Ugly Chicken Feet Christmas Card Designs - Order Yours Now!

Sheep Friends

Barn with Wreath



Night Sheep

These fun holiday cards have been left blank inside for your own personalized greeting or can be customized. Each card comes with mailing envelope sealed in a clear plastic bag.

For queries or orders, email: jenniferzsolt@twooaks.ca


To see my "All Season" greeting cards Click Here. Scroll down for more Christmas!

Holly Birds

Do you think he's warm enough?

You Found It!

Santa Paws



Toboganning



Farm Team

 

Holiday Hens




Jingle All the Way

Wreath



Somebunny's Snowman




Silent Night






Home for the Holidays


 



Winter Wonderland













Angels






Not a Creature was Stirring

Gingerbread Snack



All is Calm

The Stockings Were Hung

 

Santa's Coming

Christmas Cardinals



All Creatures Great and Small

Owl Family Christmas



Back to School

Fall is such a great time to make new starts; better than New Year's I think because there are less distractions, feasting, drinking, plus great weather to be outside. We've set out new rules for schoolwork, phone time and chores for those in high school, and for those of us trying to become better painters and artists, more time having fun with brushes, pastels and paints.....also more writing! The dog days of summer were definitely too relaxing and many days were spent just going with the flow from one warm, lazy afternoon, wine on the deck in the evening, and onto the next warm, lazy day. I now know I need a timetable and scheduling to get anything significant done.

Even Wild Willie the horse was so well behaved this summer, I don't know whether to think he is finally reformed or because of the hot days, the flies, and his tendancy to be a little rotund added up to a quiet ride. Only the return of the cool evenings brought out one of his wild west shows, rearing, bucking and leaping around his field while I watched horrified from the kitchen window....am I actually going to ride this fall? The dogs have made it through the summer so far without being porcupined or skunked, but did find something dead and nasty to roll in every day for the past two weeks, until I'm so tired of bathing them, I've resorted to letting them outside for most of the day, and will only bath them again if I know the Queen is coming for tea.

I will be working on my real "Ugly Chicken Feet" website for my line of greeting cards, and there will be a link to this blog from it. I'm learning web design from scratch and I'll set a loose goal of November to have it done...am working on the Christmas line of cards and if all goes well, should have some good designs by beginning of October. I have a new painting mentor, Don Cavin who is fabulous and is showing me the beauty of landscape painting outdoors in acrylic....which reminds me it's a great day to paint outside today!

What was your favourite childhood toy?

Recently there was an email going around, sent from friend to friend, which listed all sorts of interesting questions that each person would fill in then pass on to the next person; things that you might not know about your friends - maybe things you shouldn't know about your friends. Questions in the list would be things like "What was your favourite tv show?", "What did you have for breakfast today?", "What did you want to be when you grew up?". The question that I had to really think about was, "What was your favourite childhood toy?". I remembered all the games I used to play...Monopoly (hated it), cards, checkers, barbies (omg, what do I wear today??), Planet of the Apes dolls (ok maybe I don't want my friends to know that one), but then I remembered some toys I played with that I loved so much I still have them...they were in the archives at grandma's house. I brought them home to the farm where they should be. The funny thing about these toys is I never gave them up, even when I got older.

Marvel the mustang - one of my first horsie loves after the grocery store pony and the merry-go-round. You could bounce up and down on him and he travelled along. Our driveway sloped downward toward the end so you got a really good ride. Unfortunately he was a bit small and I outgrew him quickly, so before his poor little legs got squashed right to the ground, I retired him to the backyard and fed him grass alot.

And a magical thing happened, all that grass must have worked because here he is today; we're both all grown up!

Fisher Price Pull Chicken has seen alot of mileage in his lifetime and still makes that great life-like chicken sound when you pull him along. His paint may be peeling and some of his joints are a bit loose, but hey, after 44 years, whose aren't?

Today there are five hens that live here and one suspiciously looks alot like old Fisher Price henny.

So besides the Barbie Corvette which I never got...not practical for lugging hay around and I think it was my spoiled little sister who had it anyway, there was one more toy which has a special place in my heart....Eeyore the donkey hand puppet. I love Eeyore mostly because he's adorable but we also share alot of personality traits. I've smuggled him here and he lives in our bedroom on a shelf near Tom's side of the bed (I don't think it's creeping him out, he hasn't mentioned it - maybe he hasn't noticed yet). Although I don't own a donkey yet, the people who run the local donkey rescue are having an open house...... Hey Tom, I know what we can do this weekend!

Greeting Cards

Here are some of my spring and summer greeting cards, perfect for birthdays, Mother's Day or any Special Occasion. I do custom invitations, or cards of your cottage, farm or beautiful home. These make great gifts for those hard-to-buy-for people. Please email me at jenniferzsolt@twooaks.ca for more information.



Dog Days of Summer

Through the Garden Gate

Easter Hen

Easter Chick



Hollyhocks/Mouse

Happy Birthday

 

Squirrel Wars

Valentine Heart

Valentine Dogs

Valentine Mice

Horse Friends

Summer Cottage

Teamwork

Purple Hills

No Place Like Home




Blue Hens

Summer Barn

<><><><><><><><><><><><><>

</></></></></></></></></></></></></></></></>

Field of Dreams

Hen Friends



Hen Mom

Mom and Lamb

Mom's Garden

Little Peeps

Pet Love

Old Schoolhouse

Robin

Best Friends



Chicks Rule



Sheep Pals





Bird Watching and the Colour Green

I used to think that birdwatching was a pastime enjoyed by...well....grannies and grampas; folks that just couldn't move fast enough to enjoy pursuits that involved any equipment sleeker and faster than say a comfy recliner and a pair of binoculars. I must have crossed that threshold into the blue-haired zone, because I can't tell you how much joy I get from the birds that come (have been lured) to my backyard. I have binoculars, bird books and even a wonderful book that plays each birdsong at the press of a button (from the allmighty Costco). All the feeders are strategically positioned so I can see the birds from any of the kitchen windows and the binos are on the window ledge or never more than a quick dash or rapid not-moving-too-fast-as-to-frighten-birds-away tiptoe across the room. While visiting friends with finch feeders, I was awed and immediately covetous of the dozens of beautiful little yellow and black finches that clustered on the long feeder tubes for seeds. They flitted down from trees in a the little bobbing way they have and landed perfectly, each one on its own perch at the feeder. I had to have one!

I bought three, filled them and waited, and waited ....and waited. No finches came. The feeders swung in the breeze, full of seed, devoid of finches...(play that weird ghost town sound clip from 'The Good, the Bad and the Ugly' here'). Days went by and then suddenly there was a flash of yellow out at the feeder. "Yippee..they're coming...they're here", I cried. Both children in full eye-rolling mode realize mother has finally lost it. In the days that followed, so many finches came that not only was I in fear of running out of money to keep the bloody feeders full of food, I was afraid there were so many finches that they could easily pick up my home and carry it off for ransom. Truly, they are a joy for me. They zip around the house from tree to tree playing and chasing each other and have overtaken the swallows for title of birds that have the most fun. The swallows must be in full nesting mode now as I'm not in so much danger of being thwacked in the side of the head by a dive-bomber every time I walk out to open the barn door. Other birds come too; robins and jays, cardinals, chickadees, sparrows, woodpeckers and to my great excitement, the elusive ruby throated grosbeak.

I admitted to my neighbour the other day, this fact that I am enjoying the birds far too much for someone of my age and she said "Next thing you'll be loving the colour green. Old people love the colour green you know". "Really", I replied, feeling a little sad, "on your way out, I'll show you the new throw cushions, candles and tea towels I got last week"...........all green!

Mother's Day

Happy Mother’s Day to all of you who have that wonderful but thankless job of parenting. I have a teen and a tween, and the tsunami-esque hormones that flood through our house on any given day often leave me grasping for the nearest life preserver; usually my husband or a bottle of wine. He was armed and ready today with roses and a bottle of red in case there were any ruffled feathers to smooth or any unintentional snubs to soothe. My stormy tween bought me a lovely gift which brought me to tears, only to revoke it two days later at our next head butting session, which brought me to even more tears. My teen now has a girlfriend and I know that she was mostly responsible for the very first store-bought mother’s day gift I received today; bless her heart!

All in all it was a great day, waking up to snow on the fields and on the roof, the horses unexpectedly put in the barn last night were extra eager to get out to their grass this morning. Tom made breakfast biscuits that Martha Stewart would be proud of and we drove through the beautiful rolling countryside talking and pointing out which beautiful estates we would gladly accept and which ones we would turn down; which lovely porches we would like to add to our house (mostly Tom), and which barns and indoor riding arenas we would like to have out back (definitely all me). Tom, being a photographer, likes to hang out the car window while driving on narrow hilly roads and snap pictures left and right while I cling to the passenger door narrowly scraping past those roadside country mailboxes, until he sees something he really likes then stops smack in the middle of the road and lines up a really good shot. Usually at this point we are directly in front of some very beautiful old farmhouse whose occupants I’m sure are standing in their kitchen with their morning cups of coffee wondering why there is a red Toyota parked on the road out front and paparazzi-like lens pointing in as if on some Brangelina sighting. Now I’m generally scrunched down so far on the front seat with embarrassment in order to give the impression that such a loony stalker is working alone and in no way would have a nice respectable wife riding with him. We arrived back home without incident or buckshot in the trunk, and some very nice pics from which to do a few paintings.

Tom made a fantastic roast and it was great to have us all at the table for a wonderful dinner. It couldn’t have been a nicer day, and yes Tom, you are the goodest husband that ever lived.