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Insta-Life – Morning on the Trails with Emma & Quinn

August 25, 2012 in Get the D-Tails, Pups

I just got back from a 3 mile trail run with the girls at a local park. It was so much fun! They’re quietly snoozing on the couch now and I thought it might be fun to share some photos with all of you.

I’m a big fan of Instagram and have been known to ~~over-~~share photos from life, DIY and dogs. If those sounds up your alley, you should definitely connect with me there! My username is craftedniche …I know, shocker right?

It was perfect… even though it’s pretty hot out today, most of our run was in the shade. The trails were clear, although very dusty. Hindsight…. wear old shoes. Whoops. My glowing tangerine shoes were not so glowing…

You can see in the top-right photo above, Emma decided she was pretty tired 1/2 way. They were trying to pull me (which meant an ab workout as I resisted – woop!) and I think it wore her out a bit. What’s a good dog-mom to do? Find a creek for them to cool off in!

We veered off on another trail that showed a nearby creek on my handy-dandy map. How do I know I love my dogs? I climbed DOWN about a 5-6′ drop off to a creek bed… just so they could swim.

I trust my lab Quinn off-leash so I slipped off her leash and used it to extend Emma’s. They had the best time swimming in this deep section of the creek. After a quick dip, it was time to get back on the trail…

What goes down, must come UP. There’s no photos of this part because it got a little messy. I had 2 wet dogs scrambling to climb back up the bluff to the trail. Quinn managed to claw her way to the top, but Emma was stuck. Good thing I wore an old t-shirt. I grabbed that wet-creek-water-boxer and gave her the ol’ heave-ho to the top. Which left me wet, and now clawing my way up too. By the time we got to the top, we were ALL a dusty, dirty hot mess. Oh well… gotta keep moving!

The run really was perfect. We only saw one other runner and a couple of trail-riders on horses. Very relaxing and a fun change of pace after running on sidewalks for a couple months. I planned ahead, knowing we would make a big loop during our run. Where did we end? At a nice, cold creek crossing of course!

If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em!

I forgot how much fun wading in creeks can be. We played in the water for a good 1/2 hour. I had nothing to lose, so I jumped in with my sneakers/socks on.

Awww Quinn…

After a short walk to the car, the girls were all too willing to jump in the back. I think these puppers were ready for a nap!

Hip-hip-hoor-YAY for fun exercise with my pups (and grainy self portraits…)

All in all, a great way to start our weekend. The mowing can always wait… having a little fun with these two was totally worth the muddy paws, dirty shorts and soggy shoes.

Hope all of you have a great weekend!

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DIY with Dad

April 29, 2012 in Bathrooms, Building and Repurposing, Outside, Pups

My Sunday Productivity Level peaked at about 8:30am today… when Dad and I were just finishing up our To-Do list for the weekend. After he packed up and hit the road, I promptly headed to the couch.

And camped.

All. Day.

Don’t judge.

…I can feel you judging me!

We had a great weekend and crossed several items off my list. You see, I’ve been without a second bathroom since last fall when Mom and I did some tiling. Yup, the toilet really has been sitting on a tarp in the shower for ~~five~~ more months than I care to admit. BUT – not anymore!

Dad gave me a quick wax ring how-to (yuck) and then proceeded to drop that baby into place. Hallelujah! A real, live, working second bath! Woop!

A quick dig in his (so friggin’ heavy) bucket o’ tools and he had a hold of his two “must have” tools:

1/2″ and 7/16″ Wrench
1/2″ and 9/16″ Wrench

According to my Dad, these are the two most common sizes you’ll ever need. Noted. Literally… I wrote it down! ..and now that I blogged about it, I can toss that piece of paper and use my blog for reference.

Before I could even stand back and admire my newly re-installed toilet, Dad had already moved on to his next project. Installing a brand-spanking new GLASS STORM DOOR on the front of the house. Oh man – you have NO idea how excited I was about this. I found this door at Lowes last fall on Clearance. It was a $330 special order door that had been returned. Lucky me scored it for $30.

Yes…

THIRTY dollars. Hardware included!

First task… remove the existing door. Come to find out, the brick moulding around the outside was rotten in the bottom right corner:

After a trip to Lowes for a $15 piece of brick moulding, he pried off the old piece and replaced it with the new. Booyah. That’s some handy-Dad work for ya!

I don’t have photos of the actual moulding/door installation process. Sorry. I was the official door holder. Example of how the conversation went…

Dad – “Dana, hold the door and don’t let it fall ok?”

Dana – “Ok, got it.”

Dad – “Are you holding it?”

Dana – “Yep… I got it.”

Dad – “Now don’t let it fall!”

Dana – “I’ve got it Dad.”

Dad – “You holding it still?”

Dana – “………….” <crickets>

LOVE YOU DAD! For the record – “I’ve got it Dad.”

So a couple ~~hours~~ tweaks later and the door was installed and working like a dream!

I may or may not have been standing outside demanding he give me a thumbs up.

Yep, my lanterns are still hanging from my log. You can read more about those here.

I’m seriously loving this door. It really shows oh-so-much-more of my cheery yellow door.

The girls are loving the door too! They like to peer through the glass looking for squirrels, rabbits, people, blowing leaves (yep, those call for a good bark too)… if it moves, they’re interested!

The best part – the door has a lock! I don’t have to worry about one of them jumping up and strategically knocking the handle to let themselves outside. While Quinn would likely stay close to home, Emma’s been known to go on a great adventure around the town (with me on her heels: Furious. Terrified. Screaming.).

I had to adjust the lighting on the picture below so you could see more than just a black hole of a room. The dark blue walls in my living room make it tough to get these shots!

Great before and after right?! The new door is exactly what I wanted.

…and what the girls wanted too…

Dad and I cranked out some other things too while he was here… Re-installed the trim in the bathroom. Put hinges on the bathroom cabinet doors. Picked out some pegs for him to take home (along with the old storm door that’s going to go on his garage!). Oh…. and some beer and Mexican! Labor payments come in the form of food and beverage around here. Interested? Call me… we’ll talk. Currently looking for a concrete person. Willing to pay in Mexican or Sushi!

~~Way too~~ long story short, we accomplished quite a bit for one weekend! The only downside of the entire 2.5 days… finding out my DishNetwork package didn’t include the network playing the Blues Playoff game last night. Ugh. SO frustrating. Instead, I followed along on Twitter, Yahoo and streaming radio online from our local KMOX. Girls gotta do what a girls gotta do!

I’m feeling motivated to keep going in that spare bath now that it’s functional once again. I’ll be sure to share the successes and fails along the way. I’ve already had one major fail… which completely derailed my motivation. I’m back on track now though! Stay posted.

Cheers to productive weekends! Maybe now I’ll get my lazy butt off the couch and crank out a couple more things before the day is up.

P.S. The photo collages / edits in this post were done using a downloaded version of Picasa. I’m still working on figuring it out, but it just might be my replacement for Picnik. Sigh. Oh picnik, how I miss thee.

Cheery Silhouette (re)Prints for the Office

February 5, 2012 in Do it your Dog-Gone Self, Gettin' Crafty, Pups

I’ve been a bad blogger. A bad, bad blogger. I started a new job last Monday and I’m oh-so-excited about it, but it made for a tough week. Trying to get into a new routine, dogs at home all day and officially a commuter once again. BUT – I promise to do better! I just needed last week to get things in order. PLUS – once I get settled in my new position I’ll be able to take the pups with me to the office. Amazing right?! What are the odds that a girl can find not one, but TWO jobs that let her share her workplace with her favorite little munchkins.

So my office…. It needs a little kick. A little personality. A little Dana. I don’t want to go walking int here with armloads of DIY, so I thought I’d play it safe and start little. I have a small shelf in the office above a cabinet that would look cute with a couple little things. Hmmm but what things? Well… you’ve probably figured out by now that I’m OB-SESSED with my dogs. BONUS – everyone at my new office is as dog crazy as me. Being short on time this week, I needed quick and easy so I decided to re-use some of my previous elbow grease. Take a look at this!

Do those faces look familiar? Hmmmmmmmmm…… How about now?

Man… what a difference daylight makes in pictures! Check out the difference between the first and second pics above. Night time…. Daytime…. Literally night and day.

So all I did was resize my silhouettes and print them directly on scrapbook paper as 4×6″ prints. Simple as that! I chose green because that’s the main office color. We even have bright green conference room chairs. Fun right?!

Missed the silhouettes tutorial the first time around? No worries! Here’s the photo editing portion and here’s the printing/assembly! Enjoy!

Have a great week everyone. I promise not to stay away so long. …and once I get some things settled in my office space, I’ll snap you a few pics so you can see where I’ll be spending my 9-5.

As always, I’d love for you to stop by some of my favorite link parties…