When Your Mama Finds a Dog.

When your mama finds a dog, well, you just HAVE to go see it! And did she find a doozy of a dog. It's the smallest dog I think I've ever held that's actually full grown. Ha ha!

Violette wasn't so sure about this mini dog.

The horses weren't so sure about it either.

But Mom visited neighbors to ask around, made some signs to put up, and put a "found" ad in the paper. Until she goes back to her owner she's safe from the coyotes, has a nice warm bed, plenty of food, and lots of love!

Before I sign off check out this pretty nail color. It's Sinful Colors in "Rise and Shine".

Puppy kisses to all! Taniya

When You Need a Break...

Head for the hills! Or in my case, The Beach! This week has been very busy and I've felt kinda stuck at home too much so I just HAD to get away for awhile. Going to the beach was just what the doctor ordered for ALL of us!

It must have been a perfect day for sailing because there were many sailboats out there and it was so relaxing to watch them gliding across the water.

I don't know what kind of flowers these are but they were so pretty. They felt like straw flowers. Maybe one of my readers know?

It was kind of chilly and the only one brave enough to wear just her bikini was Alani!

I found a pretty shell to make into a necklace.

Some pictures of my precious ones!

And the one who's always by my side.

If you need to take a break from your everyday life, be sure you don't put it off. Get out there! Relax. Unwind. You'll be recharged and fresh for tomorrow! Taniya

Mushrooms

I've been very interested in learning how to identify edible versus non-edible mushrooms and I've found this great guide to local mushrooms today! I'm learning so much. It's so interesting!

They have nice, color pictures and great descriptions, and where they can be found and at what time of year to harvest them. Also it has good descriptions of others that look similar but are not edible.

That's not a very clear picture but you can get a good idea anyway. I also found this great chocolate-y color nail polish by Savvy in (what else) Chocolate!

As soon as I get a chance I'm going to try my hand at mushroom gathering and I'll be sure to post about that! A happy day to all! Taniya

Wedding Anniversary!

Yes folks, it's that time of year. My wedding anniversary, hurray! And how do you have a nice anniversary? Well, you spend extra time with your spouse doing something you don't do on a regular basis. For us that would be going out to dinner and a movie. We rarely go to Claim Jumper and we LOVE that restaurant so that's where we headed. I ordered the rotisserie chicken with veggies and mashed potatoes with country gravy. The calorie count on that dish is probably very high but since it's a rare event, it won't hurt one bit. Ha ha! The amount of food is so huge that I got through only about half of it but I took the rest home. Even the left-overs are yummy! My husband also surprised me with beautiful flowers! He got such a lovely variety too.

So pretty!

We had such a nice day together laughing and talking and just enjoying each others company. I hope and pray we will live long, healthy lives and grow old holding each others hand. Taniya

Farmers Market and Mustaches.

We did some shopping at the farmer's market today, which is always fun because you never know what will be there! People grow all kinds of fun and unusual things along with lots of great foods that are used everyday. This is what I got today.

Some onions, raw honey, and eggs. What a combination! Ha ha ha! The white tag on the eggs says, "Fresh eggs from free range hens. Fed veggies, fruits, and native grasses. Never caged!" This made me very happy to picture happy chickens running free! Here is what they look like.

It's a little difficult to tell but some of them are GREEN! That's because certain breeds of chickens lay greenish and bluish eggs. Pretty! I took a close up to show a green one next to a white one.

Today we also drew mustaches on our fingers so we can "wear" one whenever we wish. Hee hee!

I found a new nail color by Revlon that I think is so pretty. I don't know exactly how new it is but it has a "new" sticker on it. But I don't think it's been very long because I haven't seen it before. It's called Whimsical.

Here it is under another light.

As soon as you can find one, I encourage you to visit a farmer's market so you too can eat farm fresh produce, honey, and maybe even a green egg from a happy chicken! Taniya

A Relaxing Saturday

It's been a nice, calm day around these parts and I took little Violette for a nice long walk/run through the fields and beyond. It feels great to be out in the fresh air! Our smallest doggie seems to be feeling much better after her ordeal yesterday and wants to run and play and chase squirrels!

It's warm and breezy and so beautiful out I can't believe it's supposed to rain tomorrow.

How about some new nail polish for today? It's Sinful Colors "Bali Mist". It's such a light pink you can hardly see it, but this is two layers! Ha ha!

I hope your Saturday is as nice as ours, and if you have a dog be sure to walk him as much as possible. It's so good for them and you! You'll be glad you did. Taniya

P.S. How about a parting shot of Violette?

Poor Little Violette!

We took our poor, little doggie to the vet today because she couldn't keep her food down and I was afraid she may have eaten something that was clogging her up. She's such a nervous, shaky dog that as soon as the vet came in she began shaking and couldn't stop. We got x-rays and got her pipes cleaned out and she should be as good as new! She was SO happy to get back in the car to head home!

And she quickly fell asleep!

I'm hoping all of your little animal friends are happy, healthy, and warm tonight! Goodnight. Taniya

Trip to L.A!

We just drove up to Los Angeles to see my dad and his wife Renee, and Renee's mother was there too. She just had a birthday and is 95 years old! She's such an interesting lady to talk to. She always has some little health tidbit to share like telling me how good cinnamon is for us and that we should all have some everyday. Also she said she has learned that cashews are very good for the heart so she has a handful in the morning and another handful in the evening.

Since our birthdays are so close together we got a cake saying Happy Birthday to us both!

So yummy! Mmmmm! Then we headed on over to the pool room to play some pool.

Luke had trouble reaching this one. Ha ha ha!

We don't play very well but we laughed a lot and had a fun time!

Thumbs up on having a great day! Taniya

Let's Make Valentine's Day Cards!

Whether you have kids or not, homemade cards are fun and the possibilities are only limited by your imagination. So endless, right? Here's a few simple ideas that Luke and I came up with today. First, you need a few supplies like candy, construction paper or any pretty paper, and I even used some nail polish! I'll show you that later.

How about some heart shaped paper doilies? These are fun! If you can find some, pick em up.

First, to make some regular sized cards that would be great for kids to give to friends or even to mail to YOUR friends, fold a sheet of paper in half, unfold and cut along the line you made. Fold each piece in half again and cut so they turn out looking like this in pink:

or red

Let's start with this card.

Now pick the color sheet you'll want to use for the front of your card and cut it a little shorter than the one for the back. Like so.

Now put glue around the two sides and the end where my hand is so the pink end is left open. Then to make the cupcake I just drew the bottom and cut it out, then used it for a template to cut more. Same thing for the frosting. Like this

and if you don't have regular glitter, you can use glitter nail polish for the bottom. These little gems I used to decorate the frosting are from the aisle with the scrap booking things in Target. But you can probably find them almost anywhere scrapbook supplies are sold. But I think you should decorate them however you think they'll be pretty!

Here's another idea. Cut a piece of construction paper in half, then fold it to make a card. Put a heart candy in the center and draw a box around it. Like this.

Then move the candy and cut the box out to make a window. Now glue the candy in place.

Now write inside whatever your heart desires, and decorate! Now here's one more that's super simple and quick. Hold one of the doilies over any color paper you like and cut around it leaving an edge peaking out about a half inch or less.

Put some glue on the back of the heart.

Now glue them together.

Decorate with candy, sprinkles, glitter, whatever!

I glued a little white doiley on too. Be sure to use a non toxic glue like Elmer's if they're for kids especially or better yet attach candy with a homemade icing then you don't have to worry about little ones eating the candy off! I think it's just a combination of powdered sugar and water but I don't know the exact measurements. You can find the recipe online though.

Now last but not least I have to show you this one Luke made for his Grams.

So sweet!

Have a happy Valentine's Day full of love and hugs! Taniya