Puppy

This little darling is our new puppy and our first ever. We had been looking for a puppy for our family for months, always ending up talking ourselves out of it over and over again. Then we saw this little cutie, a cross of a Shih-Tzu Chihuahua. It was a spur of the moment and we went for it. What a great choice! It now has been a month and she has fit right into our little family.

Its Been Awhile...

Hi there, yes I'm still around. Just been busy with summer I guess.

The first week of July we built my son a clubhouse 6 ft tall with a high peek for a little second level. My son and his friends have been enjoying it. We still need to finish the 3 windows and door. The clubhouse is big enough to convert into a storage shed in the future. We painted it a shade lighter than our house and blends into the backyard beautifully. Pictures will soon follow.

The last 2 weeks my son was in swimming lessons and successfully past his Level 5. :)

We have not decided yet what we'll do for the rest of the summer but I'm sure we will do some camping soon.

On a sad note, today I was informed that my plushies are infringing on a large company who makes plushies. I'm very sad about this and had to remove all of my monsters from my shop. I have not been given a reason or what I'm infringing on. I have never copied and have always been careful that my plush doodle ideas are not the same as others. My monsters don't have fingers, have different size wonky eyes, hand stitched curved mouths, handstitched eyes, fabric patterned cotton hearts, stuffed with Ecofill and a body design that took me months to purfect that was not like any other plushie out there. If only I had my designs copyrighted I guess and I would have been safe from this happening. I'm just the little guy, a stay-at-home mom with a hobby that I love and which helped pull me out of a depression.

So whats going to happen to gush4plush you may ask...will...I will continue to make my owls, skeletons, birds, cats, dogs, poop and sasquatchs unless they end up as being a problem too. :(

All day I feel like I was kicked in the gut and I can't fight back or defend myself.

Anyways I will continue to love my craft and crafts. No one is going to stop me!

Slivers, Ants and Fish

Sorry, its been a while since I blogged. The month of May is always a busy month for us to get things done that you can't get done in the winter. So we've have been working on our fence and have been digging out wood slivers from our dried up hands for the last 2 weeks. Now we can keep most of the neighbours loose garbage out of our yard, tree destroying wild jack rabbits and kids that don't belong to us, out! I really enjoyed building the fence and I love MY Black & Decker cordless drill!

Since we finished the fence, we are now searching for a puppy or dog for our family. So any recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

Little black ants!!! They are appearing to come through our bricked patio. I have ant traps out but I don't know if they actually work. Its our new garden battle for this year. Last year we had to get rid of bumble bees and mice that made a nests under our back steps in the dirt along the house foundation. Oh what fun! Not! Eek!

Next project is revitializing our fish tank stand. I have mentioned this probably a year ago and yup in never got done. Our 20 gallon fish tank has been housed in an old TV frame with 6 inch legs and is super sturdy. I love it! We just need to replace the top which opens and give it a fresh coat of paint (white).

The making of plushies has been on hold for the last couple of months with house painting, fence building and life... but I hope to get started on some new cuties in the next couple of weeks.

Over and Out! ♥

To Do Lists & More...

Over the weekend I found a to do list from last year I wrote for my hubby and he did not believe me at first that it was from a year ago because the whole list is still relevent. We had quite the laugh Saturday morning about it.

He did get one thing crossed off this list this weekend, we painted most of the house except for the bedrooms. So that was my Mother's Day gift from him...I did do half the work though. For Mother's Day my son gave me this beautiful beaded necklace he made at school. It is the perfect size, heavy and has some gorgeous glass beads. See the picture below of the necklace and my new wall color. The color is called London Bridge, a soft grey with a hint of blue.

I rebel from the color beige, all the homes and new homes are beige galore. Once we rented a place that had beige everywhere, I ended up disliking it and feeling depressed with the color so much that we moved 3 months later. I never knew color could affect someone so much, maybe it was my subconscience feeling like the color is dirty? I'm such a clean freak... :P

So now lets talk plushies, hmmm...I don't know whats going on in the Etsy world since I've been so busy but it has been 24 days since I've had a sale. It is really strange? I've renewed more than I should, promoted, twittered, flickr'd, etc. I'm not sure what to do now and I'm feeling a bit of defeat. I have 30 plushies available and that is 10 more than I usually make available??? To view my plushies that are available please take a look, http://www.gush4plush.etsy.com/

Sadly, I've also had my first lost package. After over 150 packages mailed out, one has gotten lost or is taking an extended trip around the world, maybe even entertaining the US Customs officers and the funny thing is, it is a piece of Poop plushie. Wherever the Poop is I hope he has brought joy and smiles. :)

♥

Gnomes

These two garden gnomes have watched over my rock garden for the last 5 years. They were badly weathered and had no color left on them so I decided to give them a paint job. I use acrylic paints and sealed them with Triple-Thick Cyrstal Clear Glaze.

I love my gnomes, they have something magical, whimsical about them and they give the little children something to "owww" and "ahhh" about when they walk by the house. Now I'm on the hunt for a 5-6 inch tall mushroom to add my rock garden this year and a fairy door.

♥

Pansies

Yesturday my son found this little pansy viola flower growing in the grass in our front yard. The seed must have come from a pot of pansies I had near where the flower was found. This hardy little flower has sprouted quickly, just a 1 1/2 weeks ago we still had snow. My son placed this little pansy in a 1 inch tall mug with water for me, isn't it sweet?!!!
♥

100 Years Ago...

100 years ago far, far away... my Grandmother was born, April 20, 1909. Born in Amsterdam, Holland she was the 7th child of ten children. Her father was a tram conductor that were pulled by horses, then later a ticket collector. Her mother was full of energy and good humour raising ten children, she was handy with tools and she learned to ride a bike in her fifties.

My Grandma was active in gymnastics, she lived through the war and as a single mother she immigrated with a daughter in 1949 to British Columbia, Canada along with a younger sister and her son. She remarried, owned an orchard in Keremeos, BC and had my mother and a son in her 40's. In the 70's after her husband passed and children moved on, she moved and lived in Penticton BC, always very close to her sister until she pass on in 2002 at the age of 93. She was very artistic, a neat freak and a worry wort. Unfortunately, there is not much history I have to pass on to my son and would have loved to know more about her life, the old country, war (I know she did not want to talk about that) but maybe I can track down old relatives for more info.

Left to right-me (I guess I was poutting or something), my little sister and my Grandmother at Fort Edmonton Park. When she would visit, we would take her to all the attractions in Edmonton.

I miss her!

She wanted to live to be 100 years old and in my heart she has done it!

Love S ♥

Giddy

I feel giddy right now. I just got back from the post office and I mailed out my surprises. I hope the recipients are surprised and elated by this random act of giving. I recommend it to all Etsy sellers to once in a while send out a surprise, it makes you feel REALLY good!

♥

Chocolate, Games and Monsters

It was a beautiful Easter weekend of great weather, chocolate and the snow had melted all away. I did my usual clean freaky thing and made 10 monsters over the weekend as the guys did yard work and played video games. They are currently working on Super Smash Bros. Brawlers for the Wii, unlocking certain characters and collecting trophies. I don't really know anything about it. :)

For Easter my son got this large solid chocolate and crispy Easter bunny. It had come from Walmart, made in Canada and I was impressed. It is made with real cocoa butter, no fatty oils, very few ingredients, the cost was cheap and very, very good!!! It beats the expensive chocolates that sometimes seem too simulated to be real chocolate and not very good. I hope everyone had a great Easter!

I have to say my blog seems really drab, hey? Just alot of blah blah blah. Sorry about that. I'm no writer that for sure but I'll try to add more monster roars and giggles for you all. :P

♥

"Giggle, Giggle"

Lost

Lost, I'm not talking about the show, I've just been feeling a little lost lately. What to do, should I go out, what to clean, what to make, when to do this and that? When spring comes around, there seems to be so much to do. The thought is exhausting.

Today I have started on the front closet. Taking out the winter stuff, making piles of giveaways, laundry, throw out and keeps. Then going through the summer keeps or giveaways. I hope to see the back of the closet soon. :D

My new Teeny Tiny Plush Monsters are now available at gush4plush . Great for Blythe dolls, Barbie's, Legos, and even little green army men. The playing possibilities are endless with these teeny tiny plush monsters!

♥