Good Bye!

We had to say farewell to our sweet girl Dott. She was ill, injured and suffering and we couldn't let her continue like that. Over the past month she'd become a lot less active and in the last two weeks she started having weakness in her hind legs. She took a tumble down some of the stairs and was unable to use her rear legs at all. We made the tough decision to have her euthanized this past Wednesday.

I'd rather not think of those things, instead I'll remember her funny ways:

Her constant need to be petted, which if we quit, she would continue by doing walk-bys and head-butting our hands.

Chasing and playing with wrapped cough drops (cheapest toys ever) but not eating them.

waking us up in the middle of the night spinning her ball in its ring or chasing dust bunnies through the hallway.

Escaping the love of the kids - only to chase after them when they finally gave up.

I'll remember that she was silky soft, with lovely blue eyes and a very regal attitude, she was "Princess" Dott after all.

Dott was born in May either 19 or 20 years ago. She was almost completely white, with a small dot of dark on her nose. We - with the help of my sisters - called her Dott because of this and we had nicknamed her "Splinter" because she looked a little rat-like as a new kitten and reminded Mary (Cody) of the ninja master in the cartoon Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. As she grew and her color started to change, her dot disappeared and left behind it a "smear" of white prompting Cody to start calling her "Smear". These were the early days of Princess Dott. She was then and remained regal and outgrew her silly nicknames.

Dottie was not a mere princess by the time she neared 20 or 21 years old, she had been crowned Queen and she received all the treatments of royalty in her final years.

Fare Well sweet girl!

Sheldon is Featured on Sketches: Creatively Yours!

Ok, so I was just doing my assignment and he happened to be the muse of the moment, but still, he's handsome and deserves a little ego boost, after all, he's being constantly reminded where he belongs in the puppy hierarchy here at home. Poor little guy is so beat down that he cries and chews the walls!!

Oh, wait, that is probably just teething and separation anxiety. He's an active dog for sure.

Back to the meat of the topic, a new sketch by Deanne Burton is up at Sketches: Creatively Yours and I really enjoyed using it to create what will be the first page in Sheldon's puppy book.

The title is made up of 3 types of Thickers stickers and some chipboard dog shapes from my friend Pam. In fact, the ribbons are also from Pam! Thanks sweetie!

This picture was taken the day Sheldon came home with us.

Make sure you stop by Sketches: Creatively Yours so you can see all of the beautiful interpretations of Deanne's sketch, as well as the actual sketch itself! You're sure to be inspired, there's a lot of talent represented!

A New Sketch = A New Card

The card sketch by Deanne Burton - Guest Sketch Artist at Sketches; Creatively Yours was a Godsend when I had to make a sympathy card for a friend.

Sympathy cards are hard but with Deanne's sketch I had a starting point! I used my Cuttlebug for the background of the card and a bunch of lovely things I've been hoarding.

I was going to submit this for my chosen assignment and at that time my computer became infected with a pretty ugly virus and I wasn't sure how long I'd be without, so I asked Ali for a later assignment. I'm kind of glad I got the later assignments so even though my computer was back online with much time to spare, I decided to surge forward with things the way they stand.

It won't be long before I can share what I've done for the assigned sketches and I can't wait. I'm in love with both and even though I didn't get to keep one of them, I know the person who got it loves it! Stay tuned for these reveals at Sketches: Creatively Yours.

Meet Sheldon

Sheldon is 5 months and 11 days old. I met Sheldon at the PetSmart closest to my home (which is still about 20 minutes away) 2 weeks ago. We had gone in for dog food and there were 3 adorable Lab/Pit mix puppies. Two were boys, and there was a girl. The first boy we tried to walk was very uninterested in walking as he had a rawhide treat waiting for him. Sheldon didn't seem to mind being separated from his treat for a quick walk around the store.

I tried to be good, I was not going to be taking him home. I managed to convince myself and I left the store with dog food and no extra dogs. I even managed to go almost two weeks without thinking too hard about him. But as I sat the other night, I was curious. Did Sheldon get a home? What about his brother and sister? I Googled 'Sheldon' and 'Tooele Animal Outreach' and found Sheldon's webpage with a phone number and an email address. I sent an email "Is Sheldon still available?" By morning, I was trying to be patient but I couldn't seem to settle down about it so I called the number listed on Sheldon's web page and left a message. It turns out that Sheldon was still available and more people than just me had started to inquire about him just yesterday. As it happened, my email put me first in line.

We headed over to Trudy's house, (Sheldon's Foster Mom) and made everything legal. It was heartbreaking knowing we were separating him from his sister, but we know our limits, especially with our dominant female Harlee. I am so glad there are people like Trudy and her family - they have fostered hundreds of dogs! The success stories on their living room wall was awesome.

From there, we made a trip to PetSmart for puppy chow and a baby Kong (these things are wonderful for chewers). My mom wanted to meet Sheldon so she came out to see him. We then dropped by Dani's house so that Annabelle and Julian could see Sheldon. When I had told them about him yesterday, Belle told me she wanted to "see Sheldon" at her house (not in the photo I tried to show her) so we had to swing by. She loved running from one end of the yard to another with Sheldon on his leash. She had to hug him before we left. While we were there we met my sisters' new dog Ginger. She's a funny looking little thing with her Dachsund body and Basset Hound feet. But she's a cute little dog, perfect for my sis and her family.

The biggest test of the day was a toss-up between Mickey meeting Sheldon and Sheldon meeting the stairs. I think the biggest would have to be the stairs. Mickey is getting used to this little thing being around. He's still got to be watched, he's barking randomly and being very possessive of his Mom(s). Sheldon's hardly fazed by Mickey but he is NOT happy with the stairs. When we spend most of our time upstairs, this could be tricky. We tried to lay a trail of puppy food on the steps but he's not going past the highest step he can reach with his back feet firmly planted on the main floor... so I am lugging him around after trying pretty diligently.

Currently, Sheldon is napping. He's lying stretched out at my feet on a blanket and he's snoozing contentedly... I think he may get used to the peace of only 2 other dogs around, but maybe it will take a few days or so.

Finally!!!

It's about time! We finally have an In & Out Burger in Utah! and I was finally able to get there for Lunch!

The place was packed and the line went around the restaurant. The drive-thru takes up HALF of Target's parking lot... but it was quick and we were able to find a table-for-two in the far corner... Yum, it was SO worth it.

My grandma Mimi would be 99 today. Man, she would scoff at such a comment. I remember teasing her, we would ask her her age, and when she'd shave a dozen or so years off, we'd call her out with our stellar math skills... subtract 10 from whatever year we were in... wow, we were smart! Smart-asses...

She was a fun lady, and a great sport. I sure wish my youngest sisters knew her the way I did. I REALLY wish Belle & Jules could know her.

Happy #99 Mimi! I love you!

December means Time for Fun

Head over to Sketches: Creatively Yours for a contest, a freebie and lots of great creations! Hurry!

If you're motivated to enter the contest, be sure to say I sent you!

isn't this kitty cute?

Hurry.... there's more cuteness!

Another Assignment Posted

About the same time we were celebrating Julian's 3rd birthday, my layout of his 1st birthday photo shoot was created then posted at Sketches: Creatively Yours.

I don't know why it took me 2 years to get to these photos, I guess I didn't want to mess them up. Once I started looking through them, I had a really hard time choosing just two... they were all so cute. I finally decided on these sweet shots of Julian with his mommy. I am so inspired by the relationship between my sister and her kids, she's a great mom.

The sketch I followed for this layout was created by Ann Seleshanko and the papers are MAMBI from last year's fall collection.

I've actually been anxious to share this layout on my blog and was unable to until it was posted at Sketches: Creatively Yours. I just got a little busy once it was posted so I'm a few days behind.

I can't believe it's been 2 years since these photos were taken, and how big Li'l J is now! He's my buddy.

Kudos for a 2nd Consecutive Day

The week got by me and I didn't even realize that Scrapbookers Clubhouse had awarded me with Kudos of the Day for the second consecutive day (11/18) for the invitations that I made for Belle's Zoofari this summer.

I used Creative Imaginations paper, Bazzill Cardstock, my Cricut Zooballoo cartridge and some fun embellishments for the Elephant's ear. Each was different, most had flowers with iTop brad centers. The tiara elephant was a special copy for Annabelle.

The invites were MME "tickets" stuck into a pocket behind the Zoofari Elephant.

I was inspired by a Cricut elephant that I saw somewhere online. I don't remember the where. I thought I had bookmarked it but if you created an elephant with a red and white Hawaiian print (where mine is leopard spotted) thank you for the inspiration! Please let me know so I can credit you properly!!

Blogging via mobile

I just saw a little phone icon on my Blogger dashboard & wondered, "hmmm... would it work?" so here we are, testing it out. I'm always amazed by technology!



*edited via computer to fix the title. I will have to work on that :)

Kudos!

Today I found out I received Kudos of the Day at Scrapbooker's Clubhouse for this card:

This little creation took on a life of it's own when I started out with just white cardstock and some almost clear sequins. The Fall Ball mini crop that happened over this past weekend at SBCH featured a challenge to make a Celebration card that included the use of sequins. My sequins were rescued from a camisole and had been laundered enough that the colors were practically nonexistent. I used some alcohol ink directly on each sequin and they came out these great colors... which got me thinking "peacock" and after a quick web search for peacock clipart, I realized that the neatest ones I saw looked surprisingly like stamps I happen to have and I remembered a photo I had taken earlier this year. I really struggled with the "time to quit" on this. I couldn't figure out what I could do to embellish it further, then I realized that I was overthinking it.

So, some Autumn Leaves stamps, CTMH inks and a little creative license brought this fun little card to life and today it was honored with Kudos. I am very happy with the honor!