Cricut or Silhouette?

I have several projects already in mind...

Price-wise they are within about $50 of each other for the base machine.  From the descriptions and reviews it seems like the Silhouette offers more flexibility and a smaller investment to get the cuts you want.  Silhouette is computer tied, much like a printer, or works off an SD card for travel.  And you can download just the designs you want.  The reviews say some are free and others can be purchased for as little as 99 cents.  Cricut requires investing in cartridges where you need to purchase the entire cartridge even if you only want one design on it.  Estimates I've seen say the cartridge library can run another $500-$1000.

I'm leaning toward the Silhouette but I've never actually used either machine.  Have you?  Which would you choose?  Why?

Cricut Expression(R) Machine

http://main.cricut.com/shopping/product-detail.aspx?prodID=123

Silhouette SD Digital Craft Cutting Tool

http://www.google.com/products/catalog?q=silhouette+cutter&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=shop&cid=10269136729434748297&sa=X&ei=9O1LTqHYOsHLsQK0luC1CA&ved=0CEoQ8wIwAQ

I swear

I swear... really I do.  I try not to.  But sometimes "bad word, bad word, bad word" just isn't as satisfying as spitting out what I really want to say!

This morning I learned my first Swedish swear word... skitsnack.  Now I can call something what it is in 4 languages.  Ironically it's what prompted my very first English swear word.

I was 11, or maybe 12, at the time and was camping with my Aunt Lillie and Uncle Mel in Spencer.  Moose Creek was a favorite campsite there, where we did actually see a moose eating some kind of vegetation in the creek on another trip, so there's a good chance that's where the day's adventures began.  After breakfast and clean up and some puttering around the campsite each day, Lillie and Mel would take me and go explore the surrounding area.  Different times we went out to the opal mine, fished in a little reservoir where the only thing the fish would bite on was dragonflies, climbed a forest service tower where they'd watch for fires later in the summer or find a patch of wild berries that turned into dessert for that evening.  I loved camping with them!

On this particular day, we were out in search of our adventure.  Mel was driving his pickup down a dirt road. There would be stretches of pine forest interspersed with grassy clearings.  Going past one of these clearings, I saw a giant boulder move.  It was just out of the corner of my eye, but I knew I saw it move.  Lillie and Mel  kind of laughed it off and told me rocks don't move but I insisted.  Finally, Mel stopped the truck and backed up to prove that it was all in my imagination.  And then he thought he saw a movement.  He stepped out of the truck to get a better look.  And then it really moved!

It wasn't a boulder at all.  It was a buffalo that had wandered over from nearby Yellowstone National Park.  And it charged!!

I don't think I have ever, before or since, seen Uncle Mel move quite so fast as he did to get back in the truck and drive off.  Lillie and I were both kind of screaming.  A buffalo moves surprisingly fast!  And for a minute or so it was an awfully tense situation.  She was flustered and just a little bit angry with him and started to cuss him out... she got as far as saying "this is bullshit!" when in all the innocence of childhood I interrupted  and said "cows shit, too."

They both laughed until tears were streaming down their faces... Needless to say, I didn't get in trouble for saying "shit" that time.

Zeke and Zelda

Not everyone has met Zeke and Zelda... the naked people who cavort with carefree and shameless abandon through whatever is blooming in the yard.

So here I  present you with Zeke, the handsome fella to the right, and Zelda, the total babe on the left!

Yes, that bare earth you see at the bottom is from one of the sections of flowerbed I have managed to clean up!  Next spring Zeke will be dashing through a stand of purple iris in search of his Zelda.  She, I'm thinking, might be hiding in a mixed grouping of daisy, purple cone flower and brown-eyed Susan.

Here a few more pictures of the disaster that has become my backyard over the past couple of neglectful summers.  Keep me accountable to get it cleaned up!

Another sort of cleaned out flowerbed section.  Also a major pruning project on that poor rose bush.
But at least the crappy yard beyond the fence is the neighbor's problem!

Along the side of the house.  Flowerbed along the fence and just cut down and clear out the balloon flower vines along the foundation and remove the pavers you can't even see under them.

Behind the northern most garage.  It just needs a little weed control and the apricot tree needs a good pruning.

Part of the garden that didn't happen again this year.  The cucumber vine you can see is in over production mode.  Picked 7 this morning... I like cucumbers, but there is a limit.

A treasured piece of earth

"The time we spend on our treasured little piece of earth enriches our affection for the planet as a whole."  Bryan Welch, publisher of Mother Earth News

When we focus our daily attention on our land, be it a farm many acres in size or backyard garden in the city, we reinforce the conviction that we want to make the entire planet healthier and more beautiful.  That's the kind of project that should ignite passion in the human soul.  And once mind and body are engaged, incremental change begins.

My little piece of earth doesn't look very treasured right now...  Necessity left it neglected for the last couple of summers and the realist in me knows that it will take time and a lot of effort to make it beautiful.  And in the heat of summer sometimes I struggle with the will to make that effort even though the vision of what it can become certainly does fuel a passion.  I am making a daily attempt to do something and even if it is a small something my goal of a fruitful yard and garden will eventually be accomplished.

I'm working on a flowerbed that will wrap around the entire backyard.  I have two sections of about 10 feet each cleared and both have a handful of rescued plants in place.  The future plan is to fill it with flowers, herbs and strawberries.  Can't you just picture Zeke and Zelda, who have already taken up residence here, romping through flowers swaying the summer breeze?  When I close my eyes and let my mind imagine, I see an abundance of  multi-colored iris, roses, day lilies, brown-eyed Susans, daisies, and cone flowers mingling with  herbs like chives,  sage, thyme, walking onion, oregano and mint (somehow contained so the whole yard doesn't turn into a mint patch!).  Strawberry plants, garden art, large interesting rocks and potted annuals  fill any open spots.

But... for now, just clearing the space is my goal.  Then maybe I'll fix and paint the fence before I get too plant happy.

Over all, here's a scheme of the garden I'd like to grow next year.  I've been saying that for two years now, so hopefully 2012 will finally be the Year of the Yard at my house.  The drawing on the left is the west side of my backyard and the other, the east side, shows the flower bed I am currently working on.

The west side garden plot has more space extending left off the page.  It was an old and very large sand box by the side of another garage.  With all the sand in there I think it will be a perfect spot for a melon patch.  And on the east, I've just included an Italian Prune for a plum tree, but I really think I can fit both the prune and a Santa Rosa plum in there.  The apricot tree and part of the raspberry row are already there but the rest of the plants will have to be added.

Okay, my friends, keep me accountable to do this!  Help me make my own little piece of earth a real treasure...

It just took peanut butter and spray paint

You know those round, orange, 5-gallon Coleman drink coolers?  I don't have one, but I want one... and I have every intention of buying one to provide beverages at the backyard barbecues I envision for summers to come.  These drink coolers only have one problem.  They drip.  And seriously, if you go to the trouble of a pedicure and cute little strappy sandals do you really want red punch dripping on your toenails?

Problem solved.  Just hang this drip catcher over the spigot and no more stinky sticky feet.  At least not from something dripping out of the drink cooler...

A week or so ago, on Pinterest, I saw this picture of a drip catcher made from a 2-liter soda bottle, but since I didn't have one I looked for alternatives and I think I found a pretty good one.  Mine is made out of a 64 oz. juice bottle.  Great Value Pink Grapefruit Juice Cocktail to be exact.  But if you don't care for grapefruit juice, have no worries.  Walmart packages lots of their juices in this same bottle.  I have one half full of apple juice in the fridge now.

After removing the label and using just a tiny touch of peanut butter to get rid of the sticky goo, I cut along the ridges in the bottle with my brand new utility knife then barely sanded the edges and gave it a few light coats of Krylon White Gloss spray paint.  Obviously I made it to the hardware store the other night... and dang!  Tools are expensive!!  But that's a whole different post...

I was a skeptic, but the peanut butter cuts right through the goo left from labels.  And it only takes a tiny bit.  I would guess I used about 1/4 teaspoon, maybe even a little less, to get it all off this particular bottle.

My photoshoot isn't nearly as pretty as the one from Pinterest, but I think my drip catcher will serve it's purpose well enough.  Don't you?

And I got through the whole project without cutting a finger.  That's a real accomplishment considering my safety record!