Rainy Weekend

We had a chicken taco bar for our Thanksgiving potluck at work.  It was very yummy and so easy to do!:

Another sewing project!  I made a rice bag.  It was very quick and easy to make.  I wanted to make it according to the pattern to see how Doug would like his altered from this size:

Not patiently waiting for attention:

We were a couple weeks early for the mandarins at the beginning of the month, so we headed out to the mandarin festival.  We weren't there for very long, but we wandered around for a while and checked out the craft booths and enjoyed our time together.  I expected it to be pretty cold out, but the rain clouds helped keep some of the heat in.  A random picture from the fairgrounds:

Doug is carrying the heavy stuff - I'm carrying the kettle corn, garlic and juice we bought:

Yummm!!  A tiny juice!!

We stopped to pick up fabrics on the way home.  I kept telling Doug how annoying this receipt is.  Half of $3.99 is NOT $2, half of $7.99 is NOT $4.  They are making a lot of extra pennies per customer... imagine how much that is per year they are overcharging everyone!  Numbers and words matter people!  This math does not work for me!!:

We are down to our last 10 free meals at Chipotle!!  What am I going to do when I have to BUY their food next year!! HAHA

My new cutting mat and my first real sewing project.  I made Doug a rice bag and a pillowcase for it.  I was pretty exited with the results and my new cutting mat and cutter:

I made the beasts a new toy, stuffed with the same cotton and squeaker I previously used (I've been saving the cotton and squeakers from all the toys they destroy), but this time I made their toy out of denim.  I lasted longer, but not long enough.  I sewed up the holes and it lasted a little while longer.  They get their teeth into a toy and pull and that's all she wrote. 

I took this picture to show Doug the sunrise he missed last weekend while I was up early with the dogs:

"Can we go outside and play??!!"

Doug glued my Scentsy back together while I made his rice bag.  Not too shabby!!:

Lazy Dog Days

Aside from the things I have to do, I haven't been leaving the house very much.  I've dealt with a 3+ week period and don't want to go anywhere or do anything.  I've been low on energy for many things other than Doug and our pups.  I made more sweet potato chips for the dogs while we were home last weekend.  Ruger remembers what this machine is and sits very close to me while I cut and load the dehydrator:

I was doing our finances during the afternoon last weekend and Winnie curled up next to Doug on the futon.  Yep, she was ON the furniture - I put their sheet over the futon so she wouldn't get hair all over it.  She loved cuddling with Doug:

Doug sent me this picture of a little frog in our backyard.  I was bummed when I repotted a plant last year and our frog left and found a home somewhere else.  I'm glad to see one is back this year.  I hope he's getting big and fat off the bugs in our yard:

A lovely fall sunrise:

Doug had a day off last week and was hanging out outside with the dogs.  Ruger is a good model when we want pictures:

We should have named Winnie "Snoop Dogg" because she always looks stoned when we take pictures of her:

A wonderful friend, Noush, dropped off some chocolate cake since I've been dealing with these girl issues and hiding from the world.  What an amazing gal!!  The cake was delicious too!:

Sewing Room

I've been taking pictures of items that will be helpful with my sewing projects.  I've been looking at sewing tables, cutting mats, cutters, needles, thread, the way people set up their sewing rooms, etc.  I want to make sure I'll use the things we buy and the room set up will be functional.  The sewing store uses this mat to measure and cut fabrics:

The sewing store also uses this grid to cut fabrics - they put a guard on it so they won't cut their fingers:

I have quite a few other pictures too - like a bobbin holder, sewing feet, self healing cutting mats, thread holders, organizational ideas.... but I won't post all of them.  We've bought a number of items and I'm really excited for my new hobby.  I'm not very artistic or musical, so I've never really had a hobby, but I can follow a pattern and create fun things!

I stopped at a furniture store to check out the clearance tables that I could use as a sewing table.  I sent Doug a number of pictures to get his opinion.  I came across this table and really liked it!!  I called Doug and asked him to meet me at the store with his truck.  They actually had TWO of these tables, both were $500+ on sale for $100 and $180, but they gave both to me for $100 each!!!!  WOO HOO!!

Doug had to take the legs off to get the tables in the doorway - Ruger was being his normal, helpful self:

The "crap" room before - I've been using Doug's folding table he bought to use at the outdoor shooting range:

LOOOKKKK!! A fancy, shmancy sewing room!  It's still my "crap" room though:

All set up and ready to make things!!

Cold Weather

YUMMYYYYYY!!!  Our lemons are almost ready for picking!!  They look so good!  All the TLC we give our trees throughout the year is so worth it when we get to pick the fruits:

We still have bees and hummingbirds hanging around the flowers too.  They like our lemons as much as we do :)

Since I've been drinking a lot of tea, I ordered this teapot off Groupon.  We saw one very similar to this in a store a couple years back, but it cost $80.  This teapot was about $25.  It's cast iron, so it keeps my tea hot and then warm for quite a while:

I put our heater blanket on the bed.  I LOVE a preheated bed in the winter.  Getting into cold sheets is great in the summer, but not the winter.  We're spoiled!!:

Sewing Project

Of course my helpers were very close by while I worked on a sewing project:

They realized I was stuffing a squeaker and cotton into something and were very impatient:

TA DA!!  My first sewing project!! A simple toy for the dogs to play with/destroy:

They ran around and chased each other with it:

Tug of war began and the toy didn't last very long... PULLLLLLL:

RIIIIPPPPP!!!  The toy lasted about 3 minutes, but it was free!!!:

The aftermath after about 5 more minutes:

Breaking Things

Winnie has been really stubborn about her food lately.  I don't know if she's bored with her food, but sometimes she will just lay down next to it:

Our nosey little Ruger decided to scratch at the cord on the floor and pulled our Scentsy off the table.  UGH!!  Some one pointed out that luckily it was off and we don't have melted wax all over.  Silver linings!:

I bent my fingernail all the way backwards.  Yeah, that doesn't feel good!!:

I got a different flavor of food to see if Winnie will eat better (assuming she's bored with the flavor of the other food).  Ruger sat and stared at the bag for some time.  What a weirdo:

I put it on the floor so he would get over his obsession - they sniffed at it for a while and tried to find an opening, but finally gave up:

Quick Date

After my sewing classes, we went on a quick date.  It wasn't supposed to be so quick, but the places we wanted to go were closed.  The dogs enjoyed the ride anyways:

The sunset during our drive was beautiful!

We stopped to buy some fruit and Winnie watched Doug intensely while he was out of the car:

So many phases of this sunset!!  It was so colorful and pretty:

These are the stitches I learned during the second sewing class - it's really nice that they showed us practical stitches and tricks that we can use every day:

Itchy pups.  They're both chewing on their feet.  We bathed them, conditioned them, put lavender oil on them, flea meds on them and it seemed to calm their itching a little bit.

Poor Winnie wasn't feeling good last week.  She wouldn't eat last weekend and her ear was bothering her.  We cleaned her ear a couple times and it helped a little.  She had small, pimple like, crusty bumps in her ear.  We added fish oil back to her diet over the last few days and that has helped too.  This was when she was sick on Sunday morning - she just wanted to cuddle near us and be left alone: