bed. I sort of enjoy seeing things like that peeking out of the flowers. I have a few signs, a rustic wooden watering can, and even a ceramic duck cookie jar setting around the yard.

Hey, did I mention that I have a "new baby" at my house? We got an 11 week old puppy. Another Golden Retriever--they are our favorites. We've had four of them. This is our first girl, she's a real sweetie. Wasn't the least bit scared, comes right to me, loves to lick my chin when I hold her. She's laying at my feet right now. Only thing she doesn't like is when we go to bed, I put her in the laundry room with a gate blocking the door--she doesn't like being alone. Our four year old is doing really good with her--hardest part for him was having to share his toys--but he's doing better today. I just love dogs, they are such good companions, and always manage to make us laugh.

Better go read a bit more before bedtime. I'll talk to you soon. Luvs

Well, Congrats on your new addition. So what have you named her? Does this make 2 or 3?

I have a few little statues, a pair of rabbits, a few gators (for DH), one sign and little angels peeking out here and there around my yard. Been trying to add to my collection every year too. They are fun and add dimension and interest to your yard. Kinda like those doggies add dimension and interest to our lives, huh? ;) ha Hope she doesn't give you too much trouble in her puppy stage, but it's also the cutest age too isn't it? ~Anj

We tossed around lots of possible names--and DH decided he liked Amber. (We are not very creative about names!)

She is so sweet--runs to you when you walk in the room, gives you lots of kisses when you pick her up. She doesn't like to stay still very long--lots of playing with our big dog. He seems to be enjoying her--they play tug of war and chase. Hardest part for him was having to share his "toys". Ha ha He loves his squeekies and soft toys! ;o) We only have the two--lost our big 14 year old to brain cancer a couple years ago. LIke having two--good company for each other.

Gators in the yard, huh? Would be cute except if you were pulling weeds (I have lots of those) and came across one when you weren't expecting it! Ha ha Have you seen those three part stepping stone ones in the catalogs? Those always crack me up.

I need to finish my coffee and go out and do some more trimming. Want to get started sanding my duck too. I can do it on the patio while the dogs romp around in the yard. Both of them are asleep on the floor at my feet right now. They keep me smiling!

TTYL

Luvs

Luvs~ glad you are enjoying those pups. Just don't let them trip you up in their enthusiasm. We started giving my old dog some treats with meds in them and he's been much more active, but he's almost killed me several times getting under my feet. ha I think I liked it better when he was laying around all the time. ha

I have seen those gators, the wooden ones from the wood pattern magazine and the stepping stone ones. I've considered ordering them. Mine are more like small statues. One is standing up with his mouth open with a small bird sitting in his mouth. At the moment I can't even remember what the other one looks like. ha I put them up in the winter cause I don't know that they would last outside.
I was thinking about you this morning when I was watching the weather. Looks like most of CA was covered in green (rain). We will actually get up to 52 today and the sun is melting away all that nasty snow! I'm loving it.

I better get going too. Had a bunch of emails this morning and it took me a while to get thru them (still not finished). You know how often I check those. ha DH invited me out to lunch yesterday and then had a bunch of homework with the kids and helping them finish up their Science Fair projects last night to turn in today. I'm a little behind on my housework so need to get busy so I can get a little more done on my painting. I hate not being able to devote more time in long spurts to it. Have to grab a few minutes here and there and that's why it takes me so long. ha I was really hoping to get something finished this week to contribute. You'll probably be done with your duck before I'm halfway thru the project I've been working on for 2 weeks. ha Enjoy the great outdoors today. ~Anj

Luvs~ don't know why I didn't think of this before but will you take a pic of your pups? I have a computer friend on another group who just got beagle mix puppies and she posted a pic of them that was soo cute and got me thinking about yours. ~Anj

Hi Anj, Yeah, I've been snapping some pics of my two buddies. I'll have to get them on the computer so I can download to Photobucket. Little GD was over today so we were outside all afternoon. The two dogs ran and played so much--they both have been sleeping on the couch ever since we came in. Got to rouse them pretty soon or the little one will be waking me up all night.

Little GD was in a grumpy mood--had her first bad experience with little playmates today. Her two little guy friends that she usually plays with at the playground were playing in the sand and wouldn't let her play with them today. The 4 year old told her "No Sophia, you are just a baby", she said "Phia is a big girl now", but they still didn't want her to play with them. Her Mom came and took her over to the swings, told her the two of them could play. Sophia said "don't need any boys". Her Dad clued me in to what had happened so I would understand why she was so grumpy. So we had a talk about it, and I told her it is okay to be grumpy sometimes, but don't let that spoil all the fun you could be having. Gave her lots of hugs and we played lots then on the way to take her home, I said "Sophia, did you have fun with Gramma? Did those grumpies go away?', and she thought a minute and said "No more grumpies". Then we talked about playing nice, sharing toys, and not making playmates feel bad. She told me the boys were mean, and Phia cried. Just breaks my heart for her to have to learn life lessons like rejection. Kids can be so mean to each other at times. Might be easier for her if she had a brother or sister--of course, they are not always kind to each other either I guess. LOL

I got my duck sanded and basecoated, and got one coat of patio paints on some of my rocks. We'll see how far I get tomorrow on them.

You are so busy, I am always impressed at how much you get done. So glad your weather is warming up a bit. It has been really nice here this week but is supposed to cool off again. Got lots done outside while it was nice.

Luvs

I'll look forward to seeing the pics.
Too bad about Sophie. Kids aren't always nice. Sometimes as an adult I wish I could be as blunt. ha The older kids here are not always nice to my Neleh (ne-lee-a). She thinks she is old enough to do everything they do. My 12 and 9 yr old play board games and make up other games to play together and I can understand them not wanting the 6 and 2 yr old messing up their play time. I try to get them to include them at least some of the time though. Neleh will play so sweetly all day long, but the minute the other kids get home from school it seems she does nothing but whine because one or the other of them has got something she wants or has taken something she had or won't let her watch her little nickjr shows on tv. I'm lucky that they get along for the most part as good as they do though. I've been around plenty of kids that are horrible, just horrible to each other. I know I'm not just being prejudiced because I get compliments on how well behaved my kids are all the time. Even my SIL who "hates" children says she can actually be around mine without getting a headache. ha Ok, enough bragging. :)

Well, it's made it up to 55 here today. I need to get out and try to clean off the back porch from all the berries and things that our big tree has dropped and all the stuff the wind has blown around during the winter. (One day we'll enclose it to make a sun room)(we have a lot of "one days"ha) But....DH asked me to go run some errands for him and so I probably won't get to do it today.

Hey, you got me wanting a roast so bad the other day that I had to do one yesterday. I dug around in our big freezer and came up with an elk roast so did it your way (still frozen). The kids loved it. DD ate almost half of it by herself. ha I'm sure she'll be wanting what's left to make sandwiches today. She's definitely a carnivore. :)

Well, I better get the breakfast dishes done and get the little one ready to go. Have a great day! ~Anj

Oh, you brought some old memories to mind! When I was growing up, there were three of us at home, two brothers and me--i was in the middle age wise. Most of the time we all played pretty well together--but there were other times when it would be two against one, with one of us being left out! Hated it when I was the one left out! Ha ha

As I thought about it, I guess these little lessons with our playmates just help us learn how to handle rejection for our grownup lives. Cause let's face it--none of us can be the winner all the time. We have to learn to just "suck it up", put on a happy face, and get on with our day! I am sure there will be many more disappointments she will have to face--can't help but wish we could protect her though!

I have no doubt that your kids are pretty well behaved and enjoyable to be around--you wouldn't have it any other way. ;o) Can't believe your SIL actually admits she hates kids--at least she is honest! Ha ha

Wow! You are almost having a "heat wave" after the low temps you have been having! I'm glad to hear you are getting a bit of a reprieve from the cold.

I've got a lunch date with a friend today, so by the time I walk the dog and get cleaned up for that--I probably won't get to work on my painting. Well, maybe--I think DH may get called out to work so won't have to make dinner. Could maybe paint this evening.

TTYL