Tornado Warning... what a night!

Tried to get to bed earlier last night to prepare for going back to work.  Was woken up about 11pm with a really loud thunder and lightening show!  What a noise!  Just drifting off to sleep again when the sirens started going.  Dragged myself out of bed and saw there was a tornado warning.  Apparently there hadn't been one sighted, just rotating clouds several miles away from us.  Have to admit we didn't go down into the basement and the sirens stopped not long after.  Cat was all freaked out and went off to hide somewhere. 

Today (bright and early) I headed out to Hobby Lobby with 40% coupon in hand.  I came back with

I didn't want to pay full price for them (ouch at $40.00 a pack) but heard so much about them that I wanted to give them a try.  I was going to buy online at HL with coupon but heard they carried singles at store so thought I'd check them out.  They had the packs of them!  So I treated myself.  Will let you know how they work!

Another Sunday

It's bright and sunny again in Michigan but not hot, warm yes, but not the temps we sometimes see at this time of year. 

Yesterday we went up to Traverse City.  It's about a 3 hour car ride from Kalamazoo to Traverse City but we decided to go as this is one of the last weekends off I have before I go back to work.  My back to work date is June 10th but I have a dr appointment on June 3rd.  Once I'm back at work it'll be hard to get a full weekend off.  We walked a bit and my foot swelled up a lot.  I can't imagine how it's going to be when I go back to work.  I'm not sure I can be a full eight hours on my foot but we'll see what the dr says.  My ankle swelled up quite large and once shoe off hard to put back on.  Today my leg is hurting though swelling gone down once iced.

This time while up in Traverse City we visited the Grand Traverse Lighthouse.  This one is in the Leelanau State Park.  It was quite a trip up there but it's very pretty scenery.  It amazes me how isolated this area once was and with all the snow it gets in the winter how people survived.  It would be worth doing some historic background to the area.

This is a view of the lighthouse from the beach.  The picture below is from the land.

The next few beaches are of the beach around the lighthouse.  The Mayflies were out in force!  We had to battle our way through them.  My advice - keep your mouth closed so you don't swallow any!

Cake, Flowers and more cards!

This is the cake Daughter made me.  A lovely surprise.

Flowers from my son for birthday.

Really simple little card.

Yes, you've seen this one before but I've added a little more to it.

Happy Monday!

Happy Birthday to ME!

Yes, it's my birthday today.  I turn 43.  Yikes. 

Spending a lazy morning at home and this afternoon will go over to Mother-in-laws for a little get together.  Had a bad foot day yesterday so trying to take it easy today.  Think I overdid it out and about with daughter.

Got some Amazon GCs - have loads of books I want for my Kindle so will now be able to shop :)

Daughter made me a cake from scratch.  She was up until 2am last night and got up at 6 this morning to finish it!  I'll take a pic later and post. 

It is also (tomorrow) the birthday of my hubby's Great Aunt.  She turns 96 (or 97).  What do you get someone who has everything?  Not sure.  Anyway I made her a card.  She loves cats.

More cardmaking

I played with my new dandelion stamp and came up with the card below.  The stamp is (I believe) by Hero Arts.

I like the way it turned out.  It is ended up completely different from how it started out. 

The other one was another one I played with for a while.  I also like this one.  I think I like the simpler cards with not too much fussy stuff on them.

I embossed the flower in sparkly purple.  Turned out nice. 

Bow or no bow?

Just a quick card.  I'm not sure whether to put a bow on it or not.  Might try it and see how it looks.

Weather was warm today.  Sat in garden and read for a bit.  DD wanted to try and get some colour.  The girl is pale white.  She gets that from my husband not from me.  I tan pretty quickly (even when not trying) as does a lot of my side of the family - it's the gypsy blood in me, so my Mum says.

Fun with Cupcakes

DD was in a happy baking mood last night/this morning.  She baked muffins and a cinnamon bread and this morning she baked some cupcakes.  Neither one of us is a great decorator but we had a great time decorating these. She mixed and practiced and I helped a little.  Lol.

Happy Mum's Day!

It's Mother's Day in America.  This is the first one I haven't had to work in a long time.  I am still on disability after surgery.  I must admit that it's nice to have the day off!  I'll even have my birthday (next Sunday) off too!  I sent my Mum something when it was Mother's Day in England and I sent something for today.

I always listen to Radio Suffolk James Hazell on Sundays.  It's a fun show and better than anything on the telly this early in the morning.  They always have a Saying of the Week.  This Sunday it is 'as happy as Larry'.  What exactly does that mean?  This is what I got from Phrases.org.UK

AS HAPPY AS LARRY

Very happy.
Origin

Larry - certainly the best known character in the world of similes. The expression he instigated is most likely to be of Australian or New Zealand origin. The earliest printed reference currently known is from the New Zealand writer G. L. Meredith, dating from around 1875:

    "We would be as happy as Larry if it were not for the rats".

Almost all the other early citations are from Australia or New Zealand; for example, this from Tom Collins (the pen name of the popular Australian writer Joseph Furphy), in Barrier Truth, 1903:

    "Now that the adventure was drawing to an end, I found a peace of mind that all the old fogies on the river couldn't disturb. I was as happy as Larry."

larry foleyBut who was Larry? There are two commonly espoused contenders. One is the Australian boxer Larry Foley (1847 - 1917). Foley was a successful pugilist who never lost a fight. He retired at 32 and collected a purse of £1,000 for his final fight. So, we can expect that he was known to be happy with his lot in the 1870s - just when the phrase is first cited.

The alternative explanation is that it relates to the Cornish and later Australian/New Zealand slang term 'larrikin', meaning a rough type or hooligan, i.e. one predisposed to larking about. 'Larrikin' would have been a term that Meredith would have known - the earliest printed reference is also from New Zealand and around the time of the first citation, in H. W. Harper's Letters from New Zealand, 1868:

    "We are beset with larrikins, who lurk about in the darkness and deliver every sort of attack on the walls and roof with stones and sticks."
Quite interesting.  I like looking up these phrases.  Not sure if this is one used in US.  Must admit I haven't heard anyone use it lol

Couple altered photos

This is only slightly altered.  It is (I believe) from a panel on Salisbury Cathedral.  We went there one year on our way to Stonehenge.  My Mum really liked these and wanted a close up pic.

This is a dandelion (yep, that's what I said lol) from my garden before oldest DS mowed the lawn. 

Happy Monday morning!

It's a beautiful morning here in Kalamazoo.  My house is all quiet.  Hubby and oldest son are at work and the other son and daughter are still sleeping.  The house is a mess of laundry baskets and stuff brought back from Uni that hasn't been taken care of yet.  We had a busy weekend.  Saturday we went to a neighbourhood yard sales.  Sadly I didn't find much of anything - 1 book, a CD and a spool of ribbon.  It was fun though but tiring. By the time I got home my foot was aching and so was the rest of me!

Sunday we had oldest son's little get-together for his graduation from Uni.  I don't think it's quite hit him yet that he is done.  We had a cookout as the weather was gorgeous and cake and ice cream.  Everyone got pretty full and just wanted to sleep lol. 

I haven't done a lot of crafting as the dining room table where I usually do stuff has been taken over by daughter's home-from-uni stuff.  Hopefully she'll get it cleaned up today.

I did try out a painting technique with bubble wrap

And I tried out my new stamp that I purchased from Ebay.  I tried it with embossing and distress inks.  I think it would look good with a different coloured embossing ink.  Think I'll have to go buy some this payday lol

They didn't turn out too bad.  I like the look of the purple one though that is my favourite colour!

What happened to Spring??!!!

Yesterday and today it looked like we have skipped spring and gone straight into summer.  It has been sunny and hot enough that we have all the windows open and the kids are complaining their upstairs bedroom is already too warm.  It's supposed to cool down a little bit though.

This weekend there is a large neighbourhood garage sale that we usually go to.  Daughter is coming home from Uni tomorrow so she'll be tagging along with hubby and I.  Hope the weather stays good for at least Sat.

The above are my latest attempts at Zentangle.  I did not enjoy doing these at all.  I found them difficult and did a whole bunch more that were completely wrong.  Don't know what it is about them that I couldn't quite get.

The above is my latest card attempt.  The stamp bit is cut out and mounted with 3D mounts.  It wasn't supposed to be like that but I got ink on the paper I had stamped on so decided to try and salvage and cut out.  I quite like it.  I have to mount on a card but I want to go get some plain white or coloured larger ones.