Craftiva

I wanted to make homemade gifts this past holiday season.  I've just been waiting to share with you my Christmas craft ideas.  We finally had our last celebration, so without further ado, here they are! 

 

My first idea was to make a t-shirt vest.  I cut up a t-shirt according to the directions, and it looked like, well... I cut up a t-shirt.  It was pretty bad.  CRAFT FAIL

Fortunately, the next idea went better.  I made t-shirt scarves.  They didn't turn out quite as well as I had hoped, but I did like them.  I thought about making little pins covered with beads to place on the part where it's gathered.  I might still do that.  The project was fun to make.  I saw a pic of Tullybird wearing hers, and it looked really good!

My version of t-shirt scarves

Next up, I made a Lemon Sugar Body Scrub.  I soon realized after I whipped this stuff up, that I really like this stuff.  My hands have been dry and itchy all winter.  Rubbing some of this on when I've been doing a lot of hand-washing really helps.



Warning:  you may fall on your ass if you use this on your feet while standing!
But man, do my paws need this stuff.

For my next project, I was only able to make a few of these this year.  I need to start earlier next year.  I love painting wine bottles.  My specialty is a snowman... because they are easy.  And this year, I made a female version who loves the tropics! 

My inspiration was when Tullybird mentioned that she keeps the first bottle on display all year around that I painted for her; it doesn't matter what season it is.  Snowman needed a girlfriend!




Aloha!

And for my very favorite project of all.  This was SO fun, but so time consuming.  I could only make one at a time.  I started out by growing sunflowers.  Giant, mammoth sunflowers.

Keystone in my giant sunflower forest

Then I added lots of love and cement. 

I used our existing plain, smooth birdbath as a mold.  I put a trash bag over it to protect it.  Then I poured on mixed up grout mix.  I smoothed it out and then pressed my huge sunflower leaf into the wet grout mix.  Let it sit for 24-48 hours, and viola!

 

This birdbath has magical powers

This is one of the special editions that I made.  I had the most fun telling Suzie's little girl that baby unicorns drank from this birdbath; that's why there is glitter.  Cause everyone knows that baby unicorn's have glitter on their tongues.  I think she really enjoyed the story.  I truly believed in unicorns when I was her age.  Remember the days of rainbows & unicorns and when stickers were special treats?

For Dawn's family, I put a nice rock towards the bottom of the bath.  This is to allow butterflies to rest on the rock while sipping their cool beverage.  Plus they have a bath-less butterfly garden.  Until now.

I can't tell you how badly I wanted to make Shelly one of these.  She likes birds has a bird obsession.  Next to my parents and my hubby, I don't know anyone else who feeds their wild birds as much as she does; and enjoys watching them too.  It about killed me not to be able to make her one and send, but the cost would have been astronomical to send a hunk of huge, heavy concrete across the country.

And I really wanted to make Tullybird one too.  She loves everything homemade that I make, and she would have loved to have had one in her yard under her apple trees.  But again, the shipment cross-country just wasn't going to work.  Not to mention that they would probably beak.

So, it was hand delivery only for the birdbaths.

I hope you enjoyed seeing my projects.  I had other ideas that I didn't get to.  Maybe I'll start much earlier this year.
 

I Did It!

I had a goal of running a 10K in the Groundhog Run this year.  Today was the day!  It doesn't feel like spring is on the way, with it still being January and the temp dipping down at times to a windchill of -18 like it did last week, but today was race day.

I had many challenges that I could have used as an excuse not to go.  Over the past week: my hip was out of place and hurting (but fixed before race day), both of my ankles hurt at different times for different reasons, I had not had time to run all week long before the race, the pups have never been on a road trip, it was raining, bla, bla, bla.  In the end, I made it, and I'm glad I did it.  If I had wimped out, I would have regretted it because I have been training for this race.

This was our first outing with the pups!  They did so well, even though they ended up being in the one spot we tried to keep them out of initially.  They liked being between the two front seats on the floorboard next to the gear shift (no problem really, since neither have opposable thumbs).  It's nice and warm there. 

Oh, you mean you did NOT want us right here???

The groundhog run is in the underground caves.  It's such a neat atmosphere.  I didn't really care that it was raining outside because I was nice and dry underground.  Sometimes it can be musty and stinky smelling, but it was good this year!

The entrance to the "SubTropolis"

 

Cute little SupTropolis transportation

 

Every world has to have rules, right?

 

Gus, the mascot for the Great Underground Space

 

Me with Gus after the run

I'm so glad Heather wanted to run this year.  Otherwise, I would have come up with even more excuses to stay home.  She has a friend who ran with us as well and it was great that all three of us had the same pace.  We averaged around 12 minute miles, which I am very happy with my ability to maintain the pace throughout the entire race.

It's got me thinking of training for a half-marathon some day...

What I Miss

Every night when I would drive home, and start down our meandering driveway, it used to be like playing "Where's Waldo?"  But it was more like "Where's the yellow dog?"  

She knew our land and every critter that wandered onto it.  She protected our property and kept the boogie-men/critters away.  It's not the same without our Shadow.

Goodbye My Beloved Shadow

She has been an inspiration of strength and willpower.  Her determination has always been something I have admired time and time again.

She was our yellow lab that "came with the house".  She simply refused to go live anywhere else.  She chose us.  She willed us to love her, and love her we did.  We still do.

We taught her what it was like to be an indoor dog.  We taught her how to play, and to eat next to the other kids without being a glutton.  We taught her the joy of Christmas.  We taught her the meaning of family.  We taught her what it felt like to truly be loved.

May our beloved Shadow rest in peace and play with Abbytail in Heaven.  Godspeed my dear sweet beloved Shadow.

Shadow with her BFF, Beau the boxer

 

This is how I will remember Shadow.
Wiggling with all the delight a good back-wiggle can bring.

The Final Gift and Cuteness Update

I wanted to update you in case you were on pins and needles wondering whatever happened with my Secret Santa dilemma. It ended up being someone who I do not know. At. All. No big surprise there.

So my final gift wasn't too bad. I got a dollar store calendar of dogs. There are a couple of cute dogs throughout the year, so that's great. And a dollar store wooden keepsake shadow box. I would have peed my pants with excitement over it when I was in grade school. So not bad. The best news? She spelled my name right on my final gift. Miracles do happen. I chalk it up to it's better to give than receive.  The person I had loved her stuff, so that's all that matters.

And now for a cuteness update. Our kids have gained 2 pounds apiece! I am so very happy about that. GROW, grow, grow!!!!! I'm tire of the puppy stage, but dang are they cute. I specifically want their digestive tracts to grow. If we could start getting full nights of sleep, it would be amazing. You never know when a night will be good with only one mid-morning pit stop, or bad with multiple. I've never needed to take so many naps in my life.

Jesse rules the world. She's going to be a very good Alpha dog some day. I will be looking into agility training classes for her and I to go to when she's older. This dog can hunt! Well, she loves to find ways through things that just amaze me at least. If she can really hunt, we will never know.

Our little boy is still nameless. It will happen soon. We don't want to just pick something just for the sake of picking something. We want something that suits his big spunky feisty personality.  And doesn't sound stupid when calling for him. He LOVES playing in the snow, chewing on his sister, and escaping his fortress/cage. For that, we have nick-named him Houdini. What's really funny is that if we catch him climbing over and we yell at him to Get Down, he does!! The name will happen soon, no worries.

It's not like either of them have a vocabulary of even one word yet. And now for proof of the cuteness.

Jesse has this precious little look that will just melt your heart

Our little Houdini (not his real name)



Keystone is a great "hall monitor" when we go outside

This is how they often sleep

Jesse contemplating if she wants to keep relaxing, or get up and inspect the camera

Our precious boy (one of them)

Me & Keystone

 

Todd playing with Jesse. Blowing air in her face = great fun!

He's fast asleep

  

My wish for you all is that you sleep as peacefully as this baby boy!

 

 

And Then There Were 4

Happy 2013!  I know I've been MIA here lately.  I meant to blog every day of my end-of-year time off, but somehow that just didn't happen.  You'll understand why...

 

You see, we took a small road trip on Friday, December 21, 2012.  We were hopeful that Keystone would not be the only furry ones returning on that trip, and thankfully our plan worked out.  We have added two golden puppies to our zoo! 

His sister snuggling on his tummy for nap time

 

These pups are brother and sister from the same litter and are so lucky to be able to spend the rest of their lives together!  We are so happy that we found a "normal" breeder who wasn't a total freak.  By that I mean that he didn't ask such a high price that we needed to take out a loan, and he didn't interrogate us on some kind of application asking for yearly income, what our intentions are for the dog, how long we intend to keep it, etc.  Seriously, there are some freaks out there.  We found the perfect "normal" breeder.

 

When we got there, we had a very difficult time choosing our two pups.  Todd is the "dog whisperer", so I fully trust his opinion.  After all, he chose Amber!  Since there were only 2 females, we checked each one over and played with them.  Our little girl had her new daddy smitten within a few minutes.  That decision was not so difficult, even though the other female was a beauty as well.  Then we started analyzing the males.  It was between the two big guys.  One was very dark red, and one was lighter like the girl.  We went back & forth and back & forth.  The breeder was probably secretly tired of how long we were taking, but we didn't care because this was a life changing decision!  Just when we settled on the lighter guy, I said that if I had to choose, I want the darker one.  He's very rambunctious, feisty and full of spirit.  He has turned out to be the perfect choice!

 

The breeder had a point--there was no bad decision, the entire litter is awesome.  I hope they all found wonderful, loving, nurturing homes to have long, healthy, and happy lives.  Anyway, after we chose our two, we looked at the parents.  They are amazing looking dogs.  Exactly what we were wanting.

 

Here's the dad:

 

Gunner, the dad

And here is the mom:

 

KC, the mom

Our pups were born on Tuesday, November 6, 2012.  There were 9 puppies in the litter.

 

Keystone now has two young siblings.  He didn't quite know what to think about it at first, but it did not even take a week before he started playing with them.  At first, he did not know how to interact with the pups and he would run from them.  After all, their main purpose in life right now is to chew and scratch.  Then once Keystone decided to play, the pups did not know how to interact with him bowing down with his tail high in the sky wagging widely as he pushed his nose towards them; and they would run from him.  They are getting along very well.  Videos will be posted soon, but not right now.

 

We decided the first name for the little girl is Jesse, and middle name James.  It fits her to a T, because she is a wild rebel.  We are still debating on the name for the little boy.  It takes time to find the right name to match their personalities and will fit them once full grown.  I will announce his name once we have decided (until then, suffer!!!).

We have been in love with them since about the 2nd day we've had them.  I admit, the first night was pretty darn rough.  Puppies.  Ugghhhhh. puppies.  They are in somewhat of a routine now, but damn, they are exhausting.  Everyone thinks it's all roses, wine and chocolates right now.  Those are the people who have never raised a puppy.  Let me tell you, if I could skip the puppy phase and get to the young-adult, trained, mannered phase, I would...  but we have to pay our dues.  And they are just so cute, there is a reason God made them so cute.  So they could survive to become an adult.  That's all I got to say.

Now for some pics.

 

LOOK at those mitts on this little boy.  I picked a big'un, on purpose!

My sweet, precious Jesse on her ride home.
She looks all sweet and innocent, no?
Look guys, we named her after an outlaw FOR A REASON!

Our cute little ham of a man on his ride home.
He loves snuggling and discovered that Keystone is a very warm spot to snuggle.

A close up of Jesse on her ride home.
Ummm, "mom" or whatever you call yourself, what's this moving vehicle I'm in right now?

A close up of our little boy (and me) on the ride home.
Keystone did really well sharing his seat with me and the pups in the back!

Our little boy LOVES snow, and leaves/grasses

Jesse loves running through the snow and grass/weeds!
 

Our pups warming up by the fire after a walk outside

 

Jesse (on the left) is often seen sleeping spread-eagle, tummy pointed to the sky.
As a matter of fact, these two are caught sleeping MUCH of the time!

Shadow wants to wish you a happy 2013!

 

And we also want to wish you a happy 2013!