A Contest

I have entered a photo of our pup Sugar in a pet photo contest hosted by Furbabies - Pets Jubilee Pet Photo Contest . Please take a look at the cute pet photos and place your vote. Thanks

Everything Changes with the Leaves

The leaves have been swirling around and keeping the snow away. The changes around here have been becoming a dog owner for the first time to a sweet little girl named Sugar, who is 5 1/2 months old, 5lbs and is starting to lose her baby teeth. We have found 3 baby teeth. She seems to chew them a bit then spits them out. I'm amazed that I found one tooth that was only 1-2mm big. With the teeth came some bad chewing, she has chewed 2 corners of the walls and baseboards. I've taped them up for now and it seems to have worked.

My son is now settled into routines again of school, homework and play.

We got a new vehicle last month. We had a 2001 Honda Civic that we bought new and after 8 years, it was starting to feel like we could not trust it over the this winter. Oh, I loved my Honda and it was hard to find a worthy replacement.

After a few weekends of test driving and dealing with some bad pushy salesmen, we found a rocking 2010 Kia Soul 4U at Sherwood Kia, the photo is missing the roof racks. There was no pressure and friendly service. I was so impressed with the price and all the extras that came with that low price such as, heated seats, sunroof, sirius radio, bluetooth, glowing speakers, loads of speakers, tons of airbags, a bit more roomy than my Honda was, built for your fun electronics, Ipod, 3 inputs, 6 cupholders(no joke!), 18" alloy wheels, Etc. Feels like an SUV, corners beautifully and is awesome in parking lots! I did want an SUV but the prices are just stupidly expensive! I recommend checking out a Kia Soul if your in the market, you will be surprised!

On a plushie side of things, I have lost my alot of my drive for making them. The feeling now comes at spurts and I have had to request no custom orders at this time. The custom orders seem to suck me dry of creativity. But I do have some new robot plushies for my shop soon. Things just haven't been the same since I can't make my monsters anymore. :(

Christmas is fast approaching and I have already started on my Christmas shopping. Legos! My boy still loves Legos and I do too. Here is a photo of the Christmas town we tried to build and my son has turned it into a pirate jail with bank robbers, an alien ship and Santa. Hehe!

We were at Toys R Us over the weekend and I was so happy to have found some Skelanimals. I didn't think I could get them here in Canada. They are skeletal plushies, weirdly but still cute! I bought this red one which is a puppy and a kitty keychain. I wish I could get car seat covers in Skelanimals and a window decal for my Kia Soul, but I don't want to chick out the vehicle too much since my manly hubby will drive it sometimes too.

Another change is my hair. I have took out the chunky highlights that I've had for the last couple of years and went with a dark chocolate brown/black with peek-a-boo blonde underneath. I like it different not frumpy.

Remember to wear your poppy proud this Remembrance Day! ♥

Puppy

This little darling is our new puppy and our first ever. We had been looking for a puppy for our family for months, always ending up talking ourselves out of it over and over again. Then we saw this little cutie, a cross of a Shih-Tzu Chihuahua. It was a spur of the moment and we went for it. What a great choice! It now has been a month and she has fit right into our little family.

Its Been Awhile...

Hi there, yes I'm still around. Just been busy with summer I guess.

The first week of July we built my son a clubhouse 6 ft tall with a high peek for a little second level. My son and his friends have been enjoying it. We still need to finish the 3 windows and door. The clubhouse is big enough to convert into a storage shed in the future. We painted it a shade lighter than our house and blends into the backyard beautifully. Pictures will soon follow.

The last 2 weeks my son was in swimming lessons and successfully past his Level 5. :)

We have not decided yet what we'll do for the rest of the summer but I'm sure we will do some camping soon.

On a sad note, today I was informed that my plushies are infringing on a large company who makes plushies. I'm very sad about this and had to remove all of my monsters from my shop. I have not been given a reason or what I'm infringing on. I have never copied and have always been careful that my plush doodle ideas are not the same as others. My monsters don't have fingers, have different size wonky eyes, hand stitched curved mouths, handstitched eyes, fabric patterned cotton hearts, stuffed with Ecofill and a body design that took me months to purfect that was not like any other plushie out there. If only I had my designs copyrighted I guess and I would have been safe from this happening. I'm just the little guy, a stay-at-home mom with a hobby that I love and which helped pull me out of a depression.

So whats going to happen to gush4plush you may ask...will...I will continue to make my owls, skeletons, birds, cats, dogs, poop and sasquatchs unless they end up as being a problem too. :(

All day I feel like I was kicked in the gut and I can't fight back or defend myself.

Anyways I will continue to love my craft and crafts. No one is going to stop me!

Slivers, Ants and Fish

Sorry, its been a while since I blogged. The month of May is always a busy month for us to get things done that you can't get done in the winter. So we've have been working on our fence and have been digging out wood slivers from our dried up hands for the last 2 weeks. Now we can keep most of the neighbours loose garbage out of our yard, tree destroying wild jack rabbits and kids that don't belong to us, out! I really enjoyed building the fence and I love MY Black & Decker cordless drill!

Since we finished the fence, we are now searching for a puppy or dog for our family. So any recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

Little black ants!!! They are appearing to come through our bricked patio. I have ant traps out but I don't know if they actually work. Its our new garden battle for this year. Last year we had to get rid of bumble bees and mice that made a nests under our back steps in the dirt along the house foundation. Oh what fun! Not! Eek!

Next project is revitializing our fish tank stand. I have mentioned this probably a year ago and yup in never got done. Our 20 gallon fish tank has been housed in an old TV frame with 6 inch legs and is super sturdy. I love it! We just need to replace the top which opens and give it a fresh coat of paint (white).

The making of plushies has been on hold for the last couple of months with house painting, fence building and life... but I hope to get started on some new cuties in the next couple of weeks.

Over and Out! ♥

To Do Lists & More...

Over the weekend I found a to do list from last year I wrote for my hubby and he did not believe me at first that it was from a year ago because the whole list is still relevent. We had quite the laugh Saturday morning about it.

He did get one thing crossed off this list this weekend, we painted most of the house except for the bedrooms. So that was my Mother's Day gift from him...I did do half the work though. For Mother's Day my son gave me this beautiful beaded necklace he made at school. It is the perfect size, heavy and has some gorgeous glass beads. See the picture below of the necklace and my new wall color. The color is called London Bridge, a soft grey with a hint of blue.

I rebel from the color beige, all the homes and new homes are beige galore. Once we rented a place that had beige everywhere, I ended up disliking it and feeling depressed with the color so much that we moved 3 months later. I never knew color could affect someone so much, maybe it was my subconscience feeling like the color is dirty? I'm such a clean freak... :P

So now lets talk plushies, hmmm...I don't know whats going on in the Etsy world since I've been so busy but it has been 24 days since I've had a sale. It is really strange? I've renewed more than I should, promoted, twittered, flickr'd, etc. I'm not sure what to do now and I'm feeling a bit of defeat. I have 30 plushies available and that is 10 more than I usually make available??? To view my plushies that are available please take a look, http://www.gush4plush.etsy.com/

Sadly, I've also had my first lost package. After over 150 packages mailed out, one has gotten lost or is taking an extended trip around the world, maybe even entertaining the US Customs officers and the funny thing is, it is a piece of Poop plushie. Wherever the Poop is I hope he has brought joy and smiles. :)

♥

Gnomes

These two garden gnomes have watched over my rock garden for the last 5 years. They were badly weathered and had no color left on them so I decided to give them a paint job. I use acrylic paints and sealed them with Triple-Thick Cyrstal Clear Glaze.

I love my gnomes, they have something magical, whimsical about them and they give the little children something to "owww" and "ahhh" about when they walk by the house. Now I'm on the hunt for a 5-6 inch tall mushroom to add my rock garden this year and a fairy door.

♥

Pansies

Yesturday my son found this little pansy viola flower growing in the grass in our front yard. The seed must have come from a pot of pansies I had near where the flower was found. This hardy little flower has sprouted quickly, just a 1 1/2 weeks ago we still had snow. My son placed this little pansy in a 1 inch tall mug with water for me, isn't it sweet?!!!
♥

100 Years Ago...

100 years ago far, far away... my Grandmother was born, April 20, 1909. Born in Amsterdam, Holland she was the 7th child of ten children. Her father was a tram conductor that were pulled by horses, then later a ticket collector. Her mother was full of energy and good humour raising ten children, she was handy with tools and she learned to ride a bike in her fifties.

My Grandma was active in gymnastics, she lived through the war and as a single mother she immigrated with a daughter in 1949 to British Columbia, Canada along with a younger sister and her son. She remarried, owned an orchard in Keremeos, BC and had my mother and a son in her 40's. In the 70's after her husband passed and children moved on, she moved and lived in Penticton BC, always very close to her sister until she pass on in 2002 at the age of 93. She was very artistic, a neat freak and a worry wort. Unfortunately, there is not much history I have to pass on to my son and would have loved to know more about her life, the old country, war (I know she did not want to talk about that) but maybe I can track down old relatives for more info.

Left to right-me (I guess I was poutting or something), my little sister and my Grandmother at Fort Edmonton Park. When she would visit, we would take her to all the attractions in Edmonton.

I miss her!

She wanted to live to be 100 years old and in my heart she has done it!

Love S ♥

Giddy

I feel giddy right now. I just got back from the post office and I mailed out my surprises. I hope the recipients are surprised and elated by this random act of giving. I recommend it to all Etsy sellers to once in a while send out a surprise, it makes you feel REALLY good!

♥