A Sweetheart Sale!
Seems like Christmas has been swept away and now all the stores are geared up for the upcoming Valentine’s Day already! Well, I guess it is only about a month away now… well, OK technically 40 days away!
I have just set up a wonderful Sale for my Etsy shop. Just click here [Sweetheart Sale] and it will take you there! I have picked a few choice pieces and will add more later to help you celebrate your valentines day! Best of all NO SHIPPING on the items in this Sweetheart Sale section!
This is my favorite necklace of this sale. So pretty and unique!
Happy New Years!
Cheers!
and Happy New Year to all the crafty people out there!
My Nosy Dog
I was just trying to take a decent picture of this Oreo Milk Shake set for an eBay listing (If you might be interested, take a look here) and Tucker decided he wanted to check it all out.
My first attempt at a picture looked like this:
Yellow Dog Not Included
Yeah, not exactly what a potential bidder might like to see. LOL. 
My Christmas Miracle
Well, maybe I’m exaggerating by calling it a Miracle.
I was just thinking about the stuff that happened over X-mas and though it was stressful because of family stuff (my family is on the tad dysfunctional but who’s isn’t, right?!?!) and I ended up spending the night at my moms on Christmas Eve.***
But I digress…
The Christmas Miracle I mentioned is that on the Eve of Christmas I stopped by my very favorite Cousin’s house and helped her make Banana Bread. And the miracle was that our two dogs actually got along!
It’s true that Tucker is a loveable easy-going fellah, which most Labs are. But her dog Alex, a Mini-Schnauzer is not. In fact he HATES other dogs and most people… except me of course (but maybe thats only because of the dog treats I bake him)
At first we thought we’d just put Tucker in back yard, but Alex came running out of the garage and confronted T-Boy. In reality it looked like jumping (up) for his juggler. Tucker just looked down at him amused and surely thinking ”Sheesh, maybe you should just relax little guy”
So he completely ignored Alex’s attack and then in a show of good will went and peed on something. Which then Alex quickly went and peed on as well. fter that they just sort of followed each other around marking things (which I guess is bonding for two neutered male dogs). So all was good!
- Tucker and his little (very little) pal Alex.
Which made me happy as we’ve kept them apart all this time thinking the outcome wouldn’t be good. I wish I could say I have Tucker so trained that he is completely under my control. But I really have to credit his laid-back Lab sensibilities and his love of other dogs thanks to his early socialization at dog parks and doggy day care.
Now this opens up a whole world of walks together, etc. Which is great! Makes me happy that our guys got along.
***In her storage room. Surrounded by boxes. On a leaking air camp mattress. Which really means: I was uncomfortable, couldn’t sleep, and felt a tension headache/migraine approaching. Merry Christmas.
Making a wish….
Happy Holidays!
Christmas time just isn’t what it used to be like when we were kids, you know?
For me, that shine left around 3rd or 4th grade when I finally, reluctantly, believed what my older cousins repeatedly told me: There was no such thing as Santa Claus or the North Pole!
Say Whaaaa?
I also later concluded that my mom had something to do with it for some time, as I began to recognize her handwriting looking like both Santa and the Easter Bunny. The evidence was clear.
My best childhood memory of believing in Santa was when I was really little. Which I judge by my memories marked by the line that is “before my parents divorced” and “after” which puts me around Five-ish.
I think my sister and I were put to bed but I didn’t want to sleep and miss out on Santa. So I tried to stay awake. Might have dozed off and woke up to some noise or other. I sat up in bed and listened really carefully, and then I saw a red glow out the window!
Rudolph’s nose, no doubt!
Which kind of scared me a little and so I just kept quiet, layed back down, clamped my eyes tight and hoped Santa wouldn’t realize I woke up and just saw Rudolph’s nose. Maybe he’d change his mind about me being a good girl and getting the things I told him I wanted when I saw him at the store!
Santa must of bought my pretending to sleep act because I did receive the much-anticipated pull along hound dog toy I feverishly wanted. He looked sort of like this one I spied on RubyLane.com….
Which probably shows how ingrained my love of animals was. Though my real-life pup is nothing like that one, I still like having him around for the Holidays.
And so here is our 2009 picture card I’m sending out to family and friends…. and you too!
ps – you know how that night I thought I’d seen Rudolph’s Red Nose glowing so bright? yeah, I’m pretty sure it was just a brake light from some car driving down the street.
I’m glad I never lost that imagination, it has served me well all these years!
Happy Holidays!
Read This Book – The Outlander
I’m in a book club with some ladies from work and so far we’ve read: Water For Elephants, The Time Travelers Wife, Julie & Julia and now freshly picked from my very own book suggestion list, The Outlander by Gil Adamson.
I really liked this book! So much so I had to make myself take my time and read it slowly. Just a few chapters a night. I still had it read in a week (I am a very fast reader)! I can read a good book faster than some people can devour a big cake. It is like cake for my mind, maybe. But I could also eat some cake too. Ha ha.
My favorite character is The Ridgerunner, whom I think I could fall madly in love with if I came across him. And he would break my heart and then hopefully we would reunite at some point. I almost didn’t care that the main character (also named Mary by the way!) killed her husband and that is why she is running far away into the wilds of the Canadian Rockies. But maybe I only like the love part because they seem so helpless in falling in love (even though he’s a loner woodsman and she’s a half lunatic cold-blooded killer), like another character Helen puts it, about falling in love with someone
“You know what I mean; it was simply undeniable. Like the weather, or a cut, or … or rain. You can’t pretend it’s not raining”
Sigh… I am looking for some “rain” in my life.
UPDATE – though the book is set around 1900’s… I just did a little research about the real Ridgerunner aka William Moreland (pic from this link). He actually was only just born in 1900 so not accurate to that extent. But he is an interesting “real life” character that I will be glad to learn more of.
If anyone else has read the book, I’d love to hear your thoughts!
ps – looks sort of Sean Penn-ish, dosen’t he? Just sayin’, if they ever made a movie….
Christmas Crafts
Christmas is coming close and I haven’t really done any shopping! Times are tight and it is hard for me to justify spending $15 on an acquaintance when I could use that to buy a some more food for my pets or save it for a bill! And forget about charging some frivolous thing that will never get used but will then end up paying 18% interest on for the next year to pay it off!
And I’m only giving to the people who matter most to me. In the past I have given because I received something and felt obligated to give some token back. Kind of like “gift-pressure”. I think we’ve all felt it a time or two. For some reason, “Thank You” doesn’t feel like “thanks” enough, so we have to give back to the person in equal or more value than what we received. Strange thinking indeed!
So I am going to try to make useful and pretty things to give, like this magnet project. I personalized this one with my mom’s initial.
I have a few other crafty ideas up my sleeve and maybe after X-Mas I’ll let you know what worked and what didn’t….
Until Then..
Happy Christmas Crafting Everyone!
Pictures Of The Past Just Crack Me UP
Usually once a day I check out CNN.com for a news update of the world. Well, today something else caught my eye, an article about blogs that showcase peoples old quirky pictures or styles of days gone past like My Mom, the Style Icon, My Parents Were Awesome and Dads in Short Shorts which have people submit old pictures with stories about the picture (though most probably speak for themselves!) and then post for anyone to read/see.
The Dads in Shorts Shorts cracks me up and I probably spent waaaay too much time today taking a look. Most pictures are from long ago when words like Manscaping and Metrosexual hadn’t even been invented yet!
Anyway, thought I’d share. Now I just need to dig up some pictures of my parents in embarrassing clothing/hairstyles/situations and maybe I’ll post them!
ps – OK, one more to add – Awkward Family Photos. Dang.
