Friday, April 30, 2010

engagement dinner

we decided to celebrate our engagement by going to a fancy restaurant for dinner! the view was spectacular:


and it got better as the evening progressed:

i forgot to take a picture of our dinners (which was amazing!) but i did get dessert :)

us in between courses:

me, deer in headlights:

then me looking very Japanese (i should have shown the peace sign):

yay us!

the end :)

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

engagement :)

here's some happy pics of bfff & i, the newly engaged couple! we rushed over to my parents house after the proposal for a congratulations drink and to show off my new bling.


so this ring is BEAUTIFUL (taking good pics of jewelry is difficult btw). the bands are connected but look like two bands that wrap around the diamond in the center. it's SO sparkly. and i'm all about sparkly.

totally goofy smiles :)


yay happy couple!

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

planning planning!

sorry i've been MIA. wedding planning is suddenly my second job :) bfff & i have made a lot of progress in just a week, with family & friends helping out SO much. it's really a lot of fun!

first thing i've actually accomplished - i ordered my dress & put down the deposit. and OMG it's going to be awesome. but it's also a secret so...no pictures til after the big day! besides, bfff reads this too. i do have to say that i'm ecstatic with my choice and that it is being made just for me. from scratch. no one else on the planet will have this exact same dress.

second major thing i've been working on - the invitations. as a printer, i couldn't let someone print our invitations. i wanted to design them myself. besides, i wanted letterpress invites and DAMN it's expensive! much cheaper to do it myself. i'll have to keep that in mind as i'm cursing at my press in the middle of the night while printing. LOL! i'll post some pictures once i get a more solid idea of the invites. i do know that they will be fire engine red & aqua blue!

coming up this week:
- we went out to a nice dinner friday night (just us) to celebrate the engagement...so pictures from our dinner!
- pictures of THE MOST AWESOME RING EVER!
- puppy pictures (of course)

talk to you soon!

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

sunday night excitement leads to girl yelling "SHUT UP!"

how do you like my fake newspaper headline? :)

the weekend was good, although exhausting. bfff was taking a gun class all weekend, so i had the joy of spending two long days with our puppies. our extremely excited, full of energy, like to wake up early, puppies. they were actually fairly well behaved and somewhat manageable.

sunday night rolls around and we get home from a nice dinner out with my parents. we debate on taking the dogs for another walk, and opt to let them play for a bit. bfff says "hey we should record them playing & send a video to my parents!" so i say "ok", thinking it's a great idea because they haven't really seen mia in action yet. i move the coffee table out of the way while bfff positions the camera and does some test recordings.

so he starts recording and the dogs are just laying there hanging out. not playing or doing anything. which they NEVER do. it's nearly impossible to get them to sit still for 5 seconds unless they are exhausted. and he says something like "well, since the dogs aren't playing, i have a question to ask you..." i'm kinda laughing, thinking he's just joking around, and then he starts getting on one knee and i'm like "SHUT UP!" (as in, "no way i can't believe this is happening"....not like "be quiet"). i'm starting to freak out and squeal and laugh and cry...and he pulls out the most gorgeous ring and he asks me to marry him!!!!! of course i said (screamed) YES!!! and give him a big hug & smooch.

we are giddy with joy and SO very excited! excited doesn't even begin to describe how i'm feeling.

sooooo i guess my acupuncturist was right....i'm starting on a big adventure after all!

Saturday, April 17, 2010

cone of shame

our vet knows us on a first name basis now. we've been there so many times in the last couple of weeks, getting vito's shots, mia's first visit, then vito started inverted sneezing/snorting, and last night we noticed mia's incision site from being spayed started to look not so good.

poor little mia - she doesn't like car rides. she starts to drool like crazy when she thinks she has to get into a car. bfff & i wonder about what happened to her to cause that reaction. in the past couple of weeks though, she's gone from barfing in the car & drooling like a faucet that's been turned on to dripping drool and no barf. plus she'll actually jump in the car by herself. so major improvements!

so we hop in the car and she sits up front, dripping on everything in her path. when we get to the vet, she does great. totally behaves, very attentive. the doc looks at her tummy and decides she needs antibiotics due to the start of an infection. then she brings out the cone of shame. i have to say, this one is much better than the plastic ones, it's like a little pillow. here's some pics of mia's reaction:

get this off of my head!

this sucks.

i'm tired and look pathetic :(

i do, however, get better tv & radio reception now.

have a good weekend everyone!

lost dogs everywhere!

i must be sending out an announcement: "lost dogs - come to me if you need help."

bfff and i took our two puppies to the park the other day and as we cruising down there in my little car, we see this dog trotting around nervously in the middle of the road. so we start looking around for her (i think) human and didn't see anyone.

so, i got out of the car and let the dog know i was there. she saw me and as i knelt down with a treat, she came over to say hi. poor thing was anxious, but friendly. i pet her for a minute and slowly took a look at her collar. thank goodness she had a tag (unlike the last encounter)! she was some kind of ridgeback - her back stripe was cool - and her name was sitka. i called the owner (no answer) and left a message.

a few minutes later, this girl was walking her 3 dogs, only one on leash, and she said "oh that's my friends dog. i'll take her." so i called the number back and left another message with the description of the girl and that sitka went with them.

later that evening, sitka's owner called me back and said thank you for calling. he said he talked to the girl, and didn't sound too pleased with her. he really appreciated the call.

i told my acupuncturist this story, along with all of the other dog stuff that's happened, and she said she's heard that suddenly having a lot of dogs (or wolves) cross one's path could mean i'm getting ready to start on a big adventure. interesting.

Thursday, April 15, 2010

april showers

posting will be light this week - i have been putting all of my energy towards our two sweet puppies and am pretty exhausted. and it's only wednesday!

april showers in alaska bring...
yep SNOW. LOTS OF STUPID SNOW. we are supposed to get 5 inches of the white stuff today. at least i didn't get my snow tires changed out yet.

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

made in alaska

i've finally gotten around to looking at the application process to become an official "made in alaska" artist. the application is for a permit to use the official made in alaska seal, which is a mother bear and cub - see it at the official site here. the symbol is well known in alaska. many of my artist friends have said they've seen a significant difference in their sales after getting their permit. since i applied for a new show in the summer and the primary customer will be tourists, i thought it would be a good idea to submit this application. so wish me luck!

Saturday, April 10, 2010

puppy stuff



i guess this week is all about puppies :) here's some pictures from the last couple of days with our new addition:





have a happy weekend :)

Friday, April 9, 2010

finale!

do you like how i'm dragging out my story over multiple days? is the suspense eating away at you?

so while we were at animal control on sunday morning, we wandered around and looked at all the kitties and doggies hanging out in their respective pens. some gave me googly eyes, some talked at me, and others were on their best behavior. i scanned through a lot of their paperwork and was shocked and saddened at the number of animals who were left there by their previous owners. i just can't imagine having to go through that process and how difficult that must be for the dogs too.

bfff & i walked through separately and one puppy caught our eye. her name was shelby and she's a shepherd mix. mostly black with brown toe nails and gigantic ears. when the ears are up, she looks like a little bat. but most of the time, it looks like there is a serious gust of wind:


here's shelby's story: she's 5 months old and was originally adopted from animal control (but i don't know how old she was at the time). her paperwork stayed that she was pretty gentle and walks well on a leash. she apparently gets very carsick too. the family that adopted her brought her back to the shelter due to the mom having some kind of major surgery, and therefore they couldn't handle her anymore. a second family adopted shelby, but brought her back in a week because they wanted a puppy, but didn't want the work involved in raising one.

bfff and i talked about adopting her, taking a number of things into consideration. first, would her & vito get along? would they be good companions? could we handle two dogs? would we be willing to put in the time for training and care? could we afford the cost of two dogs, vet bills, food, etc? who would watch them if we went on vacation? what happens if we move? would we be able to handle the stress on our relationship? what are some worst case scenarios? and the list continues....

we slept on it and talked some more in the morning. we made our decision, contingent on how the meeting went between her and vito...she's going to be part of our family! so, we went back to animal control the next morning, as soon as it opened, hoping no one had adopted her before us. we brought vito for the big meet and when they saw each other, they wriggled their butts, tails wagging, dropping into a play bow, and hopped from side to side. vito met his new bff.

we renamed her because, to me, she didn't look like a shelby. plus she didn't know her name anyway. since bfff picked out vito's name and collar, it was my turn. her name is mia (meee-ya) and her collar is blue (of course).

so here's a couple of pictures from these first few days:

mia making herself at home

mia & vito staying still for 2 seconds

hanging out puppies!

oh, and yes, in case you are wondering, we are crazy. crazy people with big hearts & a major soft spot for dogs.

Thursday, April 8, 2010

beagle rescue, part 2

when we left off, vito was busy annoying our house guest, an old beagle...

we started getting ready to go to sleep and vito jumped up on the bed. fred waddled over to vito's bed on the floor, and both passed out in minutes. easter morning rolls around and everyone gets up early (what is it with dogs getting up at the crack of dawn??) bfff takes the crazy puppy for a romp at the park and i took fred for a short walk. he was so excited for that walk, his tail & butt wagging like crazy...by the end, he kept looking up at me like "seriously, is this ever going to end?"

just making himself at home...

animal control called me back and said we could bring fred in and they would scan him for a microchip. i asked some questions, like what would happen to him if he didn't have a chip, if they couldn't find his owners, etc. we packed him up and headed to the shelter. they scanned him and about two seconds later, they found the microchip and had his owner on the phone!!

she came immediately to pick him up and was in tears when she saw him....which made me tear up too. she said his name was cody & she was so relieved and thankful he was safe. we told her he got a bath & ate well & was a wonderful little house guest. she was really sweet and we were so glad he went home with his mommy.

yay for happy endings! we figured that if our dog was ever lost, we would hope that someone would be kind enough to take care of him.

but wait! the story isn't over....

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

weekend storytime

what a weekend! sorry for the lacking of posting...things have been pretty crazy around here. it all started on saturday night....

bfff & i were getting some grocery shopping done at our local fred meyer. we were perusing the easter candy section and out of the blue, this beagle trots up to me and sits down at my feet. so, of course, i kneel down and pet him. the store manager asked if he was ours (umm no) and then starts making shop announcements. poor guy doesn't have tags on, but he does have a harness and little dirty leash. we can tell he's a bit older and very friendly.

the announcements didn't help, so bfff & i decided to take him to animal control (after leaving our info at the store), because that's the first place anyone looks. i called, but of course they were closed. my friend with the spca said that they have an area to drop animals off after hours, where it is warm and they have shelter from the elements. we drove down there and.....the drop off was closed til further notice. hrm. so, "fred" came home with us.


we gave him a bath, since he was quite a smelly dirty mess, fed him, left messages with animal control & posted an ad on craigslist and hung out for the evening. vito was interested with the old guy and wanted to play but a 70 pound husky mix vs. 30 pound old beagle wasn't the greatest match.

stay tuned for exciting conclusion :)

Friday, April 2, 2010

website update!

i finally got around to updating the Tama Press website! i had oodles of pictures that i'm still working through - a lot of work cropping and adjusting some lighting in photoshop. i would love to learn to take pictures that need NO EDITING WHATSOEVER. that would be rad.

there are lots of new books - all different kinds - japanese stab, secret belgian, address, blanket stitch, and more! in addition, i also posted pics of some small boxes i made here. they have a lid that flips open with partitions on the inside for your treasures.



the traditional photo album section is up here. these were matching sets of an album & box i made for shows.


please visit the website and look for the little "new!" signs under the photos.

Thursday, April 1, 2010

words with friends

thanks to lady smaggle, i downloaded the app "words with friends". basically, it's scrabble on your phone & you can play random people or friends. OMG it's so damn addictive!!

i have learned that a) my vocabulary is really not that great and b) my neighbor is a freaking genius. he's beaten me by 100 points consistently. it's ridiculous. he says it's luck. mmhmm.

it's pretty bad when i just start randomly placing letters to see if the program will accept it as a word. like "gied" or "thane" or "mir". did you know the plural for vacuum is "vacua"? yea i didn't either. no one knows the plural of vacuum because no one has more than one vacuum. and if they do, they say vacuums. seriously.

i have to get back to my multiple word games now. because one of my opponents put down "adz" and "lysin". i swear, i think they're cheating.