1/31/11 Wings!

Lots of activity at the thistle feeder today.  I love the wings on this little guy.

01/30/11 Hello Brown Eyes

I think my dogs have the most beautiful eyes - so warm and caring.  This is a picture I took of Indy sitting by the back door.  You can even see a reflection of the door in his eye.  He was such a good boy and sat so still while I played with the depth of field that I wanted.

01/29/11 Red Food Dye

Some fun with a glass of water and red food dye!!!!  Hope you like it!

01/28/11 I can find a stick anywhere!

So as we have discovered Indy loves sticks!  I swear he can find a stick anywhere.  As we walk past the plants on the trail Indy always has to pull on the ones that stick out - just in case they come loose.  Or in the case of today - he can ferret it out from under the 18" of snow!  Buck of course could care a less about he stupid stick and kept right on marching down the trail.

01/27/11 Cake is Done

So here is a photo of the finished cake.  It is butter yellow cake with buttercream frosting.  I stupidly told the man who bought it that I would make the cake for $10, but I have come to the realization that that was way too low.  So in the future this cake would cost $30 - which is $10 more than Walmart and Price Chopper, but i know my frosting tastes way better than theirs and my cakes are moist!

01/26/11 Handsome Buck

Nothing was striking my fancy today for a picture and Buck was sitting so nicely on the couch (mainly because Indy wasn't bothering him) that I couldn't resist.  He really is such a handsome dog - and I don't think he looks a day over  8 years!

01/25/11 Lovey

Here is Indy with his stuffed swissy that we call his lovey.  He really loves her and he sleeps with her in his crate every night.  When we first got Indy this stuffed dog was easily three times his size and now he is bigger- crazy.

01/24/11 Shenanigans!

Okay Mother Nature I call shenanigans!  I can't believe it is -11 but feels like -19 degrees outside - this is ridiculous for sure!  I love how the minus sign is above the 11 because they didn't plan for double digits below zero.  Oneida has a two hour delay - but VVS is not delayed at all.  Crazy!

01/23/11 Bucky

Since I have posted so many pictures of Indy I thought I would post this one of Buck at Mt. Hope today.  He loves to sniff the snow and always has snow on his nose in the winter.  I love his big brown eyes so much.  So lucky to have such a great dog!

01/22/11 Tired Boys

This is what happens when you spend the morning running around in the snow. Two tired puppy dogs relaxing on the pooch couch. Love my boys - especially like this.

01/21/11 Snow Nose

Here is Indy enjoying the snow.  He loves to sniff through it just like Buck.  In fact his nose is already turning pink from sniffing through all the snow we have had.

01/20/11 In Honor of Mary!

My friend Mary is have surgery today for Breast Cancer.  In honor of her strength I wear pink today.  I also wear my Survivor Buff - because I know she will be a cancer survivor.  Love you Mary - stay strong!

01/19/11 Poor Bucky

Indy really likes to be close to Bucky and doesn't always seem to understand personal space.  Buck was sleeping on the couch and Indy decided to just climb right on top of him.  This happens just about everyday here.

01/18/11 Eastern Bluebird

We tend to get a lot of bluebirds at our feeders.  I thought this little guy was exceptionally beautiful.

01/17/11 Mt. Hope

The only good thing about the freezing cold weather today was that it made for a nice clear skies for picture taking.  Sarah was nice enough to come sit with Rhys so I could trudge out to Mt. Hope. So pretty up there right now!

01/16/11 Sugar Flowers

So I have to make a cake for a co-worker next week.  I decided to try and get my flowers made today so that they would have time to dry completely and to see how long it would take considering I haven't made flowers in over 8 years!  It only took a couple of hours and I got a whole bunch of daisies and two different sizes of roses.  The hardest part was getting the color of frosting that I wanted for the roses.  Hope you like them.

01/15/11 second Blooming

Holy cow!  The Christmas Cactus is blooming for a second time and almost all of the blooms opened at once.  Because of the explosion of color I couldn't resist photographing it again.

01/14/11 Frosted Window Panes

When the temperature drops to about 5 degrees overnight we end up with frosted windows in the garage because our garage is not heated.  They sure make beautiful patterns on the windows.  Sometimes the patterns look like little feathers on the windows.  I couldn't resist snapping this shot today.

01/13/11 Picture Fail

In an attempt to get a photo for today I tried to get the dogs to sit nicely on the couch.  Buck would sit, but not look at the camera.  Indy had a difficult time with sit still and look at the camera.  So pretty much this is a photo of everyday life here!

01/12/11 Finch Feast

Last night we got about 4" of snow and the birds are out in force at the feeders today.  I thought this picture of the new Thistle seed feeder came out very nice.  I hope you guys like it too.

01/11/11 Pizza Yum!

Dinner tonight was home made personal pizzas.  Both had fresh mozzarella, black olives and Pancetta.  Jim's in the background also has sliced jalepeno peppers.  Mine had sliced cherry tomatoes.  Very yummy and easy dinner!

01/10/11 Happy Time!

So in our house some of the happiest times of day are breakfast and dinner time for the dogs!  I swear Indy's tail does not stop moving while he eats - just wag, wag, wag!  So I thought I would share with you how fast he wags it while he eats.  Too funny!

01/09/11 The Spirit of Giving

This is a photo of the figurine that the Craightons were kind enough to give me when they came to visit in June.  The title of the figurine is "The Spirit of Giving".  In the background you can also see the clock that was given to me in February of 2008 when I donated my marrow from the National Marrow Program.  I keep both of these right out on our bookcases in front of our family photos to remind me that there is another family that I will always be connected to.  I am so blessed to have been able to meet Reece and his family this summer.  I am happy report that he is doing very well as is his younger brother Mason.  Two years after both boys finished their transplants and the family is finally able to return to "normal" life.

01/08/11 My what a big tongue you have!

During this mornings photo shoot Indy decided that Buck needed a bath.  That puppy has one very long tongue!  And he is quick too.  He gets Jim, Rhys and me with it all the time.  I love how Buck is still staying but looking at me like "Really Mom?"  Of course Indy does this to Buck everyday too and cleans his ears everyday too.  Buck likes to look grumpy, but he doesn't even growl at him when he does this.  When Indy cleans his ears he leans into it so I know he likes it, but he still has to act all gruff about it.  Such good boys!

01/07/11 Let it Snow!

Well winter is back in force!  We just got about 2" in the last hour!  This is our evergreen out front that we planted on April 22, 2006.  At that time it was about 8" tall - right now it is about 4 feet tall.

01/06/11 Spin Class

So my friend Jen teaches the most awesome Spin class every Thursday.  She was nice enough to let me take a picture of her teaching today.  Thanks Jen!  I love your class even though I usually am so tired after!

01/05/11 Gold Finches

so it was very cold out this morning and snowed last night which always brings the birds out. Today was a Gold Finch festival! I love how you can seed both the birdseed and snow in the finches beak in this one!

01/04/11 Silly Puppy

So Indy wanted out this morning and this is what he looked like when he came back in - apparently someone was trying to eat the birdseed that has been knocked onto the deck.  Weofficially registered him yesterday so he is now "Vintages Crossroads of America".  The Indiana state motto is crossroads of America so that is how we came up with that.  He is s real sweetie and coming along quite nicely.

01/03/11 The Old Man still has it!

So yesterday Buck was very stiff and showing his age.  Today it is cold and dry so the old man was giving Indy a run for his money this morning.  I love how my boys are in such great shape.  If it was up to them they would eat all the time and look like snausages!  Next week Indy will be six months and buck is now 10.5 years.  Buck has been with us through just about everything.  We got him in July of 2000 - 10 months after we got married and 2 months after we lost Em and Sam.  He healed our wounded hearts right from the first moment we brought him home.  He sat with me when I was crying over our first miscarriage.  He was there to greet us when we brought Rhys home.  When Rhys was in Early Intervention, he didn't miss s single home therapy session - always watching vigilantly over his little boy.   We could never have asked for a better dog and he is being the best role model for Indy.  Love you Buck!  Glad to see you so active!

01/02/11 Christmas Cactus = Day 2

This Christmas Cactus was Jim's mother's.  she started it as a cutting from his grandmother's and it is about 40 or 50 years old!  The two plants bloom from early November through the end of January every year.  You just wouldn't believe how thick the stems are on these plants.  I love the colors they have - such a vibrant pink!

01/01/11 Day 1 - here we go!

So I couldn't think of a better way to start my photo blog than by taking of photo of me doing what I love most!  I can't wait to see where this take us and to see if I have any true perspective or not - probably not ;)