Escaping from the Gypsy Moth Caterpillars

The day I had to get a cupcake to calm my nerves after the gypsy moth caterpillars landed on me, I wandered into Cape Kaleidoscopes at the Mashpee Commons shopping area.  They have the most beautiful stuff ever....gorgeous stained glass discs for beautiful wood kaleidoscopes.  If I won the lottery I would buy every single one of them!!!  They did, however, have a really great selection of $9 scopes, so I picked one up.  Then took pics through it after I got home.

Also started my Rudolph character ornaments kit.  "Hello, Clarice."

Hermie & Santa

Rudolph

Sam Snowman

And my absolute fave monster EVER, Bumbles!  Isn't he the cutest?  I may have to leave him out year round.

I am in love with this Four Seasons Tree diamond painting.  Tiles in every shade of the rainbow.  It's been a delight to work on.  Tsing really makes the best kits.  Here it is at the halfway point. 

Some of my friends tell me that I must have a lot of patience, but it's really so much easier than paint by number and it goes way faster too.

Ta-Da!!!!!  Done!  This was so much fun.  Addictive.  I even found a space on the wall for it.  Still have to frame that peace sign though.

Now that my diamond painting is done, I can start working on some beady things.  Soon, my pretties. Soon.

How Is It June Already?!?!?!

I feel like I just put the Christmas decorations away and it's already June.  Time's going by just waaay too fast.  

We had a quiet Memorial Day weekend.  We've had a ton of rain around here so when it was sunny, we had to take advantage of it.  The Saturday of that weekend, we went to the Wareham Flea Market and scored these 2 super cool, unique glass bottles.  They're so heavy....they must weigh a ton when full of liquid!

It was nice to be able to sit on the deck in sunny weather too, till the gypsy moth caterpillars arrived. Those things gross me out so bad.  We were visiting my inlaws and they were even inside the gazebo. Two of them landed on me and I about had a nervous breakdown, so Russell suggested I go treat myself to a cupcake, so I did.  

Pink flamingos looking worse for the wear after a couple of winters.

Gnomey is happy it's warm

Ebenezer

I thought this huge dragon fly was dead cause it looked like his wings were stuck in the web strands.  He was soooo still.  After I took, this I pulled a couple strands away, and it flew off!  

At least the rain has made for some pretty clouds and skies.  A huge and bright double rainbow was seen all over the Cape one night.  The pics posted on Facebook were beautiful.  I just get a lot of clouds which is fine too.

We got home from errands one day to find that Sagan had gotten ahold of an almost full package of lofthouse cookies, ate every single one and left the empty plastic clamshell on the floor.  I'd obviously left it too close to the edge of the counter.  The next day, however, we came home to THIS.  

We were sooooo not amused.  Sagan wasn't even sorry.

Hubs and my stepson trimmed the branches off of a tree for my mom.  The three of us worked really hard.  

It was way more of a job than I thought it'd be and now we have to cut up all the branches that were unloaded on the other side of the driveway.  

Cute li'l chipmunk.

We decided to check out a butcher shop up in Plymouth.  It's in an older, quieter part of town and I never stopped here thought I've driven past it a lot.  Piantedosi's is small, but packed full of delicious, fresh food, meats and Italian groceries.  I got a cheese lasagna that is to die for, and we were so pleased with the chicken wings as well.  Russell got some steaks too, and I picked up meatballs & sauce to make subs.

Walked around a bit.  Loved the signs in this part of town.

Russell told me that he used to deliver Coke at this old supermarket called Perry's, but he doubted it was still open.  We drove to where he said he remembered it was, and it was still open.  I wish I'd gotten pics of the inside cause it was like walking back into 1974.  He got a steak at their butcher dept. too, which he cooked up when we got home.  I even had a small piece and it was amazing.  He was literally in heaven!

Now I need to make some time for serious day trips!

Resin Crafts

Now that I know how to do those seascape windows, it's a little hard to stop thinking about making them out of every frame I have!  The first design I wanted to do on my own was Cape Cod of course. Why take the easy route when I can pour hours of time into it?  lol  First I had to free hand a map of the Cape to place under the glass as a guide.

Then I did a dry run, painstakingly placing every pebble on the map outline.  Then I put shells on it where the different towns are located.  After I was done, I lamented having to dump all this off the glass so that I could pour the resin.  

Not being able to trust my memory where the town shells went, I drew a crude Cape and placed them thusly.  

I was a bit nervous about mixing the resin cause if it's not done precisely, it won't set.  But I bit the bullet, mixed up WAY more than I needed and poured it onto the glass.  Then had to place each pebble back on, one by one.  That's a piece of Sandwich glass for Sandwich.  The filled in part is with sand (from here), then I used blue sand, blue glass bits and shiny silver glass bits for the water.  

I wasn't sure that I liked the final result but it's growing on me.  Russell, on the other hand, loves it and was happy to hear that I was keeping it.  He likes it better than the one I did at the class!

I haven't found a place to hang it yet....I think he'd be happy if I swapped out my first one, which is in the kitchen window, with the new one.

As I said, I had a ton of resin left.  I poured some pendants but the results were 'meh'.  The last couple didn't even set.

However, I did fill a glass jar with pretty marbles and poured resin on top of them.  It set perfectly and I'm very happy with the results.  It looks like water! You're not supposed to have bubbles in the resin, but I like how it looks.

I am hoping to get some more frames so that I can do a few more of these seascape windows.

Clouds & Flowers

Another reward for dealing with winter are the moody skies and neat clouds.  

Every now and then when I see a puffy, domed cloud, my brain still registers it as Mt. Rainier.

Nice to see the dogwood again

No idea....assuming azalea.

The rhodies at my mom's house look great.  I sure miss all the ones I had in my yard in Washington.

This one is one of my faves.

This particular rhodie has very fragrant flowers.  Most don't.

They smell sweet but not overpoweringly so.