Mr Bean

There is a contest going on in a forum I am a member of (Delphi's Primitive and Rustic). There are a couple of different subject matters we can choose from. I decided to enter the pet photo contest because my pets are such a huge part of my life. My first thought was to do a photo essay of my lifetime of pets. That added up to an awful lot of pictures. So I narrowed it down to the current love of my life, my Baby Bean. Still a lot of pictures, LOL.

The Life and Times of Mr Bean

The face mum found on the internet that said "I'm the love of your life, come get me pleeeeze".

Cozying up to my new big sister Daisy, trying to win her over.

 There's a dog hiding somewhere in that ball of fluff.

Looking like the Lion King

Tug-o-war with my other sis Lola.

Mum went all the way to Alabama to get me. When she arrived she saw Lola. The breeder told her Lola had been abandoned there and if mum wanted she could have her for free. Of coarse mum couldn't say no. And that is how Lola came to be with us.

An occasional shampoo to keep my coat beautiful.

And a nice long nap to re-charge for some more puppy antics

Mum likes to dress me up from time to time. Sometimes I enjoy it but mostly I just tolerate it.

Re-covering from luxating patella surgery with a nice new chew toy so I leave my bandages and staples alone.

I love to help mum with the spring planting

I love love love the grand babies!!!!!

I nap with them.

I play ET with them

I kiss on them every chance I get

And I sneak into every picture with them that I can

I spend a lot of time hangin' out with mum

(actually I'm her constant shadow)

I even get to sleep in the big bed. I always get a good long belly rub before I will go to sleep. I got mum wrapped around my little finger.

PS - Lola doesn't get to sleep in the bed because she snores too loud and insists on waking us all up at 4:00am to be let down on the floor anyhow.

Mum lost an older fur sister, Fluffy's Tubby Zoey Bear, before I came along.

Mum and Daisy were so so sad at her passing. She and daisy were the best of friends.

Then one day mum saw my little face on the internet and knew I needed to become a part of the family. Mum cried herself silly the first time she held me. It wasn't exactly love at first sight for Daisy but I took to her immediately. No worries, I soon won her over. Mum told me that it was me who helped to heal both their broken hearts.

I only got a year with big sister Daisy.

She was 14 yrs old. Lived a long and happy life. But her kidneys began shutting down and she got awful awful sick. Mum spent the whole last day and night she was with us cuddled up in the recliner with Daisy sleeping on her chest and her nose nuzzled up in mum's neck.  I just layed quietly with my chin on mums toes, knowing Daisy wasn't well. I don't know how mum would have got through losing another baby just 13 months later if I hadn't been there to cheer her up, making her laugh with my puppy antics and being there for cuddles when she cried. Frankly, I don't know how anyone gets through life without a fur baby to love.

These are some of my favorite pics of my big sister.

Snow Snow and More Snow!

Blizzard 2011

It was quite a scene to wake up to yesterday. More snow than I have seen in years. We got an official total of 19" in my neck of the woods. Hubby's employer annouced the day before that they would be shut down for the day of the storm. Of coarse hubby volunteered to go in along with one other fella to work on some projects while the plant was idol. The half hour drive into work took him an hour. And then, a block from work, he got his 4wd stuck in a 2 foot drift. When he called hioome to tell me he made it in I asked why he was so out of breath. He had quite a walk through the knee deep+ snow and drifts. It didn't help that he had knee surgery just a month before and was still feeling some pain. Men!!!! He just had to go in to prove he was tougher than old man winter. When volunteer #2 finally arrived he was able to plow a path into the plant and get hubbies vehicle unstuck. I'm sure the testoterone was flying along with the snow out there, LOL!

Being home alone, I decided to go out and give the shovel (and my back) a workout. First I needed to shovel out a patch for the dogs in the back. Then I tackkled the drive way. Oh My! I opened the walk in garage door first. My pom went to run out the door and plowed right into the drift that was piled up against the door. he looked dazed and confused, LOL. Then I opened the over-head door. Yikes! An even higher drift. I began chipping away at the mountain where hubbies tire tracks were barely showing. I shoveled for an hour and only cleared about 1/8th of the driveway. It was daunting for sure. I ended up going inside, defeated. Took me a little break and an hour later went back for more. Hubby finally arrived home and got out the snowblower. He blew the deeper stuff and I shoveled up the packed down stuff behind him. Ahhhhh, team work!

As much snow as there was out there, I have seen worse. Much much worse! My junior year of high school was the year of the blizzard of '78. Of coarse the snow removal equipment was not as powerful 33 years ago and there were'nt the de-icing sprays we have now. We actually had about the same amount of snow fall then but it came down faster and the winds were much stronger, creating wave after wave of enormous drifts. It didn't help that we had had a snow storm just the week before and nearly double the snow already on the ground before the blizzard. We were completely snowed in then, our streets had to be cleared by front end loaders and the piles of snow along the roadsides completely obscured the houses along the street. Backing out of the driveway was a terror because you were completely blind to any traffic on the road. And the roads were so narrow it was frightening to try and pass another car. Schools and many businesses were closed for a week.

Blizzard 1978

Dad standing in the middle of the unplowed road amoung the snow mobile tracks.

After the plows came through leaving us with a one lane road. You prayed you didn't meet up with another car.

 

After the front end loaders came in and widened the road creating mountains of snow.

Blizzard 2011

The sorry little patch I shoveled out.

This one was sorry she insisted on coming out to help.

The drifts hanging off the roof

Hubby firing up his enormous snowblower. Too big and heavy for me to even move. Notice he is not wearing a jacket? CraZy!!!!! It was cold out there! Somehow he never gets cold while I am always cold.

All cleaned up!

Hoping no one has trouble with their cable or phone because the box is buried to the right of this ornamental grass under the higher peak of snow.

Hubby blew out the sidewalk to the front door but we were both too pooped to shovel out the porch, LOL. No matter. No one really comes to that door but salesmen. This could be a good thing! We call it the path to no where. 

We finished up just in time for the sun to for the sun set.

Make-Overs

After a lot of hemming and  hawing I have finally done a couple of make-overs on some of my re-sale buys. My favorite day to shop is the last Tuesday of the month whenb a chain of World Mission re-sale stores in the area have 1/2 price day. I have a field day between shopping for make-over projects and wool clothing for rug hooking.

Who wouldn't love to have a dirty

old Mr Peanut wheelbarrel bowl?
Well, me for one. So, I unscrewed the
 base and stripped the peanut away. It
 cost a whole .34 cents. I didn't do a
thing to the .34 cent scoop

 

AFTER

This next find wasn't terrible for the .39 cents I paid. But........ what I needed were some things to set on a shelf we will be putting up next week (fingers crossed). So I pulled the corny built in candle holder off and filled the hole with wood putty and hubby cut the bottom bit off on the table saw for me. The brass candle holder was a quarter.

After

I just love how this little hand made basket came out. I sprayed multiple coats of light and dark sage and brown. It has some beautiful detail in the weave but the colors detracted from the workmanship. Baskets are .25 cents each or $1.00 for 10 every day at Love's Treasures re-sale.

After

This one isn't a make-over but a craft I found in one of the wonderful tutorials on The Pickled Pepper Patch blog. These little pantry cakes are made of plaster. They really don't shine at all but you know how it goes with a camera flash sometimes.

This next one was torture. I found this little high chair at an antique show over 2 years ago. It was originally finished in an appaulling pale yellow enamel paint. Then someone who was clueless when it came to refinishing furniture, spray painted over the high gloss enamel with a flat black. No sanding, no prep. It was a mess with the black rubbing off and the yellow enamel showing through everywhere.

I "thought" I was going to strip it down to bare wood and simply stain and varnish. But, that old enamel was tough as nails and nearly impossible to remove. Hours of sanding and scraping and bottles of stripper and I finally gave up. I announced I was going to just paint the thing over to make it usable for Christmas dinner. Hubby decided to give it one last tackle. He sat and patiently chipped and chiseled for 2 nights. It was far from complete, but it was finally good enough that I could imitate a Dimes chair I had seen. I stained the portions I wanted highlighted and paint and distress the rest. You don't have to look too closely to spot some bits of the yellow enamel peeking through the distressed black. But, it is what it is and........ beautiful despite the yellow chips. At the very least it is now a safe and usable chair for little ones.

After

Finally, here's one last wish for 

a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!