Hail in July ... what gives?

I’m sitting here in the dark because the power is out… and there is a freakishly large storm heading over the top of us… a storm that includes hail… yeah you heard me in FLORIDA in JULY … HAIL… Hoping the cars aren’t damaged. You should hear the thunder it’s the kind you can feel in your chest. I tried to capture some video and pictures for you. If you zoom in on this you can see chunks of ice in the air.

On another note I am contemplating painting my front door and did a mockup for you… a mock up that isn't at all the color I really want… I was going for a Santorini blue but photoshop isn’t cooperating with that color… I spent a half an hour trying… (a half an hour I had power : ( ) Anyway is this a completely atrocious idea? It seems so good in my head… but it could just be very, very bad in reality... My front door is hidden around a corner and can’t be seen from anywhere else in the house. I was thinking painting it could be fun because there is not much else that can be done in the small area and everyone gets confused about which door leads out. Anyway use your imagination for the right color and let me know what you think. Feel free to tell me if you hate it!

Oh and I am returning the table cloth. I just don’t think it is quite right…

**Edited to add** Well the power came back on at 8... I spent the rest of the night getting the house clean... so no crafting unfortunately.

Relaxing... well sort of...

We had a nice but busy weekend. Some of the highlights. Shopping, eating out and a movie on Friday night to celebrate Uber finishing another class...well actually he finishes it on Tuesday but next weekend promises to be very busy so we celebrated early. We saw Harry Potter which I enjoyed. It was a little slow, definitely not the best of the bunch but I liked it anyway.
Saturday we went to the beach and walked a LONG way. Meant to have Uber look up exactly how far... oh wait 4 miles...

I found two larger sharks teeth. The tide was going out and I am sure there where hundreds of huge ones out there because there where tons and tons of shells, these I just happened to see while walking.

I've been wanting to display some of the teeth for a while so I finally got on it today. I had this Martha Steward box hanging around... (because I cant resist when they are on sale) so I got busy with some hot glue and here's what I came up with.

These are the best of what I had, there are probably another 80-90 in the jar most of which were collected while Mum and Dad were visiting.

I'll just add to it as I find more.

Another flower picture.

At the bottom of the clematis this little set of mushrooms is growing...makes me smile

So need your help I trying to decide. We hit up an awesome Williams Sonoma sale and I found this table cloth and I can't decide if I like it or not. So I figured I would ask you guys. Too much green? Too much fabric? Just not good? Both Uber and I said no... but then it grew on us or soemthing... so let me know what you think I have no issues either way....

Also I've heard bad reviews on their table clothes (but I asked and it's returnable if any of those things turn out to be true) I do have to say that this is not $140 quality which is disappointing because usually WS is great. I only paid $40 for it which isn't exactly cheap, but for the size and style it's great. The other thing I picked up was another Nordic Pan... I LOVE these things. So I made a Pound cake and banana bread and them put half of each together so Matt and I can take them to work. Can't wait to have some of the pound cake!

Alright. I am off to finish cleaning the house... did I mention we have company coming on Tuesday... not sure how much I will be around this next week. Can't wait to see what you say on the table cloth.

I had a lovely Thursday.

I finally picked up these cute pillows (from World Market) I had been eyeing them forever and they finally went 50% off! They remind me of my stuff and since I don't do outdoor pillows I thought I needed them. The blue one says ranunculus... which is awesome... I need to hunt some of those down to plant for next year, they supposedly grow here. I love them and I love their name. I mean really who named it that?

We have had a very long two weeks and tonight we just relaxed. We ate out on the patio, which we should really do more often.

Dinner was scrumptious. Grilled Salmon and zucchini. Uber does an amazing job with fish. This one was salt and peppered and then grilled with basil and shallots.

As I was making my shopping list I was also reading Mayfly's post about blueberry ice cream and thought I had to have it so because I have a slight problem with blueberries... I can't stop eating them.

So if you clicked over to the recipe you will notice it is actually blueberry cheesecake ice cream... oops! Didn't read that but it explains so much because when I bit into it I thought hmmm... to much cream cheese not enough blueberries. It's a very good recipe if you are looking for the cheesecake side of things not so much if you were wanting a blueberry overload... But I have a new goal now and that is to find the perfect blueberry ice cream recipe! And if you think it's odd that I didn't catch onto that whole cheesecake thing when it called for cream cheese I would just like to say that some of our other recipes also call for it and do not taste quite so cheesy!

So the reason I went to World Market was to pick up some canisters because I received a get 50% off 2 or more for kitchen canisters... among other things... this morning in my email. I had been wanting to find some funky ones for my laundry area and they had exactly what I was looking for... well in addition to a little extra... There were only two of these left and they were up on a top shelf so I was pulling the second one down and thought it was rather weird that it was lidless... but no biggy I could see the lid. WELL mid getting it down I realize something is in the jar.... something being a LARGE cockroach.... a LARGE ALIVE cockroach....ummm yeah... so I didn't scream or throw it or do anything drastic (very proud of myself) But I did have to go ask the girl at the front to please come kill it... (I didn't really say what it was because there were other customers I just asked her to please come kill something...hahaha) anyway it was pretty funny because the workers passed it around I think the supervisor ended up coming over and taking care of it... which included spraying it with cleaners and who knows what else because I walked away... I wish I had gotten a picture, I am not sure why I didn't... oh wait I know because I was TOTALLY grossed out and trying to keep my cool....ANYWAY

I needed them because when we were up at my grandmothers she had a canister in her laundry that she kept all her lost socks in which is totally a great idea. I bought two one for lost socks and misc items and one for garbage ... I have never been able to figure out what to put my garbage in because I am lacking in extra space. I really think this is going to work out perfectly. Oh and if anyone wants the coupon let me know I can email it to you!

I also completed a long overdue project tonight, I filled the other frame on my shelves!

I used one of my graphics as a stencil. It wasn't what I had originally planned for this frame but Mum told me I needed to start using some of my graphics on my pillows so though this isn't quite a pillow but it is on linen and I like it.

I can't seem to get a good picture of it. It looks so much better in person. In the picture it feels like it is missing something but I am looking at it right now and it looks fine... not sure what that's about. Oh but do notice Ubers hat holder in the background... ahem... yeah it's just so funny isn't it...

Alright well I am in bed even later tonight then yesterday but as you can see a LOT was accomplished tonight so I am not feeling to terrible about that. One more day and then the weekend!

Pen tablet fun...Part two

So I finally took the time to figure out watermarking... well I started to, got frustrated and then had uber do it! Why can't their just be a button that says watermark maker? Anyway I think I am going to start watermarking everything... WAH HA HA... ok that probably doesn't translate well... insert evil cackle here...

In no particular order here are a few more completed graphics.


This one reminds me of a crown.

The next two are not originals, I saw them in a picture and wanted them, so I made them. They look great with initials inside, very simple and fun. I love being able to make what I want!

This can be added into a border used in corners or just duplicated over and over again like the ones I showed you yesterday. I really like this one.

So it is kind of goofy and I am not sure what it will work for... but it will be good for something!
Now that I am looking at it it's kind of like a fist...

I should of made this out into the border it is supposed to be but I forgot... so this is one piece of a long line ... when I remember!

Alright well I am off... there isn't much to be said about random drawings! And I am sure I have said too much!

Pen tablet fun...Part one

In case you thought my pen tablet had been forgotten I thought I would show you that I have actually been quite busy with it. I just have hide it from myself so I can get other things done. Tonight I decided to go ahead and finish up everything I had started so that I could feel like I had accomplished something... unfortunately I have ton more graphics waiting that haven't been started....but until I figure out what to do with them I really need to stop! So here are four borders, tomorrow I will show you random graphics!

This one looks so simple... to bad all of the wrapping of the lines is NOT simple and near drove me insane I can honestly say this took me the longest... which when you see the last one you probably wont believe but REALLY it took me FOREVER....

This one reminds me of little palm trees... though that was not the intention.

I wish I had all of these back when I was looking for an awesome border... now that I have them I am just not sure what exactly I ever needed a border for... the plan is to use my own graphics in my tutorials ... however I am very slow at getting those out... like they are nonexistent slow. And really I dont want to just waste them there... decisions, decisions!

Enough of that. This one is my all time favorite it totally makes me drool I love it! And it is the reason that I am still up at 11pm and not in bed where I should be. It can be linked continuously or the star (or whatever) on the left can be removed and it can be a banner. YUM I need to print stationary... and then I need to write some one...

Well now that I have accomplished completeing and showing this to you I will be going to bed! Don't forget tomorrow will be random graphics... I know you are all so excited!

And another...

I never realized that I liked owls but after the last chart I decided I wanted to try them out again just a little more realistic this time. I am so happy with the way it turned out! There are three different owls on the chart.
I was a little worried that this one might be scary but I think his eyes make him ok.

This one is fun, I think he is a baby.

But this one is by far my favorite. I definately think he will be popping up again in some future projects. I totally want to take him home...

and another new creature the snail.

Anyway it's up in the shop.

Well sorry there's not much more to say. I am watching Last Chance Harvey and it is rather depressing... I am hoping for a happy ending? I have another two charts to finish up and then I will try to be on to something more interesting.... like the new graphics that I have half way finished... that I have nothing to do with after completing them... oh well

Newest Chart = New Style

I am totally digging this next batch of charts this one is finally completed and I am so excited to share. Since being challenged with custom orders I have had to branch off and paint some new animals which ended up being tons of fun... and I think much better than my original charts. I think these will better grow with the child since they don't look quite so baby-ish. However, since they are more detailed I have raised the prices on these just a little. Hopefully no one will mind since they are all hand painted and assembled.

Here's my new and improved Dragonfly. He is totally cracking me up... I love his eyeball.

The monkey which you've all seen before.

And the tree frog...

I finally figured out something new on etsy (I am so slow). They give you the largest width your picture can be and I always figured that it was the largest length as well... apparently not you just have to stay under 250kb file size it can be as long as you want other then that. I now have new pictures of all the growth folios up that are nice and large so you can see the whole chart up close. Did everyone else know this but me?!?

I am off to try and accomplish more crafting. Wish me luck!

Cloudy

Last night while grilling out we met some new neighbors, Uber spotted and I of course had to catch... who can resist a face like that?
Gertrude apparently lives in the jasmine/under the grill. I was thrilled to find her because I have been hoping for a frog for a very long time. Apparently it took getting rid of the lizards to have one move in... if I had only known sooner!

Then Uber realized there was not one but two! So I made him hold Gerty and I caught Bert... he was a bit more mischievous and feisty!

I can't wait to see if they really stick around I tucked them back into the jasmine so hopefully they weren't too upset about the photo shoot. I wish more animals were like frogs... except the peeing part....

We were going to go kayaking but rain was in the forecast so we slept in and made breakfast. YUM! We felt kind of bummed because the weather was gorgeous and sunny outside.

So we headed out to the beach for a long walk. It was low tide and the beach was huge and there were a bunch of shells, but more interesting then that was the sky.

The clouds were out of control.

Especially this one that was followed by many, many more just like it. We completed our walk just in time for the sky to open up.

This evening we helped a friend move. This was forming the whole time but we thought we were going to beat it.

Not quite though the rain started on our second trip.... and the flooding...

This is us going through a very large puddle... which was fun... of course is wasn't our stuff in the back of the truck... it all made it through ok, just a little damp.

All together a relaxing day ended with yummy Mexican food, and the discovery of a Greek restaurant which we will be checking out very soon.

I will hopefully have a new crafting item to show you tomorrow. I finished another growth chart I just need the weather to cooperate so I can get some photos. I really wish I had more completed projects like Mum has managed but this week has been very long and not all together successful in many ways, I seem to get only an hour in the evenings to work and that is just not enough to see any real progress. Well I'm off to bed since I am currently falling asleep while typing!