Chicken Festival...cont'd

Will the Real white Chicken, please cluck?
      

Can Chickens and Mermaids be friends?

Test and another Choke story!

Really, I'm just testing how to reformat my blog posts...frustrating to say the least!

But I had to snap off some pix of how beautiful the artichoke flowers have become...

Anyone know how to preserve the purple color if I dry them?

once again, I am my Mother's Keeper

or in today's case, the driver, pack mule and photographer.
There is a community that is over run with wild chickens. These are not ordinary chickens. They are beautiful and unique. 4 years ago, the community decided to celebrate said chickens and hence The 4th Annual Chicken Festival!

Before we cut to the Queen Cluck...

I must learn all the new crappy upgrades to Blogger

Flip Mino Camcorder

"is this not the cutest thing evah?!"

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Random

In memory of Patrick Swayze who raised these little buggers on his ranch.
RIP...may you see the white light for eternity.
and
Ditto.

IF I could use my PS Elements, I could take some of the yellow reflection out and enhance the blues...
But this is the raw version peoples...

Growing Up with I Love Lucy...

for a Mother...
For those of you who know me, and even if you don't, you would know from my blog, that I really did grow up with a comical mother. She didn't have straight-from-the-bottle dyed red hair (it was many colors, but never red!)But it did range from the fabulous frosted look, to dark browns, mahogany, etc.

It was the norm for me to see my mother playing jokes with our neighbors and friends in all sorts of costumes...or trying to find anyway she could to get the last laugh....or on the front page of a local newspaper.

I think she finally met her idol today...or someone who ALSO grew up Loving Lucy.
And of all places at the California State Fair.


Now not to be out-laughed, Mom's hand shot up in the air when Lucy asked for volunteers to reinact the infamous "Job Switching" episode in a Candy Factory when Ethel and Lucy took jobs.
Here are Ethel (Jeremy) and Lucy receiving instructions..."wrap the candies before they get to the end of the assembly line". Looks simple enough.
Here's the part where Ethel and Lucy turn to each other and converse...Ethel whines that she's been kicked out of 4 departments already and Lucy states that this one should be as easy as eating candy!


Oh yea...simple...just wrap and move on, wrap and move on...simple. Look how well they are doing!
uh oh...Lucy already swiped one and plopped it in her mouth...
Well! They did so well that the stupervisor says, "SPEED IT UP!"

No...ya gotta see her face close up when she says it!
Oh dear...Lucy is on her feet now...you missed the 3 candies she just dropped down her shirt.
Whoops! There goes another in her mouth...and Ethel has already got a load in her hat.
I think at this point Ethel is doing the bait and switch method...
And now they're busted...finished and probably fired again...candy filled hats, shirts and oh yea...mouths, too!
And we got the heck outta there before they asked for volunteers for the Italian Movie episode reinactment (aka grape stomping!)

ScrapHappy!

As I was putting things in a new (now discontinued) Work in Progress binder, I finished up some details of a few layouts...
This is from my trip to Long Beach last month...er now 2 months ago!
So on the left side here, we have the theme of the conference, "Own It" backdrop.
Jeanette and I...
and all the fun gals I spent time with.
This is a collection of shots all around Long Beach itself on right layout. The lower left picture just hit a funny bone with me...Canadian cigs. Who'd a thunk they cause impotency!
Centered is a 3 x 3 accordian album of, what else? Bubba Gumps!
It's tied shut with a curiously-like fish net I made with our Hemp product.
One side of the accordian book....
The flip side.
Fun times!

September and Everday Celebration Kit

It's that time of year again.....!
No not back to school as the commercials on TV would have you believe...
It's Close To My Heart's National Card Making month and the Everyday Celebration Kit!
Ya get a lot of good stuff in that thar kit...earn it free with $60 of Acrylix Stamps sets purchase or buy outright for $35.
Here's the whole kit n caboodle...That's A LOT of product for the price (or free!), eh?
4-12 x 12 B/T Duos Papers; 2 - 12 x 12 Cardstock sheets; 16-4 1/4 x 5 1/2 prescored and edged cards and envelopes
1 exclusive EveryDay Celebration Stamp set; 1 Mini Medly Accent shades of chocolate Collection; 5" Chocolate Grosgrain Ribbon; 1 each Chocolate and Dutch Blue Distressing inks; 1- 1/4 sponge AND Full color step by step Instructional Brochure

The cards on the left are straight from the instructions. The cards on the right are the exact same cut pieces using the Creative Basics Jingle Kit in the new Winter '09 Idea Book available now!
Head on over to my website and check current campaigns happenin'.

Another Ode To A Dog...

You may remember my long time neighbor Linda and her BFF, Zoe whom I did some photos of last fall for her Holiday Cards.
Zoe was the type of dog that once she smelled your crotch you were ok in her animal world.
The first time you meet her and you feel that round thing getting closer to the inside of your thigh, a natural reaction is to put your hands down there to pet or aim her nose in a different direction...maybe at your face instead?
Linda finally told me..."if you let her get your "scent" (you get my drift) she'll know you next time and won't bother you t'all!" Ok...whew THAT was strange. She was right though.

Today (the day after Linda's birthday), I had the priviledge to help Linda take Zoe for her final journey.
A few months back Zoe's diagnosis of Lymphoma came...not even a year after Linda's husband passed and 2 years after her mother's (our Postmaster) passing.

How do animals that give us such joy and companionship (ok, and once in a while a weird trait) break you into a million pieces when they are sick or hurt?
I wasn't there for Mom and C-Tong, but I sure wasn't let another human do this alone if I could help it...especially one who had endured so many deaths close to her in just a short period of time.
I was glad to be there. I wouldn't want to do it anytime again in the future, but I know it was a blessing to both; Linda and Zoe.

Then we went home, walked the path you see above where Peter's ashes (under the trees) are waiting patiently for Zoe to return to him, cracked a couple beers, had a smoke and saluted them both.

And now I'll leave you with another dog with a wierd trait...
See Grit wake up his humans every morning:

I'm either Obsessed or Possessed...!

If you know me you know that although belatedly, I'm a TwiFan...
ask me about any rumor about Twilight,RPatz or KStew and I can knock it down.
I'm not to the point of going to a ComicCon or running away to Vancover, or any other shoot location to grab his hair or asking him to bite me, but I'm sure he could use a "mum away from mum" while on locations!
And after all, we DO have a soundstage here in town where NO FANS would find him.
I guess you could say, that yea...I'm a TwiMom (but if I WERE 30 years younger...)!

Anyhoot...there is this one FUN family in Galt who are true fans and I finally got to see them today in Elk Grove. And did I, the die-hard scrapper have my camera handy?? Uh, no..so the cell phone pic will just have to do for now


Now this takes FAN to a whole new level!
And you can follow them on their blog The Twilight Bus and see better shots of the bus or if you Twitter, thetwilightbus .