Tick Tock Tick Tock

Happy Labor Day everyone! I hope you have a relaxing day planned with your family.

The clock is ticking away the minutes and hours until my very first indoor craft show next weekend! YIKES!!

Irv and I will be doing our "trail run" with the craft show booth today. Irv has it down and on the cart....next we will set it up out in the driveway (to see how long that takes us), then we will take it down and load it on the truck (to be sure the booth and all of the shelves and the check out table all fit nicely in the back of his little pick up truck). Then we will move it from there back to the cart (so it's ready to be loaded back onto the truck Friday afternoon). We want to make sure that when we unload it from the truck to the cart at the show Friday afternoon that it is in the order that Irv wants it in to set it up. Do I have you totally confused yet? HAHA!

The booth all stacked up on the cart. Irv had to glue felt to every piece so it won't scratch the floor if we have to move it around when we set it up!!

I finished up the last of my items for the show, and yesterday I priced all of the new items and did my inventory for the show. The skirts and ruffles for all of the shelves are also done. I even started making lists of what I need to bring.

My tote bags waiting to be pressed.

After our trial run, I will be ironing the aprons and tote bags so they will be ready to pack up. The only thing I haven't done is make myself a new vendor apron and I think I just might have time to do that too! Isn't it amazing what we can accomplish when we set our minds to it?

I put the little ropes on the girls yesterday.

The show is Saturday and Sunday, but they had an option to set up on Friday and Irv and I grabbed it. We are going to work a 1/2 day, come home and load up the truck and the car and head over to set up. What's really nice is that they have security, so we can actually set up the entire booth, items included, on Friday, close up the entrance to the booth with a tarp and arrive an hour before the show. If we have any problems, we will be able to address them Friday, and not when the show is about to open.

Remember the old sewing cabinet I plucked from our neighbor's garbage a few weeks ago? Here it is now. Irv threw a little shelf underneath so I have somewhere to put the credit card slips and some notepads and pens. I think he did an awesome job!
I finished some more cake stands this week too. They have been on the kitchen table all week, but it's okay, we never sit there to eat anyway!

I'm not setting any goals for myself for sales, because I have no control over it. If people are looking to buy what I have to sell, then it will be a good show. If not, I hope to just make enough to pay back my entry fee and pay for part of my booth. I only made 15 aprons and 10 tote bags. I want to see how they go at this show before I put any more time or money into them. I will have my pillows, ceramic tile coasters and light switch covers too.

I made these cute little signs yesterday to hang on the front of my booth.

Have a great day today and I'll chat with tomorrow!

The Girls

Irv has been working so hard on the hangers to display my aprons at the craft show next weekend. It was a lot of work to cut them out, sand them, paint them and attach a piece of wood to the back to attach the rope to....but he got them done this week!

Once he finished his part, I grabbed a bunch of markers from the drawer, drew a template for the eyes and lips and went to work. It's not really easy trying to color with regular little markers on painted wood, but I am more than thrilled with the results.

Meet the girls!

I think I will start watching at garage sales this fall for some really big long dangling earrings for the girls. I think that would be a great touch! What do you think?

I Am Autumn

I think most people have a favorite season and mine is Autumn. I love Autumn! Spring is beautiful with all of the colorful flowers, but it's so darn wet. Summer is nothing but heat and humidity...don't really like it! The only good thing about winter is how peaceful it is.

Just give me 365 days of Autumn and I would be one happy little lady!

Fall is in The Air

The Autumn temperatures are near perfect, the humidity is low, the rain comes and goes, there is a solemn "winding down" feeling for plants, animals and people as we all prepare for the winter months.

Autumn is just....well...it's me! I think Autumn also matches my personality.

Sunny Aspens

Spring shouts, "Look at me, look at me"!
Summer is REALLY intense.
Winter is quiet and still.

None of those are me.

Autumn is ever changing. It accepts what "is" as what "should be". It knows each day is a gift and it accepts each as such. It's colors don't need to shout...you feel them in your soul.

Raindrops

"Hi, I'm Autumn. Nice to meet you!"

If you were a season...which one would you be and why?

(The photos are all available in our etsy shop, Four Dog Day. Click on the picture for information)

The Revolving Door

The door I am talking about is the door to our neighborhood. Gone are the days when you moved into a house and lived there until you died. Irv and I are not the norm. We have lived in our first and only house for 37 years now. There are a couple of people on our street that have lived in their houses for a long time too, but not very many. The rest of the houses have new owners every 4 or 5 years.

I never get to know our neighbors very well because 1) I'm rarely hanging around in the yard to chat with them and 2) Believe it or not...I'm not very social or friendly.

Do you know your neighbors? Do you like your neighbors? Do you socialize with your neighbors? If you don't, would you like to?

I don't. I don't know. I don't and nope.

Irv on the other hand is outside all of the time, so he knows the neighbors well enough to strike up a conversation with them and he does. He let's me know who is sick, who lost their job, who is an ass and who is nuts.

Right now we have:

Nice guy, divorced, known him for many years
An okay middle age couple with older kids
Nice older couple with older kids and dog that our dogs really like
Unusual lady that plants tons of awesome flowers and bushes and then never weeds or waters them.
Older couple with a dog that the lady never ever stops yelling at. We want to "rescue" him.
A very, very large "family" that destroyed a really nice house by never repairing anything....like the door falling off the hinges and torn screens
Two 40 something guys that have an awesome yard with a great trellis and a big 60's like metal sun hanging on the front of their house
A young couple that did a great job fixing up their house and yard and last but not least....
The neighbor from hell!! Loud, obnoxious, let's his dog run loose barking at everyone in the neighborhood, let's his 10 year old back his truck out into the street and accused Irv of stealing some deck stain that he had delivered off his front porch! Came over with his daughter to snoop in our garage to see if it was there!! Yep, he's a gem!

So, who lives by you?

Andy and Aunt Bea?
Felix and Oscar?
The Nelsons?
The Cleavers?
The Osbournes?

Missing Dog

When the vet gave Irv the pills for Wrigley's new allergies last week, he said, "She is going to drink a lot of water and need to urinate a lot. Don't get upset because she is going to have some accidents."

I think what he should have said is, "Your dog is going to drink a lot and she is going to have to pee every 15 minutes. Don't get upset because she is going to pee all over your house day and night. She is also going to walk around like a zombie. You won't even recognize your own dog because she will be gone, and in her place will be this blob with glassy eyes that just sleeps or lays on the couch with her eyes open, but not really seeing anything....but she won't be scratching anymore."

I have had dogs and cats my entire life...not one of them has ever had to be on medication for anything....and it's pretty safe to say that unless my pets have some life threatening disease, they will never be on medication again.

I had no idea that dog meds would have the same kind of side affects that human drugs have. Wrigley was just so out of it. It broke our hearts. There was no tail wagging, no happiness, no barking, no playing with Sparky, no following us around the house, no bugging me when I did my yoga, no pushing the bathroom door open when Irv was combing his hair in the morning...nothing....our dog was GONE.

Irv called the vet Tuesday and asked him about it. The vet said those are the side affects of the drug, and if she wasn't scratching anymore to take her off the one pill, but to leave her on the antibiotic. He said to save the rest of the pills in case it starts up again.

Well, the pills will be properly disposed of, and I will be searching for a natural solution to Wrigley's allergies if they return. She will never be on meds like that again.

Irv didn't give her the pill Tuesday and I got up yesterday morning to Wrigley barking to play with Sparky and a cold nose in my ear when I was doing my yoga! Welcome back Wrigley!!

Anyone have a natural solution they would like to share?

Wake Up and Smell the Coffee

I stopped at Starbucks the other morning and ordered my usual "tall, non-fat, no water, extra hot chai latte." The drive through is usually staffed with female 20 somethings and today was no exception. When I got to the window to pay, I handed the girl three singles, one quarter and two pennies. That would be $3.27 for my $3.22 drink.

Now I'm not sure if she just wasn't awake or if she had not had enough coffee yet, but she stood there staring at that money in her hand for the longest time.

I didn't give her any foreign coins or bogus bills...just $3.27.

She seemed quite perplexed as to why I gave her those two extra pennies, but eventually she entered the amount into the register and then very slowly took the nickel out of the machine and turned to hand it to me....still looking terribly confused.

Then I asked her for a stopper (that is a long green plastic stick you put into the little sippy drink hole in your cup so it doesn't splash all over the place). She handed me one....holding the part that goes right in my drink!

Being the germophobe that I am, I wanted to say, "Now could you hand me another one, but without the cooties this time," but I didn't because I am a nice, very patient person and I figured the hot drink would kill the cooties any way.

Hopefully my little barista just wasn't awake yet!

Run Matti Run!!

I just wanted to send out a little Chee Hoo today to my son, Matt. Matt likes to run. Actually, Matt like all things competitive and tends to be a pretty athletic guy. A few months ago Matt decided to sign up for the Imogene Pass Run on September 12. The run is a 17 mile run from the town of Ourey to Telluride. To describe it, I guess you would say, you run up the mountain one way and down the mountain the other way. You start at 7810 feet and run up to 13,120 feet, and then back down. Click here to read some pretty amazing stuff.

Photo is from the race website

After Matt signed up, he started running a bit. Matt is not a seasoned runner. He just runs now and then and signs up for events when the mood strikes him. Soon he realized he was going to be gone for six weeks this summer and wouldn't really be able to do any high altitude training like this race requires.

So, for a little workout, he decided last week to run in a half marathon this past weekend. I can't run. In fact, it's safe to say that I dislike running. I disliked it in grade school. I disliked it in high school, and I dislike it now. I can't even run to my corner much less a 13 mile half marathon!

I see people running all of the time. Some of them look like they are having so much fun, and others look like they are going to keel over any minute. I always want to stop my car and ask them if they want a ride!!

I give anyone credit that can lace up their shoes and head out the door and just run....that is NOT me!

Matt called me Saturday after the race. He finished in 1 hour and 51 minutes. I have no idea if that is good or bad, but his goal was to finish within 2 hours. Not sure how he can do stuff like that without training. All I can say is that some of us got it, and some of us ain't. I am an ain't!

So Chee Hoo Matt my boy! Congrats! I love you!