More is More

Tessa on alert in our backyard this morning…

What is it Toodles?  What do you see in the avocado tree?

Ummm sweetie, little dogs can’t climb trees, no matter how high you jump!

What on earth is bothering you?  A cat?  No.  A squirrel!

A SQUIRREL????  We don’t have squirrels in Lakewood!  Oh my!  I guess we do NOW!  Tessa leave the squirrel alone! 

Yeah, like that worked…she refused to come in the house, just kept circling the tree and staring up.  I was quite surprised that she was not having a bark-fest.  After many tries I finally got her to come inside so Mr. Squirrel could scamper on his merry way. 

A squirrel sighting is big deal here…I realize many of my friends in other parts of the country are laughing at this city girl right now.  Laugh away!  I’m just taking joy in the little things!  😉

 Happy Monday to you!  🙂

Happy Tuesday!  Today marks the first day of sneak peeks for the Taylored Expressions June Release of 6 new stamps sets, 2 new Project Pantry kits and more.  Everything will be available Friday morning June 4th at 8 am PST.  I’m excited to play along with the Baker’s Dozen in the peeks this week and the first set we are showing of is Pet’s Place. Taylored Expressions supports various charities through the TE Giving Tree Program.  There is a new stamp set introduced every 3 months to support a new charity.  We are proud to bring you Pet’s Place, the newest set in the Apple Doodle Ink line, to support The Humane Society of the United States.

The Humane Society of the United States is the nation’s largest and most effective animal protection organization. The HSUS seeks a humane and sustainable world for all animals—a world that will also benefit people. They are America’s mainstream force against cruelty, exploitation and neglect, as well as the most trusted voice extolling the human-animal bond. HSUS is also the lead disaster relief agency for animals, and they provide direct care for thousands of animals at  sanctuaries and rescue facilities, wildlife rehabilitation centers, and mobile veterinary clinics. Read more about HSUS here.  $7 from the sale of each Pet’s Place set will be donated to HSUS.  Please remember that sets in the Giving Tree Program are the same high quality deeply etched pink rubber on EZ Mount as all other TE stamp sets, however unlike our other sets you will need to trim these images yourself.  This allows us to cut production costs and donate more to our charities.If you a regular reader of my blog, you know that we love our animals like crazy!  We have two macaws, Beaker the Red-front and R.B. the Greenwing, and of course our little 3 year old pup Tessa (scroll down just one post to read her whole story.)  I’m more than happy to help TE support the HSUS and I’m especially excited because this stamp set is so darned cute and has so many possibilities!  To help illustrate what I mean I created two different projects for today. 

Happy Saturday!  Today marks the One Year Anniversary of Tessa coming into our lives and since the vet told us she was 2 or 2 1/2 years old when we got her, we’re also going to call this her 3rd birthday!  I made a special card just for the occasion featuring an Elzybells image and October Afternoon Farm Fresh papers from the 8×8 pad.  The image was colored with Copics and cut out with a nestie circle and mounted on a nestie blossom (Summer Sun). I added some Brown Sugar Sparkly Fluff to the puppy’s ears and feet.  Ribbon and pink ZVA crystals are from TE

  The sentiment is computer generated – When I count my blessings, I count you twice! – because that is exactly how I feel about my sweet Tessa.  She is an incredible blessing dropped right out of heaven into our laps!

The picture above was taken last week after her very first professional grooming.  They put that red bandanna on her and she loves it! When I ask her if she wants to put on her bandanna she jumps up in my lap and cranes her neck.  It’s so cute.  I’ll be making more for her!

In case you don’t know the story of how Tessa came to us, I thought I’d share it here again.  Last year on Memorial Day Weekend Curt was in charge of a car show event at church.  It was his first time heading up something like that and he was excited and a bit stressed on Saturday for the event on Sunday.  Around 6pm he jumped in the shower, telling me that he had lots of registration/computer work to complete when he got out. A few minutes later there was knock on our kitchen door.  It was a woman I didn’t know and she asked if I knew if anyone in the neighborhood owned a long haired chihuahua.  I told her that I didn’t, but asked what the problem was.  She said that her family was at the soccer tournament being held at the school 3 doors down from us and another team mom had found this little dog wandering around.  They had asked everyone on the field if the dog was theirs and they had even run over to the vet’s office on the corner to see if the dog was chipped.  The woman explained that they were all from out of town – just here for the tournament – and didn’t want to take the dog out of the area and lose the chance of finding her owners.  And that’s when I spoke those fateful words “Oh I’ll take her and find her owners!” Did I consult my husband?  Oops…nope I just charged ahead.  So as Curt is getting out of the shower I yell “I’ll be right back.” and off I go with this woman to meet what would become one of the great loves of my life.

I got to the field and they had her in a milk crate.  She had a collar on, but no tags and she seemed pretty well kept so I thought sure we would find her owners.  As I was walking back up the street to come home, Curt met me half way and when he reached out to the lost pup she snapped at him.  Oh no!  I’m in trouble here.  She was sweet as pie to me and obviously frightened.  We worried that she had been treated badly by a man or maybe she had only lived with a woman.  Anyway – we had to get dog food (just a little because afterall we would only have her a couple of days!) and we had to make signs and put them up.  My wonderful patient husband went along with my dog rescue plan even though I know his head was on the verge of exploding. (The photo to the left was taken her first night with us.  She looks like a totally different dog to us now! And yes I have pink plaid PJ’s!  LOL!)

You have to keep in mind that we had discussed several times the possibility of getting a dog.  We had even spoken to a breeder of of Mini Eskies (the type of dog we were certain we wanted), but in the end we decided that it would just be too difficult with the birds since they had shown great fear of any dog we had ever brought in the house.  Also keep in mind that Curt has never liked very small dogs…especially hairy ones!  And keep in mind that I had done this rescue thing before and been successful at finding the owners. Soooooooo…all that to say that I genuinely had no intention of keeping this one!  Seriously!

On Sunday the pup still would not let Curt near her and he made the proclamation “That dog goes to the pound on Monday!” First of all Monday was a holiday and second of all there was no way I was taking this tiny little 5 pound dog to the pound.  I knew if I couldn’t find her owners I would be able to find someone to take her.

After we got home from the car show totally exhausted I decided to try to bring her into the living room while the birds were out on their play trees.  I knew if they reacted to her, she would have to go straight back to the kitchen.  To our amazement, the birds completely ignored her – no response at all.  And she ignored them.  Wow! (the window photo is one of my all time favorites – taken probably after a month or two.)

On Monday we put out more signs and had a bunch of friends come over to see her.  She was afraid of all the people – and as usual I was in the middle of the crowd talking with everyone – so she went over to Curt and jumped up in his lap.  I think that was the first moment of bonding.  🙂  In the Lord’s perfect timing it just so happened that Curt had that week off as a work in the yard vacation and we had a big BBQ scheduled for the following Saturday. Tessa spent all week helping Curt in the yard.  I think someone around Wednesday or Thursday we started to cringe when the phone would ring thinking it might be her owners.  On Friday we went and bought her a bed and a leash and some toys.  No one ever called to claim her and the rest is history.

BTW – she loves people now and is sweet to almost everyone who comes over.  We still don’t know exactly what

kind of dog she is, but the vet’s best guess was a cross between a long haired chihuahua and some sort of terrier. She and the birds get along fine – our only issue is Tessa grazing on food they discard which wouldn’t be a huge deal except that she is so small we really have to watch the amount of her food intake.

(photo to the right is Tessa wearing the dress her Auntie Denise gave her.  Curt absolutely hates for her to wear clothes. A bandanna is ok, but NOT clothes!  This photo just cracks me up!)

I had no idea that I wanted or needed a dog.  Over the past year she has been a constant tangible reminder to me of God’s deep love for me – his graceful provision beyond what I even imagine.  So yes, when I count my blessings I count Tessa twice!

Happy Birthday Sweet Tessa Toodles!!!

And here’s my new favorite photo of her – also taken last week when we got home from the groomers.  I want to get this one made into a poster!

Thanks for stopping by!  Come back soon!

(Tessa hates it when company leaves!)

Happy Day!  I accomplished all my must-do’s this morning and carved out the afternoon to stamp!  YEA!  Unfortunately I don’t have anything to share yet since everything I’ve done today features the new TE releases coming out this Saturday the 5th.  I’m super excited about this release…I absolutely ADORE these sets!  Sneak peeks begin Thursday from the Baker’s Dozen Design Team.

Although I don’t have any stamping to share I just had to show you the latest photos of Tessa.  Her Auntie Denise gave her a pink dress and I promised to share the photos.  You have to understand that Curt detests clothing on dogs and has forbidden it with the exception of a Halloween costume.  But he just couldn’t make me turn down a gift.  *GRIN*

I laughed so hard when I put this on her! It says Princess across the back.

Above was the best photo I could get of her.  She’s pretty squirmy when it comes to photos.  After many attempts, below is the look she gave me to say “enough is enough”.  LOL!

So, where do you stand on dogs wearing clothes?

Thanks for stopping by.

  Tonight one of the girls in my prayer group told us about a video she had seen on YouTube so we all watched it.  It so touched me that I had to come here and share it with all of you.  It’s only 2 minutes long.  If you’ve ever loved a dog I think you’ll appreciate this and even if you haven’t, it’s pretty sweet.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H17edn_RZoY[/youtube]

Ceasar Millan always says “You don’t get the dog you want, but you do get the dog you need.”  It’s amazing how much joy I’ve found in a tiny little dog I wasn’t even looking for.  I’ve thanked God so many times in the last few months for dropping Tessa in my lap.  She is definitley a reflection of His love for me….even in the smallest things.

Hey there! Just a quick post as I am out the door to work. Yesterday I got a new *do*….more accurately it’s back to closer to my standard *do*. I had the perm straightened, plus I had my color darkened up a bit. I loved having the curls, but I was getting tired of them. I have always worn bangs and I could just never get used to not having them with the curly hairstyle. I was thrilled when I checked InStyle.com yesterday and saw that bangs are one of the hot trends right now! WooHoo! Anyway – here I am right when I got home from the salaon yesterday. Tessa barked at me when she first saw me – silly dog!  Myhair is not quite as dark as it looks in the photo and a dark color like this always fades just a bit on me so I think I’m going to love it once I get used to it.

I also have a quick card to share.  The other night I was looking through an old Paper Crafts magazine from 2004.  I saw a simple card with a punch art chick and I thought it would be fun to make something similar.

I used the following SU punches:

wide oval (body), word window (1/4 of one for each foot), scallop oval (wings), slot (beak), and the little double squares one (eyebrows).  I doodled around the edge and scored as well.  The felt trim at the bottom is from the dollar bin at Michael’s and the sentiment is hand written.

I gotta run. Have a great day and thanks for stopping by!

-Jami

Although I have a couple of cards to share, I haven’t photographed them yet, so I thought I’d just pop by for a quick Tessa post.  Sorry I just can’t help myself.  As she feels more at home here, she does more cute and/or funny little things, like deciding her favorite place to sleep is up on the back of the couch like a cat.  And she discovered that she likes to look out our front window.  Since we live on a pretty busy street I generally always keep the drapes closed, but I put a couple of pillows in the window with the curtians parted just enough for her to look out.  The window is a bowed window and it goes almost all the way to the floor.  So in these pictures she’s just sitting on two throw pillows and of course she has her favorite toy “Smiley Dog”.

It was hard to catch her for these pictures, because as soon as she saw me she’d jump off the pillows and come to me.  LOL!

Last Friday we tried our first *play date*.  A friend from work brought her little dog, Sophie, over.  Even though Sophie is quite small, at 11 pounds she is more than twice as big as my little 4.5 pound Tessa.  They didn’t exactly play, but maybe they will if we try it again.  Here’s a photo of me that day holding Tessa in our backyard.  Um…am I grinning from ear to ear or what?

Looking forward to  teaching my SU class tomorrow afternoon and then again Friday night.  I’ll try to get back here tomorrow with at least one of my class cards.  In the meantime, thanks for indulging the new dog-mom.  *cheesy grin*  I seriously just can’t help it!  I promise to do more stamping soon!  Hang in there with me.  *chuckle*

-Jami