let them be little

A week ago we had the privilege of having our little granddaughters stay with us for the whole weekend.It was the first time we were brave enough to have our little Summer,who is 10 months old now,stay with us for that long.We had the best time ever.It wasn't so much what we did, but just having the two of them all to ourselves for two whole days was special enough.Hannah and I made cookies, she loves baking with me. We all went to the pool(it was Summer's first time) and visited their great-grandmas.Summer has two teeth now,crawls and walks around the coffee table.

I know that many of you are grandparents and understand the joy that these little ones bring to us.Just two years ago we hadn't even met Hannah,now we have her and Summer in our lives and can't imagine it without them. I feel so lucky,so blessed,so happy and you will see by the pictures that grandpa Gord feels the same way.What an absolute joy they are.I think that I appreciate little kids even more now that I'm a Grandma. Everything just seems so precious.Does that make sense to you? Is it because they aren't with us everyday or is it that we are older now? I don't know but I just love it.

On the way taking these sweet little ones home,we talked and decided that as long as it is possible we want to have a weekend like this once a month for as long as they want to come.Expect many updates!

A must have for the fur kids

Awhile ago my friend Carmen(give her a visit if you haven't yet,she is very creative,makes the nicest candles and more importantly,the kind of person who makes you feel like you are amongst friends the moment you connect with her. http://waxedoutcreativelife.blogspot.com/ did a post showing the fur she had brushed out of her cute little bunny and it made me think of the cool tool I found last year so I told her about it.It's called the furminator.I had heard about it and seen them in the stores but they aren't cheap so for a long time I didn't get one.I have used various tools with poor results the best thing I had used prior to this was the shedding blade.Finally I broke down and bought a furminator and there is no turning back.It works so well that I wanted to share it with you. One more thing,I have always looked forward to Nickicrumpet's cartoon posts http://nikkicrumpet.blogspot.com/of her dogs,with the speech bubbles.I know mine isn't as funny but I sure enjoyed doing it,hope you don't mind me stealing your ideas cause they are good ones,you inspire me!
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http://www.furminator.com/shedless.cfm Check out the site for more info.The hair that comes off of those guys makes Cloud look like a mexican hairless.(imagine a bald dog because I don't know the rules regarding taking pictures from other sites)
They also have a video showing how to use it.I just can't believe how good it works and wanted others to know about it if they haven't tried it.Pet hair can be such a problem in our homes.It doesn't have to be with this tool,it's made a big difference here.Most people would probably have made this guy live outside but I would never do that so I had to find something to help with his shedding problems.



That is from my boy Cloud.He sheds alot,it's just the way he is.I feed him a good, healthy diet for a dog.I have researched dog food in depth,so it's not from poor nutrition.It took me about 15 minutes of grooming to get that amount out.I know I could have got more but that seems to be about his limit for grooming at one time. I have been too busy to groom him for about 2 months.Generally,I do this every week and if you keep it up,it's not bad at all.The first time I used it I got about 4 times that amount of hair from him.It is so obvious if I haven't had time to brush him,the hair is just everywhere.Used weekly,I hardly see a white hair anywhere,what a relief.

He is a good boy and I tell him that he looks like a show dog when I'm grooming him...and he believes every word. :)

Instructions come with the tool,be gentle,it will come out easily,no need to press hard when you use it.It comes in 3 different sizes,I got the medium size so I could use it on Shady and the dogs.I don't know if the blade ever wears out,if you can replace it or if you just have to rebuy...and I will if I have to.




Here is the pile I got from my cat Shady.That is 2 minutes worth! He doesn't like it too much,squirms around a little.He hasn't been done all winter.Yes,I could have got more from him but I don't like to turn it into such a bad experience that he runs if he sees me coming with it.He gets his rewards,as you can see...man he loves those things.He looks so shiny after...see

It's a good thing my girl Roxy doesn't shed much because she has about as much patience as me and that is not much.




She is such a diva.I do brush her a little,maybe for 1 minutes tops is all she will allow.She likes to come over to Cloud and try to attack(play) with him while he is getting groomed because she knows he has to stand there like a good boy while I'm brushing him...she is such a troublemaker,funny dog though and very affectionate.

Poor Cloud,I'm sure he was hoping this was going to happen....


Later Cloud,I promise!

Met Monday - guest bath

First of all I would like to again thank Susan for hosting this event,even when I'm not participating it is great fun to see the improvements that others are making in their homes.Make sure you go to Susan's blog to see the complete list of current participants and pay them all a visit.Susan has shared her beautiful front entry makeover this week and it is gorgeous.

http://betweennapsontheporch.blogspot.com/

Well,it's been 2 weeks since my last post so I thought it was about time to do something else here.My job has been keeping me away from doing very much blogging lately and I apologize for not being able to pay more visits around blog land lately.I'm happy to say that it doesn't look like they will be needing me very much for awhile anyway and you may see a little bit more of me around your blogs.Thanks so much to all of you who have visited my blog,I really enjoy your comments.

When we first got this place part of the space where this bathroom now is was part of an addition that came with the mobile home, it was an entry porch.We even changed where all the entry ways are so we used part of this space to make a small powder room.The other part of the space was used as a laundry room.Over time my husband missed having a real shower and got an idea to use part of the laundry room,that was really only being used for extra storage for the addition of a shower.These pictures show the first little bathroom he made,I took them right before the wall was taken down to add the shower.I really did like the faux finish I had done in there but I was getting a little tired of the look anyway.

So the wall that the sink was on got knocked out to make room for the shower.I did get to pick everything out but I had to do it fast.When he decided to do this he didn't waste anytime.


We had just enough travertine tile to do the floor,right down to the last tile.I had seen it on a great deal at home depot months earlier and just bought it on a whim,not having a clue what I would use it for...got lucky.The vanity is certainly not a one of a kind,got it at a local lumber store for $100.The mirror and glass shelf were a tiny splurge from home depot.The mirror tilts and is perfect for when he shaves he tells me.

I am sure you can see some of the grout still on the tile in this picture,it is all off now though.I had an idea to try something different on the ceiling of the shower and so we used a product called miroflex tile.It has that old tin look and claimed to be extremely waterproof.I am pretty happy with it except I still wish that I had chosen one that was a little plainer and closer to the color of the tiles.We looked at doors and I wanted a frame less glass door but we would have had to special order it and they were very expensive.I did a little research and decided to give it a try without a door.We knew we could always add it on later if we thought it was needed....luckily,it's not.Water doesn't splash out and it makes it feel very open and larger.The little glass blocks have lights behind them for extra lighting in the shower space.The ceiling is quite low so it wasn't possible to have them in the ceiling part of the shower.





We kept the same toilet but added a cabinet for extra storage.This cabinet had sandblasted glass in it that was damaged.They let me pick out any glass that I wanted at no extra charge! I chose this one because it camouflages items well and the glass is exactly the same as the glass blocks.


I bought paint and the color was so bad,I think he might have mixed it wrong because I can't believe I picked something so far off from what I had in mind.I ended up using some of the left over paint from the kitchen,added some of the dining room paint color to it and who know what else and it turned out to be just what I had in mind.My husband thinks I'm crazy when I do that but it wasn't the first time and it won't be the last either.

So there it is,I've never used it but they tell me it's a good shower,I'm a bath girl.We are currently planning out and making purchases for my bathroom redo which hopefully gets going over the next couple of months.I have been able to take my time making every decision for that project slowly unlike this whirlwind project.