Wild Kingdom LTCs, part 1

Since it looks likely that the LTC Yahoo group is going to fold, I thought I would start posting some of my retired (or not) trading cards here. The Wild Kingdom was my favorite to work on, so I'll start there.

Cashew the Squirrel~I often have "help" from my 2 girls in naming things. Some they do better with than others. ;)

Fritz the Butterfly~the 9 yo knows more about animals and insects than I ever will. Apparently, there is a whole family of butterflies called Frittilaries. Hence the name Fritz.

Marshall the Rhinoceros~no idea where that came from, but if I had to guess I'd say they were thinking along military or law enforcement lines. But that's only a guess.

Mister the Gorilla~I think this name came from a lecture about showing respect to adults that happened about the same time I was making the cards.

Parka the Polar Bear~Parka was the first Wild Kingdom card, is my favorite and the only one that I got to name myself.

More to come!

A Most Unusual Stamp

A very exciting thing happened a couple of weeks ago. Someone contacted me through my store on Etsy with a request for a custom stamp. That is exciting enough, but she sent me a picture and the question, "Can you make this into a stamp?". Wow! This was the opportunity that I have been waiting for! Up until now, I have been carving images that I selected and had complete control over. This gave me a chance to test my skills outside of that envelope.

Here is the photo:

And the resulting stamp:
She has a shop on Etsy also and makes Rosary belts and a few other things. I would have liked to have added a little more shading to the mannequin, but couldn't decide how to do that without also adding texture. Since the mannequin is very smooth in appearance, I decided to leave it alone.

Help from Friends

Romana and Heart Writer sent this to me:

The Great Philosophy of Housecleaning

• I don’t do windows because…I love birds and don’t want one to run into a clean window and get hurt.
• I don’t wax floors because…I am terrified a guest will slip and get hurt then I’ll feel terrible (plus they may sue me)!
• I don’t mind the dust bunnies because…They are very good company. I have named most of them, and they agree with everything I say.
• I don’t disturb cobwebs because…I want every creature to have a home of their own.
• I don’t Spring Clean because…I love all the seasons and don’t want the others to get jealous.
• I don’t pull weeds in the garden because…I don’t want to get in God’s way. HE is an excellent designer!
• I don’t put things away because…My husband will never be able to find them again.
• I don’t do gourmet meals when I entertain because…I don’t want my guests to stress out over what to make when they invite me over for dinner.
• I don’t iron because…I choose to believe them when they say “Permanent Press”.
• I don’t stress much on anything because…“A Type” personalities die young and I want to stick around and become a wrinkled up crusty old woman!
• Remember…A clean house is a sign of a broken computer!

I should be able to get some serious mileage out of this. We all need a little help from our friends. Thanks Romana and Heart Writer!

CROP Walk

Long ago, the money that I spend in the grocery store ceased to shock me. Now I don't even bat an eye when I drop $100 in the till at Wal-Mart. Anything more than that only gets a sigh of resignation. Equally ridiculous is how I have had my head buried in the sand about the conditions that millions of other people live in everyday around the world.
This year, our family has decided to partipate, along with ours and other local churches in the Communities Responding to Overcome Poverty, or CROP Walk; specifically the walk that is taking place near us on October 5th. You can find more information here or here.

DH and the girls will be walking 1 mile and I plan to walk the 5 mile route. We will be obtaining sponsors to raise money for our walk. If you would like to sponsor one or all of us, you can visit the C Christian family team page.
When donating, you can specify, from an approved list, which international hunger-fighting agency you want your donation to be designated to. This is a cooperative effort, not just one organization.

For all of you LTC fanatics, I will be creating 3 special trading cards for those who sponsor me at the $5, $15, or $25 levels. $5 will get you the first card, $15=2 cards, $25=all three cards. I may also have the girls design and make their own trading cards as a thank you to those who sponsor them. I fully and completely acknowledge that this is shameless self-promotion, but also hope that you will overlook that minor detail in light of the fact that it is for a worthy cause.

On top of that, I plan to donate all of the proceeds from my etsy store for the month of September to CROP Walk.

Updates, and pictures to follow!

Periodic Asundries

Everything is finally coming together for our "official" study of the Periodic Table of the Elements. The wall displays that we ordered from the Oriental Trading Company arrived. They were folded up really tight and came out smelling like new vinyl, but the wrinkles are starting to hang out. The pockets were a bit snug on some of the trading cards and some of them had to be trimmed ever so slightly in order to get them to fit. To answer your question, Yes, they are clear on both sides so that we can see the backs of the cards as well.

Now I just need to figure out where I'm going to hang it! It's huge!


When we were at The Museum of Science and Industry last week, we were able to finish the Glass Experience exhibit (see previous post). One of the most fantastic displays was of Chihuly's Macchia glass bowls. There was a movie that showed how they make them. Incredible is all I can say.


I'm not sure, but I'd guess that some of these bowls are worth more than my car!

Part of the exhibit perfectly fit our study of the elements. They had display tables that featured samples of quite a number of the elements used in glass manufacture.

And of course, the wall displays were a big help!

It makes it fun that we have discussed the table enough that the girls are starting to recognize it's appearance and significance. When we walked into this hallway, Megan got excited and practically shouted, "Look Mom! Elements!"
My only fear is that the girls will start asking me "What element is that made of Mom?" and I won't be able to find the answer.

One last note: we bought a small Periodic Table poster (placemat size) in the gift shop at the museum. It has pictures of almost all of the "real" elements, or pictures of the person who discovered them, plus info on the back about each element. I'm sure I paid more than necessary, it being from a gift shop and all, but the info says you can buy it in different sizes from periodictable.com. And you can buy samples of the elements at element-collection.com. Now don't you just want to go right out and buy a piece of Praseodymium?