Tag Archives: Pets

31 Days: Clearance Plants Part 2

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Remember my first Getting it Done post, I talked about purchasing some clearance plants? I planted a few of them in my front yard.

And was about to plant the others in my backyard when, I decided to do a little more research on my new green friends.

And found that they were poisonous to dogs if consumed, that is. Considering my little chewers would likely be munching on my new green friends, I had planned on returning the rest of the clearance plants.

Then I thought about all the other potentially poisonous plants that had been  lovingly chewed on and ultimately destroyed, most of which I inherited when I bought the house. (The plants not the chewing, the chewing came with the arrival of the dogs.) Let’s see, what has been on the toxic menu over the years, there was the Cherry Tree, the Spanish Broom, the Rosemary, which if you look closely in the pictures to follow you’ll see the remnants of. All of these were eaten over a year ago, without any odd reactions. The brat dogs haven’t really seemed that interested in the vegetation in the yard lately so I am hoping they have outgrown this phase. With those hopes in mind, I decided to keep the remaining clearance plants. So, I buried, I mean planted them a couple weekends ago. So far, they are still there, with all branches and leaves remaining undisturbed and uneaten.

Don’t you think they really set off my cinder block wall? Really makes the place seem less prison like doesn’t it? Actually, I’m pretty proud of my fortress (you can read more about that here.), it provides us with lots of privacy, and it keeps the prisoners at bay.

The planting of the shrubs went pretty smoothly, there were no unfortunate water line surprises 3 inches below the surface or anything. I see that as a huge success. Plus, I’m super proud of the three huge holes I dug.

Don’t you love how the dirt and surrounding background is in perfect focus, but the shovel and hole have a lovely bokeh? Apparently, digging a big hole then having to make a nice picture is just too much for this little gardener.

All three shrubs are Privets, I can’t remember the variety of the Privet that lived a year in the big white bucket as his tag fell off during the winter.

The other two are Golden Vicary Privets. All three should get to be 8 to 10ft tall and 8 ft wide, that is if they can survive a dry New Mexican winter. I hear they are pretty hardy, so I have high hopes, and look forward to a nice green and leafy looking wall in a several years. And healthy doggies, let’s hope they can keep their paws off the green stuff.

New around here? I’m participating in a massive linky party for the month of October, if you would like to learn more read this post.

31 Days: Goose Heads and Dog Beds

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A couple weeks ago, I finally got around to hanging something on the wall that I’ve been putting off for far too long.

She may seem silly, but her smiling face makes me smile right back. I think she was originally meant to hang in a kitchen and hold aprons and towels and other kitchen hang-y things. But I hung her up in my living room, right above Goldie’s chair.

And yes, the dog has a chair, no one else is allowed to sit it in but her. Well, you can, but then you’d be covered in Goldie “needles”. That’s why I keep a blanket on the chair, to prevent further Goldie needles from embedding themselves in the upholstery. I would love to replace this chair, and the orange one that it faces with a pair of nice leather club chairs. I love the idea of being able to just wipe the Goldie needles from furniture, because ya know, it’s just too easy to train the dog from getting on the furniture in the first place.

I hung Ms. Goose with a set of mini-mirrors I picked up at an estate sale a couple years back and a painting from a local thrift store. The painting is a little girly, but I loved the soft colors, they are soothing. And soothing is something I need to see when I first walk into the house, since this is the wall that faces the front door.

Apparently, I have something for farm animal heads, I found the three of these at Goodwill a few months back with the ribbons already attached, I just hung them on the old dog leash hooks. Oh, and remember, the big pig head I was so proud of?

Yeah, he bit the dust while living on the floor of my bedroom when a bottle of body splash fell on him. There was much gnashing of teeth while picking the white piggy shards of ceramic out of the carpet. As well as much mourning in the kingdom when he was laid to rest in the trash can. He was too young, and never got to enjoy life on my wall.

That’s way I decided it was finally time to “get it done” by hanging Goose-y head before she met the same end as piggy head. I love these small little tweaks, they give me incentive to do more! Until of course, I get distracted by something on TV, or a squirrel. Squirrel!

31 Days: Enjoyment

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Apparently blogging for 31 days in a row is completely beyond me, I just can’t seem to physically sit down and get a post written. I do apologize for the absence, seeing as how I have pledged to blog everyday for the month of October and I’ve gotten 9 posts published when there should be 17. But hey, at least there are 9 of them!!  I hope to get caught up on the missing days so that in the end there will be 31 glorious and highly informative posts .

Speaking of my absence, I’ve been busy the past week looking up at the sky. No, it’s not a bird, or a plane or Superman, but Balloon Fiesta season.

See those teeny tiny dots? Those are hot air balloons, gracefully floating in the sky. This was as close I dared get in my PJ’s and morning hair, seeing as how the mass ascensions (a large number of balloons lifting off at the same time) occur in the very early morning hours. This was the last one of the day, happening around 8 am. (Which explains the PJ’s and morning hair on a Saturday morning) I hear the first wave happens around 6 or 7 in the morning. Seeing as I’m a complete vampire when it comes to mornings I’ve never seen the very early mass ascensions and probably never will unless I suddenly and miraculously become a morning person. But I’m not holding my breath.

Besides that, during Balloon Fiesta I don’t even have to leave my driveway to see awesomeness floating in the sky. Like this Captain America balloon or one of my favorites, Sharky. Although I think this guy is supposed to be the shark from Finding Nemo.

 I should mention, the balloon names I’ve assigned to my favorites are names that I have given them, they may not necessarily the official name of the aircraft.  Ya know, since they didn’t ask me what they should name their very large and very expensive balloon in the first place.

Last year I talked about watching a balloon land you can read more about that here.

In years past Bubba and I would drive around town to get a better view. Usually we bring the dogs, because ya know we love the glaring looks from our loving and always faithful furry companions.

Insert gratuitous dog picture here.

So, that pretty much wraps up Balloon Fiesta 2012, it was a great week of getting it done: enjoyment.

31 Days Day 10 :Sorting the Etc.

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It would seem that life has been getting in the way of blogging lately, which would explain my absence on days 8 and 9 of this 31 Days of Getting it Done challenge. I’ve been getting things done, they just aren’t exciting things, or bloggy things, think more work things, things that allow me to continue to receive a paycheck. Which honestly, is a little more important than making sure I’ve got a post up everyday. Have I ranted mentioned the time it takes to get these guys (meaning a blog post) up and running? I mean we’re talking a good 2 or 3 hours including photo editing and thinking up a coherent string of words to put a post together. So, do you forgive me for ignoring the blog for a few days?? I really hope so, because I’m ready to jump back into the swing of things, at least until life gets in the way of my fun.

When I left you last, I showed you some sweet non-entry way ideas from Pinterest. Quite inspiring actually, I had planned on mounting a few baskets to the wall like in this photo:

Thanks to my teeny house, the vintage locker baskets I had planned to use wouldn’t fit anywhere in my pseudo entry way. I tried them on either side of the door, but in each space they just seemed to stick out too much. And with my abundant gracefullness, (HAR-HAR) I feared many bumps and scrapes on my hurried exit out the door on work day mornings. So, it was a no-go, instead I realized the only way I would be able to even think about making changes to any area in my home would be to actually clean it. What a concept right? A clean house really is a happier house. I started my little cleaning frenzy in the areas by the front door. Here’s what I started out with:

It’s a cluttered mess right? A bit shameful, but I am only sharing it because it doesn’t look like this anymore, I’ve got my pride people. Also, notice the “etc.” sign? Yeah, that pretty much sums up my home. Actually, I have two “etc” signs…

A top my ugly wall heater resides my secondary “etc.”. Speaks volumes doesn’t it?

Anywho, after some shuffling, throwing, dusting, and a little bit of mild cursing, I had some nice piles.

A pile for magazines, catalogs, movies and hard back books. I really have no idea how any of those things got thrown underneath this little table, but there they were. And also, a flying pig, maybe he made an appearance because I was finally going through our “etc.”

I didn’t realize what a magazine hoarder I had become, all of these are Better Homes and Gardens. Wonder what that says about me.

After all the dusting, shuffling, and mild cursing, I ended up with a much cleaner and less cluttered space to put my keys and sun glasses.

I replaced the random magazines, movies, and books with a basket that now houses the yarn for my current TV watching crochet project.

Ahh…much better.

 

And I got it all done while my faithful companion kept a close eye on me a top her perch.

The joys of sorting through the etc, not exactly my idea of a good time, but the outcome is oh so rewarding.

31 Days: Autumn in the Living Room

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This month, I’ll be talking about getting things done. You know, those things that nag at you everytime you walk by them, like that wall with the 20 zillion paint swatches on it, or those annoying little jars of nail polish that jump out each time you open the medicine cabinet. Yeah, those things, the annoying things, the things you end up ignoring or not even noticing after a while. So, October will hopefully bring a home for all those little jars of nail polish, and a painted wall in one color. October will bring a mix of big and small project, more than likely you’ll be seeing lots of smaller projects, the kind of satisfying projects that go quickly.

I love those quick satisfying projects that have a big impact. It really helps to keep the momentum going. Well, today is a teeny tiny thing, it’s not really a project, but it makes me happy so I’m including it in the 31 days.

  I turned my summer owls into fall owls.

You may remember this shot from my 31 days button. I like to recycle, especially when it means less work for this lazy girl.

The two big owls have been living on my coffee table since July, they were a gift from my uncle, you can read more about that here. The teeny squirrel and golden owl came from various thrift stores around town. Since this picture was taken, I have replaced the golden owl with a much cuter bronze owl that my mom gave me. I would have taken a picture of it, but by that point the table was cluttered again and I wasn’t in the mood to move keys, wallets and junk mail. Hmm…my spidey senses are tingling, maybe it’s time for a post about key and other “leaving the house” paraphernalia.  Would that constitute spidey senses to tingle? Anywho, the clear leaf containers came from Goodwill, I got a stack of 4 of them for $2. See? I may be a hoarder, but I don’t spend a lot of money on my hoard.

While I was setting all of this up, Goldie was helping.

Yeah, that had nothing to do with the fall coffee table set up, but I don’t feel that a post is complete unless I include a dog picture in there somewhere. But isn’t she cute? I have a fear that I may be turning intthe dog equivalent of the crazy cat lady from The Simpson’s. But instead of throwing cats, I’ll be throwing dogs.

And with that nice random thought, I think it’s time to conclude  today’s installment of Getting it Done, making the living room all autumn like and such.

Clearance Plants

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Here we are on day 2 of 31 Days of Getting it Done, and it appears that this 31 day challenge will really be a challenge considering it’s 11:30pm on day 2. Maybe I over estimated the hours I have in my day, between 8 hours of work, nearly 2 hours of dog time, and an 1 hour for dinner and dishes (I won’t lie, most days I let the dishes build up during the work week.) there doesn’t seem to be a lot of time left over to blog and do a project. But it’s only day 2, so I can’t throw the towel in yet!

Anywho, on this second day of Getting it Done, I had planned on talking about this great organizational project I had completed, but then the clearance carts in the Lowes garden center happened.

Yup, I managed to fit 4 large shrubs and three smaller ones in my trunk. Bubba (my husband) thought I’d never fit them all in there, but I showed him!

I ended up with:

Two of these, for 7.50 each. They will live in the backyard, and they’ll be pretty big guys once they grow up.

Two more of these, for 5.50 each. These flowery gals will live in the front yard.

Two of these, for 2.50 each. For the front yard.

And one of these, I didn’t read the label and thought this guy was another boxwood. Since, these get pretty big he will live in the backyard.

After unloading everyone it was time to get my dig on. Everything went well, until a few minutes into it, I hit a small road block.

Actually, it was a water line 3 inches below the surface. Why they put a waterline right smack in the middle of a flower bed and at such a shallow depth is beyond me. All I knew was that this posed a slight problem, and I had to change my layout slightly. And when I say change my layout, I mean digging all of my holes three inches closer to the outside edge of the flower bed.  Hopefully, the roots of the my new sticks won’t cause problems with this water line down the road. I guess only time will tell. But in the mean time, this is what the front yard is looking like now.

It’s still looking a little sad, I need to put in new mulch and would like to lay a little sod out there to green things up a bit. Living in the desert has given me a greater appreciation for green things, well maybe not the scary fuzzy green things that seem to lurk in the fridge. I see a fridge cleaning post in the near future.

Once I got the four shrubs planted, I was too pooped to start digging holes in the back for the Privets and the Holly. Plus, it was time for the season premiere of Once Upon a Time, is anyone else hooked on this show? Honestly, I can’t get enough of it.

Anywho, the last three shrubs have been sitting on my front porch for nearly 3 days now. Which has given me a little bit of time to do some research, I found that both Privets and Holly shrubs are toxic to dogs (!). Yeah, toxic.to.dogs. I have two dogs that consume just about everything that enters their yard. So, sadly, my beautiful ,new and cheap plants will not be going in the backyard. In fact, I’m considering returning them, if they are that toxic to my doggies, I’m not sure I want them in any of my yards. Although, after researching the Boxwoods a little more, (after they have been planted) I found they were also toxic to dogs. Actually, it turns out a lot of shrubs aren’t good for little dummy dogs who insist on taste testing everything.

So, I learned a valuable lesson, always research plants before buying them or in my case planting them. You never know what could be harmful to the little dummies you love.

Green Eyebrows

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Alright, I don’t really know where this post is going to take us, I just know I have a random assortment of photos I took and then edited. So, I would hate to waste them by letting them just sit on my hard drive, waiting for that perfect blog post when it may never come. Besides that, who said a blog post really has to be about anything. Can’t it just be a post about nothing, like Seinfeld was a show about nothing. Maybe I’ll just yammer on about the injustice of a hair in my marble rye or that woman in the ladies room that couldn’t spare a square.

Anywho, as always, grab a nice tall glass of sweet tea or your preferred beverage of choice, sit back and enjoy the randomness.

This is Annie, she’s always so sweet and so kind, when there’s something edible involved. Otherwise, she takes her stringy tail and butt flaps to her nasty bed where she can ignore us all from a distance. For some reason, I feel she is silently judging me.

This is what she was eye balling when I snapped this image of cute sweet normal dog Annie.

My breakfast, well my Saturday mid-morning breakfast. On a normal day my breakfast consists of a banana eaten hastily while entering the on ramp of I-40, generally 10 to 15 minutes behind schedule. Tardiness is my constant companion.

So, back to Annie, she’s definitely the most unusual dog I’ve ever had the pleasure of sharing a home with. She communicates by yawns. No, I don’t mean normal silent doggy yawns, I mean low guttural Dorthy from Golden Girls yawns.

This is the most close I could come to capturing one of her yetti yawns, usually the mouth is opened much wider.

Aside from yawning and begging, she enjoys photobombing, and like everything else Annie does, she does not simply make an appearance in the background of the picture. Any Annie appearance is always front and center, toothy grin and all.

She does enjoy posing though, particularly with her newest conquest.

This time it happened to be a bowl I used to hold that nasty dry crap, otherwise known as Iams, when her regular bowl was infested with ants during the Great Ant War of 2012. By the way, after numerous attempts at putting an end to the battle of the ants, I still have survivors, cornstarch and Raid don’t seem to phase them much. Anyone have any ideas?

Although, Annie can be a very sweet dog, she can also be quite ruthless, especially when it comes to time outside. Poor Goldie tends to get the brunt of this ruthless-ness, as evidenced by the green eyebrow. That’s a grass stain, caused by Annie slamming Goldie’s head into the lawn. All summer long Goldie has had odd green eyebrows, it took us a couple weeks of monitoring to figure out how it was happening. Poor Goldie lets Annie-Devil take out her many frustrations on the Golden One during their outside time. I should probably mention though, Goldie and Annie are the same size, Goldie could easily take up for herself, but her passivity tends to keep her from doing so.

(Not that I would know anything about being passive.)

I always end up having to break up the head slamming fest. Sometimes, I wish there was someone to break up the head slamming fest that I tend to allow myself into at times. I suppose I do have someone that intervenes when the head slamming and grass stained eyebrows become too much.

My Savior, Christ Jesus, He’s always there to pound on the window when the head slamming becomes too much.

“121 I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help.

2 My help cometh from the Lord, which made heaven and earth.

3 He will not suffer thy foot to be moved: he that keepeth thee will not slumber.

4 Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.

5 The Lord is thy keeper: the Lord is thy shade upon thy right hand.

6 The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night.

7 The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil: he shall preserve thy soul.

8 The Lord shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth, and even for evermore.”

Psalm 121 KJV

So, He does help me even when my head is being slammed against the perverbial lawn, and He doesn’t even take a break from watching over me. How could I possibly be worried over a few green eyebrows when I know He will be there when it’s too much?

And look at that, this post really did have a point!

Also, Happy Autumn a week late!!

Note: Although I mention name brands within this post such as, Iams and Raid, I am not being compensated for such mentions. They are just brands that make a frequent appearance within my household, much like dust bunnies make frequent and ever present appearances under my sofa.

Weekend Happenings: Randomness

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Happy Tuesday all! I trust you all had a great weekend, and an easy Monday. On this Tuesday, I don’t have many words, but I have lots of pictures. So pull up a comfy chair pour yourself a tall glass of sweet tea and enjoy.

This weekend, I realized I would never make it as a 50’s housewife. I took it upon myself to make Bubba his favorite fried eggs, everything went smoothly until I had to turn them over. It was at this point I turned the spatuala over to the cook of the house before more disaster ensued.

So, we often feed our dogs morsels from the table while we eat. Therefore, this one sees fit to beg at every meal. Does this make us bad pet parents? And does calling myself a pet parent make me crazy?

With that in mind, I spied this mug at a thrift store. This is the first side.

And this is the other side. For some reason it reminded me of Annie-Dog.

Which brings to mind this other thrifty find. I know this is how Annie feels about her kibbles, makes me feel a little guilty.

Then I remember the evening pulls I get taken on every evening.

I’d say the evening pulls are worth it though, since it makes my puppies tired. And I get to take cute doggie butt pictures afterwards.

And I get to spend time outside, while they all wait for me to take pictures of a weed.

This weekend I also got to spend time with my mom. Isn’t she pretty?

We went shopping for craft supplies while she was visiting. She’s starting a new hobby of quilting.

While I’ve taken on the hobby of crochet. I’ll talk more about it later, if I remember, no promises of consistency around here.

We ended the weekend at Goodwill, that is next door to a rug store with questionable architecture.

The sunset was breathtaking though.

What did you do this weekend?

Thrifting Thursday: Something Smells Fowl

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Yay, it’s Friday Eve!! And depending on where you are in the world ,you are either very near the end of Friday Eve or actually celebrating Friday. I am nearing the end of my Friday Eve and very much looking forward to the actual Friday, then finally the weekend. And not just any weekend a THREE day weekend. I cannot tell you how excited I am at the prospect of spending an extra day eating waffles and avoiding chores.  Maybe I’ll throw some window shopping and dog walks into the mix, but I plan on laying low. Listen to me, it’s only Thursday or rather Friday Eve and I’m already talking about the weekend, guess whose already checked out for the work week!

Anywho, we’re supposed to be talking about thrifting aren’t we? Hence the title of this weekly series, Thrifting Thursday! So, here goes…

Since, I am trying to cut back on my junk buying, I spend a lot of time either avoiding stores that contain bounds of hidden vintage goodness, or trying with all my will to fight the urge to bring home yet another owl. This week, I have failed miserably in both respects.

See him there sitting unassumingly between yellow cow and an empty jar? So cute and small and again, unassuming. That’s how I talked myself into adopting him and bringing him home. One little teeny tiny owl couldn’t hurt, and he was gold, I don’t have a gold owl! Besides, I like golden yellow things, particularly yellow dogs that glow in the sun.

So, I failed at the whole not buying anything-thing, but it was not all for naught, we did find this cute lil chicken for my momma.

The top doesn’t match the bottom, but it’s close enough and my mom was thrilled (or at least feigned thrilled-ness). You know how mom’s are, “Oh, you bought it with your own money and picked it out all by yourself?! I love it and will treasure it forever!” Don’t ya just love mom’s?

With that sweet thought about mom’s, I’ll leave you to enjoy the rest of your Friday Eve!

Thrifting Thursday: Shopping

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Happy Friday Eve everyone!!!! And you all know what the eve of Friday brings us right? Yep, it’s time for our weekly installment of Thrifting Thursday!! I’ve been trying to cut back on the hoarding thrifting, but that doesn’t mean I’ve cut back on window shopping.

So, this week you’ll see some interesting finds I’ve found meandering around a few local thrift stores.

First up, is our local Humane Society Store Re:Tail (don’t you just love the little pun there?)

Who doesn’t love a Super Mom cup? Though, it’s not the most stylish piece it’s still pretty cute, especially if you have or are a super mom!

Speaking of mom’s, everytime I see a little chicken I think of my mother’s poultry riddled kitchen. This creamer caught my eye and I immediately thought of mom. Although, I don’t know that she would use a chicken creamer, besides, wouldn’t it be weird having milk come out of bird?

This amber colored glassware was cute, it would be really cute on a fall themed table.

Don’t ya just love these iridescent amber colored stemware? It would really fancy up a fall table, or any table for that matter.

They had four of these lights, they were huuuge. The lights hung down from the ceiling a good 6 ft, and were about 12 in in diameter. Much too big for my little casa. But they would look awesome in a larger home, perhaps in a kitchen with a vaulted ceiling?

I loved the legs on this coffee table, as well as, the two toned treatment. You wouldn’t have to use it as a coffee table, just reinforce this guy and he could be used in a mud room or a foyer as a bench.

Then we headed over to Savers, which sadly is located where the neighborhood grocery store used to be. Honestly, I would rather have the grocery store, what can I say my stomach speaks louder than my love of old stuff.

Alright, so I’m not doing so well at not buying those sweet little treasures I’ve been spying. I couldn’t leave this guy, he was too cute, and he was local! If you can’t read what’s inscribed on his chest, it’s “Sandia Crest Altitude 10, 668 Feet”  and “Albuquerque NM”. His perch reads:

Kitchen Prayer

Bless my little kitchen Lord

And those who enter in

May they find naught

But joy and peace

And happiness there in

Amen

My House

My house is small

No mansion for a millionare

But there is room for love

And there is room for friends

That’s all I care

He was 4.99, a little steep, but the hoarder in me couldn’t leave him behind.

Well, I better get this up before we get too far away from Thrifting Thursday as my clock reads 10 after midnight!! EEK!

Have you seen anything interesting in a thrift store recently? Bought anything really awesome?

Or did you have to wait outside while everyone else had all the fun?

Don’t worry, they weren’t out there for very long, and got to go to the park afterwards. I love that the weather is cooling down, we can bring the girls with us now. They enjoy looking pathetic while waiting.