So they tell me it is the weekend

Fridays just don't seem as great when you have to work overtime on Saturday but at least I only had to work a half day today...which means the rest of my day is play time!!!!! :-)

As promised (although a few days later than I had hoped) here are the photos of my Close To My Heart kit.

You read the list and it sounds like a lot of stuff but then you get the box and you dig in and it seems like you will never hit the bottom! I had a blast unpacking it...even hubby stood by watching in amazement lol

So the huge deal this month is the free Cricut cartridge of your choice with your kit. I chose the Artbooking cartridge because I want to make more art journals (not that I ever seem to put anything in them lol)

Here is what you get when you order a Cricut cartridge from Close To My Heart.....not just a cartridge!

 

Check this out! You get the awesome cartridge with 700 images and a font! PLUS 3, yep THREE coordinating stamp sets AND a set of 3 coordinating chipboard elements! How cool it that?! And just think, that was the Freebie in my kit and my reason for signing up! I am not disappointed. :-)

Now onto the rest of the kit...

CTMH has scrapbook 'kits' called Workshops On The Go. They include supplies and instructions to make at least 2 page layouts....or a ton of cards lol
The kit this month has the Skylark Workshop On The Go. It includes the Skylark paper pack ( 6 printed papers and 6 coordinating cardstocks), a coordinating stamp set, 3 additional sheets of cardstock, some acrylic flower embellishments and some slate striped twist ties. I love the colors of these papers!

 

Next came the Skylark extras....a package of 24 sheets of the bulk printed papers and a set of the Skylark Complements. These are printed chipboard embellishments.

Digging deeper I found 3 more stamp sets! Two of them compliment the Skylark set really well and then there was a full alphabet (upper and lower case)

Still digging.... look at all these supplies!
3 stamp pads (which go really well with the Skylark papers), 3 acrylic stamp blocks, 2 types of embellishments (teal flowers and metal triangle studs), teal ribbon, scissors, stamp cleaner, stamp cleaning brush, glue pen and a bottle of liquid glass. Oh, and a sponge for inking edges or whatever you want. I think that covers everything in this picture lol

But I'm not done yet!
I received 2 spiral bound books. Originals has card examples and lots of layout ideas and Reflections is the same thing but for scrapbook layouts. Both of these are really cool books with tons of ideas and gorgeous photos!

Everything else in the box was business supplies....you know, catalogs (which I must say are heavy, gorgeous and feel awesome in the hand!), order forms and stamp sets to give out to hostesses. I didn't figure you wanted to see those lol

So, have I used any of this stuff yet? Why yes I have lol  Not much, I have been pretty busy this week, but I managed to grab a few minutes of art time.

I made this card using some of the papers, stamps and my artbooking cartridge.
The teal and grid papers are both from the Skylark pack. The bird is from the Believe in Yourself set (#C1574). The 'Sweet' stamp is from the Sweet & Lovely set (D1571) that came in my Cricut bundle. I cut the heart background with the Artbooking cartridge. Oh and look, some of those gold metal studs! :-)

I also worked in one of my art journals this week. I wanted to experiment with cutting a stencil with my Cricut and then figured what better place to use it than in my journal. 'Live in the Moment' is from the Skylark stamp set (D1591) that came in the Skylark workshop. 'Believe in Yourself' is from the Believe in Yourself set (C1574). I cut the hexagon grid from Artbooking and used it as a stencil with the CTMH inks Lagoon and Desert Sand. And then I liked how the stencil itself looked with ink on it so I added part of it onto the page. Oh, and the little bird on the lower left, the blue larger layer is part of the paper, the brown top layer is a stamp from the Believe in Yourself set.

So there you have it! Or maybe there I have it lol

Either way, all of these wonderful products can be yours if you would like. For the month of April 2014, Close To My Heart is including 1 free Cricut bundle of your choice in the consultant kits. You are not obligated to every sell anything or buy anything else so you are basically buying your Cricut bundle for $99 (plus shipping and tax) and getting all these other awesome products for free!

If you are interested or have questions please visit my site at www.CherylWrede.ctmh.com

Ok, no more commercials! From now on, I will note if I use CTMH products and give you the name and such (just like I have always done with all my other supplies over the years) and will have my page link at the bottom of the post but won't be hounding you to check it out....I promise!

So many projects, so little time.....to blog

Where has all the time gone? It seems like I just posted something here yesterday and yet the last time I was here was August 24.

That doesn't mean I haven't been working on anything.  As a matter of fact, this post is very picture heavy (just a warning lol)

I am still in my Fall/Halloween mood. I just love the colors!!! But I have a couple other, non-autumn related items this week too.  :-)

To say I have been working on tons of stuff is an understatement. I even have a few things still on my camera.

Let's start with fun new ideas...
I saw this on Pinterest while looking for some Cuttlebug ideas. Using aluminum tape, you can created really cool backgrounds. I found this 50 foot roll of tape in with the duct work supplies at Home Depot. It cost around $8. I already have a great idea for my Christmas cards using this for the background (hope it turns out as great as I imagine lol)

I found that if I put the tape onto cardstock first, it was much more stable and easier to work with on my cards (but you can run just the tape through the Cuttlebug and it embosses just fine). I used plain index cards for the backing....cheap and an easy size to work with.
You can see that I was also playing with alcohol inks. :-)  I found that you can apply the alcohol inks before embossing like above or apply after embossing to just highlight the raised areas (but this was much more time consuming....still looks cool though)

So, after experimenting, I was ready to use this on a card. I put 2 strips of the aluminum tape onto an index card. I covered it with alcohol inks (a blend of reds, browns and golds...which don't show up too well in a photo because it is so shiny) then ran it through the Cuttlebug using the Fall Leaf background from Darice. The stamped image is from the Stampin' Up set Halloween Smiles.

And while playing around with the Cuttlebug, I pulled out my Jack o Lantern folder (part of the Happy Hauntings set) and tried applying ink to the embossed images.

I love how it turned out. This is Spiced Marmalade Distress Ink. I just rubbed the ink pad gently over the paper so the ink only hit the raised images. My only problem? I is just too bright and busy to work as a background with anything I have tried. So it is sitting in my stack of leftovers until I find a good match.
I used this folder again to make the background for a friend's birthday card (she is a Halloween baby)

I made the cupcake in fall colors and of course, chocolate icing lol The cupcake comes from Simply Charmed. I added shading with Prismacolor pencils.

And since I was still in Halloween mode, I pulled out the Teddy Bear Parade cartridge and made this little witch.

But then I couldn't decide what to do with her so she hung out on my desk until I put her on this doorknob tag. The spider web and 'Trick or Treat' are from October 31st.

But we are not done yet my friends.....I warned you that I was super busy! lol

I saw several ideas for Post-it note holders online and thought that might make a cute gift. I grabbed my Create a Critter and Teddy Bear Parade. I removed the eyes and mouth cuts from the worm using the Cricut Craft Room and resized him just a bit to fit my project better. His glasses are from Teddy Bear Parade, resized to fit his little head.

This paper was printed with the eyelet and striped edge. Since this was a practice project, I didn't want to get into layering papers and such. I just wanted to get my basic measurements down.
I used the standard 3x3 post-it. I cut the background paper at 3 1/4" x 6 3/4" so that I have about 1/8" edge around the post-it. It went together really fast. I think I might be tossing a few of these into my Christmas boxes.  :-)

I was able to leave the Cricut and Cuttlebug alone for a while this week :-)
I moved into tag mode.

This is what happens when I am bored and start watching Tim Holtz videos lol Using the technique where you rub your distress inks onto a non-stick craft sheet (or in my case a piece of foil) spritz with water and then rub your tag into the puddles....I got this.

The bumpy stuff down the right side is some sort of gel medium with glass beads in it. The stuff was so old that it had thickened to a very stiff mess but I rubbed some on...this was as smooth as I could get it....before I dipped the tag in inks. I had also added a couple lines with crayon knowing they would resist the ink.

I used some stencils and rubber stamps to add more visual texture (notice blue blotches in the upper left...giraffe spots I think. And faint trees in the center left)

This sat on my desk for a couple days until I added more images and added it to my art journal.

But this was not the only tag I inked up that day! I actually did 5 or 6.  Some have not yet been used. Others on waiting to be downloaded off the camera. :-)

I did manage to get one of them photographed AND downloaded lol

Again, using Distress Inks for the background, I added lots of stamped images. The birds and clock face are from Tim Holtz. The pumpkin is from Inkadinkado and the tree branch is actually just one branch from a very large tree stamp from Stampa Rosa.

I added eyelets and jute to the bottom left. The stars are brads. They were shiny silver and copper but I inked them with alcohol inks to make them dark.

Don't you love how it 'glows'? That is the Distress Inks and the Prismacolor pencils in his eyes. They are both products with rich, intense colors.

I guess I have bombarded you with enough this week! lol
Stay tuned for more of my Fall/Halloween goodness!  Be forewarned, I am trying to put together an Autumn Junk Journal lol

Happy Fall Y'all

The Toad of Truth

Sometimes I get ideas at the oddest moments.  Last week I was watching reruns of The Big Bang Theory. Sheldon was speaking and his statement immediately brought an image to my head that I just had to create.

It was the episode The Einstein Approximation.

 

The quote:  "I need to determine where in this swamp of unbalanced formulas squatteth the toad of truth."  Sheldon Cooper

 

So, here sits the Toad of Truth. For some reason, my mind thinks he wears a monocle and top hat lol  And oddly enough, as quickly at he appeared, he has vanished. Yep. I have torn the house apart and cannot find this ATC anywhere!!!

 

I also spent some quality time with my journal this week (when I wasn't frantically searching for above toad)

The weather here has been flipping back and forth between spring and yucky cold and rainy (and forecasts of snow). I am longing for warm (not hot) days and sunshine. I was also longing to pull out the paints and brushes!

I tore a sheet out of a large, old and tattered dictionary (an awesome score at 50 cents a couple years back). It was from the B's....Bluebird to be exact.

Notice he has some bits of snow spitting all over the background because spring is struggling to keep a strong hold around here Darn It!!!

I have also been struggling lately with work, back pain, hubby's job hunt and a million other things. But this week God has been talking very loudly to me.....and I decided to listen. He really likes it when I pay attention  :-)

With all that He has been doing this week, I was inspired to create this journal spread.

The cross was drawn with a Sakura pend and then colored with Prismacolor pencils.

The background for the gate is acrylic paint as are the brick posts. The gate itself was drawn with a Sakura pen. Three of the tickets are a stamp from Tim Holtz that I colored with Prismacolor pencils then sanded. After I finished this side, I sat back and realized that even when entering heaven, we people still mess up....and litter just outside the gates of Heaven lol

I hope you all have a wonderfull week full of blessings and happiness!

 

 

Sometimes you just have to journal it!

Life has been, to put it lightly....really sucky lately!

Thankfully, I have my art journal on hand. Over the past years, I only worked in my journal on a 'hit or miss' time frame. And very rarely did I ever use it to really work through some personal issues. Well, that changed this week. I am not going to show you the super deep and dark pages just because they are super deep and dark lol  And personal  :-)

But do have a couple page to share today (like I would show up without goodies!)

A couple weeks back I was visiting Chris on her blog Parabolic Muse. If you haven't been there you need to pop in! She is funny and creative and her blog is a great place to lift your spirits....I just can't help smiling as I read of her antics :-) While I was there, she had some mandalas that she had done. She had been inspired by Emily Lagore. So I checked out Emily's blog too. Trust me, you don't want to miss that blog either!!! Such awesome eye candy and wonderful ideas! And Mandalas!!!

What can I say, after seeing all these great mandalas by Emily and Chris, I had to give it a try. I found it to be a very calming process....much like when I Zentangle.
I was using the back of a page that had some watercolor bleed through. I love the effect. I also used my Tattered Angels glitter sprays and some stencils to add patterns and sparkle to the page.

 

And since we started a new month, Challenge 2013! had a new prompt. Asian! Now if you have been here before you know that I have tons of Asian rubber stamps and just love the look! But this challenge threw me for a couple days....the color scheme has to be Emerald (or Apple) Green, Mustard Yellow (or Gold) and Chocolate Brown. Am I the only one that doesn't think these are the normal colors we associate with Asian art? lol

 

 

Thankfully the artistic side of my brain works while I asleep. Unthankfully, it likes to get up really early on Saturdays!  Needless to say, it woke me at 5:30 am and finally dragged me out of bed at 6:30 with the constant nagging!!!  :-)

 

While still working through some of the issues bothering me right now, I created this page. The woman is from StoneHouse Stamps. They have a huge selection of awesome Asian rubber stamps!!!  The man in the background is from Tim Holtz Life's Possibilities set.

 

I washed acrylic Ceramcoat Antique Gold over the entire page (had to get that gold in there somehow lol) I stamped the faint figure of the man. The ground is torn strips of a Chinese newspaper I picked up in San Francisco over 5 years ago. I just keep tearing out bits for projects (at the rate of usage, I have at least another 10 years to go before I need another one lol) I washed Ceramcoat Brown Velvet (sorry no paints in my huge stash called Chocolate Brown lol) over the edges before gluing them all down.

The bamboo is painted with Folk Art paints Fresh Foliage and Olive Green.

 

Finally, I stamped the woman on separate paper and colored her with Prismacolor pencils....in light greens, a couple browns, some gold (and a touch of red).

 

I wanted a bit more color and depth on the background so I sponged some Distress Ink on the upper corners. (Scatterd Straw & Tea Dye)

 

The verse at the bottom is "Cast all your anxieties on him because he cares for you." 1 Peter 5:7

 

I am really pleased with how it turned out. I came out exactly as I envisioned it AND it helped me mentally with some issues.....Win Win!  :-)

BTW the kanji is from the Cricut cartridge Pagoda....which has some really great Asian images!

 

Journal Challenge is back

The art journal challenge group has started back up again! I am so glad as I have not touched my journal is many many months!!!!!

It is a free group. You can check it out (and join) at Art Journaling Challenge! 2013

For April, we are making a grid and then using project scraps, leftovers or bought and never used supplies we are to take an object and portray it from various angles.

Here is my object.....one of my favorite antique kitchen gadgets.....a cast iron egg beater. I just love the shapes and lines of this thing!

We are only allowed to use primary colors plus black and white.

I painted my background squares (I hate yellow so it only shows up in the orange and green squares) and then I drew in close ups using some oil pastels that I bought years ago and have never used. (yeah like you don't have supplies that fit that catagory! lol)

With this complex item, I didn't want to try to portray the entire thing from various angles, I wanted to instead draw attention to all the little details that make up this wonderful little item.

Since this challenge is for the entire month, I may have to pick another item and try using up some of my paper scraps!  Hmm I am seeing a Warhol tribute to a biscuit cutter.  ;-)

Fall is Almost here!

I know you think I had forgotten about you. But I didn't. I have just been avoiding my computer. Please don't take it personally....honestly, it had nothing to do with you. Would I lie to you? :-)

Seriously, after working all day long on a computer, the last thing I want to do in my free time is get on a computer. So, although I have been busy in my art room, my computer took the summer off.

I did get a few pages done in my journal (not a lot though, hey, it was summer and I was out playing!)

My flowers did beautifully this year and I really wanted to feature my gorgeous begonia in a journal page. Did you know that begonias have fairies living in them? I didn't either until I downloaded the photos.

Our garden did incredibly well too! So far this year I have made 5 batches of salsa and canned 10 quarts of tomatoes (and spending tomorrow afternoon canning some more)

I love my salsa! So fresh and tangy. I love it so much I created a page to honor it! lol I painted all the ingredients. I then photographed one of my antique Ball jars and printed it onto transparency film for an overlay.

I am still participating in the online journal Challenge! http://artjournaling.ning.com/group/challenge

I don't always follow the rules (ok, I rarely follow the rules) but it gives me great prompts for journal ideas. This week we were supposed to create in a way similar to Van Gogh or Monet using at least one neon color. Um, yeah. Sorry, neon is not on my shelf! lol And as for Van Gogh or Monet, love them but still, not me. Once we painted, we were to doodle over the top.

So, I painted a swish with short strokes in fall colors (oops, no neon yellows or pinks to be seen) and then stamped the tree on top (StampaRosa). I did doodle the leaves. :-)

I did not waste my entire summer. I spent every weekend searching for treasures at yard sales!

I found this poor desk for $10. It is solid oak but had seen much better days. It had been stripped of it's stain many years ago and then at some point, some sort of oil had been spilled across half of its top. To add insult to injury, the top was also dotted with cigarette burns. Poor desk.

My original plan was to paint it up and put it out in my garden to hold my herb pots (I am tired of bending over to pick herbs lol)

If you notice on the above pic, their are decorations near the top on each side. Well only 1/3 of an ornament on the right side as most has been broken off.

I wanted to keep this detail so I created a mold from the remaining ornament using sculpey. I then filled the mold with paper clay. (the original decoration is in the middle sitting on a tissue because it still has the nails in it and kept sliding around my desk) The little piece on the right is the remaining portion of the broken ornament.

Here is the dry paperclay reproduction beside the original. The detail is not as sharp but since I was going to paint them both, I didn't think it would matter.

Here is the finished desk. I stained the top a rich mahogony and even though you can sort of still see the oil stain and definitely see the burn marks, it has beautiful character.

Once it was done, I couldn't banish it to the garden so now it resides in my office holding my tv. I think it is much happier than when I found it. :-)

So Little Time - So Many Projects

I was thinking that I had been a slug over the past week but when I got out everything I made this week to photograph it, I realized I really got a lot done! :-)

I am signed up for an ATC swap with the Bad Babies. They are not due until August but I am determined to not get behind on projects this year....so mine are done!!! WooHoo.

Up first, you might say this is Steampunkish....maybe not lol I did the background with alcohol inks and loved the metallic look so I added the watch parts.
The stamps both came from Tim Holtz (yes, I am totally hooked on his stuff right now!)
Now, off in another direction! I love this woman stamp! She is from Posh Impressions and one of my favorites. But I had no clue what I was going to do with her. But sticking with another of my 'resolutions' I dug through my drawer of old ads and found this one for hat patterns. Since my woman isn't wearing one, maybe she needs to make one?

And changing directions AGAIN! I went to Paris....one of my favorite themes. :-)

I just got the Eiffel Tower stamp (Tim Holtz of course lol) and combined it with my Oxford Impressions french stamps. I really like this (and might have to keep it for myself)

I also signed up for a bookmark swap over at Parabolic Muse blog. You really need to go check out Chris's blog! She is a fellow bad baby and loads of fun! http://parabolicmuse.blogspot.com/

So, here I am, Me in 2 swaps at the same time!!! This one is due in mid July.....and I am already done! I am SO on fire!!!! LOL

Using my seaside Oxford Impressions set, I created the bookmark below. There is a grand hotel, deck chairs, seashells stamped on clear acetate with a film border (Tim Holtz) to mimic negatives and the lovely bathing beauty.

I used the fun fur yarn because it has a seaweed look to me.

For my next trick, I went back to my stash of vintage photos. :-)

I tinted it with distress inks and then layered the bookmark with paper scraps.

I distressed some seam binding and bias tape as well and added some beaded dangles. C'mon, who doesn't love danglies? lol

Here is a close-up of the photo. I think grandma looks nice in pink. :-)

But I am not done!!!! There was also a new prompt posted this week for the journal challenge. The theme is Zentangle.

Now, if you have been here long enough, you know that I zentangle. I haven't posted any in a while but I do still dabble...especially when I feel stressed. I have found it to be a great stress reliever!

But I didn't want to do a typical tangle....got enough of those hanging around. I wanted something that worked with a photo. I had this vision of a dancer and zentangles swirling around.

See below what I came up with.

So, that was my week! It looks very exhausting when I look back on it but oddly enough, the time flew by and I had a blast!

Speaking of blasts, tomorrow is July 4th! A day for eating way too much BBQ and blowing things up. I highly doubt this is what our forefathers had in mind lol

No matter, have a safe and wonderful holiday!

More great finds!

Last week I mentioned the fabulous photo album I found at an estate/yard sale. What I didn't tell you was that I also picked up a large box full of leather 'tags'. They appear to be upholstery swatches. They are about 2 1/2 x 4 1/2 and there are a couple shades of brown, a couple burgundys, a nice dark green and a couple different blues. There were also some large scraps of leather tossed in there too. There is about 3 pounds of leather.... over 100 leather tags! I paid $5!!! This is going to be a fun stash to play with!!! :-)

Since Tim Holtz put me into tag mode this week, I thought I would play around with them.

I stamped directly onto the leather and it took the ink beautifully! I then colored the boy's face with prismacolor pencils. Since it was a dark brown tag, he has a sort of ghostly look but I like it. I then highlighted the text with prismacolors as well.

With a fabric scrap glued to the left side, some vintage book page scrap and old buttons, this one is complete!
(stamp credits: boy = Paperbag Studios, compass = All Night Media)

Tags must be the in thing this month because no sooner had I completed the one above when one of the Bad Babies suggested a Christmas tag swap. Oh yeah! I am all for that one!!!

I grabbed some more leather tags and began playing.
I used my Zutter to punch the line of holes on the left and threaded in some old lace.
I stamped the children on glossy cardstock then aged them with Distress Inks.
(stamp credits: all stamps from Oxford Impressions)

Here I stamped Santa on matte white cardstock and colored him with prismacolor pencils. I then aged the image with Distress Inks.
I stamped a string of snowflakes with white acrylic paint directly onto the leather. Then I layered a bit of music from an old hymnal (a yard sale find from a couple years ago...50 cents!)

Add some dark red buttons, some poofy yarn saved from a gift and some rusty jingle bells and you have a fun new Christmas tag!
(stamp credits: Santa = Gumball Graphics, snowflakes = Inkadinkado)

But tags are not the only thing I did this week! I have been a busy girl! lol

My art journal prompt for this week was travel.....a real vacation you have taken or one you only dream about.
I dream about Paris!
(stamp credits: Eiffel Tower = Postmodern Design, all others from Oxford Impressions)

And finally, my friend Cris ( crispart.blogspot.com) turned me on to wrap bracelets. I saw them on her blog and just had to give it a try! :-)

I found a great tutorial at http://cupcakepeonie.blogspot.com/2012/03/diy-beaded-wrap-bracelet-tutorial.html

AWOL

I know, I have been gone again lol

Time sort of gets away from me at times! :-) The weather has finally been looking (and acting) like spring. Which means more time piddling around outside and less time free for art.

But, today, I decided I needed to get into my art room and make something....anything! My original intention was to try something steampunkish. But, that has never been my style and try as I might, it morphed into something else that is more Me. lol

I haven't stamped anything in a really long time so it was really nice to grab some stamps and play!
The flower in the upper left is from Magenta, the clocks are from Non-Sequitor and the rest are all from Oxford Impressions.
The key is chipboard that I painted and then 'rusted' with alcohol inks.

Lilacs are probably my favorite flower. I can sit under the one in the backyard and day dream for hours. The fragrance really calms me.

This one above is new. We planted it a year and a half ago and it didn't bloom last year. I was so excited to see the gorgeous color this year! And the fragrance is amazing! The only problem is, we planted it under my office window so that I could smell it while I work....and then 2 months ago we moved my office to the other side of the house. :-(

This last picture is of my baby girl. She hates cameras and will not sit still for a picture no matter how sneaky I try to be. But she decided to be playful and let me try out my new camera.

She is such a silly girl, she loves to lie on her back with all her little feet in the air. So, I slowly walked up and she twisted around and looked at me then shot out her little paw and patted me on the cheek lol I caught her as she was reaching for me. Such a cutie :-)

Journaling

Now that I have my art space back, I am really in the mood to create! I dug out all the art journals I have started over the years and lined them up at the far end of my table. I have 11! lol

So, of course, I started another. lol

No deadlines, no swaps, no criteria, just for me. :-)

I moved way outside my box on this page. I NEVER do bright colors lol. I tend to stick with muted and antique-looking color schemes. But I decided to use papers that I had gotten for free out of Somerset Studio and this was what was on the top of the stack. The background paper was bright yellow (hate the color yellow) and orange. I brushed some blue over it and then scratched some off so the yellow and orange would show through.

I saw an article on paper dolls someplace...heaven knows where. I have been cleaning out junk from the art room and flipping through magazines before I toss them out lol

So, here is my paper doll. :-) I cut her body from an old book page (I think it is French). Her clothes came from another of the Somerset papers. With turquoise tissue paper petticoats. :)
Now back to my normal colors lol

This background took me several days. I just kept layering with papers and paints until I finally liked it. I then stamped the hands at the bottom.

I like it so much, I took a pic before I continued (so I can use it in digital stuff later if I want)
I then added the flower and face. The face is stamped and colored with pencils, the petals are watercolor crayons. A new toy that I think I am going to be using a lot more!

For St Patrick's Day I had to go green. :-) Again I played around with building layers.

The text says "Live the Life You've Imagined".

Now I can't say that I imagined fish flying all around but as I was digging for the girl stamp, this fish was filed in the 'people' box (who knows what I was thinking about that day!!! lol) and I thought he would be fun on the green background.

Thankfully, it is now spring...or so the calendar says. Today my back pain is really bad (thus updating my blog instead of working). I can't wait until the weather turns nice so I can get out and move around and get some fresh air. Until, then...