lovely sound

This morning I woke up to "rip riiiip riip" and looked down to see this.

I have nothing else to say.

I met a girl in the dog park yesterday who owns Mutton Chops. I came home, looked at her website and saw her pet pictures...and maybe emailed her to see prices for pet photography.

Don't judge.

Here is her other website.

http://jbirkemeierphoto.blogspot.com/

Can't you just picture those sweet little eyes captured in a photo!?

Patrick's opinion - "I could just buy you a nice camera instead..."

I am guessing that's a no go....

Pictures, or no pictures?

sewing success

After a few mumbled s*&$'s and other choice words, I finally figured out how to:

get thread on a bobbin,

get the machine all "string'd up" and

get that thread from the bobbin up thru that hole

(most difficult part of the process because since I am so incredibly smart, I was twisting the knob the wrong way --- 30 min and all of my s*&$'s and mumbles later --- I figured this out).

And I think it was a success.

Here is the baby and her new bed. I didn't stuff it yet - I am going to wait and see if we outgrow the obsession of pulling stuffing out of any and everything before I do that step. So, for now, it's like a duvet cover, without the fluff...and it's reversible.

She is modeling the awesomeness of her reversible bed...for now, she is in the mood for the blue side.

Hope it's still in one piece tomorrow morning!

crafty

I got a sewing machine for my birthday on my visit to b'ham.. It looks a bit fancy...so now I have to learn how to whip out some amazingly crafty things.

I am starting with this fabric and am going to make an apron!

It will be the bird fabric, with gingham pockets, ruffle and tie. I have some brown rick rack for the pockets too...it will (hopefully) be so cute!

And Eloise is getting a cheap/homemade dog bed! These are towels from TJMaxx and then I found batting on sale at Hancocks to go between the layers. She already sleeps on a towel in her room, and hasn't destroyed it (yet). We will see how long her bed -made with love by momma- lasts.

And I even decorated our table for spring! Most of this stuff I already had, but I did make the balls o' moss (I thought moss balls sounded kinda gross...we are referring to them as balls o' moss instead....). It was quick and easy. Just that green foam, sheets of moss, and floral pins - and tadaaaa...a new, spring themed decoration!

As far as Eloise goes --- I can't even talk about what she decided to destroy quite yet..I am a bit sad and could ship her to her Grandparents house(or anyone who would take her for that matter...)

I will talk about that later...

And hopefully next time have an apron to show you!

peace and quiet

This week was Patrick's week of night shift in the CICU. It also happened that I had about 6 days off in a row. I decided it would be in Pat's best interest if I threw Elle in the car and the 2 of us went on a road trip to Birmingham. We made it there and back safely and had so much fun on our mini vacation!

Does your dog drink Starbuck's water??? Well, mine doesn't either. But I was a terrible mommy and forgot to bring her any water on the trip, so she got a Venti water with no ice on our trip to Birmingham. Ha.

When I got home we went to Davenport's for dinner because I had been craving it like crazy!

It was the night before Courtney's birthday so some friends from work, my sister and I surprised her at Innisfree after they got off work. It was so sneaky - aaaand I didn't bring my camera...

Then we had a spend the night party at Mom and Dad's house

and this is what I found Sunday morning...

It's a Patrick in a cage!! He must've thought Elle's room looked cozy.

And MC joined him

Elle finally befriended Wimbley. He's not the biggest fan of sharing and playing with new doggies, but I think Elle finally broke through to him.

Playing tug of war..

Alice in Wonderland in 3-D!

I was so excited to make a stop by Children's to see everyone. The few days we were there went by so quickly but I was glad to visit friends and family...even if 80% of them were sick with snotty noses, fevers, coughs ;)

no more bragging...

This is a well loved Rainbow flip flop owned by Patrick.

This is the face of a guilty dog.

Aaaand this is the well loved Rainbow flip flop's other half...

Our little hairy angel may jump on people constantly, carry our belongings around in her mouth, and may or may not destroy entire rugs. The one and only thing I could brag about was "Well, at least she never destroys our clothes and shoes..."

Thank you Elle. Now I have nothing nice to say about your behavior ;)

BUT...I think I discovered that it all started last night. You see - Elle was carrying Pat's t-shirt around. He was like "Oh, so you want my shirt? Well...okay!" and then proceeded to put it on her. (it was pretty funny...)

Here's the angel in the t-shirt...and notice the shoes on her dad

What do you think she is staring at in this picture??? I think she was plotting to destroy the shoes since her Daddy tortured her in the "human" clothes.

New Rainbow sandals are being shipped our way as we speak. I haven't exactly told him what she did just yet. She better be extra nice to him when he gets home today!

say cheese

Why is Elle smiling??

She got a new room today!!!!!

She technically still fit in her old room, but couldn't sit all of the way up. Her head would be bent down and her hair would stick through the cracks. So since she sometimes spends 5+ hours in there, we decided to get her a bigger 'room'.

See!!! We both fit!!!

So it is warming up a little here in STL. But - not gonna lie - I am ready to skip right over March. Pat is in the Cardiac ICU and it is crazy busy. I feel so bad for him! The most I can help out is feeding him and making coffee for the morning. He gets up at 4:30 in the morning to be in the ICU for rounds, etc. and then usually makes it home around 6:40. Miserable. But never once does he complain. He just keeps on going. I really don't know how he does it. He was oncall last weekend and will be this Sat/Sat night. Finally he gets to come home Sunday morning - sleeps all day - then starts it all over again on Monday. So much for an off day! I know he is exhausted so say a little prayer for him...5 days down...26 more to go!

blonde?

Quick quiz.

What color is my hair?

I had a moment...a blonde moment (no offense, all of you blondes out there). I had been waiting to hang a shelf in the bedroom to continue decorating and making things cheery - and I thought it would be easier with Pat's help. Well...you may not know this, but he's a pretty busy guy. So I was feeling confident and decided to do it myself.

I went and bought these wall anchor things and even got a stud finder. I found that dang stud, and hammered and hammered and hammered this stupid anchor into the wall, each time it bent in all kinda ways. Ways it wasn't supposed to. I was very confused and frustrated. I tried it so many times, I ran out of anchors. I texted a picture like this to both Pat and Dad because I was just so confused....

Well. You're not supposed to hammer wall anchors into studs.....kinda defeats the purpose of what their oh-so-important job already is...

I mean...when the lightbulb finally came on in my slow moving mind, I felt s.t.u.p.i.d. AND of course, I figured this out while talking to my very handy engineer father. Which doesn't really help the moment of feeling stupid.

It is hanging now. I need a few more things to complete it. I got 2 frames on sale at Pottery Barn, and one of them has a colorful placemat from PB in it to brighten things up. I am making progress!