Lemon Tree Studio

Today my owl stamp is being featured on fellow crafter Shelly's Freebie Friday!! Shelly runs a wonderful etsy store called Lemon Tree Studio full of lots of sweet little paper and scrapbooking goodies. The theme of this week's Freebie Friday is . . .owls!!! You can enter to win an array of owl themed items from her etsy shop + one nikoart owl stamp!!! For more info on how to enter please stop by at her blog : http://mylilyeden.blogspot.com/.
You have all weekend to enter and the winner will be chosen on Tuesday (Sept. 2) by her adorable little daughter, Lilyana. Sooo cute!!!

Saddle Road

nikoart at Island Scrapbooking

A few of my new stamp designs can now be found at Island Scrapbooking in downtown Hilo!! They sell rubber stamps and inks and and are known especially for their large selection of Hawaiian themed scrapbooking products. If you're ever in town, check them out at:

Island Scrapbooking
223-A Kilauea Ave
Hilo, Hawaii 96720
808-933-9390

They also have a website ------> http://islandscrapbook.com/

♥nicole

We found this little guy...

hanging out at the bottom of a wheelbarrow in the backyard. I think he was trying his best to look inconspicuous and avoid the unwanted attention of Hoborooster (who just happens to think that little frogs make great snacks) so I picked him up and let him go in the bushes. Not many people here in Hawaii would do that. . . because it was not just any frog. . . it was a coqui! The coqui are actually very much loved in their homeland of Puerto Rico but a lot of people here despise them because they say the coqui's chirping keeps them awake at night. There was a massive erradication effort going on but I think the county has since given up because the coqui population is so firmly established in the environment that they've become practically impossible to get rid of. I know that coqui are not native to Hawaii but I just feel really bad for them because the methods of extermination that people are using to kill these little frogs are not exactly humane. . .
to learn more about coqui in hawaii ------> http://www.hawaiiancoqui.org/

♥nicole

How I Met Hoborooster

It was around the same time last summer when my family first noticed something rustling around in the bushes behind our house. I thought maybe it was a wild boar because I'd seen a whole family of them living there a few months before (I think someone has since trapped and "humanely euthanized" them). So anyway, I had some stale popcorn leftover from one of my movie nights and decided to sprinkle it on the lawn for the wild birds to eat. I was going back into the house and for some reason I turned around. . . just in time to catch a glimpse of a stray rooster scuttling back into the bushes after stealing a piece of popcorn!! I couldn't believe there was a rooster in my backyard!! But on second thought, there are actually a lot of feral animals where I live. . . cats, mongoose, boars and chickens.

Unfortunately, cockfighting is also a very popular pastime here and a lot of the feral chickens around these parts are descendants or escapees of roosters raised for fighting. Someone told me that a guy nearby raises roosters for this exact purpose, so I suspect that Hoborooster was actually a fugitive on the run from that man's farm! Hoborooster is so tame now that I can hardly imagine him ever challenging another rooster.

He wasn't always that way. He was really shy and skittish at first but soon got used to seeing us in the backyard and would come running whenever I stirred up some bugs while digging in the garden. Now he wakes us up every morning at 5:30 a.m. demanding to be let into the house so he can chill out in the living room and watch t.v. with us. He even hops onto the couch to sit next to me and I couldn't be happier to know that his story has a happy ending. He's been rescued from a life of violence and is now a safe and happy little guy.

My First Batch of New Stamps!

Yay! The new stamps are finally here! There are a bunch of new designs and I've been working furiously these past few days to trim and mount them all. They will be slowly finding their way into my etsy shop during the upcoming week so don't forget to take a peek every now and then to see what's new.

♥nicole

As of this past weekend...

I am now officially old . . . 27 years old!

♥nicole

A Serving of Hobo Soup...

may contain: shop updates. new products. illustrations. doodles. folklore. ghost stories. illustrations & doodles of folklore and ghost stories. all around random, randomness.

Oh, and for those of you who may have accidentally stumbled across this page in search of some real hobo soup, here's a recipe I found online at cooks.com.

Hobo Soup

1 med. chopped onion
1 1/2 lb. ground beef
1 (28 oz.) can tomatoes
2 cans beef consomme
2 soup cans water
4 carrots, chopped or sticks
4 celery tops, chopped or sticks
1/2 c. barley
10 pepper corns
1 1/2 tsp. thyme
1 tsp. salt
Parsley to taste

Saute onions in butter. Brown hamburger, drain grease. Add all together in kettle and cook for about 1 1/2 to 2 hours.

Bon appétit!

♥ nicole