Gift Day

Isn't it interesting how things come in sometimes just at the right time! I received this cute little purple star necklace I won in a blog giveaway by Ashley Spatula at http://ashleyspatula.etsy.com/ These each retail for $14.00 and come in various colors.

I also received in the same package some sort of CD-R that looks like it has 3 songs from http://www.sarahmacband.com/ which I haven't listened to yet but will soon.

Thanks, Ashley for the great gifts!

Also, I have now received the PMC I ordered and the molding compound. Now all I'm waiting for are the custom rubber stamps and I'll be all set to start my new line of jewelry!

I woke up surprisingly calm and renewed this morning. It may have been because I took some pain medication last night and the quality of my sleep was better. My head was killing me and my body was inflamed when I finally hit the hay, but since I awoke bright-eyed and bushy-tailed I decided to try to take some pictures of Carmella in the morning light. We were out in the backyard for about 3 hours.

Carmella was in a rambuncious mood and insisted on chewing my hands, arms, and shoes, or dive-bombing me taking a running start. She was not interested in chewing on pine cones after awhile and she quickly got bored chasing sticks, so I wrestled around with her and that seemed to finally tire her out enough so that she sat calmly sprawled across my lap and let me pet her for a good 20 minutes without the incessant gnawing on me. I got several really good pictures of her and tried to get some interesting angles other than just the traditional dog poses. Quite a number of them taken over the several-hour period had to be deleted because they were too blurred due to her moving around. I did get a few good action shots though in which the blur did not really detract from the photo.

I noticed that she was still falling every so often and it was sometimes her back leg that gave out, not always her front right. Even so, it was enjoyable for her to be active outdoors and it was a special time for both of us to just sit quietly. I'm rarely up that early these days and I'd already had an omelet and my iced coffee before going out there with Carmella.

There were some tufts of pine needles lying around amongst the leaves, sticks, and pinecones and the way the light was hitting the tops of things I thought shooting some holiday cards this time of morning might be a good idea.

There was no word today from Dr. Norwood's office, so I took the opportunity to take care of some other things that needed to be done with the jewelry street team I run. I found some resources on advertising that might be of use to the team, checked the forum, and followed up on some e-mails and convos.

I am beginning to gather some National news media contacts and will be collecting more over the weekend.

Other than that I want to make a point of spending some quality time with Carmella. When I came into the kitchen tonight she did something really cute I've never seen her do before. I wish I had been able to get a picture of it but she only stayed that way for about 2-3 seconds. She stood up on her haunches in that "beg" position that some dogs do and balanced. If I can teach her to do that on command it will be so cool! I sure hope her back legs hold on and that the jerking or incoordination won't prevent her from doing things like that. She is so intelligent! I bet I could teach her to do lots of neat tricks! I'm working on getting her to stay currently. She gets so hyped up that she doesn't always listen and will get up and walk away or come towards me before she's supposed to, but she is getting the concept.

http://Giftbearer.etsy.com/