Monsters in Love – and Meet Martha

Hi Everyone.  Happy Thursday night.

Tonight's card is a quick and easy card I made for Lou.  It features the Make a Monster set.  Now, I know you may have seen my monster mash card from a couple of posts ago – here – but I wanted to show you that it could actually be a little more versatile than for just cards for children.

Then, I have a little treat for you.  Some shots of our garden – and our regular visitor – Martha.

So, here's my little monster card!

The sentiment was typed up and printed on my local printer – and yes… "it" didn't print it straight… How on earth did that happen… are you kidding me!  So, doesn't it look as though the many eyed monster on the left is horrified by the two happy little love-monsters?  I had such fun creating this card and had to share!

The furniture has arrived… oh yeah… it arrived… BUT…. it rained all day and it's due to rain again tonight and, as the protective covers are on backorder from Restoration Hardware, we didn't want to put them out tonight – especially as we can't sit on them!  Grrr… we did try them out in the garage though, and are happy little campers! :-)  We'll be much happier when we get them outside on the deck – hopefully tomorrow.

Our deck is taking shape and, because we no longer have any form of railing around the deck, we are getting more visitors than usual.  Here are muddy little footprints that we found on our deck a couple of days ago…

(we love our new decking, by the way.  environmentally friendly, doesn't need to be treated and should last 20 years…. gotta love that!  it's also a gorgeous color, although it's tough to see it in this pic – it's called rosewood)… so, take a look at the little muddy pawprints …. now – lets take a look at the back of the garden from my favorite perch on the deck

The back of the garden had no plants at all when we moved into the house.  Lou and a dear friend of ours who was visiting from India, dug up the whole back part of the yard (in front of the trees) one very hot weekend.  We have worked to plant a bird and butterfly garden and you can see the butterfly bushes that have grown back with such vigor this year that we think they are on steroids.  On the right hand side of the pic you can see the little pink flowers of the milkweed.  We are very proud of our butterfly and bird garden!

So…. here's the pic

Not the best pic… but it was taken after sunset… now…. look veeeeeeery closely at the back of the garden…. you will see something grey – between the bird feeder and the bird house – up against the trees… can you see it…

look a little closer…. yes… it is the owner of the muddy paw prints!    Ladies, here's MARTHA

Isn't she gorgeous?  I was so pleased to be able to get this shot, considering the light wasn't that great!  I bet you are wondering why we called her Martha?  Well, it's because she is very fussy about her food, likes only the finest ingredients and also likes to re-decorate our garden (moves bird feeders around, steals little jars, etc.) So, we decided that she was the Martha Stewart of the raccoon world!  As you can see, she is a mommy.  We haven't seen the little ones yet, but are sure we will soon!

I hope you enjoyed the little trip into our back yard.  We really do love it – and all the creatures that visit with us.  Our garden is strictly a no chemical zone and consequently, we manage to attract a fair number of birds, bugs and other creatures.   I've never lived anywhere that I can get so close to nature.  Literally whilst enjoying a glass of wine on the deck.

Brenda… I did want to let you know that Lou has taken baby out once in the last two weeks.  I did try to convince him to take her out tonight, but he was worried that there might still be rain on the road…. He laughed when he saw your comment.  How wonderful that even Bethany is now wondering when Baby will get a day out 🙂

Germaine, I didn't get your email, so I am sorry if you are waiting for a reply.  I don't know what happens sometimes…. Lou tried to respond to Brenda's comment last night and got a message saying that I wasn't allowing comments on my blog… I know that Trish has had that problem, too.  So… sometimes, technology doesn't quite work the way we expect.

Robin, it was wonderful to hear from you…. I hope you are doing OK, my friend!

Prayers for Trish, for T and Pri.  For Arthur and his upcoming procedure.  And to all of you who don't ask – but could do with a little help 🙂

As always, thank you for spending time in my little area of the stamping blogosphere.  I hope you all have a fabulous Friday – filled with love, laughter and cooler weather!!!

Hugs

Jaydee