Dogs, Dogs, Dogs

Once upon a time, my brother and sister were surfing channels on the TV and they came across an Elvis Presley movie called Girls, Girls, Girls. They thought that was a hilarious name for a movie.

That really doesn't have anything to do with this post except it is the inspiration for my title: Dogs, Dogs, Dogs. Because that's what we're going to look at. These are some pictures of our weimaraners, who are unfortunately no longer with us. Weimaraners are absolutely beautiful dogs. And they're SO intelligent. They're scary they're so smart. You can find stories about the crazy things they do because they're just so intelligent and they're sneaky. They're a handful, but they're wonderful companions because their personalities are so fun and they're very loyal.

I took these pictures at least 3 years ago. I remember it was snowing outside and we had a snow day from college (woohoo!) and I had nothing better to do with myself (like who does homework on a snowday???) than to take glamour shots of our dogs and the puppies they had recently had.

This is Jumper. He's the papa dog. He's a handsome devil! And the funny thing about him was he knew he was being photographed and would usually hold a pose for me until he heard the camera click and then he'd try to get off the coffee table where he was sitting for his picture.

I thought it was fun then, now I have to wonder what kind of sane 17 year old takes glamour photos of their dog? Kinda embarrassing actually.

Weimaraner puppies are so cute! They truly are. They have blue eyes that eventually turn hazel or a whitish blue. Our female, Dancer, had whitish blue eyes that were almost a little creepy. But she was a hoot!

I'm sure I thought I was the feminine version of William Wegman...lol.

This was the whole litter. All seven of them. This was incredibly hard to take because they wouldn't stop moving around. That's why the one on the far right is kind of behind the one next to it. This was the best one I got though.

I just put this one in because it makes me laugh. They were a little older at this point and I was still pretending I was William Wegman. Yawning puppies are so cute, but this one looks like he's laughing at me.

This is Hank. He was a very special puppy. Look how grumpy he looks. We identified with each other.

Hank couldn't find a home. No one wanted him...and he was such a terrific puppy. It just didn't make sense. So we kept him. He got very sick right before Thanksgiving. He stopped eating and drinking on a Friday night and began vomiting and by Monday morning was a very dehydrated puppy! We took him to the vet and had to stay overnight in the vet's office on antibiotics and IVs. We never found out what was wrong with him, but he made a full recovery which made us all happy. Two summers ago my family thought my dad's job was going to transfer him to another state. At the time we had 6 dogs and we knew that if we moved we would not be able to bring all those dogs. Hank was the youngest. My parents decided that it would be best for him if we found him a home with someone. I was so upset. So upset, in fact, that after they told me I left to go to work and instead of putting the car in drive I accidentally put it in reverse and backed over their grill. So not only was I sad about losing our puppy, but I took out my Dad's grill and felt really bad about that. It was such a bad day. In the end Hank found a wonderful home with people who let him sleep in the bed with them and treated him like their son. I'm sure he's very happy. And I'm happy for him. But I still occasionally miss that dog.

So let's talk about a different dog now. While I was pretending to be Wegman I decided to do some glamour shots of my sister's dog, Django. He is a mutt, but he's so pretty. His markings are really symmetrical. I've never seen such a symmetrical dog!
You know, studies have been done that show that the people we rate as "most beautiful" have extremely symmetrical faces. I think that's why I always thought Django was such a handsome boy. That and his ears were too big for his head. Oh so cute!

He looks so miserable. He's saying, "boy dogs shouldn't be covered in tulle!" lol.

This is him now. In a much more manly setting. He still looks a little mournful. The dogs probably know to be wary of me when I get around them with a camera now.

So that is my post about my awkward glamour photos of our dogs. I would like to say that if only my siblings had let me photograph them on that snow day, I wouldn't have subjected the dogs to ribbons and tulle and all that jazz. So it's Adam and Holly's fault.

Yeah...that's right. Adam and Holly's fault. :)

Never forget!

I will always remember September 11, 2001. I was at home. My mom was at the dentist, my dad was at work. My sister turned on the television and they were saying that a plane had crashed into one of the twin towers. And they were saying that it wasn't an accident. Someone was attacking us. We lived behind a military airport at the time so it was very normal to hear planes taking off and landing over our house. That day it was really quiet because all the planes were grounded.

(the flags are all being flown at half mast in rememberance of the terrorist attacks 9/11/2001)

I choose to never forget the men and women who died tragically and heroically in the World Trade Center, on the Pennsylvania flight, and in the Pentagon 8 years ago today. To all our service men and women and their families and to the families of the victims of 9/11/2001, our prayers go out to you.

God bless America!

My newest obsession!

I think my favorite place on campus is the ceramics studio. Today I pretty much had it all to myself. A few of the students and/or teachers walked through a few times. But for the most part I was all alone. It was wonderful! This is my first mug. It isn't finished yet. I just put the handle on today. It was the first time I've tried to attach a handle. It's kind of complicated and in the end I had to perform surgery on my mug to try and salvage it. I think for a first attempt it isn't too terrible, although my teacher may have a different opinion. :)

This is the wheel I was working on. I was trying to get a picture of my tools but did not succeed.

There, that is a better idea of what my work station looks like. Although normally I don't leave my cell phone out. I wasn't actually throwing anything today, I was just letting the mugs I threw last night have a chance to air dry while I tried to smooth and attach a handle to the mug that was already ''leather-hard.'' If I was throwing pots I would be using a lot of water and my cell phone would end up water-logged. I just had it there because I had to leave by 4 pm and it helped me keep track of the time.

These are the little pots/mugs I've saved so far. I've thrown a few others but I ended up throwing them in the slurry. I liked these better. Now I have to try to attach handles to all of these. Our first actual graded project is mugs and we have to make at least 10. I am going to try to make a few different shapes and see what I like best.

And here is a sideview of the other mugs/pots I threw. I think it's so weird to say "throw," "threw" because it makes you think we're actually tossing things around. We don't. That just means you started it on a wheel and pulled up the walls. At least that's what I think it means. :)

I'll be posting some more about ceramics as I continue to make progress on these projects. I'm excited to see what they look like in the end!

Update: 9/13/2009. My teacher said that the first mug I made was, "not bad." Sweet! :)

There and back again...a Hobbit's..err College Student's tale

The reason I haven't been too active on blogger lately is because adjusting to a new school is...well, an adjustment. And it's exhausting! And for the past two weekends I have gone home to visit which is also exhausting, although worth it.

Here are some pictures from my last trip home. Coffee with Adam and Holly.

Bananagrams! Fun game!

We finally have a bookstore!

Adam told me I needed to buy these books. Thank you, Adam. Ha ha.

Snuggle-time with my niece...she's so loveable. And chubby.

Me without my braces! Yay!

Driving back to school. (I was not driving while taking these pictures. We pulled off at a rest area/ overlook site and that's why I took a picture of how they cut the road through the mountain.)

It's always wonderful to see my family. It makes me realize that I take them for granted. Sometimes absence really does make the heart grow fonder. :)

We have a winner!

And that winner is Christy!

Congrats Christy! I'll be shipping your book out as soon as I get your mailing address!

I'm thinking of listing the other books on Amazon.com. Or maybe we'll do another giveaway sometime in the future.

I'm settling in (sort of) to college life. I actually enjoy all the walking I'm doing. I walk everywhere! Dad brought my car to me on Friday which makes me very happy. I missed my little car. I still plan to walk as much as possible though and save the car for when I have a late class or am coming home late from Bible study or if I get a job or need to run to Walmart or go home for a weekend, etc. It is SO hilly up here. And the stairs...oh the stairs...lets just say who needs a stair climber with all the stairs I climb every day? :) I plan to lose the freshman 15, not gain it! I'm not a freshman anyway so I definitely don't want to gain a junior 15. :)

Not a whole lot of crafting going on here. It's kind of hard to find time in the middle of classes and homework and Bible studies. Plus I try not to pull out something that I can't put away easily. I think my roommate would be rather unhappy if I left fabric and patterns out all over our tiny floor while I ran to class. I do plan to do some sewing though. And in the meantime I have some knitting and card-making stuff here to keep me busy.

And how could I forget to mention that I'm taking non-major Ceramics this semester! Right now we're working on wheel-thrown pottery. I had my first real lesson last Wednesday when we practiced centering the clay on the wheel. It was amazing! I came home covered in clay and my hands felt wheel-burnt and my arms were sore (it's hard work!), but I loved it. I think it's going to be my silver lining while I'm here at college. I feel so incredibly blessed to have gotten into this class. I not only get 3 credits for taking it, I also have to practice outside of our class meeting time which means that anytime I want to I can go to our classroom (as long as there isn't another class meeting) and play with clay. And aside from the 4 assignments we have in the class our teacher told us we could make anything we want (aside from ashtrays which he said is like a desecration to the art of ceramics...I think my teacher is SO cool!). Yep, I think I lucked out on this class!

I'll post more about it as I learn more. I am so excited about this class! I already want to switch my major to ceramics, but I won't (don't worry Mom and Dad!). Maybe whenever I finish school I'll go back and get another major in ceramics. That would be so fun!

Happy weekend all~ I hope you have a lovely week. :)

Skyline Drive

We (Dad, Adam, Holly and I) took a little trip down to Skyline drive last weekend. It's so beautiful there. We brought a picnic lunch and spent part of the day driving around and stopping at various overlooks and taking pictures. At some of the places we stopped we were over 3000 feet in the air. It was absolutely gorgeous! It's about 109 miles long and we went through about 45 miles of it before turning around to go home. We got through some of the highest points and decided to call it a day after that.

(doesn't this make you want to sing, "the hills are alive with the sound of music!?")

If you have a chance to go it is very beautiful. We were hoping to see a bear but didn't end up getting to. I'd love to go back in the fall and drive through again.

Please check out my giveaway! You have a week before names are drawn!

Harpers Ferry on a summer evening

This past Sunday I went out my Matt, Jacqueline and Olive to visit some friends and to go down to Harper's Ferry. They let the baby stick her feet in the water. I don't think she liked it very much. Not nearly as much as she likes bathtime!

Anyway, these are a couple of photos I took of the town. The last time I'll be down there this summer. My how this summer has just flown by!

Goodbye lovely place. Maybe I'll get a chance to see you during the fall. I'm sure you will be gorgeous as ever!

Pretending I live in Denmark...

A little dessert I made for my former co-workers as a little goodbye. I can't believe I am moving in 2 days!

These are a two day project. But they are oh so yummy!
They are made by scratch and so are the fillings (except for the nutella). They have 5 cups of flour in them and two were whole wheat, the fillings were made with frozen blackberries and cream cheese and the nutella (yummy!). So they were not as unhealthy as they could have been.

These are the kind of food that can only be made once or twice a year. Any more than that and you're in trouble. The recipe came from a Baking With Julia cookbook. :)

GIVEAWAY!!!!

This is my 91st post! I've been blogging on this site for a little over a year now and I've had a lot of fun. Even though not all my posts are craft-related I've tried to keep that the theme of this blog. It's motivated me to do creative things and I've met some pretty talented crafters through it!

So...I was packing up for my move to college and I realized that I have a pretty large collection of craft books. Some of them I've used frequently, but then there have been others that I've never used. 8 of them in fact! And because I'm going to be moving on Friday to school and I know I won't be able to use these books anytime soon I thought it would be great to give one to someone who would enjoy using it. So in honor of moving away, and in honor of my 91st post, and in honor of blogging here for a year, and in honor of anyone who reads this blog...we're having a little giveaway!

Here's the plan: One person will any book of their choosing from this collection. All you have to do to enter is leave a comment saying what your favorite thing to sew/make is. Be sure to specify which book you would want if you won. If you post about my giveaway on your blog, comment here again for a second chance to win the giveaway!

Here are the books up for grabs!

Simple Sewing with a French Twist:

The Crafter's Companion.

Sew What! Fleece

Sew U: Built by Wendy.

All the patterns in this book are intact!

Saturday Night Hat. There are directions on how to make everything from berets to cloches to fedoras to sunhats.

In Stitches.

All the patterns in this book are intact.

Printing by Hand.

All the patterns in this book are intact.

Simple Sewing:

All the patterns in this book are intact.

So there you go. That's the giveaway. The winner will be randomly chosen on Sunday the 30th of August.

Locket

I LOVE our new Michaels craft store! They have the coolest pendants. I gave up my interest in jewelry making back when I was 10 years old and I lived in NC. I used those big chunky alphabet letter beads to create such masterpieces as necklaces made of shoelaces with MOM in big chunky letters strung on. My mom was a great sport and wore that necklace a lot (I love my mom). I enjoyed playing with beads but I never figured out how to make my jewelry strong (a lot of my stuff broke and the beads all got lost) enough to wear very much.

This is my more grown-up version of a necklace now. I used a very thin ribbon and strung on a locket pendant and then I tied the string to a toggle closure. I painted the ends of the ribbon with clear nail polish to keep them from unravelling. I'm thinking now that I could probably put a few stitches into the ends of the ribbon to secure it even more. And if something should happen to the ribbon I could always cut a new piece of ribbon or find a chain for it.

It took me about 5 minutes to make. Every once in awhile I need an instant gratification project. It makes me think I've actually accomplished something! Now I need to find something tiny enough to fit into it. Any ideas?

A gift

Last week was my last week at work for awhile. I decided to take 2 weeks off to get ready to leave for school. All summer my boss (a dentist) has been taking a pottery class. I have wanted to take pottery for forever. So naturally I kept asking her how it was going and if she liked it and when she was going to bring in her work so I could see it and she kept saying stuff like, "it's not very good, but I'll bring some in to show you."

Last week as a gift she gave me two pieces of her pottery and I was shocked at how gorgeous it was! I say she was totally being modest about her work because I think that her work is beautiful and I was so excited that I got to keep a couple of pieces of her pottery. And I am so in love with this color lately. How cool that I now have pottery in such a lovely color!?
I just love handmade. :) I love it when someone gives me something they worked on. I think it's cool when someone makes something for you because it gives you an idea of two things:

1. What their perceptions of you are. Did they design something because they think you would like it? If so then their work probably reflects some kind of characteristic or trait that they see in you.

2. What their own personal style of craft is like. Is it bold, colorful, earthy?

So in the end you usually get a unique blend of your tastes mixed with someone else's vision and talents. Awesome!

I am hoping this fall to work on developing my skills as a crafter. Maybe I'll finally sign up for a pottery class too. Either way I hope to make time to continue working on crafty things and I will definitely be posting those things on here. :)

Too much to do

So I haven't finished that quilt yet. It's #1 on my to-do list though. The other day I was getting a bit overwhelmed with everything I needed to do before I leave next Friday so my mom recommended that I make a list of everything I need to do.

The quilt is at a bit of a standstill. I'm machine quilting it because I know if I did it by hand I would never finish it. I messed up the back and had to rip out a whole bunch of stitches so now I'm pinning it and am going to try to finish it up this weekend. I love it.

The second thing on my to-do list: Finish packing. And in a smaller print I should just write "throw everything away!" Seriously! When did I accumulate SO MUCH junk? And why haven't I throw away clothes that haven't fit me for 2 years? I keep saying I'll fit into them again (and I plan to) but by that time I'll just buy new clothes.

Oh, and how many craft materials does a girl need? I decided to get rid of a LOT of craft supplies. I sent some to my boss's mom who is a teacher and I gave some away to a few friends and I feel like my supply is a little more under control now.

Speaking of getting rid of craft supplies I'm planning to have a little giveaway. I'm not sure when I'll post about it, but soon!

So there. That's what I'm up to lately. That and my laptop arrived today! :) Now I should add to my to-do list: Figure out how to work the laptop. And install Microsoft Office.

But for now I think I'll get out of here and get ready for Bible study. :)

One more thank you

I made one more card for a co-worker this past week. It's hard to believe that I'm actually finished working at the dentist office for awhile. I've been working with this doctor for 2 years and I will miss her and my co-workers. I'm excited about leaving for school though and I know there's a lot to do in preparation.

I'm baby-sitting my niece tonight. My sister and her husband went to a concert at a Messianic Jewish church with a friend from Bible study. I told them I'd watch Olive for them at least once before I left for school so they could have a night out. I completely adore this baby, but boy has she got a powerful pair of lungs (which I am grateful for). She was so sleepy and couldn't fall asleep so much crying ensued until she finally cried herself to sleep. Then she unswaddled herself, woke up and cried some more until I fixed the swaddler and put her back to bed. She cried some more and finally fell asleep again at which point she started hiccuping and waking herself up so then she'd cry some more. Now she is sleeping and I keep tiptoeing in every so often to make sure she's doing okay.

So far so good. I started quilting my quilt and messed up the back and had to rip out about a thousand stitches. I am a complete novice at quilting and have a somewhat haphazard way of crafting anyway so I'm learning a lot and having fun even though I've had to go back and correct a few errors. It's all good. :) Now I just need to finish that quilt up before I leave in 2 weeks. And I still need to post pictures of the skirt I made.

Lots to do and so little time.

Until later~