Christmas Book Critters

You might remember the Halloween Book Critters I created back in October. Well, due to popular demand I was asked to create some Christmas Book Critters for our Christmas display. Woohoo! I was so excited and got straight to it and I am very happy with the results (although I think my Elf needs a hat, I will have to find some time to work on that or take some stuff home and work on it lol).

Introducing our Christmas Book Critters.

Santa:

Elf:

I really do think this guy needs a hat. Will have to work on it 🙂

Rudolph:

And last, but certainly not least… Olaf 🙂 :

Unfortunately you cannot see his arms and hair too well in this photo, but I swear he has them 🙂

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The Squirrel Effect

Remember how a few posts back I talked about my New Year’s Resolutions and one of them was about accepting home truths? Well here is another for the pile 🙂

It is what I call ‘The Squirrel Effect’. I am a pretty creative person, I love creating things, I love trying new things so am always starting new projects and buying ingredients to try new recipes. The problem I have come to realise is that sometimes I lose interest… or my interest shifts to something new… AKA SQUIRREL! [if you don’t get the reference go and watch Disney’s Up!]

I decided to write this post after reading “Good boss, Bad boss” on LauGraEva’s blog, I remember that I first discovered this about myself when I was my own boss working at home. I was younger and had the misconception that I would have so much more time because I was working from home; I was wowed by the fact that in the middle of winter I could wear my flannel PJs and UG Boots to the office 🙂 Needless to say I very quickly realised that watching Firefly whilst answering work emails was not a good plan when I replied to a client informing them that everything was “Shiny”.

The same thing happened when I was unemployed for two months last year, I thought I would have so much time and I would be able to keep up on everything in the house and get a bunch of projects done that I had been unable to start… pfft… didn’t happen. I did get some vegies planted and caught up on washing, I also cleared out the closest and sent a bunch of stuff off to charity, but there was so much I didn’t get close to touching which was seriously disappointing! I even used to make deals with myself like: ‘okay, we are putting a wash on now, you can watch one episode of Big Bang Theory and then you have to go and put it out’, but then invariably I would try and find things to do inside like the project I started creating Christmas decorations by up-cycling books… that was way fun… and messy and kind of took over my coffee table for a week before Hubby got the royal poos 🙂

At the moment I have 2 major projects that I need to get too, one is that I found a vintage bird cage by the side of the road and I have the idea of somehow turning it into a succulent planter for my mates for their combined 30^th bday – they both like up-cycle/vintage so I think they will love it. Then Hubby had to go into hospital etc. and long story short their birthday has come and gone and I haven’t finished it 😦

it’s because of the Squirrels…

I also have a project I desperately have to start and finish before October for my Best-Friend’s wedding and…. I was about to tell you all about it, but then I have just realised that I think she reads my blog from time to time and so I cannot tell you about it, but it is pretty awesome. I have never done anything like it before and actually have no idea whether I am able to do it, in theory [AKA according to my hella awesome research] it will work, but in practice… who knows.

My point is that these two projects in particular I really need to get done and I can’t afford to

SQUIRREL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Pride & Joy: Fur baby family

What is your most prized possession?

This was a challenge issued by daily post and it really made me think, my instinct when thinking about my pride and joy was to say family, but I do not really consider my family a possession. Google dictionary defines possession as the following:

1. the state of having, owning, or controlling something.
2. something that is owned or possessed.
3. the state of being controlled by a demon or spirit.

We’ll just ignore that 3rd one completely as I am pretty sure no one has ever expressed pride or joy for demon possession – although I must say a novel titled, ‘My favourite demon possession’ would be an interesting read.

She looks happy… right?!?!

So what possession or thing that I have actual ownership of is my pride and joy? Well, whilst I think of my dogs as part of the family I do technically “own” them so I would have to say my fur babies 🙂

I have always wanted a dog, I asked Santa for a puppy for many, many years, but unfortunately he somehow knew my parents didn’t want one so my puppy was never under the Christmas tree come Christmas morning. One of my driving forces for becoming independent was so I could move out of my parent’s house in order to get a dog.

 

Molly

Miss Molly

I quickly decided that I didn’t want a puppy from a breeder or a pet shop; I wanted to get my new companion from a shelter. So onto the interwebs I went (this was almost 10 years ago now so everything was far clunkier than it is now) and after looking at a few different websites I found Renbury Farm http://www.renbury.com.au/ or https://www.facebook.com/RenburyFarm  I saw a 7 month old pup on the site that caught my eye and went to visit the very next day. When I located the dog I had seen on the internet we didn’t really click, the dog was incredibly excitable and just didn’t feel right (it also barked the entire time I was there with my brother and I didn’t think that would go well with the neighbours).

I decided to look around at the other dogs as there were many more onsite than there were on the website, we played with a few, but none of them felt like the right one for me, then I saw this little bundle of white fur hiding in the corner of a pen – I couldn’t even tell what kind of dog it was because it was trying to make itself look as small as possible. The lady from the shelter said she was 6 months and had been found on the side of the road with rope around her neck, she was petrified of people, especially men so my brother shouldn’t go in the pen, she would likely wee on me if I picked her up, but I was welcome to go in to get a better look at her. In I went and after some coaxing I picked her up (with the blanket underneath her just in case) she cuddled straight in under my neck and I knew I had found my companion. She was a 6 month old Chihuahua X Mini Foxy (Chi’s are not a breed I usually take to) and she was perfect.

It took many months of work, but she became a happy go lucky dog who loves men and women equally and will cavort and rub against your legs begging for a pat (or a treat). She is very well behaved and adores nothing better than a snuggle on a cold day. I have had 9 years of amazing joy and companionship with her and she is my pride and joy.

 

Sam

Sammy

The only problem that lingered on for a long time with Molly was separation anxiety, I managed to work through every other issue she had, but if I went away for a weekend or something she would freak out after a few hours and stop eating and drinking and claw at the front door to try and get out and find me. She would also scratch at herself until her hair fell out and her skin bled.

We found a kitten who seemed very lost, but well taken care of (very healthy) so we decided to drop it to our local pound to see if it was micro chipped so the owner could be found. When we left an older woman stopped me in the car park and handed me this fluff ball begging me to take him in for her because she couldn’t do it herself. Apparently it was her neighbours pup and they didn’t want him because they were never home, he chewed everything and he was sick all the time. He was a Pomeranian and I have friends who are breeders so we took him home – he had been owned by an immigrant Cambodian family who had been feeding him their own food so he was very skinny – at 12 months old he weighed 1.2kgs. So we knew he needed vet attention fast.

After a few hours at our home Molly and Sam were inseparable, when I took him to the vet the next morning she wandered around the house whimpering and moping until I brought him home. I went to work and came home to find Sam curled up on the couch beneath my Hubby’s chin and Molly curled up behind his knees – all asleep. It was then I knew we had just adopted another dog 🙂

Sam turned out to have one of the most gorgeous dispositions of any dog I have met, he is a total Mummy’s boy and will trot around the yard after me and happily sit there with my whilst I weed or put out washing. He and Molly cavort and roll around the yard – I truly believe they both think they are much bigger than they are the way they roughhouse sometimes.

 

Thinking back on how these two crazy lovable furballs came into my life I feel very lucky, if I had have gone to Renbury one day earlier I wouldn’t have met Molly and if we hadn’t have found that Kitten and decided to take it to the pound at that exact time we wouldn’t have met Sam. Sometimes life just works out perfectly 🙂

Christmas

So this is Christmas
And what have you done
Another year over…

I think it is important to review your successes at the end of the year. Whether they be big or small, reminding yourself of what you achieved during that year (even if you thought it was a bad one and are happy to see the backside of it), for me at least, makes the fact that it is the years end more meaningful.

So my year in review…

This year I managed to:

•  work full time,
• continue earning my Uni degree at night (with really good marks),
• arrange a wedding to my best friend in the world – light of my life – my Nubby (AKA New Hubby – yes he hates it hahaha),
• be blessed with my first nephew (and now godson) – beautiful Hendrix,
• had a beyond fabulous escape to Vanuatu,
• climbed and stood on the rim of an active Volcano,
• clambered up and all around the most breathtaking waterfall I could ever imagine,
• fed an 80 year old sea turtle,
• held baby turtles,
• paid off all the credit cards (much to the banks dismay – they keep contacting me offering me a larger limit – NO!!),
• went tandem aqua zorb balling,
• got a tan! (I have 2 colours, cracker-white & cherry-red, I have never ever gone brown, thank you Vanuatu!),
• lose 20 kilos,
• found out I will be blessed with a niece in early Feb courtesy of my younger brother & his partner and plus, also, my godson Hendrix will score a brother or sister in late June 2012,
• I continued to have an amazing best-friend-like relationship with my Mum,
• despite my new hubby’s younger brother’s best efforts to do anything and everything rudely, wrongly and disrespectfully while he invaded us for the majority of the year I did not commit any felonies!,
• I didn’t lose any friends and as far as I know I didn’t gain any enemies 😀
  

  Me & Mum

Obviously there is more to my annual report, however the highlights are looking promising and I would have to say that what I have accomplished over the past year really does outweigh the stresses and craziness I sometimes felt! All in all I would have to declare 2011 a success and I believe I am ending the year with my stock up rather high and am therefore entering the New Year with renewed vigour and awesomeness 😀