Surf's Up Saturday- Happy Sweetest Day!

Today is Sweetest Day and for those of you who do not know what this is here is what Wikipedia defines it as!

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Sweetest Day (From Wikipedia)
Observed by: Mostly Midwestern United States
Type: Local
Date: Third Saturday in October
2008 date: October 18th
Celebrations: Giving small presents such as greeting cards, candy, and flowers to loved ones

Sweetest Day is an observance celebrated primarily in the Great Lakes region and parts of the Northeast United States on the third Saturday in October[1]. It is described by Retail Confectioners International as an "occasion which offers all of us an opportunity to remember not only the sick, aged and orphaned, but also friends, relatives and associates whose helpfulness and kindness we have enjoyed."[2] Sweetest Day has also been referred to as a "concocted promotion"[3] created by the candy industry solely to increase sales of candy.

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Here are my pick's of love to celebrate Sweetest day, which we do celebrate at our house. Why complain about another reason to get chocolate and give presents?

Wordless Wednesday

Who needs carving when you can have a Mr.Pumpkinhead? )

Surf's Up Saturday- Think Pink!!!

October is Breast Cancer Awareness month and everywhere you look you see pink ribbons. I have not only lost my grandmother to breast cancer but already have had a lumpectomy that was pre-cancerous. Luckily my sorority, Zeta Tau Alpha, is a huge contributor to the Susan G. Koman foundation and I had been doing my self checks and caught the lump in time. There are so many ways that you can help fight breast cancer and aid the effort to find a cure from donating money to women who need mammograms to just buying products that donate. Here are my finds of the week while surfing, just click on the pick!!

This is one of my favorite finds! I love the fact that there is a calendar that you check off when you do your exam and how to do it properly!

And don't forget to go to www.thebreastcancersite.com and click every day to help low income women get mammograms. No registration, just know that you are helping the cause!!!

Dog Gone Happy

We have had Spooky for about 5 days now and she is really coming out of her shell! She is still behaving really well which leads me to believe that she was someone's pet and was cared for before ending up in the pound. She is starting to get it that the cats do not enjoy being pawed or chased and always lets us know that she has to go out. My favorite things about her is that she knows basic commands plus a few extras like "spin" and that she isn't a barker. When you adopt a dog that belonged to someone else you have no clue what happened before, but we definitely lucked out and found ourself a fabulous dog! Here are some new pics (notice that she has already gained a little bit of weight!)

Picture Fun

So I love getting pics of my girls done.... love love love it. Here are AJ's new pics for the fall, wearing her new birthday cords. They turned out so well that we already planning for more pics to be taken next month for the holiday season!

and......I am addicted to using this technique for creating poloroid composites!! I am designing an 8x10 using pics from this summer to hand on the wall. (If anyone wants one done let me know and I will hook you up!)

Facelift

Everywhere I look blog and websites are gettig facelifts so I think now would be a good time for one for Creative Bubbles. Be sure to grab a new button to go along with the new look! Let me know what you think and remember that I can make you a custom banner to match a background for your blog with ease!
(Blog background is courtesy of The Cutest Blog on the Block- see top left corner for the link!)

Ciao!

A Walk in the Park

After naptime and the festival fun I decided to take the girls and Spooky to the Metroparks for some nature fun and exercise. It was great to see Spooky get excited over all the smells and when we went down by the river everyone had fun playing with the rocks (or chewing them if you are AJ)... it was a very beautiful serene setting! What a great end to my perfect day!

A Perfect Day

What is a perfect day in my world? A day that is sunny but a cool enough to call for jeans, a sweater, and some cute boots. A day where my kids are well behaved, my hubby and I are in total sync, and I don't feel frazzled. Oh, and there is some fair food and craftiness involved.

Well today was a day just like that! We went to the Woolybear Festival, the biggest one day festival in OH, which was sooo much fun. I have never even heard of a woolybear, it is a funny caterpillar, but hey- it is a good reason to have a festival! This is what one looks like:

We got there nice and early (we heard that it can get quite crowded) and didn't have to walk far at all. We also decided to bring Spooky with us to help her get comfortable around lots of people and meet dogs, which turned out to be a total success. I have never seen so many dogs dressed up for the occasion (not to mention all the weiner dogs that looked like woolybears!). Spooky did awesome, only was scared of one guy who was HUGE and only had one dog snap at her. She was a little timid at first but by the end she was taking it all in and enjoying life. We will definitely come back next year. (If you are scared of snakes or spiders though avoid Jungle Terry, there were snakes there big enough to eat many of the dogs!) Here are some pics of our fun:

yes, that is my child touching a HUGE snake!

Surf's Up Saturday- Gone to the Dogs

In honor of our new family member Spooky here are some great products and sites that I have found while looking for a new friend and of course all the accesories that go along with having her.

First off is Petfinder.com This site is a must for anyone looking to adopt anything from a new kitten to a retired horse. You can search really wide or as specific as you want. I wanted to keep an open mind because you never know what you will end up loving! I am a Doberman girl and here I am with a rescued mix. Pet finder was a great help in looking at the different rescues, what they require for adoption, and what animals were available that liked kids and cats. (Luckily, even though Spooky is from a county pound who knew nothing about her she is very kid friendly and seems to get along with the cats)

Next is another must if you are a pet lover- The Animal Rescue Site
All you do is click once a day and you help feed animals in shelters all over the country. Along with that good deed is the great choice of products to buy, all of which help feed the homeless animals. My favorite is this little Loofah dog with the breast cancer ribbon on it.

Of course this wouldn't be a Surf's Up without some Etsy members! While looking at collars this pretty design caught my eye from LodiandLewi. They have great designs for collars, leashes and such. Definitely will be on my list when shopping for doggy accesories.

And what dog could be comfy without a nice bed to lay on? (Unless she has a deck chair like Prasti's Blue) =) I love this bed, how perfect for a dog named Spooky?! Hand sewn by a newer Etsy member- sdamlo

And finally, now that we have our new gal there are tons of fun possibilities like these great photocollages by Yappyhappy. How fun to look at and what a great way to show your pooches personality. Once we figure Spooky's out we will have to get one made for her! This is my favorite from the samples.

Be sure to look at the other products at her store... I am in love with the Barking License Pet ID tag!!

Signs

Are you a believer that there are signs all around us, pointing us in the right direction, helping us make decisions and such? Whether you believe it is a higher power's plan or karma, I definitely do.

It is funny how when you make a decision to do something or not do something all of a sudden you see signs that reinforce that choice. We have been tossing around the idea of having a dog in our family again. Not a puppy, and not from a pet store or breeder, but saving a life that is in real danger.

Which bring us to today... we have been looking at adult dogs on Petfinder, MEDIUM adult dogs and thought that we found the perfect gal. We contacted the rescue, called 3 times and emailed... no reponse. Then inspired by a friend's success (Prasti from Here to There) at the county pound recently we decided to give it a go. This particular pound has a very high kill rate, high enough for me to know that I was going to make a big difference in a life.

There were so many dogs there...scared, lonely dogs of all shapes, sizes, ages, and breeds. We took the kids with us (plus Cayden, my "borrowed" kid) because any dog that comes near us has to be kid friendly. It was nice because they just handed us a leash and told us to take out whoever had a white tag. (Pink tags were non-adoptable because they attacked someone). First we took out a Doxie boy who was shaking and just glad to be out for a few moments. He was cute but not too interested in us. Then we took out an older Beagle girl who had seen better days but again wasn't into visting with the humans.

We walked around some more and then saw her... a beautiful medium sized girl with the most striking eyes ever- one was brown and one was a ghostly white blue. She wasn't jumping, barking or anything, just stood there with a nice wag and interested eyes. I could tell that Klint was in love right away, he handed me AJ and grabbed the leash to take her out. It was perfect. No jumping, no pulling, just a nice walk. She ran with Klint a little bit and when I brought AJ down to see her she sniffed and gave AJ a nice gentle kiss. Didn't try to come at her too much and wasn't worried when Gabby and Cayden reached to pet her.

We wanted to bring her home today but they have to hold strays for 4 days in case they are claimed. Tomorrow if she isn't claimed she will be ours. Klint right away named her Spooky since it is October and her eyes are just too distinct... and the funny thing was, as soon as we were driving home we saw a sign for the Lakewood parade that read "Spooky Pooch" and had a dog in a ghost costume. The last indicator that we were on the right path was I got an email from the rescue with the dog we were initially interested in telling us that she was not available anymore.
So wish us luck and I will keep you posted on whether the signs were right! Hopefully here is our new pup!