Relaxed Now and Renewed :)

So, can I just tell you how much time it took to find a copy of Judith Lasater's book for my upcoming training in San Francisco. Who knew that once a book has a new edition, book sellers let the old edition run out. For the book I need which was published a year ago, the new edition won't be available until November. It looked like it was available through Barnes and Noble, they took my money and then 2 days later sent me an e-mail saying, "cancelled" with no more information. In the meantime every place I called ran out of the book, across the country! The library couldn't order it in time for me. Oy vey!

OK, go the used book route. That worked until I found out that Expedited shipping can take 14 days to actually have the book in hand (which I only found out on the last page of my order). You pay $7.99 to get it shipped within 2-6 days but it could take another 10 to get the book in your hands. False advertising. I cancelled that order. I finally broke down, literally (haha) and downloaded the book onto my iPad. It's significantly cheaper and I have it.....in my hands right now! I'm hooked.

So, now I AM finally relaxed...and renewed! What an experience. For one who loves technology, it took a lot for me to try downloading a book. I was forced into it. But I will do it again!

What a Doll that Girl is!

What to get for a little girl for her 3rd birthday?
Why not paint a cute little doll frame.
And how about crazy pink hair (thanks, Grampie for drilling the hair holes) with a yellow butterfly hovering just overhead.
And a yellow dress with pink polka dots that match her pink shoes.
Yep, that ought to make her smile.

The Beach!

So, we have lived at our condo for well over 5 years now. Not by choice (nasty housing market as we all know), but we are here.
That entire time we have looked at the beach, enjoyed the sunsets, been boating across the water. I have only "combed it" once.
Now, with our new stairs we have a giant front yard and the dogs loved it!

This Sunday, the dogs played fetch (well, Olivia kind of ran/limped with that sore paw), swam, ran, and exhausted themselves.
Which is always good for the humans!

And this is why Ms. O has a limp paw. We found huge amounts of glass on the beach.
It's not too clear here but this bag is 1/4 of the way full.
There is green glass, white glass, brown glass...all waiting to slice open the innocent piece of flesh!
My new job is to comb frequently and warn all visitors, "Flip flops required at all times."
But, it's still way fun.

Pups

Look at these faces? Who wouldn't love such cute dogs??
These two are like kids.
One is mellow and cool...that would be Mr. Sammy. Mellow, yes.
However, I have renamed him Conan the Destroyer. He will chew anything until it is completely....destroyed!

The other has a serious case of ADHD, that would be Ms. O.
Poor pup is still limping around from her paw injury :(
Crazy dogs that we love!
Decked out in neck gear....too cute!

Happy Birthday to My Husband!

This is the summer to create! I seem to be painting, writing, making lots of things!
Here I painted a stool for my husband to use when he barbecues!

He loved it!
And the cheap watch I bought him :(

Oh, and he insisted on these words....
OK...
it was HIS birthday present :)

Guess I should ask him what that means!

Depressed

Poor Livy. Apparently, labs have tender toes. Two years ago she split open her front right paw on ice. Of course she was running like a maniac over our winter wonderland out back, but still :( Four days ago she was happily playing fetch out on the beach in the front of our property with her BBF, Sammy. All done playing she was walking in the garage and bloody footprints followed her. She'd split open her back left paw and her front right paw again, tho in a different place than last time. The front paw was a jagged little tear that healed quickly. The back paw, however, has a nasty gash...maybe a shell? Maybe some glass left on the beach? Who knows. For a dog who LOVES to run and play it's so sad to see her.....depressed. She will heal, and is already, but, it'll probably happen again. Poor Livy.

When the Butterfly Flies Upside Down...

"All we have left are two "A"s," my daughter-in-law tells me as I stand looking in the girls' bedroom, over at the wall next to Addie's bed. Two years ago for my grand daughters' birthdays I decorated cute little wooden letters to spell out their names. Two years later, big surprise, mischievous little Miss Addie has "lost" the D, the L, the Y, and the N. You'd think replacing them would be easy. Ah, don't you know life? First, I couldn't find the cute little curly-Q letters at Michael's Craft Store. Where is A.C. Moore when you need them?

After lots of searching and a conversation with the store clerk, I finally found the small section of wooden letters. Sadly, instead of cute and curly, these letters were small and squarish but I still thought they still might make an OK replacement for the D, the L, the Y and the N. Spelling out Adalyn's name, I noticed lots of As (which I didn't need) hanging on the display, a number of Ys, and plenty of Ls. But, no D's. How can you run out of D's? Hmmm. What to do?

Use the giant letters, hung just below the little ones!

Now, what theme shall we use to decorate them? The green frogs and purple flowers I used to embellish her letters two years ago are...nowhere to be found. Time for something new, anyway. Flower theme? No. Animal theme? That's kind of a cute idea. Mini and Mickey Mouse? Nope.

I need something spunky, kind of funny, very cute and girly with sparkles and shine. And then I saw my grand daughter smiling down at me from the top row of a rack of fancy stickers. She was all decked out with a crown, pink toe shoes and a princess wand! Yep, that's the theme!

This story is not over yet. Last night I decorated, redecorated, fiddled and faddled until I was finally done. This morning I hot-glued everything down. I glued on the ribbon hangers and finished the back with a purple button. And when I was done.....the butterfly on the N was flying upside down! My husband laughed and said, "It's kind of like when peanut butter and chocolate end up together!"

And so I fell in love with the little upside down butterfly and wrote on the back of N:

When you are feeling upside down and blue
Remember Grammie and Grampie
Love you.

Once again, Addie has her name, all decorated, this time in a spunky princess and butterfly theme, ready to hang on the wall by her bed. And maybe those GIANT letters will be harder to misplace :)



Happy 3rd Birthday dear grand daughter on our birthday,
July 14!

Ommmmmm

How I'm feeling on these beautiful summer days.
Grateful.
Happy.
Blessed.

Stair Story Continues On

Here are a pair of happy feet.
Notice water swirling around the stairs.

One broken saw blade? No problemo.
Time to retire the 40-year old saw, anyway.
Enter one new saw!
"And this one," my husband told me with a big grin,
"has a laser light!"

Steps 9 and 10 almost screwed in, two days and 8 hours later.
Who knew it'd be so much work :(

"Be the first to walk on the new steps," my husband told me!

Securing the handrail. No, let's try it this way. That's not working.
Let's try it like this. Wow, sticking out. OK, how about this....
Three times the charm and the hand rail is finally in place.

Steps to the beach....woohoo!
Thank you wonderful husband!

A Lovely Shade of Blue

Here sits on sad picnic table.



Tired no more.
The blue paint really perked up it's mood!

Happy table!
I think it was applauding me or maybe saluting....

Empty paint can 4 hours later.
Valspar paint #4008-7B - Encounter.
Nice way to spend a beautiful 4th of July!

Stairway to the Water's Edge

Steps as they begin! See the first step near the water?

Ever since Olivia, our wacky lab with ADHD, first flew down the embankment as a little puppy on acid, and then scrambled back up as quickly, I have been thinking, "We need steps!" We now also share our home with Sammy, a sweet but somewhat older and much more mellow lab. He loves the water but I fear helplessly watching him float away if I ever let him swim because he would not be able to navigate the rocks and steep angle of the little hill that separates our property from water's edge. And our grand kids, how much would they love to explore the beach, searching for rocks and shells? We need steps I told my husband, we need steps!

The steep hillside

We decided to stick around home this holiday weekend. Sticking around home doesn't mean, sitting around home. I painted an old green metal and glass table to match our new metal and rattan chairs. I am painting the picnic table that sits out on the dock. And....we started building steps to the water. What a clever husband I have. With a few boards (and thanks to Gabe and Dan), some nails, and lots of flexibility we started our stairway to the river! The first step is done. Steps 2-8 come today.

The now-matching table and chairs :)

Now, Sammy can go swimming, tho I can still see him floating away in the current, so I am letting my sister-in-law take that old boy swimming. Olivia, aka Ms. Water Dog, who always swims like she's possessed, pumping those cute little webbed feet a million miles a minute, I feel sure will always make it to shore.

The happy dogs :)

Stairway to a little heaven for mellow old puppies and adorable little grand girls.