A fortnight in review.....

Wow! It's been a busy couple of weeks since I last posted! Here's a quick roundup....

Sept 10th- Woken at 5am by LOUD thunder right above our house- eeek!!! I love storms, as long as hubby is home with me, and the power is out... and a new condition that will be explained in a second....as long as they are accompanied by lots of rain. We spent a little while watching the lightning out of the window and then as it passed over us, we headed back to bed. Just as we were falling asleep we both sat up with a jolt- 'I smell smoke!!' We headed back to the window and see flames, not too far away at all, and start to panic. We get up and dressed and after a few minutes standing outside watching, Jase heads out to take a look. Luckily, he reports back that lightning stuck the ground at one of the ranches nearby, but that the firefighters got to it quickly and had it almost out already, phew!!!

However, as the morning went on, we heard more and more news of fires that had been started in the area by the lightning. We tuned into the radio scanners and listened to the fire crews strategize who would go where and which fires were higher priority. We hear from a friend, on the edge of the community, that their house is being threatened and they are evacuating. Then we get notified that the whole area has been put on precautionary evacuation. This just meant we had to be ready to leave if needed, so off we went around the house, room by room, determining what was irreplaceable and had to come with us if needed. We got important papers, photo albums, my wedding dress... and veil... and shoes lol and little things like my first teddy, aww, and packed them all up ready to go. By the end of the day though things were still looking pretty good. There was a fire down the side of the mountain still, but the wind was blowing in our favor.

Sept 11th- After a looonnnggg day of stress and not much sleep the day before, we slept in late on Sunday and lazed in bed watching some of the 9/11 anniversary shows on tv. We decided not to turn on the radio scanners that day, as all it did was stress us out even more. The skies looked clear, and there was no sign of fire on the horizon so we figured everything was fine. After all, we'd get a call from the emergency system if needed, and I was following updates on Facebook. By the afternoon though, it hard turned from a nice clear day, to this...

The wind had changed direction, and was now pushing the fire up the mountain.. towards Stallion Springs! There was ash landing all around us and the smoke was giving me a headache and affecting Jase's breathing. Then came the phone call!! We were notified that we were now under a recommended evacuation, and that they might not have time to notify us again if it became mandatory. Eeek! This being our first fire experience up in the mountains, by now we were pretty freaked out! We talked to our next door neighbours and they said they were packed up ready, but wouldn't leave until they saw fire cresting the hill..... our 'behind' neighbour has lived here 20+ years and told us he wouldn't be leaving either, and was instead watering down the dry grass around his property just in case. But, then we spoke to the family across the street, who it turns out has a friend who is a firefighter, and they had asked him if they should leave and had been told it was better to be safe than sorry... We watched them leave, and another family across the street with young kids, and decided we would go too. It was unthinkable that the fire would reach our home- look at how many houses it would destroy to get to us- but, fire is an unpredictable beast, and with all the ash falling around us we didn't want to take any chances. We also knew it was going to be a battle to round the cats up- crawling under beds and into closets to get them- and fight to put them in their crates to leave. Plus, who's going to get any sleep when one of you has to be on fire watch all night!! So... we packed up our cannot live withouts, followed all the evacuation tips (ladder against the house, hoses hooked up and visible, doors and windows locked, automatic garage door opener disabled and left unlocked) and headed down the mountain to stay with friends for the night. It was still a restless night, with the cats being unsettled, and being in an unfamiliar bed, and worrying about what was happening. But at least we knew we were safe, just in case.

Sept 12th- Over the course of 2 days the fire had grown over 20,000 acres!! But we were relieved to read that it was now starting to be contained. We called our neighbours who said everything was fine and the smoke was a lot better than the day before. The evacuation order was still in place, but there was talk of it being lifted for our part of the community. So, we packed up our poor cats again and headed back up the mountain. It was a little scary, driving into town and seeing the hundreds of fire trucks and firemen every where, but it felt so good to be back home. Late that afternoon, the recommended evacuation was reduced back down to precautionary and we heaved a sigh of relief and went out to eat heaps of Chinese food :)

Phew! What a weekend.How ironic that after my last post about how much we love the mountains, we experienced the not so fun side of living here! Seriously though, it was good preparation for if/when it happens again and we are maybe more in danger- and in my true 'dancing in the rain' attitude... we got to know our neighbours better :-) Luckily no homes were destroyed in the fire, just someone's back deck and a lot of beautiful land. I saw a photo on a friend's Facebook page of her neighbours house and the fire had literally burned her property up to about 4 feet away from her home!! Those firemen did an amazing job. There was over 1100 personnel battling our fire alone that week, and there were 40 others burning in the area- they came from as far as San Diego and Laguna Beach. I heard that many of them, after being relieved from our fire were reassigned to fly to Texas to help with their awful fires also. These men and women truly are heroes.

Last week was a little less eventful, and more cheery!

I celebrated my birthday on Sept 14th (I turned 29, shhhh!), and spent a nice relaxing day with hubby shopping (with coupons lol- got some amazing deals!!!) eating Indian food, and visiting with friends. I was very spoiled with lots of lovely cards and gifts arriving from family and friends. Hubby had even secretly gone into my craft room and made me a handmade card, awww!

He decorated the envelope too, see!

The rest of the week felt like one long birthday celebration :)

On Thursday I got another package in the mail... my first Watkins delivery! Look at all these natural products and yummy packaging goodness...

I can't wait to try them all out!! There's cleaning products, foot care, facial care, bath soak, shower stuff, first aid thingys, and spices, extracts and BBQ sauce!!! And that's not even a 10th of the products they offer!

 I can tell you already, the Warming Balm (in the white tube with red stripes) is amazing and hubby says it has really helped with his bad back at night. It really does get warm and soothes aches and pains, a little bit goes a long way... and it's all natural :) Love it!!

As I get to try more of the products I will be sure to share those that I love with you on here. It's also my 1st blogiversary coming up next month, so I plan to do a fun give away incorporating some of my fave stamp sets and Watkins products :)

Last, but not least- the highlight of the past craaazzzyyy two weeks was on Saturday (when I forgot my camera so we had to make do with my phone!).

We ate lots of crab, while sporting very fashionable bibs, lol!

And sat 20 rows from the front at a Rascall Flatts concert- yey!!!!!!

So, that's us all caught up on my past couple of weeks!

Lynsey x

New Neigbours...

(side note... I can never decide if I should use UK or US spelling in my posts lol- oh the trials and tribulations of being an English girl in America :) )

We've been living here in Stallion Springs, just outside of Tehachapi, for six months now. Wow, time has flown by! We've had so much fun experiencing our first summer living in our very own little home in the mountains, and we're both eagerly awaiting our first fall, and winter and all the new experiences those seasons will bring. Time for this girl to learn how to put on snow chains- eek!

Best of all over the past few months though, has been getting to know our new neighbo(u!)rs. Friendly waves as you pass on the street are common place here, and as we start to recognize these faces we feel more and more at home. Recently I've been getting involved in some new projects in town, and am starting to make more new friends- and so feel even more at home and part of the community. We are truly blessed to have found our little corner of the world, and to have been able to buy our home and start setting down roots here.

Our most treasured new neighbours however, are those of the four legged, and winged variety! I never really thought about it when we were in the process of moving up here, but of course when you live out in a small community in the mountains, you share your neighbourhood with lots of other little residents. We've had all kinds of visitors to our back yard, and frequently see them when we're out on early morning, or evening walks. We've got quite a collection of photos from this past six months of our encounters with creatures great and small just outside our door. I thought I would take a moment to share them with you today :)

Now, remember, I never claimed to be a photographer- and these pics are taken on a point and shoot, often rushing to get the pic before the subject ran away lol! I'm trying to say they are not great quality lol, and that I want a good camera for Christmas.... please Santa!! hehe!

Aww, I know some people see them as pests in a garden- but I just love my little rabbits and squirrels that hang out daily in our yard.

 Can you see our next visitor up in the oak tree?

How about now?! lol!


A few nights later, our cats were making all kinds of fuss by the patio door and Jase went to take a look and see what was going on...

Ok.. now that's a little close for comfort Mr Raccoon!!

We also discovered the other night that we have a skunk living under our shed!! I'm sure you'll understand we didn't try to get close enough to photograph him!!

My favorite neighbors of all though, without doubt, are these guys...

I love living in the mountains :-)

Lynsey x

The crazy cat lady and her Easter cards...

Can you believe it, after months of nothing I blog twice in 24 hours! I'd forgotten how much I loved it, and really intend to take a little time every day during the week to make a nice cuppa and sit down to write for a while. I'm loving getting back into my creative groove, and am branching out into other crafts than card making which I'm really enjoying. I will always love card making, but stamping on other mediums is just so much fun and there is so much possibility. But, we'll save that for another day as I have a much more pressing topic to attend to....

We've also been busy around the house over the past month with lots of little projects here and there. It's so much fun to be able to make changes and improvements in our home, as before we had always rented and there's only so much you can do in rental houses. I thought I would share with you one of the first ideas and projects we completed after moving in..... whether you think it's an improvement to the house, or just weird will depend on if you are a crazy cat person like me lol!

(If you're just here for the cards, please scroll to the end of the post to avoid my rambling about litter boxes ;) )

Drum roll please......

Yes, that is a kittie restroom lol!!!! Like I said, if you're not a cat lover you are probably thinking I've got a little crazy up here in our new mountain home. You may be thinking the altitude has got to me a little.... But, if you do have multiple indoor furbabies of the feline variety in your home you will be all too familiar with those unsightly litter boxes. And the smell from them. And the litter being tracked everywhere by our little darlings. So, I wanted the litter boxes in the laundry room but I did not want them out on display for all to see. While I pondered on how to pull that off, my eyes wandered to these lovely cupboards along one wall of the room.

Please excuse the mess on top, we were still in the middle of moving in and that counter had become the catch all for anything without a home yet! We are lucky to have plenty of storage in this house (although it's just the two of us, we'll revisit my assessment of storage if and when kids join the household!) so I knew we wouldn't miss having the bottom cupboards, and I hatched my kitty restroom plan. As it would involve plenty of power tools for taking out shelves and drilling holes in doors, and I'm not allowed to use said power tools, the hubby was put to work.....

 Step One: Remove the shelf that was fixed in the middle of the cupboard so kitties don't hit their heads when going to the bathroom :)

 Step Two: Remove middle door and cut out hole for cat door (whilst unknowingly showing off your growing bald patch lol!)

 Step Three: Begrudgingly pose for the camera to show off your handy work :)

 Step Four: Install cat door and rehang cupboard door.

Step Five: Set up litter boxes inside the cupboard. We've since changed to covered boxes as that's what our cats have grown up using and so were have lots of 'accidents' with the low sided open pans in the photo. 

 Step Six: The finishing touch :)

We were feeling very pleased with this new addition of the kitty restroom! The boys' reaction on the other hand seemed more along the lines of "WTF?! You want me to do what?!!!"

But with a little gentle encouragement they soon came around....

Yey, go Odie!!! Always the first to try something new :)

Silvester (the big grey one, who is more mouse than cat in temperament!) however, seems to have a deathly fear of cat doors (??!!) so we had to modify it slightly by removing the actual flapping door.

We also need to get baby locks for the doors as Taz prefers to exit the restroom by pushing open the cupboard door and racing through rather than walking through the cat door. Ahh, cats- who'd have 'em!!

It really has worked perfectly though over the month since we've had it. There's a lot less mess and smells now, and my laundry room looks nice and tidy without cat boxes on the floor on full display. We're quite proud of our litter box solution :)

Crazy cat people... us?!!!

Anyway, most of you are here for cards not litter boxes so we'll finally move along!! As I've mentioned a few times now, I have been making and donating some cards to our local cat rescue (yes, more cats!!) and they sell them to make money for the charity to feed their rescues and spay and neuter feral cats in the area. A few weeks ago, they requested some Easter themed cards to put on their stall.

I shared one yesterday, and as I've once again overloaded with pics I will share just a couple more today....

This simple cutie was made with a $ bin Easter stamp set from Michaels, and a kittie from a Personal Impressions set I picked up in England last year. I water coloured the images using distress inks, inked the edges of the cardstock with some Tea Dye, mounted on a piece of K& Company pp, and used foam squares to adhere it to the card base.

This next card uses a Penny Black stamp (Frolic), again water coloured with Distress Inks, inked on the edges with some Tumbled Glass. I rounded the corners and adhered it to a piece of kraft, rounding the corners on that also. I added some more detail with the gel pen stitching around the edge. I then stamped the card base with Hero Arts Envelope Pattern and inked the edges to give it more dimension, and finished it off with a HA sentiment from the Find Joy set.

I'm really enjoying water colouring with Distress Inks. It's so easy to get a nice look and to blend the colours- and I have the whole collection of inks so there's a huge pallet of colours available to me :) I had started to buy Copics last year but they are so pricey and I wasn't that great with the ones I had, so I'm loving that I can get a similar look with my beloved Distress Inks!

Is there anything those little wonders cannot do?!

Hi, I'm Lynsey and I'm addicted to Distress Ink (and cats, and Ikea....)

I think I may need help lol!

Love Lynsey x