Those are my handmade Christmas cards from this year. They were a ton of fun to make. I still can’t believe Christmas is this week, let alone just two short days away. I am all done with shopping and baking, but still feel all out of whack with the holiday coming. Just feels like it should be another week away or something. I’m hoping to take a few days off this week and just veg out. Really need a day to shut off the phone and computer and just do nothing but watch cheesy tv and eat a bunch of junk food. Will be around here sporadically until the new year.

Need to go walk this guy in a few here. My wrists are hurting and I can’t seem to type straight. Managed to write 7,000 words in the past two days in an attempt to catch up, so I can slow down the pace just a touch on the novel writing. I hope to be at 30k by Wednesday then I won’t be too far behind. It is nice to set goals and reach them, I think that is why I am refusing to give this up this year. I don’t even know if I will ever get around to editing this novel, but it is nice to set out that goal that I will write 50k in a month, and then to achieve it. I know the feeling I had two years ago upon completing the challenge was amazing.

So with that my legs need a workout now that I have sat here planted for the past three hours typing away…

I just realized I had not posted any photos of CJ from Halloween. I dress him up every year. He probably sees it as torture or something close. This year though the costume was a pumpkin and it was more like a t-shirt, which he can handle. It had a hood but it wouldn’t stay up and CJ is not a big fan of stuff on his head. So here are some of the highlights of the photo shoot…

He really is such a good dog when it comes to getting his photo taken. He will now sit and stay without me even having a treat in my hand. I kept trying to sit on the ground though during these and he didn’t understand what I was doing so he would come over and sniff me. Silly Dog!

Will definitely be missing this guy while i’m gone. I really do hate leaving him, he doesn’t understand like people do. Finally I am all packed up, have a few very minor things to remember in the morning, but otherwise the suitcase is ready to go! And so am I. I am excited and can’t wait to get out there and meet everyone!

Will be back next week with many, many stories to share I am sure. Oh yes I will take pictures!

So CJ my totally loveable black lab is mostly a very calm dog. There are times where he just stares off into space I am sure contemplating when his next meal will be served or whether he will get to play fetch. Every so often though we will just be playing tug a war or keep away with one of his toys and he just loses it. All out spaz fest running around in circles, and he gets this look in his eye like just push him a little further and he may just lose his marbles completely. Up until today I have not been able to get this spaz fest on video. I got the tail end of one today. It was a mini spaz out but it’s just a little taste of what he is capable of. The funny thing about all this is, after he stops he will just go about his business like nothing happened.

Weird dog.

 Click on it to go to the site… CJ is very proud of his little home on the web. Updated Daily!

Yesterday we celebrated CJ’s gotcha day, since we don’t know his birthday this is the day we celebrate. Three long years ago we picked CJ and brought him home. He was underweight and sick, but we got through it all in the first year and ever since he has been the best dog a girl could ask for. Especially since I had waited many, many years to finally get a dog.

So Happy Gotcha day CJ… here are some videos from yesterday.

Happy New Year!! I have not fallen off the face of the earth, but rather decided to take a hiatus from just about everything to spend some wonderful time off with family, friends, and most importantly sleeping in. As my mini vacation is about to spiral to an end at 6:30 a.m. when the alarm goes off it is back to work tomorrow.

My new year was nothing much to speak of, I spent it huddled under a blanket and went to bed promptly at 12:03 or something close to that.

I am excited about the new year, and have many challenges I know I must face this year and hopefully will pull through them all without losing my mind along the way. I have some lofty goals for my illustrations this year, and some other things up my sleeve that will be revealed in due time. I am sure this year will be full of ups and downs as every year is always full of them, but hopefully this is THE year for some stuff to move forward, and little me to keep on trucking down that road.

And I’ll leave you with a little glimpse into my holiday…

My cards went out last week…CJ took a special photo just for the card. Here is the photo I used and below it the cards all assembled and ready to go out.

Just a little sneak peak of my holiday cards, just went out today. Will post photos of what the card actually looks like but don’t want to ruin the surprise for anyone who may get them that reads this blog. But a little hint, CJ’s weekend of trauma didn’t end on Saturday…