Way Too Much Fun

I got home yesterday afternoon from one of the funnest activities I've ever participated in. I attended the "Tim Holtz Extravaganza" in Roswell, New Mexico. "Imagine That Scrapbook Store" hosted the event and I'm still surprised Tim agreed to visit little Rosberg! Having lived there for twelve years I'm familiar with the sleepy little town.




The event was kicked off by the mayor as he presented Tim with the key to the city and proclaimed August 26th 2011 "Tim Holtz Extravaganza Day".

We got right to "work" at creating shortly after the hoopla, and didn't slow down the entire two days. Tim filled the two days with so many projects it felt like bootcamp by the end of the evening Saturday night.



There were forty happy women who were blessed to attend the two day marathon and I'm sure not one left unhappy after all the creative fun.


Tim is not the least bit haughty. A sweet spirited young man. Along with his helper/partner Mario Rossi we were well attended to. We came home with so many projects and Ranger and Tim Holtz products we should be busy for months creating and remembering the fun!


What a blast! I'm not sure if I'll get to attend another Tim Holtz workshop, but for all who get the opportunity I recommend you do what you can to attend!

Love never fails.

Three More Days

I don't normally count down to special days. I stopped doing that a while ago (except for vacations with hubby and cruises), but I am looking forward to my next road trip and "girl's days out" with my friend Vicky. I have to blame Vicky for this whole thing. I was an innocent bystander until she introduced me to the altered art stylings of Mr. Tim Holtz. Now I find myself quite happily enjoying everything he does and copying a lot of his style when I create.

My little sister got me hooked on scrapbooking. Actually I've been hooked on it for years, but never allowed myself the luxury of partaking in the hobby. I knew if I ever started it could be a time consuming, thought provoking, art expressing thing and anything that involves those three things has my full attention. My sister sent me an adorable scrapbook that set fire to the totally dry kindling of this passion. The little spark she sent my way caused a huge bonfire and I don't see too many signs of it cooling soon.

Three appears to be the number of the day for me. In three long or short, depending upon one's outlook, I will be on my way with Vicky to Rosberg, NM (My name for Roswell) to attend a two day seminar/workshop instructed by the a fore mentioned Timothy Holtz. We will be learning techniques and using a lot of the Ranger Ink products he promotes. We will also be in one of my all time favorite haunts; Imagine That Scrapbooking store!!! Yay! I've been saving my Visa Gift cards for this event and am basically on pins and needles waiting for the time to pass.

For now I'm filling my time with what else but scrapbooking. Our grandmunchkins came for another week's stay and we scrapped our trip to Disneyland and Knott's Berry Farm. Zee and Zip each went home with their own photo album and their own scrapbook. We took well over 600 pictures and that meant we could pick the best of the best to CROP.

I'm still quite a novice to the whole scrapbooking thing, but I'm a weathered veteran to crafting. I love using all my other craft skills along side of my scrapbook work. Whether embroidery, painting, drawing, or a myriad of other gifts I love blending them in the pages of our memories.  Soon I'll be able to add this latest adventure to my scrap arsenal. I never thought I'd long to go to Roswell after living there for 12+ years, but I do. I get to spend time with a dear old friend. Play with a new friend and learn from a skilled artisan. What more could a girl ask for? I know a cruise with hubby on one of Tim Holtz's altered art cruises! That HAS to be next.

S-T-R-E-T-C-H

I constantly see my farm animals stretch, but they pretty much do it because they are either growing or age is causing them some pain. Here I am in my fifties and the Lord and situations around me are causing me to stretch. I guess if I compare one sort of stretching to another, I too follow suit with my critters. God is causing me to grow and situations cause pain which makes me stretch as well. 

Today I'm considering the stretching I'm going to have to do because my grandkids are coming for a week. I love them and we have a blast together, but their youth makes them a lot more active than I'm accustomed to participating in. It's just a week before school starts and gpa and gma are going to take the munchkins on a shopping spree for school clothes and backpacks. Los abuelitos already purchased all their school supplies (sans facial tissues). Grandkids don't typically enjoy naps, so gma will have to be creative in filling time slots with things they enjoy while she steals forty winks (fifty if she can finagle it). 

New technology is causing me to stretch as well. I've managed my personal website: http://www.proverbialwoman.com for ten years with Microsoft Frontpage. Now I'm on a new laptop and have to use something else. I've been experimenting with another program, but my old favorite was a whole lot more intuitive and I miss it dreadfully. I'm half tempted to just use the old laptop for the managing of my website, but I know that is simply putting off the inevitable. STRETCH!!!

I've heard the old boring cliche, "No pain, no gain" until I'd like to put it's author on the rack for a week or so and help him gain a whole lot of pain. Ok, so I really couldn't do that. Talk about stretching the truth.

I've also come to the conclusion that my chosen line of business isn't profitable and with the economy in shambles, folks aren't interested in the superfluous nature of scrapbooking in the retail persuasion. I know we're all going to have to be more creative in our finding and using our resources in the days ahead. So I'm rethinking the way I approach my girlfriends. Saving and recycling will be the way of our future. STRETCH.

I have been studying goal setting and achieving and I've been avoiding DOING the steps it takes to achieve a couple of my goals; lose 50 pounds and learn Chinese. One goal is a personal health goal and the other is a spiritual goal. I've done little to achieve either. Ignoring them sure won't help me achieve them and spitting tiny pathetic efforts is mediocrity and I won't put up with that in myself. So STRETCH is on the agenda. My first step toward both is to set a deadline. I believe a year for the 50 pounds and 2 years to be able to carry on basic introductory conversation in Chinese is acceptable. So there, I did it. I put the deadline out there for me to see and for the world to see. The world will do little but mock me as I head towards the goal, but being accountable is one of the steps in achieving goals. And to think I actually bought the books that laid out the steps towards goal setting. I could have procrastinated the whole thing forever had I just let it go, but that just isn't my way. STRETCH.

Can we all say, "OUCH". Time to break up both goals into bite sized pieces. Why did I use a cliche involving food? No time like the present to address that question, but for now I need to think about averaging 2 pounds of fat loss per week. STRETCH and bend and STRETCH and bend.

Neurosis of the Lily Livered Chicken

I have had chickens now for about two years and everyday I learn something new about them. Chickens do better when they have moms is a biggie as far as lessons go. I have one hen we call a torpedo chicken because of her shape. Her name is Azzie and she's very neurotic. She runs away from other chickens, but lays down for the rooster and smashes herself to the ground when danger is near. She showed up on our farm one day with no mom and I put her in a cage for her own protection. My belief is that this caused her to be even weirder than most chickens. She has five absolutely normal offspring, but she runs in terror from them now that they are almost grown. She is Rhode Island Red by appearance, but her long shape causes me to believe she has something else in her DNA.

Chickens have weird behaviors. When a chicken finds a bug or is given a treat of some sort they make a weird noise that lets all the others know they have something special. It sounds like they are bragging and rather than keeping hungry pecking competitors away, it draws them. Oddly though they all do it so I guess it balances life out for them. I tend to throw tomatoes out for my hens and when I do I am greeted with a chorus of silly hens announcing their goodies as they run off to eat their prizes in solitude. They never get to eat in solitude because all the other hens follow the noise. They are smart enough to recognize bragging, but not smart enough to suppress the urge to cackle with delight.

I have one hen that isn't afraid of anything. I've seen her attack a skunk that was killing her chick and almost destroy and devour a dove that was competing for food in the chick nursery. One day I will chronicle all the weird behaviors I've witnessed. For now I guess I should go check their water and food.

Cerise

Dead Skunk in the Middle of the Road!

When I was a teenager there was a song with this title. I remember singing it with my friends as we drove around an old race course in Montana. Tonight I'd really like to see a dead skunk in the middle of my driveway. Last night it killed one of my baby Auracauna chicks and tonight it got another. I now only have one baby chick left and I plan to protect my last baby. 

Around 4:20AM this morning I heard a horrific screaming sound. It was a sound I had never heard before. It woke me from a very sound sleep. I made myself get up and investigate. When I got outside I saw my black cat "Freckles" corralling two baby chicks out of the carport. I thought SHE had eaten the missing chick and was going after the last two. I was very angry to say the least. I locked her up in the house all day and refused to give into her pleas. I couldn't decide if she had done the dirty deed or she was the heroine of the moment, but I wasn't taking any chances. 

Well tonight I was working on my laptop doing business and I heard that horrible screaming sound. I raced outside to hear my mama chicken attacking a skunk and then saw the skunk licking the blood from the head of the chick it was killing. I freaked out. Hubby wasn't around to help so I was on my own. I ran in the house and grabbed the shotgun in its case and opened it. I blanked out. I couldn't remember a thing about how to load and fire it. I grabbed the 22 and the same helpless feeling came over me. I simply froze and couldn't remember a thing about using them. I'm sure that happens to more people that care to admit it. I returned to the carport to hear the last baby chick chirping and mama chicken having a conniption fit. The skunk was nowhere to be seen. Yay for that little bit of revelation. My next thought was the neighbor. He had caught a skunk in his live trap and my live trap was standing against the wall. I recovered the dead chick and called the neighbor as I had NO idea how to set the trap. He came over, threw the dead bird in the cage and set the trap. He told me he'd been averaging a skunk a week. I remember seeing one trapped in his live trap in the front yard of his property. The animal control guy came and disposed of it. 

I hate the death part of farm living. I realize skunks have to live, but I'd rather they eat eggs as opposed to my baby chicks. 

I then decided that mama and baby needed to be in a safer location so I escorted them with my broom into my wash house for the night. Mama was not a bit happy with the process, but settled down immediately once she knew it was a safe location. With a few puppy pads on the floor, some food and water and a quiet corner she can remain in my "witness protection" safe house until I clean our small hen house and prep it for her. I have another mama hen and single baby in the big hen house. I think they will be joining Miss Princess and her baby in the house with a fence and netting over it. No more skunks dining on my babies. 

Dead skunk in the middle of the road and it's stinking to high heaven...now how did the rest of the song go?  I will be singing my own rendition soon.

In Denial

I totally refuse to let my head know that is could be Monday. I don't want it to be Monday. Not that Monday is much different from the other days of the week, but today I don't care. I want it to be Sunday Part II. Hey we put up with movies Part II and they are rarely worth the film they are printed on. Sunday is NEVER long enough for most of us. So I've summarily decided that I'm going to extend my Sunday into its sequel and have a really great day.

My daughter posted that she didn't want any drama today. Sundays are rarely dramatic, so perhaps she should enjoy Sunday Part deux as well! We could really make life more enjoyable if ALL of us would participate in this new thing. Less commuting for millions of people! Less stress! Fewer people experiencing "road rage"! Hey, fewer postal workers going postal! We'd all start the week with a better outlook knowing that rather than 24 hours of peace we'd be expecting 48 hours.

I'm not sure it will catch on, but I've decided to make a go of it. Let's all start by saying, "Hope you have a great Sunday" to someone grouchy. If they look at you funny, just smile and walk on knowing you're going to have a better day than most of the 6 billion+ people on the planet. If we pass the word on via FB or Tweeter or one of the many other social networking channels we might be able to dump Monday entirely. I think it's worth a try.

"Hey, hope you're having a beautiful Sunday Part II too!"

Happy Camper Chicky Mama

My mama Auracauna has many voices and many postures that tickle me. She has four baby chicks and she is one fired up grizzly mama when anyone (including me) comes too close. Yesterday I heard a new sound come from her. It was a happy sound, much like the sound a two year old makes when you give him an ice cream cone. What caused this new song to exude from "Princess"? Chopped up corn tortillas. I had taken two corn tortillas and chopped them as fine as I possibly could. When I put them in front of her and her beebers she chattered with delight. I wanted to see if it was a one time fluke, so this morning I repeated me experiment. I chopped up tortillas and put a handful down in front of her and her tiny quartet. Voila, she made that same happy camper chattery sound! She actually sounds like she's feeling sneaky. I don't have the heart to tell her I gave chopped tortillas to all the hens. She doesn't need to know. She feels sneaky and special and every new mom needs that from time to time.

On another note, my poor cat Freckles, better known as Frek is making doleful noises these days. We forbid her from going outside for the same reason "Princess" needs spoiled. Frek is one awesome huntress. A baby chick would be too big a temptation for her. They are easy pickens. It's obvious to me that Frek is housebound by the number of doves that are congregating around the chicken feeders. Enjoy it while you can birds, once the chicks are a little bigger you will be easy prey for my hunting starved black panther of a kitten.

There is a good side to Frek being stuck indoors. She is so clean and looks so healthy. She's mad as a wet hen (my hens like to wet themselves, but not have you wet them). Frek is doing her best to adjust, but she does send lamenting cries out when she thinks she might get to go out. Poor gal. Soon baby, soon.


Cerise