I'm a total chick magnet

Apparently chickadees and nuthatches will eat out of your hand! The chickadees seem happy enough to actually perch on my hand to grab some seed, but so far the nuthatches just land on a branch above and reach down to eat - they seem to like the peanuts the best. And, a Gray Jay "tested" my hand the other day. He hopped on and off again right away, but didn't take any food. Yep. Total chick magnet. ;)

Chickadee-dee-dee!

And just a few days ago I watched a pair of Bald Eagles circling overhead! They didn't come down for a snack though, which was just as well. As much as I understand the whole "circle of life thing", I'm not really prepared to watch my cats or Blue Jays get eaten by an opportunistic Eagle. (Yes, my Blue Jays. I did watch them grow up after all.)

Bald Eagle flying over mom's house

And a couple weeks ago I spied a Rough-legged Hawk in the front yard. I was sitting on the deck taking photos of the Blue Jays at the feeder (as per usual), and just happened to notice as he landed high up in a tree. Pretty cool, huh?

A Rough-legged Hawk in mom's front yard

I've been playing with the different special effects on Picnik lately - I mean besides all the cropping, watermarking and slight color enhancing. Check out my photos on Flickr to see the fancypants versions of the birdies, plus a few other random ones.

And speaking of Carnotaurus...

Well how about that? Terra Nova didn't disappoint me. Sure, there were your usual plot devices (teenage mischief gone awry) and stereotypical characters (angsty teenage son mad at his father). I'm ok with those, as long as it works for the script. Acting? No complaints. Even the children didn't irk me (well, mostly). Clunky dialogue? Well, ok, I can forgive a few blunders. Explanation for the existence of time travel? Whatever. It only exists in the realm of fiction, so really, the reason is a moot point. The fact that the environment of that time period wouldn't really have been hospitable for humans? Hey, if we're accepting the time travel, we kind of have to accept the fact that humans could indeed live quite comfortably 85 million years ago. When you sit down to watch a show about a pre-post-apocalyptic world where time-travelling humans have set up camp amongst dinosaurs in the Cretaceous Period, you kind of have to be prepared to suspend disbelief. That also applies to the local cuisine and medical treatments involving totally cool leechy things. I hadn't even thought about the fact that we'd see some super-sized critters. I was too distracted by all the dinosaur hoopla! It was well deserved dinosaur hoopla though. Well, I thought the Carnotaurus' arms may have been a little too beefy. And I don't know why they felt the need to create a new kind of dinosaur - the Slashers - when there are so many weirdly cool dinosaurs that, you know, actually existed. And the Slashers should totally have had feathers. (I know, I know...fiction!) Really though, as long as I'm getting a weekly dose of dinosaur, I'm happy. Besides, Jack Horner is a consultant for the show, so I'm pretty sure it's in good hands.

Ah, Commander Nathaniel Taylor. I think I'm in love. I don't care if he is a benign dictator, the man stood down a charging Carnotaurus! Our babies are going to be so freaking badass!

Carnotaurus says...

Macramé Monday!

Wow! Two owly posts in a row? Aren't you a lucky little macramé enthusiast! And this isn't just a photo of a macramé owl. This is a photo of 8 freakin' macramé owls!

I want them. Don't you?

Photo via Retro Renovation

na na na na na na na na...bat lamp!

Daytime batties...

This was my favorite Halloween craft last year - Clothespin Bats from the Martha Stewart website (I skipped the poking-holes-for-eyes part). It's a simple idea, but holy smokes was it time consuming! And cutting out all those bats from card stock made my hand all crampy. I think it was worth it though, 'cause they look awfully cute roosting on my living room lamp.

...and nighttime batties!

5 days until Terra Nova!

Oh my. I don't think I can wait that long.

Like a rhinestone cowboy?

One plastic flamingo: $2

Four packs of adhesive gems: $8

Seeing the horrified, yet slightly jealous looks on your neighbour's faces: Priceless!

He suspects nothing.

When I found plastic flamingos at Dollarama, I may have done a little happy dance. I've always wanted a lawn full of these kitschy lil' guys! I began to wonder if this particular plastic flamingo was kitschy enough though. It somehow seemed...lacking. So, I took a stroll down Dollarama's craft aisle in search of a way to jazz it up. Ooh, Glittering Stickers perhaps? Bingo!

Supplies:

• One plastic flamingo
• Adhesive-backed rhinestones
• Crazy glue for touch-ups on errant rhinestones that lose their sticky

Optional Supplies:

• Spray paint for an even base color. Notice how you can see the white and black of his beak if you look closely?
• This Glen Campbell tune to get you in the mood

The simplest how-to (minus the optional spray painting step) is pretty straightforward - make sure your flamingo is all squeaky-clean so the stickers will actually stick to it, then, stick them on. Bam! One almost-instant kitschy plastic flamingo! Now you can put him in your front yard, pull up a lawn chair, and get ready to receive the adulation from passersby. Just make sure to take him in when it rains, 'cause he's probably not waterproof.

Zee eluseeve Keetschy Flameengo in eez natural habitat. 'E move so graceful in zee foreest.

Shiny!

Ooooh, pretty!

Bling bling!

Wormy is unimpressed by kitschy rhinestone flamingos

  

Macramé Monday!

I didn't tell you guys about my nifty new owl, did I?  This one wasn't thrifted like my creepy-awesome King Kroker froggie - not by me anyway. I bought it from 3MontanaGirls on Etsy, who always seems to have something new for me to covet each time I check out her shop.

What a handsome lil' guy!

He's got fluffy little eyes...

And cutsie little tootsies!

Yessir, this is one fine lookin' owl!

Halloween Matchbox Mania!

Cool! Even I can make a fancy mosaic! (Big Huge Labs)

Late last summer I joined Swap-Bot and, through that, discovered matchboxes. They were fun and simple to make, plus I was excited to have something to do with all the Halloween ribbon that I was buying from Michaels. I ended up making a bunch of them for various "Halloween goodies" swaps, filling them with buttons, beads, brads, ribbons, googly eyes, and stickers - loooots of stickers. Michaels made a lot of money off me last year. Le sigh.

Question: How freaking awesome would it be if the whole "Charlie Sheen goes crazy and gets fired and then Ashton Kutcher takes over for him on Two and a Half Men" thing is just one gigantic punk on everyone?

Answer: Totally.

Grandma's embroidery transfers

These are all the vintage embroidery transfers that I found when I cleaned out the attic. They all belonged to my Grandmother who died two years before I was born. It's nice to discover that we have something in common, especially since I'm named after her (my middle name). She was way more productive than I am though! Besides embroidering everything she could get her hands on, she also made quilts, crocheted, knit, sewed - and even did mosaics!

Some of the transfers have been used of course, but the lines haven't faded much at all. I doubt I'll end up embroidering all of these designs because I already have a huge backlog of WIPs and ideas. I do have my eye on a few though, and any of the ones I do end up using are going to be photocopied first. Perhaps I can even share them on here. These vintage designs are just too cute to keep to myself!

"Here is your opportunity to make your home beautiful and spend those leisure hours in a profitable and artistic way."

I haven't seen this kind anywhere before. And look at that beautiful peacock!

I'm so excited to have puppy and kitty and deer transfers! And the "good night" designs are pretty cute too!

All kinds of designs for pillowcases - mostly flowers of course.

Even more flowers to embroider.

These are the first transfers for gingham that I've seen.

Macramé Monday!

Lampshades from Left to Right are: Pambie, Helen, Jacqui, and Janet
Front cover of Bright Ideas for Lamp Frames, by Debby O'Hanley (70s?)

Lampshades from Left to Right are: Carol-Anne, June, Diana, and Tara
Back cover of Bright Ideas for Lamp Frames, by Debby O'Hanley (70s?)

I spy, with my little eye...all the elements of fashionable home decor in the 70s!

Welcome to Tabletop Cemetery

Peekaboo Mummy says "Peekaboo!"

By this time last year I was knee deep in Halloween crafting and decorating. Maybe that's a bit early to start decorating for most people, but then again, maybe not. Halloween has gotten pretty popular over the last few years, thanks in no small part to Martha Stewart - and that's totally a good thing! (See what I did there?) Living in an apartment does limit your options though. I can't wait until I'm in an actual house with a yard again. There are just so many fun decorations you can do outside for Halloween, like pumpkin patches, spooky scarecrows and creepy cemeteries. For now though, I'm stuck in a boring apartment building.

Was I gonna let that stop me from making a graveyard though? Hellz no! I just had to improvise. So I thought, where in my tiny apartment could I stick some tombstones and creepy crawlies? Which corner hardly ever gets used? Why, the dining room of course! And that's how the Tabletop Cemetery was born. I found a mini "graveyard kit" at Wal-Mart for about $15 that had a bunch of awesome stuff in it - like tombstones, a skull and bones, bats, rats, and spiders. Then I added realistic crows, some bloodshot eyeballs and even a few mummy heads to it - 'cause, you know, mummy heads hang out in all the cool cemeteries.

"I see you!"

doggie dinos!

Soooooo freaking adorable! I wonder if they carry plus sizes for kitties? I think the Triceratops hat would be perfect for Madison*, with Wormy in the Stegosaurus costume. Then I'd tie them on out back and watch my two little herbivorous dinosaurs grazing on the lawn! Squee!

The doggy dinosaur costumes are available at Party City - and so is a super-cute doggy shark costume!

Thanks to Geekologie for the link!

*On second thought, screw the cat, I'm wearing the Triceratops hat! :P

You got the right stuff baby

Vintage New Kids comforter!

In this post I mentioned that I found a stack of New Kids on the Block posters in the attic. Well, apparently I'm a collector of New Kids memorabilia and didn't even know it! There are other bits of boy band goodies gathering dust around here, so I put it all together and called it a collection. I'm sure there were thousands of adolescent fangirls with way more stuff, but this is mine and I like it, so there! Anyway, for some reason that escapes me now, I thought it would be fun (and not embarrassing at all) to share photos of all my stuff on my bloggy. And hey, at least this gets rid of yet another thing from the list of possible blackmail material.

Check out the snazzy replica of Joe McIntyre's hat on prepubescent me. I was too cool for school!

See all those posters pinned to the wall? Yep, those are the ones I found in the attic. Super cool, huh? I also had t-shirts, shoelaces, the Joe hat, an oversized Joe pin badge, and of course, all of their cassette tapes. And that lovely pink NKOTB comforter? That's still on my bed - but in a duvet cover at least! I even had a Joe doll (action figure?), but all I have left to remember him by is his itty-bitty microphone. I buried the doll out back somewhere. Don't ask me why, because I have absolutely no idea. I assume I had a reason at the time though. The sexy Joe hat is nowhere to be found either, but I'm pretty sure I didn't bury that.

I also discovered a little notebook with a few embarrassing poems scribbled in it, one of which is an ode to "Joey-Joe". And here it is, in all it's prepubescent, misspelled glory! Please be gentle - us poets are a sensitive lot.

I especially like the phrases "Monsterly gorgeus" and "Yippie for him". I'm a regular frickin' Robert Frost all right.

Not only do I still have all their tapes, but I've listened to them very recently. I lived with my mother for a few months before my big move to BC and the car she owned at the time didn't have one of those newfangled CD players, just a good old fashioned tape deck. Since the radio reception around this area is really crapactular and these were the only cassette tapes I still owned, they were kept in the car so I could rock out to all the hits - like Hangin' Tough, Step By Step and Please Don't Go Girl. And if I had easily annoyed passengers? Bonus!

And now for some gratuitous kitteh shots!

Scamp loves to help!

Aw, da kitty is cweaning his widdle paw!

Scrunchy little kitty nose!

Rough little kitty tongue!

I'm pretty sure I got into NKOTB because I wanted to fit in. (I did a lot of stuff in school because I wanted to fit in, but that's another story altogether.) If you couldn't tell from the posters, my favorite was Joe McIntyre. Every other little girl had a favorite, so I picked him. Don't ask me why. That was over 20 years ago, and if I didn't still have all this fangirl crap lying around I probably wouldn't remember they even existed. They're touring again though, and I'd totally go to their concert if I had the chance. There has been one tiny change from 20 years ago though - I'm all about Danny Wood now. Like, total lady wood for Danny Wood. (That's right, I so went there!)

damn this thinky head of mine!

After a long dry spell in the creative department, my brain has decided to bombard me with dozens of awesome crafty-type ideas. Have you creative types ever been so creative you just feel like you're going to explode? More specifically, have you ever had so many creative ideas come to you all at once that you're completely overwhelmed and have no idea where to start and can't even envision how you'll get it all done in the foreseeable future but you don't want to pick and choose you want to do it all right now!? Gah!!! Other exclamations of frustration!!!1!!

I do believe some list-making is in order. Also jot note scribbling. Perhaps some schedule planning. I wish I were one of those people who can just do stuff without feeling compelled to plan out every little detail first. Because really, the organizing is just one more task that needs to be completed.

All these creative thinkings include blog posts too. I've got a bunch started (one even pretty much ready to go live actually), but I keep thinking of more things I want to write about. Being slack in this area does seems to be the running theme for this summer, but I totally have excuses...for the past month at least. First the mom-heart-hospital thing happened. Then Mr. Zombie was finally able to take some leave for a wee visit - and I do mean wee, just under two weeks. He arrived just in time to ease some of the pressure off being the only child of a parent in the hospital because of a heart attack. (Not that there weren't wonderful, caring relatives and friends to visit and help out, but really, most everything fell to me to take care of.) Then there were lots of smallish day-to-day things around the house that he took care of when mom was first released. And of course, the comforting and supporting of me and my close-to-being-shattered nerves. We did get a bit of sightseeing and relaxing in since mom has been on the road to recovery though. There were the usual walks and cuddlings, visits with family and friends, a shopping trip to St. John's, and even a circus!

So yes. Blog posts will be happening. Some will even be about crafts! I actually have two in mind for the next couple of weeks - a silly thing involving a bird and rhinestones, and another with feathers and balls (fingers crossed they both don't turn into gigantic craft fails). I've also had Halloween crafts on the brain. Big time. I did loads of Halloweeny crafts last year but never shared them on my bloggy for some reason. It's about time I remedied that. Anyway, want a preview of all those impending blog posts? List time!

Upcoming Blog Happenings That Are Totally Going to Happen

• Three treasured items from the attic
• Two craft projects/tutorials
• Silly-awesome-nerdy line drawings for embroidery
• A Halloween countdown
• Some fun I've been up to - like Wonderbolt Circus!

So there ya go! Exciting blog happenings and stuff. I don't know about you, but I'm way overdue for some relaxing crafting and silly blogging. On top of everything else that's been going on this summer, guess what I had to do today? Take poor Madison to the vet - for the second time in three months! Le sigh. He's since been dubbed with yet another nickname - Mommy's Little Money Pit. Oh, and guess what he did after we got home? Crawled under the car and got icky, greasy dirt on his head. (My kitties are indoor cats but I have harnesses and long leads for them - and lots of patience to sit outside supervising). It's my fault though. I parked closer than usual to unload the groceries, and forgot to move it back. Plus, I was reading Stephen King's Needful Things, and I'm just getting to the awesome, blood soaked, and downright distracting finale!

Psst! Check out this photo of my little Blue Jay friend. *sniff* They grow up so fast!

Macramé Monday!

Cover of Macramé Hang-Ups, published in 1973

I just love this plant hanger! The chunky knots and unkempt 'tails', the little round terracotta pots, those little touches of green cord - and that pun-tastic title! Love it!

(Oops! Sorry to everyone who reads this in Google Reader and the like for that blank post earlier. I've got trigger happy fingers.)