Original Pastel Painting of an Italian Greyhound!

I’m so excited!  Yesterday I checked out Mary Detwieler’s Etsy Store, and found another Italian Greyhound original pastel painting that she did!  Of course I bought it!  This time, it looks like Stuart Little, however I have a great photos of Iggy Pop and Mylo sniffing tulips.  Here’s the painting, and here’s Mary’s website.

Cuttlebug Embossing Folders and Combo Dies

These are some of the Cuttlebug embossing folders I just bought from Joann’s.  The ones with words have both an embossing folder and the word dies.

More Stuff I bought…

I’ve been really good about not spending any money for the last month.  My American Express bill should be pretty low because all I pretty much bought were groceries.

The NEXT bill, though, will be high because I’m on another spending kick!  Yesterday, I hit Joann’s and Michael’s and spent $40 and $20 respectively; next was Burlington Coat Factory:  $75; Amazon.com:  $62; Oriental Trading Company:  $45!!!  Also, I spent $40 at Joann.com on new Cuttlebug embossing folders on Sunday.  Plus $85 on that scrapbooking software and $25 on a PhotoShop tutorial download last week.  And the funny thing is:  I DON’T NEED ANY OF THIS CRAP!!!  My obsessive-compulsive spend, spend, spend habit is rearing it’s ugly head again! 

The really bad part is I can’t even focus on all the junk I have now that’s supposed to keep me occupied.   And now, I’m adding MORE?  What is wrong with me?  I’m a real nutcase!

Oh, well… all that stuff will make me happy.  I love, love, love getting packages!

Yep.  I’m a nut.  I can’t help it!

Photoshop How To Books

I didn’t write here that I bought Polaroid My Memories Suite software last week.  I’m sooooo excited for it to get here (just got the shipping notice today, though, and it won’t be here for another 5-10 days, doggoneit!).

Anyway, now that I’ve bought that software, I’ve read several reviews that PhotoShop is still the absolute BEST software “out there” for digital scrapbooking.  Well, I’ve got CS2; I just don’t know how to use it.  I bought a book called “PhotoShop Wow!” but I pretty much think it sucks because I still can’t figure out what to do.  So what did I just do?  I spent $60+ at Amazon.com for three more PhotoShop how-to books.  One is a “Teach Yourself Visually” book; I liked that series of books when I bought one for crochet.  Maybe I’ll do as well with the PS one, too.

I also bought PhotoShop:  One-on-One and PhotoShop:  Top 100 Tips and Tricks.  SURELY I can learn SOMETHING out of all three of those…?

Scrapbook pages and handmade cards for the 2009 Biggy Iggy Auction

Check out my other blog to see photos of the scrapbook pages and handmade cards I’m donating to the 2009 Biggy Iggy Auction!

EDIT!  2009 Biggy Iggy Auction opened May 3, 2009.  www.biggyiggyauction.com

Birthday Cards for the 2009 Biggy Iggy Auction!

EDIT:  The Biggy Iggy Auction opened May 3, 2009:  www.biggyiggyauction.com

Check out my other blog for the description and photos of the birthday cards I made for the 2009 Biggy Iggy Auction!

The 2009 Biggy Iggy Auction!

EDIT!  2009 Biggy Iggy Auction opened May 3, 2009.  www.biggyiggyauction.com

Check out my other blog to see info about the handmade scrapbook I’m making for the 2009 Biggy Iggy Auction!

Another Truman Update…

Hmmmm… not sure what’s going to happen with Truman, the seizure dog.

On April 1, he had a huge seizure that totally flipped out his foster mom (Kat).  Since they are in the process of moving (still–they must be doing it themselves and have all month to do it), she decided it was best if Truman go to another foster home.

[Edit:  Alice isn't sure why she thought they were moving, but they weren't, I don't guess.  She said they were just going on a trip somewhere.]

 

As of April 3, Kat had changed her mind and thought a move would be too stressful.

A couple of problems:  the home visit that she thought was happening last weekend really isn’t happening until April 16.  That particular family wants a special needs dog, but they’re not even approved yet.  And the bad thing for Truman is that there are THREE special needs dogs for these people to choose from if they are approved.  Anyway, Kat thought he was going to be a short-term foster and he would immediately be placed with this family…

SO…  I said a prayer this morning for the situation to work out for the best for everybody:  Kat, Truman and us.  First off, 5 dogs is way too many, and I’m afraid of getting an old seizure dog like that in here because I’m afraid he won’t ever leave.  We’ll just see what happens.

Truman

I got an e-mail yesterday with the subject:  Be Careful What You Say, Some Darn Rescue Rep May Remember…

Alice was MIA for several days last month, and I was worried I’d made her mad.  When she finally got back to me, she let me know she’d been trying to find a foster home for a seizure dog.  I told her that we were a seizure-savvy home, and if she ever had another seizure dog to place in foster care that she should consider us.

Well…  the foster home for that dog isn’t working out.  He’s had two seizures (one grand mal) since he’s been in foster care, and Alice said his foster mom completely freaked out.  Plus, they’re in the middle of moving so she can’t handle the stress of a move plus a seizure dog.  So Alice contacted me to see if we can take him.

[Edit:  Alice let me know later, they weren't moving--just going on a trip somewhere.]

The good news is that there may be a family that wants him, and they’re going through a home visit check-up now.  I can only hope and pray that home will take him because there are a couple of issues with him besides the seizures:  he’s 9 years old and he’s a boy.  And who wants a 9-year-old, male, seizure dog?  He’s going to be a tough one to place.  Which means he will probably be with us for a long time (and I’ll get attached and we’ll end up keeping him, dammit!).

But… I said, yes, we’d take him.  And asked her how we can get him?  Brian’s all excited about ME taking care of another one.

I have to wait and see how the home visit turned out with the people who potentially want him.

I told Alice if he comes to us, I’ll take some really good pictures and write a résumé for him like we did with Eika.

Oh, yeah:  His foster parents changed his name from Truman to Carlo.  We’ll be calling him Truman–his name for the last nine years!  Why in the heck would they change it on him?

Oh yeah #2:  he’s not on seizure medication, but the first thing I’ll do if he comes to us is have him put on phenobarbital or potassium bromide.

[Edit:  He was put on phenobarbital in April.]

Love Birds Anniversary Card

I dug around on the computer and found a bunch of the digital scrapbooking freebies that I downloaded last year (or the year before?). The problem is that the files are so big they clog up the computer and make it chug endlessly and then it blows up. However, today I (very patiently) played around with some of it and came up with a cute little card I’m sending my mom and step-dad for their anniversary on Saturday. I printed it on photo paper, cut it out and glued it to a 5×7 card.

I *think* most of the digital stuff is from Shabby Princess (like I said: it was last year or the year before, and I didn’t name the files so well). The birds and heart clipart are from Microsoft.

The only thing I don’t like about this card is that the “i”, “v” and “e” are raised up higher than the other letters, and that the birds are a little hard to see, but oh well… it looks alright.
 

The first time I printed it, it came off the printer really small (like maybe 3×5).  I guess I can make a smaller card out that one, and send it to my dad and his wife for their anniversary in July.  No point in wasting a perfectly good print out!