The Best Sunday, Ever!

I've been keeping this on the down low because my mother doesn't have a lot of money and couldn't invite a lot of people.  This weekend her and her fiancee were married.  It was so sweet and touching, many times I had to fight back the tears.  I so happy for her for finding love again!  If he can put up with us (I mean me, my 2 brothers plus my SIL and my husband) he's great in our book!  

I finally met his family finally and ehhh you know, it's the family you see all the time that really count.  For those who have know him almost all his life they seemed pretty darn somber.  I have to feel bad for them because I don't think they were very happy about the union.  Especially his daughter who wouldn't even look at the bride and groom during the ceremony.  It's her loss.  Her father is really a great guy and I hope she realizes it someday!

We had lots of fun and it was wonderful to spend it with my  little brother who I don't get to see that often, my other brother and his wife, plus my husband too.  We really don't need a party to have fun when we are all together!

I hope to have a picture of the wedding cake soon.  I totally forgot my camera.  I only had 4 hours of sleep the night before.  There were 2 photographers who were like the bloody paparazzi!  We (me, my husband, my 2 brother's and my SIL) arrived really early.  Have you ever been photographed every 3 seconds?!?  It's very annoying and hard too see with all the flashing going on.  I hope to have great pictures up someday.  There had better be some with 2 cameras going all the time.  Of course I was the only one who kept closing my eyes during each picture.  We had to do duplicate shots because of me.  Sorry I blink a lot when I'm nervous!

With all that's happening in the financial world my SIL and I have decided not to go to Rhinebeck.  She needs a roof, I should pay off my credit card and going up wouldn't really benefit either of us.  Besides my husband was telling me credit cards could raise the % you pay up to 40%?  I don't know if he was talking on defaulted cards or everyone.  I was a little too freaked out to ask.  

Early Halloween

P B Skull glasses
Originally uploaded by catscluttercrafts

I saw this in the Pottery Barn catalog and had to have them! Unfortunately they weren't for sale yet. It greatly pisses me off when someone advertises something for sale and then it's unavailable. Well I checked the website on a whim today and the glasses are for sale! Woo hoo! I ordered 2 sets because we have children and I'm not going to let them near them. Just in case they do get near them, we have back ups!  I still want the shaker but it's not available.  
We have my SIL's puppy this week. He's already been to the vet once because he was sick. Puked up his lunch yesterday and was just very lethargic. She thought he may have eaten a rock, so my brother picked him up and took him. Turns out he didn't eat a rock, he's just constipated. Oh joy. Plus he probably picked up a bug from the dog show we were just at. So there will be very little blogging this week. Taking care of two dogs is exhausting! Plus our pup is now sick. He thankfully didn't puke, yet. He hasn't been that hungry for dinner so. Hopefully he will feel better tomorrow.

Since nothing is happening here, you may enjoy reading this.  An article about my husband in a local newspaper, it talks about what he does.   

Fashion Dilemma

My husband often has to dress himself for school without my do's and don'ts of fashion blunders.  Today was one examples of those times.  It is Open House and he's running slightly late.  I glance over from doing the dishes and he's wearing light brown pants, (that's fine) a lighter green shirt (that doesn't go with the pants) and a bright blue Jerry Garcia tie.  All my do's and don'ts start going off.  Do I let him leave the house like this and stand in front parents who do not know him and let them judge him based on his appearance?  Even though the parent's have had the talk to their children to not judge a book by their cover, they won't be doing the same thing when they look at him.  He could have gotten away with it if it was a room full of men but you know it's most like going to be couples.  The women will be listening and wondering how could his wife let him leave like this?  Not paying attention to his well prepared speech of what their child will be learning that year, etc...

So I opened my mouth and told him it didn't look good at all.  He was mad but he'll thank me later when he's not conscious of what he's wearing. dilemma

I'm going to be making my youngest a kimono tie top.  I've made the back pattern and  I'm going to be sketching out the front tonight.  The puppy is finally letting me know when he has to go to the bathroom.  It makes me not so paranoid and now I feel like I can slide a little.

Dog Or Cat Toy?

Dog Cat Toy Love
Originally uploaded by catscluttercrafts

So I originally made this dog bone toy for the dog but I added a secret ingredient. Yeah it's more like a stick toy. The secret ingredient is catnip because the puppy steals all the catnip toys! So I thought I would make him his own toys with a little kick! He wasn't as thrilled as I thought he'd be. To get this picture it took a lot of coaxing for him to be interested in the toy. He must know it was for him. Little bugger that he is!
Anyways the cat loves it. After he went to bed, she came out and was in love it. Even with dog slobber on it! Cats they never disappoint. So I'm pleased that one of the three animals enjoys it.
I've been busy making Christmas lists and buying presents. I'll have pictures soon. I also bought glass pickle barrels to put the cat and dog food in. The crazy cat LOVES the dog food and well the dog loves everything it puts in his mouth. I love them and I am waiting for the rest of my kitchen stuff to arrive.
Have I mentioned we had 3 cupboards when we bought our house? Well when we looked at our house before we bought it, it had lots of cupboards. When we arrived the cupboards were gone. I'm guessing they were on rollers and since they weren't attached to the walls, the previous owners took them. We've gotten hand me down cupboards with no doors and counters since then. Hey free is good when you can't afford things. So I need storage that looks good and won't be easily gotten into.

Look Who Came To Visit

frog
Originally uploaded by catscluttercrafts

Two weeks ago we let the water drain out of our pool. It didn't fully drain out, so the kids and dogs have been enjoying wading in it. We were taking a backyard romp and look who we found. A big frog! A good hopper and swimmer. Of course we had to say hello and picked him up. He wasn't to happy with us but nothing is more slimy than a frog. Well slugs are probably the bug equivalent of it.
Also up are pictures from my trip to Graycliff. Sorry it took so long but we've been crazy busy here.
My mom gets married on the 28th of this month. I also almost went to see the B-52's because my husband won free tickets for next Saturday. I really don't like their new stuff and wasn't thrilled to see them back in the 90's. Don't get me wrong I love their old stuff but the new stuff just doesn't make me want to get and dance. I would rather work since I'm buying my mother's wedding cake. An extra expense to our budget for this month. Even though my mother drives me up the wall, I do love her and her to a memorable time!

Seriously, What Will They Think Of Next?

I love fashion like the next girl.  Heels, cool but only for special occasions because of the problems they cause.  Then I saw this!  I think this has gone way over being PC.  Does anyone else think this is setting women back to the days when we couldn't own property?  Or am I just over reacting?

Puppy Show

D&E
Originally uploaded by catscluttercrafts

See these cute brothers, well they are going to be in their 1st puppy show next weekend. I am going to be showing Drake, who's on the left. My SIL wants to get them used be being handled and I received a very quick training today. It was a lot to absorb. Thankfully my SIL will be right ahead of me so I can cheat and do what she does. Not that I've had the training that she has and I'm socially uncomfortable being in crowds, where I'm being judged. Well actually I won't be, but all eyes will be on the puppy which means they will be looking at how I handle him. Yikes. I hope I don't buckle under the pressure. Thankfully they are puppies and not going to be cooperative so my inexperience may not even be known!
So that's dog show #1. Dog show #2 is happening the same weekend as Rhinebeck. We are getting free lodging and have to take my SIL's Ridgeback to Massachusetts for a show too. She said it will be quick, so we should be back to catch quite a bit of Rhinebeck on Saturday. So I'll be saying a quick hello to Mass. and then heading back to NY. I've never been there and will probably only be there for a few hours.
We haven't seen Emmet for a week and boy has he changed. I'll have to take pictures. He's like the sports car of dogs, while Drake is the SUV of dogs. They don't even look like brother's anymore. They are so very different. We had way to many accidents today. I'm not a happy camper. Mostly from Drake, Emmett was very good boy! He spent a lot of time playing with dogs for a week and now he's like eh you're not a dog, whatever. Also he's not as affectionate as Drake. Drake wants lots and lots of loving. Emmet could care less if he's a good boy!
Well I hope you all had a good Monday. I'm hoping to walk around in poop less shoes tomorrow. Nothing like realizing your shoes have poop on the bottom in a car where the AC is on and recirculating. On the way to a doctor's appointment. Woohoo! I may look okay, just don't take a big whiff of me!

Swiss Chard

swiss chard
Originally uploaded by catscluttercrafts

Every year I plant a garden, well since we've lived at this house. Every year it boggles my mind that my broccoli goes to bolt and I have swiss chard galore. I have enough swiss chard to make soup for 2 years. That's a lot of chard.
I found out from a farmer friend you can buy the wrong seeds! So I need to buy slow to bolt broccoli that can tolerate erratic weather. I was going to do a list of recommended seed websites but my list is missing. The one I did check out and remember is Johnny's Selected Seeds. I am definitely going to buy from them, since they come highly recommended from my farmer. Who better to trust, than the guy who provides us with our food farm share!
This year I am keeping my fingers crossed that my brussel sprouts make it. I didn't realize they are very particular and need to stay indoors until they are a certain height. Plus celery, woohoo! Plus peas, wow, I'm in gardener heaven! Now if they would only pick themselves, I would be a super happy gardener!

School shirt

School shirt
Originally uploaded by catscluttercrafts

I know I've been terrible at posting but it has been crazy busy here with the puppy. I feel like I've said that before, I think I have. Anyways. My oldest is back at school and juggling the puppy needs and my youngest needs leaves me no time to craft. If my husband is reading this and I know he is... just look at what I sacrifice for you to have a dog!
I finished this shirt before school started. I've just been slow getting to the computer. Sometimes I wish they had a program that would automatically put pictures you took on your camera and up load it into a folder on your computer! That would save me so much time! Since the camera doesn't always make it to vicinity of the computer when I'm done taking pictures.
There have been crazy changes going on at work and I don't know if I can even write about them so it makes sense. My boss from my first department got a job at corporate. She will be leaving soon, which is good because our department is looking like crap. Well the whole store looks like we don't care if the customers know how much they are paying for stuff. There is a replacement but they are being all secretive. Her assistant is supposed be transferring out of our department too. Which I will be VERY happy about because she is seriously a negative Nancy. We all have bad days but hers are never ending and then she takes it out on us. One of the new guys was telling me how he just doesn't understand her. One minute she's super mad at me then next minute she's all smiling. I told him that's how some women are, you get used to it. The negative Nancy has been following me around the store making sure I don't talk to people and correcting my work. Which is fine but I wish she would have corrected my work in the 1st month when I couldn't remember what I was supposed to order. Now it's been 5 months, kind of late to undo all that I thought was right. Eh?
My good friend is transferring to the cheese department where she will be meeting her own kind of controlling insanity. Seriously, why do people insist on doing things the hard way, when it could be done the easy way? It just makes me kind of sad because working in a big store, I feel we should all have the same goal but it seems more like it's an us verses them mentality. I'm just there to do my job and do it to the best of my ability but when the full timer's don't do it when I'm not there, who makes up for it? It's seriously bad too. There are no sale signs in produce and tags are wrong left and right but I'm only one woman. One woman who works with a bunch of happy morons. Seriously I work with the nicest college and high school students now. We have a great time working but they haven't been trained properly and have no clue what they are doing! You can't really get mad at them because they are only trying to do what they think is correct!

Beadwork Studio

Another good friend of mine does amazing bead work/sculptural jewelry. The beads she uses are amazing, she collects the best antique beads she can find. She also uses high end findings and beads.
Here's one of her sculptural/jewelry pieces that she uses beads and I don't know if the fish are buttons or beads. Probably beads she has many connections in the beading world. This dragonfly necklace is amazing. It changes colors and I thought it was more purple blue than reds and blues. So surprise when I went to take a picture of it and it's red and blue. Also if the pictures look funny it's because I am behind the jewelry, pointing the camera into her cases. I had too much glare from the sunshine and glass.Here's a shot of barrettes, a sculptural vase and another necklace. She really tries to take her jewelry making to another level and it turns out fabulously. Check out Leah's' work here, where the pictures are better and you can see a variety of what she does!