Stampin! with Jaydee

Hi Everyone.  Happy Monday.

I hope you all had a fabulous weekend and a great Father's Day.

I saw a gorgeous, graphic, bold, bright, card on the casestudy challenge site this week.  I was inspired by the circular elements repeated on the card, as well as the bold colors and sentiment. 

Here's the link to the inspiration card.  You really should check it out, and I am sure the design team would love it if you played along!

This was one of those cards where I really didn't know where the inspiration was going to take me.  However, I found myself standing in front of my crafting cupboard and there, just starting at me, was the new DSP that arrived a week or so ago.  mmmmm.... I hadn't actually even opened it!  I saw the Summer Starfruit paper and new immediately what I wanted to do.  I must admit, I am in LOVE with this color and it works so beautifully with the new Midnight Muse.

Here's my take on the challenge card

I really don't know what's happening when I save this pic, but I promise you the sentiment is definitely NOT out of focus!

I needed something for the middle of the button and used plain white Baker's Twine.  I then took my Summer Starfruit marker and colored the twine.  It worked perfectly! 

On a personal note:

We had a great weekend and it seems that this weekend we started to feel as though we were actually living in our new home, as opposed to camping!  Not that we got any more furniture delivered!  But we did have unexpected visitors (wonderful to see you B, B, T & W!)  We had no furniture to sit on, so we ended up sitting on the Tibetan stools around the kitchen island for 5 hours!  It was great to sit and catch up and just enjoy friends!

On Sunday we actually did a few chores around the house and finally got some curtains hung!  My crafting room and the dining room now have curtains.  It's these things that start to make it feel like home, too!  We are hoping that we might actually get some more furnitured delivered this week!

On Friday night, the bugs were EVERYWHERE.  There were swarms of them.  Suddenly, we noticed this on the back door!

Those marks you see on the door are not dirty marks, I promise.  They were little tiny midges.  Mind you, this tree frog wasn't much bigger.

You can see just how small he was when you see him next to the moth

And, if that wasn't enough to convince you that he was pretty tiny, here he is next to my thumb

What was amazing for me, was that our deck is 10 or so feet off the ground and he made it all the way up (I presume) the post of the deck and onto the window without us even seeing him.  He didn't stay along!  But we are so glad he visited.

We also had some other visitors on Friday

Our first flower also came up.  This is one of the plugs that we planted in our native grasses ....mmmm..... so.... when I saw the grass coming up, I thought, gosh, that looks like something I've lived with before.  It looked much more like turf than native grasses.  Sure enough, our landscaper had mixed up all the grasses that he put down and ALL of them have to come up. 

The grass that he put in the "short grass" area - where the rudbekia is - happens to be almost entirely fescue.  Not quite what we were looking for.  We also discovered that the long grasses he had put down either side of the property were not native grasses either.  In fact, when I checked on them, I discovered that they are classified as extremely dangerous to native wetlands in Minnesota.  Oooppps.... sounds like the seed provider that the landscaper used wasn't listening.  Everything comes up this week and is relaid with native grasses and wildflower seeds that I found at a native nursery.  Well, lesson learned.  Next time I will insist on reading the labels before they put anything down!   It was lovely to see the Rudbekia though! :-)

One last picture for you tonight.   These little things drive the cats CRAZY!  Especially as they are nesting under the stairs outside my crafting window.

As always, thank you for spending time in my little area of the stamping blogosphere.   I really do appreciate your visits and your comments.

Warm hugs and prayers for those of you who need a little lift tonight.

Hugs

Jaydee

Stampin Supplies:

• Card stock:  Midnight Muse, Whisper White (SU)
• DSP:  Patio Party (SU)
• Inks:  Midnight Muse, Summer Starfruit (SU)
• Stamp:  Signature Greetings (Papertrey).  Polka dot (Polka Dot Patterns, Amuse)
• Accessories:  Night of Navy Button (SU).  Baker's Twine (SU)