Splish Splash

It's that time again...time to torture little miss Abby. As evidenced by the pictures in my last post, she is badly in need of a trim. Now this is something that I usually dread. Every time I think of it, I have flashbacks of literally having to carry her upstairs to get her in the tub with her fighting me every step of the way. Let me remind you that she weighs about 76 pounds. What golden retriever doesn't like water you might ask...well, that would be ours. Cutting her hair was always the same way...fighting me all the way through. We tried taking her to the doggie salon twice in the past. She was terrified both times. I'm still not sure if she has forgiven us from the last time. I'm proud to report, though, that today it was apparent that my baby is growing up. She sat/laid through the haircut like a perfect little angel, giving me her full cooperation. When it came to bath time, I only had to redirect her into the bathroom and then she hopped right into the tub. I don't know if she is so grateful that I'm not sending her off to be tortured by strangers that she just figures she'll let me do what I want or what.

She has no idea what she is in for...totally unsuspecting.

Hmmmm...why is mama taking my picture for no reason?

No haircut pics...
but I do have a pile of evidence, tons of golden curls.
There's plenty more where that came from too...all over the floor.

Patiently awaiting her time in the tub...
secretly wondering how she can escape.

Look at this face!

She got a new toy for being such a good girl.

Canine Classic 2006!

Boy did Abby have quite the day yesterday. We took her out to the annual Canine Classic dog fair. This is the first year we have made it out there. I've been wanting to go every year since it started, which I think was three years ago. Last year I remember I was going to meet up with one of my coworkers and her golden, and it rained all day. This year I really, really wanted to go. The entrance fee was $15 for one dog and two adults, but it went to a good cause. The whole thing is put on by the local animal shelter. There were booths set up with all kinds of vendors such as pet photography, breed rescue organizations, etc. There were things like free weight checks and nail trimming for a small fee...obedience demonstration...K9 police dog demonstrations...a canine talent show, etc. Fun for the whole family! Of course, I think it would have been more fun if it wasn't so hot!! Of all the days of the week, it had to be hot on Sunday. The temp. was probably close to 90 (which totally did not make Paul happy to be there...he tolerated it for me though). Today I would say it barely made it 60. What's the deal with that?!! Anyway, I think Abby had a good time. We were a little nervous about taking her at first because she's pretty indifferent with other dogs. She'll let them sniff her with her nose stuck in the air like it's a total invasion of her privacy but just go ahead and get it over with! I swear she thinks she's human. She was such a good girl, though, so we're glad we took her. I was planning to take a lot of pictures, but once again I forgot until we were almost ready to leave to get my camera out of my purse. Shame on me!! Anyway, here are a few that I did take...

This is of Abby pre-fair...all dressed up and ready to go.

Check out this purple poodle! Poor thing!
At least it looks like she has a pretty good sense of humor!

These are of Tom the bomb-sniffing spaniel
who gets to sniff all the luggage at the airport.

I'm not sure what this one is, but it was huge!
Maybe a great dane?
He does kind of look like Scooby Doo!

Oh, and we must not forget the lovely greyhounds at the greyhound rescue booth. It was hard for me not to take all these sweeties home. I spent a lot of time lovin' on the black one. He was quite the loverboy. He was just lean into me to soak up as much of the attention as he could. I love the picture of the brown one in the pink feathers...what a flirt!

That, unfortunately, is all the pictures I took. I had plans to take more but it didn't happen. Maybe next time. It was fun and interesting, though. Hey Lisa...wouldn't Adrianna have LOVED this! I wish we could have taken her with!

Oh...check this out...we got a copy of Abby's paw print. What a riot! She, however, didn't think it was quite so fun. She couldn't wait to get the heck away from that booth.

Then...if that wasn't enough excitement for the day, Abby and I dropped Paul off at home to watch football and we headed over to mom's. Check out these shots I got of my pretty girl in the backyard. She, as you can see, is badly in need of a haircut...which I plan on doing this week before her Aunt Deb comes to visit. I can't have her looking all raggedy for out-of-town guests, now can I?

Another Sketch Challenge

Yes...another autumn card. I can't help myself. Since I have all my autumn-themed stuff out, I thought I might as well use it for this week's sketch challenge. I'm trying to keep up with them, and this time I actually did what I said I was going to do and didn't look at any of the samples or anyone else's work before I did it.

Here is the sketch (the writing along the left side says "something here" so we would put something in that spot).
Here is my card. As you can see, I used raffia for my "something here." For some reason that raffia looks gold in the scan, and it's totally not in real life...weird! I don't really care for the look it gave. I should have used hemp, but I only have that in white and didn't feel like trying to color any of it. I originally had a brown ribbon there, but the color was way off from the brown in the patterned paper. I used the rock 'n roll technique on the flowers (notice how the edges are darker).

Ugh. The more I look at this, the more I don't like that raffia. I'm going to have to do something about that tomorrow.

Beautiful colors

Wow...two posts in one day! It's feast or famine around this here blog, isn't it? Anyway, looking forward to autumn has gotten me in the mood to make some autumn-themed cards. This is my favorite theme as it involves my favorite color family and my favorite colors to work with. Here are the ones I worked on over the weekend. The first two are for my assignment for the SCS RAK Welcoming Committee, the third one...well..I don't know where that one is going.

I picked up that fun striped paper and cool plaid and printed ribbon at Joann's this weekend. The background of the third card was stamped using the "ghosting" technique. Cool, huh? I think it looks really cool with this particular stamp set. I also used that technique on the pumpkins in the background of the second card.

Now...should I go to bed or should I make another card? Hmmmm.

Addendum: Did you really think I was going to go to bed? I needed to get a card in for last Wednesday's SCS Sketch Challenge before tomorrow morning.

Here is the sketch:


Here is what I came up with:

Now I'm going to bed!!

It's getting to be that time of year again!

I may be getting ahead of myself because autumn doesn't officially arrive for 10 more days, but I just can't help myself. I love, love, LOVE this time of year. It seems like the older I get, the more I love it. I saw an idea on another blog, and I'm going to steal it for myself!

Pictures copyright Country Wide Tours

REASONS WHY I LOVE AUTUMN

• Cooler weather! Oh yeah! It was such a hot, hot summer. I'm so looking forward to the jeans and sweatshirt weather. I love the crispness of the air and being able to turn the air off and sleep with the window open.
• Trips to the apple orchard. Honeycrisps just became available on the 6th. We haven't made it out there yet, but one of my coworkers brought in a peck for us to share today. That was an awesome treat! Just thinking about the apple pie, donuts, and cider is making my mouth water.
• Autumn decorations. Pumpkins, scarecrows, corn stalks, bales of hay. I need to go shopping!
• Making a big batch of chili and some corn bread for dinner. That's actually on my menu for this week. I'm going to pull out my crockpot and let it simmer all day long!
• Peaches! Okay, I'm fairly sure that peaches aren't harvested in the fall, but Abby and I are sharing a peach right now, so I have to throw that in there. There just seems to be an abundance of them at the grocery stores right now. I just love them. I especially love peach cobbler...with vanilla ice cream...in case anyone is interested.
• The beautiful, vibrant colors! Reds, golds, oranges...the colors of autumn are just magnificent. This is one time of year when I actually enjoy driving to work...the trees around the college are just gorgeous and the way the morning light filters through the leaves just takes my breath away.
  
• The sound of dried leaves crunching underfoot. I will purposely go out of my way just to walk through a bunch of leaves to hear that sound.
  
• The smell in the air. You know...that slightly smoky smell of someone burning leaves somewhere. I feel bad about that because of those people with asthma and allergies, and for that reason I think leaf burning should be banned (I have to admit, it does bother my sinuses too). There is, however, just something about that smell, so I had to mention it. Oh, and the smell of the apple cidar donuts at the apple orchard!!
  
• New shows on TV. After hardly watching any TV all summer long, I'm ready to veg out in front of the tube and catch all the new episodes of House, Bones, Lost, Smallville, Supernatural, CSI, and Las Vegas. Whew! Thank God for DVR!
  

That's a lot of water!

Well, portions of the town are busy today cleaning up after the flood. Fourteen homes have to be condemned in the area between Charles, Broadway, 20th, and 7th and hundreds of homes and businesses were damanged. I guess it was a real nightmare for some residents. People and pets had to be rescued by the fire department. Here are some pictures.


The next two are of the parking lot at the corner of State and Mulford where Old Time Pottery is.



The next three are by CherryVale . The truck is at the corner of Perryville and Charles and the other two near Dairy Queen and Taco Bell.

All photos copyright RR Star 2006.

Pretty crazy, huh? We were extremely lucky where we're at because this is just a mile or two away. Mom didn't have any problems up by her either. We didn't even lose power. Like I said in my last post, the lights only flickered a few times. I feel so bad for the people that have lost their homes. They showed pictures on the news this morning...standing water up to the door knobs.

I didn't have any problems on my way to work at all. Paul had to turn around because Mulford is closed from Harrison to Sandy Hollow because the rain took out the railroad crossing signal.

Well, I have to go. We're going to take Abby to the pet store and get her some food and then stop and get Applebees carryout for dinner. Yea! Then, best of all, the new season of House starts tonight! Can't miss that!!

So Long, Long Weekend

Well, the long weekend has come to an end. Not that we did much. We both pretty much laid around all weekend. Paul was going to cook out on the grill today, but we had soooo much rain that that was pretty impossible. You want to know how much it rained? Well, I think they are estimating that we got 6 inches in just a few hours. Parts of the city are flooded...I'm talking flooded like cars are under water. The police were going door-to-door in some neighborhoods via inflatable boats to rescue people. Pretty wild, huh? All the while here Paul and I sit in our cozy little home watching a movie. We had no clue! We knew it was raining...that it even hailed at some point. The lights even flickered a few times. We didn't know things were so bad until Paul's aunt called to make sure we were okay! Yep...that's Paul and I...totally clueless to the outside world! Now we're both wondering if we're going to be able to make it to work tomorrow. I will, I'm sure, since I work to the north. Paul, however, has to go south and a lot of those roads are flooded. Yeah, I don't think he's too worried about it. He definitely won't lose any sleep over it!

Anyway, after I pulled myself up off the couch, I did manage to make a few cards. I had to finish a swap I'm in that is due this week. I'm actually going to be late with it because I didn't even think about the fact that there weren't be any mail today (there is that clueless thing again). I'm mailing it out Tuesday morning by Priority, but it's due Wednesday so I just might get it returned to me. It was for get well cards using a current Stampin' Up set. I don't have many current SU sets since I'm more involved with TAC at the moment, su I did the best I could. Here is what I came up with...
The butterfly itself has CTMH Liquid Glass on it, so it's shiny but you can't tell that in the scan. This is using the Flitting By wheel. I'm NOT a big fan of wheels, so I don't even know why I own any. TAC actually stopped carrying wheels, and that doesn't break my heart at all. It was a pain to cut all these butterflies out, but I only had to do six of them, so I could live with that. The multicolored thing I have going on there was done using the cling wrap again. I just love doing that! It gives such a neat look. I'm not sure if I like this or not. I guess it's not too bad. It will have do to anyway because I'm mailing it on my way to work tomorrow morning. That is unless the mailboxes have floated away.

I just haven't been in the mood to stamp this weekend. Of course, I guess I haven't been in the mood to do much of anything but sleep and surf the net. I did force myself to do one of the SCS challenges, though. I like participating in the challenges. My problem is that I start looking at all the beautiful work that everyone else does and never get my butt out of this chair to make my own. So tonight I told myself that I'm going to try to do these challenges on a weekly basis before looking at all the other posts. I started with last Wednesday's sketch challenge.

Here is the sketch that Roxie posted that we had to work from.

Here is what I came up with...

I shouldn't even be posting this for all to see, and those that were with me when I bought this stamp know why. My answer to your next question is, no I haven't. You can add the title of lazy onto my title of clueless. ;-)~ Anyway, these bubbles also have the CTMH liquid glass on them, but you can't see it on here either. Check out that ultra-cool argyle ribbon. I got that out of the Michaels $1 bin. It's always a bonus when you can find cool cheap stuff!

Well, I better hit the hay. It's back to the normal routine tomorrow...no more sleeping all day. I told Paul I need a job that will accommodate my nap schedule. Something like work for two hours, nap for two hours, work for two hours, nap for two hours, etc., would work fine. I hope everyone had a nice long weekend. Talk to you later!