Tolerance

My son and his family have two cats, a sleek black regal puss who watches you carefully from the corner of her eye and suffers your attention with complete disdain: Misha.

The other, Myrah, is a skittish tabby who bolts at the slightest loud noise.

Misha is the protector. Since Max was little she has watched over him like he was one of her own. When the carriage was pushed down the road, she trotted ahead like an ancient bodyguard. Max will pet her occasionally - a careful smoothing down on her forehead.

Poor old Myrah, however, he tantalizes half to death. The cat runs when she sees him coming but he chases her down and corners her, gets her in a tight body lock and either drags her around - only because he knows she hates it, I’m sure - or pulls her tail, throws her in a room and shuts the door. I’ve never quite figured out why. Maybe just because he can. Amazingly the cat has never nipped or scratched him. Tolerance. So when I saw this image by Mo Manning, I had to have it. Not totally satisfied with the coloring and haven’t yet made it into a card (Sending a hug your way. . .) but here it is.

Are they not the perfect fit? I think Mo must have a Max in her house!

The ‘look’ , by the way, is Max explaining why he shouldn’t have to put the cat down.

I am forever telling Max he is Grammy’s heart. How could he not be?

Today he told me he wanted to have a pet pig. So I told him all about when his Uncle Gerry brought home a pig.  I didn’t share all the details. I didn’t tell him about how the pig was fattened up for slaughter. Funny thing was, when the day came, nobody could bring himself to stick a fork in ‘Gordie’ - self included. It may well have had something to do with the fact that the pig had a name. Anyway, Gordie did give birth to this short story. Have a read if you have time. I’m hoping I didn’t go overboard with the dialect and that it brings you a chuckle. Cheers.

Jean

Thanks so much to everyone who participated in our last challenge. Einat, I pulled your name out of the butter tub this week and if you send me your snail address, I’ll get a little package in the mail.

Came across the term ‘fussy cutting’ on someone’s blog a little while back and just loved the phrase - don’t know if it’s original to that particular person or if it’s a phrase common to the craft.  No matter, I love it. Fussy cutting -perfect description for some of the work behind so many of the cards and layouts I see so many of you do. And certainly perfect for this one. Don’t know why on earth I’d choose a card with ‘fussy cutting’ for a card swap - I have to do twenty plus - but I’m hoping everyone will like it. I do.

Soooo - challenge for this fortnight: Let`s see a little fussy cutting on your card or layout.

Be sure to sign on with Mr. Linky below. Mr. Linky closes again in two weeks, Sunday, September 5th - can you believe it, the summer is almost gone! -at which time I’ll draw for a little candy. Have a great week and thanks for coming back!

Jean

My brother in law is an avid golfer and I  found the perfect digi for his birthday card at Di`s Digi Downloads. Check out her images. They`re great. Got a little carried away coloring but the birthday boy got the guy in the orange shirt.

Recently purchased this stamp set from Stampin’ Up and I just love it. So so versatile. I will never buy another baby card, for sure. Some of these were received in a swap with some lovely ladies here in Newfoundland; some were cased, and some I actually did myself. My absolute favorite is the Baby Bingo card. I’m doing a bunch of these for swapping at an upcoming Stampin’ Up Convention in St. John’s.  It’s totally original and I think it’s gorgeous. My dear sister kindly pointed out that I have my Bs upside down, but that’s minor stuff. What do you think - cute or what? I’m going to do a few in blue, a few in pink, a few in green, and a few more in yellow. I’m so original. Haha. I did the bingo card in Microsoft Word - just a table really - but if you want a copy,  just comment with your email address and I’ll send the file - save you a little time. It`s a 6 x 6 card, a little big maybe for the post, but great to tuck in with a shower gift.

On Monday evening Max and I went blueberry picking. Of course, the blueberries aren’t anywhere near ready yet - just a few - but just a few were all we needed. For me it was all about time together; the blueberries were secondary. Besides, most went into Max’s belly - the blueberries were NOT secondary with Max. Max figured we should bring home what we didn’t eat for muffins - for sure a quarter cup!  LOL

On the way home we caught the setting sun in Back Harbour.

And I want to thank my scrapping buddy Kelley for handing along a toybox her children no longer had use for.  Here it is in the corner of the playroom, making it so so much easier to tidy everything up at the end of the day. My DIL loves it! Thanks Kelley!

I usually have scrapbooking classes in the fall but this year there seems to be an interest in learning stamping techniques, etc. for card making. I had my first class on the weekend and we had a great evening. Local ladies looking to get together every second week and spend a couple hours on handcrafted cards, drop me a line at justscraps.ca@gmail.com and I’ll get back to you.  Groups can range in size from 4-6; $12.00 per person per evening and we meet every second week. You’ll go home with four beautiful all occasion handcrafted cards.

Just one of the cards we did:

Hello all - I’ve been ‘holidaying’ this past week with my sister - looks like perhaps a good many of you have as well. Congrats Kim! You win again - lol. Good thing for you I’ve been in the city this week - so an extra sweet goodie bag for you when I get back.

I’m back on the two week schedule. Not sure how much longer I will keep this up. It takes a little work and dedication and I’m afraid that I fell down on the job a couple weeks back and perhaps may have lost some of the faithful few.

We will have a last ‘kick at the cat’ so to speak and see how it goes.  So for the Challenge #17 - anything goes - post your favorite work between now and August 22nd.

Off to see the sights again - going home Tuesday so must cram in as much as I can. Will post Mr. Linky later today!

I’m back! And so glad to be! The internet difficulties were fixed fairly quickly but without going into too much detail, it’s been a bit of a roller coaster the past couple weeks. Onwards and upwards!

The wedding seems to have been ages ago. It was so nice to have everyone home. No garden wedding, I’m afraid. It poured! But still a beautiful wedding with the garden theme apparent everywhere - even in the cake.

And I did finish the name tags and favors in plenty of time.

Now for a new challenge: Thank you so much to the faithful few who keep returning. I so enjoy your visits, your comments and visiting your blogs as well. KimPossible was the winner of our last blog candy draw. Email me your snail address, Kim, and I’ll get a little something in the mail - or I’ll just drop off a package.  Kim is a local scrapping buddy and this is the first time for a local win on my blog. That’s nice too.

This week’s challenge is to create a card, layout, or 3D project using paper ‘patchwork’. Saw this card in the September 2010 CardMaker magazine and immediately cased it I liked it so much. I’m curious to see what other cards are made using this technique.

Be sure to sign on with Mr. Linky below. Mr. Linky closes next Sunday, August 8th at which time I’ll draw for a little candy. Have a great week and thanks for coming back!

Jean

Hello all  - tried to post last evening but we are having problems with internet. Here at my son’s this morning for a quick post to let you know you are not forgotten - hoping to get it fixed later today.