I 'HERD' IT'S YOUR BIRTHDAY!

What better way to re-introduce myself back into the cardmaking universe than to Guest Design for the month of July at one of my favorite challenge blogs? The Design Team at Just Us Girls extended the invitation, and the first challenge of the month is Word Week #639 - "Mammals".

I took the entire month of June off for a variety of home projects (more on those at the end of this post) and I'm very glad to be back, now that my home environment has settled down to a dull roar! 

I don't have a lot of animal stamp sets, so I invested in a new (to me) Avery Elle #ST-19-08 "Peek-A-Boo Pets". I took the plural of the prompt word seriously and decided to duplicate the image multiple times by masking and over-stamping. I colored the cows and background with Copic markers and mounted them with a plaid-printed circle cutout to a square top-folded card. I die-cut another circle from a slightly smaller square and mounted it to the face of the card over the circle of cows. Then I stamped a fifth cow, colored and fussy cut her, and slipped her between the layers with her feet hanging over. The final step was to add the sentiment and tie the card off with a couple of strings of twine, offset for balance.

Well, all, it's now time for you to take your try at "Mammals" - put away all of your fish, bugs, and frog stamps and have fun with the new challenge!

  "Just Us Girls" Challenge: Just Us Girls Challenge #639- Word Week

How I spent the month of June!

We had been waiting since the end of November last year on a waiting list for a new roof on our home. Our old roof was at 27-years-old, and we wanted to replace it in anticipation of a new solar electrical system. The roofer was finally available the first week of June and they started the tear-off. On the first day one of the roofers stepped through a board and into our bedroom ceiling leaving a rather large hole - what a mess of insulation and drywall debris! It was a difficult tear-off, lasting longer than expected, and in the middle of the process our heat pump failed, and both the condenser and the air handler had to be replaced - OUCH!

So mid-June they started the solar panel install on the new roof while at the same time the HVAC guys were in the attic and the back yard installing the new heat pump system. It all finally wrapped up last week and then the drywall guy was sent to repair the hole in the bedroom ceiling, and we had to move out of our bedroom for 3 nights.

This week we finally have the house back to ourselves, except for building inspectors checking on the heat pump and solar system installations and we are waiting for the electric company to arrive to change out the meter before our new solar system is up and running.

Oh, and did I mention that one evening in late May we were having dinner on our patio when a very pretty little calico female cat showed up hungry. We fed her for a couple of days and then she gifted us by bringing her 5 kittens to our home! They looked to be about 6 weeks old and very feral. We believe she was a stray, but her brood is definitely wild. She was still nursing them, but they started eating solid food the next week. It has been our intention to tame these little babies, but the presence of workmen in the yard and on the roof for weeks has them completely terrorized and they are now getting to the age where it's harder and harder to tame them. I'll keep you posted on our progress - this post is getting too long. I'm on my way to becoming the Crazy Cat Lady, with a total of 8 cats at the moment!