:( I need a pick me up.

This morning I am REALLY frustrated....

It started off getting up earlier, I hate getting up when its freezing. Colin let Max out which normally I have been doing and Max wiggled away and ran to our bedroom to find me. Of course he needed to go to the bathroom...mess one (less than 30 seconds from escape). The next hour was the same thing, we went from 0-1 accidents each day of the last 5 days to 4 this morning (in less than an hour). So far Max prefers the rug which I took down to the basement for at least the next month. No sense in cleaning a rug when I can wipe up the wood floor. I REALLY am glad we have wood floors.

My husband though helpful since he took the trash out this morning also made 3 huge messes. One in each room which didn't help my frustration at all. I have cleaned 1 up so far....

It snowed a lot last night which means I can't leave the house as Colin took our vehicle with 4 wheel drive. I like Spokane a lot but am not to fond of the hill half the town (aka our house) is on. It also means the dogs are tracking in snow and Colin does the same thing....might as well not put the mop away.

I like my house to be clean...due to husband and puppy we are very far from that.

So I am sitting in a messy house, very tired, thinking about what I can do so I don't lose it today. So far the puppy regressed on having accidents, Colin regressed on making messes, and I started crying this morning. Not a good way to start out the day.

I think I may put on my snow shoes and walk down to Starbucks with the dogs, that at least will wear them out and I can have some coffee. I probably should take a shower first so I don't scare the people that work there.

After I get some coffee I am cleaning my house and preventing myself from breaking down. When Colin gets home I am going to make him put all of his CLEAN clothes INSIDE the dresser not on top or sitting on the floor. The other messes I will take care of. I always thought I would rather have a small house so it wasn't as much work to clean. I take that back, small houses get dirtier faster and you have to clean more often.

Today I need to remember positive reinforcement teaches a puppy more than negative. The same concept works for husbands. :)

P.S.-I am really proud of Gunther for playing tug with Max this entire time so I can chill out. Thankfully they are getting along great! I knew there was a reason we got another dog before having kids, anyone that trains a dog while having small children has my utmost respect.

Day 10 of Christmas Spirit

Day 10 is a day of change. I finally made it to the dentist to get my cracked tooth fixed (Don't grind your teeth!) And since it just doesn't seem like Christmas we are finally going to get a tree tonight.

In preparation of finally getting a Christmas tree I decided to make a tree skirt as we have never had one. I am using extra fabric from the stockings I made last year and made two mini stockings for the dogs....yep we got another dog.

He is an early Christmas Present for me and Gunther though Gunther is still slightly iffy on liking the puppy when he crawls in my lap. My lap is Gunther's according to him. Other than that they are playing together which was my hope.

Colin getting kisses from Maximus or Max for short. The vote is still up on that name but we cant keep saying "Hey you".

Poor Gunther laying on the couch glaring at me last night.

So far the puppy slept through the night and had no accidents in his crate. He can hold it forever as he ate a full breakfast 30 minutes ago and still doesn't want to go outside. This I think will be a different training process than Gunther. Gunther also learned tricks/rules in less than a day, part of me hopes he is that smart and part of me hopes he isn't.

Update from Our Household

What an awesome Monday!

First I missed my dentist appointment....:) I am secretly happy about that. So today I have spent more time looking at the mess our house is in right now.

Good new to that is I am done Christmas shopping! The hard part now is wrapping and getting everything shipped out the door. I am not looking forward to visiting the post office! Their lines are awful this time of year!

Life is good here! I finished working Lion King yesterday. There are several more shows in the coming weeks so I hope I get called. I had a blast meeting new people and using my various strange crafty skills that I still can't believe they are paying me for. The bonus to having fun and meeting new people was the paycheck and the free shirts Lion King gave us :) I am pretending that I never got a paycheck and put the first one straight in savings. Yeah! It feels good to put a large chunk away in our house fund, too bad we don't know how many years it will be until we can use it. Hopefully 2010!

Colin was an awesome husband while I was working this weekend and even did some laundry for me! He has got his tailgate all re-painted (all by himself) and put back on the truck. The job that he is working on here in Spokane also won his company's quality award for 2009 so he received a glass trophy and a bonus check for contributing to that outcome. December so far is a good month in our house!

Hello Again

I have been absent for awhile with good reason. I have been working on tons of jewelry and working backstage on wardrobe for Lion King while it is in town. It is a great job with wonderful people and hours that work around me making jewelry, though they pay better than I pay myself most days.

I thought I would share an AWESOME gift that I received this morning from a friend I have met here in WA. It is an earring stand made out of moose antlers, one is from a baby moose up in Alaska. It even comes apart so I can take it to my jewelry shows. The wire that connects the two antlers is copper found up at the Paloose (spelling ?) River here in WA. I usually collect a Christmas ornament from wherever we have lived but this is an even better reminder of WA and our friends.

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving and is all decorated for Christmas. We had a great Thanksgiving up here that we shared with new friends and our house has a few Christmas trimmings. The Lion King leaves town Sunday night so next week we will probably go get a tree since I wont be working when Colin is home. Happy Holidays!

We are so blessed to have wonderful families and great friends wherever we go! I am going to be very sad when we move.

Wind Wind Go Away

It has been horribly windy here the last 2 days. Normally when anyone in Spokane says it's really windy I want to laugh, they have no idea! Last night it was REAL wind, and I mean wind like in WY that blows semi trucks over. I really don't miss that at all!I have been busy creating and trying to post a few new things as well as get ready to work Disney on Ice tomorrow night. There are a few new items on my website; earrings, ornaments, etc. More to come later today though, my camera battery died which is why I am on here.

I thought I would share the BEST birthday gift ever.....it cooks a chicken in the microwave in about 30 minutes! Thanks Grandma! I made some yummy bbq sauce to go with it and Colin made mashed potato's and peas. Yum! I also found out that I do not like cleaning the inside of chickens out (I usually buy them already cleaned out).

Super Cool casserole dish minus the lid, it is stoneware but white to coordinate with my dishes.

Look the potholder is from Grandma as well. :) What would I do without her? Love you!

Grinning From Ear to Ear

I have been absent for quite awhile as I have been working on many many projects. Below is a sample of my place cards for Thanksgiving. Still not sure if I will use them or not but they turned out cute. Get the templates from Martha here. Note: If you have a lot of guests these may not be the best choice, they take awhile to cut out with your exacto knife.
One of my other projects included putting together a small saltwater tank that I bought with some of my birthday money. I would really like a large one but moving anything 10 gallons + isn't possible without killing all the fish. So I got a 3 gallon tank to get just one or 2 fish in about a month. I have had tons of frogs, lizards, and fish in the past and miss them. This is my first saltwater tank though, hopefully it moves ok in a few months. I had to kick some dishes off my "china shelf" since there is no outlet where I wanted to put it. It looks smaller in this picture than it does in real life. :(

Super Happy News! Not only am I doing some work for Lion King I am working on wardrobe for Disney on Ice! Yeah! Something I love to do with an extra paycheck.....wonderful right before Christmas. :)

No Rain=Happy

The sun came out today, first day in awhile as it has been raining all weekend. :(

Good Morning/Pre afternoon as it is still before 10am here in WA. I am REALLY glad it is Monday and the weekend is over. All I can say is Friday was a long day/night, I was up 24 hours straight, I am sticking to my schedule and staying home when everyone goes out.

Saturday I went to a fabulous craft fair that was gigantic. I am pretty sure I only bought local food though. I found a garlic booth that had delicious things to eat! I also tested Honey, BBQ Sauce, soups, etc.

:) Colin raked the rest of the leaves in our yard while I was browsing the craft fair. :) He is the BEST!

Sunday I treated myself to a new printer that will work with my computer as the old one wasn't compatible with Vista. Not a super exciting birthday gift but I use my printer all the time and this one is Wireless! Perfect for a laptop that travels around the house with me.

Today is laundry and DEEP cleaning day since our house is a mess! Tomorrow I will get back to some new jewelry. :) Enjoy your week!

Upcycled Heirloom Button Earrings

The day ended much better yesterday. Colin and I raked leaves in the dark last night, which was a blast. We still have a lot more to do but we filled 6 39 gallon bags and only got 1/2 of the back yard done. I have to say that raking with help is much better, last year we had just moved and he had just started working at this job (same company). I raked all those leaves by myself, it took me 4 days and almost 2 boxes of bags. I was so happy to not be living in Phoenix though that I didn't care. I know we still both feel the same way, we missed the 4 seasons.

I am going to share a small surprise, it should be arriving at my grandma's door today or tomorrow and I couldn't wait any longer. I had a really hard time photographing them since they are so small. Maybe she will share a photo of herself with them. :) They look much better hanging. I made them using her mothers buttons and a single green pearl hung on sterling silver. Check out my website for other styles of button earrings.

I restocked a few beads to complete the bracelets for this wedding and am still working on those. Next week I need to make an order so this doesn't happen again.

One of Those Day's

Today has been one of those days. I have a couple of RUSH custom orders for weddings and I ran out of beads! Gurr....now I have to make a trip to the bead store which I have a hard time buying anything at because my supplier is so much cheaper. Not to mention I have misplaced several items and we have no food because I haven't bought any groceries since we got home.

To top all that off there is a glitch in my website addresses again. I had it resolved the 14th of October and it has worked every day until this morning. When you type in http://www.handmadeobsessions.com you get the right site when you type in http://handmadeobsessions.com it is going to the old one. Since my sister has totally bailed out and not resolved anything I took care of it last time. I wish I understood html code better, maybe I need a new website advisor since Colin and I feel that what I have paid her is just a loss.

Sorry I am crabby, nothing seems to be going right today other than my dentist appointment getting canceled. Now that I have vented hopefully the rest of the day will go well. Waffles!

Smiles :)

Well I have been absent from my computer for awhile but it was worth it! I spent the last week enjoying friends and family all over. Colin had a few hiccups and joined me a few days late due to snow in Denver (they canceled his flight twice, poor guy).

I did a little creating early on in the week, making centerpieces and name cards for my best friends wedding reception. I also got to enjoy lots of wedding cake as Aunt Liz used us as ginny pigs while she was creating its beauty. Once Colin finally made it to the airport we headed to see his family and it was so nice. Sadly we missed a few faces because we were over a day late, I am so glad we got to see who we did though.

Our dog had a babysitter for the last week so we wouldn't have another fiasco with him freaking out getting boarded. He even gained weight while we were gone :) Gunther is always a stress point for me when we travel without him, now I don't need to worry. I love our dog but us moving so often has definitely caused some issues with the poor little guy (not including his wheat allergy). We had been talking about getting another dog last June but realized how often we are away and that we couldn't. Colin thinks Gunther would be better off if he had a friend and we wont be traveling at all for the next few months so I am going to start watching the shelters. Funny how Colin said that, normally it is me.

We got lucky and had a 4+ hour layover in Denver last night so my parents drove down and we also got to see them. A nice ending to a great week! And a bonus that I got an early birthday present. :) It was the best layover we have ever had.

I have a list of orders for some people I love in Colorado and a wedding party of five that I need to get sent out shortly. I should be sharing new photos later this week. Enjoy!