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Wednesday, August 11, 2010

When Cicadas Attack

Don't start with all the "they are harmless" stuff either. I have proof they are vicious killers.

This morning I went on my walk as per usual. I stopped for a drink at Starbucks on my way home, at which point I'm assuming I was either a) not under attack yet or b) people in there were so frightened they didn't react TO THE GIANT CICADA ON MY SHIRT.

Yea, that's right. I get home, put my stuff down, pat the kitties - bending over so that the giant cicada had to be right in Maddie's face by the way - grab their food bowls and then DISCOVER IT. Good Lord that was a scary moment. Not thinking clearly, I tried to flick it off. The results of that would have been total chaos - a four pound 120 decibel animal flying around my house. Thank God it didn't work. So I head for the front porch where I smack it with one of the food bowls I'm still holding.

It QUACKS loudly in complete cicada annoyance and flies off into the bushes.

Thanks a lot, Maddie and Splotchy, for being so observant and such great predators. Thanks. A lot. Maybe I should trade those two in for birds. Birds like cicadas. I bet these birds would LOVE em. :)

This is the new Aviary set with the new Cherry Cobbler seam binding - a sneak peek from the Holiday mini. It's SO beautiful. The glitter brad is also a sneak peek.

Off to buy an owl. :)

Have you signed up for the UBlue Cyber Club? Attended one of my Webinars?? Come on - get your geek on! :) Want to see my other blog?

14 comments:

  1. oh my. that would've freaked me out for quite awhile. glad you kept your wits about you and had a suitable weapon in your hand.

    btw, i'm a bit confused. i thought you were just walking on the weekends. are you walking after work or in the morning? or do you have a new gig that doesn't require commuting?

    the card is too cute! love the little white dots. never in my entire life would i have thought to do that. would like to know which white gel pen you use, as i'm not a fan of the one SU! sells.

    okay, that's enough rambling.

    oh, one more thing. since i am your barista with inside scoops, let me be the FIRST to tell you that a customer came into the store today to inquire if we had a drink with PB in it. i said that we didn't, and she shared that she'd heard about one from a friend in another state. so, there may be a PB something in your starbucks future. you heard it hear first.

    i can confirm there will be a toffee nut mocha in 2 weeks and the return of all things pumpkin.

    i now return the comment section to the rest of your readers...

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  2. TOFFEE NUT MOCHA?!!! OMG!!!! And when sbux does come out with a PB beverage it will break my bank...because I will drink multiples of that each day!!!

    Ok...A.D.D. moment over....LOVE THIS SET AND THIS CARD!!! Excuse for yelling but OMG THAT IS THE MOST PERFECT BOW EVAH!!!
    please teach me your bow-tying gift!

    XOXO
    Dana

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  3. Alrighty...I second Dana on the whole PB issue at Sbux, and the Toffee Nut Mocha, well, hello lover! I'll be all over that one. I bet it tastes like what comes out of angels when you squeeze them too hard, too.

    Now, the whole cicada thing. First, I am sorry. Secondly, I am glad that it wasn't me, because you would all be making "So sorry that your mother passed away while having a hissy fit at the giant helicopter bug on her" cards for my daughter. Ick.

    Lastly, that card is STINKIN' CUTE!!! Love the spotlighting, the cute little dots, and the bow. Super. Stinkin. Cute!

    Hope y'all all have a great day, and I pray that you do not have a close-up cicada encounter again in this lifetime.

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  4. EEEEEEEEEEEEK! I would have peed myself! Seriously. Then I would have batted it off me so it flew around the house and terrorized me for the rest of my life! Then I would have DIED!

    So, how did you line up those uber-cute birds with the cage lines? Inquiring minds want to know! Tutorial, please!

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  5. I was just telling someone today that I couldn't go out to my pool last night because it sounded like the trees were full of rattlesnakes. The cicadas were deafening. I can't imagine having one on me! Yikes.

    Your card is just gorgeous. Being a bird lover it would be a favorite anyway, but you've just really amped it up with those dots and the new product!!!

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  6. All of you cicada-haters are going to hate me for a moment -- we don't really deal too much with cicadas (if ever) here in SoCal. However, after three years of living in a very humid Japan, I know them well and do remember them. Very thankful that the close encounter came to a speedy conclusion, leaving behind only a humorous anecdote.

    Now to that fantastic card -- love how you spotlighted to make the images of those cicada-eating birds pop, love the white dotted edges, and beautiful bow.

    So cute!

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  7. Funny you mention cicadas. It's 1:00 am, and I am out on the computer catching up on my RSS feeds because of the defeaning roar outside our bedroom window. I can't sleep through that...probably one of the reasons I hate camping. That, and the whole peeing in a hole scenario. Thanks for sharing the cherry cobbler sneak peak. I have my preview and wasn't going to order anything, but I am now rethinking my ribbon choices for xmas cards.

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  8. I would have FREAKED.OUT. I'm okay with most bugs...don't like them, but I would have been calm enough. Japanese beetles, june bugs, and cicadas are on my "Why did God torture me with these?" list. They're all so darn CLINGY! I remember camping one year and a cicada landed on me, I immediately screamed like a girl and whapped it off of me...right into the fire by accident. That thing screamed forever. Yes, screamed. It was terribly creepy. I'm convinced it was shouting a death curse on me...forever to be attacked by clingy creepy bugs.

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  9. All these comments are very commical. I don't know if I have ever even seen a cicada, well I am sure I have seen one but the ones we get here in utah are very far and few and small! But picture a bug hating gal 8 months prego and in Hawaii and have a 4" long cocarouch (can't even spell it scares me so bad) land on her tummy in the middle of the street? Well I was dancing and screaming and twirling around trying to get the huge thing off me and it finally was where I could not see it but I thougth that it had just craweled up over my shoulder so I am still having a huge fit (remember I am huge and trying not to go into labor soon as the dr. told me not to get back on the plane to come home if I was). Well about 10 minutes later when I am still feeling like there is something crawling up my dress my DH finaly has the sense to tell me that he saw it fly away!!!!!!! Man he could have saved me a lot of excercise that I did not need at that moment. :) good times!

    Love the card you are amazing. I am going to case this one so that I can look at it's yummy goodness every day and up on the wall it will go.

    Lydia thanks for sharing you with us. You are the best!!!!!

    {heart} Mel

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  10. OMG, my toes are still curling after reading Mel's comment. That 4' brown bug in Hawaii, you will never catch me there. Now a cicada, that's a different story, I remember them from childhood. Don't have them here in CA, haven't seen on in years and still miss their singing. My DD sent me one of their shells a lot of years ago and I still have it.

    Love the card. It is so pretty.

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  11. Well of course the fur faces didn't help out, silly (just kidding here)...they were following Kitty etiquette as explained to me numerous times by my own fur faces. If the bug, mouse, bird, whatever is in the house it belongs to you! And you get to deal with it. I've even locked my cats in a cupboard that had a mouse and they wouldn't touch it. Of course my take on this is that they are lazy layabouts not willing to earn their princely priced canned goodies. LOL! Of course they disdainfully disagree and point to the numerous bodies left generously on the door step! They also enjoy watching me deal with it..the little comedians!

    Amazing you had the strength to create such a gorgeous card after such a terrorizing experience. :D Love the gel pen additions and really just everything about this card. Gonna have to rethink my ideas about this stamp set for sure.

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  12. Thanks for sharing your cicada story! I had a similar incident with my beloved Max .... a giant sized palmetto bug (it was at least 3 in. big) came in the house. Instead of trying to attack it, Max ran into the other room and hid in the corner! I tried to kill it with my shoe and it just shook it off and flew around the house till finally it landed and I used a hammer to kill it.

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  13. I am so grateful that Jean had this link to this fantastic card in her weekly newsletter because I LOVE IT! But, I have to ask, what did you use to do the "spotlight" technique? Is that vellum? And did you only stamp the bird on the vellum? I'm a relatively new demo and so I get lost very easily - I apologize! This set is on my "MUST BUY" list and I would love to make my own version of your card but I need some help understanding the spotlighting! Can you enlighten me please?

    Hugs to you and thanks for sharing,
    Christine aka The Stampin'Ninja

    ReplyDelete
  14. Yikes! Those pests are so loud they regularly keep me from sleeping! And they are not harmless since they were one of the 10 plagues... LOL

    Love the card though. That cherry color is YUMMY! :-p
    Also I just realized you put the clouds up on your blog, I almost put them up on mine and opted for the cartoony version of the clouds instead... it had to be blue anyway! LOL

    ReplyDelete

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