1,000 Posts - Time to Celebrate - Giveaway Time!!!

I hit 1,000 posts on my blog. It took me YEARS to do... unlike lots of blogs out there today... I just don't have the time to post several things daily to hit a posting number of 1,000 in a year or 6 months or whatever. I've come a long way... from Minnesota to Indiana and back again to Minnesota!

In celebration of everything I've posted (food, home decor, crochet, dog stuff, kid stuff, organizing stuff, random posts, stories about my daily life), I've decided to do a fabulous giveaway!

Now you might ask... how do you enter? 

Easy!

Just comment on this post. 

I'll enter in the number of comments into the random number generator at random.org and voila! That number comment wins! I'll contact you via e-mail (whatever is connected to your Blogger ID, if you comment anonymously, well, then I can't contact you and you don't win). If you don't e-mail me back with your address within 3 days, I'll go back to the number generator and then next person will win.

The drawing will CLOSE on THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 5. Winner announced on the 6th. 

Open to continental US residents only.

Now, onto the prize. 

It's a cowl - cream, one of my most popular cowls this past season and since it's still cold in Minnesota and across the country, well, I think it's perfect.

Good luck!!!

Goodbye to My Rusty Monster

With a heavy heart and great sadness we had to say goodbye to our Rusty Monster last Thursday.

Last Tuesday he wasn't acting like himself, and on Wednesday night we brought him to the emergency veterinarian. When the doctor brought in his computer and showed us the x-ray we knew without a doubt what we were going to have to do. It's something that no dog owner ever wants to do. The x-ray showed a mass that was larger than the size of heart attached to his left lung and another mass attached to his right lung.

As I left (crying my eyes out) with the Monkey in tow I said the dreaded words that I never wanted to have to say.

Bring him home, Bimmer Man. Bring my dog home.

And so he did.

Thursday was a day for me and my Rusty. We hung out on the floor, on the couch. I told him how much he was loved, and I told him that for all of the years that he had been my rock and my comfort, it was now my time to be there for him.

For all that I hated vacuuming dog fur, tackling him when the mailman or the UPS guy came, dragging him out from under the porch, tripping over him while cooking, portioning out the disgusting salmon and coarse ground turkey (dripping animal blood everywhere...), getting a muzzle in my crotch, being hit in the face with a scratchy dog paw... I love him so very much. He was my best friend and all day companion.

I made him his favorite meal - bacon and eggs (which I'll probably never be able to eat again).

A wonderful veterinarian came to our house on Thursday night from Minnesota Pets. Rusty was surrounded by "his pack" and lots and lots of love.

The Art Cabinet in the Dining Room is CLEAN

I finally went through it.

It was -30 degrees outside and I had no energy for actually starting the car to get to anywhere.

So I started pulling shit out of the cabinet and trying to see if any of it was salvageable artwork from a toddler.

I took this "before" picture after I had already pulled all the shit out of the bottom shelf.

As it turns out, little scribbles that I totally thought I would remember really mean nothing.

I ended up recycling and trashing almost all of the "little scribbles" that I thought were so precious. Last January I gave The Monkey my old college art drawing book so she could have something to color in - she actually filled the whole thing up. So I'm going to label it with her name, the year 2014 and then put it in one of her storage boxes. When she's older and needs some inspiration for her own art, then she can pull that out at any time and take a look back at what she did. I also saved one painting where I really liked the colors and one foam sticker art project because she LOVED doing that. The rest went goodbye...

Not quite finished yet - I still need to clear the top and swap the larger "napkin basket" with Bimmer Man's "biking stuff basket."

Top shelf = paints, stickers, art project supplies

Middle shelf = napkins, playdough

Bottom shelf = loose paper, foam sheets, dot stampers, markers, craft supplies

Art easel with basket of coloring books and paper

Washable paints came out of a bin and into a metal basket - the old shitty paintbrushes went into the trash. Every time I rinsed them I would have to re-glue the bristles to the handle. Stickers, buttons, and other craft items went into one basket, markers into their own, dot stampers into their own. I pulled out all of the coloring books and larger paper pads and put those into a basket by The Monkey's new art easel.

I can't move the napkins because it's The Monkey's job to get everyone a napkin before each meal - it needs to be at her level. I saw an immediate response to art organization because all we did that day was art projects and she was able to get out what she wanted to make what she wanted. In fact, she really just wants to color in her Princess coloring book with her markers so I'm thinking I might buy myself coloring pencils and a coloring book from Pocket Posh.

With it being organized I'm no longer shoving used paper back into the bottom shelf, stepping on fallen art supplies or continuously getting out paper for The Monkey to color. It's awesome.

2015 New Year's Resolutions

I don't do them anymore.

Ok, well, actually I never really did them. I might have told myself "lose weight!" or "be healthy!" but I don't find those to be resolutions at all.

Wait, I'm totally wrong. I did do a New Year's Resolution last year - I told myself that even though I was/still am a stay at home mom, I wanted to be more fashionable (and then in June I decided to get rid of shit so...). That resolution of being more fashionable actually happened. However, even though I didn't buy too many clothes, I did update items that I have by purchasing QUALITY items (some used, some new, I happen to really like ThredUp for consignment clothes, and I purchased items from Madewell, Patagonia, L.L. Bean, Michael Stars, etc...).

I suppose I don't find the generalizations of "losing weight" or "being healthy" actual resolutions - instead I think being more specific actually makes you do things. Instead of "being healthy" you can make a resolution to drink 8 glasses of water per day, or perhaps go for 3 walks per week instead of 0 walks. When you make a more specific resolution, it might actually get done.

So this year I've decided to do a reading challenge.

Will I actually read 50 books? I have no idea. I'm currently on Book 3 of the Outlander series and I feel like it's taking me forever (an hour of reading each night for the past two weeks, well, maybe not every night... but I'm still not even halfway through!). I will still try! I think this list will get me out of my comfort zone for reading books, I can be picky about what I read (which I really shouldn't be picky, but since having a child I have realized that I don't like wasting my time with horrible books when I could be reading something fabulous!).

I'm planning on this Popsugar Challenge. Here's the printable version. Quite frankly, I'm too lazy to list it all out for you, so you can just click on the links instead.

Feel free to join me - I'll update every once in awhile on what I've been reading and which categories have been fulfilled. If I could read children's books for this, you best believe I'd have this shit finished in a week. Ha, the joys of having a child that loves to read!

Happy New Year!