busygirl

sunbathing beauty.

This dog will sleep ANYWHERE.

Sigh...always sacrificing comfort for a good suntan.

give a dog a bone.

As every pet owner does, I laid down some ground rules when we got Ricki - he can't sleep in the bed, can't go on the furniture, can't eat people food...and as expected, not one of those stuck.  Except the people food rule, unless of course my brother, Adam's dad or anyone unable to withstand his puppy-dog eyes is within three feet of him.

Some of my friends will feed their pets anything, seriously.  And just as an FYI, if you're a dog owner - BIG no-nos include grapes, blueberries and chocolate.  We're really careful about what we give him...mostly cheese, carrots (did you say carrots!?!?!?  ::enter beggin' strips commercial here and replace with carrot sticks::) or every once in a while a piece of meat.

But Adam made soup last weekend and I couldn't resist.  Ricki has never had a real bone - he doesn't even chew on rawhide (he's not the SMARTEST dog, he'd probably choke on it).  So we dug one out of the pot and placed it in a bowl to see what he'd do.

He looked at it for about a minute.

Tried to pick it up (enter in loud chorus of 'NO!' as my dreams of a clean carpet went whizzling through my head)

 
And then finally figured out that the good stuff is in the middle :)

 

you capture: (puppy) kisses

I casually mentioned to Adam that this week's assignment was 'kisses' and was left coughing in the dust of his wake as he fled from the room.  Hmph.  Apparently Ricki was going to have to be my costar again this week.

So last night I sat him down and said 'Ricki, give me a kiss.'  And he turned his butt at me and walked away.  Apparently 'give me a kiss' is in the same realm as 'sit', 'lay', 'heel'...aka all those things we attempted to teach him that he refuses to learn.

Fortunately his curiosity with the camera never fails.  Upon bringing out the camera he immediately ran over to sniff and snot all over it.  Here's some quick shots where I attempted to capture him giving the camera a 'kiss' (I use this term loosely):

Yes, I know they're all blurry.  He wasn't being a very cooperative costar last night.  Sighhh...I hope all your captures are much better than mine this week.

working hard from the homefront.

It is STILL snowing.  And our street is nowhere near the top of the 'to be plowed' list so we're pretty much stuck at home.

I did at least grab my laptop at the last second before leaving work yesterday - you just never know.  Good thing - now I won't be behind at work.  AND I get to work in my pjs.  And as expected, I did have a little help from a small, furry friend.

Someone's pretty happy that I'm home today.

you capture: work

This week's assignment was to capture 'work.'  Well, working in Finance isn't all too glamorous, I mean really, even my desk looks boring...

Snooze.

So I decided that one of my co-stars would be the topic of this week's you capture.  I mean, we all know that he spends about 84% of his time scatching some shut-eye, but there are a few times that he does have to 'work'.  I managed to snap this shot this morning of him working hard to get his Pedigree dental stick (btw if you have a dog, these things are amazing!  They've done wonders to keep the few teeth he has left clean).

Hey, it's hard work looking this cute.

For more you capture - head over to Beth's!

snow doggie.

Enjoying the whole five minutes he lasted outside before wussing out.  But he looked so adorable attempting to jump in snow that was higher than him before he gave up and went inside.

 

looking for something to do on a wednesday night?

Bring your dog up-to-date with technology.

In an effort to avoid doing anything remotely productive tonight, Adam and I not only created an email address for our favorite pup, but also brought him up to speed by creating a facebook account for him.  Yup.  Our dog now has his very own facebook account.  Prettttttty sweet.

 

 

So if you need to get a hold of him for advice on important matters such how to train humans to tend to your every need, he can be reached at mrfourlegs (at) yahoo.com

you capture: love around your home.

I found this week's challenge to be particulary difficult, not because I didn't know what to shoot but because there's literary HUNDREDs of things around the house that remind me of love.  I really did try to narrow it down to just a few though...

I love that Adam loves his plants.  The kid was definitely blessed with a green thumb.  Here's some of his favorites that he moved to his bedroom for the winter so they would survive the cold. 

My feelings of love come from all the photographs around our house.  With living two hours away from both of our families, I have to rely on the photo of my brother's goofy grin at Adam's graduation to bring about a feeling of home.  Here's a bunch of smiling faces lined up on my dresser.

And of course, Ricki has love in our house too.  I snapped a quick shot of his favorite toy...of course he's in the photo trying to paw it away from me.  Silly puppy.

And I think there is one thing that symbolizes love for all three of us (okay, maybe just Adam and I cause Ricki REALLY loves that toy).  Our best man took and designed this photo of our house when we moved in.  It's hanging right by our front door.  I love that he was able to capture our first home together.

 To see the love in other's homes, click here!

you capture: winter.

I grew up in the 'snowbelt' of Cleveland where snowfall is measured in feet not inches so winter isn't quite my favorite season.  And even though the snow is pretty to look at - I'm tired of the fact that it just creates a mess, is cold and causes me to kick myself daily for forgetting to put a snowbrush in my car.

So we spend most of our winters snuggled up on the couch trying to keep warm.

 For more you capture photos, head on over to ishouldbefoldinglaundry!

***Don't worry, Martha Show recap will be up soon!  I'm about to head to the airport and will load photos and such when I get home tonight!***

holiday recap.

A little overdue, but for anyone who follows me on twitter, you're well-aware that I have done nothing the last few days but pull my hair out while attempting to solve impossible issues at work.

Enough about that though, on to HAPPIER things like recapping Christmas!  I hope you all had wonderful holidays, I sure did.  I had a great Christmas morning surprise, got to spend time with both my families and got some good loot!

Other than being deathly ill with what can only be called 'the cold from h-e-doublehockeysticks', I was able to enjoy the majority of my holiday break.  I thoroughly enjoyed watching my nieces see the Christmas tree for the first time in the morning...there's nothing sweeter than a little kid being so excited that they're about to jump out of their pjs.

And although Adam and I had a little bit of an untraditional Christmas due to our new nephew, I was thrilled that we got to attend the traditional gingerbread house contest at Wren's family's house.  It's a very competitive event.  Plans are drawn throughout the years, strategic candy planning, the awards are highly-sought after.  I personally joined 'Team Gracie' with the feeling that we would be a winning team with her fairy-tale ideas and my ability to efficiently apply frosting where she pointed.  We did an AWESOME job (seriously, Ace of Cakes should be calling any day now) and as expected, took home the gold with the 'FairyTale House Award'.  Take a look:

The boys took home the Silver with the 'Best Overall Design', although they had some questionable techniques and I'm not sure it was as eco-friendly as they claimed.

Winners of the 'Silver Bolt Award'

 
(this is one of my favorites...when Chris was explaining their design and claimed that they had the 'most green' house because it ran solely on loveeee.  And there's Adam practically spitting out his wine while trying hard not to laugh)

There were some good contenders though - I especially liked Wren & Joe's rustic log cabin...

...and Em's crazy squiggles.

But the best part was having everyone today...say it with me now: 'awww...'

Anyway...the night was a success and the rest of my holiday break was spent dodging nerf darts.  It all started when we got the boys these little one-shot nerf guns last year.  Obviously we felt the need to upgrade tremendously this year.  20 and 10-shooters were the name of the game.  And I spent the majority of my time hiding behind busyteacheramy in an attempt to not feel the sting of the whistler darts.

Yup that's me, hiding like a coward behind a chair while my baby sister leaps over to shoot our attackers.

On to the loot...cause really, what's Christmas without presents? ;)  We did get some good ones, but first, here are my favorites that we gave:

My mom opening her brand-new Contemporary Calphalon pans (I'm SO JEALOUS...these WILL be on our registry)

Girlymama opening her coveted Cruisinart Grind'n'Brew coffee maker

And now onto me...I got a great new fossil watch from girlymama, a new crockpot from my mom (remember the tragic death of my last one) and...

A BRAND NEW DIGITAL SLR CAMERA from Adam!!!! SERIOUSLY!!! Look how pretty my new Nikon D3000 is:

I LOVE LOVE LOVE IT!!  You think I'm lucky?  He got a Samsung Netbook ;)

The Brownies continued their streak, won four games in a row (WOOT) and we did lots of snowboarding.  That pretty much sums up the holiday break, how were your holidays?

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On a side note, a special thanks to EVERYONE who used busygirldesigns (okay, I don't have an official name, I'm just a girl with a cool computer program) to design for their holiday cards or clicked on my amazon links to order goodies for your loved ones.  Together we raised $283 (eep!!) that has been donated to a charity that provides after-school programs for underprivileged teens.  Your donation helped purchase some lovely holiday gifts for these kids that included new coats, gloves and hats!  Even a few baby dolls and legos for fun :)  Thank you ALL for helping me raise the money!!  Money made from busygirl affiliates will always be donated to those in need (the recipients will most likely change from time to time, we need to spread the wealth). THANK YOU!!!!!!!!! (you rock)

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On another side note, these Dark Chocolate Dove candies are delicious!  I'm currently scarfing down a few since I didn't get to eat lunch today.