Strange Animal Encounters Abound

It always concerns me when animals start behaving in ways they don't normally because animals know what is up and it makes me wonder what they know that I don't. Lately it seems like every weekend is filled with some strange animal encounter.

Two weekends ago I was standing in the kitchen drinking coffee when a coyote ran through my yard....while both cats were outside. The cats were unharmed (because I RAN outside like a maniac) but coyotes aren't normally *that* close to my house and especially not during daylight hours.

Last weekend I was sitting on the loveseat drinking coffee (huh...I'm starting to notice a trend here) when I see one of the cats climb a tree outside. He does that all the time so I chuckled. Shortly after a gigantic white and tan bird lands in the same tree. I grabbed my glasses and ran outside yelling "what do you think you're doing? Get away from my cat!" turns out it was a barn owl and it looked stupidly at me a moment before moving one tree over. Oh thanks, that's much better. I'm not certain the owl even knew the cat was in the tree because quite honestly that cat is like a ninja and half the time I'm almost stepping on him before I see him.

I kept an eye on the owl, called the cat and ushered both (who came when I called) into the house where I promptly ran for my camera because hey - predatory animals may frighten me for the lives of my pets but I still love animals and I still love taking photos. I had to follow the owl after I spooked it twice more out of the tree cluster but it landed alongside my driveway and I was able to sneak around the house and take its photo from under the car park - which you see part of in the photo unfortunately. And oh YES that owl still knew I was there. Good hearing those owls.

You know I don't recall having EVER seen a barn owl here. Great-horned owls? All the time. Never a barn owl. And it's appearance in later morning was strange but at least explained the large white feather with faintly tan markings I found in my lawn a few days before. I just didn't feel it had come from one of the hawks and hey I was right. I also want to add that this owl, despite being largely white, blended really well into the trees when it was holding still.

Later that afternoon we found a dead weasel. A weasel! You know when I've seen a weasel? Never in my life. I didn't even know they were around here! I pondered that perhaps one of our predatory birds dropped it...?

Now to yesterday. Certain times of day will guarantee that I am outside taking photos. Nevermind that it is mid-October, frequently raining and a biting wind, I'm out there in shorts and flannel and boots snapping way because nature is amazing and I'm always trying to find a way to show everyone else the beauty I see.

The cats are with me because they are my shadows and apparently I'm not to be left unsupervised. I know both the cats are to my right so what do I see waddling along the fenceline to my left...? I stare. No. Way. I stare some more as it keeps right on trucking. What. In. The. World. ? !

This very purpose-driven skunk was not far away from me but thankfully uninterested. I don't know if you've ever watched a skunk traverse a large patch of ground but it was frankly hilarious the way it waddled. Granted they have such short little legs so I can see why. And I kinda know what that's like being rather short-legged myself. I think skunks are adorable but um...rabies...also...smell. So I'm not sure if I've now got a family of these things living in the bramble patch it went for or what. I did wonder why I kept smelling skunky smells when I was out in my herb garden / raspberry patch area and now I see it was simply because I was down wind.

When was the last time I saw a skunk in a field? Probably when I was in 4th grade.


So. What is happening around here that animals I've never seen or animals I haven't seen in ages are suddenly everywhere all the time? It makes me wonder.

Hair don't

I have gotten ridiculously lazy about my hair. Today I actually thought 'can't my hair just look nice and sit on my head all week and not require my attention every day?' Too much to ask?
I've been trying all kinds of no-heat curling methods. Don't you think it's interesting how, that used to be just the normal way and now we have all these expensive gadgets and we are fascinated with how we can do it for free and without electricity? Ah commercialism. But I digress.

I've done the sock one and it worked...but not that great. Mostly I just think I'm inept at curling the sock into my hair.
Then I tried this one and when I had long hair it worked fantastic. Since then I've cut my hair and I decided to try it again. And this happened.

Wowie wow! Uh...what do I do with this? Other than take a photo and share it to the entire internet as a warning to others. I suppose there is a way to tame this but I don't know what way that is. I have plans to try again and see if I can't make this work for me, but with the time constraints I had getting ready for work I ended up taking the flat iron to my hair. Thankfully I have a nice friend who bought me a nice flat iron and I went from above to:

It's a little dull after that bounce in the above photo (which admittedly was pretty awesome) but it wasn't quite so.....SO. Knowwhatimean?

Also I stopped by the store the other night and perused the makeup aisle, not expecting to find anything but looking anyway. What do we call that? Crazy? Anyway. I did find something. I found L'Oreal Paris' Infallible 24 hour eyeshadow.

I usually scoff at this sort of thing but secretly dream and wish they will work. I have hooded eyes and I have given up wearing eyeshadow altogether. But this looked so pretty and hey it PROMISED.
I put it on and checked 3 hours later and it was totally melted into my crease. Noooooo! So sad. :(

If you try the hair thing I expect to see photos of you as well. ;)

Transition week - strawberries and books and movies, oh my.

My mom bought me a gift the other day - she found this lonesome beauty at a thrift store - isn't it lovely?

I'm house-sitting  for some friends while they go to a wedding in England and there's been a lot of this:

These strawberries have such sweet flavor!

And after driving my friends to the airport yesterday I am busy trying to catch up on blog business after being "offline" a few days.

And since the Mr. friend was gifted the entire Horatio Hornblower movie series right before he left I get to enjoy them while they are gone. I already own them but on VHS so I don't have all the fun features these came with. If you haven't seen the films I highly recommend them.

Oh yes. And I'm taking the opportunity - since the weather is crummy - to try and link my blog and shop visually. If things keep changing, I apologize for the inconsistency but I sometimes have to change things around a lot until I'm happy. For the time being. ;)

WIP

Maybe it's not a coincidence that WIP could both stand for What Is Up and Works in Progress. Here's what I've got for both.

After months of waiting on the library list I finally got Sarah Addison Allen's The Peach Keeper. I finished it in a day and a half. I really connected with some of the characters but this definitely felt different from her other books. Not bad, just different. That's all I'm going to say. :)

My friend Megan has been bugging me to watch this forever and I finally remembered! Thanks to hulu I've been catching up. What a bizarre show. I like it.

 (To date I think Pier Pressure is my favorite episode. Hilarious.)



For some reason I can't even remember, I decided to look for clothing items on ebay. I found exactly what I was looking for and it was great prices (a dollar is a good price to me, what do you think?) even with shipping. Which is exactly the opposite experience I have shopping on normal clothing sites or even in store. It got the hamster wheel turning and I've since cleaned my own closet and made moola selling things I never wear. Could this get any better? Well...the fees could be better...

I'd show you photos of my new stuff but I'm still waiting on my items. :)

Speaking of stuff...I've been finding some goodies at dear old Goodwill.

Like these shoes for $3.99.

Hmm. Shoes? Really? Yeah, normally I don't even look but there were a gajillion people down the aisles I wanted to go down. Found these Land's End shoes that actually fit, look hardly worn and were the half price color of the day. Since I have an impossible time finding shoes that fit and my old Skechers shoes are acting like they want to die because I wear them all the time, these came home with me.

But I also scored this overnight travel bag for just 99 cents! (half price color woot woot!) - I was looking for one so I was excited to find it at so affordable a price.

 The brand is Jaguar. It was probably an awesome bag 15 years ago, but I so don't care. 99 cents!! Ha ha!

I'm going to catch some garbage for this one since my friend thinks I'm a purse hoarder but I also found this lavender lovely for just $7.99. I've never paid a new price for a purse so I'm just going to assume that is a bargain. Plus I found a dime in one of the inside pockets. Would have been nice if it had been $10 but pshhh.

THEN I got my goodies from the Gussy giveaway! You probably heard a delighted shriek when I first learned I won - I'm sure you heard me, wherever you may live. These lovelies arrived just in time for me to wear them to a two year old's birthday party and they will be headed to The Oregon Garden Resort with me in just a short while. Thank you Maggie!

Speaking of that two year old, I spent most of my week visiting her and her family so I was much too busy playing in the sandbox, catching balloons and picking dandelions to worry about this silly old blog.

 

Once the photos are emailed to me I'll show you the fun assortment of felt food I made her for her birthday - it was so much fun to make and there are so many tutorials out there for it.

Happy Easter

The angel said to the women, "Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; he has risen, just as he said."

Matthew 28:5-6a 

A [song] for you this morning.


Photo taken by me in Israel - in a lovely garden run by Brits. :)
It isn't Jesus' tomb but it is a tomb of the period.

Lemon sugar and sunshine

While I'm working on a real post I thought I'd tide you over with my latest obsession. Yellow. I am laying all possible blame on Jodi.

Actually I think it started when I went out to lunch with my mom and she brought me a lemon cookie from the dessert buffet. I've been craving lemon ever since and not just in flavor but in color and fragrance as well.

I put together a lemon treasury on Etsy... (click image to go to treasury list and you can click on the individual products).

I had something like this dipped in chocolate and it was amazing!

And as a result I'm totally wanting this.

I finally have all the ingredients to make these.

Tangent Tuesday - Top Shot

Not an enormous "reality television" fan but...I'm addicted.

We make an event of this. Friends come over, we all have dinner and then we yell and hoot and laugh at the top of our lungs through this entire show. Not only are the competitions challenging and fun to watch but the show is actually very interesting. And the host is hot and has some seriously deliberate enunciation which endears him to me.

As the image says, the show is on Tuesdays at 10/9 central. Or 7:00 if you live at my house. There are only a handful of contestants left so be sure to tune in!

3 Things for Monday

My neighbor asked what happened to my blog last week. Ummm.......

1. I ruined my hair.

The culprit.

I gave up coloring my own hair after several odd shade outcomes but decided to try it again because I was desperate to get rid of my roots. Note to all you hair DIY-ers - if you have red tones in your hair don't use semi-permanent color unless you are going dark. Every time I've used it my hair ends up orange. I'll be wearing a lot of hats until I feel it is safe to get my hair color fixed. And even though it makes me look kinda goth you may be seeing me with dark brown hair in the near future.



2. I watched all three seasons of BBC's Robin Hood in an obsessive kind of way.

I watched the first episode and stared at the screen slack jawed with a half grimace but decided to keep watching to see if it improved. It is not what you're used to but I think the quirkiness is why I ended up liking it. I showed my brother an episode and he exclaimed that it was "so hokey" but I was like "I love it!" (though I'm going to pretend season 3 never existed)
I used to run around my yard with a bow and arrow pretending to be in Robin Hood's gang so maybe I was going to like it no matter what. Also, what is with this photo? Why are all the hot guys clear in the back?



3. My "little" brother turned 23.

So cute.

His future FIL cooked the most amazing meal.

And that isn't even all of the food he cooked.


I'll try to be a bit more diligent this week. I do have several projects going but the dreary rain is keeping me from photographing anything.

Japan Quake Appeal - sakura earrings auction

 This auction is now closed.

Get some goodies for you and do good at the same time!
100% of the proceeds go towards the relief because your "bid" will be a charity/aid/relief donation.

Up for auction are a pair of my Simple Sakura earrings. These earrings are made from Czech glass flowers in a milky pink. They have a beautiful glowing opalescent look in direct light. Flowers face outward so everyone can enjoy their happy faces! Earrings measure just a teeny bit short of 1 and 1/2 inches long. Flowers are approx. 5/8 of an inch wide. See additional photos here.

Auction rules:

1. Auction ends at 12:00 p.m. on Saturday, March 26th (U.S. Pacific time).
2. Leave a comment to this post stipulating your bid amount.  The highest bidder on March 26th wins, so keep checking those comments throughout the week to make sure you are not outbid.
3. Bids are to be made in US dollars. 
4. Starting bid is $5.00 - please make your bid increases $1.00 or more and remember this is going to charity! :)
5. The winning bidder will be announced and contacted after the auction closes on March 26th.  The winner must donate the amount of their winning bid to Global Giving or any other organization of their choice and send me proof of payment within 48 hours.  If proof of payment is not made within 48 hours then this purse will go to the second highest bidder.
6. I will ship to you, or anyone else you wish, anywhere in the world.

For help with donations to Global Giving, you can refer to Jo’s very detailed post at [here].

This auction is being held in cooperation with Jo at A Bit of This and a Bit of That.  Participants are not affiliated with Global Giving or any other aid organizations, they are just our chosen method of getting funds safely to the affected area.  Thank you for bidding and please see all the other lovely items up for auction or raffle listed on Jo’s blog.


Remember all you have to do is leave your name, bid amount and an email address so I can contact you should you be the winning bidder. Remember to use (at) and (dot) instead of the actual symbols so the spambots can't find you.

My friend Janine is also hosting an auction. Click here to visit her site.

So I know I've accomplished something this year

With the way time slips by it is so nice to look back on the year and say, "Yes I did accomplish something!"

So what did I accomplish this year?

I got my green on by turning these Starbucks beverage bottles into vases.

Upcycled an oatmeal container into a yarn holder.

And used newspaper to make a flower pocket.

Tried my hand at the homespun kind of life with wool dryer balls,

And rose petal jelly.

I Lived Lovely by "using the good stuff" (and several other challenges).

I transformed things with spray paint.

Twice (at least!)

Made art out of poetry and a paper bag.

Made a spring pom-pom garland with tissue paper and ribbon.

Discovered what to get for the guy who has everything.

Decorated my candles with things I found in my house...

...and in my yard. :)


Organized and redecorated my closet with things I already owned.

And made a bare bulb chandelier to shed a little light on the subject.

I shared my "botanical apothecary" collection.

And discovered a little faery magic in the lawn.

Made something pretty out of something that was frustrating me.

Learned how to hand-sew and made this cell phone pocket from eco-felt.

Turned mismatched oddities into a jewelry catch all.

Inspired you to find the pin-up in you with silk flower hair clips.

And put that new hand sewing knowledge to good use and made myself a flowered headband.

Thanks for joining me on this look back over the highlights of the last year - here's to more loveliness and creativity in 2010!

Be sure to click the photo below to visit the party!