Animals in pictures closer than they appear

Since the sun wasn't cooperating with my plans to spend my b-day at the beach today, I decided to download my pics from the trip to AK last week.  Here are a few shots from Denali.  It was BEAUTIFUL and it was COLD (it has been wicked hot in MA this summer, so 50's with rain and wind felt WAY colder than it should have!)  LOL!

This is one of the Ranger/Sled Dogs here at Denali.  Did you know this is the only National Park in the US to have it's own Sled Dogs?  I believe this is Tuya, one of the Volcano Litter (all the pups from that litter are named for AK volcanoes).  He reminded me of Cad for some reason.  Ironically he is the tallest of all the sled dogs at the kennel.  Guess I know who got the other half of Cad's legs. :D  We got to tour the whole kennel & meet all the dogs.  Then some did a sled pull demo for us and let us pose with them for pictures.  Very cool!

We had driven down to Denali the day before & taken a tour, but didn't see any wildlife.  You can only drive through about 15miles of the park.  The rest of the park is only accessible by tour bus or hiking.  Have you met me?  Real hiking just isn't in my nature.  Kudos to those who do it, I just know I'm Stan from A Walk in the Woods.  Love the idea, not the implementation. :)  But I digress...

We decided to drive through the part we could after leaving the Sled Dog Demo.  A few miles in- seriously only a few- a bunch of cars were pulled over.  Tell-tale sign there is something to take pics of!!!  We eagerly approached and pulled over.  JACKPOT!  We got to see a grizzly.  When I took the pics I was about 50 yards away.  Little did I know that a hiker had been mauled by one of these while we were on our tour the day before- and not far from where we had gotten off the bus for a rest stop.  The poor family and unfortunate for the bear.  I don't think I would have gotten out of the car to take the pictures- even though a ranger was standing right there with us.  Just after I took this picture the bear dove down into the ravine and I made as hasty/safe an exit to the car!

While the thrill of the grizzly sighting still fresh we came across this moose wandering around.  He wandered for a while, then stopped at the edge of the road, looked both ways (at all the gawking tourists) walked almost all the way across the road, and then got distracted by an extra larger construction cone.  He stopped to scratch his antlers for a bit and then headed back out into the bushes.

Overall, a totally thrilling experience!  (When I get my act together I'll post pics of the rest of the park 'n trip).  Hope you enjoyed the pics.  Click on any of them to enlarge the shot. :)

Cards by Katie

A quick post today showing cards I made in a class a few weeks back at my favorite store, Ink About It.  Katie's classes using goods from MFT are always inspiring.  So many layers and textures- luscious!  I know the pic is kinda small.  Click on it to see more detail.

I'll be on planes for the next bazillion hours getting from the Alaskan Time Zone to the Eastern Daylight Time Zone.  Heading from chilly weather 'n long days to warm weather 'n short days.  Kinda weird huh?  Don't usually have those combos.  

I'll be back soon with the rest of those Christmas cards, one last post from the "If you give a girl a lighthouse" series, and random other stuff. :)

Hope all of you have a great weekend!

Prepping for...

 image credit

Christmas!  Today we are planning to check out North Pole, Alaska.  Santa has promised to give us a few minutes to check in with him and make sure everyone is on the "Nice List".  :)

This is the third set of cards I made using the Echo Park paper set.  I'm addicted to banners lately and thought it would be fun to see them on Christmas cards. 

The fun part with these cards is that I was able to use all those bits-n-pieces left from other cards.  There is a sense of accomplishment when you can use every last bit of paper from a set. :)  "waste not, want not" has to put me on the "nice list" right?

So while it is a bit early, I am feeling very much in a Christmas, Boxing Day, New Year's, Little Christmas mood.  To be short and sweet I'll end with Season's Greetings!!!  Keep your fingers crossed for me with Santa! :D

Digging a Path

What a hot and humid summer we have had!  I think the only ones who enjoy it are the humming birds and butterflies.  I was reading about butterflies and apparently in addition to preferring milkweed for laying their eggs and butterfly bush nectar, they love being in the sun.  Glad something does. :)

Like the rest of the country, we haven't had much water fall from the sky this summer.  Our backyard gets the full blast of the sun the entire day.  This means that the grass really hasn't got a chance without some regular rainfall.  This is the second summer where we've had huge patches of dead grass.  That combined with the fact our corgi isn't as mobile as he used to be, I cried "UNCLE".

After our family reunion in Maine, my in-laws stayed the following weekend to help get rid of dead grass.  DH dug it up and DFIL shook out the dirt to help lay the slate path.  Even if it hadn't be a tough summer, the slates had been taken over by thorny weeds and needed to be dug out.

Here's the finished product.  My DFIL predicts that I will expand the gardens the path meets.  Maybe next year.  This year we're off to get some drought tolerant grass seed to spread when summer is done.  For now Cad is excited to not have to dodge thorny weeds as he gets off his ramp and I am excited to have something pretty to look at instead of dead grass.

The butterfly bush was the biggest it has ever been this year.  9 1/2 feet!!!  I can actually see it through my kitchen window and it's scent is heavenly.  To help the guys I trimmed back a bunch of the stems (the gardens were sorely in need of attention anyway) and brought them inside which made working at the island simply lovely.  My DMIL was reading, I was coloring some images, and we both listened to her eldest nephews fiance do an NPR radio show live from Pittsburgh.  (If you can follow all that remind me to tell you about what I heard about Ferris. LOL!)  Ahh, the wonders of streaming!  This is one of those times where technology brings family together. :)

I'm fluttering by with this post here:
Outdoor Wednesday
Garden Tuesday
Cottage Garden Party

Happy Wednesday!

Hi Frosty

Are you sitting down?  I have actually posted 2 posts this week!!!  Here is another set of cards made from the paper set I won from Echo Park.  We are hoping to be able to get a flight up to see part of the Arctic Circle this week, I'll be sure to say hi to Frosty if I see him. :)

Another set of clean and simple cards, but given that I gave myself 2 hours (after prepping) to get 25 cards done, they had to be easy to assemble.  I can't recall who makes the snowman right now, but the ink is Chalk- Lime Pastel, the card base is Memory Box, and the scallop die is from My Favorite Things.

DH is working this morning, but when he gets back later we are hoping to see some of AK.  The days are LONG right now, like 16 hours of daylight long.  Between the long days and the time difference (which will make me a morning person unless I adjust) it'll make for lots of time to see all the beauty!  I'm hoping to also go to the University of Alaska Museum of the North.  I came across the suggestion from this blog.  Isn't Blogland a great place?!?!

Enjoy some sunshine and warm weather today, if you can.  We'll be seeing Frosty before we know it! :)

Gone Away is the Bluebird

So July got away from me before I could post any Christmas cards.  As I'm off to Alaska today, and the weather is decidedly chillier up there than here, it put me in the mood to post this set of 5 "winter wonderland" inspired cards.

I entered a contest at the beginning of the summer for a chance to win a paper pack from Echo Park and I WON!  The new releases weren't available yet, so I chose the Season's Greetings set.  I made 25 cards- 5 of 5 designs.  Pic's are coming of the other sets and some of them will even get posted this week.

They are clean and simple cards similar to this set from ages ago.  The image is from Memory Box, the berries are highlights with Stickles, the whole matted creation is popped with foam tape, and then topped off with a red twine bow.  Wham-bam-Merry-Christmas-ma'am! :)

I thought about mentioning how many days until Christmas, but for the sake of not getting electronic rotten tomatoes tossed at me I decided to pass.  You are thinking about it now though huh. LOL!

Hugs,

Happy Bee-Day Tut

Y'all know how much I like mini things. :)  I have a tut over at The Hen's Den showing how to make this mini card/gift tag.  Please stop by and check it out!

August Newletter from Hen's Den

Happy Wednesday!!!  It's thundering something fierce here, so I am going to sit back and get inspired by my teamies. :)  The August Hen's Den Newsletter is hot off the presses with 19 pages of tutorials (and shopping).  Make sure you check out page 10 *wink, wink*.

Enjoy! 

Wishing You - A Teaser

I'm madly packing for our family reunion, but don't worry. I've got some happy paper goodness- with instructions 'n links to product!!!- over at The Hen's Den.  *insert shameless plea* Please stop by and leave me some love. :)