Oh Target

When I saw all over blog world the cute stuff that Orla Kiely was doing for Target I really wanted to get my hands on something. When I finally went into Target I had my choice of tablecloths, an apron, one small canister or a couple plates. Slim pickins! I decided to go with the pear tablecloth and I love how it looks! It's so classically cute and vintagy. I also picked up some cute owl salt and pepper shakers at the antique store and just love how they look with the table cloth.

Perfect Lab!

My girlfriend RP made me this great gift for Christmas this year. It was a really cool frame with a silhouette of Whisky inside using one of the many pictures I have taken of him. I liked it so much that I asked her if she could do another one for me. When we went to the snow recently there was the perfect lab head shot and I knew it would be perfect. I absolutely love the way it came out and I think I'm going to put it on a sweatshirt or something. RP isn't selling these YET, but I think she should. So, if you are interested in buying one from RP you just leave me a comment and I'll make sure she starts filling orders...cause that's the kind of friend that I am!

Touch of color...

The hubby and I decided to use some of our tax refund money this year and get ourselves a new tv. He's been looking at them for a while and never would have bought one under normal circumstances. We went with a Samsung Touch of Color 52". The touch of color is a red hue around the edge of the tv. Holy goodness is that a massive screen! I stayed up last night to watch Lost and the picture was incredible. I think I feel a little more found now.

Purses and purses and purses...oh my!

A girlfriend of mine from highschool recently left her job to start her own company selling her handmade purses. One look at them and I am in love! I'm super super impressed by how they look and will definitely have to add one of these beauties to my collection. The Ramona is calling my name right now, can't you hear it?!

You can find Amy's bags on her website Amy Pine Style!

What balance!

Yesterday at Whisky's bday party there was the funniest dog that I finally got a good picture of. See, when I got to the party all of the dogs were outside and the cake was inside on a table. Well as soon as the dogs came inside and smelled the cake the just surrounded the table. All the little dogs put their front paws up on the table to get a closer look and were constantly being told to get down. So, one of the dogs put his thinking cap on and decided that as long as he didn't touch the table with his paws he was good to go.

This little dog spent the entire time walking around the table on his hind legs in full extension. It was the funniest thing I had ever seen and I couldn't quit laughing. That's some serious balance and strength in those skinny legs!

In the lead!

Sweeping the rug out from under her husband Ben, Katie has taken the lead in our challenge! Her body weight is now down 2.33%.....nice job Katie! Maybe you really did sneak pats of butter in Ben's Cheerios. You better watch out Ben.

Stay tuned for next weeks Biggest Loser!

Happy First Birthday!

Today was Whisky's first birthday! To celebrate he had a little bday party with his dog friends at ChaCha's Daycare. He was the center of attention and is now a stuffed pig sleeping on the sofa. He started the party off with a little "Happy Birthday" and some cake.

I would've had a slice myself but liver cake with marshmallows just did absolutely nothing for me! After the dogs devoured the cake it was onto hot dog bobbing in the kiddie pool. This was absolutely hilarious. The dogs went after those hot dogs like wild animals and then proceeded to drink the hot dog water when they were finished. It was classic. Overall it was a good bday and I think Whisky had a great time!
Happy First Birthday Whisky!

Ode to the lemonade....

Oh girlscout cookies, you have always been so devine. You've had me with your tagalongs and swept me off my feet with your shortbreads. Now with the aide of your lemonades I will slip myself into a sugar coma each night. Darn you lemonades, why are you so delicious!

I love snow!

Today the hubby and I headed up the hill for a little Cabela's shopping trip and then lunch and snow time. We took Whisky to see how he would be with snow. This was his first time. He absolutely loved it! He wanted to catch snowballs all day and no matter how much they clobbered him he was right back in there ready for the next one. Sometimes the snowballs were even twice the size of his head but this didn't phase him...

Yeah, that's a giant snowball headed right for him and boy is he ready to chomp down on it. I think in this instance the snowball won.

Don't worry though, he was right back at it just a moment later!
What a good snow dog!

Insert Butter Here

I think in most people's lives they purchase a bread maker. You see it and think to yourself, "I'm not going to BUY bread anymore, I'm going to MAKE bread now." Then the bread maker gets used and shoved in a cabinet (or garage) and collects more dust than yeast. Such was the case with our bread maker. We have probably had more years pass since we bought the maker than we have had loaves of bread come out of it. A couple months ago I decided to dust it off and find a good recipe. I had some flax seed so I thought that there must be a recipe out there that would use it. Boy was I right! Now that we have found the most wonderful bread recipe in the world our maker has been shooting out loaves left and right. My hips have been doing something similar but I'll just blame the bread for that. So, if you have a bread maker go and dust it off and whip yourself up a loaf. I will admit that I never have whole wheat bread flour so I use all white for this.

Flax Seed Bread (for Bread Maker)

1 1/3 cups water

2 tablespoons canola oil

3 tablespoons honey

1 1/2 cups white bread flour

1 1/3 cups whole wheat bread flour

1/2 cup flax seed

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

2 teaspoons active dry yeast
Add ingredients to bread machine pan according to manufacturers directions.
Select Basic White 1lb loaf cycle and press Start.

Sorry, but you suck.

Dear Automatic Sink Faucet,

I'm very sorry, but you suck. You just showed up here at my office, trying to razzle me and dazzle me with your automatic water and your automatic soap. All you have really done is left me with soapy hands and no water to rinse with. I know you are trying to be modern and with the times. I can appreciate that. I'm about modern technology. I'd sell a kidney for a Kindle but you my friend are not worth a clipped toe nail. Oh, and don't even try to tell me that there are three of you in there. I've sink hopped, spreading my dripping soap hands all over the counter only to have NONE of you turn on. When it comes to washing hands, I'm an old fashioned girl and like to turn the water on by a handle. When you leave....can you take all the auto hand blow dryers with you?

Stranded with soapy hands,

Stacey

Love it!

At my office I had a really blank wall and I wanted to find a good print to put in it's place. I definitely wanted to go with something from the handmade world so I headed straight to Etsy. There I found the seller BluLima! This seller has the cutest brightest prints and I knew which one I wanted right away. I went to Target and got a frame with a mat and now have a beautiful piece of artwork on my wall that cost me less than $40 total. You can't beat that!

Wine-o's

On Sunday our friends The Strouds brought us over a wedding gift which now plays a dominate part in our kitchen. It's an amazing wine opener with a personalized plaque on it. As you can see we already opened a couple bottles of wine with it and are well on our way to becoming wine-o's. Thanks Tom and Kelley!

Stealing the lead....

in the Wii Fit Biggest Loser Challenge is Ben Reeves! Ben is now down 1.86% body weight, with his wife biting at his heels with 1.85% lost. It's neck and neck in that household! Good luck you guys and keep up the good work everyone for next week.

Let's go racing boys....

Today was our annual Daytona 500 party. Basically that translates into good food, drinks and lots of men...and little old me. Not too many of the girlfriends like racing so I end up at this party the sole female. I can't complain too much! The race however was a dud. Ended short due to rain, that really killed the buzz.

V Day

For Valentine's Day I set a spending limit of $5 for Bill and myself. This really limited the opens, but also kept us from paying over-inflated prices for everyday items. I decided to be creative and used an idea I found online. It's called the "52 reasons" book and uses a deck of cards. It was super fun to make and ended up being the most excellent cheesy Valentines gift ever.

Baby Melon Head Ball

I'm a HUGE fan of the I Am Bossy blog and read it religiously everyday. Bossy's quirky sarcastic humor never ceases to have me laughing at my computer screen, which can sometimes make one look a bit crazy. Recently Bossy ran into a website by Volkswagon to promote the Routan. I'm sure many of you have seen the commercials where Brooke Shields is attacking parents in car lots accusing them of having babies to buy this car. On the website you can upload photos of yourself and anyone you'd like to make a baby with and the site will merge the two together and voila...you have a new kid. Of course I had to give it ago and see what the love child of hubby and I would look like. I'm pleased to introduce you to Melon Head Ball...

Melon Head (or Mel as I like to call him) came in weighing at 9lbs and 5ozs......almost entirely in his head. Boy, I have never seen another image that has made me want a c-section more!

Favorite Vendors

This month at IndieSac there were two vendors that really caught my eye. At each show I typically buy one thing from someone new, or someone I passed up before. My first favorite was Squirrels Nest. They sold the most adorable stitched pouches, wallets and much more. I'm so glad that they made the trip from the Reno/Tahoe area to come to our show...and I hope they come again. I myself purchased this little owl coin purse.

Second is someone that I see at alot of shows but was yet to buy anything. Boy am I glad that I did now! Dennis Anderson of Anderson Soap Company has the most amazing soap. Well, my particular favorite is this lotion..
This time of year my hands are terrible and I have been on a hunt for the perfect lotion. I've tried a ton and they either suck or suck more. Lucky for me...this one is perfect! I will never buy another hand lotion again....so please don't ever stop making this Dennis!

Movin on up!

Lately, when I've set up my booth at craft fairs I don't feel very professional. I don't have any good displays, I don't have any good signage and I ran out of business cards. This is all about to change! Today I ordered a sign, so now the Bouton Blue table will be displaying a banner across the front. I also ordered some business cards to feel a bit more legit.

Now for displays. When you sell scarves it's kind of hard to display them. Especially with the scarfettes because everyone wants to know how they work. So, I've decided to get myself a dress form like this..

I think it will be perfect for displaying a scarf....and maybe even a hat! My only fear is how much this is going to scare me when it's dark in my house. I'm going to make sure it's not stored in the bedroom..yikes!

Recycled Sweaters

This Wednesday I will be holding a demonstration at my friend Judy's church. My segment is how to turn items you get at the thrift store into fun recycled crafts. I played around with this alot at Christmas and last night decided to play around some more. I've tried some felted mittens before, but wanted to give it another go with a cuter sweater. The finished product wasn't too bad, and would probably look less like a lobster claw if I could sew a little better.

When I was done with the mittens I had a ton of sweater left over so I decided to play around with one of the sleeves and make a wine bottle cozy. I'm sooo happy with how it came out and will definitely be adding this to the Christmas line up for next year.

I especially like the bottom which used a different part of the sweater so I could get a snowflake in there.

In the lead

for the Wii Fit Biggest Loser is Sarah Duffy this week! She worked out a bunch and lost 1.65% of her body weight. Nice job Sarah!

Keep up the good work all you Wii Challenge Participants and we'll see if we can swipe the lead from Sarah next week. Watch out for the Valentine's Day bonbons!

New drink!

Yesterday Bill and I took a trip to Corti Brothers for some good meat to grill. While there it is mandatory that you check out all the fun imported stuff. There is some interesting stuff in the Corti Brothers! It's easy for Bill to get lost in the beer section and I decided that I wanted to get a cider. Instead of the local run of the mill ciders, I went with an import. It was a sparkling pear cider, but quite honestly I just bought it because the label was ridiculously cute! Lucky for me it was also delicious!

New stuff for Indie Sac!

Indie Sac was today and was successful again! I finally got back knitting and made a couple new items to sell.....and they did! I'm making an adapted scarfette that comes out looking like a bowtie. With this one, instead of buttoning closed, you tuck one end through a pocket in the other end. Super cute! I still add a button though for a little flair. I'll be adding these to my Etsy shop soon. Well, as soon as I get pictures with someone else wearing it...no more pics of me in the store!

Get Indie Tomorrow!

Don't forget to come by and check out Indie Sac tomorrow. You'll find all your Valentine's shopping needs. I even made stuff for this show if you can believe it. The knitting fingers are back in action and a new scarfette will make it's appearance at the show. See you there!

Beer Bottling

Tonight we went to Brew It Up to bottle all the beer that we brewed for Bill's birthday. It was a fun process and much easier than I thought it would be. The bottling that is. The planning of the event and the follow through by Brew It Up left a bit to be desired. I can't wait to get the beer though once they finish labeling it. RP came through again with her amazing design work and created some kick ass labels! Cheers!

New Mexico in Review

Well, the hubby's trip to New Mexico and the four corners turned out to be quite interesting. He was in the middle of no where most of the time, had flight delays, cell phone problems, account problems and lots and lots of long drives in the desert. Most of the people that he encountered spoke native Indian and the majority of the radio stations were the same. The country was beautiful though and he saw some of the most gorgeous sunsets ever. But, it was alot of desert and alot of dirt. To cap the trip off on Friday he saw something even more interesting on one of his drives in the middle of no where.

If you can't make that out, well..it's a man. Yep, a man lying on the side of the road in the MIDDLE of no where. My noble husband stopped to try and determine if this man was ok. He wasn't. Luckily a truck came up and the hubby flagged them down and they stopped to help out the man. He was alive, but not in good shape.

In summary, all I can tell you, is I am soooo glad to have him back at home!

Really?

Ok, I know that I own a snuggie and I walked using a walker for a while and I just had a recent birthday.....but was this really necessary Sunset?

Let the games begin!

Yesterday was the final day to sign up for the Wii Fit Biggest Loser Challenge and today it is time to announce the contestants! From Sacramento weighing in at.....ha! Don't you wish I'd tell you what people are weighing in at. That my blog following friends will be kept secret, but each Monday you will know the percentage of weight lost by each member. We have 5 participants in this challenge including myself, Carol Browne, Katie and Ben Reeves and Sarah Duffy. Everyone is excited and ready to start. So wish us all luck, and check back in Monday to see who takes the lead early in the game.

Where are my glasses?

Apparently I didn't get the "You need 3D glasses to appreciate some aspects of the Super Bowl festivities!" Between the 3D commercials and the ads for the 3D movies coming out this year it is apparent that 3D hasn't been this cool since 1983!!