Hi, my name is Beth...

and I am a Hoarder. In fact, I'm probably the premier episode of this season's "Hoarders". Honestly, I can't stand my studio like this. It makes me nuts. I can't find anything and when I do, what I want is always on the bottom of a pile...

or that pile...




or this pile.

Why all this craziness? Well, Saturday I'm participating in an Artisan Fair (if you're passing by, stop in at The Ottumwa Bridge View Center 102 Church St. Ottumwa IA) and I've been nutso sewing chick. Over Labor Day weekend I sewed up storm for 56 hrs. I lived on Pepsi and M & M's.

Honestly, I didn't even know there was anything playing on the radio at 2 A.M.

Results? I'm taking with me about 50 chenille purses and a smattering of pillows. Paisley's shop will be selling her signature Puppy Cookies as well.

So why am I baring my soul, showing you my darkest secrets, putting it out there for the whole world to see and snicker at?
It's a reminder:

Creativity is a messy process.








~Beth

P.S. Thank you my family! If you hadn't slipped food and water under the door, I would have surely died!

Dear Lyle...

Did you know how special you were? How incredible we thought you were? Our snack sneaking chatty chipmunk, so funny and sweet. Oh how many times have we begun a conversation and once you got started you could just go on and on; we'd step away or into the next room and still you'd talk, returning minutes later to find you...still talking. I think it's great you just kept going, knowing we'd catch up.

You enjoyed life, simple and straight-forward. Nothing was better for you than being under the hood of an old car with a couple of your kids...unless it's taking a drive in the old car with a couple of your kids. Or taking a drive in the old car with a couple of your kids while having a snack, preferably cake.

You knew your treasures were not of silver and gold and paper currency but in the smiles of your wife, children, grandchildren and great grandchildren. Riches packed into a tender hug or the quickest of "high fives".

I don't think you really knew how much you touched our lives. How a piece of you is tucked away in each one of us. We'll hold onto this piece of you and every time we gather together, we'll bring out all these little bits and we'll have you with us once again.


I'm so glad I knew you.


With love,

~Beth



P.S. Grandpa Lyle, now that you're in heaven, please make time to find Hamster Jerry so neither of you is lonely...





The Legend of the Dragonfly

“In the bottom of an old pond lived some grubs who could not understand why none of their group ever came back after crawling up the lily stems to the top of the water. They promised each other that the next one who was called to make the upward climb would return and tell what had happened to him. Soon one of them felt an urgent impulse to seek the surface; he rested himself on the top of a lily pad and went through a glorious transformation which made him a dragonfly with beautiful wings. In vain he tried to keep his promise. Flying back and forth over the pond, he peered down at his friends below. Then he realized that even if they could see him they would not recognize such a radiant creature as one of their number.

The fact that we cannot see our friends or communicate with them after the transformation which we call death is no proof that they cease to exist.”

1st Birfday...

So Miss Paisley is one year old. Actually, she was one year old on June 16th but because of work schedules we had to put off the big celebration.

So today, after Jaina and I were off from work, we had the big party. HOOT HOOT *cough*

First Jaina, Paisley and I headed to the bestest place in town...Chuck E. Cheese!! Just kidding. We went to PetSmart so Paisels could pick out her own presents. She decided she wanted a parakeet. A real parakeet. Mommy said no.




After a bit we managed to get her to the toy aisle but still she was looking over her shoulder at the tweeties. Here's what we think she was thinking. "Hmmmmmm, the blue ones probably taste like peppermint, the white ones like vanilla, the green ones...lemon-lime??"
There's just soooooo much to see. How does a puppy choose??
Oooooooo! such a cuuuute monkey! And a girl just can't have too many Bobo's...




And what's this?? It's not really a parakeet but a chicken will do!




The treat aisle was soooooo interesting! But everybody knows you have to dig deep cuz the good stuff is always in the back:




The best part was we made some new friends. Meet Maggie and Jasper. Maggie is very outgoing and had no trouble giving out sweet kisses to people she just met. Jasper, on the other hand, is quiet and reserved. He sat patiently while Mom and Maggie chatted the time away.




We headed home but stopped at the Golden Arches for a little party lunch.




Then Paisley generously shared some of the treats for dessert that she had selected. Well, after she had helped herself first. Guess you gotta make sure they're yummy enough for your guests...




I think the guests had a good time. They must have partied hardy as everyone took a little nap afterwards... including the people guests. Paisley sure knows how to have a good time, right guys??






We had fun with our fuzzy friends today. They add so much to our lives( mostly mud and dog fur!) but I couldn't be without them. If you're thinking about finding a new friend for your life, please remember all the sweet faces in animal shelters that are still waiting for their forever homes. Shelters are the only place where you can buy true love.

Did Paisley have fun? I think she'd say: It's the best birfday she's ever had!!



~Beth

V A C A T I O N ! ! !

Guess where we're going...

See ya real soon!

~Beth

Bake sale...

Last weekend Paws and More held a couple of bake sales to benefit the fuzzy friends at the shelter. Jaina and I whipped up a batch each of all the flavors of Bark-tique cookies.


We had lots of work to do and we made a huge mess!



(un)Fortunately we had plenty of help.



er...Maybe TOO much help, in fact. But it was important that everything be "Paisley approved".



They looked so cute when we got them all wrapped and tagged!




We also finished taking new pictures of the cookies we were missing in our Paisley's Pals Etsy shop.


I'm not sure how the bake sales turned out but when we stopped by on Saturday, over half our cookie bags had been sold! I'm hoping our "Bounce Back" discount brings new sales at the shop. I'd really like to help out this wonderful no-kill shelter! The people are so caring and genuinely want these critters to have loving forever homes. I can't imagine life without our little fuzzy rat-face.( Well, I can and I'm sure David does! She sure can be a lot of puppy sometimes...)

Anyway, just doing our part to help out and having some fun in the process!



~Beth

Paisley's Pals...

Because I obviously have too much time on my hands, Jaina and I have started a new project. We've opened a new Etsy shop, Paisley's Pals, with a critter theme and ALL the proceeds are going to the shelter where we got our (not-so) Baby Puppy Paisley. Right now we've added Bark-tique puppy cookies in yummy flavors:



and a fun vintage feed sack purse all foofed up and ready to go!



There are a few more items we've planning on adding, including some new teeny chenille purses and fun squeaker toys. I'm thinking I may need to adopt a 3 day work week with a 4 day weekend in order to get everything done...

Not to mention I could really use the sleep...

~Beth

Mockingbush...

Well, looks like this is it for the Forsythia blooms again this year. I KNEW it. I get my hopes up and then THIS:



It's laughing at me...

~Beth