Wordless Wednesday - Snappy Snappy

Dress Up Your Pet Day

So, I know it's "Dress Up your Pet Day" and a great many bloggers, instagrammers etc may have put their pets into costumes and so on... but not here.

I give you my dogs, dressed up as Thing 1 and Thing 2.

Coco Chanel?

I'm not a fashionista, by any means. I don't watch fashion television programs, I don't know the latest styles and I don't care which celebrity is wearing whom. I buy what I like and lately, it's been a slooowww move towards a 50s slant, but that's as far as I go.

Imagine my surprise when I came home the other day with some new pairs of lounging around pants, proceeded to try them on and Lady Merida nearly lost her mind over them. She's in love with clothing - of all kinds. She kept sniffing the pant legs and could not get enough of them. Even after they were laundered, she kept sniffing them!

She'll also sneak into our bedroom/closet and "cherry pick" my clothes for her to cuddle/eat the tags.

You might be wondering how she can get at my clothes in the closet? Well, we don't have enough dresser space, so my short sleeved t-shirts, shorts etc sit in plastic bins in the closet, which means it's prime height for a sneaky little corgi.

I found her in the closet today, she dug through the clothes at the top of the bin to find a particular top in the middle, which she was rolling around on.

She's also figured out a way to "cherry pick" my socks, leave them on the floor for Gimli to find and hoard.

So, now we have two issues:

- They have started working together
- Merida is probably a reincarnated version of some fashion designer

Saturday Smiler - Sideways

I do love that sideways grin.

Flat Corgi Friday - Castle

Wordless Wednesday - Where's Merida?

Brrrrrr

It has been at least -20 degrees here for the past week. It's supposed to stay below zero til the weekend. It's an understatement to say the corgis are unimpressed.

We cannot go for walks because it's so cold, my face starts to freeze. Even with layers, a full length coat, big thick gloves, hat, scarf, and one of those face covering things that only show your eyeballs, I'm still frozen. The other day I was sure my eyeballs had frozen and I was going to go blind as they thawed.

The corgis give up and limp along with cold paws and once that wind hits us, it sends a shock through your system and squeezes your heart. I would not be surprised if I glimpsed a White Walker in the field behind us... it's that cold and desolate looking outside.

Gimli only stays in the backyard long enough to use the washroom, then he bounds back to the door. Even wearing his red jacket, he wants to come back inside.

There are two steps under that snow.

Merida, the snow puppy, yearns to play in the snow, but she's no match for those temperatures and that wind. Except, she doesn't know this and so she tries to stay out to pounce in the snow, but we call her back with the promise of cookies.

It is supposed to get a little warmer tomorrow, up to -10. It's supposed to get up to the freezing mark on the weekend. Hopefully, I can take the corgis out for a proper walk then.

Late Christmas posting

I'm late in posting our Christmas shenanigans, but I hope you enjoy them just the same.

This was Merida's first Christmas and she pretty much just roamed around the house wondering why a large tree was in the corner, why things were under it and why Gimli became so excited over a stocking.

We don't yet have any place to hang the stockings, so I had to place them on the love seat. Of course, Gimli, like any child on Christmas morning made a beeline for the stockings.  Don't ask me how he knew, maybe it was the presence of cookies, who knows?

Notice Merida sitting next to him out of formality, she had no concept of a stocking.

Of course, Gimli took advantage of the stocking and stole his. He shook it a little so he could steal his Dentastick and gobble it up before I realized what he'd done. I then placed both stockings on the top of the chair and waited for Mike to come downstairs.

The stocking cookies were gobbled up in no time - these are corgis after all!  In the toe of both stockings, the corgis found their new shirts.

Gimli's supposed to be Thing 1, but they didn't have his size.

Next came the actual presents. They received a couple new items, but the majority were toys that I had repaired and regifted to them. A total of 6 toys were given and by the end of the day, 3 toys were already in disrepair. That red-white-green ball had to go to the bin after only a few minutes. Miss Merida is a toy destroyer! It's quite frustrating and we've stopped purchasing any soft toys as they don't last too long.  Argh, we were spoiled with Gimli :(

After the presents, came breakfast. The corgis got some extra goodies here too - some egg and small pieces of bacon.

Then, it was time to romp outside to survey the damage from the crazy ice storm. There was a fine layer of ice on top of the snow, so they couldn't romp and run.

All in all, a good day, though Mike and I were a little frazzled over it all. Going away on vacation at the beginning of December, while is great for your birthday, really turns on the Christmas stress when you're back home. I don't think I'll do that again.

Flat Corgi Fridays - Oh Deer

If you've been following the blog for a while, you know I've tried to hold a "Flat Gimli Fridays" post showcasing the adventures of "Flat Gimli". However, now that we have Merida, I now introduce the "Flat Corgi Fridays".

I don't know how well the idea of both pictures on the same "stick" will work out. We had to do it this way because Merida would. not. sit. still for the picture. We may try to take another picture when she's more mature - physically and mentally.

In the meantime, I hope you enjoy this new series.

Things to do for 2014

2013 was not a good year for this list. I was able to accomplish a few items, but I never maintained the listing as the year went on. I'm starting the list anew for 2014.

1. Complete the first two levels of Rosetta Stone - German

2. Read 25 books - Last year, I read 16 books, four short of my 20 book goal. This year I've upped it to 25 as I don't feel I read nearly as much as I should.

3. Spend less time on the computer in my non-working hours

4. Maintain the blog with regular posts - I've come up with a tentative schedule for postings, but it is still a work in progress.

5. Go through the Digital SLR for Dummies book and improve my photography skills.

6. Continue to photograph Gimli and Merida.

7. Lose 20 lbs. - Last year, I struggled with this and am struggling with it again as the year begins. I was doing well, then I stopped exercising and all the progress I did was lost.

8. Finish painting our house - We have 3 bedrooms to paint this year.

9. Frame and put up our pictures.

10. Go to The Arboretum at least once a month - weather permitting.

11. Discover local restaurants/bistros etc in my city or in the surrounding areas.

12. Take more pictures of Mike and me.

13.  Enjoy our backyard.

14. Surprise someone.

15. Put in more flowers/shrubs etc in the yard

16. Move off of "Medium" on the drums in Rock Band and to "Hard".

17. Complete the Minas Tirith 3D puzzle

18. Take up running. I'm nowhere close to the point of doing a 5k of straight running, but it's something I want to do. The ultimate goal is to do one of the RunDisney events at the parks.

19. Put in a smaller garden in the backyard.

20. Organize the spare bedroom so it actually looks like a bedroom and not a place to shove "stuff".

21. Scan in our baby pictures.

22. Start putting together our Disney album.

23. Start cooking more Trinidad type food.

24. Work on the corgis' recall.

25. Travel to a new place.

26. More to come...

Days of Christmas - Day 10 - Costumed Christmas

Days of Christmas - Day 9 - Christmas Tree

Behold, our Christmas tree! Notice, no tree topper again this year. I cannot find a suitable angel to save my life. Oh well, there's always next year.

We also have a new ornament.

It's Mickey Mouse dressed as one of the caretakers of the Haunted Mansion, along with the date written on his foot to commemorate our visit to Walt Disney World in 2013. Alas, I had hoped to get a Merida ornament, but this Disney Princess is so popular they couldn't keep the ornament in stock! I will keep trying though, the next time we are in Orlando.

Days of Christmas - Day 8 - Cookies

My first attempt at making Gingerbread cookies. I'll admit, it was from a mix and I'm not that impressed with the taste. I'd like it to have a bit more flavor, but for my first try, not too bad.

I'm toying with the idea of making cookies for the corgs. I found some neat recipes online and I think they'll be a hit with our two and with our friends' dogs.  If I get around to making those, I'll post about it.

Days of Christmas - Day 7 - Cards

I know we are an electronic society now, hell, I work from home! But, there's something nice about going to the mailbox and receiving love in the form of a Christmas card.

Saturday Smiler - Little Runner

More Days of Christmas posts coming tomorrow. I have to catch up!

Days of Christmas - Day 6 - Wreath

This is the wreath I made last year and I'm quite proud of it, if I do say. It's held up quite well over the past year in storage.

We have another wreath hanging on the door via a suction cup, but it's so cold outside, the suction cup froze and gave out. *sigh*

Days of Christmas - Day 5 - Stuffed Animals

Years ago, each Christmas Sears did a holiday release of a stuffed animal. My mom started the tradition and I've kept the stuffies to place them around the house each year.

Penguin and the royal Corgi, who came from Buckingham Palace

Gingerbread Man

Someone's got to keep the Charlie Brown Christmas tree warm

Mr. Polar Bear

Mr. Moose

Mousey

Days of Christmas - Day 4 - The Staircase

We have a grand staircase. It's the first thing you see when you enter our home and it's one of the first items to be decorated at Christmas time.

We string a faux snowy garland and then crisp, white lights down over the banister. At the end of the staircase, we place our Mickey Mouse ears jingle bells.

Days of Christmas - Day 3 - Inflatable Mickey Mouse

We have an inflatable Mickey Mouse that we bring out during the Christmas season.  He usually sits outside, but this year, we were late in securing him to the ground. Now the ground is frozen and covered in about a foot of snow.

Mickey's going to have to hang out inside for a few days.

The corgis don't really like him.

Merida isn't sure what to do with it and Gimli views him as an invader to be stopped!


I must say, I like how Merida quickly departs the scene when Gimli starts in on Mickey Mouse.

Days of Christmas - 2

For today's post, I wanted to have the corgis in front of the Christmas tree - all posing and looking nice. As you can see, this did not happen.  They refused to look at me, choosing to look at the cookies on the coffee table. I had to work fast because Lady Merida has a short attention span and is apt to be distracted by a shiny thing and run out of the frame.

By the way, this is a preview of the Christmas tree. That post is coming later on.