Weekly Dose of Cute

In an attempt to get back to somewhat normal blogging, here's a picture of Cinnamon:

 

That's his new Puppia harness. The website says to get a XL for pugs, but this was a little too big on him. He easily slips out his front paws, so I ended up getting a L in the pretty plaid blue design & that fits a lot better.

P.S. Welcome new followers! Thanks for helping me reach Goal #16!

P.P.S. There's still some time to enter the giveaway!

Weekly Dose of Cute + Explanation

You may have noticed I haven't blogged in almost 2 weeks..I guess as much as I say I'm okay with the breakup, it did have some kind of affect on me: namely, I haven't been feeling very creative. I did manage to pack a lot since it looked like I was going to be moving at the end of this month, but I've decided to stay till the end of May so I have some more time to hopefully sell / donate a bunch of stuff so I have less to take with me to Maryland. (Yep, that's where I'm moving! I'm driving there next week for interviews & to look at apartments- I'm so excited!!) I'm going to try to come up with some kinda craft kits or something so I can get rid of my [very extensive] scrapbook paper supply!

Also, I can't believe I forgot all about Cinnamon's "Gotcha Day"! I had plans to have a little pug party & order a cake & everything! Well Cinnamon's on a diet anyway so he can't have cake...he's been getting lots of carrots & kisses & hugs today, as I try to make it up to him. Here's some pictures from when my precious little monster came into my life.

 

I can't believe it's been two years already- the time just flew by! So, now I'm going to force myself to clean off my desk (it got piled up with stuff as I was packing). Maybe my creativity will come back to me once I see a clean desk! I hope to be back tomorrow with some cards to share- wish me luck!

Weekly Dose of Cute

Before I finally was able to have a pug of my own, everyone would buy me pug plushies so I decided it would be cute to take a picture of Cinnamon with all of them.

He managed to knock some over before I took the picture but it still came out pretty cute. Then, when he thought I wasn't looking:

He stole one! I love how his eyes are shifted to the right as if he's trying to be sneaky! I hope everyone had a good weekend! I spent mine with friends, family & a delicious chocolate cake!

Enter my giveaway, please! :) (See post below!)

Weekly Dose of Cute

This is a picture of Cinnamon meeting Gray Bear. We fostered two kittens for about a month after Christmas, who we found left behind when the first snowstorm hit. Their mom couldn't get back to them through all the snow & I found the poor things sitting in a bush, crying. We named them Gray Bear & Black Bear because they were so chubby & fluffy! With the help of our local animal shelter we were able to find homes for both of the kittens but I still miss having them around! (Though 4 cats & 1 dog in a tiny apartment is a little too much..)

I'll be back tomorrow with a tutorial!

Cinnamon Sparrow

I realized I haven't posted a lot of pictures of Cinnamon recently, so since Halloween is coming up, here's some pictures from last year. He was Jack Sparrow.

I love the look on his face! I can't believe how much he's grown in a year!

I also loved how he closed his eyes, as if being a pirate was such hard work..

Yeah, the hat didn't stay on very long...he hates having anything on his head. We didn't do anything crazy for Halloween last year. Took Cinnamon & Natalia (Jose's younger sister) trick-or-treating & then came home & watched some scary movies. This year we got invited to a couple of Halloween parties but Jose doesn't want to go so we'll probably do the same thing as last year, except Cinnamon will be a lobster! I got the costume on clearance last year & tried to put it on him to see if it fit, but he thought it was a new toy (one of his favorite toys is his lobster!) so that didn't work out very well. We'll try this year & if that doesn't work, then I'll just take one of the {black}cats with me & be a witch. :) 

Anyone have any good plans or costume ideas for Halloween?

By the way, Check out this amazing giveaway of Life. Camera. Actions. on Simple As That! http://rebeccacooper.blogspot.com

Halloweens' Past Minibook

Can you believe it's October already? I have no idea where this year went...I feel like it was just June last week..well maybe it's a good thing- the faster October goes, the faster I'll be done with my class (I'm taking a Pharmacy Certified Tech class at the county college) & the faster I'll be able to get a new job! Work has been really stressful lately & I've been getting a lot less hours, which adds to the stress since I've been trying to pay off my school loan & start saving for a house.
With all the extra time off, I've been scrapbooking a lot; trying to get better.( I usually put the pictures on my Flickr, so if I don't post here, that doesn't mean I haven't been busy crafting!) I've got lots of Halloween projects to share with you this month & probably some non-Halloween ones, as there's a couple birthdays this month that require some handmade cards!
To start off October, here's some pictures of my favorite recent project, Halloweens' Past minibook. You can see all 30 at my Flickr.

For the pages I used mostly Pink Paislee, with some Hambly thrown in. Supplies used on each page are listed in my Flickr. I'd love to know what you all think so please let me know! :)

Cinnamon's Story & Some Layouts

I've been doing lots of crafty stuff this past month so I have tons to share with you! I also decided that I should try to blog more often now that I'm getting more followers. :) Today I'm going to share some layouts that I did recently.

This layout was made for a challenge at A Cherry On Top. It's a scraplift off of one of the DT members layouts. I was really happy with how it came out & loved all the colors together. & I really love this picture of Cinnamon. :) I decided that this didn't need any journaling because it was pretty self-explanatory. 

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I'm going to have to update this post with all the supplies I used because I misplaced my note that had everything written on it! 

This next layout didn't come out that great, but I'm pretty new to this so it's ok.

 This is about the first day we got Cinnamon- the happiest day of my life! I don't know if you can tell from the look on my face but I was beyond happy!! We had to go pick him up from the airport & the plane was delayed so we had to wait about an hour. When I walked up to the counter & saw little baby Cinnamon in his travel crate, I pointed at him in case my boyfriend hadn't noticed him yet & started crying. Happy tears, of course! I had been waiting for an extremely long time to get a pug & it was finally going to happen! I took a vacation from work that week so I could be home with him. He was a handful! He'd sleep for four hours, & then run around & cause mischief for the next four. I was so amazed at how much energy this little thing had (I still am)! Every time I look at my little monster, I'm filled with love & happiness, no matter what else is going on in my life. Sometimes he's a little devil but he knows I can't stay mad at him for too long, especially when he comes over & covers me with kisses! :) I'm going to leave you with my favorite picture from Cinnamon's first week with us.

My 'Lil Love Pug

I'm back, as promised, to share my mixed media book. I made this for the {free} May "A Mini Album a Month" class from 2Peas. It was my first time making something like this...actually the first time I've ever "scrapbooked" anything even. I tried to make a mini book for Christmas but gave up on it halfway through because it wasn't coming out too good. I'm so glad I finished this one! Oh & I just found out I won a 2Peas gift certificate (only 3 other people entered this month but I'm still excited to win)! :) I love 2Peas...there's so much inspiration in the gallery & they always have awesome sales. I already picked out some stuff I wanna buy with my GC! Anyway, on to the book...brace yourself, there's a lot of pictures!

 The journaling reads, "Cinnamon is my lil' love pug because he was born, just for me, on February 14, 2009. He's the best gift I've ever received!"

Journaling reads, "Anytime I feel sad, I just look at my lil' monster & I feel better. I wake up with a smile, cause he's licking my face. He makes me laugh when he eats things like grass or dust. I love falling asleep with him snoring beside me. <3"

If you look closely, you can see some dust sticking out of his mouth...this picture was taken shortly after we got him. He would run around the house & hide under tables & try to eat dust! I guess he was telling me I should clean more often? ;)

 Journaling reads, "I love how I can always tell what he's thinking, because of the look on his wrinkly face."

 This was the first page I made. It's blue to match his beautiful blue eyes. :)

Lil' Stinker is one of our favorite nicknames for Cinnamon, though now that he's a little older we just call him Stinky. I'm sure you can guess why this name is fitting... ;)

To make the album, I just cut some cardboard & overlays to the size I wanted. Here's what I used: Colorbok, "Forest Friends" photo mats, paper & label; Collage Press, "Seeds" cardstock; Making Memories ribbon & button; Hambly, "Clearly Heavy", "3/4' graph" & "Chic Circles overlays; My Mind's Eye, "Paris & Co." paper; Martha Stewart "Classic Butterfly" & "1 Inch Circle" craft punches; Fiskars "1.5 Inch" Squeeze Punch; Sakura Gelly Roll pen; Sharpies; and the rest of the products were from Dollar Tree or the dollar section in Target.  There's definitely some things I would change, but since it was my first time making a mixed media book, overall, I'm pretty happy with it. I definitely want to make more! Just gotta get more pictures printed!