Unusual day . . .

I say it is unusual because I was up and dressed by 0815 and out the door by 0820! I had to have my cat Pandora at the vets before 0900 to get her teeth cleaned. Pandora wasn't very happy with me this morning since she wasn't allowed to eat or drink. Poor thing kept meowing at me, during the car ride and even at the vets! She was saying feed me!! My mom didn't!!! :-)



I thought since I was up that early, I would get a few errands done. I was really hoping to get my allergy shots but I had them check my temp. since my throat is red but not sore. I am also all stuffy. It was 99.9! I didn't really think I was running a temp. but I got sent away. I hope that this isn't the start of a sinus infection. I have some saline sinus lavage so I need to learn how to do this to see if it will help. Then I made a couple of other stops and back home. I still have more errands to run and got home and remembered! Oh well!

I am really enjoying my Gypsy!! I have been designing while in my warm cozy bed. Today I have been making cards from the Wild Card cartridge. My Cricut Expression is supposed to be delivered today and I am excited to try it out! I realized I was limited with my baby bug and the Wild Card cartridge. I can't wait to get it and finally cut my first full size card and envelope! My Grandma's birthday is next week so I hope to get her a card made with this cartridge.



Last night I went to Wal-mart to look at different sewing kits they have. You can make bags, aprons or PJ's. They have all the material & instructions you need so I thought I would try one. I finally choose an apron to try to make. I got a sewing machine for Christmas and have yet to figure out how to use it. I thought this would give me something to make! I just wonder what it will look like when I am done!



After Christmas, I had gotten this magazine called Stitch. It has some really cute things to sew! I have a little list of things I want to make. I hope if my apron goes well, I am going to buy some material and figure out how to sew from a pattern. I remember when I was a teenager, I decided to sew a dress for a doll. I ended up sewing the parts on crooked so it didn't look very good. I am sure with a little practice, I will do fine.

The swatches of material in the picture I had got to cut into hearts and sew onto a plain apron I have. I hope I get inspired to try all these things soon! One problem I have is a table big enough to set all this up on. Someday I am going to get my extra bedroom cleaned out and set up a table to do crafty things at!

I believe it is time for my yummy energy drink and hopefully the UPS man will be here soon! :-)

Gypsy Love!

The first thing that comes to mind when I hear the word Gypsy is my Great Grandma. My Great Grandma was born in 1900 and she always had wonderful stories to tell us of when she was growing up. One I remember was the day the Gypsies came to town. She was terrified! When she told the story, she even reacted like it was actually happening and trying to hide from them. It was a story I will always remember.

Then the Gypsy came along for my Cricut! It isn't scary like the gypsies in my Great Grandma's story! I received my Gypsy in the mail on Wednesday and had to work the next 3 nights. Why is it that I always get something fun when I have to work the next few days! :-) Thursday morning when I got home, I turned it on and clicked on things. Friday morning, I took time to hook it to my Mac and get all the updates. Saturday morning, I took time to link all my cartridges to it. Now I need to take the time to watch some videos on the website to learn more! I haven't hooked it up to my Cricut as of yet. That might happen today! I have ordered me a Cricut Expression and anxiously waiting its arrival! I found a good deal on Oh My Crafts for the Expression. I have gotten a couple of cartridges that I am limited on what I can do because of my baby bug. One cartridge that I got that I can't wait to try is Winter Wonderland. You can make 3D houses! I need the bigger bug to cut a big house. I am wondering if I could make a glitter house from that. We will see!!

Celebrity Pug!!

A little over a year ago, I took Phoebe for a pet modeling session. The photographer was planning to take the pictures she got to sell as stock photography. I signed a release for her to do so. If she found out if Phoebe's pic was going to be used, she would notify me.



Wednesday before heading to work, I checked my email on my phone and had an email that Phoebe's picture from her pet modeling session was chosen for the cover of a book! I was soo excited! It is a book of inspiring stories about pugs. The book is still being developed but I am going to get one as soon as it is available. Check it out here!

I now call Phoebe a celebrity! :-) She is going to have to sign my book for me when I get it! :-)

Sleep is optional

That is how I feel lately. I have had such a hard time sleeping at night and my body wants to sleep during the day! I have worked the night shift too long. I do prefer nights as I am more of a night person.

I hardly got any sleep and had a meeting at work at 1300. I had fallen asleep for a couple of hours during the night but then woke up about 0500. I couldn't get back to sleep till 1000. I needed to get up about 1100 - 1130 to get ready for my meeting but I woke up at 1145! I was rushing around to get ready and arrived in the parking lot at 1300. I was a little late in coming in for the meeting. Surely I will be able to sleep tonight. I do have to work Wednesday night so I need to stay up for a bit longer if I can.

I remember the days before I got my dog that I could sleep longer. Phoebe will often sleep with me and she is so snuggly! It has helped me with being able to sleep a little longer but when she decides it is time to eat, she is a wild pup!



In my lack of sleep this morning, I was searching ebay for a Cricut Expression. I had found a few from the same seller with free shipping but they didn't come with cartridges. I thought if I could get the Expression for under $200 that would be okay. I never did win any of the auctions. They all seemed to go for about $200. Then I checked out Oh My Crafts! to learn with my coupon code I had I could get an Expression for about $200 with cartridges! I finally did order one. I am eagerly waiting for it to ship! It will be like Christmas soon. I ordered a couple of books, the Gypsy & Cricut Expression.

Puppies are cute!

My sister, nieces got a dog! He is a bichon/shitzu mix that they named Baby. I had been wanting to meet the newest addition to the family and my sister stopped by this morning with Baby! He is adorable and so calm compared to my pup!





I wanted to get pictures of Baby & Phoebe together but it was difficult! Phoebe was jumping and being a little rough with Baby so we were holding them to great each other. Phoebe was super excited to see a new dog! I hope we can take them to the dog park to play when it gets warmer.

I was hoping to stay awake all day but I decided to lay down for a nap about noon. I forgot to set my alarm and half way woke up about 1630 but felt so tired that I fell back to sleep and finally got up about 2030! I didn't mean to sleep my day away so I decided to have some tacos at Qdoba and then head to the Mudhouse. While I was sleeping, we had more snow! The snow wasn't much so I thought the roads would be fine. I was wrong!! i made it to Qdoba but it was slow. Then while heading to the Mudhouse, my car slide all over at an intersection. I was glad that no one was there! I made it to the Mudhouse finally but they were going to be closing in 30 minutes. Then I returned home safely. I have said it before but I am ready for warmer weather!! ;-)

Snow!!

I was quite surprised at some snow we got this morning that was short lived. There were large snowflakes falling so I went outside with Phoebe and my camera. The snowflakes were big enough that Phoebe was trying to catch them to eat. The first photo is an action photo of her running around eating the snowflakes!



Here you can see the snowflakes sitting on her back:



Various pictures of the snow:







We have had too much snow for my taste this winter. I am ready for Spring! It was fun to be able to take a few pictures of the snow.

Camera Club fun!

I have had a fun day even with little sleep! I finally did fall back asleep about 0800 and slept till noon. I kept hitting snooze till about 1300. I needed to get up if I was going to meet up with the camera club! I ended up finishing my scarf last night and starting on my third pomp-a-doodle scarf! I might be able to meet my goal for V-day! :-)

The camera club meet up at a garden to take pictures. I was thinking we would be outside a lot but actually we were inside the greenhouses. It was a little warm and humid. It was a nice change from being outside but I was getting a little hot! I took about 200 pictures. I did take a few with my Lensbaby. I am still trying to figure it out but it was fun to play around with it today. I need to start just going out and taking pictures more often like this. It was a fun afternoon activity!

Here are a couple of Lensbaby photos:





A few more pictures with a regular lens:







I also found out today that the president of the camera club knows my Dad! They work together and have went on float trips together. It is a small world! I enjoy getting to know more of the members of the camera club and have enjoyed it so far. It has been almost a year since I went to my first meeting. I am planning to join the competitions this year. I am curious what the judges will say about my photos. I need to get my first photo printed! I have been printing some of my photos and putting them in frames. I am unsure where to hang them but I will have to find a spot!

I hope to be able to do more field trips with the camera club. It helps encourage me to take pictures something I haven't been doing enough of.

After I got done with the camera club, I went to the superbowl sale at the LSS! I bought too much paper but I tried to buy papers that coordinate together for a LO. I need to sort the paper and have sketches in mind for them. :-) I will have something else to do tonight if I can't sleep!

I am chilling at the Mudhouse. I finally took time to change the look of my blog. I have been wanting to do that for a long time! This background and header gives a more spring look! I am ready for Spring!

Why am I awake?

I woke up about 2am and still awake! I couldn't keep my eyes open last night and went to bed about 2130. I had also taken some Advil and Benadryl to help with my sinus headache/allergies. I slept good for about 5 hours and wish I could sleep more! I am up watching Laverne & Shirley DVD's and working on another pomp-a-doodle scarf. :-)

I had a busy week with work. Then after working a 12 hour shift, I went to a 1/2 Trauma seminar. I know have my trauma hours for the year! It was a good seminar but I was fading the last hour from lack of sleep. I had one stop to make on my way home but then I was heading home to go to bed! I ended up sleeping most of the afternoon and night. I was still quite tired when I woke up Saturday morning.

I went to the LSS for super saver scrapbooking and it was fun as usual! The LO's we did were to cute! They required lots of cutting so they took longer than usual. We get 1 1/2 hours per session but the next session didn't have to many so I was able to stay to get most of them done. I still have a small amount to finish but I thought I would do that once I get pictures placed.



After super saver scrapbooking, I went to Hobby Lobby to get a few Copic markers. I have bought 2 black and skin white. I can't play with them as much so I got me 4 different colors. I need to use some of my flower acrylic stamps and play! Even with the 30% discount, they are a little pricey. I only got 4. My fave website to get Cricut supplies now is selling Copic markers! I will have to order some with them too.

I am going to go back to working on my scarf! I hope to get some sleep soon!

My second knitting project!

I have been enjoying knitting! I still have lots to learn though! I can't wait to learn more. :-)



I had found Pomp-a-Doddle yarn and got me a skein. I have been lurking a couple of knitting websites and someone posted a video on how to knit with it. I have made a scarf for my second project and it is soft! Here is the video I found:



I have a hard time getting Phoebe to leave this yarn alone. She tends to like her soft, plush dog toys. I can see her liking a small doggie blanket out of this yarn! Here she is in action playing with my yarn!



I casted on 12 stitches and it seemed to be fast knitting with the yarn. I had this done in a few days and could get it done in a day if I could just work on it through out the day. Here is my finished project:



The mannequin I bought for my photography is going to serve a second purpose! I have found a pattern for this yarn to make a hat. That might be a little more advanced for me at the moment. I love this scarf so much that I bought me more in different colors!



I might make these as Valentines gifts for family! I need to get busy knitting! :-)

Blog Sneeze!

I have had several post saved since November that I wanted to add pictures too. I was behind on uploading pictures because of my Project 365. I had finished uploading these pics the beginning of January but just now getting around to finishing up the saved post. I didn't have anything saved for December so I might just have to do a summary of what happened that month once I get caught up with posting!

It is about 4am now and I need to get some sleep. I will have to pursue this project later. I can't seem to post without a picture!

This picture I took on December 30th as part of my Project 365. When I was growing up, we had a wonderful Cocker Spaniel named Brandy. I love Cocker Spaniels and played with this one at Petland! He is so adorable! I would have double trouble if I got me a second dog!



Hopefully, later today I will finish this project. Be on the look out for older, new post!