A while back a friend asked me to participate in an ATC Jam she was part of. I agreed, added to the effort and sent the cards on their way. I thought that was the end of it until an envelope arrived in my mailbox. Jean Pitzer sent me the cards shown above with a request to trade, along with a brand new Jam she was starting.

I sent the Jam back to her explaining that I didn’t have time for any unsolicited Jams. I sent her six cards in return but asked that she not send me more unsolicited trades. I suggested she contact me via email if she wanted to discuss any future trades. I thought I had been polite in my refusal but now I’m not so sure. I’m pretty sure that I offended Jean because I got an email from her offering to return my six card and pointing out that I was the first of 800 people to say that I didn’t want to trade with her. I think I blew it big time. It wasn’t Jean, it was the unplanned demands on my time that I had to curb. Oh well, you can’t win them all.

Now I am wondering a few things. Do you ever send out cards and an offer to trade to people you don’t know? Do you ever get this type of surprise in your mail? How would you handle it if you did? Was I being a stand-offish jerk?

I’ve been busy fighting clutter and didn’t have time to come up with a post for today. I’ll just fill in with a couple photos of my favorite subject. Why does she like laying on her back so much?

I stepped outside the other day and saw this mother Dove trying to shove her two babies out of the Palm tree. She pushed and pushed and they just sat there firmly anchored to the branch. A few minutes later a big storm blew in. Suddenly Momma Dove was no where to be seen and those baby doves were still sitting there hanging onto the branch for dear life. By the time the storm was over it was dark out and I didn’t have a chance to see how well they had weathered all the wind and rain. The good news is that I didn’t find any sign of them on the ground the next day.

I talked with Billie last night and she said that Chris and I should go up there today for a play day. It’s been quite a while since we had a play day so I was more than ready to say yes! We decided to work on another technique from Artist Trading Card Workshop by Bernie Berlin.

The technique involves gluing scraps of paper onto the card and then adding embossing powder to the bits of glue that manage to slip out from under the scraps of paper. I over slept a bit this morning so I was in a last minute rush to throw supplies into my tote. In my haste I only grabbed one sheet of images to work with.

I know, I know, you are now asking yourself, “Just how many times can you make a card with the same image?” I think the answer is somewhere around 942 but I didn’t get that far so I can’t really be sure. Just like the owl trying to get to the center of a Tootsie Roll Pop I got bored after a bit and moved on to a new technique.

Well, actually it is still the same image and more of a non-technique. I enjoy just cutting out images and bits of paper then arranging them on the card. I’m calling this one ‘Tree of Life’.

Recliner Man and I have been watching a lot of Olympic coverage on TV. Like so many others we have been caught up in Michael Phelps’ amazing performances as he attempts to win more gold medals in one Olympics than any other athlete.

Recliner Man and I both remember watching the 1972 Olympics when Mark Spitz won seven gold medals. Last night we were talking about it and wondering why he wasn’t in Beiging to see this record change hands to Michael Phelps. The announcers haven’t been able to talk about Phelps’ efforts without invoking the memory of Spitz and to us it seemed natural that they would have made Spitz part of this historic moment. This opinion was only slightly brought on my my desire to relive my 1972 crush by seeing Spitz on TV again.

Today I found an article online explaining his absence. It seems he has been snubbed and is none too happy about it. I don’t blame him at all.