http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=24425305

Check out this website and you will see the adorable dog that is on the postcard I received in the mail today! It's so cute! Apparently his name is Bean and he is a cute little Boston Terrier with a fun little hat on his head! I love the pictures of him in the "beanzilla dog hat"

I so want to make one of those little town backgrounds and take some photos of Gussy playing in it!!! Fantastic!

Michelle

Louisville Art O Mat

So I recently went to another Art O Mat--this time in Louisville KY. It was great, except the piece of art that I got from the machine was terrible!!! I still love the machines though and I'm totally enamored with finding them and visiting them and hoping for the best when I put my money in! Check out the great machine itself:

FYI the piece that I purchased was a weird distortion of a picture of a woman smiling. The piece was made by art students at a college somewhere as a fund raiser. It was interesting... and frightening at the same time! I'm glad to have supported the arts, but I don't know about hanging that one up on my wall! :o)

What does Gussy think?

So everyone asks me all the time, what does Gussy think of the new house? Well let's ask and see, shall we:
"This carpet smells funny and my toys are all over the place, where do you keep the kibble? I don't know where I am anymore? What about those walks and the neighborhood kids? I swear why do you have to put me in this crazy place?"-- Gussy in March

"Okay, nevermind! I found the couch and the bed and this carpet actually feels pretty good when I rub my ears all over it. I mean I guess I can get used to it. There are those two neighbor dogs and I think that there might be kids around here... and people come visit a lot right now which is sweet! Although I wish they would bring me some treats... treats would be good... or leftovers... maybe a steak or a steak bone... I mean I'll take what I can get... you know it wouldn't be so bad here if Michelle would just go to the grocery store every once in awhile! And maybe she could buy me a steak when she goes next time!" --Gussy in April

All in all I think we are adjusting well! :o)

Friends help Friends... destroy!

Did I mention that my friends are the best?

Did I mention that when I bought my new house--alone--as in a single woman making the best of her own life--that my friends kind of unwillingly joined me in that task...
And that they are now helping me to destroy the things in the house that I need to get rid of?

For example:

Steph rips that dang wallpaper border right off!
Who likes that border anyway?
Not me!

Stef pulls that carpet up with her super strong, gloved hands
And makes me laugh so hard I think I might pee my pants in the process!
People say tearing your carpet out is hard, apparently they don't have Stef around to vent her frustrations on their old carpets because it made removing mine a snap!

And Lydia jumps right in to the messy jobs!
She got right to work on making that hole in the wall into a lovely flat wall without a hole--
by putting on a protective mask and sanding the crap out of it!
She's a trooper for sure! Although she probably isn't glad about me putting this picture online.
Just remember Lydia--I'm doing it to tell everyone how wonderful you are
at dealing with dirty situations!

You are all so great and wonderful! Thanks for helping me to: Paint, clean, wash, remove old fixtures, put in new ones, plumb the sink, fix the electrical problems, you know all the stuff you did, and so do I! Thanks so much for all of you! Even the ones not pictured here!

Best Wishes and let me know if anyone wants to join me
in my giant craft project, AKA: the house!

Broken Heart

The same day that I found out my bid on the house went through was the day that I ended up with a stray dog jumping into my car. These pictures break my heart. They were the pictures I took of her before I took her to animal care and control which I will NEVER ever do again! She was lovely and would have been a perfect pet for someone but unfortunately they have a policy at Animal Care and Control about not adopting out any kind of pit bulls. Also they only have to keep them for about 5 days before they euthanize them so she was put to sleep instead of having a home found for her. I'm really upset about it because I even put wrote on the paperwork that I would have been more than happy to pay to adopt her if her owners were not found. They however did nothing to contact me and when I called back about her was when I found out she was already gone. Please, just read this post and realize how important it is to take care of your pets--spay and neuter them! Keep their tags and collars on them--she didn't have anything! Microchip if you have a dog that wanders! And if you are interested in getting a new pet please consider doing something good for yourself and the world by taking in a stray--from the newspaper, from Animal Care and Control, from the Humane Shelter, from a neighbor who can't keep their pet, from whoever--but realize that dogs who are free are often just as great if not better than pure breeds that you pay a ton for!

I called her Zara--I loved her for the short time she was in my life!
I wish I could have saved her and if I had known what was in store
for her I would have tried harder!

Here are some pictures of my dog--
he was a free dog and he is the best thing that's happened to me in a long time!
I love him and would definitely recommend strays to anyone!

He's a great, fuzzy, little snuggler!

Please take care of your pets!

Or Gussy will bark at you!

Random Art Bits

These are some random bits of arts and crafts that I've done over the last couple of months. I just like sharing them, hopefully someone enjoys looking at them. :o)

This was for an encouragement swap on swap-bot.com.

These were some fun postcards that I recently made from
discarded books, paint chips, and stickers!
Cheap, easy, and fun to do!

This was one of the ATCs that I did recently. I love it!!!
I want to make some more with buttons for myself!
This one really cracks me up though!

Art Journal Pages

I signed up to take an online art journal class. It was pretty fun, but honestly I wasn't able to keep up with everyone because things have been kind of weird the last couple of months, but I was going to share a few of my pages. I would like to say though that I was definitely trying to follow the instructor too much and not following myself enough, so honestly out of the pages that I did, these are the ones that I felt were the most "me."