I don't even know when the last time I wrote anything on this blog was. I don't put pressure on myself to blog. Though I feel the urge to write again and I think it is because I'm not quite sure where my life is going at this point. I do feel like I have something to say, but no audience.

 I feel like the people don't listen to me. I know a decent amount about dogs... but the people who are experts know more than me, have a better educational background in the subject and can just articulate themselves better than I can. I read all these articles on dog behavior and training and it's like reading something that I could have come up with myself... I just don't have the actual capacity to do it.

Anyway, I just left my job of 3.5 years as a manager of a unique dog daycare. It was with out a doubt the best experience of my life. I learned so much and met some great people along the way. The only real reason I left was because of how stressed I became from being solely responsible for everything at this business. I also felt trapped... I could have easily spent a decade there and be doing the exact same thing... there was no where to promote me to, I was already at the top.

I feel like I came so far since graduating college. That year (2011) alone I had worked at 4 doggie daycares... making between 8.25-10/hr. The jobs were mostly cleaning kennels/ supervising a room full of dogs type of work. Its not glamorous. It doesn't take a rocket scientist. I even managed to screw a few of them up. Landing my last job was a blessing. It was great. I was doing exactly what I had gone to college for... business management. In my dream field... dogs. I was also making twice as much as I had before.

So back in August I got a new job that I started part time while still working full time. I waited until October to tell my boss. I started training my replacement in December. I finally had my last day January 8th... They threw me a party, my boss gave me a holiday tip.... and then also a thank you bonus.

I'm 4 days into my new job and I know already i'm going to need to find something else. I'm doing data entry for an online retailer. I get paid by how much work I get done. The real reason I took it was because I can work from home... I'm getting as much done each day as I thought I would. I should give myself a break... its only been 4 days.

Taking this job in order to leave my last one was a good idea. It was flexible, It was easy. I can work from home. I can take the time to figure out what I want to do with my life.

I'm thinking really hard about that. I'd love to really be in business for myself. To be making phone calls all day, meeting people, traveling, talking about things I love, Doing things I love. Having a future. Having a career. Having goals.

I want to talk about dogs. I want to train dogs. I want people to know how much I really do know about dogs. I want them to listen to me.

None of my closest friends have dogs. They don't care about what I know,. They couldn't refer me to some magical job that would fit my career goals.

I do dog sports. I'm shy. I'm awkward. I don't talk to anyone much. They don't know me well enough to refer me to some magical job that would fit my career goals.

Before I left my last job I was offered a position managing a different unique dog daycare. I feel good about being given that opportunity. I got it because I did have "connections". I turned it down because again I would be stressed and I'd be working even longer hours. I think I would have made more money. The owner then sold the business. The timing was probably bad anyways. I could have been screwed if I had taken it.

What do I do?

New beginnings

Hi Friends!
Its mid October 2013 and I haven't blogged in who knows how long! I haven't had any wedding crafts going on and most of my time is spent working. Our weekends are filled with seeing this friend or that friend. Literally.

Anyway, over the summer I took obedience class with my puppy, he was too old for puppy kindergarten but I decided we needed some extra training time and the guidance of a class. After that was over I decided to take a beginner agility class and tomorrow is my last class of that one. We started the class when he was only 10 months old and the trainer thought he wouldn't be ready but boy is he amazing! Slightly biased but I think he's one of the best in the class. I plan on continuing on in the spring when we'll hopefully have more $$$. I really think someday we could compete in agility. I have done agility before with my older sheltie, Scout but I never felt like we were good enough to compete. The class I am taking now provides a "real" foundation for agility, it isn't like the class Scout and I took which was just about introducing the dogs to the obstacles. There is a lot more training that goes into agility than the obstacles its really about the flatwork and body language, which is what we are learning now.

The other exciting thing going on, which will give me something to write about, is that hubby and I are moving!! We are renting a house on the other side of the town we currently live in and are so very happy about it! I'll have a few projects to share as I begin to form each room together. Since we'll probably be in this place for a long time (we are renting with an intention to buy) and its a "real" house I wanted it decorated in an adult like way (hehe.... as opposed to young hippy college apartment kinda way).

 For now I'll share two things...
This house has window seats which I've alwaaaaaaaaaaaays wanted!!! So I'm making a cushion to fit on the bench. I already picked out the fabric....

hard to tell in the pic but its orange/red/ yellow and brown. Its not pinky like the picture appears. This will before for our office room (which is our 3rd bedroom and might be a nursery if we have kids someday). The room will be painted a light yellow and the floor is a medium tan rustic looking "wood" ceramic tile. Hubby loves 70's style things so the orange and brown in the fabric gave it that kind of vibe. Unfortunately I only purchased 7.5 feet of fabric and I just measured the seat at 7 feet! yeep. I don't know if I'll have enough fabric!

More pictures to come as the project moves forward!

Then I got this beautiful baby.....

This is the Deco sunflower slipper chair from Wayfair. Its supposed to be lavender but in reality its kind of a grey-ish color. Two of these will be seating for our formal-ish living room. 

 I've been searching for little accent chairs for a while now and it looked like I would have to spend at least 85 minimum for one of these chairs (with the nicer ones being $130+). Then, one day in my inbox I saw that Wayfair was doing a "Pairs" sale. You could get two of these slipper chairs for $140 total!!! That's only 70 each!!! Free shipping and the tax was only like 8 bucks. I'm a huuuuge sucker for a good deal. It's a sickness. But hey, If you were to buy this chair right now it would 110 for only one of them!

I like that its a pretty neutral color so I'll just put some bright colored pillows on them to dress them up. I also love that they are short, if you read the reviews that is the biggest downfall but I on the other hand love that because the house has only 7.5 foot ceilings so a lower chair makes the room feel bigger. 

More on how the living room turns out when it happens! We will be moving in a few weeks!

How-To:

How-To: Make your own butter! (and Buttermilk!)

Trying to get back into the blogging today and I'll start off with this super easy how-to! Making your own butter is way easier than you might think if you've never tried it before. Its one of things you should do at least one in your life!

For me, the hubby and I have been looking for ways to improve our diets. We started buying organic milk and are venturing into whole wheat pastas and using different ingredients like grapeseed oil, flax and even buckwheat flower. We have been buying large quantities of margarine for years now and have recently thought that it is not as healthy as you would think. Margarine and (fake)"butter" are both just highly processed oils and crap. Real butter might be high in fat and what not, but at least your putting something real into your body. Just remember its best to use real butter in moderation.

So how to make it yourself?

We used heavy cream (Hood), but we will not be buying Hood again, we're going to look for a more natural organic cream to use next time.

Regardless of what you use here are the steps....

Time: 20 minutes
Makes: 2 cups of butter
Supplies:
Large Mixing Bowl
Hand held beater
1 Quart cream
spoon
strainer
small bowl


-Pour 1 quart of cream into a large mixing bowl.

-Use a hand held mixer to beat the cream until it thickens
*we tried to put it in a regular blender the first time but it creates air pockets when it gets too thick and doesn't mix well.

-Keep blending for 10 minutes as it continues to thicken

-At the point when it is clearly very very thick, let it sit for a few minutes

-Beat once again for another few minutes and it should all of a sudden start to get a bit thinner but you'll see it start to separate, and beat for another minute or two

-Strain off the liquid (which is Buttermilk!) into a separate bowl, the bits left in the strainer can be places back into the large mixing bowl. Then use a spoon to squeeze out the remaining liquid.
*If you used exactly 1 quart you should have exactly 2 cups of buttermilk strained into the bowl

-As you squeeze out the remaining liquid it'll form a large glob of nice yellow butter

-ta da!

-You can also add a cup of cold water to the butter and strain again to "clean" the butter. This gets rid of any excess buttermilk. The buttermilk and water will not mix back in with the butter so you don't have to worry about accidentally dissolving it or anything like that.

-Package butter into an airtight container and use in moderation. You can add a pinch of salt to the butter if you feel necessary. And you can use the buttermilk to make pancakes!

Sangria Wedding at Longfellow's Wayside Inn

April 13, 2013 was my good friend Aimee's wedding to my husband's college friend, John. For literally months (I work slow!) I worked on this card box for their wedding...

Aimee chose a beautiful Sangria color for the wedding with White and Gold accents. 

Brief Review of Previous Boxes and What I Learned:

This is my third card box and luckily I feel like each time I've been able to improve upon it. The first one was for my own wedding which was just a small shoebox covered in a shiny purple paper with a small cream bow (like 1/4 inch think) and a cream heart applique. I liked it because obviously I made it but it was small and didn't fit all the cards. My second card box, the beach cardbox for my friend Cassie's wedding was made from  two square boxes. This one was gorgeous but delicate and not well thought out. I didn't make the hole big enough in the bottom of he top box for the cards to be able to fall to the bottom. That resulted in some old ladies tearing the box apart to get cards in. Also, I glued small seashells down with super glue but some fell off because they were too small and the glue wasn't strong enough (Maybe use hot glue next time?). Also, I had a large ribbon glued down around it from top to bottom and that made it so you could even open the box!

So, this box I wanted to be perfect!! I chose three round boxes at AC Moore and cut a rectangular hole in the top cover of the smallest box. I also cut the whole entire bottom out of the top and middle boxes so that it would be completely open to the bottom. Then I traced the smaller boxes bottoms onto the larger boxes covers so I could cut out those holes (using an exacto knife is all you need for this).

 I then searched high and low for a purple sangria colored paper to cover the boxes. I looked in a lot of craft stores like AC Moore, Michael's and a few local craft stores and I looked online at Etsy and the like. I could not for the life of me find a sangria colored paper. So I decided to look into paints knowing that if I didn't like it I could just redo the whole darn thing. Luckily I chose two purple paints that were close to the color I wanted (I used my bridesmaid dress as a reference for color) I found that mixing the two together created the color I was looking for. I also found that it needed at least two-three coats of paint! I hard large tubes and almost ran out!

To top it off I used sticky pearls that I had bought for the beach card box. I decided on a simple pattern on the top and bottom. I think it looks pretty elegant if I do say so myself! I then used two ribbons (both off white even though I was going for gold-ish) wrapped tightly around the top box and tied into a bow. I cut the edges to make them fancy. I highly recommend using two ribbons with different material/texture! It really adds a level to the bow. I was then also going to use a heart applique with the couples names on it but it didn't print correctly. In the end I also bought a purple flower clip that went on one side. I saw it in Nordstrom Rack and had to have it! Sorry I don't have a picture with it on the box.

So in the end I think this box was one of the best. Sturdy, Elegant and does its purpose well!!! The wedding itself was just beautiful. I am so incredibly happy for you (if you're reading this Aimee!) Aimee and John on their marriage!


Here is a picture of the wedding party in front of the Old Grist Mill. I have very fond memories of this mill from when I was a child (like really small child...  2-7 years old) having picnics with my family and great-grandmother right next to the water. It was so nice to be back there as an adult and share that with my husband.

I am the bridesmaid third from the left (the one with the dress too short because my stupid seamstress screwed it up!). Hubby is the best man (closest man to the groom) he was the most handsome man there!!!! (Sorry Aimee, I'm biased!)

Welcome Back!

HI! I'm back after a long unexpected hiatus. Mostly because I didn't have much to blog about. I left off in September 2012 after completing an aisle runner and card box for a college friend of mine's beach wedding in Newport, RI where I was a bridesmaid.

Luckily 2013 has been pretty awesome and I think its going to end even better than it started. Around the time of my last post I got a new job and I have to admit it is a pretty perfect fit for me as far as jobs go! I've been there for about 7 months and its the longest I've gone at a job with out hating it and dealing with constant drama and crazy bosses and/or management. That fact alone is pretty amazing in itself. The only person above me is my boss, the owner of the business and he's awesome. my 6 co-workers are sorta under me but they are the best group of people I've ever worked with. Honestly I think the fact that they are mostly guys and older and well educated has something to do with the less-drama int he workplace thing.

Anyway, so I have a great husband a great job, a great dog and we recently added a puppy to our family. His name is Odo (after a character on Star Trek: DS9) and he's a 5 month blue merle Sheltie.

This is him at my work not too long ago. Cute huh?

This is Odo on the left and Scout (my 7year old sable Sheltie) is on the right

Odo is almost full grown and a whole head taller than Scout! The sheltie standard sates that shelties should be between 13 and 16 inches at the shoulder. Scout is all of 12 inches and Odo will probably end up at the top at 16 inches. I never thought when I got a second sheltie it would be another small sable one. Little did I know that fate would bring me this large blue boy! 

On another note, it looks like I have a lot of craft projects to share for this coming year. Starting with my most recent project a card box for my good friend Aimee's wedding where I was also a bridesmaid and hubby was even best man!

DIY: Aisle Runner Decorating For Dummies

An aisle runner makes a beautiful statement for almost any wedding. These days being able to personalize an aisle runner gives it that extra pop to wow your guests and even gives a modern touch of whimsy to your special day. Walking down the aisle are your last steps of being unmarried and your very first steps as newlyweds! 

Step 1: Determine if an aisle runner fits your wedding style

If you picture an beautiful aisle runner as part of your wedding ceremony... congratulations! That is the first step in creating an aisle runner for you wedding. However, not everyone wants the formal/more traditional feel that an aisle runner gives to a wedding ceremony, nor does an aisle runner work in every situation.
I would not recommend an aisle runner for the following situations:
-Sand
-Windy outdoor site
-Grass
-Rocky terrain
-Non-straight aisle (anything zig-zaggy)
-Stairs
For example, I just made an aisle runner for a beach wedding and despite my plans for it to be held down with large seashells, the runner was not used due to the wind.

Step 2: Buy an aisle runner. 

Recommendations: Buy a material that is see-through in order to "trace" the letters. If you purchase a solid aisle runner you will have to project the letters onto the aisle runner (and the rest of this post will be useless to you because I have never done that before and will thus not explain how to do it). There are many lovely see through runners out there and for decent prices...
"two hearts" http://www.wrapwithus.com/Products/Two-Hearts-Wedding-Aisle-Runner__3_1911-FXB.aspx
"love" http://www.wrapwithus.com/Products/LOVE-Print-Wedding-Aisle-Runner__3_1002-FXB.aspx
"french lace" http://www.wrapwithus.com/Products/French-Lace-Wedding-Aisle-Runner__35706-DR.aspx

Those are examples of ones that are slightly see-through so you can see what I mean.

Step 3: Trim aisle runner down to desired size (if needed)

Recommendations: The runner I got for my wedding was 100ft and I decided to cut in it half to 50ft without ever measuring my venue. As you can see from the below picture of my wedding 50ft is plenty long for your average ceremony venue. The lettering is exactly in the middle at 25ft.

-Trimming the aisle runner is easy if you can cut or lightly draw a straight line. Laying it out however is what seemed to pose a problem. My apartment is only about 25ft at its longest, and less than 3 feet wide in my hallway. Just make sure your floor is clean and your dog doesn't walk on top of it! 

-Then, rolling it back up is the hard part. I highly recommend keeping the half with the pull string and cardboard roll on the better half that you'll use for the wedding. The other half you can always keep and use to make for a friend! 

Note: know the dimensions of your runner first! they come in all different lengths, but 100ft seems to be the most common.

Note: This step might be the right time to make a mark on the desired spot your image will be painted on at. This can be done by lightly marking where the image will go (a penciled tick mark about 1/2 inch long is usually good enough). Or keep the runner unrolled at the desired spot and lay it out on the table you will be doing your painting at.

Step 4: Create lettering and/or image 

Basically this is one of the easiest and most fun parts. Get on your computer, open a word document and make it say exactly what you want. You probably already have an idea of what you want and its easy to find clip art or even images off of Google. Traditionally this includes your names and wedding date and/or a monogram. 

Recommendations: Make sure any wording is printed in black or as dark as possible (coloring will come later!) so that it is easy to trace out. If you are using an image, a black and white one is best with a relatively simple design. 

For example, for my friend's beach wedding using a star fish graphic like this...

was a heck of a lot easier than trying to trace and then paint something like this...

get the idea?

Step 5: Sizing & Printing your images

Basically, you want your wording/image to be large enough that people can read it, but small enough to fit on your aisle runner. Again, know the dimensions of your runner! What I do is print it out, then measure it, then adjust/resize as needed. You will want your paper orientation to be "landscape" as to save as much paper as possible. Usually words will run off one page and onto another in which case its relatively easy to cut and tape the pages together. 

Recommendations: Bigger is better as long as it will fit on the runner and is easy to piece together once printed. I highly recommend that papers are taped exactly as you want them so that they don't move around when you are tracing it in the next step.

Step 6: Roll out runner to desired image spot

A)If this was not done at step 3 now is the time to do it! With the "two hearts" runner I bought there doesn't seem to be a difference with the "right side" or "wrong side" of the runner. I'm pretty sure both sides are the same.

B)You may have to unroll your whole runner yet again if you did not before in order to find the desired spot. If you have a 50ft runner and you want the image in the middle, then find the middle at 25ft. Its not rocket science but it might be a pain in the a**.

C)Find a good work station that you will be decorating your runner on. I highly recommend a table that isn't used often as the work might take more than 1 day. If you have a card table or any folding table. It needs to be something you don't mind getting messy (paint could spill!). It is also best to use a flat table and one that is at least as wide as the runner.

Note: also make sure your workstation is WELL LIT, this will come in handy for the next step...

Step 7: Tracing your images 

Again, this is a pretty easy step depending on the difficulty of the words/images you selected. Words tend to be easier than images like the above starfish... there were too many blobs/circles to trace, but something like that didn't have to be exact like lettering.
Anywho... have all words and images taped together. Slide the papers underneath the runner. Center it nicely and if you feel it is needed use some heavy objects to hold down the runner over the papers.
DO NOT tape down the papers to the aisle runner. Pulling it off could easily tear the runner! You may tape the papers down to your table if you don't want it sliding around, but it might be a bit hard to remove it with out hassling around the runner.
Note: at this point you should easily understand why I recommended a flat surface, dark lettering and good lighting
Then... trace away using a pencil, mechanical is the best in my opinion. It allows a fine consistent line. Make sure its not too light that you wont see it when painting later, or too dark that it will be noticeable later! However, this might depend on how light or dark the color you are painting it with is.

Step 7: Setting up before you paint:

Now, this step is very very very very very important. This determines how easy it will be to finish your runner and how well it will come out. Pay close attention!
FIRST...
put wax paper down underneath your runner exactly where you will be painting.
1) this will protect your work surface
2) you will be able to remove the aisle runner from the surface.
 If you are using the see-through runner remember it is not a "solid" fabric... so the paint will bleed through to the other side. If you use newspaper or printer paper the paint will dry sticking to the paper then when you remove it, it will tear your runner! If you use the wax paper you will be able to let it dry and then remove the wax paper easily without any sticking or tearing.

SECOND
The paint... I use a regular acrylic paint. They come in many colors and you can get it at any craft store. one bottle is plenty for a regular image. If you are going for "over the top" with some crazy ass design then you might want to pick up a few bottles just in case.
As for color, this is your choosing. I have always done my runners in a single color because I think its simpler and adds more "pop" (you don't want the runner to be too "busy"). Mixing colors will get tricky along with any crazy shading or what-have-you. Keep colors in theme with the wedding, take a swatch of a bridesmaid dress or flowers with you when choosing paint color if you need to! I've been known to buy 5 tubes of paint and thinking about it for weeks before deciding which one to use on a runner!

THIRD
The Paintbrush... thin is the way to go! This will allow you to precisely paint within the lines. You may also wish to use a wider brush after edges are done, just to fill in the middle of a letter or image. Its up to you.

Step 8: Painting the runner

-Paint away!
I think its easiest to start with the edge of a single letter and work your way towards the center of the letter. While edges are very important... you may think that you really need a steady hand, but no one will notice if you go out of the lines very slightly. Furthermore it is also easier to start in the center of your whole image and work your way out so that your hand isn't sitting on wet paint.
-Be very careful throughout this whole process not to get paint on your hand as it can easily get on a different part of the the runner and it will NOT come off! This may seem scary but what-ever and where-ever you get paint is most likely permanent! Try not to drop your paintbrush! I use a huge piece of wax paper for being able to easily set down the brush and keep it very close by the area you are working on. Don't keep large object next to your work area that you could easily bump into. If you really need to don't be afraid to let part of it dry before continuing on if it will ensure top quality work!
So keep in mind that the paint will dry relatively quickly. You most likely will not need to do two layers of paint. One is usually fine and looks completely solid.
Remember if you are using two or more colors that overlap to paint the lighter one first.This will make images pop! Otherwise, just work from the inside out.

Whew!
Again here are examples of runner's I've made:

Obviously, I chose to go with very "simple" designs. I've yet to attempt anything crazy. I have no desire to attempt painting a whole runner (like painting a 3inch border on either side like below that inspired the starfish runner)

If you want more examples of some BEAUTIFUL runners that I go gaga over check out all of these and feel free to do you own google search (like duh!)
https://www.google.com/search?q=diy+aisle+runner+how+to&hl=en&rlz=1C1GGGE_enUS381US382&prmd=imvns&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=ynpSUObTOJTi9gTZ1YDgDA&ved=0CB0QsAQ&biw=1366&bih=643#hl=en&rlz=1C1GGGE_enUS381US382&tbm=isch&sa=1&q=diy+aisle+runner&oq=diy+aisle+runner&gs_l=img.3...431554.431554.0.431854.1.1.0.0.0.0.0.0..0.0...0.0...1c.1.dYLRk1Ge080&pbx=1&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_cp.r_qf.&fp=a6dc5ef46d6482c4&biw=1366&bih=643

The End :-)
email me or comment below with any thoughts or questions
amgrossman36@gmail.com

Beach Wedding Aisle Runner

Here are some pictures showing the process of making the aisle runner. Next post will be a how-to for making an aisle runner! 

This picture is the "inspiration", I asked my friend to just find a picture of something she liked and I'd do whatever she wanted. The main ideas we stole here were: starfish graphic on the top, cursive writing and beautiful blue color.

So after much search this is the starfish graphic I found. It was really hard to find one that looked "right". Some were too simple, too difficult, too cartoonish, too real looking. I needed something I could easily paint and get the look we wanted!

Then, I found a great font with hubby's help. I had to adjust the size because their names are longer than mine and I needed it to fit on the runner! Then I played around with the size of the starfish.

Then I transferred the words onto the aisle runner and started painting.  Note that the TV remote is to hold the runner down

and slowly but surely it came along...

Then the words were in place and it looked wonderful!

I was very nervous to do the starfish I was afraid it wouldn't come out very good. it was very difficult to transfer on there!

 Low and behold, it came out much better than I imagined. I was able to take some artistic liberty with the starfish. I didn't really have to worry about staying in the lines so much because the edges of each "dot" on the starfish did not have to be perfect like the letters.

Tada! The crease at the top is from how its laying.

Now, unfortunately I do not have a picture of the aisle runner at the wedding. It did not end up being used. While it is extremely disappointing to put all that hard work into something for nothing, I didn't let it bother me. I was excited to see my best friend from college get married and that is what was most important. Now, what happened was that hubby was at the ceremony site while I was getting ready with all the girls. He gave the wedding planner the aisle runner and she attempted to role it out. The ceremony was taking place on the beach, but on a cement walkway, not the sand. I had guessed it would be windy (it was the beach after all!) and bought large seashells to hold the runner down. I'm not sure if the wedding planner attempted to use the seashells or not, but the runner was blowing away so she scrunched it up and put it away. In the end I think if she rolled it out while the people were already in their seats it could have been fine, the people seemed to block the wind during the ceremony. However, the planner did use my seashells to line the aisle and it was cute. Plus I heard people commenting on the seashells lol.