Cut 'n Paste

Thankful...

 

(Dogs looking out of the window photographed by Rick in Ketchikan Alaska)

Sothankful today for a wise momma, who dispensed valuable medical advice to me last night.

If you're a regular reader of this blog, you may remember that one of my Bichon Frise dogs, Dixie, was diagnosed with Diabetes earlier this year. Overall we have all adjusted well to the accommodations we needed to make. She is ill enough that she requires insulin shoots twice every day. We have her on a good schedule, and everything has been humming along quite well...that is until Tuesday.  What happened on Tuesday you ask?  Well, Rick happened to be home from work, and due to a miss-communication between the two of us, Dixie was accidentally given her morning shoot twice. 

Long story short, due to our mistake Dixie crashed big time that night, at one point not even able to stand on her own.  I ended up staying up with her until 4AM to continue to take regular blood tests to regulate her levels, give her honey as needed (to increase her blood sugar levels, which at times were dangerously low) and make sure that she didn't fall asleep and go into a comma. By mid-morning Wednesday everything was pretty much back to normal and we are out of the woods. But I am so, so thankful for my momma's advice, as I probably would have gone to bed without her warnings and my dog would not be here today had that happened.

What are you thankful for today?

Inspiration found Online

 

(Supplies: All items Stampin' Up! with the exception of the sewing machine, thread, vintage mother of pearl buttons, staple, fonts and cardstock. Patterened Paper: Delicate Dots Designer Series Paper (gray) and 'Love Stories' Simply Scrappin' kit (pink) Ink for distressing: Creamy Caramel. Tools: Scalloped border punch, fancy label punch, edge distressor tool (which is my fav! much better than ones I've used from other companies). Other: pink button. Fonts: 2PeasQuirky and HammerKeys)

One of the things I love about the Internet is how small it makes our creative world and how easily and accessible it makes searching for inspiration. I treated myself to a creative day yesterday. I created this layout as well as whipped up a few passport holders (which I'll share later this week) I thought in creating this layout that I'd talk about why I appreciate the internet and take a few of my favorite flickr photos from one of the photo collages I made. (Original credits for the photos can be found here.)  

If you haven't checked out the Sale-a-bration at Stampin' Up!, I'd encourage you to do so.

*Update on my dog: So Dixie went to the vet today to be boarded for a few days while they try to regulate her blood glucose levels. Poor baby was really sick. When I took her in last Tuesday she weighed 12.3 lbs. which was already down from her normal weight. When I took her in this morning, she weighed 11.15 lbs. That's a big loss in only 6 days! I so appreciated those who shared their experiences with diabetic dogs, and for the well-wishes. Hopefully our pup is now on the path to getting better.* 

ps - you can click on the layout for a larger view.

Shabby Chic and What's wrong with the doggie?

Where oh where have I been?

February has been a busy month for hubby and I! I’m pleased to share that my man has been given a temporary assignment that he is really excited about at work. For those of you unaware, Rick is a police officer. Given the nature of the assignment, I’m not going to go into details, but he is excited and I’m bursting my buttons proud of him!

I will be seeing a drastic increase in my traveling this year and my adventures began this month. Mid-February I flew to Orange County, CA to teach at the Scrapbook Expo.  Our company was debuting a new slate of consumer classes designed by several of our design team members that were all well received.  While in town, Melissa, Rachel and I made a point to visit the Shabby Chic store one evening and I bought some fabulous bedding that was on sale. I must say; I love, love, love the Shabby Chic line, but unfortunately at regular price it is totally out of my budget. So this sale, where some bedding was 50-75% off, was very appreciated by me! I bought the duvet and pillow shams pictured in the image above. (Image from the Shabby Chic site, not my home!) I also bought some sheets to make pillowcases.  Sad to hear upon my return home that Shabby Chic has applied for Chapter 11 protection  L Even though it is out of my price range, I love that line, and find so much inspiration from it. I’m sad that the economy has knocked one of my favorites down. Hopefully they will be able to restructure and emerge strong once again.

Last Friday saw me taking a ferry over to Vancouver Island in the early hours of the morning to teach at Camp Crop-A-Lot hosted by a local scrapbook store called Treasured Memories.  The lovely storeowner, Sharon graciously worked with my wishes to be able to return home Saturday night, how I appreciated that! The ladies at the crop were very sweet and kind and it was great to teach at a somewhat local event.

My final piece of news comes with a question. I have been having problems with one of my dogs over the past 2 weeks, so took her to the vet yesterday for a check-up and blood work, and our fears were realized when I got the results today. Our Dixie has diabetes. So we’re now at a cross roads and need to figure out how we want to proceed. Just wondering if anyone has gone through this before, and if so if you can give me an idea of cost of care. We love our dogs, and with no children we interact with them a whole lot. Our house would seem very empty without her. But I also do not want to shell out a ton of money to get everything figured out. ‘Cause as much as I love her, at the end of the day, she’s a dog….So any help from someone who has been through this would be appreciated.

does this look like a bug to you?

While I was at Memory Trends we here in Canada celebrated our Thanksgiving. Unfortunately this was my second year in a row being away, but my extended family has always been great and they are content to wait until I come home to celebrate together.  So tomorrow was the day that our family Thanksgiving was rescheduled for. Rick and I were hosting, so we bought the big turkey, planned our menu, and began doing the customary tidying up around the house today. Part of getting ready for company is to make sure that our two 'fur-babies' are all bathed and brushed out and looking their fabulous best.  Usually I do the bathing of the dogs and then Rick and I blow dry them together. One of us working the blow dryer and one of us brushing.  So after I bathed Dixie, I had her all wrapped in towels and she and I were waiting for Rick to join us to start the blow drying. While I was waiting for him, I noticed a little black spec in her fur...so I pulled it out thinking nothing of it. I then noticed another spec...this one was right on her skin and was a bit hard to pull out. Once I pulled it, I looked at it and got a sinking feeling as I called Rick.  Yep, you guessed it. My baby had bugs!! We quickly called our vet and he said to bring the bug in and he'd take a look at it and let us know what we needed to do. So Rick drove out to the vet and I waited anxiously for his phone call telling me what was going on. About 20 minutes later he called to say that our dog has....lice.  I'm completely shocked and the vet was rather confused too. Our dogs are indoor dogs and they only go outside to go to the bathroom. So we're not sure where Dixie picked them up. The good news is that the lice Dixie has is a kind that doesn't skip species, so Rick and I should be just fine...at least we're trusting the vet's assurances that we'll be fine, LOL! But the news drastically altered our plans for the rest of the day. Two medicated dog baths and four loads of laundry later, we're trying to clean EVERYTHING that the dogs may have touched/laid on just to be safe. We also have the carpet cleaners scheduled to come Sat morning to deep clean the carpets.  Finally to just put the cherry on the top of our lice infested cake, this outbreak has put a crimp on the family Thanksgiving plans. The dinner will now take place at my mom and dad's. Mom picked up the (rather large) turkey on her way home from work, and Rick and I will arrive at her house around 3PM tomorrow to start cooking the vegetables and all those other yummy things that make a Thanksgiving meal tasty.

So that's the rather unfortunate news in the Peeler household. Rick is rather concerned that upon reading this, you'll think we're messy people with bugs crawling all over our house, but I assured him that you're all nice people and would understand, right? LOL!

Finally, here's a photo of my buggy baby. Look at that face, you can't stay frustrated it for long, eh?

Away from home...

Saturday morning saw my mom and I fly from Vancouver to Toronto. My mom had previously scheduled flying to Ontario to visit with extended family as everyone except our immediate family (mom, dad and sibling) lives in Ontario. I was scheduled to head to head office this week for meetings, so it worked out perfectly that I met my mom at the airport and we both flew out together and I joined her to visit with some of my mom's family for a day before I headed to Melissa's to begin work.  I had a wonderful time visiting with my cousins and aunt and uncle. Always fun to see them -it's definitely been one of the unexpectedly wonderful parts of working for a company based out of Toronto that I fly into town several times a year and can fit in time to visit with family too!

Today saw me into the office for meetings and brainstorming. It's always fun to meet and talk shop with the head office gals. I sincerely love the company I work for and getting to play a part in product development is one of the most challenging yet thrilling parts of my job. 

Remember the puppies my dog had which I had showed you earlier last month? Unfortunately we were not able to bring them home at all before I left for Toronto. Between Rick being in Halifax for police meetings and me getting ready to leave for head office, my time was too tight. However, I did go visit them last Wednesday. They were sooo cute. I had hoped to upload some photos so that you could see them, but it turns out that I didn't upload the proper software to my laptop before I left. So, unfortunately you'll have to wait until I get home to see any pictures. Sorry!

such a cute puppy

For those of you who know me, you know I love my dogs. Yes, that was plural. My hubby and I have two adorable Bichon Frise dogs and one of them had puppies 4.5 weeks ago. I absolutely LOVE sitting through the birth experience with my dogs, so I was bummed that she had them while I was at CHA. But the pups were all healthy and the mom was fine, so it's all good.  The mom, 'Dixie' had 4 pups, 3 boys and 1 girl. This is the last litter of puppies that we will be doing, (each dog has had 2 litters total) so it's a little bittersweet as this will be it puppywise for us for a loooong time.

As you can imagine the past few weeks have been busy here with family, friends and neighbors popping over with their children to play with the puppies. We loved it!

As of now, the puppies and their mom are at the stage where they are starting to be a lot of work as their mom is no longer cleaning up after them. Because of construction that we've had in our home since the last litter, we are unable to house the puppies where we did before, so they are now at my friend's (who is a breeder and has an outdoor pen) and will stay there until Rick and I will get them back for a few days visit before they all head off to their new homes in a few weeks. I'm looking forward to it!