October 31st

Happy Halloween

Have a frightfully good day.

Running on empty

With little time to sit in front of the computer I'm running very low on pictures to use for posts. I did manage to squeeze in a few minutes to play with that last picture I posted of Gibbs.

I added a mask to it that I got from Shadowhouse Creations.

rambling

I don't always make sense in the things I do and I'll give you a perfect example. I warn you I may ramble on a bit here though.

When I started this blog I used the email address annandwade042206 at gmail. I don't know why I picked that and I would never want to use anything that long but it is what it is. My email was always forwarded to my iannieam windstream address any way.

When I got my phone my son set up a iannieam gmail account on it for me.  When we gave up windstream as our internet provider I just automatically started using the iannieam gmail account.

Now when I'm on my desktop computer I'm logged in to the annandwade account so that I can do my blogging. When I'm on the laptop I'm logged in to the iannieam account to do my email

I'll insert a random picture here to break the monotony of my boring story.

Oh look, even the picture is boring :)

So back to the account of my google accounts. Most times I prefer to read blogs and comment on the desk top. That way you know it's me and you can respond to my comments. For convenience I'll occasionally use the laptop which may come in as a no reply blogger.
In closing, if you get a comment from Ann Thompson, it's me.

Just another day in paradise

My world now consists of work and puppy watch. To say I'm busy doesn't seem altogether accurate though. From the time I get home from work until I go to bed I spend most of my time sitting around keeping my eye on Gibbs.

Most of my pictures of him are from this angle

Because if I attempt to get down on his level they all turn out looking like this.

Some of you asked for more information about him. I don't recall what I already told you and I'm not going to go back and look because writing a post now takes forever since I have to keep turning around to see where Gibbs is and what he's doing.

Any way, He was born on August 23. He's a Yorkie, King Charles Cavalier mix. We got him from a breeder in Ohio. He's already had his first vet visit and got a clean bill of health. He weighed in at 4 pounds and when full grown should be anywhere from 10 - 18 pounds.
His name came from the show NCIS after the character of the same name. Wade is a big fan of the show and when we were talking about what to name him I suggested Gibbs and it stuck. At first Wade liked it then a couple days later he said he thought it was kind of dumb. I told him I had already told everyone that was his name and that everyone liked the name.

All I can see is that I had totally forgotten what a pain in the butt how much work was involved in training a puppy. I don't get anything done but at least I have a believable excuse.

He stays in a crate at night and he's done pretty well with that. He cries a little when he first goes in but not for long. Most nights he makes it almost all the way through the night without needing to go out. I've had some nights where I've been up as many as three times to let him out. During the day when we're at work we have a little play yard for him in the basement. It confines him to a small space but gives him room to move around and play a little. I'm thinking I may need to start using the play yard more often so that I can start getting something done other than watching him. I'm having crafting withdrawal symptoms and it's making me a bit cranky.

Sorry for my absence

I've been a bit under the weather the last few days and taking care of Gibbs was all I could manage to do.
Comments are off but I wanted to let you know that I'm still alive. I'll be back with a post as soon as I can

Remembering Duke

So it would seem that Duke has been watching over us and noticing how much we've missed having him here.

He didn't want us to be lonely any more and so he sent us someone new to love.

I'd like to introduce you to Gibbs.

Gibbs is a Yorkie Cavalier who currently weighs all of 4 pounds and has an endless supply of energy. He came to live with us last Saturday and since then when I'm not at work I'm on constant puppy patrol. I'm a bit exhausted and nothing is getting done around here.

Someone said that it was too soon for us to be getting a new puppy but I wasn't going to argue with Duke.

Stone cold pigs and a cow

I'm still working on pictures from the craft show here and I've got a couple more that I took that Sunday morning. There wasn't much action going on and not many people walking around so I ventured outside the building to see what I could see.

I found a family of pigs

and a lonely little cow.

There were more of these concrete creatures and I meant to get their pictures but I obviously was distracted by something else and never got back to them. Oh well. 

Honest Abe

It's not every day you get to meet a famous person, especially one that's been dead for a very long time. When we did the craft show however, we had the opportunity to take to old Abe himself.

Sharing a gift

On a Monday, who couldn't use a little something extra to brighten the day? In exchange for feeding the birds, they planted some gifts for me and I'm going to share them with you.

These were taking a couple weeks ago and I think there are even more out there now. 

TGIF

This week sure did fly by fast. I guess it helped not working on Monday. I sure can't wait for my work day to end today though so I can start my weekend. I haven't yet decided if I'll be lazy first and then take a nap or maybe I should nap first so I'm well rested when I'm ready to be lazy. Decisions, decisions.

Well even though it's really starting to look like fall around here with all the leaves changing I'm going to show you something that's a little bit more summery.
A couple months ago I bought this plant when it was marked down to $7.00

I believe it was called a fire and ice hydrangea. The flowers supposedly change from white to red.

Now we all know that I am horrible with plants and their survival rate are not very high once they are under my care but I couldn't resist this one with it's pretty flowers.

I believe I"m going to take the weekend off. Hopefully I'll get caught up on some things around here. I'll be back on Monday

Remembering Duke

If you look on my sidebar today you'll notice something new. It's the Our Rainbow Friends Memory Badge. 

That will take you to the Our Rainbow Friends site where you can see all fur babies who have crossed the rainbow bridge. Duke was added there yesterday for the month of September. 

Before Duke left us he did get to see the work in the back yard and gave his paw of approval on the patio section that we put in.

Here's a sweet little Duke face a rough pastels effect added in photoshop elements

Homeward Bound

This homeward bound man had no idea I was taking his picture.

and then it made me think of this Simon and Garfunkel song

About the weekend.

Are you all wondering about how we did at the Ashtabula County Covered Bridge Festival?

This was while we were working on getting everything set up

Saturday was pretty cold and there was a rather strong wind blowing through the building all day long. A very small crowd was there and even though I did sell some stuff it wasn't much.

Sunday the weather was much better but the attendance was worse. I wouldn't say it was a total waste though, it gave me something to do and I met some new people.

A few new items I made for this show.
These scarecrows are made from 5 gallon paint sticks. I had three of these priced at $6 and didn't sell a single one. I'm planning on making some snowmen like this as well.

This item was made from leftover deck wood. The word "FALL" was stenciled on using a technique I learned from Beverly at Eclectic Red Barn. Sorry but I don't have the link to the exact post for that. The candle is a battery operated one that I grunged up with mod podge and cinnamon. This didn't sell either.

This item priced at $7 did sell though. It was a brown wood rocking chair that I had purchased at a thrift store. It was roughly 7" high. I painted it black, glued on some spanish moss, added a fall pick and some plastic pumpkins

So what was the big seller of the day? It was my 25 cent marble magnets.

Well that's Bull

I said I would be back today with a post and you were probably expecting me to post about the craft show. 

I'm not prepared for that so I'm winging it at the last second here. 

If you think that's bull then you should see this...

I took this last month. We were watching the fair parade and this guy was standing near by with his owner.

Breaking

My friend Debbie and I are doing a craft show this weekend so I'll be taking a little blog break. Hopefully I'll be back on Monday.
While I'm gone, take a peek in my neighbors window and say hello to their cat.

Remembering Duke

I had originally planned to show you different pictures but either blogger or my computer were being difficult and refusing to upload pictures. Next best thing was to grab a picture from Picasa web albums. When I saw this one it made me laugh and I hope it makes you laugh too.

 He many not have been afraid of no ghost skeleton men made him scream.

Happy Hump Day

This week is moving along pretty quick and since I have Friday off this week it'll be over in no time.

How about some flowers to brighten your day.

I had picked these up super cheap at Wal-mart and they looked pretty on my steps. Unfortunately we've had several very cold nights and now these are not so pretty looking any more.

I had nothing to lose

I have 4 plastic resin chairs that I've had forever. They are very sturdy chairs yet I couldn't sit in them because after years of sitting in the sun every time you touched them you came away with green powdery stuff all over you.

I don't knew where I saw it but I came across an idea to use one of these to restore the chairs

I figured I had nothing to lose if it didn't work because these weren't getting used any way. I didn't do the best job on these but all you do is run the torch back and forth across the surface as if you were spray painting

The chair on the left is the after and the one on the right is before I did anything to it. I should have scrubbed all the dirt off better before I did this but I have to say that it made a huge difference. We can actually sit in these chairs again. The second one I did I did a little bit better job on.

Run Forrest run

I spotted this guy running across my back yard.

The pictures are a bit blurry since he was quicker than I was.

Do you think that maybe squirrels dislike the Monday morning rush as much as I do?

No flowers for me this year

This is a picture of the hydrangea bush in my front yard. This is what it looked like last year. If you pluck off all those flowers that's what it looks like this year.

For some reason it didn't get one single flower on it this year.

I crinkle sometimes too

I bought Duke a toy in the last week of his life. He always got so excited when I came home with bags and he always knew there would be something in them for him. If I wasn't quick to give him something he would search the bags himself (if he could reach them). So I was hoping that a new toy would brighten his day. He carried it around in his mouth for an entire day but not once did it get shaken. It did crinkle a bit.

I haven't had the heart to get rid of any of his toys and since this one is brand new and barely been played with I thought I would do some playing with it. I added a little texture and did a few adjustments.

This last one I added added a different edge and cloned out the I crinkle sticker.

Just because one crinkles a bit doesn't mean they still aren't foxy

Remembering Duke

Dogs know the secret to happiness and if we follow their lead they'll share the wisdom.

Close your eyes and make a wish. Dare to dream a little dream

How about another page

It's been quite a while since I've shown you an art journal page. It's even been quite a while since I did this one.

I don't know if I'm always the "best" me I can possibly be but I know I'm the me I know how to be.