More nature! Today we have a BLACK SQUIRREL visiting.

Our normal squirrels are GRAY/BROWN (see Friday May 22nd posting for a picture of that kind) so this guy was a special treat!
My Dad will laugh that even he is here.......looking for trouble. Dad

sees more of these black squirrels upnorth, than here. We LOVE seeing

the wild life outside our window.:0)

We laid out red mulch this weekend to refresh our garden areas! I love it all new and it even smells good! AND we had a sweet little birdie visitor that also seemed to like it. :0) It was a baby and was flying around us and singing beautiful.......what a wonderful thing to see!

These pictures are through my WINDOW, but look closely!
The squirrels are liking my tree spirit.....:0)
On the bottom picture, there is a squirrel on EACH SIDE of her hair hanging there, tail is up and face is down.....in like poses. Isn't that hilarious? The one clinging to her hair near her neckline made me laugh too! What funny creatures!

MORE sweet birds are visiting me! Aren't they wonderful!
Tweet!!!!!!
Hugs,Patti

You know how when you ask a TEEN to pose for a picture(I just asked her to pretend to take a bite), and they get all crazy, sassy and silly! Well, I do not know what AMBER's excuse is, because she turned 20 MONDAY and is no longer a teen, but here it is!

We both laughed like crazy taking these pictures!

These are the AWESOME DANNY GOKEY cookies that a bakery here in Milwaukee made for Danny's big night tonight with American Idol!
They make these cookies for the Presidential Election as well, a stencil of the face and air brush them on a big sugar cookie. DANNY was honored with the same thing! I think it looks like him from the nose up.....his face should have been thinner! He is so handsome......the cookie is a little cartoonish, but we are ready to cheer for Danny and eat his face off during the show! Haaaaaahehehehe!

Amber also made the HEART with her hands(first picture) that you see Danny doing often, to represent his wife's foundation to help children! He makes the heart with his hands, SOPHIA's HEART FOUNDATION can be seen at the link below---he started this foundation in her honor and in hopes of helping children in need! Danny is a fine example, AN AMERICAN IDOL one could say!

http://www.sophiasheart.org/

Danny is special and deserving of tremendous success! Goooooooooo Danny!

These are a few cards that I made this weekend.

The heart shaped one is an ATC and is going to be part of a special project.

Happy Monday to all!
It is my Amber's Birthday today, so that will make Monday better! :0)

Spring is here and so are the spring flowers! Wheeeeee it is great seeing some color and pretty blooms! Here is a taste of what is around my home.

Another project for this weekend, was touching up my Tree Spirit, a carving that I did a couple of years ago in a tree that had to be cut down! This winter was tough on her, so I re-stained her hair, and repainted her face and thinned her eyebrows some.......:0) Her age was showing and now she is refreshed! I love her and am happy that I did her.

Feel free to click on any of the pictures and get a closer look!

First, I want to share some work we had done in the house! We had a door put in to the basement to stop injury/accidents. It closes off the stairs and I am loving this! This weekend, I stained the door and surrounding wood work a classic oak, with a polyurethane finish and I think it looks great! (That is all that counts right?) And then I sanded the dry wall and painted and it is now complete and looks like it has always been there! Rufio looked at it and said....."uhhhhhhh, where did that come from?" Hehehehe!

BEFORE, no door, wide open.

Door frame and dry wall framed out.

Stained and painted, happy ME!

It was a BIG DAY at work today! An article about the TOP DOG restaurants in Milwaukee hit the "Milwaukee Journal Sentinel" and we were featured with other places by a food critic. What FUN! OK, so the picture of the Chicago Style hot dog(the Vienna dog is served on a steamed poppy seed bun, with mustard, relish, onions, tomatoes, pickle and sport pepper) on the left, the big colorful delish one is ours and the next page, showing a "SLAW dog" and the cool HOT DOG GUY(sitting on the counter) underneath that picture is also at our restaurant! (Mom and I gave it to the owners as a gift after being open for so many years!)

I included a close up of the written part about MARTINO's

and it brought LOTS of people out today to have a hot dog! Wheeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!

We have brats, cheddarwurst and Italian sausages too, lots of different foods, but it was an honor to be listed here for our quality hot dogs(unlike any store bought hot dog you will ever have) .......since we do not know who the food critic is and she has had our food under cover and loved it! That makes us smile! So we worked hard today, but it was a pleasure seeing the hot dog lovers out for a delicious lunch , even in this unstable economy.

If you are ever in the area, please stop by and enjoy a special dog prepared with quality products and a smile from the friendly employees at MARTINO's!

(Mary, we know you are smiling from above<3)