A Sad Pumpkin Tale

There once was a girl who gathered with her friends to carve pumpkins.  She labored over an intricate design and was pleased with her final product.

"Welcome!" the pumpkin screamed.  The pumpkin looked great amongst all the other creative pumpkins.

The "m" and "e" then fell out, but the girl was able to wedge them back in place.  Everyone decided to move the pumpkins to the front porch steps for a better picture.  No one is sure what happened on that short journey but by the time the pumpkin arrived out front, "c" and "o" had crumpled to pieces leaving only "Welme".

Welme was not long for this world and eventually became Wel.  As if the poor pumpkin was sighing at his own lame existence. 

By the next morning, the raggedy pumpkin had just given up and the girl was sad. 

The pumpkin sat across from beautiful robust pumpkins on the porch feeling like just a shell of a man.  They were constant reminders of what he could of been.  He cowarded behind some young whipper snappers.

And then the sad girl came out of her castle, picked him up, gave him one more glance of disappointment and tossed him in the trash.  The End.

Office Curtains

I removed the gold silk curtains before painting the office and luckily I don't have to put those back up.  Instead I went with the IKEA curtains I used in the dining room.  At $9.99 for a set of panels I couldn't pass them up.  I got 3 sets in white and put them up last week.

While I was hanging up the longer curtain rod, I took a dive off the back of my little ladder.  It was not a first but it was a little more painful falling on to hardwoods.  The worst part was that my neighbors were pulling into their driveway, along those windows as I went down.  They may or may not have seen me.  I choose to just stay on the floor for a few minutes until they went inside.  While I was on the floor I noticed the curtains were just a wee too long.  After a long weekend in New Orleans, I came back to tackle this problem.

I used iron on fabric tape and hemmed them in place.  It was a piece of cake and gave all the panels a more tailored look.

Slowly but surely I'm getting this room back together.  I'm working on the desk this week and once that is back things will start feeling a little more complete. 

Reason 643 That I Love Mason Jars

Touch up paint.  You never know when it's going to come in handy.  You never know when your dog is going to Hulk out and bend metal.  And you never know what kind of damage will be done.

My evenings this week were supposed to be filled with packing and house cleaning in preparation for my big vacation.  Instead they've been filled with rug cleaning and wall repair.  Luckily I happen to keep my living room paint on hand for fast touch ups.

It took about 10 seconds to repaint the damaged area.  It could have probably used a little filler for the drywall damage but I decided to live life on the edge and just repaint it.

Good as new and still time to get some packing done.  Stewart heads to the pet hotel tonight while Pablo and my house will be looked after by my parents.  I'll be blogging my travels over on Life Outside the Loop.  Feel free to check in on me over there!

Stewart's Superpowers

This blog is quickly becoming more about the new dog than new decor.  This is not by choice but as it stands, Stewart is pretty much on a mission to undo what I've been working on during the last year.  Only kidding, sorta.  I was all ready to report how good Stewart was doing in his crate since coming home from the hospital on Saturday.  We had a couple of really good days.  He didn't protest his new position as Dog-In-The-Box and he was even taking his medicines (steroids and pain killers).  Then yesterday, I came home from work and he was there to greet me at the door.

He had escaped from his kennel.  He didn't figure out how to open the door.  No, instead he just bent metal and disassembled his house.  This is your dog on steroids.

Poor guy has some stomach related side effects that created a giant sense of urgency to get out of the crate.  It's hard to be to upset with him but it definitely was not fun cleaning up multiple accidents in various rooms, including several on my dining room rug.  All I could do was move it out back and hose it down.

Luckily you can't see much from this distance and this was after I'd hosed her down.  Thanks to my love of painting, I always have a spare tarp laying around.  It came in handy when I carried the rug back in the house.

I'm hoping the rug makes a semi-full recovery.  Can I tell you how heavy an 8 x 10 WET rug is?  In between cleaning bouts, I made it to the vet to pick up new presciptions for Stewart.  He's now also taking an anti-diarrheal and Valium.  Poor guy.  At this rate he'll be in rehab by September.  I reassembled his crate and put every zip tie in the house that I could find on its joints.

He seems to be okay.  The valium is making him appear drunk when he walks, tripping over his feet and running into walls.  He has some cuts and sores on his muzzle from his escape and his front nails are desperate for a manicure.

I'm telling you, his cute face is the only thing keeping me from completely losing it.  Well, that and the fact that he checks in to the Pet Hotel in 36 hours. 

Life is Going to the Dogs

There have been lots of dog activities in my life lately.  My parents adopted a new pup into their house.  His name is Casey and he enjoys belly rubs, frisbee chasing and walks with my Uncle Ken.

Two weeks ago, while on my pillow shopping trip to Gardenridge, I also adopted a dog.  He was quite the bargain.  I call him Milo.

Every night after work he's there at the front door to greet me.  And he's the last face I see as I leave each morning.

Pablo seems to get along with Milo as well.  And this weekend we'll see how he likes Casey.  First we have to get him well.  Pablo, along with the rest of Dallas, is suffering from allergies after our mild winter and that has resulted in a little eye infection.

He was great at the vet but he is not a great fan of the eye drops I have to give him twice a day.  And he HATES the cone.  It was amusing for me to watch him negotiate his way wearing it but then I realized he couldn't eat or drink.  He could only pout. 


Sad chihuahua

 I bargained with him.  I took off the cone but he's not allowed to scratch his left eye.  Humiliation aside, he seems to be doing good.  And Milo hasn't exhibited any signs of allergies yet.

Artistic Differences

I spent all of last Friday night doing this:

Which led to a few days of back pain.  I blame this mostly on my poor form and absolute lack of skill.  But at least I had fun.  Back pain tends to make me lazy so there hasn't been much going on at my house lately, decor-wise.  Last night on a whim, I decided to whip out one of my blank canvases and some paints while I watched TV.  Now I'm no golfer, but I'm certainly also no artist.  At least I enjoy myself in these endeavors.  You know who doesn't enjoy my art?  Pablo.

You can just see the hate in his little eyes.  Well, to be perfectly honest it might not be the art he hates.

It's the artist.  Yep, I accidently painted my chihuahua green.  It was all an innocent mistake and in the future I will check my hands for paint before offering belly rubs.  Now if I could just figure out what I'm going to do with this piece of "art".

Sacrificial Pinky Project

I finally finished the project that was slightly derailed by my pinky injury.  The night of the great pinky slashing, I had been removing labels from bottles using a straight razor blade. 

I had seen a pin on Pinterest that showed various bottles all painted white serving as vases on a table setting.  I figured it would be a piece of cake to replicate.  And it was...barring the fact that I almost removed a digit in the process.  Once my labels were removed I simply primed and painted them with my good ol' friends at Rust-Oleum.

I love the way they look fake or like props.  So generic.  I also love the raised details on the bottom of each bottle.

I've got them just hanging out on the bar right now.  I can't wait to use them on the dining room table with actual flowers.  I may even try to collect a few more bottles. 

Crafting: A Cautionary Tale

It was bound to happen.  It was really just a matter of time.  Last night I had a crafting emergency.  No, I didn't run out of spray paint.  I didn't lose me tape measure.  I cut myself.  With a razor blade.  [Parents, breath.  I'm obviously fine as I'm blogging just 16 hours later]

Razors are sharp.  And when you need to remove stickers and glue residue from glass, they do the job without leaving scratches.  Unfortunately, one wrong move and they can cut you pretty bad.  Last night I sliced a flap off my finger about the size of a black eyed pea (the New Years Day treat, not the band).  And with it about 1/3 of my fingernail.  It bled and bled so at 8:45 I hopped in the car and headed to PrimaCare hoping to get in before they closed at 9pm.

My pinky now has a safety helmet

I'll spare you the photo I took once they got it to stop bleeding and instead show you my bandage.  They glued the flap down since it was too thin to stitch.  My crafting injury was fixed by....crafting of sorts.  I find this amusing.  I've never had a doctor glue me back together.  At least it wasn't a hot glue gun.

I spent about an hour at PrimaCare.  They were very nice.  It's amazing how fast they treat you when you walk in bleeding.  Of course, I already knew this because I also walked in bleeding in 2003 after cutting my foot.  The upside of this, I'm once again current on my tetanus shot.  Bring on the rusty nails!  While being treated I must have filled out or signed about 10 forms.  My shock was making me a little punchy:

Description of injury: razor sliced fingertip

Who was involved: me

What happened: crafting gone wrong

Where did this injury occur: home

When the accident occured: 8:15  11/30/11

Why did this injury occur: carelessness

So I'm now on the mend and going to be steering clear of razors for a while.  Luckily the cut and the tetanus shot where all on my left side.  This means I'm still good for our company's annual Christmas bowling tourney on Friday.  Team I Can't Believe It's Not Gutter is still poised for greatness!