Welcome Sophie

Sorry I have not posted anything all week. This is why.
Shortly after losing Dakota a few weeks ago we started talking about getting another dog. I had seen a show on Oprah before Dakota died about puppy mills and how dogs in shelters were not getting adopted because of them so we decided to go that route this time and save a life. The first dog we ended up seeing was from a no kill shelter here in Denver called The Maxfund. The dog we saw was an 8 mth old border collie mix. She was a really sweet dog but had separation anxiety. We thought she would be a good match for us because I am home most of the time. The initial meeting went well so we filled out the application to adopt her. Three days went by and we still had not heard anything so I finally called over there last Saturday and found out we were turned down to adopt the dog because there was a place on the application that asked if the dog would get walked. Rich checked yes but then said that some days it may not happen if something unexpected came up like weather or sickness. Can you believe we were turned down for that???? I also could not believe that they did not have the courtesy to call and tell us we were turned down either. I don't know how any dogs get adopted there if their policies are that strict. At least it is a no kill shelter though.
After that happened we decided to go to another private shelter here in Denver called The Denver Dumb Friends League and look for a dog there. We headed over there last Saturday morning but after waiting 1 1/2 hours to see the dogs we wanted to see we only ended up seeing one dog. Because they were so busy and disorganized we left. After that experience we started seriously talking about getting a pure bread puppy instead but decided to try the shelter again on Sunday . This time we went in with a list of the dogs we wanted to see hoping that would speed up the process and we would have better luck actually seeing the dogs this time but once again we ended up leaving because it was going to take hrs to see the dogs again. Before we left I saw a sign that said we could make an appointment to see the dogs we wanted to see so we decided to try one more time that way. I made an appointment for Monday night at 5. Shortly after we go there the first dog we saw was a 1yr old M Jack Russel Terrier. There was something about him I didn't really like though. Next we saw a 3 yr old F border collie mix. This was one of the dogs I wanted to see Saturday but never got to see her. I felt a connection to her right away. The last dog we saw was a 2-3 yr old border collie. Unfortunately she was sick with kennel cough, wasn't spade and was a big mess so I didn't really bond with her either. Rich was open to getting any of them though. At that point I still wasn't convinced we should get a dog there because we did not know their history and because of that I was thinking we still might be better off with a purebred puppy but Rich convinced me that we really needed to get one of the dogs we saw and save a life like we talked about so we decided on the 2nd one. The F border collie mix.
We finally got her home after being there for almost 2 hrs. She did well in the car on the way home and Lily seemed to get along with her okay. Unfortunately shortly after we got her home she started coughing and kept us up half the night. Turns out she has kennel cough which was what I was trying to avoid. I have lost count on how many doggie flem messes I have cleaned up now. I also found out she has giarida yesterday too. I feel so bad for her. When we decided to get her they assured us she was healthy. That makes me really wonder what is going on in these shelters. I also found out that she had been in a shelter since the end of Jan. so I am really glad we got her out of there. We also had an episode where she tried to attack Lily over food too. She scared Lily so bad I had to wrap Lily in a blanket and hold her until she calmed down. She has been a really sweet dog the rest of the time though and they seem to be getting along okay now. So now you know why I have not posted anything all week. This whole thing has been very stressful but I am still happy that we can give her a good home. I also hope once we can get her healthy she and Lily will become friends eventually too. Because of all this I have not had any time to stamp either but hopefully I will have something stamping realted to share with you all soon. Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have a good night.

Illusion Quilt Card And Another Blog Hop

First off I wanted to say thank you to those of you that left comments about the passing of our dog Dakota in the last post. They really meant a lot to us.
Tonight is the 2nd Papertrey Blog Hop.
This time they did a random drawing for 25 people to participate. Unfortunately I was not one of the people chosen but we are still encouraged to share what we made. Our projects are not eligible for voting though. The challenge this month was to use the paper pieces that were provided on the Papertrey website. This is what I came up with. If you look closely you will see three different images in this quilt design, that is why I am calling it an illusion quilt. I started by punching diamond shapes out of the pattern pieces. After that I pieced them together on a 51/2 x 51/2 piece of Papertrey stampers select white cardstock. When I was happy with the pattern I created I taped the pieces down and then machine stitched them. I matted the finished quilted piece on a 6x6" piece of Papertrey Summer Sunrise Cardstock. I finished the whole thing off by stamping a Happy Birthday sentiment from the Papertrey Happy Birthday set on a piece of Summer Sunrise twill ribbon. I hope you like it. Let me know what you think and what images you see. Thanks for stopping by and I hope you will come back and visit me again soon.

Goodbye My Friend

I just wanted to let you all know that this morning our 13 yr old dog Dakota passed on. If you read the previous post you know that she was not doing well the last couple of days. All this started on Tuesday when our vet came for her yearly physical and to do her blood work. When she got the results back on Wednesday morning her blood count was really bad. The vet thought it was a bleeding liver tumor. Unfortunately she was at the airport on her way to Brazil to buy a horse when she called me so she had us go in to the clinic for an x-ray right away. The x-ray did not show anything so we got talked into doing a $300.00 ultrasound by one of the other vets which supposedly showed the problem was with her spleen and they made the diagnosis of autoiummune hemolytic anemia. I thought for sure we were going to hear it was a cancerous bleeding liver tumor and it was over but since it was AHA they said we could treat it with prednizone. There was a problem doing that though because she has been on antinflamatories for her legs so we had to wait 2 days to start it to try and prevent her stomach from bleeding so I wasn't able to start it until yesterday morning. When we got her home Wednesday she was doing okay. Thursday morning she started having shortness of breath but came out of it and was still eating. Yesterday she refused her dog food but I got her to eat some people food and was able to start her on the pred. She was not doing well though. She seemed to rally some by last night and was doing better, she even ate some of her favorite pizza crusts but this morning I heard her fall about 4:30. I went down to check on her and she seemed okay so I went back to sleep. When Rich got up this morning he tried to give her another pill but she refused it so he had to force her to take it. By the time I got up she was barely moving and we saw blood on the ground so I called the vet techs our vet told us to call if something happened and they came and put her down. She was really bad by the time they got here and they think she was bleeding out. We kept telling Dakota it was okay to go before they go here but she didn't. That was the hardest part waiting for them to come but thankfully she died very peacefully on a beautiful spring day under our cherry tree after they started the process. Needless to say the last couple of days have been very stressful and sad for us but at least I know she had a good life and hopefully she did not suffer. She was a wonderful loyal dog who loved to catch balls and frisbees. We will miss her a lot but I know she had a good life and we have a lot of great memories of her. I just hope that she is in a peaceful place now doing all the things she loved and one day a long time from now we will see her again.

Good News and Bad News

Yesterday started out to be a great day. This card which was in my last post that I submitted for the Papertrey Guest Star Stamper contest got an honorable mention from Nicole Heady. When I saw my card on her blog yesterday morning I screamed so loud I scared Emilia. I cannot tell you how happy I was. I have been entering stamping contests for a while now but I have been getting a bit discouraged because I still have not won any. Getting my work recognized from someone like Nicole has given me the confidence to keep trying now and was a great way to start my day. Unfortunately my happiness didn't last long though because a few hours later we found out that our 13rd old border collie Dakota was very sick and we ended up having to rush her to the vet. I really thought it was the end for her but it turned out that what is wrong with her is treatable so hopefully she has a little more time left. We are still on a day by day basis with her though. I am also still worried about her but I am trying to cherish the time she has left.
That's it for now. I am going to go and try and get a scrapbook page started of Emilia's 10th birthday now.

Papertrey Projects

These are 2 of the things I made for this months Papertrey Guest Star Stamper contest. Another one of my hobbies is quilting so I thought I would incorporate quilting into some cards.
For the 1st card I started with a piece of White Stampers Select cardstock and 3 different designs of Papertreys pink patterned paper. I used a 1 3/8" square paper punch to cut out the pieces I was going to use, then I went to work piecing together the star and it's background. When I was done with that I faux stitched everything using a paper piercer, ruler, and a Signo white gel pen. Because the cardstock was so light it is hard to see the stitching but it is there. I finished the card by stamping a square border from the Boxes,Bags,and Tags set on a 1 3/8" square of Sweet Blush cardstock and stamped the sentiment from the Mixed Messages set in Sweet Blush ink as well. I matted the finished block with Sweet Blush and Berry Sorbet cardstock. The size of the finished card is 6x6.
For the second card I started with a piece of White Stampers Select cardstock. I used my 1 3/8" square punch again to cut out more squares of the other 3 designs in the pink pattern paper pack, then I arranged them on the white cardstock and glued them down. After that I took a quilting template I have and faux stitched it like I did with the previous card. For the four outer corners I stamped a small square image from the Shapes By Design set then I stamped the flags from the It's A Celebration set in Sweet Blush and Berry Sorbet ink. Next I cut them out and then cut them in half again. After that I arranged them to look like pinwheels. I finished them off by adding tiny pearls in the middles. The saying is from the It's a celebration set and was matted with Sweet Blush and Berry Sorbet cardstock too. Finished card is 41/4x 51/2.
The final card I submitted was the one I made for Emilia's birthday you can see it in this post if you have not seen it before.
Tonight is Papertrey's April release and I am already having a hard time deciding what to buy. I really need to stick to my stamping budget but I don't think that is going to happen because there are already to many things I see that I want. Maybe if I am lucky one of these projects will be a winner and I will be able to save some money. Even if there was not a prize I would still be thrilled to win or even just be mentioned. Wish me luck!

Mary Jo's Lunchtime Sketch Week 12

Sorry for not posting anything all week. I have been busy working on some things for this months Papertrey contest. I finally finished what I was working on yesterday so I was able to work on Mary Jo's sketch this week today and was able to finish it before the last minute. I really love Elzybell stamps and have been buying a lot of them in the past few months but most of them have never seen ink until now. By the way they have great customer service and shipping is fast. I started this card by stamping the swinging Elzybell image on Papertrey Stampers select carstock and then colored it with my Copic Sketch markers. After that I created some grass and colored the background. The piece on the left side is the artsy dimension technique which is in the new TJ newsletter. I used lettuce and stream dimensional pearls for this one. The solid colored cardstock is SU. The sentiment is from the Papertrey mixed messages set. I finished the card up with some dew drops.
Unfortunately it has been snowy and cold here since Thursday. It is suppose to warm up starting tomorrow and be in the 70's by Monday. I sure hope so. I am really ready for some warmer weather. This card helps to remind me of it. I hope it does for you too.

Black and White Shapes By Design

Nichole Heady put a challenge on her blog to make something in Black and White. Alli Miles is also running a contest for using her stamps too so I thought this would be a cool way to combine the two. I used a TJ technique called Mono Mosaic from the Dec 2005 TJ newsletter. Stamps are Shapes By Design. White Cardstock is Paper Trey Stampers Select. Black ink is Versafine.
On another note. Emilia's birthday went well. She really enjoyed going to the Four Mile House. Unfortunately they would not let us take pictures of the inside but I have a few of the outside though. Instead of sharing the pictures of her birthday here now I think I am going to do a scrapbook page of them and share them that way instead. I really need to get back to doing that. I have wanted to devote one day a week to scrapbooking for a while now but never made the time to do it. I think this is a perfect opportunity to start though so hopefully I will have a page of her 10th birthday for you all to see soon.
Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have a good night.

Happy Birthday Emilia!

Today is a very special day around here. It is Emilia's birthday. I can't believe she is 10 yrs old already. Where did the time go? I am so thankful to have her for my daughter. She is a very kind and caring child and a joy to be around most of the time.:) She still has her moments like all kids do but over all she is a great kid and we are very lucky to have her in our lives.
When it is your birthday in our family you get to chose something special you want to do. Today Emilia has chosen to go to The Denver Four Mile House She has never been there before but she loves pioneers so it should be a fun thing to do. Later tonight my family is coming over to have dinner to help celebrate too. Emilia has requested steak, garlic mashed potatoes, peas and a double chocolate cake for desert. The chocolate cake is made, all I have to do is frost and decorate it now. Hopefully I will have pictures to share with you of the day later but for now this is the card I made for her. As you can see Emilia's favorite colors are purple and pink. I used the new TJ Simple Green technique for the background piece but substituted orange cleaner instead. Stamps are from Papertrey Ink. I also used Mary Jo's Lunchtime Sketch this week too. I was going to use last weeks sketch 9 but thought this one went better with the cupcakes. I am still planning on coming up with something for last weeks sketch too but that's it for now. Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have a great day.