My new favorite

I'm married to worlds pickiest eater. We have a limited menu and I've gotten very bored with food. On top of that I've been trying to eat healthier and lighter so I can shed a few of the extra pounds I've put on. Worlds pickiest eater is not real supportive of my quest for healthy eating.  I'm putting my foot down and I'm rebelling. I'm going to eat healthy, light and what I want.

I found a recipe for Ultimate Greek Chopped Salad on The Garden Grazer. I had to try this salad and Saturday morning I went out and bought all the ingredients I needed to make it.  The recipe didn't call for it but I added black olives. All I can say is I love this stuff. A small little bowl filled me up and it was totally delicious.

This has cucumber, roma tomatoes, red bell pepper, red onion, garbanzo beans and black olives. The dressing is red wine vinegar, olive oil and oregano. For the exact amounts you can follow the link above for their recipe.
The best part about this is that Wade won't touch it so it all MINE!!!!

Nothing to see here today

I'm just popping in to say I'm taking the day off from blogging. Comments are off. I'll be back tomorrow

Thoughts for Friday

I had yesterday off and it was a beautiful day. On top of gorgeous weather I had ambition and I was home alone.
Today I go back to work and I kind of know what's in store for me. I can only hope they didn't add any more on to the pile of work I have waiting for me. This church sign is perfect for today. Come to think of it, I guess it's perfect for any day.

It is what it is.

And it's not much. Something is better than nothing though so here's the scoop. Last night instead of scheduling my post I finished the book I was reading and then did a whole lot of napping until bed time.

To make it up to you I went to my Picasa web album and found you some flowers.

And then there were four

You may remember me saying a while back that the robin had a nest in the tree by our front door again this year. You may also remember me saying that I hadn't seen the mother bird like I had the year before. Well one day I came home and the nest was totally empty. All three eggs were gone. I was a bit sad but that's the way life goes sometimes.

A couple weeks later I came home and saw the robin flying out of the tree. I checked the nest and this time there were 4 eggs in there. Poor mama has to fly out of the nest every time anyone comes or goes through the front door.

I started out the door the one day but stopped before I opened it because I noticed she was in the nest. I snapped a quick one that's not very good. Funny thing is I know I see a robin flying in and out of that tree all the time but it doesn't look like a robin to me in this picture

Project 365 week 20

5/17 Going to work at 6 in the morning on a Sunday is bad enough but getting there and finding not one but 2 of those cake order forms hanging on my table really starts the day off bad.

5/18 Gibbs and I did some yard work and then chilled out in the shade when we were done

5/19 An election day sign. A reminder to the voters that the burough council member had approved a 106% property tax increase. I never did see who was reelected and who wasn't.

5/20 Another church sign. Not a good picture but the sign reads, "Be a fisher of men. You catch them, He'll clean them"

5/21 I saw these two geese in a field and pulled over to take their picture.

5/22 Very early morning and I was amazed at how bright the sky looked already This was just a little after 5 in the morning

5/23 This is where the rummage sale was that Amanda and I went to. They had a deal going on where  you bought one bag for a $1 and you got two bags free. I couldn't find even one thing that I wanted. I guess that's a good thing though. I've already got too much junk in my house now

Happy Memorial Day

And I'm proud to be an American,

where at least I know I'm free.

And I won't forget the men who died,

who gave that right to me.

~Lee Greenwood

Day is done, gone the sun

From the lakes, from the hills, from the sky

All is well, safely rest

God is nigh.

Fading light dims the sight

And a star gems the sky, gleaming bright

From afar, drawing near

Falls the night.

Thanks and praise for our days

Neath the sun, neath the stars, neath the sky

As we go, this we know

God is nigh.

The Gibbs Report

Good morning my blogging peeps. I hope all of you here in the U.S. are enjoying your long holiday weekend.

I'm hoping that I can catch up on some napping today. Friday night mom kept me up most of the night with her tossing and turning and then she got up kind of early on Saturday morning. She went out with Amanda, my human sister but dad kept me busy out in the yard most of the day. I'll rest up while mom is at work and then when she gets home I'll be ready to play. I know how much she likes that when she's done working.

Mom finally made an appointment for me at something she calls a groomer. I don't really know what it is but I guess I'll find out. I go on June 1st.

I better get busy on that napping so that's all I have for today. Have a wooftastic day

A little green to go with my blues

What a great time of year this is to look out the window and see green. I've always loved the look of hosta leaves

All this green goes nicely with my blues. I hate to be whiney but I just can't help it. I'm used to having three day weekends for holidays that fall on Monday. Since I'm working Sundays now I don't get them. I still have the holiday off but it's just not the same.

The documented life project

May Theme
Touchy Feely (Texture)
May 9
Art Challenge:  Stitching
Journal Prompt:  "All that I'm after is life full of laughter."

This page was a little easier than the last few were. Maybe it's was the journal prompt that inspired me or maybe it was a tutorial I saw on Art in red wagons for making faces for her garden fairies. Either way here is my page.

The art challenge for this one was stitching and although you might not notice it there really is stitching on there. I used my sewing machine to stitch a line around the corner pieces and also around the edges of the dress.

Sneak Peek

Just a little peek in to my craft room. Monday I spent some time there working on an art journal page. Although the page is done the picture of it isn't ready so all you get to see today is a hint of what I was doing

Let them eat cake

Today I thought I would give you a closer look at the cake I made at work that was almost a few sizes too small.

Just to clarify, we don't actually bake the cakes there. We have them shipped in frozen and I only decorate them.

The order call for red flowers, a teddy bear and it was supposed to say "Bear one anothers burdens Congratulations Albion Chapter #22.
I was wondering how I was going to fit all of that on the 1/4 sheet cake that the order said. A 1/4 sheet cake is a 13 x 9 size cake.

I was thankful that this really was a bigger cake since that gave me plenty of room to fit everything on.

A closer look at the teddy bear. I've always been very critical of how my cakes look. I'm never satisfied. Years ago when I made a comment about one of my cakes not looking so good to my boss he told me that even though I didn't like it the person ordering it would be happy with it because it was most likely way more than they could do themselves.

I kind of winged it on the bear. I drew one on a piece of paper first and then did an outline on the cake with the brown frosting then just filled it in

Project 365 week of 5-10-15

5/10 Amanda stopped over to wish me a happy mother's day after I got home from work

5/11 Gibbs was painting the patio with his wet paw prints.

5/12 A cake order that I had to do at work. The order that was left for me said a 1/4 sheet cake. The lady who ordered it came in just as I was starting it and asked if she could pay for it then. I got her the tag and she said full sheet cakes aren't $15.99 they're $35.99. Thankfully she had stopped in. That would have been a huge mistake.

5/13 Temperatures dropped to 50 after having several days in a row of 80 degree weather.

5/14 You know you're getting old when you get mail that's marked Burial Essentials. This was actually addressed to my ex husband so I guess he's the old one not me. LOL

5/15 Wade stopped at the beer distributor and I couldn't help snapping a picture

5/16 Our pool did not do well over the winter. The side was pushed in and the liner was hanging down. They finally got around to working on trying to put it back together. Gibbs supervised from the deck while Wade and a few of his friends worked on it.

Mr. Car Washer

He's handsome, he's debonair, he's the cute little thing that helps me wash my car. Just for today he's all dressed up as a cartoonish looking little thing for your viewing entertainment.

He's also filling in since my phone refused to release the collage for my normal project 365 post. Hopefully it will be ready for tomorrow.

The Gibbs Report

Not much to report on today.

In place of a long report I'll just let you listen to me roar

Did you hear me?

Pup Art

The master artist Gibbs has been at it again creating one of a kind masterpieces.

He began with a big canvas

He pays very close attention to detail when he is creating. The most fascinating feature of this one of a kind work is that the art is also his signature.

Another Documented Life Project page

I have another page and this brings me up to date. Now I just have the current challenge page to work on and I'll be all caught up with this.

May Theme
Touchy Feely (Texture)
May 2
Art Challenge:  Fabric
Journal Prompt:  The Fabric of Your Life

I started by painting my page with a yellow paint and added a little bit of peach. I made some green marks, added some stamped swirls, dabbed on some gesso to tone some things down and then I needed fabric. Those flowers were cut from some pretty ribbon I got in the mail from a sweet person who thought to send me some ribbon she had. I bet she never thought I would use it this way. I finished it off with a ric rac border

Ok, now to get started on my next page. 

The Documented Life Project

I'm going to catch  myself up today and tomorrow with journal pages. I've been having a rough time getting myself going on these the past several weeks. I don't know if the novelty is wearing off or it's the challenges themselves that I'm finding difficult. Either way, I may be going slow on them but at least I haven't given up.

April Theme
Color Safari (Exploring Inks and Paints)
April 25
Art Challenge:  Inks
Journal Prompt:  Before the Ink is Dry

This is another one that I'm not really all that happy with but it is what it is and there are some features on it that I like. I wrote the journal prompt in that box and when I lifted my hand I noticed that I had smudged some ink so I added the "be careful where you put your hand" and made it part of the page. 

Church Sign

Project 365 week 18

5/3 A girl I work with was telling me about a really good ice cream so I thought I would treat myself. After dinner I pulled out the ice cream, started eating and realized that this wasn't the one she told me about. I grabbed the wrong one. It was still good though

5/4 Yummy yummy salad to make up for the ice cream I had yesterday

5/5 Waiting for a graffiti covered train to pass

5/6 I haven't made any of the red neck wine glasses in a long time. A guy Wade knows that bought one needed a new one because he broke his.

5/7 A yard full of cheery dandelions. I don't mind them a bit.

5/8 I mowed the lawn and left the mower sitting out for Wade to put away. When it comes to mowing, he likes to ride, I like to push and if I feel like getting the extra exercise I have to get out there before he does. Not to mention I have flowers coming up and he'll run them over with the rider.

5/9 Believe it or not our first stop of the day was Wal-Mart for oil and oil filter so he could change the oil in the car. Then we went car shopping. Guess we have the wrong oil filter now.

Time to escape

Let me tell you about those flowers I stole for you for Mother's Day. I saw them on a desk while I was sitting in the office of the finance manager. When she stepped out for a minute I quickly snapped that picture then did a quick edit of them before she returned. I didn't want to wish you a Happy Mother's Day empty handed and I knew she wouldn't mind.

Once I was done taking things from her she began taking things from me.

Suddenly I lost my Focus

I was signing my name so many times that I just felt the need to...

What better way to do that than in a tuxedo black Ford Escape.

Because of the timing of this trade in, Wade is claiming he bought me a new vehicle for Mother's Day. His buddies will buy that story but any sane person knows it's bull :)

While I was with the finance manager we had to call my insurance company to have the policy switched to the new vehicle. Imagine my surprise when I talked to the insurance agent and was told that my premium was going DOWN by $16.

For all the moms

To all of you who are mother humans or fur babies

To celebrate the day I stole some flowers for you while I was out yesterday.

Don't worry. The lady I stole them from will never notice that I took them.

Gibbs and I hope you have a wonderful day

whacking down dandelions

Yesterday after work I did my typical eat dinner and then navigate to the couch to turn on the tv and pull out the laptop. Around 7 pm I got this bright idea that I was going to go out and mow the lawn.

There went the dandelions that were decorating my back yard

It's ok, I know they'll be back. Now if only the energy I had to mow the lawn would return I would be doing good

I'm speechless

So you just get Gibbs. I know you won't mind

The Gibbs Report

This is one seriously late pup report but I've been quite busy lately. I do have some fun and interesting things to tell you about though.

I'm reporting today from the water room

This is a really little room in our dog house that has an extra big water bowl that I can't reach. It also has a rain booth. My mom and dad go in and shut the door and it starts raining in there. I jump in all the time when they come out but it never rains for me. I just get puddles.

I don't get to investigate this room as much as I would like because mom blocks off the upstairs so I can't go up there unless I go with her. She's such a big meanie sometimes.

Well what do you, I don't have as much to woof about as I thought I did. I'm off in search of things I can get in to. Have a wooftastic day

What do I have?

Actually I don't even have zero. I drank it.

Project 365 week 17

4/26 It was getting late in the day and I hadn't taken a picture yet. I snapped a shot of the dog brush. When I go to work I'm frequently annoyed by other people and I have to remind myself to brush it off and move on.

4/27 Nothing on television so I watched an episode of Gotham for the first time. I must not have liked it too much because I fell asleep before it was over.

4/28 Waiting behind a handicap bus. The lady driving this bus was quick and efficient. I've been behind some who not only took forever getting the student off the bus but then would stand there talking to the parent for a while. 

4/29 Falling asleep again on the couch while watching tv. This time I woke up to find Gibbs had given me his stuffed toy to sleep with

4/30 Today marked two years of being smoke free. Obviously Wade has yet to quit since I had his cigarettes to take a picture of.

5/1 Stuck behind a bus again. Beautiful blue skies to admire while I wait

5/2 The robin laid eggs in the tree by my front door again this year. Unfortunately I have not seen the mother bird flying in and out of the nest like she did last year. 

Start your week with flowers

I dug in the archives to find some flowers for you. 

OOPS! My bad.

I got home from work, gave Gibbs a sufficient amount of ear scritches then sat down at my computer only to discover that I never did a blog post last night. I didn't want to ruin my streak so I'm posting my explanation for not being here earlier.
See ya tomorrow

Guilt

Dogs just can not hide their guilt and humans just seem to love to see it

If truth be told

I think most of you know how much I like adding texture to pictures. So although the picture below has a rather pitiful subject matter you must admit (or not) that the texture is kind of cool.

Now if truth be told I would have to admit to the fact that this texture was not applied in photoshop. This texture was created by Gibbs. The picture was taken at night through the living room window. The living room window that is covered in Gibbs nose prints. I can't believe I'm actually admitting to the fact that my window is that filthy. Some people will do anything for a blog post.

What a way to start the month off.