Tippy Tuesday

Do you know those Twisted Whiskers greeting cards?

Photo by Jennifer Leczcowski

Well Tippy thinks SHE deserves her own greeting card! You never know, I just may have a little money maker on my hands.

Guest Bathroom: Wall Decor #2

I was reading one of my favorite blogs and they mentioned shopping on CB2's website. I don't know how I never came across this website before. Apparently, it's like a sister store of Crate and Barrel. While I was cruising their website I came across these adorable wall-mounted vases and bought them instantly.

Now, I'm not one to make impulse buys. I usually have to think about it for a while BUT they were not expensive at all. I think with shipping, I paid a total of $18. Not too shabby. As you know, I'm working on finishing up my guest bathroom and that was another reason why I HAD to have them. I just love how cute and quirky they are.....and how perfect they are for a guest bath! I was amazed with the quality of it when I came in. They're actually heavy little suckers! I added the sticks of silver balls but I can't decide if I'm loving them or not. It was all I could find at the time so I'll be keeping my eye open until I find something better.

If you've fallen in love with these as quickly as I did you can find them here. I promise I won't be mad if I find them in one of your bathrooms. :)

The Office Quote of the Day:

Jim: What is that? "It is your birthday," period.

Dwight: Just a statement of fact.

Jim: Not even an exclamation point?

Dwight: This is more professional. It's not like she discovered a cure for cancer.

Tippy Tuesday

Mommy, check me....do I have any boogies in my nose?

Guest Bathroom: Wall Decor #1

So out of all the rooms in my new house that need desperate attention for decor, I decided to tackle my guest bathroom first of all places. One reason, I quickly picked out a paint color. Second, it's small and shouldn't take that much work. Don't worry, I'll show you before and after pics but before that, I'm going to show you bits and pieces of my artwork and other decor.

So I struggled and struggled trying to figure out what type of artwork to put above the toilet. I thought about one of those up-close head shots of Tippy but I already have them hanging up. One day I took Tippy outside to pee and a light bulb went off! Not just a light bulb but one of those huge bright lights you see at a football stadium. Since it IS a bathroom, I decided to do one pic of Tippy peeing and another of Tippy going #2. I know, GENIUS!

It was hard to get a good up-close pic without the glare from the glass. Do you even know how hard it was to take these pics? It meant taking my camera out every time I let her out. The pee pic was pretty easy. But the other one? First of all, she doesn't poop as often as she pees, and second I didn't want any tootsie rolls in the pic. Tippy was getting to the point that she was tired of me taking pics every time she assumed the position. I think the poor thing was getting backed up because every time she would hunch over, I'd jump up with my camera and then she'd run away and not finish doing her biz-nass. I'm sure she's glad that I'm done with this little project!

So how did I get the mat the exact same color as the wall, you ask? Well, I bought these mats for $3 a piece. I didn't care what color I got, just as long as they were both the same.

Then I took some painters tape and taped off the white inset.

Since I had some left over paint, I rolled 2 coats on, just make sure the black wasn't showing through.

I removed the tape and ta-da!

The whole reason I decided to paint the mat the same color as the wall was because with the thick brown frame, I really wanted the ART to stand out more than the frame or the mat. I mean, do you blame me?

Pops at the Park 2010

It's our favorite (and most competitive) time of year....Pops at the Park! For those of you that don't live in Richmond, Pops at the Park is an annual event that is put on by the Richmond Area Arts Council and Chamber of Commerce. It's so much fun and a great excuse to dress up! Every year they have an overall theme and people decorate their tables or blankets around that theme. Towards the end of the night, they hand out awards for Best Theme, Best Food, Best Blanket and Judges' Choice. We clearly will never win the Best Food category but we've placed 3 out of the 4 times we've participated for Best Theme. Which is impressive considering the number of tables at this event! I don't know what the final count from last night was but last year there were approximately 1,500 people. Before we get into last night's pictures, let's have a little Pops at the Park flashback :)

2007 - We obviously had a Cinderella theme and of course I had to be Cindy :)

3rd place Best Theme

2008 - 80's theme...Rockin' the Madonna look. I think I had 20 lbs. of jewelry on. This was the only year we didn't place :(

2009 - Old West Saloon. We posted Wanted signs of our EKU prez, who was also one of the judges. It's always good idea to personalize your table for one of the judges ;)

1st place Best Theme

2010 - The overall theme was Beach Party so our demented minds took it to a whole new level and did a spin off of the oil spill. We had the clean up crew and a couple of beach go-ers. I made us shirts that said "Clean Up Crew" except little Madison's shirt said "Boss". She definitely worked it! So cute.


Luckily, I had a random piece of plywood in my garage and made this sign.


Then I went to Goodwill and bought a bunch of sea life stuffed animals and dipped them in black paint, aka OIL. I also smeared oil on our table cloth.

Everybody that walked by our table would start laughing. One of the judges said, "I heard about this from the parking lot." There were actually 2 other tables that did the oil spill too but they didn't exactly go the same route as we did. All I gots to say is Go Big or Go Home! All that messy black paint got us 3rd place Best Theme so we were pretty happy!

The Office Quote of the Day:
When Michael's skirting a phone call, he gave me a list of places to say he is. Stopping a fight in the parking lot, an Obama fashion show, whatever that is. Or trapped in an oil painting. I'm going to save that one.
~Pam

Tippy Tuesday

Have I mentioned how much Tippy loves Scotty?

She always has to sit right next to him.....

But have you ever seen a dog put their arm around another? Can it get any sweeter??

Kristen's visit to the big Ville

Last weekend I had to go to Paintsville to dog sit for my parents while they went out of town for their anniversary. If I did the math right, I think this was their THIRTY-NINTH anniversary...wow! So since I wouldn't have to stay in the house by myself, Kristen decided to drive up from Harlan County and spend the night with me. I've been telling her forever that there were so many little neat stores I wanted to take her to so we spent all afternoon hitting up the big town of Paintsville.

First I took her to the Black Barn. It's a pretty cool store that has everything from fresh produce to homemade soaps. My mom comes here all the time to get freshly grounded almond butter.

One of the cool things about this place is they sell barrels of candy that they sold back when my mom was a kid, candy you can't find anymore in today's candy store.

After we left the Black Barn, we decided we need a snack.....something to hold us over until we went to dinner. Where else would I take her but to the Dairy Queen to get their famous sloppy joe. People that aren't from Paintsville don't understand that our Dairy Queen is truly not like any other Dairy Queen. It's privately owned and they have their own secret sauce for their sloppy joes. Some of their other menu items are different but everybody that comes to town gets their sloppy joes! Another difference in our Dairy Queen is you can't go inside to eat. You go up to the window and order. They take your order down on this pad of paper that they've had ever since I can remember, they circle what you want, and add up your total on paper. They even have a chart handy that tells them how much tax to add. Who does that anymore? Then they give you a number and call your number over the loud speaker: "eight nine threeee" in the most nasal sounding country accent you can imagine. If you want to eat there, they have some picnic tables under a shelter you can eat at but most people take it home and eat it.

I took her to a few antique stores. Sorry I didn't get pics of all the places I took her to but I had to take this pic. You can't tell really well, but the mannequin is glowing! I'm not sure which was tackier, the mannequin or the dress.

So can you guess where I took her to eat for dinner? I love this place and the waiters so much! When I sit down they say "You want jumbo frozen margarita? You want guacamole pico de gallo?" They mix it up for me and it's soooo good! Every time mom and dad go there without me, they say "Where your daughter?" This time, they said, "Where the other guys?" They're so precious!

What's a trip to Paintsville without going to the Super Wal-Mart?

We ended the night sitting outside on the back patio with Ebony and Ivory.

Overall, it was a great weekend. Before Kristen left, she made the statement, "I'll have to say that the best thing I ate all weekend in Paintsville was the sloppy joe." So if you're ever in town, you know where you have to go!

The Office Quote of the Day:

Listen to me close, cause I'm only gonna say this once. You either break off your engagement to that singing buffoon, apologize, and then date me, or you can say goodbye to this.

~Dwight

Tippy Tuesday

Sometimes Tippy feels the effects when I've had too many margaritas.....It must be a mother/daughter bond. That's the only way I can explain it.

Garbage cans say a lot about a person's diet...

I was sitting at work at 2:24pm and happened to glance in my garbage can and said to myself "Uh oh, Shari.....you've been a baaaad girl today." A garbage can is actually more of a tattle-tale if you think about it. Remnants of leftover cake from our cake decorating class the night before, bite-size Butterfinger, bite-size 100 Grand....at least there's a banana peel in there from this morning. I wonder what the custodians think when they empty my trash every morning.....

Tippy's New Cage

It was a productive weekend at casa de Shari & Tippy! Tippy's Paps and uncle (my dad and brother) built her a fence and we cannot thank them enough for all of their hard work! After they finished, my dad said "Pretty good for my first fence." Really?? I could not believe that he had never built a fence before! It seriously could not have been more perfect. Reason 946 why I know my dad can do anything :)

One thing I loved about this place when I bought it was it had a small yard to mow.....the thing I hated about it.....that hill!! You can see where they added on to an existing fence.

A view from the bottom. Yes, I have fallen down this hill mowing it before and no, I didn't cut off any toes. Thank you to my brother for cutting it for me!

At the bottom of the hill, my backyard neighbors have a couple dogs that stay on the other side of that fence....and it drives Tippy cRaZy!! She runs the fence back and forth acting like she would murda them (cuz she's gansta' like dat) even though they are 20x the size of her. She thinks she's bad stuff when there's a fence in her way! Well, this momma couldn't take it any longer which is another reason why we built the fence.

I'm not real sure that Tippy likes her new "cage." She hears the dogs barking but it drives her crazy that she can't get down to them!

Sorry Tippy! No more torturing those dogs....and my neighbors with your excessive barking.

Next on the list is to get a storm door that has a doggy door built into it. That way, when I'm home I can leave the main door open and she can go in and out of the doggy door as she pleases. Oh, and I'd also like to get a fire pit before fall comes....and maybe some more seating. The shopping list never seems to get any shorter once you've bought your first home.

The Office Quote of the Day:

I'm not sure, but I'm pretty sure I'm in a dance-off.

~Andy

Tippy Tuesday

If I've said it once, I've said it a million times....Tippy is NOT a morning person. She finally decided to make an appearance out from under the covers. Not only was she mad that I was making too much noise and woke her up but then I shove a camera in her face first thing in the morning.