Walks With Ida : Fall Leaves

For the last couple months, I've been trying to get out on early morning weekend walks with Clove and any child that is awake that early... which is usually neither of the children, but sometimes Ida likes to surprise me. There is a bike trail less than a block from our house, so that is where I've been heading for our morning walks. The fall leaves were amazing for a couple weeks in a row and it was fun to hear Ida oooh and aaah over the beautiful morning views. That morning golden hour is my favorite quiet way to enjoy nature.. and it's even better with little babes tagging along.

Memorial Day Weekend

It was a much needed three day weekend and I fully enjoyed every second of it.

After work Friday, I packed up my girls Cora and Cloverson and we headed to our favorite dog park.  Clove found the only mud puddle in the whole park and splashed through that, then proceeded to get in a 'fight' with a small very vocal dog.  Super awkward moment where I was trying to break up the dog fight, everyone stares at me, Cora is on my back in the carrier, and a bunch of dogs are running at the fight.  Apparently the other dog has gotten in lots of fights, but I still heard some judgmental crazy lady telling her dog how other dogs don't behave well as I walk-of-shamed out of there.  We hadn't spent enough time at the park so we walked along one of the paths until Cora fell asleep.

Saturday, I got lots of morning cuddles, reading, and playtime with Cora.  She loves putting the sheets over her face while I say "Wheeeeere is Coooraaaa?!" then she pulls the sheets down and laughs her head off.

I needed to do some stuff at the bank near my parents house, so I dropped Cora off at my parents while I ran my errands.  They love any time they can get with her and I love how fast I can get errands done when I don't have to put a baby in and out of her carseat.  We hit up Sam's club on the way home and spent the afternoon taking naps and playing.  Ben spent the afternoon grocery shopping and got everything we need for the week.  We had a great evening of movies and dinner (steak, mashed potatoes, and roasted veggies).

Sunday morning we woke up and spent a couple lazy hours around the house.  We got lunch ready, headed down to Theodore M Berry International Friendship park, and walked along the river through Sawyer point and Serpentine wall.  I love that walk for the view and people watching.  I didn't get any pictures, but the weather was amazing and all four of us had a great time.  

Cora and I spent the rest of the afternoon being lazy.  Ben headed to the gym then we met up for dinner.  Since I was near my parent's house, I swung by for them to get some Cora cuddles.

Monday, I went over to my parent's house (are you noticing a theme this weekend?) and did a couple loads of laundry.  I took Cora out on a walk through the woods near their house and around their neighborhood.  I happened upon this side table that was set out for the garbage man.  It was at our old house so I figured that was fate and and I should pick it up.  It just needs a nice coat of paint and it's good as new.

Sunday evening, we had a memorial day weekend cookout with family.  Great food, great company! We had Cora practicing her walking a little, but she is not a fan of grass.  She kept trying to crawl, but would only go on her tiptoes because she didn't like the feel of the grass touching her legs.

It was a nice relaxing weekend getting some walks in, having lots of family time, watching Cora practice walking, and being lazy around the house.   Hoping for a quick work week so we can do it all again this weekend.

The Forgotten Birthday

I'm the worst mommy ever!  I totally forgot Clove's adoption anniversary on March 24th.  Two years ago we were hanging out at Petsmart walking and playing with all of the dogs.  We couldn't stop thinking about that white puppy so we went back and got her a week later.  It's been two years, but it feels like she has been around forever.

She has her moments, but overall she is such a sweet puppy.  She loves long walks, the dog park, cuddling up to me, visiting Grandma and Grandpa's house, chewing on anything (toys, plastic bags, bottlecaps, etc), checking out other dogs, hanging out the car window, and eating up Cora's crumbs.

Happy (late) adoption day Cloverson!

Cloverson

One year ago, We adopted this little puppy... and she has kept life exciting ever since.  She does her fair share of causing trouble, but her sweet dog moments far outweigh her bad.

She gives me lots of puppy cuddles.

She is extremely excited to see me whenever I get home.

She sits in the car waiting and gives me the biggest smile when she sees me.

She loves playing catch (only inside).

She likes spending lazy days napping with me.

She gives me puppy kisses whenever I'm mad at her.

And she loves meeting new people and dogs.

New Camera & Snow

Christmas was good to me this year.  Ben got me a DSLR camera!!!  We have both been separately looking at purchasing one for a while (years) and he decided to take the plunge and get me one for Christmas... He is the best!  After some research, we decided on an entry level one that wouldn't break the bank and fits my needs.  I got a Nikon D3100.

sidenote: We drew an eyebrow on Clove (thanks for the idea Pinterest) and this is the first picture that was taken on the camera.  Photo credit to Ben.

I took Clove out on a walk on one of Cincinnati's first snowy days/one of my sick days and took some pictures of her, our alleyway, and the golf course behind my apartment.  All of the pictures are unedited and uncropped since I still haven't gotten my computer fixed.

I have only played with it a little and mostly taken some pictures on the automatic mode, but I'm really looking forward to spending some more time learning about all the features that this camera offers and taking good pictures in general.  I know I have a lot to learn.

Isn't Clove just precious?!  I love dogs playing in the snow and she seemed to really like it.

Look forward to lots of pictures... especially of my dog : ]

Christmas Extras

I may be a little late with this Christmas-related post, but who cares... I have some cute little things to share and I always like to extend the holiday season as long as I can.  I got Clove a couple sweaters at Target, but I underestimated how big she is.  Here she is in the sweater we were able to get on her.

Fat dog in a little coat

She had to suck up to Ben so he would take it off

I received an awesome package from Jazz.  It contained a card, Christmas cd, infinity scarf (perfect color since I've been trying to expand my wardrobe into the yellow hues), candy, and ornaments that made everything smell amazing.  You can read more about it on Jazz's blog.

Following tradition, my aunt and uncle bought me a poinsettia for my apartment.  I love having the festive plant since I didn't have a tree this year.  Unfortunately, I'm not very good at keeping plants alive so it is pretty much dead at this point.  At least it lasted through the holidays and I got some good pictures of it while it was alive.

We had to scrap Clove's sweater idea and found this Santa Outfit (also at Target) and bought a size larger.  Finally... Holiday outfit success!  She loves it and wore it the entire day on Christmas without fidgeting.

They love each other!

 And here are a bunch of pictures showing how cute my dog is in her Santa outfit:

I love this on her!  I took her out on a lot of rides wearing this outfit and the reactions from people were priceless.

Painting & Dog Park

Life has been pretty busy lately.  I've been trying to fill all of my free time with decluttering my place (slowly), hanging out with friends, playing with Clove, and enjoying all of the nice weather.

My grandpa is leaving for Wisconsin this weekend, so we had our last Saturday play date last weekend.  We spent the morning driving around town and working on his latest bird, great blue heron.  Pictured on the left is the sketch and before of the heron.  On the right, are pictures after I did the black detail paint.  This is the first bird I did any kind of detail on so I was extremely nervous, but Boppa said it was pretty good.

As always, I took Clove to the dog park.  She is normally very indecisive with who she should play with.  She'll play with a dog then ditch them after a couple minutes.  This puppy was different... He looked like he could be Clove's brother.  They looked similar and played the same way.  It was so cute!  Here are some pictures of the two:

This week was the final exam week for University of Cincinnati students, which means DAAPworks!  The design graduating class is the class I started college with and got to see all of my old Industrial Design studio mates' awesome capstone projects.  Also, the Graphic Design group killed it this year!  I also really enjoyed the Fine Arts gallery.  There was a lot of beautiful and inspiring pieces in the show.  I wish I had gotten some pictures.

Anyway, this post is all over the place, but I'm hoping to have some fun projects to share soon.

I'TS FRIIIIDAAAAAYYY!!!

Memorial Day

Dog Park

I found the best dog park near my house.  This is the only dog park I've ever been to, but we love it.  It is also free!  I take Clove to it every couple days and she has so much fun running around and playing with all of the dogs.  It's interesting to observe all of the different personalities and social dynamics of the dogs and owners.  Clove is more of a wanderer where she plays with a dog for a little and then will run off and find another dog to play with, but she makes friends with almost everyone there.  Here is a shot of her after a muddy day last week:

Lazy Weekend

This weekend, I had a much needed lazy weekend (thank you rain).  The past couple weeks, I have been running around non-stop so it is really nice having some real time off and just chillin.  Friday night, we went out to Cancun for Jazz's birthday.  It was fun celebrating and catching up with everyone there.

photo credit to Jazz

BC brought Clove over to my house to hang out.  She visited her first dog park, made some doggy friends, and spent a lot of time wrestling in the mud.  After that, all she wanted to do was sleep.  Here she is modeling my T-shirt blanket:

And refusing to wake up:

We were trying to keep her awake so she could sleep on her long ride home.  Every time we sat her up, she would just flop over and pass out. 

Also, I tried to get a picture of the three of us for my cubicle... BC had other plans:

Anyways, it was a fun and relaxing weekend.  Stay tuned this week for some projects and possibly big life updates.