Hello everyone!   Marie here and it is time for our September “Get to Know Your MarkerPop Design Team”.   You met Astro, my special needs dog last month and this month I would love to introduce you to Toby.

Toby is a Lovebird.   He is one of the little men around this house!  😀  Lovebirds are gorgeous, colorful birds  that originated outside of Africa.   There were relatively unknown until around  the 1600’s.   The very first known Lovebird to be imported into Europe  was a Red Faced Lovebird and occurred during the 19th century.    I am so glad that happened.   The peach faced variety of Lovebirds are actually now thought to be a separate species from the Red-Faced Lovebird.  Aren’t they gorgeous? Little Toby is a Peach Faced Lovebird that literally flew into our life  and changed it forever.

While living in the cold wet state of Washington, a special friend who was a member of the Audubon Society   was looking out her kitchen window when  saw a flicker of color in a large evergreen tree.  She kept watching and realized that it was a little bird and that he would never survive the bitter cold.   She opened her window and put some bread crumbs on the sill while coaxing him to come inside.   He finally came down and appeared to  be glad be for the food and warmth.

She called and asked if we would bring a bird cage and be willing to take the bird.   Upon arrival, she said she became attached to Toby.  What?  She already gave him a name… ?   I knew that couldn’t be a good sign!   She was on Hospice services and shared that she only had a few months to live.  She wanted to keep Toby until she died.

Toby was her constant and faithful companion.   She had few friends and Toby became her life and  brought her happiness and peace for her final days.   The reflections at the memorial service was about how Toby had transformed her difficult time into one of peace and acceptance.

One day, the  call came to pick Toby up and bring him home.    This little guy has now been a constant part of our lives.   We quickly discovered that he had a special “knack” for getting in and out of cages.  He can undo any lock!   We realized that this was how our friend found him outside!   Toby’s nickname is “Harry”.  Yep you got it – after Harry Houdini!   We  soon added two other birds to keep Toby (aka Harry) company.   We also added a rescue cat and our special needs dog Astro, who you met last month.    Toby may be the smallest in stature – but he is the man in charge and rules the roost!   Toby’s ability to transform lives  and bring peace and joy has been never-ending!    

From Toby and the bottom of my heart – thank you for taking the time to read about  his wonderful story!  

Lovebirds were a largely unheard of species outside of Africa until Europeans wrote in books and journals about these strange brightly colored birds they had seen while in Africa.

The first Lovebird to be described in detail was the Red Faced lovebird in the early 1600, it was also the first lovebird to be imported into Europe during the 19th century since it was found in more widely in the wild than any of the other species.
Other species of lovebird were imported soon after the Red Faced except the Peach face which was thought to be variant of the Red Faced, although the Peach Faced lovebird was acknowledged by the British Museum in 1793. It wasn’t until 1817 that the Peach Faced lovebird was recognized as a separate species of lovebird and were imported into Europe in the mid 1800’s

Because lovebirds are an easy bird to keep as a pet and are very colorful they became favorites with people all over the world.
Between 1900 and 1927 four more species of lovebird were discovered by explorers from Europe: the Fischers, Masked, Black cheeked & Nyasa lovebird.

Tracy here today to share with you one of my favorite things to do! Reading!  In my spare time, if am not stamping, more than likely I am reading.  I love to read. Years ago I started out reading murder/mysteries. One of my favorite authors at the time was Mary Higgens Clark. After years of only reading those types of books I finally decided I would try different genres of reading. Honestly I didn’t think I would like them!!  Well now here we are 10+ years later and I can’t get enough reading in and read all different types of books. Seriously, I hate having to choose which books to read first. There are so many out there!

Outlander

My current favorite read is the Outlander Series. Eeeek,  I didn’t know about these books until a couple of weeks ago and it was the strangest thing because they must be going through a revival of some sort because once I saw my co-worker reading it I ended up hearing and seeing about it from so many differnet people over the next 2 weeks. The series came out starting in the 90’s!! So I downloaded it and started reading. I finished book 1 and now I am in the middle of book 2.  Let me add these are MASSIVE books but so good. Must reads!!!

Here are a couple of my other favorite recent reads!

Glass Castle

I was amazed at this story. Jeannette Walls is a coorespondent for MSNBC and this is a true story of her childhood.  It really made me rethink my childhood. What I viewed as terrible was not really so bad.  Amazing story.

Safe Haven

I know, Nicolas Sparks is king of sappy, heartbreaking stories. I liked this one. I even like it better because I just finished vacationing near where this story takes place in Southport, NC.  Beautiful little town. We went to a nice little restaurant on the water and one of the locals told us all sorts of stories about the movie as they had  just finished filming the movie there. Can’t wait to see it – read the book first because you know they are always better!!!

Last but not least……

Such a Pretty Fat

Ok so this isn’t a new book, but I wanted to share it with you because I LOVE Jen Lancaster.  This was actually one of the first books I read when I was branching out of my “norm”  (murder mysteries).  I have one word for this – HILARIOUS.  I have now read all of Jen Lancasters books and I love them.

Honorable mentions –

Slammed – By Colleen Hoover
Fifty Shades of Grey – Seriousy, how could I leave this out…I can’t – it consumed me for a good week!!
The Black Dagger Brotherhood Series  by J.R. Ward- Great series, hot men….good read!
Objects of my Affection – by Jill Smolinski – great beach read
So there you go. Some of my favorite books to read.  I’m also on Goodreads so if you want to be my friend and share and compare books, you can find me HERE

Do you have any favorite books you would like to share….leave a comment or come visit me on my BLOG and leave me a comment telling me your favorites. I’m always looking for a new Good Read!

Have a great one,

Tracy Valure

Hi ya everyone!  Melissa here again today to share with you a little more about me.  One of the most important people in my life is my ever so sweet hubby.  I often have people ask me, “how do you have time for crafting with two kids and a job?”.  Honestly, it’s because I have an amazing husband and father to my girls, who wants me to be passionate about the things that I love.  Therefore, today I share with you my wonderful husband.  Meet my love, Shayne.

I also wanted to share a number of things he’s done to help me make a small craft area in our living room.  We don’t live in a huge house, we live in a small condo, REALLY small.  There is no space for me to have a room so he’s done the most amazing job of making me shelves, tables and storage bins to keep it looking awesome.  Here are a few examples:

This is a waist high table that he made from scratch.  I don’t like to sit and create, I’d rather stand.  It’s much easier to go get things I need and I can save my desk space for my computer.  I LOVE this table!!!  There is a ton of storage and the Copic Marker holder he made me sits perfectly on top!

This is a shelf he created for my ribbons and Washi tapes and for extra crafty supplies I have.

Last but not least, the little things matter most, like the presents that he often leaves for me.  This is a Copic bouquet he gave me for Valentine’s Day.  Each Copic had a little flower attached to the top and they were all in a bucket of m&m’s.  I mean really, what’s better than chocolate and crafty supplies?

Thanks for joining me today and listening to me talk about my wonderful husband and best friend.  I hope you’ve learned a bit more about me and my life and enjoyed today’s post.

Hi, everyone!  Kelli here today and it’s time again for me to share a little bit about my life with you!  Last month I shared my doggies with you and this month I want to share my other critter and that is Louie my bearded dragon!  Some of you may cringe at the thought of a reptile as a pet, but I seriously love him.  He is like a little scaly dog!  I got him when he was just a tiny baby and now he’s an 18″ long grown up that just turned 4 this past July.  Now onto the pictures!

This was the day I got him!  He was so tiny!

Here’s another of the first day.

I love the way he stood when he was little.

Mmmmm, salad!

Getting a little bigger and turning more yellow!

Such a big belly to hold up, lol!

Smile!

I made this hat for him and took a few Christmas pics the year I got him.  The hat is way too small now!  You can also see that he basically turned from yellow to orange which is still pretty much the color he is today.

Super closeup of his eye.

Still growing!

Shhhh… sleep time.

Getting ready to shed on his legs and tail.

Happy birthday to Louie!

Thank you so much for taking the time to have a peek at Louie.  He’s a sweet little lizard!  🙂