Spring is here!

I'm not sure what it is about this beautiful weather, but I have so much energy and motivation to get things done.  As the weather gets nicer, we're spending more time outside each day --although I'm sure my allergies are going to start at any second.

Emma & her rock collection

This little girl loves to spend time outside, especially if Maggie and Paige are out there.  That's perfectly ok with us because the neglected gardens need a lot of work.   We're currently working on cleaning up the yard, taking breaks to play with bubbles, and are planning to get a few toys for the back yard once we receive our tax return.  It's fun to splurge every now and then.

When we're not outside, I'm dividing my time between the woodland sampler {April is fabulous!}, my springtime sampler frames {never-ending}, sewing my hugs and kisses blocks, and knitting.  It's craziness.  The weather is almost nice enough to do hand sewing on the porch in the evenings.  Can.not.wait.

Things I could make in my sleep....

Another Amy Butler frenchy bag complete....this one is for my MIL.  

Made from Sweetwater Make Life (Moda).

I think this is my fourth frenchy bag!  Time to move on to the Amy Butler birdie bag....I received my Poppy fabric in the mail today too....sounds like I have a weekend project already lined up. 

Vacation Re-Cap

Last week, Hubby, me, and Paige took a mini vacation. We went to the beach for a few days...just long enough to get crispy and finish a book or two! Paige normally does not go on vacation with us...and I was hesitant to take her. Paige makes poor choices in our house and even more recently does not go in her crate since breaking out of it a few months back. It has since been put back together but I'm afraid to leave her in it, fearing that she'll try to break out again and hurt herself. So, the crate stayed home. Paige came to the beach and was a very good girl. She cried a little when we left a few times to go to the beach and boardwalk. She was so good, we bought her a baby on the boardwalk since we forgot to pack some for her to play with. Surprisingly the baby has lasted more than 10 minutes (up to 5 days now!) without her shredding it completely.

Paige chillaxing in bed with her new baby! Paige was a tired girl from

all the walks on the beach and the heat.

A view from the bay of our vacation location. This picture was taken during our

crabbing trip the previous weekend. It was my first time on a boat!

I packed my sewing machine and sewing basket to work on a quilt but the sunny beach was too inviting to sit inside and sew! We came home to a defrosted freezer and not completely cold refrigerator. Fortunately, the refrigerator is not broken and the malfunction was a result of someone (ugh...me) leaving the freezer door slightly open. The bad news is everything in my freezer had to be discarded. The good news is a lot of it needed to be thrown out anyway. Before figuring out that the fridge was working properly, we researched buying a new one and looked at quite a few. That, my friends, is another blog post for another time.

Signs of Summer

I love summer...the hot sun, blooming flowers, flip flops, the beach, riding around with the top down on the jeep, and baseball. This weekend kicks off the unofficial start of summer and I CAN'T WAIT. Good-bye high heating bills, hello sweltering heat!

Pics of Hubby's dahlias

Paige enjoying the nice weather

Phil's/Met's game in a suite! Sweet!

RIP Harry Kalas

I really tried

I was supposed to get organized for Christmas this weekend. I was supposed to get the decorations out of the attic, put up the lighted garland, even attempt to put lights up outside. I went shopping for lights, but found none. I know exactly what I'm looking for (me, picky?, no!) but haven't found the right lights yet. The rest of our decorations are (still) in the attic and I am a failure.

Saturday was (supposed to be) my decorating day, only it wasn't. I spent the day with Hubby's mom and our crazy dogs and went to visit Hubby and his dad working on the Christmas tree farm in the crazy, freezing cold. I forgot my camera to capture all of the picture perfect moments of the day. I met two beautiful dogs (and one really mean, yippy dog), picked out our Christmas tree, sat around the fire trying to keep warm, and stayed out of the way of the men at work.

In preparation for my Project 365 challenge, I've been carrying my camera everywhere. For some reason, I took the camera out of my purse and left it home on Saturday. Why? The world may never know. Part of it may be that I got up at 6:30am on my day off. So instead of pictures, you'll have to settle for the promise of pictures in the future. Promise!!

Halloween 2008

I carved my 2nd pumpkin this year for the office pumpkin carving contest. Carving pumpkins is really a lot easier than it looks. You just need a steady hand and a little bit of patience. Hubby did the not so fun job of scooping all the slimy insides. I found a cute spider pattern online and off to work I went. The pumpkin looked awesome and I took 2nd place in the contest on Halloween.


Hubby and I ditched out of work early on Halloween, hoping to make it to the Phillies World Series Celebration parade. The city was gridlock and mass transit was at a standstill so we watched the parade from the comfort of our own home. It was much better that way! There were 100s of 1,000s of people there (more like a million or two), plus we enjoyed a bottle of champagne. I always said the best wedding present would be the phillies winning the world series!

The rest of the day consisted of a nap and going trick or treating with my brother's girlfriend and her daughter, Micky. Paige came with us too! She was so excited. I think it was the longest walk she's ever been on. We walked through town all the way to Mom's house. Paige and Micky were too tired to walk back so Mom gave us a ride. Hubby stayed home to give out candy to the trick or treaters but no one came by. A few of our neighbor's kids came by earlier in the day but that's it. We think it's because we had no decorations up, but ALL our lights were on in the house. When my brother and I were younger, we knocked on every door with lights on. Lol, maybe that wasn't the best/safest approach looking back! I already went and bought decorations on clearance for next year so hopefully more kids will come by.

To board or not to board...

A few months ago, I went shopping at the new Petsmart in town which featured a cute Petsmart Hotel. The hotel looked very clean and the dogs looked like they were having a great time. I laughed at the idea of a hotel for dogs...at least until today.

I am considering boarding Paige for the day of the wedding just so that she would be out of the way and we wouldn't have to worry about her "accidents" since we would be gone for such a long time. FH and I have not decided if we want to get a hotel room for the wedding night yet. If we are going to, then obviously we will have to board Paige.

My first (and only) experience boarding Paige was a few weeks after I got her. I was going on vacation so I called a few local kennels and made a reservation. I was a little leery when we went to the kennel to drop Paige off because it was literally someones house. It was a scary beat-up house that was surrounded by trees, overgrown vegetation, and set back far from the road. Immediately I had a bad feeling. I knocked on the door for ten minutes and no one answered. I called and the lady who answered hung up on me. Now was I not only scared of who I was leaving my dog with but I was extremely pissed off because I was leaving for vacation and had no other place to take my dog. The house kennel lady finally answered the door but insisted that she didn't have any appointments that day or even that week. She finally took Paige, but only after we checked out the kennel.

I called and made a reservation at the Petsmart hotel today so that I could have peace of mind on the wedding day. At first thought it seemed like a "no-brainer" for the price and the peace of mind but now that I'm made the commitment I'm second guessing myself. I've read too many reviews online about pets coming home from the Petsmart hotels with kennel cough. Petsmart requires the Bordetella shot but that only prevents a certain percentage of kennel cough. Paige and I have plenty of experience with the unpleasantness of kennel cough. When I first brought Paige home from the shelter, they neglected to tell me in advance she had kennel cough. For the first month, she coughed constantly including through the night. It's an experience we don't need to have again.

So is a one day stay at a Petsmart hotel really worth Paige getting kennel cough?