Thursday, February 22, 2007

Got Bones?

Here's Oreo and Sport with their Sunday bones. Every week we take Oreo down to my parent's house for Sunday Supper. Every Sunday my dad buys them both a brand new smoked marrow bone. The first month or so it was a riot, both dogs growling, jumping, taking each other's bones...a real three-ring circus! Now, they are content to lay together and eat their bones. Every now and they the *trade* bones...and occasionally Sport jumps up and flies into Oreo; but for the most part they get along well. The big difference is that sport is 4 months old and Oreo is 10 months old...Sport is still learning!

Saturday, February 17, 2007

Another Great Shopping Trip

Yup, I was off today on another great shopping experience! This time it started out as meeting a friend for coffee and maybe breakfast. However, it quickly turned into an all-day-long quilt and fabric store hopping adventure! We started out with cappachino at Sheetz, a 30-minute drive to Brookville, PA to a wonderfully bigger-than-imagined quilting/fabric store. This place was just filled with goodies! I purchased almost $70 worth of goodies and I don't even quilt! LOL

I bought some material for quilted pot holders for my BIL. FYI, as a family joke, he hates pink flamingos. And, knowing this, I always buy him something flamingoish. His birthday is in May...and he's getting a grilling kit, complete with flamingo pot holders! The green grass material is going to be the binding, the tan will be the backing and the flamingo material will be the front of the pot holder.

I also seen a beautiful chenille scarf hanging on display, complete with the pattern. I love scarves and this was something *different*...I just had to have it. So I asked for the pattern, tried to figure out how to do it, looked up the fabric requirements and headed to the flannel display! I found several flannels that I really liked and a couple that would really work for this project. So I narrowed it down to two different ones...then picked the one that I have the least of in that particular color. Red and black it is!

From that quilt store, we were off to the next one...another 30-minute drive to Clarion, PA. We vaguely knew where this store was, but we found it easily. Not as big as the first and completely different merchandise. I found some roving for felted soaps, but since Frances gave me a whole bag full of it, I managed not to cave in to the "buy it" temptation.

Then it was off to lunch; it was after 3 p.m., we were starved! We ate at a great steak house in the Clarion Mall. On the way through the mall to JoAnn Fabrics we passed by a jewelery store. I glanced into the case and skidded to an abrupt stop. I've always had a thing for black onyx but usually don't like the usual settings they use for this stone. WELL, here's what caught my attention...I've taken so many pictures of this ring and just can't quite get it just *right*. The stone is a marquis shape, one side has a pink-gold leaf and the other side had a green-gold leaf...the band is the usual gold color and then there is a gold strap over the stone, running from one leaf to the other leaf. It's very unusual looking and is really *me*! Yes, it came home with me! The best part...it was 50% off! All totaled it was $72!!! Oh, just ingore my fingernails, the plant job has just about done them in! One more thing, it's on my left hand because, after many attempts, I determined that I can not work a digital camera left-handed! LOL

The drive home was uneventful. It started snowing while we were eating lunch. By the time we got home we had more than three inches of snow on the ground/road. Good thing we've had a lot of snow in the past couple of weeks. At least everyone have relearned their winter driving skills!

Wednesday, February 14, 2007

$%^&*# SNOW!

UNCLE, UNCLE! Enough already! Snow and I have never gotten along well; I can tolerate the super cold temperatures, but just can't deal with the never-ending snow. It's only been snowing for about 30 hours this time...but I made the mistake at looking at the long-range forecast...snow is in every single day of the 10-day forecast! EVERY SINGLE DAY! Uggghhh

I made it to work this morning. And, more importantly, Billy made it home from work last night at midnight. We are all plowed and shoveled out. Our neighbors are great, going from house to house helping move the big snow piles back and plowing out those who can't do so for themselves. Bill, his brother and three other neighbor guys are out with their plowing equipment doing this. Oreo just loves to go "plowing"...she gets the "shotgun" seat with the window all the way down so she can stick her head out to eat the snow!


Here's a direct shot of the steps going up to the front sidewalk. Ahhh, no, I'm *not* shoveling them out! Besides, hardly anyone uses that door! LOL


Here's the front porch...the sidewalk is somewhere to the right of those two pointy snow cones (which are Alberta Spruce). If you look closely, you can see the snow on the front porch is about waist deep. And...notice that it's still snowing! Yup, I didn't even realize it was still snowing until I came back inside and downloaded these pictures!


A little more manageable sidewalk to clean off. HA! This is what we call the "boardwalk"...I shoveled it last night, Bill shoveled it at 5 a.m. and Billy shoveled it at 2 p.m. When I came home at 3:30 p.m. it was completely drifted shut! Yes, completely drifted...level with that solar light you see on the right-hand side of this picture!

Saturday, February 10, 2007

Cabin Fever Shopping Trip

Yup, it's that time of year...the time of year that I hate. Being snowed in, frozen half-to-death and suffering from a serious case of Cabin Fever! Sooo, I gave into my craving for Starbucks and headed off to State College. My sister's schedule is screwed up this month, so she didn't have *her* weekend off...but I went anyway! I managed to drink four Venti Vanilla Latte's and brought one home for breakfast!

OK, so I didn't drive 75 miles just for Starbucks...I also went to Barnes and Noble to get Bill a couple of his Classic British Motorcycle magazines; which was my main reason for the trip. And, naturally...I had to stop in at Bath & Body Works. Spent $50 in there...I just love their Sensual Amber scent...and their new Black Current and Vanilla aromatherapy scent. And, I had to go to CJ Banks and The Dress Barn. Oh and the sales I found! Here's my new clothes!


OK, so I'll admit to buying a sweater I already have! But, who can't use two basic black mockturtle neck sleeveless shells? I'm not really a blue lover, but this sweater fit so nicely...and it goes well with my only pair of jeans. And, I found a shell that goes perfectly with it (it's laying above it in this picture). All on clearance!


I'm not usually one for matching sets...especially sweater sets. BUT, this one was the perfect color and had some beautiful bead work...and both pieces were 70% off! And look at this skirt that I found to match! The coolest part is the fringe on the bottom of the skirt and the fact that it was also 70% off! Now I need a pair of boots!


Ahhh, here's something that is *me*! And it was 60% off! Hmmm, must have been thinking of this jacket when I purchased the second black sleeveless shell!


Here's my favorite purchase. I just love this stainglass looking shell. They only had it in one size, which was one size larger than I wear. BUT, it's not too huge...and my mom can alter just about anything. So here's tomorrow's after-Sunday-supper job! Not too bad for $12.49; yup, it was on clearance too... :)

Oreo in all her Sleepy Glory



I swear this dog will sleep anywhere! In the first picture, she's under the kitchen table...falling asleep with her head on the rungs of my chair while I got dessert. The second picture...she very carefully piled up all her inside toys and bones and then laid her head on her raccoon.

She's been to the vet a couple of times in the past month, the most recent time was Wednesday. Notice the little shaved area on her right leg? That's from her IV. She has a limp in her front leg and they did some xrays to make sure it wasn't a degenerative bone disease. It's not, so they are treating it as a soft tissue damage with a couple of medications. So far so good...she's limping less and less.