Meet Gus.

This, my friends, is Gus.

Gus is our four month old German Shorthaired Pointer. He's a gorgeous boy with a solid liver colored coat and a white blaze down his chest. We went and got him over the weekend; so now he's part of our family.

This was not my idea. Let me make this clear. My husband is the one who has been looking at dogs for months on end, hoping to run across the right one. And Gus happened to be the right one. So.......this is our "Christmas present" to eachother. (even though I wasn't quite as excited about getting another dog as the hub was.) I am not totally proficient at taking care of myself, much less an energetic puppy. And the process of trying to housebreak him......dear Lord! Gus has become my full-time job. The hub goes off to work and I spend the day trying to figure out when this little guy wants to poop and pee.

I will say that he is a very smart dog (thank God), and that he is quite obedient already. But there is only so many times you can clean pee up off of your floor before you hit your breaking point. I am reading Cesar's Way by Cesar Millan right now and we also have a training book specific to GSPs, but anyone who can offer any tips on housebreaking would be a lifesaver. Gus is such a good dog; I don't want to ruin his opportunity to be a well trained, well adjusted member of our pack. I am getting some massive practice in patience.

So now you know what I have been up to. It's hard to think about blogging (or anything else for that matter) with a puppy in the house. A piece of jewelry would have been so much easier to take care of! Haha.

I'll be back with some more posts soon. I have a few subjects that I am eager to talk about.
xoxo

Happy Thanksgiving...

to all of my American friends. To the rest of you......happy Thursday!

I'm off to make some Au Gratin Potatoes and spend the rest of the day eating. (but not too much)

A Picture = A Thousand Words

I settled on this photo this morning on the Sartorialist.
My first thought was that this guy with the random hair and head to toe black is adorable. Someone interesting, for sure.
But then I noticed that he was drawing and that his art is woven into the fence beside him.

Now, I am left feeling a little bit outed. Like the person who walks in at the end of a story. I want to see the real picture. The art. What is the guy drawing? What has he already drawn?

I'm curious.
A picture may be worth a thousand words, but sometimes that just isn't enough.

It Has Been Done......

All prices over $35.00 have been reduced by at least $10.00 in the shop.

Just putting it out there.

Clean Up

I'm in the mood to do some cleaning.
I have that unstoppable urge to get rid of things. I think this happens every year around this time. It must be my brain's way of simplifying things before the holidays. Regardless of what it is, I need to clean up!

I think it's about time to have a big ol' sale over at the shop. I am sick and tired of looking at all this stuff. I want some peeps to take this loot home with them! This is my goal for the week, friends. Put everything in the shop on SALE! It may take a few days....but this is the plan.

Thanks for tuning in. I'll catch up with you again this week, I hope. ;)

*pic

Life Gets in the Way

I had finally found my sweet spot for working out. I had figured out the right combination of cardio and strength training, with some yoga worked in. I was on a roll. Feeling great. Looking stronger than I had in forever. I looked forward to my workouts.

And then.....

I had to take ten days worth of high powered antibiotics whose side affects included risk of tendon rupture. Yes. Tendon rupture. My body ached like I had been beaten with a baseball bat. I could feel tendons and connective tissues that I had never even thought about. No working out for over a week! Actually, it's been close to two weeks now. My body is still hurting. And the risk still remains up to a month after the antibiotics have been finished.

But I intend to work slowly back to the place I was before. That happy place where working out was a reward for the day. Where lacing up my cross trainers makes me smile.
Slowly but surely. It just sucks to be sidelined right when you feel at the top of your game, doesn't it? But at least I am able to get back in there. Thank God for that.


*On an unrelated note....I am gonna try to answer some of your comments within the comment sections. I don't have a ton of comments, so I think this will work. So, if you ask me a question or something in my comments, check back......I will try to answer you.

Hugs and Sunshine to all of you. =)

*oh yes. and I think you can figure out where the pic above came from. it's marked right on it!

The Case For Black

Recently, I chose to paint the kitchen in a house that we are working on black. All of the guys that I work with thought that I was crazy. They asked over and over if I was lying about my color choice. That is, until I actually painted it. But once the paint was on the walls, they all loved it!

It seems odd that there are so many perfect examples of how beautiful and sophisticated black walls can be, yet there are still so many people who cringe at the idea. The very week that I painted the kitchen, my mom got a new House Beautiful magazine that was just crawling with gorgeous black walls.

Even painting only one wall black brings something special to a room. Don't you think? It just looks so black-tie and classy.

Do any of you have black walls in your home?


*photos from here, here, and here.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

There are a few more strands of silver in my hair.
There are a few more lines around my eyes and mouth.
But I am proud to say that I turn 31 today.

Age has never really scared me. I am not one to try to hide mine. Instead, I announce it loud and clear for all to know. I mean, honestly, it has taken me 31 years and 9 months to get to this point in my life. Why would I try to downplay that accomplishment? Maybe I haven't achieved everything that I hoped I would by now. Maybe I have made and continue to make many mistakes with my time here on earth. But I have lived and breathed the air of this world for 11,315 days. I have been right here...... enjoying the good times, gritting my teeth through the bad times, and trying to foster hope for even more positive experiences in the future. God has blessed me with 31 years of life and counting. May I never be ashamed of my age, for it is a gift.



*photo from here.

In the Great Big Scheme of Things.....

Do you know what happens when you think too much about the future?
Huh? Do ya?
You stop living in the present. That's what.

This past week has been a great big massive pain for my husband and I and it was all caused by my unshakable habit of trying to work out my future before I get there. It's a terrible way of thinking that I have had since I was much younger. I'm not talking about the healthy habit of setting goals and having ambitions. No. I am talking about obsessing over "what ifs.....".

What if this were to happen? What would I do?

Having a backup plan isn't such a bad thing. But when one gets a little too preoccupied with that backup plan.................well. Thinking too much about the future has a way of totally screwing up the present. We are only meant to live one day at a time. And who is to say how we will handle any given situation if it were presented to us?

Ever since I was young, I always thought that "planning ahead" was a wise idea. I would automatically start thinking about how I would handle the break-up as soon as I started dating someone new. I would consider my alternate route in the case of losing a job. I would imagine every possible way that a friendship may fall apart, and then map out my defense for getting through the pain. It's downright obsessive.

But what good does it do?

In the great big scheme of things, does obsessing over the future ever really help when something bad happens? I don't think so.
Breaking up will still hurt. Changing jobs will always be stressful. Losing friends will break your heart.

I always thought that I was saving myself pain by being prepared for it. But I was wrong. All I was ever doing was neglecting my present situations and placing unneeded stress on them. It took a really hard blow for me to see this. But my eyes are wide open now. I may never be able to completely let go of my habit. But from now on I would like to think that God will give me the strength and wisdom to do what needs to be done, no matter what kind of bridge I have to cross. But I'll worry about that bridge when I get there, and no sooner.



* pic from here.