Sugarfree week - 1

I have an incredible sweet tooth. To be honest, I could have cake every day, or even better, some chocolate. Ice cream is awesome too. But when I noticed strong arthritis in my left hand after pigging out on nutella, I've decided to test and see if the sugar and pain were related.
A whole week later and I am pain free.

The cravings have gone down, but I still would very much enjoy some chocolate. They are certainly not at the same level as they were on day too.
I shall see how it goes from here.

I found this blog helpful with information.
http://myyearwithout.blogspot.com/

oh rats

I was going to write about our powder room rennovation, or lack thereof, and about my picture hanging dilemma..... still have those blank walls.... but lets face it, it's late,it's over 85 degrees with humidity and I came across an archive of these chriters ( embarassed that I didn't make a note who photographed them).
They have been featured on other blogs, but sometimes we can't get enough of cuteness.

I realize that some people are grossed out by rats, but really? Do you look at these and still say " eeewwww"?

North Shore Animal League

I went to the North Shore Animal League last sunday. Since I was dog sitting, it was a good time to check out that popular animal shelter. I was advised that nothing good would come out of my visit. I'd either end up surprising my husband with a new adopted pooch, that he had no choice in choosing, or I'd walk out depressed about the abandoned dogs.

Something else ended up happening. Disappointment with the place. I saw about seven adult dogs, and three puppies. Great news, right? Doesn't this mean all the other dogs have found homes, or people have become wiser and kinder about pet care? Not exactly. We were told that all the other puppies we'd be only able to meet during the following weekend's large adoption drive. Yes, they were hiding puppies, most likely kittens and I don't know what else, in another room. ( you could even hear them).
When my friend mentioned this to one of the workers, he started saying how they need to be checked before the next weekend and aren't ready yet. Like she said to him " come on, do we look stupid to you?". Boy you could see he was lieing out of his ass, or whatever he was told to say.

Either way, I was disappointed that if a dog could find a home during the week, why make it wait till the weekend? For a huge drive when it was most likely a zoo in there.
One lady in there was smart. She got approved just so that on the weekend she could give a loving home to a new pooch.

This was one of the available puppies. An older man wanted him for his daughter, or grand daughter. He was told that she had to come in order to receive the pup. I hope the pup found a loving home either way.

little Aster

About a week ago it was clear that the sad time has come. On March 27th, our beloved Aster had to be put to sleep. The bladder cancer was no longer under some control.
She was quite the family dog. Although she was really my mother in law's dog, she ended up living with us due to circumstances and ended up being just like my own. I had the pleasure ( and sometimes — rarely, a little frustration) to live with her for the past four years.
Interestingly enough I came across the podcast by the New Yorker: Out Loud,where Meghan O'Rourke briefly discusses grief.
If you wish, you can find it here . She talks more about losing a person, but I think it doesn't have to relate just to that.
What struck me as incredibly true is that grief cyclical. It doesn't just get better over time like a flu. You have your good days and your bad ones.

new camera, new doggies

As a birthday gift, I got the DSLR camera that I have been dreaming of. The new toy, a Nikon D90.. Tested it out today in the city for the first time on some pooches in the park. That is, after I used it on our sweet pooch as a model first.

above: Aster

As a birthday gift, I got the DSLR camera that I have been dreaming of. The new toy, a Nikon D90.. Tested it out today in the city for the first time on some pooches in the park.

BRB

I've been away for quite some time. Between the wonderful trip to Florida's Marco Island and Miami, to receiving the sad news that my dog has bladder cancer, blogging just simply wasn't the thing that I wanted to do.

where my wild thing is

Aster is so happy that the couch is back up. Now that we have a t.v again ( survived over a year with no t.v. , which wasn't a terrible experience at all.), I get to snuggle up with the dog and blanket on the couch again. The other night we watched Pride and Prejudice together.

Ornate gold mirrors

For years, for the life of me, I simply did not like gold ( ok, it was little more than dislike). Golden jewerly(except for white gold), golden faucets,golden lamps, golden watches, golden door handles...
Now I have my gray walls and the one type of mirror that I want above my fireplace is no other than a golden ornate one!

above: from thingsthatinspire blog

above: from home decorating info

above: from flickr:xJavierx who got it from Home Beautiful 07

The one above is not gold, but together with the fire place it certainly says focal point. It's almost too much, but beautiful at the same time. From Living etc.

waiting anxiously for my chairs.

I love chairs. Chairs have personality and functionality. They're artsy and expressive. So as much as I fell in love with so many chairs out there, a lot of them were simply too high in my price point.
Craigslist was once again the answer. My friend found our farm table there, so surely we could find some chairs to go with it. And I finally did.
I found these:


By the time I emailed the owner, they were gone. That was disappointing, as one thing about Craigslist, is that it has a lot of fugly chairs too.
But, my friend has super powers and so she found these


They are dead on the same! I am beyond sure that this couple bought them for cheap cheap cheap and is now reselling them to me for reasonable.
With some reupholstering, they'll be just what I need.

Keep Calm and carry on past it

It seems like the poster with this message went through a love phase and straight into an overload, rejection phase.
I must admit, I liked the poster a lot when I first saw it, but then it just became so overly commercial that everyone seemed to have it. It seemed to be everywhere. Now it just feels dated in a bad way.
Which is why I wouldn't dare walk out with one of these from Decorative Things.
Who knows, maybe in 10 years it will be cool again.