bird lover: noun

someone who spends way too much money feeding the birds and will jump up with excitement and enthusiasm to take a picture of one or to look at it through binoculars!
OK, so I took a little liberty today and created my own definition for bird lover, There wasn't one in the dictionary, but I think it defines me anyway!

Bluebirds....a male (on the left ) and female, ( on the right ) made my heart flutter to see them at my feeders. Guess I'll have to go get some meal worms for them! Or put more suet out! And below the American Goldfinches have finally discovered the Thistle feeder! They have already cleaned out one sock!

 These 2 woodpeckers have always been hard for me to tell apart because their coloration is almost identical, the only difference is their size. One of the perks to my "downsizing" is the deck on my back porch which allows me to set several feeders out there and I have been able to get some decent up close shots of them...( if they don't see me sneaking up to them through the sliding glass window that is ) Anyway...the smaller woodpecker on the right is a Downy Woodpecker and he visits my feeder regularly. The woodpecker on the left on the suet feeder is a Hairy Woodpecker and I don't see him too often. From a distance it's hard to tell one from another, but up close you can see the difference in their sizes much better!


Now onto my other favorite thing, challenges!! Fantabulous Cricut's challenge #93 is to create something with a manly theme and I am combining it with Moxie Fab's Cool Tool's Week  Die Cut challenge! Simpatico!

I used Balsam wood ( from Michael's ) for the base, then ran it through my Sizzex using the wood grain embossing folder. I really wanted the wood grain to be emphasized so I ran all 3 inks lightly over the top and then used water to help blend it out so it would have a softer look. Attaching the mesh can be a bit tricky so this is what I did. First I put the sticker letters for 'you' on top of the mesh and I put the 450 adhesive under the the word 'you'. Laid that down on the tag. Then added the 450 under the vellum leaves and laid the leaves on top of the mesh so that the 450 would sink down through the mesh, and did the same thing with the acorn.

Sizzex - Traditional large Tag Die

Stretch Your Imagination cartridge, p. 46

Karen Foster sticker letters - Camouflage Font

Creative Imagination vellum

ink - Brillance, AMM, Adirondack

ribbon , mesh- misc. scrap

Fiskars embossing plate

Balsam Wood
Helmars 450

And I am NUTs about everyone who takes a moment to come over to my blog! Ya'll are the best!