Just a quick shot that I could not pass up.

A smart little trio

So out birding yesterday we happened upon this trio of birds. What a great combo!

Birding in the am

So tomorrow I am going birding…can’t wait! Photos to follow….

Soooooooooo….who Max and what’s that book in your hand?

 

   So, here is my Max and a few of my friends travel buddies

                                  Max goes everywhere with me.

  He’s in my bag now.

 He has been to Europe several times and travels with me on all my adventures.

If you know me you’ve seen my Max.

Max is the boy in the book, Where the wild things are.  Written and illustrated by Maurice Sendak (it won the Caldecott Medal in 1964). In the story he is a brave independent free spirit…growing up that made an incredible impression on me.

Every summer we ‘lived’ at our local library. Hours upon  hours surrounded by books, story time, films, puppet shows, felt story boards, records, film strips, movies, and slide shows all filled these hours. My sister and I are two of the lucky ones; both our parents are avid readers. It was also free….and that was a good thing.

It blows my mind how many people (my friends) do not know who Max is, what made the sound ku-plink, ku-plank, ku-plunk, what the rest of Tikki Tikki Tembo’s name is, who Ping is and where he lived, what was seen on Mulberry Street, the joy Peter got in the snow, and the incredible friendship of blue and yellow ( I could go on, hundreds of examples rush to my mind).

In a way books had a large part in raising me, the authors, illustrators, publishers, characters,and librarians ( the list is endless). As a teacher I tried to pass this love of books on to them. It’s crazy to think now, but some of my students are parents. I have kept up with many of them on facebook. I wonder how much, if any, of my love of books was passed on…..I may never know.

Sooooo……. now you know (probably more than you wanted to) about Max….and who he is. And just a wee bit more about me…..(she curtseys and walks slowly away from her soapbox)

How to make a rubber stamp

Max with my matrix boards>

Raw rubber on a matrix board…and Max>

Raw rubber and Max>

This is the vulcanizer with Max>

Okay, here is a little info on how rubber stamps are made…a little simplified….of course….I am leaving out the blood, sweat, and tears….I do not want to give you nightmares.

-I start with images I like and the ones that speak to me. Some of these images are pre-1920ish images, some are sketched by friends and customers….and me. We have some carved images and some are from photos of my travels.

-I take the black and white images, all arranged on a 7×11 sheet of paper, and send it to a most excellent place in east Texas called Jones Engraving. They make my matrix boards…a mold, see photo above.

-After a couple of days…and much anticipation, UPS brings me my boards. It’s a lot like Christmas every time I get new boards.

-I rush to the vulcanizer ( basically an oven with a car jack) flip the ON button and wait patiently for it to warm up to nearly 300 degrees. When it is ready I grab some raw rubber (photo above) and lay it out on top on the board and pop it into the vulcanizer.

-After 11 minutes or so I pull it out and pull the rubber off the matrix board/mold.

-It cools and I trim the rubber, add cushion…the cushion is double-sided (sticky on both sides).

Here is the cushion and the rubber stuck to it.

-The next stop is the saw. Cutting out the rubber/cushion in a close trim, it is ready for the wood mount.

 This is the saw we use to cut the rubber/cushion

-Our stamps are wood mounted. Next we grab the wood…that we cut ourselves…index the wood….stick on a price code on it.

      -We position the rubber on the wood. And guess what…that stamp is done and ready to be shipped to you or your local stamp store.

This one of the stores we sale our stamps to.

Blue blue Christmas….wait…what?

This little guy is an Eastern Bluebird.

Here in Oklahoma the Bluebirds are here year round.These photos were taken at Lake Thunderbird east of Norman Oklahoma.

They are always on the look out for insects. This time of year they are also eating the berries that are around.

If you are lucky enough to have these in your yard think about feeding them mealworms. They love mealworms.

Red-tailed Hawk

There are hawks everywhere. We have been seeing a lot of them.

Above is a Red-tailed Hawk. Want to guess how it got this name? They are amazing birds!

White-breasted Nuthatch

So, what this nuthatch is doing is wedging this nut into the tree.

He will strike at it and break it open releasing the meat and gobbling it up.

The nuthatches are a sweet little bird. We have the White-breasted Nuthatch year round. We get the Red-breasted Nuthatch in the fall/winter.

Brown Creeper

It was the highlight of my weekend to see this Brown Creeper. They are soooo cute. We only get these cuties in the fall/winter.They move up the tree in search of insects. When it reaches the top it flies to the base of the next tree and works its way up that tree.

Great Blue Herons

The Great Blue Heron is a common sight here in Oklahoma (and around the US).

You will often see them hunting for food solo.

So what do they eat?  Their diet include fish, amphibians, reptiles, small mammals, insects, and other birds. I love these birds…oh heck all birds.