surprises around every corner

It's just been one change after another in the Heemstra household over the last few weeks, but hopefully this will be the last for awhile. Today, we entered puppy-parenthood! While we were planning to get a dog eventually, we did not intend to bring one home on November 29th.

My wonderful hubby was planning to get me a dog for Christmas but decided to go to the Humane Society today to check out the situation and see what went into adopting. Apparently the Humane Society does not hold dogs and you are allowed to bring a dog home with you upon your first meeting (I've never heard of this before). So, when Andy ran into Tweedle, a dog we had seen on the petfinder.com website a few weeks ago and fell in love, (awwww) it was do-or-die time. "Tweedle" was sitting quitely in his cage watching Andy walk around when all the other dogs were barking their heads off. When Andy asked to see him in a visiting room, he jumped all over Andy and made it very well known that he wanted to be taken home. After much deliberation, we decided that Andy should return to the Humane Society this afternoon and bring Tweedle home.

It has been an afternoon to remember, the first time I met our new dog he did not even give me a chance to say hi, he immediately began licking my face. At a visit to PetSmart he wanted to meet all the other dogs and had fun entertaining all the sales people as he dragged us around the store. We purchased all the puppy necessities- a cage, food, food and water bowls, a brush, a chew toy, rawhide bone, collar and leash, and of course, treats...and headed home to meet the kitties. Just kidding, they are hidden away in the basement at the moment. Not, however until after Louis caught sight of him and immediately every hair stood on end and he let out an unearthly hiss.

Anyways, Tweedle has since been renamed so meet Samson!!!

"it's beginning to look alot like christmas!"

So...I fully intended to make do our first Christmas as husband and wife with the two strands of lights and twenty or so miscellaneous ornaments that i've collected over the years, but my usually uninterested husband suddenly decided that we simply must go all out and decorate more than anyone else on the street. upon finding (some) deals at meijer this evening (10pm by the time we got there) his spirits were not dampened when we had to settle for two "net lights" and a large lighted garland for the front door. our bill was raised slightly by the 16 cans of soup we bought (they are 8 fro $10 right now, Campbell's Chunky-highly recommended, we go through a lot of soup), but still, we were reminded that nothings is cheap during the actual season and we will have to finish stocking up at a few "half off the half off" sales come January 1st.
So, tree decorated, stockings hung, and garland waiting by the front door to be hung in the morning...i'm off to bed. Louis and Whit, who have both tried on the reindeer antlers this evening, thoroughly hating them and then getting into a meowing/tackling fight to burn off their frustration, will hopefully join us in a looooong slumber.
pictures will follow once the decorating is done, but at the moment my cheif decorator is passed out on the couch.
g'night!

The Transformation Begins

Just a little before and after for your Thursday evening enjoyment...
hello (from Andy)


Before

And After....

finally...the lived-in new house!

Welcome home!! (This is my plug for Uppercase Living:))
Our new sofa!! "Stone"-colored microfiber and sooooo comfy! And the loveseat :) For lovin'

Our new dining room table! It is counter-height, so it requires stools, not chairs, and they swivel!! Note, the white shelves you see in the background will soon be painted black!

A close-up of the turned post legs.

Our authentic Mexican plate that we got on our honeymoon hangs in the kitchen. It goes perfectly with the green walls that we didn't have to paint!

My trivets, that I have decided serve me better as wall art.

The living-room. This room is obviously not complete, but it's on it's way!!

If you have to use the restroom...here you go. It's still peach, and yes, that will be changing.

AND NOW...a squirrel chowing down on our pumpkins.

He finished the last one today. White was his last choice in flavor.

There you have it! More to come...

Whatever Happened to the Craft Shows?

What do...
100 Women with their Hubbie's checkbooks and Christmas lists in-hand,
Home made goodies and cheap coffee,
A Christian school gymnasium,
A bunch of Christian School Childrens' mothers with lot of time on their hands,
and many, many homeshow enthusiasts have in common?
They all turned up at a small private school tonight for "Ladies Night Out," a fundrasier for the school. I'm sitting here with my sister "helping" her peddle her trade amongst the local moms and grandmas. As Bradi said, it seems to be the longest two hours ever...not that meeting people and selling Uppercase Living isn't fun, but it would be a lot better if some of the other booths were a little more interesting.
I was hoping to pick up something fun and hand-made for our house but everything here is either handmade and ugly, or manufactured in a factory or perhaps by people in China that don't understand "Pottery Barn" or "Shabby Chic."
Whatever happened to the good ol' craft shows that grandma used to take us to when we were little? The ones that smelled strongly of cinnamon and nutmeg, dried flowers and quilts saved away in an attic. Does anyone else remember going to those? They too were usually held in a school gymnasium or church basement, except that these women had rough hands from hand weaving baskets and wore sweaters that they, in turn, had picked up from a similar crafting excursion.
Usually I trailed along behind my grandma wondering what on earth she saw in all this stuff and how we always seemed to leave with so much junk when I hadn't seen anything that I thought was worth buying. My standards at that age were based primarily on an item's ability to entertain me for as long as possible and this usually meant that it was made of high density plastic and probably plugged into the wall. However, nowadays I wonder where all those handmade items went, and should I really have to go to Shipshewana or Goshen to find them? And then, honestly, unless I buy it out of the back of a buggy from a rather plain looking woman and her thirteen children, can I really be sure that it is authentic Americana merchandise? It still could have been shipped here brand new from Japan having been dropped a few times along the way giving the item it'd distressed appearance!
Ok, maybe that is a bit overboard, but as I get older I'm really starting to appreciate the authentic. In fact, though I know it is almost humanly impossible (given my dutch backround) to NOT buy the knockoffs for the benefit of a less-expensive item, I'm determined to purchase all my home decorating, at least the rustic or antique-y items from a truly rustic or antique-y place.
So now, step two is to set about finding such places as I've mentioned in this blog. I'm sure they still exist, you just need to know where to look. Maybe I should ask my grandma...