Lots of various stuff and things

Well, so much for posting more often. We just cannot seem to catch a break this year! The pump for the well died, so we were without water for a couple of days (well, I say WE but fortunately I was down at Mom's!). We are fortunate to have the creek just behind the house so we could have used that to water the animals if we needed to; but Les had just finished giving everyone fresh water and had watered the garden right before the well pump died. It was fixed pretty quickly, and hopefully it will last for another 20 years. The bad part is that when the pump restarted it sucked up tons of rocks and now pretty much all the water sources in the house are clogged with them. It takes the washing machine FOREVER to fill to wash even a small load. GRRRRRR.

On my way down to Mom's last Sunday, my Rodeo turned over 270,000 miles! Monday morning, she would not start. Long story short - $500 for a new starter. Ugh.

Anywhooooo...I wanted to give a shout out to Waltzingmouse Stamps. Several weeks ago I won a random giveaway! I was so excited, I never win anything! I wasn't sure what to get since the prize was awarded in British pounds, and so instead of trying to figure out the exchange rate, I just asked Claire to pick for me. Wow - what an awesome selection she sent! I'm pretty sure she went over the amount she said I had won; here is the lovely haul:

Please excuse the horrible pictures; you can see Shadow's foot in the upper right corner of the top one! I cannot wait to use these stamps; the coffee set is my favorite, and I have so many ideas for them!! Please check out Waltzingmouse Stamp's website; shipping is quick because they have a US shipper, so you don't have to wait to get a shipment from across the pond.

I still have not been able to sit down and do any crafting. Mom is s-l-o-w-l-y recovering so I am still spending Sunday-Thursday down at her place. So I am going to continue sharing the cards I made for Jenny's swap.

The second card was my first experiment with the "smooshing" technique. I wish I had used watercolor paper instead of regular heavy cardstock; it warped pretty badly despite my best efforts. I like how it came out, despite that. The flowers were part of a K&C pack of pre-cut embellishments I bought a hundred years ago. I'll share more cards in my next post.

A few weeks ago, Mom and I were down in Gladstone, OR having lunch along the Clackamette River. On our way to the little beach there, we passed the Gladstone Community Garden. When I saw this plant, I hit the brakes! I was completely amazed by it! I asked Mom if it was an artichoke plant, and she wasn't sure. I didn't have my camera with me at the time, so the following week I crossed my fingers and toes that they hadn't cut it down and ran out there with my camera. I thought that perhaps it was the biggest thistle plant I had ever seen; later I Googled it and discovered that it was, indeed, an artichoke plant. This sucker is at least five feet tall, and those artichoke flowers are about the size of a salad plate:

And, almost last but not least, a few pictures of the Blue Moon we had on July 31st:

I mentioned Shadow's foot in my picture above; he and Stanley are Mom's dogs. They are staying out here with us for a while during Mom's recovery. They love to cow-a-bunga up onto her lap and Shadow usually sleeps on her leg that is hurting her right now, so we decided that it would be helpful if they weren't doing that. So, last pictures, are Shadow and Stanley:

Stanley, the ChiWeenie

Shadow, the Chihuahua

Well, I guess that's it for now. Until Mom gets well enough for me to spend more time at home, I'll try to post once a week. Gotta go round up all my stuff and get on the road to Mom's now. Hope you are all well, and I really appreciate your stopping by.

TTFN.