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I can’t believe it has taken me 150 days to add a Squishmallow to the blog. We are bursting at the seams with Squishmallows (thank you 5 Below). This is “Markina” and she is a lavender moose from the Christmas collection and she sports a lovely scarf with scrollwork detailing. Her antlers are made of a glitter fabric that I sadly could not capture with my pencil. And I have to confess, she is digitally altered.

<gasp>

Yes. According to the rules of the drawing, anything solid black needs to be solid white but the kids both agreed that Markina looked way too creepy. So I added black to her eyes to make her look less devious and dark.

I was using the hole punch yesterday and this morning when I grabbed my sketchbook, that hole punch was still on the kitchen island so ….. day 149 is a hole punch. It was missing for a long time and when I needed to punch a hole (as one often does) I was using the 3 hole punch which is not precise enough in terms of placement. I will return it to a craft bin, subsequently forget which bin I put it in and return to the 3 hole punch probably next month.

I took a picture of a hosta leaf this morning that grows on the north side of our house. They are the best in the morning when they display perfectly formed droplets of water on the leaves. I have visions of Tinkerbell, or some other lesser known fairy, collecting water from a leaf just like this.

I was digging around a drawer in the kitchen and stumbled upon this silver #5 birthday candle…. used twice. Seeing this brought back a flood of memories of birthday cakes. You see, we had a tradition that I would bake a cake and decorate it however my kids wanted it for their birthdays. I believe #5 was once on a Hot Wheels themed cake with turquoise icing and a Frozen themed cake with frosted sugar cone trees. Other themes have been Lightning McQueen, Pinky Pie My Little Pony, Roblox Adopt Me, horses, dog park, sharks, Spirit Riding Free, basketball, football. horses again, corgi, polar bears, puppies…. Now that the kids have grown and taste buds have elevated, we get to indulge in things like key lime pie and cheesecake… the decorating days are sadly coming to an end. But I’m keeping the candle 🙂

This is a wrench. Not just any wrench but the wrench that my husband used yesterday to FIX THE TOILET! Our master bathroom toilet was “running” constantly. A YouTube video, a trip to Home Depot, a new filter and this wrench allowed my husband to fix it all on his own. A sense of accomplishment indeed. And a quiet toilet….

Happy Memorial Day. Yesterday, I sat outside trying to draw a small American flag that we had received at our Memorial Day parade last year. It kept blowing around and it just wasn’t going well. And then I remembered my dear friend, also our school crossing guard, and I knew he could help me. You see “Pots” as he was called back in the day, is a Vietnam War veteran, retired postman and one of the nicest people you could ever meet. He also has the most amazing collection of war memorabilia you have ever seen. His house is like a museum. I texted him and asked him to send me some pictures of a few things from his collection and I loved this WWI calvary canteen. I don’t know much about it other than it was in the hands of someone on horseback in WWI. A special tribute on a special day. Thanks Pots.

I’ve included his photo as well. The U.S. stamp is great.

These are my husband’s Blundstone boots, well, just the right one. They are worn in well and have scuff marks in all the right places. He wears them everywhere and they can be dressed up or down. This pair is more on the dressing down side of the equation as they really have a lot of character. I think my favorite look is when he wears them with running shorts to mow the lawn. Ha!

If you have ever painted then this tool needs no explanation. We are contemplating repainting the living room so this paint can opener tool became top of mind for me today. If you go to a good paint store, they will give you one of these and a wood stir stick at no charge. I thought maybe it had a unique name like the “church key” (which I still don’t get) but it doesn’t. It’s just a paint can opener.

This is very appropriate for today as I have a sick kiddo at home, missing a school field trip no less. It’s so sad. This has been a brutal year of illness and colds and flus and we are all so done with it. Hoping this is a quick recovery. Gatorade and movies are the medicine for today.