Happy Easter!

I hope everyone had a fabulous day! Doug and I stayed at home and had a nice dinner of pork roast, scalloped potatoes and veggies. It was simple but good. What a nice change of pace to just take it easy on a holiday; no rushing to get to family and no going crazy to prepare for guests. Quiet and peaceful. Nice.

Since it was a rainy, dark and sort of cold day, we just stayed in all day. Doug had the Master's tournament on and I watched some of that with him while I worked on getting our meal ready. Other than that I worked on a few things on my to do list. Nothing too stressful.

I spent about three hours cutting out the pieces for Amanda's shower invitations. They are going to be so cute. I will get them assembled sometime this week and get them mailed off to Jess and Jan to take over from there. Still throwing ideas back and forth as to what to do for shower favors.

Hope your weekend was a good one!

Painting with Priscilla!

Thank you for stopping by!



Last night I took a painting class with Priscilla Hauser. What a great time!Painting with Priscilla is a dream of mine from a long time ago. I used to watch her try to teach Carol Duvall on HGTV how to paint. I remember thinking that I would love to take lessons and someday be able to paint like her. Well, now I can! She has a studio right here in Tulsa located at 19th and Harvard. She teaches all kinds of lessons from painting parties to painting 101 to advanced lessons,and she will even teach private lessons. The class last night was a beginner paint class just for fun. The classes are three hours and you can choose from a variety of designs depending on the date you choose. I've signed up for a dragonfly painting class in May. At some point I would love to take Painting 101. Guess I'm just going to have to make room on my schedule for it.
Here is a picture of Priscilla with her sister Ann. Such sweet, talented ladies - and fun too!

Here I am with Priscilla and my painting:

Not bad for a beginner - if I do say so myself!
I'm hoping for a relatively quiet weekend this weekend. The Master's Golf Tournament is on so I know Doug will be glued to the TV most of the time. I'm cooking on Sunday. We are planning on having a pork roast with scalloped potatoes. I haven't cooked in a while so I'm actually looking forward to it. Doug isn't sure he really likes pork so I'm hoping for the best. I'll have some shrimp on hand to throw on the grill just in case. ;) Hope to get the baby invitations finished too.

Baby Dress Invitations

Aren't these cute? My little sister is having a baby in June, and of course, we are having a shower. I came across the most adorable card designed by Beatriz Jennings and knew I had to make the invitations to look just like her sweet card. Beatriz is a super talented paper crafter and I often go to her blog to seek out ideas.

Sorry for the terrible picture but the lighting in my house in the afternoon isn't all that great and I wanted to get this one wrapped with a gift. The one pictured above is actually a gift tag I am enclosing with a cute pink and white blanket that will be on its way to Connecticut tomorrow. Don't worry though, I have, oh, about 30 invitations to make so I'm sure there will be more pictures.

Doug is going to the Bruce Springsteen concert tonight at the BOK. We are meeting some friends for dinner at In The Raw before they all head off to the concert. He has invited me to go too but really, I'm not that interested. Besides, I have other things I would rather be doing - like making baby invitations. :)

Productive Weekend

Well, Douglas and I actually got a few things accomplished around here this weekend. While he scalped the lawn, I cleaned the garage. We *almost* have enough room for my car to be parked in there.

Saturday I planned to spend three hours in the garage. Just three. But, once I got started and got in the groove, I actually spent about seven hours out there. I loaded my car up to the top with flattened boxes that went off to the recycle center. I also had 5 big boxes of stuff that I dropped off at the Salvation Army. Yay me!

Decluttering is hard for me. I'm always thinking I'm going to need something once I get rid of it but I'm trying hard to overcome that. I actually came across some gardening magazines from 1998. Since 1998, I have moved, oh, four times including one move half way across the country. That means, those magazines have been packed up and moved too. Absolutely crazy. What was I thinking in keeping them all these years??? Guess what ~ out they went ~ to the recycling bin. I've promised myself to do better and to let things go...

Sunday was COLD! Doug and I went for lunch at TGIFriday's and went grocery shopping. By the time we got home I was exhausted. I decided to take a nap for about an hour while he watched golf. I then went to Michael's and poked around for a while. Last night, I went up to my craft room and made one invitation for Amanda's shower. I wanted to be sure they were going to turn out okay before launching into making 30 of them! So, now that I feel more confident in my abilities, I will work on them this week. Pictures to follow, I promise!

Today is another freezing cold day here in Oklahoma. Thankfully, it is supposed to warm up by Wednesday. Can't wait!

Another week..

Wow! How is it Friday? It has been a busy week but things have gotten accomplished so I'm happy about that.
Do these guys look nervous?

That's because they were on their way here:

It was time to have Teddy groomed and he doesn't like to go to the Spa alone so Phoebe got to go too. Not sure she was too happy about that. They came home with cute little Easter scarves on.

Niles and Nestle were glad to have missed out on that one. Phoebe has different texture fur and she tends to get matted more easily so she needs to be groomed more often. Niles and Nestle have more "wash and wear" hair so I just throw them in the sink and give them a good scrub. The funny thing is when they hear the water running in the laundry room, everyone runs and hides. When I find them, they totally avoid eye contact hoping I won't see them. It doesn't work. When I'm on a mission to get them washed, that's it, there going in! Gosh, I'm mean! ;)
Made a couple of trips to Goodwill this week. It feels so good to get rid of stuff. I also made a trip to Edmond and met EARC at my old house. I donated enough stuff to fill up *half* of a box truck! Honestly, I didn't even know what was in most of the boxes they picked up. Whew! Totally unbelievable!
My "big" plans for the weekend are to make some progress in our garage so I can actually park my car in there before the really bad weather this spring. I also have to work on the invitations for my sister's baby shower. That should be fun. I'll post a picture when I'm done.

Teddy Bear

I wanted to share a layout I did over the weekend. Doug took this picture around Christmas time and although it is sort of blurry I absolutely love it.

What do you think?

What a difference a day makes

Okay, so I thought I didn't like the rain, but snow? I *do not* drive in this stuff which means if Douglas is not around, I do not go anywhere! I know, I know, I'm from Connecticut so I should be used to this stuff, right? Wrong. People in Tulsa are some of the worst drivers I have ever seen in this stuff. I'm so nervous about it I'm better off just staying off the roads until they are clear.
I will admit, the snow is so pretty.
Priscilla Hauser, the decorative painter, had her open house yesterday.

I didn't know if the open house would get cancelled due to the weather but it wasn't. Doug drove me there and dropped me off while he went to a record store he likes near by. (Do they still call them that: ?record store?) I got to chat with Priscilla and her sister Ann. Two great ladies. I had such fun looking at all the artwork in the studio, watching them interact as they were doing a painting. Only a few people were brave enough to get out on the roads in the snow so there will be another open house scheduled in the near future.
Anyway, as I think I have mentioned in my previous post, I used to watch Priscilla Hauser on The Carol Duvall Show on HGTV. I used to dream I could paint like her and always wished I could take painting classes with her. Well, looks like my dream is going to come true! She offers all kinds of classes in her Tulsa studio and I have signed up for one. She was also kind enough to give me one of her books. Thank you Priscilla!
After the open house, Doug took me to Red Robin for a burger. I wasn't impressed. Honestly, for a ten dollar burger I guess I expected a lot more. Even the steak fries weren't all that great. Chili's has a much better burger that is less expensive and much more delicious. Guess we won't be heading back to Red Robin anytime soon.
Last night, Doug watched the basketball game while I went up to my craft room. I intended to straighten up but ended up scrapping a page instead. I'll probably post that later once I take a picture of it.
I've got lots of things I want to get done today so I'd better get off this computer and get moving.

I know we need the rain but...

This is what I'm seeing out my office window. Not a pretty sight ~ Pretty ugly and depressing if you ask me. And it's cold and only going to get colder. Yep, freezing tonight and snow tomorrow. Hopefully, this will be the last of it because I *really* am ready for spring.

This is what I'm seeing under my desk:

This is Nestle and he is very worried about all of the thunder outside. It makes him nervous! He goes back and forth from under my feet beside the space heater to look out the window to check out the commotion and back again:

The other dogs are sleeping peacefully in the nest. Not Nestle, he was jumping up and down all wild eyed and panting like a crazy man. I'm afraid he is going to have a stroke or something so I let him stay in my office with me while I work. The problem is sometimes he likes to bark when I'm on the phone. Not good.
I usually keep something soft like a wadded up paper towel on my desk and if I'm on the phone and he starts to bark, I bean him with it. Mean, huh?
Since I'm freezing and the weather is awful and I don't really want to go anywhere, my sweet Douglas is bringing me a hot steak grinder from Bellacino's. Yum!
Yesterday, I went to McAlister's Deli for lunch. In the plaza they had the most beautiful tulips all around. I love tulips. It was just starting to rain but they still are so pretty:

Oh! I almost forgot. A few weeks ago Doug and I went to the Tulsa Home and Garden Show. While we were there we saw Priscilla Hauser. She is a decorative painter. I used to watch her on The Carol Duvall Show on HGTV. I was so excited! As is turns out, she has a little painting studio here in Tulsa where we can take a painting class or have painting party with friends or whatever. I have signed up to take a class with her in a couple of weeks. Anyway ~ tomorrow she is supposed to have an open house to show off her studio. So I'm praying the snow isn't bad on the roads and the open house is still on. I'm SOOO looking forward to it!

Ooops!

Somehow I published today's blog without typing in anything. Let me try this again.

We went to Savastano's tonight for pizza. Call me crazy but I like my pizza cut into wedges ~ not into squares! At Savastano's they absolutely *will not* cut the pizza into wedges. They claim because it is supposed to be Chicago style pizza and the owners are from Chicago that they are not allowed to cut the thin crust pizza into wedges. What ever happened to "the customer is always right"? We asked for the pizza to be brought out uncut so we could cut it ourselves - into wedges. It may sound crazy but I think it tastes so much better cut into wedges. I don't like pizza without crust on the end. So, out it came and we cut it ourselves. Ummmmm.. delicious! and I was so much happier.

I will eat there again because the pizza is good. Next time though, I'm going to bring my own pizza cutter. Our waitress brought out the biggest clunker pizza cutter I've ever seen. The wheel was completely wobbly and I thought it was going to fall off the handle and go rolling across the floor. (I must be tired because I'm laughing to myself thinking about that wobbly wheel while I'm typing this -hee hee hee!)

Okay, so now that we've talked about food...

This is Phoebe. Also known as Phoebe Buffet, Phoebe who stayed too long at the Buffet, Curly, Girls, Feebs, Nerky, Narnickiny...the list goes on and on. She has never met a meal she hasn't liked. Let's just say she has a slight, ahem, weight challenge. We tell her it looks good on her though. :) I'm not sure if you can see from this picture but she has stumpy little legs and a nice, round belly. She sort of wobbles when she walks - kind of like a weeble. When she runs she looks like a little millipede.
Anyway. Curly and I have just started walking in the evening. We both need to stretch our legs a little. Since we are just starting out, she can't go very far without running out of steam so we are starting slow. The problem is, when she gets tired ~ after oh, about 100 feet or so, ~ she tries to walk directly under my feet so I'll pick her up. But I'm smarter than that. Tonight I tried to run just slightly ahead of her and made her run to catch me. I'm sure we were quite a sight. She just needs to lose a few .oz's and hopefully by helping her get a little extra exercise she can lose a little weight (and maybe I will too...).
I can't really put her on a diet or limit her food intake because she is already very food possessive and she gets even worse when I even think about limiting her intake. Plus with four dogs, honestly, it is so much easier to just free feed. So, as an alternative we are walking. Hopefully the exercise will do us both good and will wear her out so she will just sleep at night instead of guarding the food bowl all night long. Maybe we will both benefit.

Time is just flying by...

Gosh, where does the time go? I can't believe it has been almost a week since I posted last. In a nutshell, things we have been up to:
1. St. Patricks Day: Doug and I met Jerry and Annette at LXI for dinner and drinks. What a great time we had and great food too!
2. Friday night we went to Bonefish Grill with Dr. T and Tonya. Another great night of dinner and drinks and fun conversation with friends. It was a last minute decision to go and I'm glad we did!
3. On Saturday, Doug and I went to D'Lambrusco's for a nice lunch, we ran around doing some errands and then headed back home. Doug put together a bookcase for my craft room and I worked up there for the rest of the evening. I made a fleece blanket for the dogs and finally got around to making Doug's Boston Red Sock's fleece blanket (a year and a half later...)
4. On Sunday we rented a U-haul trailer and went to Edmond to empty out some of the stuff in the garage. I guess in our hurry to get things done we didn't quite load the trailer correctly and on our drive home the thing started swaying like crazy. It scared me so much it made me sick. We had to drive really slow all the way back to Tulsa. It was that or pulling over, unloading and reloading all over again. That probably would have been the safer thing to do. Oh well, we made it safely. We unloaded the trailer and returned it. I cannot wait until we are done!

The house in Edmond showed four times over the weekend but so far no offers. I'm really hoping something happens soon.

Tonight I took the dogs for a walk. One at a time. I simply CANNOT walk four dogs at once. Not my dogs anyway. Nestle and Niles do just fine. I used to walk them together all the time. Phoebe is just a mess! She zigzags all over the place and we hardly make it halfway around the block and she is running into my feet which means she wants me to pick her up. She's the one who needs to walk! I'm going to have to progress slowly with her because she is so heavy she just can't handle going that far just yet. Teddy is just a goofball on a leash. He jumps up on the curbs like a little jackrabbit and then is scared if the wind blows. Walking on the leash is all new to him. He is used to running around the back yard uninhibited. He is just too cute.

It was a nice night for a walk. The temps were in the mid 70's and there were lots of people out walking their dogs, riding bikes with their kids and just enjoying the evening. Our neighborhood is a great place to walk and I plan to do alot more of that this spring.

Doug may or may not be going to Georgia at the end of this week. I can't believe tomorrow is Tuesday already. I've got a list of things to accomplish this week that is a mile long. Wish me luck!

What a beautiful day!

Don't you just love spring?

These are some of my pretty pansies out front.
The weather today is almost perfect. Warm, slight breeze, in the 80's. Gotta love it! It is spring break here in Oklahoma and so far one of the nicest we have had since I moved here in 2001. Usually it is cloudy and rainy but it looks like we are in for a very nice week. I'm so excited!
This weekend was a productive one. I spent some time in my craft room organizing and cleaning. The room is a great size but my biggest problem is that I have SO MUCH STUFF! Plus, the room has a funny "L" shape with sloped ceilings so it is difficult to decide where to put things. Thankfully Doug put up two of my embellishment centers and a huge bulletin board for me. Thank you Douglasssss!!!

Sorry about the dark picture but the area is tucked away in a little corner away from the light. I'm just so excited to have a place to put some of my stuff. I've got alot more to organize and I will post pictures of that as I go along.

Of course, I can't go up there for one minute without the dogs looking for me. When I look around the corner, this is what I see:

Gotta love it!

Snow.. Ugh!

Woke up to a freezing cold day today with big, fat snowflakes. I am so ready to be done with winter. I need sunshine and warm days. The good news is that it looks like by the middle of next week we will be headed into warmer weather. Can't wait!

Last night we went to a dinner presentation at Flemings Steakhouse in Utica Square. The presentation was about continuous epidural infusion rather than a single epidural steroid injection for back pain. Exciting, huh? Actually, it was kind of interesting and definitely made sense for some of our patients. Look forward to see if it works better than the ordinary injection. The dinner part wasn't the greatest however. I was really looking forward to eating at Fleming's because I had never been. It was mediocre at best and it definitely wouldn't be my choice if I had to pay the bill.

Missed out on a dinner tonight because of exhaustion and a terrible headache. I was supposed to attend a meeting at Dave and Buster's but didn't make it. Been going like crazy and need a break. So, I'm just taking the evening a little easy, straightening up my office which has gotten totally out of control the last week. Also listening to my iTunes and to Doug hollering in the other room over the Sooners and the basketball game. Sorry Douglas. :( Seems as though the Sooners have let him down tonight.

Okay, enough doom and gloom. On a more positive note, here I am tonight with Teddy:

I know I look tired, but isn't he just too cute?!?

On other positive news, I booked our flight for our trip home to Connecticut this summer. Can't wait! We are going to stay with Bobby and Jess and I'm sure have a great time. Yay! We haven't been to Connecticut since September of 2007 and I sure miss my family. And I can't fail to mention my favorite pizza in the whole entire world: Pepe's Pizza on Wooster Street in New Haven. It's world famous. I tell my family everytime I go home that I'm going for Pepe's. They can join me or not but I'm not going to miss it - yes - it IS that good!

C'mon Spring!

Over the last week we got a teaser of spring weather. It has been in the 70's and maybe in the 80's and I have loved it! We had the windows open to let in some fresh air and it has been great ~ even though it has stirred up my allergies a bit ~ I'll take it! Unfortunately, that was just a tease. The weather is taking a nosedive this afternoon into the 40's and it will be cold for the next several days. NO FUN! I'm hopeful though because spring is right around the corner. There are cute little buds on the trees, my pansies are perking up out front and I'm feeling motivated! I've got my list of things to work on and I'm crossing things off a little at a time.

Work has been crazy. Dr. Webb is out of town for a conference and I thought I would use these few days to catch up on a few things. I'm not catching up like I hoped I would. Some days I feel like I'm just spinning my wheels. I just keep plugging away hoping to catch up.

Nice to be home...

While it is great to get away and get a break once in a while, it is always nice to return home. We got back Sunday night to a quiet, empty house. The dogs were still at Cathy's and I could hardly wait until Monday morning when I could pick them up. Boy, were they happy to see me! Usually they go a little crazy in the car but when I picked them up they all seemed to know we were heading home and everybody was so well behaved while I was driving. When we got home, I had four little shadows following me everywhere I went. I love those little bears...

Too, while getting away is nice, the work left behind always piles up. I've been working like crazy all week to catch up. I just have to remind myself that everyone else's "emergencies" are NOT my emergencies. However, I like to make people happy and I like to get things done so I let little things stress me out. I have to remember to take time to breathe.

One giant project I am happy to be done with is getting my personal and business tax records to my accountant. I'm praying I don't owe taxes this year. Last year, I got hit with a whopper of a tax bill and it took me quite a while to recover from that. I'm hoping for the best this year and I'm just so happy to turn my records over to him and let him deal with it.

The weather is supposed to be in the 70's for the next couple of days and I plan to take full advantage of that. I'm meeting my friend Phyllis at PF Changs for lunch tomorrow and I am so looking forward to seeing her and catching up. I'm not sure what Doug and I will do this weekend ~ maybe a trip to OKC to take care of a few things. Savastano's has opened their new restaurant (finally!) so we might try that. I heard that last night there was a wait to get in. We'll see how it goes.

To Taos!

The guys went skiing again yesterday at Angelfire and had a great time even though the weather has been kind of warm and the slopes were sort of icy. I spent my time going to all the little shops in town and buying a few little things. It was a great day. Here is a picture of the guys on slopes:

We woke up this morning and decided to take the drive to Taos. The guys decided they had enough skiing for the last two days. Plus, with the ice on the slopes and Taos being a much more difficult mountain to ski it was probably best they decided to forego the skiing up there. We had a great time walking around Taos. Lots of cute little shops and the people were very friendly.
We had lunch at Orlando's which is a New Mexican restaurant. Here is a picture of us at lunch:

Tomorrow morning we leave for our long drive back to Oklahoma. What a fun time we had here and look forward to coming back maybe this summer for some hiking.

Relaxing in the Mountains

We made it to Angelfire last night after getting slightly lost when we missed a turn and found ourselves on the way to Taos. We turned around and made it to our location. We were little tired after the long drive but so totally excited to be here.

Of course we couldn't see any of the spectacular views on our arrival but this morning when we woke up ~ WOW! This place is incredible. I took some pictures but pictures simply cannot do this place justice! I'm going to go out later for some pictures of the view but in the mean time, here are a few interior photos. This is looking out from the master bedroom:

Next is the view from the dining room (don't mind the scrapping stuff on the table!):

This is the loft area:

And looking down from the loft into the main living area:

Honestly, the pictures do not do this place justice. The place is flooded with light.
There is also a downstairs gameroom area with a huge flat screen TV, a pool table, and cute little kitchen/bar area. I'll try to get photo's of that later but the guys were down there last night having a few beers and playing playstation so it's a bit untidy at the moment.

I dropped the guys off to ski while I came back to enjoy this gorgeous space and do some scrapbooking while enjoying the fabulous view. I'm feeling more relaxed already. :)

National Justice For Animals Week

Many of you know I am passionate about animals and animal rights. Although I am not a rabid Peta person (yes, I wear leather and am not a vegetarian) I can't stand the thought of animals being mistreated or abused. It makes me physically sick to my stomach.

I belong to an organization called Animal Legal Defense Fund (ALDF). They are initiating National Justice For Animals Week to raise awareness in our communities about how to report animal abuse and create stronger laws to prosecute people who hurt animals. Check it out!

I've been working like crazy the last few weeks and am feeling pretty frazzled. This weekend we are headed to Angelfire, New Mexico for some R&R. We are staying in the Signature Golf House which is amazing! Doug is going to ski with his friends and I am so looking forward to just relaxing, reading, scrapbooking and doing a whole lotta nothin'! Should be a great time.

I'm bringing my camera and hope to get some great pictures. Speaking of pictures: last night I sent a big order to be developed so I can take them with me on our trip. Hopefully, I will have a few layouts to share with you when I get back.

One of the layout's I made of Nestle I had posted on HGTV's website about 8 months ago or so. Lately, I have been receiving lots of positive feedback on that layout so I'll share it with you:

Have a great day!

Doug and I went to see David's house and were just so amazed at what the wind can do. Unbelievable. Although several houses in the neighborhood were destroyed, thankfully nobody was seriously injured. In another part of Oklahoma several people lost their lives to the weather. So sad.

It has been a tremendously busy week. I worked Friday, Saturday and Sunday at the Tulsa Women's Living Expo at Dr. Webb's booth. It was fun but it is also so exhausting! I love to people watch and this was the perfect opportunity!

For Valentine's Day, Doug and I had agreed to keep it low key and grab a pizza at the Pie Hole and just relax at home. I was looking forward to it but at the last minute our plans changed. We ended up going to a new restaurant in town called LXI. We weren't expecting too much but were more than pleasantly surprised. The food was absolutely delicious. Doug also bought me some beautiful flowers ~ a dozen red roses along with stargazer lilies. Such a nice surprise!

I'm hoping this week will be a bit calmer. We will see!

Crazy Oklahoma Weather

The tornados hit Oklahoma with a vengence yesterday. In Tulsa, we were pretty safe, but unfortunately, Doug's brother David lost his house in Oaktree. Here is some of the damage:
Thankfully, nobody was home when it hit and nobody got hurt.



This house is diagonally across the street from the house I used to live in just a couple of years ago:


Although I love living in Oklahoma, the weather can be very scary here at times.

Time has gotten away from me

Or so it seems.

Work has been so crazy lately and I haven't felt like I've had time to breathe! Hopefully things will settle down a bit and I can catch my breath and focus.

However, while Doug was in Vegas this past weekend, I did take some time to do a couple things around the house. I haven't taken any pictures, but stay tuned.

I bought a new comforter set for our bed which looks very pretty. Not too feminine but not too masculine ~ a good compromise I think! Doug even likes it which I am happy about. A few pretty pillows will spruce it up even more so I'm on the lookout for some of those. Our room could use a few new lamps and definitely some pictures on the walls but at least I've made some progress.