Life

WOW! I had a 3 day weekend, which is a rarity for me, and it was FULL of things to do!

Friday night I took my mom to see Eclipse, since she had been bugging me to go see it with her. It's funny the random things you notice the second time around watching a movie in the theater!

Saturday I woke up early to hit some garage sales with my mom. We didn't have too much luck, but I did score a few books for a STEAL. Saturday afternoon I went to my friends sons 13th birthday party, which wound up being a good time. Left there early to get to my bowling league by 6:45 PM. About halfway through the last game of the series, I get a frantic call from my husband. 

My poor pupper got SKUNKED! Not only that, but hubby had to leave for work 15 minutes after that call. I rushed through the remainder of the last game (we have safely secured our first place victory for the league!), to head home. My friends told me tomato juice was the best way to get rid of the stink, so I stopped and bought some on the way home. Once I got home, I called my bro over to help me bathe the dog in tomato juice, which BTW, is really fricking gross if you hate tomatoes. After we do that the dog seemed happier, so my bro left. This morning I finally get some advice from people who know better, and went and got some skunk odor removing stuff from the pet store, and we used that, and then gave him a good old fashioned bath a couple hours later.

I'm glad to report the dog no longer smells like burning rubber. He has a faint hint of the smell still, but not NEARLY as awful as it was before. He also got a snazzy new collar out of the deal, since his smelled terrible.

Another good remedy for getting rid of the smell after a pet has been skunked is hydrogen peroxide and baking soda. I purchased both of those things today to have on hand, JUST in case this happens again, which I sincerely hope it doesn't.

In better news, I had a second interview for a job I applied for a month or so ago. My friend that works at their sister site called me to tell me that the manager loved me, and that it's looking good, but I won't hear anything until she gets back from vacation. Please cross your fingers for me that I can land this job, because it's more of a career, which is what I'm looking for! I'm almost 30, it's time to find something I want to do for the rest of my life.

Hope all is going well with all of you! More updates to come later in the week, after I make Riley his new bed, since he decided to lay on it all covered in skunk. 

XOXO

Winner :)

Riley's photo from a few posts back won the photo challenge over at In A Yellow House!!

He will be so excited to know that his humiliation was for the greater good :)

Or he will just sleep, and be excited tomorrow. Oh dogger how I love thee :)

In A Yellow House - Photo Challenge, May 12th - Pets!

Another Wednesday another photo challenge over at In A Yellow House

This week the theme is pets. This is a tough one for me, because as we've all seen now, I'm pretty much obsessed with taking pictures of my dogger. I love him wayyy too much!  After much debating, I've settled on one of my favorites of Riley. It's from his adoptaversary this past April, and it makes me smile.

He wasn't really down with the party hat, but this shot was just oh so adorable!

Hop on over to In A Yellow House and join in on the fun!

Twee Poppets Tuesday Tag-Along, May 11, 2010

I've decided to participate in Tuesday Tag Along again! I found so many great blogs last time I couldn't resist!

We took Riley to the vet for his 1 year appointment today! He was such a good boy. He sat, let them do the blood draw, and do all of his vaccines and boosters without a fuss! Even the vet was impressed. So mommy and daddy went and bought him a new toy. He's very excited and not paying attention to either of us now!

I'm actually cooking a meal tonight. I'm making my Gluten free chili again! Perhaps I will take some picts and throw the recipe up here once it is done!

Big exciting blog changes are coming soon! Thanks to Strosgirl Designs!

I look forward to finding new blogs to follow!

A New Baby Is Always Exciting!

Been a busy few days! It's really nice to finally have a few to sit and relax, after catching up on some much needed sleep!

Baby Luca came into this world on April 28th at 8:02 AM. 8 lbs, 3 oz. and 20 inches long. I'm so excited for my best friends to finally have the baby they have been trying for for 3 years now :) I'm also excited that he was wearing a Chicago White Sox onesie when I arrived :)

There he is! The lil peanut! I love his little smushy face!

We may be doing his photoshoot today to get some pics for his birth announcement, but we will see how mom, dad and baby are doing first, since they just went home last night.

Still waiting to hear back on the job I applied for a couple weeks back. The meeting that was supposed to be last week Thursday, got moved to just this past Thursday. My fingers are still crossed!

Riley got to play with the hose again the other day. MAN how he loves that hose. It was nice and hot out, so we figured let's let him have some fun!

Can't wait until we have the yard fenced in! Hopefully this spring :)

Life and Such

This past April 22nd was our doggie Riley's adoptaversary! We celebrated by bringing him a couple small gifts and taking him on 3 long walks during the day! He's so adorable, I just had to play with him a bit!

I can't believe it's already been one year since we adopted this little guy! He's such a great dog!

Posing for this picture was not something he planned on doing! Scratching his neck under his collar however did work.

Today I hung out with my mom. She wanted some help couponing at Target so I obliged! She wound up saving a lot of money, so I think I finally opened her eyes to never paying full price for anything, since she is always so stressed out about money! While we were there I found a few goodies on clearance, which sprouted my plan for what I want to do with the kitchen! We have to get rid of the awful purple floral wallpaper.

My current kitchen items and gadgets are all red. I have salt and pepper shakers and small canisters I found at target about 6 years ago that are beige with cherries all over them (I love cherries!) But I didn't want an all red and beige kitchen.

Then it happened:

I found these large canisters on clearance for $2.48 each! My mom thinks the colors clash and look terrible together, but when I saw them next to each other on the shelf, I found the combination oddly appealing! So I snatched both them, and a matching aqua paper towel holder ($3.74 on clearance). It will be nice to incorporate another color into the kitchen, so I am definitely looking forward to expanding a little.

And how was your week?!

2010 Ultimate Blog Party

Heard about this through a fellow July 2009 bride (Go say hi to Kate), and I loved the idea! So here goes!

I'm Vicki, and I'm 27 years old. I married my dear husband On July 10, 2009. As you can see, he hates buttoning jackets. We are currently trying to have a baby. I am a state licensed massage therapist, and a manager for a retail store (SUUUUCKS!), but the economy definitely isn't helping that situation. I do side work as a wedding and event photographer. I'm relatively new to the world of blogging, but I'm having a great time learning and exploring, as well as reading other blogs and getting inspirations for everything. I LOVE photography, and generally wind up posting a lot of pictures in my posts. Since wedding planning disappeared from my world, I've begun crafting to fill the void it left. I love to be creative, and I love planning things. 

We have 2 cats, Glitter (7) and Hendrix (11), who I have had since before I even met my hubbs.

Glitter above, Hendrix below

We also have one dog. His name is Riley, and we adopted him from animal control in Chicago on 4-22-09.  His adoptaversary is coming up! We have loved every moment of having him. Most people think I'm a bit insane for the amount of photos of him I have.

Riley loves playing in the hose when it's hot outside!

In case this post didn't give it away or anything, I have a tendency to ramble...and jump from topic to topic. Keeps my little world interesting!

If there is anything you want to know, do not hesitate to ask, I'm hoping to make some new blogger friends!  :)

Thanks for looking!

XOXO

-V

Top 3 Prizes would be :

US39 -  Be My Guest certificate ($250 value) for one lucky winner, (2 night stay for a family of four) at any Hilton Garden Inn.

USC3 - A $50.00 Target Gift Card.

USC8 - $55 E-Gift Card for Amazon.com Gift code will be emailed to the winner and can be used for purchases from Amazon.com.

Other Faves:

US48, US36, US23, US18

Spring has Sprung!!

One Down!

Sunday I went to my mother's house so we could do a test run on one of the purses we want to eventually sell. I needed a new bag, so we made one for me! It turned out great. It's really roomy, and I love that I got to pick the fabric out :)

There is the finished product!

Annnnd a random cute picture of Riley through the screen wanting to come back inside!

Stockings!

Today I had the day off, so I decided to go over to my mothers house, and we finished the stockings we started a few weeks back, so that I can hang them up :) I love how they turned out. I made one for myself, one for my hubby, and one for Riley. I loved the stockings I bought for the cats last year, so I didn't have the heart to replace them this soon :)

There are all 5 of the stockings :)

And a better shot of the 3 that we finished making today :)

I am one happy camper!

XOXO

-V

First Snow!

It's snowing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Its not sticking much, but we shall see.

After today, I'm not entirely sure that dear Riley has seen snow before. When we adopted him from Chicago's animal control, they said they had picked him up a week earlier (so around April 14th) as a stray in the city. He was extremely emaciated, but he's a young guy, he was 6 months at the time we adopted him. We don't know that he could have survived on the streets over an entire winter.

Either way, we love having him, and today when I took him outside to see what the snow was all about, he kept snapping at the snowflakes, and trying to nom them. It was one of the cutest things I've ever seen. Though I'm biased, and love my pup way too much!

I loooove amimals (Apologies in advance for the Jay & Silent Bob reference...)

Want to see a boatload of cute animals?

Head on over to The DIY Show Off! Roeshel is hosting a pet parade! 

Click HERE to go see (and look at her other posts, I love seeing all the neat projects people create)  :)

Biker Dawgs

I was going through older discs of pictures tonight to entertain myself, and I found a bunch of photos I took of dogs at the shelter I volunteer at. (I haven't made it up there in a while now though :( stupid work) The Animal House Shelter had a booth at Hal's Harley Davidson during a biker fest. The pictures are cute, so I figured I would share :)

 

  

  

Annnnnd the finished product?!?!

 

Ahhhh those were some fun times :)

Adventures Of The Dog Bed - Part 2

Annnnnd we have a dog on a dog bed!

Adventures Of The Dog Bed - Part 1

So, Riley likes his bed. He doesn't LOVE it yet, but he lays on it and enjoys it. While Riley was playing outside in the yard, I walked into the living room and saw this :
Hendrix LOVES it.

Today's Results!

We got a little bit side-tracked, as my nieces came to visit! We finished Riley's new dog bed, and got a start on the shirt this week. The bed is ENORMOUS, but it's super cute and fluffy and he seems to like it :)

Time To Learn!

I've had a sewing machine for 3 years now. I have maybe used it a handful of times, mainly because I have no idea what I am doing with it! Tomorrow I am going to my mothers house, and she is excellent with a sewing machine! So she is going to help me make a few things so I can get the jist of it, and make more fun new things on my own. :)

First Lesson : Hemming pants. Every pair of jeans I own is about half a foot too long, because I'm ridiculously short. She's going to show me how to do this and not have them look goofy. (I'm not very good with a sewing machine, and straight lines don't happen!)

Second Lesson : Dog bed for Riley! He never seemed comfortable on any of the beds we have tried, so I am making him a nice soft one. I hit up Joann Fabrics buy 1 get 1 free anti-pill fleece sale. I also picked up some thread in the common colors, as that was also buy 1 get 1 free. Below are the prints I picked up. The blue is the top of the bed, the red is the bottom. :)




Third Lesson : I picked out a pattern a couple months ago for a style shirt that I really liked, picked up the fabric, and all the necessary items, and we are going to work on it tomorrow. Shirt C on this pattern. The fabric I picked out is a chocolate brown charmeuse with sage green dots on it.


Fourth Lesson if it's not too late : Pin cushions. I found an awesome pattern for a cute mushroom pin cushion (caught the pattern on sale for $0.99!) that I would like to make.

Here's hoping for a good day! :)

Shying Away From Slackage

It's been a while since I posted now. I'm kind of a slacker like that. I have been busy with work, and life. Riley went on his first boat ride this past Sunday. We went to visit his half of the family to celebrate my dad's birthday and one of my cousins took us out on his boat, so naturally we decided to bring Riley along on it to see how he did.

As you can see, he loved it!

I decided to go up to Michaels to look around after work the other day, and caught a major clearance on unfinished wood craft projects.This is just an assortment of the things I picked up. I bought more quantity on some things shown there. But this should be enough to keep me busy for a while!

Photo Time!

My kitteh Glitter meowing at me!