Kitchen

Ohmygosh I can't believe I haven't blogged since March!! I have so much catching up to do, but right now I'm looking for some opinions for my kitchen. Never mind my awful pics. lol Here are pics of the new color red, white cabinets and the new off white floor. The back splash is black and white tiles, painted over a few years ago from blue with gloss paint and sealer. You can see in the adjoining living room, that we are remodeling there also and that the walls are gold. I am going to go about 2-3 shades darker with the gold. I would like to coordinate the 2 rooms to kind of go together. Any ideas for the window treatment and chair covers? I love plaids and stripes, love to mix and match those. How much of the gold should I bring into the kitchen without overdoing it?? Any ideas would be helpful! Also, I put up a pic of the new bed Rick made us. Isn't he talented?? He has made other furniture for us and I will get those pics ups some time. Thanks!

Rosalie!

Heres little Rosalie! We adopted a 6 month old samoyed from Playing Again Sams here in WI. She is just the sweetest little thing! Very sweet, a bit shy right now, and likes to give kisses. We picked her up in Appleton where she was being fostered by Andrea. The two other dogs with her belong to Andrea. They are actually relatives of our Chilly! The bigger one, Teddy, looked so much like Chilly, I just couldn't believe it! The little one, Chloe, her grandma was actually Chilly's mom.
We named her Rosalie after a character in Twilight. I know, we are groupies. :) We are so happy to have her here. Snowy is a little grumpy, but the 2 of them are actually side by side right now, chewing bones. Its a very satisfying picture. :) I'll post more pics later.

http://clothclaydolls.ning.com/

Anna's Chair

I got my pics backwards. This is a party favor box Jennifer wants to have on the tables at the wedding. It has a hinge for the lid and the little flowers are raised. We want to add something to it, like some kind of little place mat for it to sit on or something attached on top. Any ideas from my creative friends?? This is the chair I made for my sister-in-law Anna's first baby. I hope she likes it! Its adapted to the chair from a pattern by Shirley Wilson of Ladybug Studios. It was fun to make.

Winter!

Here is the last picture I have of Chilly, on Christmas morning. It's one of my favorites. This is Snowy on Christmas morning. "This is my pile of destroyed Christmas wrappings. Do not attempt to take them away from me"!

Vanessa and I getting ready to walk the dogs. Its about 3 weeks before Christmas

Rick and I, dressed for dog walking in Wisconsin.

All bundled up, ready to go! We get to feel like Randy, the little brother in "A Christmas Story". "I can't put my arms downnnnnnn!!"

Chilly Becker 1/25/01-12/26/08

On the day after Christmas, we had to put our 7 year old samoyed, Chilly, to sleep. He had developed a lung condition over the past few months that accelerated 2 weeks before Christmas. We consulted with a surgeon in Illinois, but the surgery was unbelievably expensive and there was no guarantee the surgery would be successful. He was starting to struggle to breathe, so on Dec. 26th we made the agonizing decision to let him go.
Chilly was such a sweet, loving boy. Always happy to see anyone, ready to give kisses. Barking at the moon was a favorite past time, along with playing in the snow, stealing socks, greeting people on our walks, licking feet, and sleeping beside Samantha's bed at night. He was a big, beautiful samoyed whose parents were award winning show dogs. He got us instead of awards glory, but I don't think he minded. :) Chilly and his buddy Snowy. Snowy is a bit lost without him.

An absolutely adorable pup!

Look at that mug! This is him at 6 weeks old. When we saw the size of his paws, we knew he was going to be huge!

Good-bye Chilly. We will love and miss you every day.

Christmas Stuff

Here is our Chilly, taking a snoozer near the tree. The tree that still is not decorated other than lights. :) A few years ago, we started to collect the Department 56 Dickens Village series. Rick built a table with 2 tiers. I made all the brick work to look just like the ones Dept. 56 sells, along with roads, ponds, and even a snow hill. We have lots of fun collecting and setting it up every year. It's one of my favorite things at Christmas.

Big Snow!

Today we had our first big snow of the year. These pics were taken at about 7", but we are expected to get over a foot. Can you spot the beast??? Snowy---"I'm not going out there. No way. You can't make me. I don't care if I have to hold it all day. Now let me back in the %!#!! house.

Vanessa's car buried in snow. Schools, business' etc. all closed.

Chilly, in contrast to Snowy, would stay out all day if he could!

House Pics

This is a pic of our house before we painted it. We painted it an eggplant color, but its hard to see on this pic.
Here is a pic of a wreath I made a few years ago. Its on the front porch and has seen better days, but I hate making wreaths so I just keep hanging on to it. :)
Heres my Chilly watching me through the front door.

Hanson Concert

Saturday night, we went to see Hanson in Milwaukee at the Rave. We had a blast! We've been Hanson fans for 10 years, ever since Mmmbop. They are so gifted musically and are such a joy to watch live. Isaac Hanson did a cover of a Bill Withers song "use me" and it was awesome! I have other pics of the concert that I'll try and post later. Jennifer, Vanessa, and Samantha. I think these 3 will be pushing each others wheelchairs to see Hanson when they are old!!
THE best part of the whole night was that we finally got to meet a Hanson brother!! Zac Hanson is the youngest brother (22 now) and came out to sign autographs and picture taking after the concert. We were all thrilled!! What an incredibly nice guy. He was so patient and kind and never in a hurry to move on. Just the sweetest guy. I actually had a conversation with him about Paul Newman, who died the day before. :( Every time I turned so someone else could talk with him, he just kept talking to me about Paul Newman and his movies and philanthropy! The girls were just freaking out! As you can see in this picture, Jennifer freaked out the most. She waited 10 years to meet a Hanson and when she finally does, she freezes. She couldn't even talk to him! We will be giving her crap about that for the rest of her life. LOL
Thats me, talking with Zac
Vanessa, Zac and Samantha. They will never forget this.

Door County

The girls gave Rick and I a gift certificate to a resort in Door County for Christmas. Door County is the upper peninsula of WI. We had a really nice time. Lots of shopping, eating, relaxing. Wonderful art galleries and antiques. The weather was beautiful, although the colors hadn't started to change much. This is a pic from from the shoreline at Gills Rock, where we get the ferry to Washington Island Sunset at Sister Bay
This is a pic of one of my favorite artists shop. Pipka is world famous for her Victorian Santas and her shop is in Sister Bay. I just love her work and her shop is so beautiful and whimsical. The first time I went to her shop, I got so excited that I got out of the car too fast and sprained my toe! No injuries this time! lol See her work at http://www.pipkasofdoorcounty.com
Its hard to see, but these are the goats on top of Al Johnsons restaurant. They grow grass on the roof and bring the goats in all day to graze there. Then they go to a farm at night. Its just one of the quirky things in Door County!
This is how clear the water is on Washington Island. We have friends who live there. The only way to get there is by ferry, about 1/2 ride. This is schoolhouse beach. The whole beach consists of these beautifully smooth, white stones. No sand. If you get caught taking just 1 rock, it is a $250.00 fine! Needless to say we don't collect the rocks. lol When we were at this beach, it was just us and complete quiet. Almost forgot what that was like! So peaceful. Our friends have a beautiful home right on the shore on a different beach there.

House Guests!

For the next 10 days, we are blessed to have Omar and Alfie stay with us! They've been here twice before and are just these amazing little characters. Omar likes to "talk" and Alfie just likes to quietly hang out. When treat time comes, I love all these little faces looking up at me. I like to pretend they really love me and could care less about the treats. Yea, right! lol Left to right, Omar, Alfie, Snowy, Chilly.
This is Omar, watching the MTV Video awards with Vanessa. He must've found them as offensive as I did, so he just took a snooze on the couch. Well, I did enjoy Pink's performance. You can see his stitch area where he had emergency surgery 2 weeks ago. He developed bloat (his stomach twisted 180 degrees) and if it weren't for the quick thinking of his daddy Keith, he would've died. I am so grateful that he is o.k and here to take up my couch!

New Hair (again!)

Well, its a lousy pic of me, but you can see that I dyed my hair very dark brown with some purple on the sides. You can't see the purple really well, but its there!

Human Race Chicago

Today was such an exciting day! We took the train to Chicago so Vanessa could run in the Nike Human Race. This race was put on worldwide all in the same day. In the U.S it was in Chicago, Los Angelos, New York and Austin Texas. It was also run in places like London, Tokyo, Munich, Istanbul, Taiwan, Buenos Aires and others. Twenty cities worldwide total. One million runners!! It benefitted 3 different charities. There were 14,000 runners in Chicago, starting and ending at Soldier Field. It was the most amazing sea of these red Nike shirts, and when the race started it took almost 1/2 hour for everyone to cross the starting line. It was the coolest thing to see, all these people running for charity. Vanessa did fantastic! Out of 14,000 in Chicago, she took 2,011th place. Of the women in Chicago, she took 526th!! Of the worldwide women she took 4,683 and all total out of 1,000,000 people, she took 40,072. Does that all make sense?? We are so proud of her and so happy with her results. She ran the race in 52 min 19 sec. It was so hard to find her running in that crowd, but I did get to see her come over the finish line. Glad she dyed her hair darker last week cuz she was easier to spot! LOL Heres Vanessa and Sam pre-race. Sam wants to challenge herself and run it if they hold it again. Rick and I would like to volunteer at it next time and be a part of it. No running for us tho! LOL
Just miles and miles of red shirts!!

As soon as the race was over, everyone who ran the race was treated to a concert at Soldier Field by the band Fall Out Boy. This is a picture of Pete Wentz from the band (the one who's married to Ashley Simpson). Sam was able to get in a little later and join her sister for the concert. See how close they were to the stage??? Rick and I got to sit outside on the hard concrete waiting for them. LOL But it was a beautiful night with a great breeze coming off Lake Michigan so we didn't mind. Lots of people watching to do! Soooo, it was a great day and I am so grateful that we got to go and that Vanessa was able to be a part of something really special.