August Birthdays and happenings.....

    

   August is a busy month for my family with many birthday celebrations. I have been making cards like mad to keep up.... These two cards were for my brother, Hal and my sister, Rochelle.

For Hal

For Rochelle

  For Hal's card I used Tim Holtz's jalopy die cut. I played around with it, using an embossing folder, and painting it different colors 'til I ended up painting it black with some color showing through. I added the Tim Holtz  gears and put acetate in the back to give the windows a more interesting look. The time piece die cut is from Tim Holtz, too.  I had seen this saying somewhere so I just printed it out and used a spellbinders label die cut with some bling from Heartfelt Creations. I hope he liked it..I took so long to make it I was late for his actual birthdate... Oh well...better late than never.

We are trying our hand at cake decorating.

   For Rochelle's card I was on time..It helped that we were having a birthday party for her at my house. I love Stampin Up's owl punch. You can use him in so many ways. I cased this card from a card I pinned on Pinterest. I went back to try to link it here, but I couldn't find it to save my life. I used different colors and added the hat and balloon. I used my Cuttlebug tree bark embossing folder to make it more interesting. It was a fun card to make.  I think Rochelle liked it.

Black-eyed Susans

Some of my milk glass collection

   Her party was alot of fun. I used flowers from my garden as a centerpiece. I was inspired by Donna Hebert's blog on tea time. She has beautiful tablescapes. She blog is linked here: Donna Heber Designs

cukes

cherry tomatoes

cukes

   We have been busy with harvesting veggies from our very first garden together. The tomatoes are starting to turn red. We hope to make spaghetti sauce using a Christmas gift of canning supplies from Russ's sister.   
   The other exciting happening is to our home. We have hired a carpenter Patrick McDonnell  from Augusta. He is doing a fab job on building our deck. We are so thrilled to be getting this project done. We have wanted to do this all summer and decided we might as well do  it so we can have use of it for part of the summer and all fall. It's not completed as you can see, but I will post more pictures when it is fully done.

View from inside where the windows were....

Some electrical work needs to be finished.

View from outside

Towards the backyard

Side steps

Towards the road

I took the film off the door glass, better viewing.

   As you can see the railings, trim, and electrical need to be finished. I can't wait to put out the barbecue grill, umbrella and table, and wicker furniture. It seems to be just the right size. Check back for more pics when Patrick completes the deck. Hoping for tomorrow... Happy August!