seeds ordered. garden's gonna be bangin.

well, things are, as always, busy.
finished the chairs, let them cure and dry for a couple days, and i still need to bolt the seats back down.

stoked. love some orange, especially original orange vinyl that matches the original vinyl of my knoll chair.
been stoked on my cast iron, the moms gave me a set of 5 pans that were extras of hers. can't wait for more oven baking. worked up some porkchops, and learned how to make steakhouse style mega steaks in them.

seriously, delicious.
work is busy, sort of. some folks are busy and some folks aren't, the non busy folks just don't come to work so it always feels busy.

simon came to hang while his dog mom got a haircut. that dude rules, he has great manners.
andrew got busy in the backyard, again, and moved all the miscellaneous leaves and dirt off the fence so it doesn't rot.

thats a lotta shoveling. we now have a fenced off area where we'll compost for time being.
the dogs took advantage of the decent weather and laid around in the yard.

only after they'd been out there for 6 hours, running their asses off, being wild, did they take a snooze break.

it wiped egon out for the day, but dottie is as always, boundless, when it comes to energy.
seriously, egon was out cold.

this guy napped all day long after i came home at 3pm.

managed to talk some thrift store dudes down to 20$ for this dresser too, stoked on that. too big for the bedroom, but makes a good storage unit for the upstairs hallway. chairs and lamps make it cozy, for those moments when your parents facetime you and want a bit of privacy

picked up a tub of blueberries, back on a "eating fresh berries" kick, and the dogs wouldn't feck off. those bostons love berries, they know exactly what the container sounds like when you click it open and they come running from wherever in the house they happen to be.
been getting some crucial egon snuggles. seems like he's had some bad days lately, or at least times where he's not feeling top of the world.

he had another series of seizures a couple nights ago, and after more bloodwork we're upping his phenobarbitol level. he was on a very very low amount, and its just not enough to keep seizures at bay. hopefully this new, slightly larger dose will prevent them, since such a minimal amount was definitely putting them off.
the weekend felt too short, monday i had to go to the salon for a photoshoot for our website. it kind of chopped my day off in half...wasnt really able to start the projects i wanted cause they all would be three quarters or half done by the time i had to go in.

dottie came with me. i figured since it was mandantory for all employees, and she was a former employee, that she should come with.
naturally she was stoked

and got in the photos with me. ha. great, this solidifies my title as crazy boston terrier lady.
read a book this weekend that propmted me to submit an application form to a local boston/boxer rescue to do volunteer work. i'd love to foster, and maybe it'll one day happen, but for now i feel like general volunteer stuff would be best.

otto is on the cover of the book, he was the first boston terrier one of andrew's relatives friends owned. it was a good, quick read.
i decided that 2012 was my year of giving more, in different ways. i've already donated $$$ to some good projects on kickstarter, now i'd like to concentrate on time. i think i'm gonna facebook around for old bed pillows (i sew zip off covers for em and voila, dog beds) to donate after they're fixed up as dog beds. i'll keep on the prowl for memory foam too for old dogs. i'll keep making my own dogs treats and if time allows, make enough to give to rescue groups. if i make a batch every few weekends, thats way more than my dogs can eat. grainfree, homemade from fresh organic ingredients, thats whats up. i also started emailing around to take a dog cpr class. good to know how to do and be certified in, esp since my stupid little dogs hork down their food so fast that they choke and get all snotty.

i'm also gonna get another old ass vehicle this year. i can already feel it. there are too many cool rides in my neighborhood, its too tempting.
2012: fuck it!

this weekend was real fun.
saturday after work i picked up a cool ikea light from someone via craigslist. i cut the plug off of it and hardwired it directly into the ceiling, after i took down the old ugly chandelier.

stoked, it totally goes with the room and because its white, when its not on it totally blends into the ceiling. makes the room feel bigger!
later in the evening we went to El Patron for awesome birthday dinner for Chad. Came home stuffed, it was so good.
Woke up early sunday to start a batch of pizza dough, some of my favorite coworkers from the last salon i worked at were coming over for brunch.

i made lots of pizzas and enjoyed some good QT with folks I don't hang with nearly enough.
i dedicated sunday to chillaxin, and indeed i did. after a liesurely day of nibbling on fruit, pizza, cupcakes, and more, i played tetris 2 while the dogs snoozed on the couch beside me.

it was awesome.
early bed, knowing i'd be up early monday for maximum productivity.
egon was still very tired from sunday playtime with my friends

i let them settle into naptime and split, on a mission to get some things done. got a blind for the french door to the side porch, and hit a local thrift store in search of storage options for my craft room.
found this instead!

also picked up these guys, mega potential

the desk was pretty much ready to roll. so cute, need to find a permanent spot for it.
started taking upholstery off the chairs, hoping something awesome would be still intact. looking at the bottom of the seats, i could see the backing of a fabric that appeared to be orange or red, and the first layer of fabric was definitely not that.

first layer was textural nineties fabric.

second layer was this lace embossed yellow and orange vinyl

third layer was green flower embossed vinyl. it looks like barkcloth, but its really vinyl!

lo and behold, under that was a GREAT orange. it is the exact orange as my knoll chair see, in a stroke of most excellent luck.
i got to work on the base of the chairs. they clearly needed some tending to as well.

i'll have to post finished pics soon, the new paint is still curing.
they came out great, nothing like 30$ worth of cool midcentury furniture!
ended the day with a great sense of accomplishment, got so much done that had been on my to do list.

daffodils are all in bloom, its been so spring-ish lately.

wonder if we'll get anything out of em in the spring, or if this is it?
lots to come this week and weekend, including an epic superbowl partay, visits from philly friends, and maybe a huge bonfire to burn the stump out of the ground! booyeah!

well, as much as i complain about work, i have good bosses that appreciate me. as a present for having to deal with so much headache, they gave me some awesome gift cards and a nice thank you note. oops, i suck.
now that its winter i stay home all the time. i know i mentioned it before, but winter turns me into a cooking, homemaking hermit.

that said, this weekend was all about pierogi.
i mashed a bunch of red potatos, added sauteed onions and cheddar, and made a literal shitton of pierogi.

they are delicious. again the plan was to make enough to have some for us, frozen, and to give away to the wolaks. two gallon ziploc bags later, i say we have plenty.

we celebrated the "two weeks, no seizures" milestone this week.

the dogs were ridiculous as always. dottie is just totally wild, and shes dangerously smart. egon has been awesome, fired up and nibbly.
as an exciting reward, we went on a toy shopping spree at petsmart (and used up some of my new giftcards)

they were so excited, they played all night long then woke up the next morning and ran straight to the room where their new toys were. didn't even try to go outside, just out of bed and straight to toys. dags, they're funny.

CLantz became a doctor, finally, so there was a celebration for her. the bar was loud, and the night after we had pizza and board games to celebrate in a place where we could hear each other without yelling.

it was real fun, even though maryiln looks so totally bored.
stayed out late, slept in a little the next day.
went for lunch at a new mexican resturant near our house...THAT PLACE IS AWESOME.

first off, its clean and bright and cute inside. secondly, theres a HUGE wall sized wood carving that says VIVA MEXICO. third, the food is bangin. so bangin, in fact, that we went there again the next day.
i finished making pierogi while andrew got real serious with his new chainsaw in the backyard. attacking the massive stump from the tree that got cut down a year ago, oops.
here's a quick before: note, that huge ass stump is taller than andrew - and thats a 6 foot privacy fence.

and now after, after one day of chainsawing:

while i was in the middle of rolling dough, andrew burst into the house hollering for me...assuming we were going to the ER with a chainsaw injury, i was a little alarmed. turns out that dude found a bat while cutting apart the stump!

he was up in the rotten core, hibernating.
boy howdy, after we woke him up he was PISSED OFF.

put him in the neighbors super viney/overgrown mulberry tree in the alley and wished him well.
every time i let the dogs out, egon would run to the pile of wood shavings made from the chainsaw and eat them as fast as possible. what is wrong with him???
at any rate, it made him spectacularly sick. after dinner that night he was making us real nervous, he kept having to go outside, and finally he threw up a pretty big amount of woodchips and dogfood and grass. nice.
that morning he had another seizure. big bummer. friday was the two weeks, no seizures mark, so we barely made it. my thinking (and the vets thought as well) was that he most likely threw up the phenobarbitol pill that night from dinner, or didn't have the chance to absorb it all before it came back up. the wood chips probably absorbed a lot of it. in a couple weeks we'll take him back to the vet for more bloodwork, but for now things are okay.

he still demands that you give him your breakfast, no matter what, every day.
because of his early morning seizure, his next day was pretty much spent sleeping.

thankfully dottie and idle are sympathetic with naps, and they helped him sleep all day long.
many moons ago, i painted the downstairs bathroom and hung shelves/pictures. because i am lazy, instead of moving the ladder while cutting in the last corner of the wall, i stepped off the ladder and onto the corner of the sink. and it snapped off. it was totally angering, and it was stupid. so i broke the brand new sinktop by being lazy and fat. great.

i'd been casually looking for a replacement and got serious with it a few weekends ago.
found a sinktop at the thrift store that matched the dimensions really closely, and it was this great ugly/awesome red thick heavy material.
finally got around to installing it this weekend.

not bad for a cheap fast fix. one day i'll make the bathroom all ikea renovated, but for now i'm totally into the red sinktop.