By Request

I hadn't intended to skip a post yesterday but the night before time got away from me and before I knew it I was out of time.

Today is going to be a quick one and then I'm taking the weekend off. I'll be off doing the craft show and there just isn't going to be time for the computer. Unless by some miracle I manage to get a few scheduled but I don't hold much hope for that.

Any way, one of the girls at work asked me if I would make her a bookmark. She said she didn't care what I put on it she just wanted a bookmark. Yes, she could have just taken a piece of paper and shoved it in the book but when you have artsy craftsy friends you ask them to make you something.

I didn't know what to put on it so I went in search of a quote about books or reading. When I saw this quote I knew it was the one.

The Gibbs Report

Hello my blogging peeps. What a special treat for you today to be able to see me. Mom seems to think I sound a bit conceited when I say that but I don't understand. The world really does revolve around me doesn't it?

So mom is in what she calls crunch time getting ready for the craft show. I don't know why she calls it that because she's not really doing anything that I can tell. Yes, she has been working on one new item but she must be making lots of mistakes because she keeps starting over and making another of the same thing.

She did manage to get a pretty darn good picture of me the other day. Do you not just love my beautiful brown eyes? Did you notice I've got mom on a leash? I had been doing really good in the house so she was giving me a little more freedom. Well I couldn't help myself and I peed on the floor. She got a little bit snarly so I had to put her on a leash to keep her under control.

I hope everyone has a wooftastic day and I'll see ya next time.

Good News

While out walking yesterday we found your lost sock.

Please send a self addressed stamped envelope so we can return it to you.

project 365 week of 7/19

7/19 It was such a hot day and the house was like an oven. I took my kindle out on the deck when the sun was going down and kicked back in the lounge chair. Unfortunately after about a half hour it started sprinkling.

7/20 Work has been extra tough lately. Without going in to details I'll just say that I need little things to entertain me. I've been making index card art with snarky sayings that make me laugh. I take them to work and hang them on my table so when I need a laugh all I have to do is look at them.

7/21 My craft table has quite the mess going on.

7/22 I won the most incredible giveaway. I'll tell you more about it in another post

7/23 Apparently my biggest accomplishment of the day was doing the dishes

7/24 Healthy snack. I need to eat like this more often and skip the junk

7/25 I feel so eco friendly. I finally started remembering to take my reusable shopping bags in the stores with me. Two weeks in a row now I haven't brought home any plastic bags.

Beetlejuice

Normally my pool is where I find all the beetles but on this particular day they were chowing down at a local eatery

Apparently they liked the cuisine

Did you know that beetles have been around for 270 million years? They can live in any climate and can range in size from microscopic to about 100 grams which is equal to  a little over 3 1/2 pounds.

Documented Life Project

I'm sure that once you see this page,  those who have been with me for a while will agree that this one is a winner.

July Theme
Ephemera
July 18
Art Challenge: Photographs & Memories
Journal Prompt:  "All that I have to remember you"-Jim Croce

First of all I absolutely love that Jim Croce song. When I first read the prompts I was going to do a page commemorating my dad. Once I got going it took me down a different path. I shed a few tears while searching for pictures to use. I still miss this guy big time .

I resized a few pictures to place around the page. The words "photographs and memories" I wrote by hand and then I printed out the "All that I have are these to remember you". I dug in a desk drawer and found a receipt from the Vets office and I cut out part of that to use on the page as well.

A survivor

Not many plants survive under my care whether they are inside or out. The ones  outside that have been around for a long time were planted by someone else.  I was surprised to see that something I planted last year is still alive.

I can't remember what this is but I think it was some kind of lilac? Whatever it is, I like the white flowers on it.

Project 365 week of 7/12/15

7/12 We left Sunday morning to head back home. I meant to take a picture of the hotel before we left and I forgot. Instead you get my potato chips that I snacked on when we made a pit stop at a rest area.

7/13 Wade made the comment that he should have taken this day off too. Instead he went back to work and I had the day off to finish the book I was reading. This was a free one and it had a bit of a surprise ending

7/14 They changed the church sign and I had to stop and take a picture of it.

7/15 Well I can't tell from the picture but I'm pretty sure I was taking a picture of the temperature. If I remember correctly it was 91 when I left work.

7/16 Yes Gibbs, I'm confused by me too

7/17 A simple dinner. BLT sandwiches. Works for me

7/18 Amanda demonstrating the amazing gripping power Gibbs has on that toy. Gibbs keeps her entertained while she does her laundry

The Gibbs Report

Hello my blogging peeps. Please forgive me for not bringing you a regular report like I used to. I have begging and begging but a certain human is positively useless. I'm going to have to learn how to do my own typing or hire someone to do it for me. Obviously the old woman who lives here has no intentions of following a schedule.

I did pretend to be uncooperative when she was attempting to take my picture in the back yard. I allowed her to get a couple that were presentable.

I think this is my best side don't you?

If she wasn't so unpredictable I could release her from the leash and I could run free like I really want to. It's such a bother having humans sometimes.

Seeing as how the humans here are pretty lazy and even walks have been inconsistent I really don't have much news to report. Have a wooftastic day and hopefully by my next report I won't be a disgruntled human owner. Does anyone know of a shelter that I might drop the old girl off at? 

The Documented Life Project

July Theme
Ephemera
July 11
Art Challenge: Focal Point vs. Layering*
Journal Prompt:  Time keeps on ticking

This one is pretty much self explanatory. The picture of me are at age 5, 22 and 53. Where has the time gone.

I want to thank those of you who gave me glue suggestions yesterday. Now I can stick with that project :)

It's a start....maybe

I've got about two more weeks to go before we do the craft show we do every August. I haven't made anything all year long.
Saturday I made my first new item.

I took one of these

And made it in to this

Each space will hold a piece of candy instead of pills. My original plan was to put Hershey Miniatures in them but if it's going to be really hot out they would end up melting. I suppose I can always keep the chocolate in a cooler and fill it at the time of purchase.

My one problem however is that the paper is peeling off rather easily. I sanded the plastic before I glued the paper on to give the glue a little more gripping power but I don't know if it was enough. I hate to sell something that is going to fall apart on someone. I used Elmer's school glue on them. Any glue experts out there have any suggestions?

I haven't done that in a while

For the first time (except for last weekend at the wedding) in a long time I went outside with my real camera. I've been mainly taking pictures with my cell phone. 

I walked around the yard and in between taking pictures of flowers and bugs I was begging Gibbs to sit still long enough for me to get pictures of him.

Not only did I take a whole bunch of pictures but I actually got a weeks worth of them ready for blog posts.

I'm starting off with a weed. I found this growing behind the hydrangea bush. First is the original picture straight off the camera.

A few adjustments on shadows, highlights, brightness, contrast and sharpening.

Then I added a filter and played around with different blending modes

Lastly I went in search of a quote.

Everything's just ducky

I apologize for being MIA yesterday. I got home from work laid on the couch and went to sleep until dinner time. Then I went back to sleep until 7 at which time I went to bed.  I would say I'm feeling much better now but I had to go to work the next day and that has a way of sucking the life right out of me.

A day off is just what the doctor ordered so I'm going to enjoy today and not think about having to go back to work tomorrow.

Aye yi yi

After the day I had on Wednesday I didn't have much brain power left to come up with a post. My brain was thinking about finding a peaceful spot to take a break.

I got to work Wednesday, punched in and got started. A mere 25 minutes in to my day the lights went out and then came right back on. Only thing was all the florescent bulbs in the bakery deli area were flashing off and on really fast.  The manager wasn't there yet so I called him at home and told him what was going on. We sat until 9:30 and then we got sent home until the power came back on. I didn't go back to work until 12:30. About half of the product that I was going to back for the day ended up in the garbage including 9 dozen donuts that I was doing a day ahead for an early Thursday morning order.

I'm considering calling off and saying the heck with it. Unfortunately, as tempting as that sounds to me I won't do it. I never call off, even when I'm sick. Pray it's a better day.

Project 365 week of 7/5/15

7/5 Off for a walk after I got home from work. Not everyone had a long weekend.

7/6 It was raining and how is a pup to stay dry if he doesn't walk real close to the house

7/7 It takes very little to amuse me sometimes so I found it funny that a "milk" crate was marked wawa

7/8 The only picture I took of the day and I can't go wrong if I'm taking one of Gibbs.

7/9 Working on getting everything packed and hoping I don't forget anything.

7/10 Dressed and ready to hit the road. Just waiting for Wade to get a move on. We left a little before noon. It's roughly a three hour drive and Wade had to pick up his tux once we got there and then there was the rehearsal and dinner afterwards.

7/11 The bride and groom sitting at their table. I took very few pictures with my phone. I mainly used my regular camera. I still didn't get a whole lot of good pictures since the church and the reception hall were both pretty dark.

Guest Book

I have one more picture I want to show you from the wedding. Wade's son, Wade Jr is married to Mary who happens to be a very talented artist. She created the most unique guest book for Terra and Andy that I have ever seen.

This is a large piece of wood that Mary wood burned the tree onto.

They had 4 different shades of green ink that guest were to use to apply their thumb print to the tree. Next to their thumb print they wrote their name in with a black sharpie marker.

342 miles

That is how many miles we drove (round trip) between Friday morning and Sunday. Where did we go?
We went to church.

Sacred Heart Church in St. Marys Pennsylvania

For the wedding of Wade's youngest daughter Terra. Isn't she a beautiful bride?

Top left. Terra's mom, Terra, Andy and Wade
Bottom left, my wrist coursage
Right the bottle coozie's they had by the bar

The Documented Life Project

July Theme
Ephemera
July 4
Art Challenge: Using Old Maps, Letters, Tickets & More
Journal Prompt:  Life...with a history

I wanted this to have a vintage look to it so I went with neutral colors. The tag and assorted pieces were inspired by a tag I saw while searching online for printable ephemera. I used some lace stickers, numbered tape, a piece of muslin that I stamped on and a scrap of burlap that I glued a button to. The needle card was printed and cut. I arranged the pieces then did some messy zig zag  stitching to hold it all together before I glued it to the page. 

The Documented Life Project

June Theme
Travel Journaling
June 27
Art Challenge: Photos and Words
Journal Prompt:  A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

I had no idea what pictures to use for this one so I just started out by creating a background. Once I had that done I started going through my picture files and the lilies were the right color to match so that's what I went with. As for the journal prompt, I was at a loss for what I could possibly write on this so I just went with the word Daylily. The paper flower in the bottom corner was something I was playing around with so it went on the page for a little something extra

The Documented Life Project

I did it. I really really did it. I finally got myself all caught up on these art journal pages. There are three of them but I'm only going to show one a day. (That gives me three separate blog posts) Plus I'm going to be extremely busy over the weekend and won't have time for blogging. (More on that later)

On with today's post.

June Theme
Travel Journaling
June 20
Art Challenge: Hometown Inspiration
Journal Prompt:  There is no place like home

Honestly, I find this one pretty much downright ugly but it is what it is. I printed out a google map of  the town I live in and the heart is over where I live. I cut the letters for the word home using my cricut machine and the key was stamped on with black ink

In response

Because I love the comments you leave me so much and because some of those make me laugh, I thought it would be a good idea to highlight some of those comments in a post of their own.

Your host for today is Gibbs.

And a few of the comments are as follows.

From Project 365
Jerry said You've been just about caught up for awhile now.

From The Gibbs report
Grace said There is no reason for the Mom to not provide us with most excellent photos of you...you really need to whip that woman into shape...

and Jen said Do you think you should get a whistle like the other coaches wear Gibbs? Maybe a good toot or two might get your Mom motivated so you can take her for a walk. We are under a canine invasion here this week, but I don't think I'd like anyone on the table...even if their paws are clean ;o)

From this older Project 365 
Lin said I like the pocket photos! No lint!! ;)

Google search

I seem to be doing a lot of church signs lately.

Searches aren't the only thing that google can't satisfy. I'm still miffed about them deciding that certain blog comments won't be forwarded to my email. It could be just a coincidence but shortly after they stopped allowing comments with an aol or yahoo address to be forwarded to my email several people stopped commenting on my blog. I hope they didn't think that I no longer wanted to respond to their comments.

The Gibbs Report

Hello my blogging peeps. How long has it been since I've given you one of my reports? You realize it's not that I didn't want to do the blog posts, it's mom who is at fault here.

Why even today, I'm prepared to give you a most excellent report but she's only providing a mediocre photo. It's so hard to find good help these days.

I've been doing my best to keep mom on a regular walking schedule but she's so hard to train. Maybe I should look in to rewarding her with some kind of treat ever time she walks with me.

Amanda came to visit the other day. Her and mom were sitting at the table on the deck. I jumped up in Amanda's lap and then right up on the table. Mom didn't say anything and Amanda couldn't believe that she didn't yell at me for doing it. I don't understand why anyone would mind if I was on the table. My paws were clean.

Well I've got some toys that need shaking so I'm heading out now. See you all next time and in the meantime have a wooftastic day.

Project 365 week of 6/28

6/28 You can't really tell from the picture but it was  a gloomy rainy day. After work it was the perfect day to come home and take a nap

6/29 A very artful day. I finished two art journal pages and started a third. Almost all caught up now

6/30 During our walk we cut through the church parking lot and took some pictures. These flowers were sitting near one of the doors

7/1 I had the day off and did some shopping. I stopped at Hobby Lobby and they were already starting to put out their Christmas stuff.

7/2 A flag in our front yard. Every year someone goes through town and puts these flags in everyone's front yards.

7/3 A picture taken while I was on a stress relieving power walk. Gibbs may have been upset with me but I needed to do this one solo

7/4 We had no plans for the holiday and my day was spent cleaning, doing laundry and washing the car.

Sunday Sign

Happy 4th of July

Wishing you a warm and wonderful 4th of July and a summer filled with good times

Before and After

While on a recent walk we cut through one of the church parking lots and I stopped to take a picture of a statue.

I cropped it and made a few adjustments.

Project 365 week of 6/21

6/21 Just a little doodle to remind me to have fun every day

6/22 When we walk in the park I always love looking up into all the tall evergreen trees

6/23 Picture from inside my pocket. I still can't believe I took 15 pictures from inside my pocket while I was walking

6/24 New sign at the church.

6/25 Pulled over again to take a picture of the pretty sky.

6/26 A slow day for pictures. I snapped a picture of the concrete while Gibbs and I were in the back yard

6/27 We were headed out to do some grocery shopping and Wade wanted to stop for breakfast first.

Another Documented Life Project page

Holy smokes can you believe this is the first of July already? Where has this year gone.  June can't be over with yet, I haven't finished all the challenges yet.

June Theme
Travel Journaling
June 13
Art Challenge: Recording Memories
Journal Prompt:  Taking the Road Less Traveled

I really can't tie this one in to either the art challenge or the journal prompt. I was at a total loss here so I just started putting stuff on the page and didn't stop until I thought it looked done