Doggy Chew Toy

Does anyone else have a weird dog? Carly is a good girl but she sure does some weird stuff.

I love this picture though. Grace took it. Carly is a eye booger factory. TMI?

Anyway, everytime the girl comes in from outside she gets chewing on her feet. Especially her back ones. And God forbid you touch her back legs or tail while she is laying down. Snarling and snapping noises start although she has never actually bitten us.

However, when she standing up, its just fine to touch her legs and tail. I find myself doing it just because I can. She will sit there and chew on her toes for 10 minutes straight. They're not especially dirty and she's not hurt that we can tell. She isn't compulsive about things. She's not doing it to excess and hurting herself. We used to have a cat that licked all her fur off so maybe it's us. I think she just has too many dog breeds mixed in. I would love to buy one of those doggie DNA kits to see exactly what shes made of.

Peaks Pictures

Declan had a soccer game out on Peaks Island yesterday. Our trip out there just reinforces the fact that we should be living out there. I suppose that is up to the Powerball Gods.

Declan loved the ferry ride and being with his team. Everyone was looking at the adorable soccer team. He threw a dime off the side and said it was his buried treasure.

Views like this no matter where you looked. Its like being in a Robert McCloskey book.

Fort Gorges. One day I will take a boat out and explore it. Or maybe I won't and have it just remain a mystery.

My house is in there somewhere. I just haven't picked it yet. I like the ones that have been there forever and haven't had the Martha makeover.

The ferry ride is much too short. I have no idea what the big green towers do but its something to do with the ferry. I just think they're cool.

We did actually have a purpose out there and they finally won a game this year. We had to walk a little to get to the field and it was 1000 degrees and high humidity but it was worth it.

There was a man down though. He twisted his knee and a bigger kid rolled over him. I was off in the woods at the time helping Grace and missed the whole thing. I just heard the whole game go quiet and looked up to see everyone gathered around Declan. Not a good feeling but he turned out to be fine.

We got some ice cream and we finally had to come back to the city.

I've decided that it's best for my sanity if I just ride the ferry endlessly whenever I feel like it.

Heart Strings

I finally successfully made something I found on Pinterest. There was a pin there for a heart strung banner that looked hard to screw up. I still tweaked it a little.

It caught my eye because it involved using my favorite stolen free materials-paint chip samples. I remember when I first realized that you can just go to the store and grab a pile of these instead of paying for expensive paper. I thought I had discovered a huge secret but apparently other people had thought of this already. I'm ashamed to say I involved my children in getting so many. There is more than you see in this picture. I did pay for the heart paper punch though-with a 50% off coupon of course. What I really wanted was a big star punch but I couldn't find one.

Anyway, the project I saw used a needle and thread to poke through the heart. I decided I didn't like that as much as the idea of gluing 2 hearts together with the string inside them.

This is where my new found love of glue dots came in. I can't believe I never used these before. Basically I just tied a knot on one end of my embroidery thread and then spaced out the hearts and glued them in place. I have a lot of this thread laying around. I would go for using a colored one next time.

It took me only about 20 minutes to finish it. Those glue dots are like super glue but I'm glad I used them. If I just used regular glue, I would have had to wait for them to dry and they might have moved around. They are addictive to make but I don't really have a spot to put it. Graces room is the obvious choice but her walls are full. I've hung it on the staircase for now. I'm still on the look out for a star stamp too.

My Favorite Things

Time for more favorite things around here.....

This is bridal confetti. I bought it a few months ago but I have no idea what to do with it. I just know I'm going to do something with these little paper flower things. In a few years probably.

My old Little House books. My friend Heather is rereading hers and that inspired me to drag out mine. These are my original copies from 1980? I think. You can see that I read them over and over. Happy Golden Years lost its cover years ago and I seem to have made a new cover myself for Farmer Boy. I've started rereading By The Shores of Silver Lake.

My new ceiling fan. It has an oil rubbed bronze finish. We have had a huge brass finish fan in here that came with the house. I hated it. We always meant to replace it but it worked and there are a lot more pressing things around here to replace. The fan chain breaking was a good excuse to finally change it out. Our simple change out lead to an expensive visit from an electrician when our 1920's wiring was too much for us. I like it regardless.
I needed a holder for my new IPhone. I didn't like anything I saw in the stores. I went on Etsy and found the perfect one for me. I love that I carry my Jetsons phone in a British telephone booth. I also love that apple green bowl that its propped against. When Dr. Oz was visiting the station, they put out those Edible Bouquets as part of the spread. The bowl was used to hold it so I took it after it hung around the kitchen for a few days afterwards.
A few months ago, The Pioneer Woman posted something about making paper flowers. The thing I liked is that you can mount them on actual twigs and make a little bouquet. You can't actually see the twigs here but they are there. My flowers are drooping a bit so I think it's time to make some new ones.
My last favorite thing is that Grace is finally keeping her room clean. I know its very full of stuff but the floor is clear and has been for almost 2 months. One day this summer, I spent 3 full hours cleaning, sorting and throwing things out in this room which made Grace very, very grumpy. I think once she saw how much easier it was in there without so much stuff, she decided to keep it up. I hope this lasts long into her teenage years. Fingers crossed.

Pinterest Fail

I have been spending/wasting a lot of my time on Pinterest. There are so many pretty and interesting things to look at and think about making. Hurricane Irene gave me a full Sunday with nothing to do so I thought I would finally try two of the things I saw on there. I would say that both of them were failures but it was a nice change to sit still and give my full attention to something.

These paint chip coasters were a no brainer to try because I already owned all the supplies. Regular wall tiles, some glaze and some free paint samples. All you have to do is decoupage them onto each other. I don't even have a final pictures of them. This is them waiting for the glaze to dry but you get the picture. They weren't so bad but the brush marks were very very obvious on them. I'll either use them underneath plants or give them to Grace because she loves them.
I can't find the link for these pictures but there is a shop on Etsy that sells them. I looked at them and thought they didn't look too hard to make. They are unless you have some sort of laser plumb level so you can get all the lines and spaces straight. This is not my strong point. I still like the idea of them though so I might try again after I have more time to think about how to arrange them. Grace also wants this for her room. I can always count on her to like all my stuff instead of thinking they're failures.