One bed, three happy dogs

If you're a pet parent, then you know how important it is to keep them happy and healthy. Part of that responsibility is providing them with a comfortable place to lay down and hang out. One would think that finding the right bed would be as easy as going to Petsmart and plopping down a small fortune. You know what? It's not that easy especially when you have a dog as big as a horse. The following story tells the wagging tail adventure of one dog and numerous beds.

We begin our story almost eight years ago when Travis and I found out that we were about to become Great Dane parents for the first time. Just as with the arrival of a human newborn, we had lots to do and lots to buy. On the list - a comfy bed so that our new bundle of love would have a soft place to sleep. We actually bought Sedona two beds. One for her crate...

...and one for our bedroom.

The one in the bedroom resided at the foot of our bed next to the weasel cage. She slept there every night and obviously loved every minute of it.

But alas, it came time for each of these beds to go, mostly because she decided to tear at them and make them non-functional. She did, however, find other places to sleep.

What's more cozy than the chihuahua bed, right? Unfortunately, it wasn't long before she out grew it.

As Sedona grew and we moved around, it became necessary to upgrade her bed. At a community yard sale, my friend sold me her old futon mattress for a mere $25! Hence, bed number three - the plaid futon.

Now this futon was heaven for her, and lucky for us, our bedroom was big enough to accommodate it. She LOVED her new bed, and we were happy to provide her with some much needed support for her big joints. She's just shy of her second birthday in the above picture.

As time went on and Sedona got older, the futon grew flatter. A few years after getting it, Sedona got sick and had several accidents on it, and that was the end of the plaid futon. We wanted to replace her bed with an equally comfortable one, so we found a mattress store that actually agreed to make us a custom futon for under $200! SCORE! Introducing futon number two and overall bed number four:

Now this futon was awesome because it was smaller than her previous one so it took up less space, but at the same time it completely held her entire body.

And I gotta say, she really enjoyed her bed for many, many years.

Then, as is par for the course in our lovely tale, this futon went bye-bye, too. As Sedona aged, her joints started to become a bit of a problem for her, and unfortunately the medicine we gave her to ease the pain caused uncontrollable diarrhea. Oh yeah...there was no recovering from that one. We threw it out.

After futon number two found itself in the dumpster, I was once again on the hunt for another bed. I wanted to get her a similar futon, but the ones I kept finding were way beyond my budget. My friend actually found this gal on Esty who makes beds specifically for Great Danes. Her store is called Bow Wow Beds, and her concept is really simple: stuff one of her handmade duck canvas beds with pillows. Not bad, right? Right.

Sedona did enjoy her bed, but our new house is tiled as you can see from the above photo. As much as we stuffed that bed, it didn't seem to support her joints as well as her futons used to. Plus, with her advanced age, we really felt that she should enjoy a really plush bed. Off to hunt for the perfect futon that wouldn't break our bank. After a little research, I found one for only $150 that got RAVE comfort reviews! Drum roll, please...

Ta-da! Look at that lush micro-suede full-sized futon mattress. Isn't it a beauty? This time around, we were a little smarter. In order to ensure that this one lasts a LONG time, we covered it with a waterproof vinyl mattress protector. This way if any of the dogs have an accident on it, I can just take off the cranberry futon cover, wash it and wipe down any remaining mess off the vinyl.

We think Sedona likes her new bed, but you can be your own judge.

She's been sleeping on her new bed for five nights now, and she hasn't limped once after getting up. YAY! Mission accomplished.

And remember her previous pillow stuffed bed? Well, a certain little man LOVES it, and it's now his bed. One bed made for three happy pups :)

Have a great weekend everyone!

Western Days

This past weekend, Travis and I attended a fall festival called Western Days at Randsburg, a living ghost town near our city. This town is nestled in the hills of the Rand Mountain Range where gold and silver mines abounded way back when. For one day a year, the locals open up their quaint town to tourists who want to experience a little bit of the wild west.

The town itself has a lot of charm and a ton of mining history. Everywhere you look you can see old mining equipment and can just imagine what life was like back in the mid 1800s.

Saturday, however, the streets were lined with modern vendors selling their wares.

They had actors in period costumes putting on shows of duels and recreating the gun fight at the O.K. Corral.

I really liked his boots :)

I took a quick video of one of the gun fighting skits if you're so inclined to watch:



You could even take a hay ride down Main Street, but it was at your own risk seeing as how this poor coach was robbed by bandits at least three times while we were there!

I think the best part of my day other than spending it with my hubby was all the antique stores! I had no idea this tiny town had so many stores, but with such a rich mining history it shouldn't really surprise me.

Let's start with some gorgeous amber and clear bottles. I've started a small bottle collection myself, but I'm being very picky because I don't want to get too carried away.

Next up: purple glass. Ever hear of purple glass?

Between 1850 and 1910, Early American Pattern Glass or EAPG was made with manganese instead of lead (lead was needed for the Civil War effort). It was later discovered that long term exposure to the sun causes EAPG to turn purple due to the manganese content. Although I personally think it's gorgeous, it turns out that this type of glass is not favored as an antique and the color devalues the piece. Plus, people are actually ruining EAPG by artificially turning it purple under UV lights! GRRR! My point is to be careful when buying this type of glass and make sure it was left out in the sun by accident and not on purpose.

Moving on...check out all this glass ware! I love milk glass, and I'll definitely be coming back to this particular store.

And check out these big old wooden spools! I wanted to take one home so badly. Maybe next time.

This beautiful blue kitchen ware would look so good in my white and yellow kitchen!

Cast-iron kitchen goodies (yup, these babies are HEAVY):

I love the look of this antique stove, but I sure am glad we have modern amenities:

Pretty ceramic jars:

And last but not least, old tin cans and wooden boxes that once held explosives:

I really want one of those boxes, and I'm thinking it would make a great storage solution for my gardening tools outside. I truly enjoy taking pieces of history and turning them into fabulous re-purposed finds.

Thanks for stopping by today! See ya soon!

A little bit of this & a little bit of that

TGIF! I'm so happy it's finally Friday. It's been a busy week for me (hence the lack of posts), but I'm here now to make up for the last couple of days. Let's get started!

I don't know about you, but it does it seem like house work is never done? Last weekend Travis and I were busy once again squaring things away in our new home. We've been here almost three months, and we still have quite a few things yet to do. We're looking forward to the day we don't have anymore loose ends to tie up! On the never-ending "to do" list was hanging some antique bird plates on the wall of our guest bedroom. I envision this room being a shabby-chic getaway, so I thought the plates were an excellent addition.

I got the idea to hang plates on the wall after seeing a number of shabby-chic rooms that had this type of decor. Honestly, I kind of thought that collecting plates was more of an "older woman" type of thing, but I couldn't have been more wrong. Do you know how many lovely plates are out there, especially vintage ones? I was blown away! I really didn't know what kind of theme I was going for until I stumbled across this gorgeous hand painted Audubon bird plate at my local antique store. Could this BE anymore me? LOL!

It was all down hill from there. I started perusing Ebay for vintage bird plates and was lucky enough to come across a set of turn-of-the-century Alfred Meakin plates at a STEAL of a deal. The seller said he found them in a box that he bought at an estate sale. The lady had packaged them beautifully, and they had been sitting in her collection since the 1960s. I love having a history behind the things I buy!

The guest room is *almost* done now. I have a dresser in there that needs a new coat of paint, so I'm sure I'll be featuring that project sometime soon.

Speaking of the house and things that need to be done, my craft room is so close to being finished! I bought some beautiful curtain panels yesterday as well as a brushed chrome rod and tie back set to complete the look. Here's a quick sneak peak:

After running way too many errands yesterday, I spent the evening with some friends just hanging out and crafting. Of course, I had to pack all of my supplies, and I ended up using one of my new storage solutions.

See that scrumptious avocado green train suitcase? I purchased that from Etsy a while back because I knew it would not only make a great addition to my craft room, but also because it holds a lot of crafting stuff when I'm on the go. It also has the perfect vintage feel for my craft room.

This baby held seven ink pads, countless wood-mounted stamps, several CD cases of clear stamps, a circle punch and all of my Stampin' Up markers and there was still room to spare! It's hard to see in this picture, but the perimeter of the inside is lined with pockets that I used to hold my scissors, dies and stamping mat. I'm in love with my new train case :)

While at my friend's house, I got a few holiday tags done. I still need to color them in and add a little bling here and there, but overall I'm really happy with how they've turned out so far.

I actually had a friend die cut and punch out the tags for me while I stamped the images. I'm not a slave driver, promise! He offered to help me out, so I put him to work :) He ended up surprising me with some really pretty beads! Gotta love me some silver, turquoise, coral and freshwater potato pearls. Thanks Fernando!

My other friend was playing around with a few of my new stamps...

...and she made me this adorable tag:

I love the glittered flocking she used for the sheep's body. I'm all about shiny things!

We were minus one body last night, and that was because my other friend is sick :( I made her this "Thinking of You" card a few days ago for her.

Finally, I leave you with my Friday Favorites for the week. As you can see, little Mr. Owen isn't so little anymore! He'll be 16 weeks old tomorrow. I'm always amazed at how quickly Dane puppies grow, and although it makes me a bit sad to see him grow so fast, I'm also very proud of how sweet and loving and smart he is.

We haven't officially weighed him, but we think he's in the 55-60 lb range. The boy eats six cups a day for heaven's sake! He's eating us out of house and home...

...but heaven help me, I love him to death as I do all my babies.

Have a great weekend, folks!

Ribbon Galore!

Greetings bloggers! My apologies for skipping my Friday Favorites post. I have been battling a headache that doesn't seem to want to go away. Our weather has been strange lately, so I thought maybe the change in air pressure was to blame, but then my teeth started hurting so my next thought was that my braces were the culprit. Either way, I'm hoping this darn thing goes away soon because it's really hard to focus on getting things done.

Despite the nagging pain in my head, I found the gumption to tackle my ribbon drawer. A couple of years ago, I decided to spool all of my ribbon onto wooden clothes pins. It was quite the endeavor! I even got my mom and Travis to help, and thank goodness I did because at the time I didn't realize just how much ribbon I actually had. You can see some of that organizational project here.

As you can imagine, I've collected *a few* more spools of ribbon since then. Instead of winding them around the wooden clothes pins when I got them like a good girl, I threw the new ribbon in my drawer and said, "Ah, I'll get to it later." Well, later came this past weekend. I had had it with the mess I created and was ready to clean it up. The first thing I did was wind the ribbon around the wooden clothes pins. After that, I sorted the clothes pins into piles based on color.

Yeah...I have a lot of ribbon. I would so love to display the ribbon in glass jars, but alas, all of the counter space in my room is currently occupied. So what's a girl to do? Stick them in a big 'ol drawer!

You'll notice a few things about my ribbon drawer right off the bat. First, you can see I have a few packs of ribbon that are not wrapped around the clothes pins. The reason being is that the large one you see is 60+ yards of ribbon, and there's no way that baby is fitting on a wooden clothes pin, so that one stays put. The other ribbon is specialty holiday ribbon that won't stay on a clothes pin, so they stay as-is, too. The second thing you'll notice is that some of my spools are in Ziplock baggies.

I decided to separate the spools by color so that when I need a specific color, I can just grab the bag I need and hold it against my project. It's easy for me, and that's what you should think about when doing your own organizing because what may be convenient for me may not be for you.

I hope you enjoyed this quick ribbon organizing session! Have a good rest of your day!

Hip, hip, hooray!

Oops! No Bead Table Wednesday yesterday :( I was running around all day long, and I didn't even get into my craft room. I'm so glad it's a new day.

Today I thought I would share a birthday card I made for a friend. I wanted to do something fun and different, so I decided to stack some hippos on top of one another. I mean, really, what's more adorable than a pod of hippos?

I used my Prismacolor pencils and some odorless mineral spirit to color in each hippo, and I used dimensionals to pop out the middle hippo to add extra interest to the card.

In case you don't know, hippos are my FAVORITE animal. Why? Well, I don't really have one particular reason other than they're so squishy and cute and they always look like they're smiling.

Just look at that face! Don't you just want to kiss her? You know what she's thinking? She's saying, "If only there weren't six inches of glass separating us, I'd eat you!" Awwww...so sweet!

Add in a baby, and oh-my-goodness! I don't see why I couldn't take him home.

I just need a big pond and...six inches of plexiglass to separate us. But wait, who would clean the poo? I think that would be a job for Travis!

Stay tuned for some Friday Favorites! Later!

Baby Congrats

Tis the season for babies! They seem to be popping up all over the place, so naturally I had a need for some baby cards. This particular one was for a baby boy, and it turned out to be my favorite.

I love how the little stroller fit perfectly in the circle, and I think the buttons add a fun touch.

Speaking of babies, mine is doing just fine. He is a very happy, healthy and too-smart-for-his-own-good puppy. He is 14 weeks old this week.

My baby is growing up too quickly!

Before I know it, he'll be as big as a horse! Okay, maybe not as big as a horse, but as big as Sedona :)

Yeah...I tried to dress her up one day with one of my hats, and she was about as pleased as a fly caught in honey. She's a good sport, though!

Thanks for stopping by today!

Happy Birthday

Hello all! Happy Labor Labor Day! I hope this holiday weekend finds you in a relaxed state of mind. I'm hoping to escape into my craft room today, but we'll see. For now, I'd like to share a birthday card I made a few months ago.

This card was super simple to piece together. I used left over pattern paper scraps to make the different sized boxes. I then wrapped those boxes in some satin ribbon by Paper Trey Ink.

I used my antique typewriter to spell out the sentiment on the front of the card, and I rounded the corners using my corner chomper, and viola! Instant chic card.

Looks like all critters are down for the count at the moment. I think I'll sneak off to my craft room now. Have a wonderful day everyone!

Friday Favorites - Owen and his Tire

Quick post today.

Owen is growing like a weed, but one thing remains the same - he has a love/hate relationship with his tire toy. At first, he was scared of it (that was weeks ago). Then he was indifferent. Now, he just wants to put it in its place. And so the battle rages on...



Enjoy and have a great weekend!

Crystal Briollete Earrings

Happy Thursday and happy September! Last night I got a burst of energy and went in my craft room for a little while. My friend asked me to make her a pair of earrings out of the box of vintage and antique beads and buttons she gave me a few months ago. My first thought was to pull out the gorgeous crystal briollete beads and wire wrap them.

Aren't those crystals just sublime?! I LOVE them and can't wait to make a pair for myself. A black Swarovski bead finishes off the look. You'll notice that my wire wrapping isn't perfect. I intentionally made it messy so as to give the earrings a shabby feeling.

I'm thinking it's time to go back into the craft room and get to work! See you all tomorrow for Friday Favorites!