Where's my Mama?

Okay, I went away last weekend for Mother's Day. Here is a picture of one of my dogs, Luke, that I found when I was going through some old pictures. Even though I took this picture last fall (see the leaves), this is what he does when I'm not home. He just waits for me at the door. Isn't he the cutest? It's so nice to come home to my dogs -- they are the best welcoming group!!!

Any way, my daughter, Missy, lives near Madison, WI and since I live in St. Louis, MO one of us has to travel on Mother's Day. Many times we try to meet in the middle for a "girls weekend." Bloomington, IL is half way between Madison and St. Louis. We had a great time last weekend. Bloomington has a nice mall and great restaurants so we did a little shopping and a LOT of eating. Missy treated me most of the weekend but Sunday we went to a fantastic Mother's Day brunch at the Parke Hotel. Check out the desserts!!!

I think we sampled all of them!!! Here we are before eating -- afterwards they just rolled us out of the hotel, lol!!!


I hope all of you mothers out there had a wonderful Mother's Day.

Linda

My Poor Baby!!

My oldest dog, Luke, has had a skin tag/tumor since late summer. It didn't seem to bother him and wasn't very big. It was in a place he really couldn't get at. Well, last Saturday night as I was in my craft room, I noticed he was licking his legs more than usual. He is a "licker" but seemed to be really interested in what he was doing. That's when I noticed that his "tumor" had grown to twice the size and was now bothering him. I won't go into the gory details but off to the animal hospital my husband and I went -- great way to spend a Saturday night together, LOL!.

My baby ended up having surgery that evening and came home the next day. Everything went well with his surgery but I was worried he would have to wear one of those cone-shaped collars to keep him from licking his stitches. Instead, the vet recommended he wear a T-shirt. He looks so cute in it that I had to take his picture. As you can see, he isn't that crazy about it or he's irritated at me for taking his picture. Either way, he sure is a pathetic like boy!!

"Do you have to take my picture??"

"Mom, go way -- leave me alone!!"

Thanks for checking out my little Lukey. He's all better now and back to his old self.

Linda

Crop the Night Away

I've been trying to attract more scrapbooking customers. Some of my friends laugh about how much stuff I have in my stamping workshop and that they would love to come and just use my stamps, inks, tools, etc. So I thought why not -- I'll have them come over and they can work on their projects and use my supplies. I also know through personal experience that scrapbookers like to stay up late and scrap, scrap and scrap! So I came up with "Crop the Night Away" (everytime I say that the Van Halen song -- Dance the Night Away -- comes into my head. I was even thinking of playing that song while we cropped!) I also thought it would be fun to make it a monthly event, give it a different theme every month and design a 12x12 two-page layout for them to make based on the theme. I love it when I have those brilliant ideas!

Last Friday night was my first Crop the Night Away event from 7pm to midnight. The theme was BACK TO SCHOOL and I designed this great 12x12 two-page layout using the green apple paper from the Summer Picnic Designer Series Paper. (I was thinking -- an apple for the teacher! Plus, this was the only DSP that was included in the new catalog that I had so I didn't have to order any new stuff.)

Now I had to come up with my "themed snacks." I went for pre-packaged snacks kids would put in their lunch boxes -- small packages of chips, snack-sized candy bars, snack-sized packages of animal crackers, peanut butter & jelly Uncrustables by Smucker's and to drink, of course, Capri Sun pouches. Four scrapbooking friends came and we had a blast. Two of them stayed until midnight and we actually got some scrapbooking done.

Of course, my three dogs had to join in on the fun. Casey, a Sheltie mix, is my big paper-eater. She loves to sit next to you and wait for little pieces of paper to drop. One of my friends dropped her small "apple" embellishment and she didn't pick it up fast enough -- Casey had grabbed it and eaten it!!

My pointy nose sheep dog!

Libby, an English Springer Spaniel mix, is just lazy and slept on the bed in my stamping workshop.

My couch potato!

Then there is Luke. He is my baby (even though he is the oldest at 10). He is an English Springer Spaniel who is truly a lover. He made the rounds to all of my friends that evening wanting them to pet him. Of course, he is too cute to resist so he got plenty of love that night.

My lover, Lukey!

I'd say my first Crop the Night Away was a success. Now I must get busy and design my next 12x12 two-page layout for October. The theme -- you guessed it -- Halloween. I LOVE HALLOWEEN. This one should be fun!!