BETTER DAY

If you've been reading my blog, Paper Seedlings, for any length of time, you've probably already read about a catastrophic disaster that befell my husband and me several years ago.

In case you have never enjoyed this story, here it is:

Before we moved to our present house, which is located in a neighborhood, we lived in our dream house that we designed and built on about ten acres of wooded land. Very rural. Very beautiful. Our sanctuary. 

With the help of a local landscaper, we had wonderful landscaping done on the sloping terrain at the back of the house. Part of this beauty was a waterfall. At the top was a small pond, and from there the water cascaded over ledges of rocks downwards. It was so beautiful. 

The pond at the top was so serene, with its water plants in and around the water, we decided we would add a few koi to the pond. 

Living in Wisconsin, we, of course, could not leave them outside for the winter. So, we invested in a large aquarium with filtration, etc., in which they could live in comfort throughout the cold months. In that way, one of the koi that we had purchased at only about 4", grew until he was a gorgeous monster about a foot and a half long, with beautiful black, orange and white coloring. He was my spoiled baby. There were a couple others in there too, but this was my special one.

About 1:30 in the morning one summer, we woke to a racket outside. My husband grabbed a flashlight (brave man) and went out to see what was going on. When, what to his wondering eyes should appear, was a fat raccoon running away into the woods and fish heads lying on the ground by the pond. And nary a live koi in sight.

So, when people talk about how adorable raccoons are, I think to myself, yeah, they're cute -- in looks. Those vicious assassins. 

So, when Stampin' Up! came out with the cute set Wild and Sweet (page 87 in the Annual Catalog), I decided to  pair the raccoon up with one of the koi from a retired set.

I snipped open the greedy little cuy's mouth and added an approximation of my beloved koi. Grrr.

I fussy cut both the raccoon and the fish, and added them to some weird grass (because the raccoon's feet looked funny when fussy cut outside the context of the rest of the stamp).

I cheekily added a cheery "Happy Father's Day" at the bottom of the card. BUT . . . 

Inside the card, I wrote "Hope your day is better than this koi's." 

While my husband is usually sort of nonresponsive to my creations, he loved this one. We both had a good laugh over it.

Editor's note: We never replaced our koi. Sad, but true story.

Killer

Smiles.