Baby Chickens: Cute as a....

Did you guess the challenge at For Fun this week? Yep, buttons! That is, indeed plural, so come up with a design and pile them on. I've been dying to use the buttons, above. I love those vibrant, tropical/retro colors and if you look closely, you can see that there's glitter inside the buttons, too, and glitter makes me immensely happy. Add to that the ribbon I got in this month's Really Reasonable Ribbon kit and the papers from Club Scrap and I'm in happy Howard Johnson's land*.

The stamp is from a chicken set made by this week's sponsor, Clear Dollar Stamps. You don't have to use one of their digis, but it's always nice if you do. :) At any rate, check out their store. Lots of yummy stamps! Plus, if you play along with this week's For Fun challenge and win, you'll get a big, fat $15 credit for use on digi stamps in their store!

 *For those who aren't aware, Howard Johnson's was a motel chain famous for their orange rooves and turquoise blue everything else. Their other claim to fame was their ice cream. My mom would take me there sometimes for coconut ice cream (hmm...I must look for a vegan version) and occasionally we'd stay at a HJ when travelling with my dad. It was pretty rockin', but unfortunately I haven't seen them around in a while, and the restaurants died out even longer ago. Incidentally, I'm always on the lookout for old hotel postcards and stuff, so if you've got some (esp. Howard Johnson's, but I'm not averse to Holiday Inn, etc.) by all means, pleeeeease let me know. We can work out a swap or something. :) I even adore hotel stationery, though it seems to be fading away, too.

Kitty Break Kitty Break Kitty Break!

This time, Toulouse is actually taking a Kitty Break of his own after wearing himself out trying to figure out my phone. I kept getting texts, and when it buzzed, it would move a little. He swatted at it, chewed on it, sat on it, sniffed it, looked at it up really really super close before giving up and napping. Notice how he's still claimed the phone as his. Don't try to take it. That paw will shoot out and smack you!

For Fun Challenge Goes West

I'm hardly about cowboys and ranching, and I don't have any stamps depicting the gold rush (Why doesn't someone make a Deadwood series of stamps? Come on Stampin' Up, how about a thyphoid fever commemorative set, with a little Calamaty Jane forcing medicine down the throat of a sick prospector? I'd be all over that.) So, when For Fun Challenges announced that the theme this week was a Western one, I wasn't sure where to go with it.

Then, it occurred to me--the beautiful wild mustangs that live in the Western U.S. and instantly, this playful, happy horse came to mind. The stamp is from the Charlie Horse collection at Clear Dollar Stamps.

Oddly enough, what originally drew me to this stamp was his cute little "foot cups" much like those seen on illustrations of ficticious robots. Cute, am I right?

And, of course, since we *are* talking wild mustangs, I can't possibly end this post without encouraging you, kind reader, to follow this link and learn more about what easy things you can do to help prevent the torment and/or slaughter of these magnificent, truly American natives:
http://www.savingamericasmustangs.org/

So, check it out, send an easy letter to protect these important animals, then pat yourself on the back and make a Western themed card for this week's For Fun Challenge.

Happy Post-Pi Day! It's not too late to celebrate...

Did you miss Pi day? (aka Einstein's birthday, aka National Potato Chip Day!) My mom, a math maven, would never let me forget, but in case you didn't get a text from your mom, you can still celebrate with For Fun Challenges Circle Challenge this week! Here's mine:

Check out the brand new, massively cute digistamp from Digi My World! I loooove Min Pins (miniature pinschers for those who don't approve of abbreviations) so it took all of .5 seconds for me to have this one in my basket. There's also the cutest little Jack Russell Terrier (or perhaps a Parson Russell? Hard to tell in cartoon form.) and if you squint at it right, and you're me, you can almost convince yourself it's a rat terrier. You can see it at Digi My World, or you can wait to see it here when I post the cards I'm making with it. In the mean time, here's an actual rat terrier:

Aww. Now, come play at For Fun Challenges or you'll make this poor little dog sad. You don't want to do that, do you?

Come and Play, Everything's A-okay!

I decided to go for a Sesame flavored title today after recently watching Being Elmo, a documentary that you should definitely see, whether or not you're an Elmo fan. I like Elmo, though I have to admit I've been a little miffed at him ever since he took over 15 full minutes of the show. Not only is that a little diva-esque of Elmo, it also breaks with the successful Sesame Street educational model of cutting lessons into commercial-sized bites, then repeating them often. If you have any doubt that it works a) you must have grown up either without a t.v. in your house or b) before 1971, when the show premiered. Think about it...how many commercial jingles do you know by heart? Probably a lot more than you think you do. (I'm a big fan of the J.G. Wentworth Eight Seven Seven Cash Now song, myself. Preferably the version sung on the bus instead of the one the new parents sing in the hospital, but I'll take either in a pinch.) The magic comes from keeping what you want someone to remember within their very brief attention span, then showing it to them again and again. Before you know it, I am Stuck on Bandaid, Cause Band Aid's Stuck on Me. (That was written by Barry Manilow, by the way. Along with a lot of other ones you probably know, including You Deserve a Break Today.)

But back to my original reason for posting. It's that time again...time to come play with us at For Fun Challenges. What's the theme? Dogs and cats! The toughest part is deciding which. As you can see, I went with a cute kitty by Motivet Stamps. So get out your favorite dog or cat stamp or digi stamp

In an effort to balance the delicate dog/cat ratio here, I'll finish off this post with a puppy break. I love the feet to snout agility dogs can somehow attain while nonetheless in a state of total relaxation. I mean, can you use your own feet as a pillow? Maybe the trick is in sticking your tongue out the teeniest, tiniest bit.