Duke's turn

AAUGH

But I'm not ready. Oh no, what do I do?

I know it's not a very good picture but when I saw it I thought it was funny. It does look like he's screaming don't you think?

A look back

There's nothing new today so I went back in the files to find something of interest. One year ago today, I took a whole lot of really stupid pictures. What on earth am I saving those for? OK how about two years ago. Ah, two years ago Amanda and I took a ride to the cemetery where my father is buried.

My dad's plot is at the top of the hill and the view is quite lovely. There's a farm right next door.

A couple views of the building that sits at the back of the cemetery.

Like I said, the view here is quite lovely. It's so peaceful and quiet I think I could sit here till the cows come home.

Oh my, it looks like I have. Well see you all tomorrow.

Falling into it

It was with some reluctance to begin with but I'm finally accepting the fact that summer is over. Maybe it's the colder weather, the slowly changing foliage or all of the Halloween cards I've been making, but I'm finally getting into the fall mood. I even pulled out  a candle jar topper the other day as a beginning to the season's decorating. I have no intentions of going overboard like I used to years ago with all the seasonal trimmings but it is nice to have a few things sitting out.

Now if I only had a jar candle to sit him on. He is cute though and he makes me smile.

Ghost

I'm running out of ideas for Halloween cards but I did make one more.

I cut the trick or treat bag using my cricut machine. The ghost I just cut by hand. I cut the arms separate then taped them to the back. Then I took a gray colored pencil to highlight the edges, the bottom and around the eyes and mouth. I added the cute little rosy cheeks with a colored pencil too. I just used a regular hole punch to make the eyes and mouth and then glued them on.
I'm betting that some of the more serious card makers would cringe at some of my methods but no matter, I have fun. Isn't that what it's all about?

Demonstration

Today I have a small demonstration in frugality for you. With the help of my trusty assistant we will attempt to show you an inexpensive way to photograph small objects inside.
Feel free to take notes if you wish. If everyone is ready we will begin. 

After the construction of our backdrop was complete my trusty assistant brought in our subject.

He carefully placed the subject and did a double check to make sure the placement was correct

Once everything was in place he quickly moved out of the way for the shot.

And here are our final samples for your review.

You will note that the before picture is less than perfect but that can be corrected. You may try one of the following methods
1) use an editing program such as photoshop elements
2) learn how to properly adjust the settings on your camera
3) stop being so cheap and buy proper lighting.

Yes it was cold, dreary and I was bored when I did this but Duke and I had fun.

You are so busted mister

Don't worry, Duke isn't in trouble. He's not the one who was caught red handed. Although the culprit is small and furry, it's of the wild variety.
You see we have a rather large bird feeder hanging from the tree in our front yard. It's so big that Wade doesn't even fill it completely full. Now I know that there have been a lot of birds out there but we seemed to be going through the seed rather quickly.
The other day I was busy doing something when Wade yelled out "Get your camera, hurry up" I went downstairs and this is what I saw

After watching him go through seed after seed at a frantic speed I now understand how this is emptying out so fast. He was fun to watch though and it made me laugh to watch him. He would grab a seed, get to the good part and throw the shell over the edge and then grab another. I must have stood there a good ten minutes watching him do this non stop.
Here's a closer look in color

Brenda Photo Challenge (9-25) Orange

Another Brenda Photo Challenge is upon us and the them this time around is orange. I didn't have to struggle with this one at all. It seemed like orange was everywhere I looked.
I found it at the craft show that I went to a couple weeks ago.

I found it on my coffee table.

and I found it at work.

Of course I found it many other places too but I tried to show some constraint here.  I can't wait to check out all the other entries.

Randomness

Randomness, also known as got nothing, is the topic for the day. I can't even find a picture of Duke that hasn't already been posted.
So lets commence with the random thoughts here.
The other day I was dining on dog food and was really quite good.

I was eating a sandwich and sitting on the stack of dog food in the stock room. Gotcha!
I wandered outside after the sandwich and played with my cell phone. Not much to take pictures of

It was either this or the cars in the parking lot.
I don't know if you've seen this picture before but it is Duke and he has something to say.

My mom is weird but I love her anyway.

Is it too Early?

Certainly by retail standards it's not too early to start preparing for Halloween. Some of the stores have already condensed the Halloween stock to make room for Christmas, which totally drives me crazy. That's most likely the reason for the decline in my enthusiasm for the holidays. Don't get me wrong, I still love them, I just hate the way the stores seem to push it out there earlier and earlier all the time.
When it comes to crafting, I don't think it's ever too early to get started on holiday projects. With that being said, I've been on a roll with a few Halloween cards.

 My Cricut has been getting quite a work out the past few days. I did cheat on one of them however. The card with the haunted house and the ghosts I used store bought die cut stickers. I left them on the original backing and covered the edges with strips of paper. That way the recipient of the card can use the stickers in their own Halloween project.
So do any of you have any Halloween projects in the works?

More from the fair

I have a couple more pictures from the fair last week that I thought I would share with you.
Saturday afternoon we made it in time to see some sights and then catch this band.

I thought they were pretty good and what a variety they had. The first song we heard sounded like country, they did some ZZ Top and quite a few from the 50's.

Just a random shot here.

I haven't done any playing around with pictures in quite a while so this one I had some fun with.

My favorite at the fair was this guy.

(taken from the fair book)
Jerry Brown is a multi-talented showman who has been dazzling audiences young and old throughout the United States for 31 years.
Jerry is an accomplished juggler, magician, mime/clown, musician, fire-eater, animal trainer, stilt-walker, teacher and storyteller--and he is a master entertainer who holds audiences spellbound with the variety and uniqueness of his presentations.
His performances are a delight to all, and his monkey pal, Django will steal your heart away.

Now What?

Have you ever had one of those projects that when the idea first strikes, it works out fabulous in your head? Some time ago, I had one of those types of projects. The idea started here. What I had envisioned was marvelous but when I tried to bring it to life, not so much. I tried, I got frustrated, I walked away. The idea kept calling me back to try again. I was determined that I would figure it out.
After more than 2 months of trial and error I'm happy to say I finally finished that project. I won't make you wait another 2 months before you can see it, but I feel that it's only right that I show this to you slowly.
Quite obviously it's another quilling project.

Here's more

Any ideas yet of what it is? Maybe this will help.

Still don't know?

Enough of the suspense. Here is my finished project.

OK, so now what? Gee, if I only knew someone who's name started with a G, say like Grace. Then, suppose I knew Grace's address. I could send it to her as a gift. Don't you think that would be perfect? So how about it Grace, this thing is just waiting to go in the mail.

Fair Parade

What's better than a parade? A parade that goes right by your house. I'm never late because I can hear it coming down the street and all I have to do is step out my front door and I'm there.
No parade is complete without the marching bands. We'll start with my daughters favorite marching band, The Northwestern Wildcat Band

Several other high school bands also marched in the parade. The last one to go by was playing a Kiss song. Now tell me, what high school kid doesn't want to rock and roll all night and party every day?

Naturally there were animals in the parade.

OK, so maybe Grimace isn't technically an animal but I needed a third picture here.

Of course there was much more to see. There were fire trucks, tractors, lawn mowers, clowns, the martial arts students and so many others. The whole thing maybe takes about 15 minutes so it's not huge but it is fun to watch.

Thought for the day

Even when your world feels a little out of balance, keep smiling.

Guess what?

It's Friday! Mom's week is finally over and she gets 4 days off now. Now she gets to visit the fair and enjoy the sights and sounds. Then there's napping, maybe some shopping, a couple of walks and lots of relaxing.

Do you have your eye on anything special for the weekend?

4 down 1 to go

Hi everyone. Mom is letting me fill in tonight since she's not prepared to post. She was busy reading all your blog posts when she suddenly realized she had nothing scheduled for tonight.
She said to tell you all that she's making it through the week much better than expected and very excited that she only has one more day to go.

I've just been hanging out playing with my toys, like this ratty old ball that I haven't quite finished peeling yet

Sometimes I like to sit and watch mom while she reads blogs. If I sit here long enough and look really cute she gives me a treat out of that big that sitting on her desk.

That's all for today. Hope everyone is having a good week and ready for the weekend.

The boss's birthday

The owner of the store I work at is 74 today. He's pretty much turned over running the store to his son but he still comes in every day and takes care of the produce department. Whenever I have a question or a problem I usually go to him first. Sometimes it's just to see if I'm overreacting to something or not but 9 times out of 10 he agrees with my opinion.
No one had started passing around a birthday card yet for him so I took in one that I had made for everyone to sign. Nothing fancy but I don't think he'll mind.

I used my cricut to cut out the cupcake. I'm really enjoying that machine and I think I might finally be starting to figure out how to use it.

Break buddy

I've told you before about how I like to go out in the parking lot on my breaks at work. We usually take a milk crate out with us so we have something to sit on.
Well I'm out there the other day sitting on my crate enjoying the sunshine. When I got up and turned around I found that I wasn't out there alone. There was a little guy hiding in my milk crate.

Is he smiling at me or is that a look of relief that I'm no longer sitting on his toes?

What I brought home

Yesterday I showed you what I didn't buy, today I'll show you what I did buy when I went to the craft show.
Believe it or not I only bought two things. One for me and one for Duke.
What I got.

I fell in love with this when I saw it. I don't know if you can make out the tag or not but they have an etsy shop. I didn't see any of these in their shop but I'm sure if you were interested in them you could contact them to see if they have any available. They had different kinds of tree logs and I was debating between this and another but finally settled on this one. Their etsy shop is Wickwood Creations

Duke's treat came from Joe Cool's Dog Drool. The entrepreneur behind the name is 11 year old Joey. He guaranteed my that Duke would love his Ty-Ruff-ic Treats. I wasn't sure, but I purchased one and told him I would let him know how Duke liked it.
I wasn't quite quick enough with the camera.

This was all that was left by the time I got the camera out. Duke gave this a 2 paws up rating and cleaned up every last one of those crumbs off the floor. Keep up the good work Joey.

Yesterday and Tomorrow

Nothing of interest today unless you care to hear about my morning trip to get groceries. It was totally uneventful so it wouldn't take much time to tell you about.
No?
OK, I'll talk about yesterdays trip to Crafts in the Park.
It started at 11:00 and we got there shortly before that. From the picture it doesn't look like much but believe me, there were plenty of booths there.

These were a few of my favorite finds, none of which I purchased. Top left corner is a quilted square and hydrangea flowers were attached to it. She had 2 in different shades and this one was my favorite. Debbie was sure that she could do this and wanted the picture for reference. Bottom left was a table made from a wood shutter. I don't think the picture on the right needs much explanation. I plan on looking in the thrift shops for some old cupcake tins and making a few of these for Christmas. I thought they were adorable

 

The park was located right on the shore of Lake Erie. We decided to walk the beach back to the parking lot when we were done. I have no idea how much time we spent searching for beach glass but it was fun. We each found a few small pieces.

On the way out of the park I took notice of the large pond and all the geese. Just past the pond there was a pen with peacocks. I had to pull over and get a few pictures.

After that we stopped for lunch. Debbie had won a gift certificate to Compadres. Neither one of us had ever been there and it sounded good. My lunch is the top left picture. Oh my was it delicious. Taquitos Mexicanos. Two fried taquitos-one chicken, one beef-served with lettuce, sour cream, guacamole and tomato. Choice of rice or beans (Yes, I took that straight from the menu)

Well that was yesterday. Very fun day. Tomorrow starts the beginning of a very NOT fun week. It's probably the most busy and frustrating week of the year for me. It's Albion Fair week, which means tons of work. If I don't leave many comments next week it probably means that I came home exhausted and don't have the strength to type. I promise I will catch up with everyone though eventually.

Yummy filler

Pay not attention to the fact that some of you may have seen this appear in your reader yesterday. If you didn't skip this and continue. I goofed when I was trying to schedule.

Anyway, seeing as how I was off having fun today and don't have anything prepared for a post I'm going to go with one of my filler pictures.
Have you tried these?

I don't know how long these have been out, most likely all summer, but they are YUMMMMMY! I would offer you some but unfortunately the bag appears to be empty.

Weekend plans and wonderful friends.

First for the weekend plans

I can't pass up one of these. My friend Debbie and I will be going for sure.

Now the part about wonderful friends. I haven't been posting awards here lately because I just couldn't keep up with them and I was feeling awful about taking so long to post them. There are several I've received and I want you all to know how grateful I am that you thought of me.
I am going to share one thought that I've gotten twice in the past month. First it came from My Quality Day (thanks Shark and Maggie) and then just the other day I received it again from Grampy's world (thanks Russ)

They both awarded me with the prolific blogger award. Whether I'm prolific, just like posting every day or plain old compulsive about it I gladly accept the award and feel honored that both of them thought of me.

Now I'm supposed to pass this on, which is always hard for me to choose. So here's what I'm going to do. I'm giving it to all of you who stop by here every day and leave me comments. You are the ones who make my blog what it is and keep me going.

Why I love Duke

I know how much all of you adore Duke but I don't think you really know just how much of a sweetheart he is. I could not have asked for a more thoughtful and caring dog. Just wait until you hear what that little white bundle of fur did for me today.I came home from work dead tired. I just wanted to take my shoes off, kick back and maybe catch a nap. Of course wanting and being able are two entirely different things.  There was laundry to do, dinner to cook and a kitchen to clean.
Laundry, washed and in the dryer.
Dinner, cooked, on the table and eaten.
Dishes, oh please I just need a minute or two.
That's when it happened
Duke jumped up, pushed a chair over to the sink and said if I would just reach the dish soap for him, he would have the job done in a jiffy.

Would you just look at him, he's doing such a good job.

All done 

Such a good boy. Good job Duke.