Make Your ♥ Melt Monday

Before I present you with this week's furry kids in need of a home, I want to share a link to a site I came across while Stumbling a few nights ago. This page showed the before and after photos of animals that have been neglected and abused. This made me both extremely sad and angry at two different kinds of people. I was not only angry at the kinds of people who treat animals this inhumanely (obviously), but I was also angry with people who breed dogs and cats. Sorry if I offend you, but after spending so much time in an animal shelter, I have a very low tolerance towards people who opt to breed. There are way way way too many animals wandering the streets and left to rot in animal shelters... stop creating more animals!!!

Ok, enough angry ranting. Here are the furry kids.  :)

Annie is a female Rat Terrier.

Bonzi is a male Chihuahua Pug mix.

Cappy is a male Pit Bull Terrier.

Mason is a male Border Collie Husky.

Piglet is a male Pomeranian.

Taz is a male Chow Chow mix.

New portfolio site redesign!

If you knew anything about me and my capabilities/thoughts on web design, you'd know I'm slightly retarded. Ok, a lot retarded. That "gibberish" (as I've heard it called) scares the bejesus out of me and HTML may as well be some long lost language. I hated our web classes in college and I partially blame the teacher on that one. Coincidence that the majority of my class graduated without understanding a lick about the web? I think not.

But anyways, huge huge accomplishment for me this week! I had grabbed a template to work off of a long time ago for my portfolio website. No way in hell I was going to come up with something functional AND cool all by my lonesome. I have to say, I was pretty proud of what I came up with after altering the HTML the first time. . Alas, I grew a little tired of it and wanted to spice it up. AND... drum roll please... I sort of had the itch to dabble in some code again. Weird, huh? 

I've done a lot of googling the last few weeks and have watched an obscene amount of YouTube videos on how to make my site do what I want. Dear web developers, I secretly envy you and your creepy coding tunnel vision. This web mumbo jumbo makes my brain hurt. However, without further ado, I present the slightly redesigned www.andreaarchambault.com. Take a peak, let me know what you think!

Index page

One of the portfolio pages

Contact page

It's a girl!

BABY UPDATE: My best friend and her husband found out that they will be having a little girl in December. :) I'm just so excited for them, I can't stand it! I think I had my BlackBerry glued to my hand all day Tuesday in anticipation of the news. Me and my ovaries are definitely living vicariously through her. Again, a huge congratulations to Sarah and Phil and their future lil princess. I can't wait to meet you! xoxo

First Anniversary

Yesterday marked our first wedding anniversary and we decided on a getaway to Mackinac Island. I love the island. It's such a unique, quiet place to go and just really enjoy the outdoors and whoever you're with. Clay and I made the drive after we got out of work Friday evening and ended up in Mackinaw City around 10ish. Determined not to be our stereotypical old selves, we found a second wind and headed out to the bars. Talk about a desolate town in the middle of prime tourist season. I think there were like 5 people max, but it was fun.

Saturday, we were on the island by 10:30 after dealing with the retarded ferry company. Don't advertise free parking and have a sign by your lot indicating "overnight parking"... then tell us we need to go park off site. Anyways, it was a beautiful day on the island. Not a cloud in the sky, cool breeze, sun shining. Perfect day. Clay and I decided we were going to conquer the inner trails instead of going around the outside perimeter. First few wrong turns led us up steep, root-bound dirt paths that didn't go anywhere. Once we figured out where we were going, had a great time off the beaten path.

I have to share our awesome string of luck though! Went to the fudge place and picked up some mint fudge  for me and taffy for Clay (because he's weird)... costed $15.50. Clay handed the girl a 20 and we got $18.50 back. Whoo hoo overpriced fudge and taffy for only $1.50! Walked next door to check into our hotel that we only had reserved the "cheap" interior room in... front desk lady tells us she's upgraded us to the honeymoon suite! Went to dinner, had some fantastic fettucini alfredo , then went to the Pink Pony for drinks. A guy stumbles in the bar, proclaims he has been smashed since noon and buys a $75 bottle of champagne for me, Clay and the awesome couple next to us and then just left. We should've played the lottery Saturday... feeling way lucky!

Left Sunday morning and hit the road by 11. Went to mom and dad's to cool off in the pool, have some dinner with all 6 of us and grabbed Zora to go home. Absolutely fantastic weekend.... followed by a sluggish Monday. Clay had a secret photo shoot with Zora last week and gave me a really cute picture of the two of them. Great addition to my desk at work. xoxo

Non-anniversary related side note: My best friend finds out the gender of her baby tomorrow and I very very excited for her and her husband! I hope everything goes according to plan!

Stereotypical Mackinac Bridge photo.

The Arches.

My love. Happy anniversary!

Fun times at the Pink Pony.

Make Your ♥ Melt Monday

Sorry everyone for the lack of furry kids over the last few weeks... but I think life can finally get back to normal now. I guess I'll get right to the dogs since I'm going to have an entirely different post dedicated to my anniversary getaway. Cheers folks!

Harlem is a male Pit Bull Terrier mix.

Jennie is a female Pit Bull Terrier mix.

Max is a male Pit Bull Terrier mix.

Sophie is a female Husky.

Boomer is a male Boxer Hound mix.

Island getaway

It's Friday! (I think... ?) This week has been the fastest slow week ever! Rewind to Monday... this week was the International Sales Conference at work. Product Marketing has been bustin' butt for the last several weeks/months getting ready. We should be able to just "sit back and relax" during the conference, but alas, there are always those people who wait until the 11th hour and/or needed things to be done yesterday. So Monday and most of Tuesday were a huge scramble getting things done for the conference WHILE it was going on.

Tuesday was dinner at Salt & Pepper with a big group of co-workers. I actually have a great time going to this dinner every sales conference. I work with some really great people and it's always a ton of laughs and great food. I may have taken a trip or two or four to the desserts table. Oops.

I've also been trying to get Clay's anniversary gift taken care of this week. Everything that could've gone wrong with it did, but it's finally ready to go today. (Nothin' like last minute). As soon as I get out of work today, Clay and I are going to drop Zora off at my mom's and head up to Mackinac Island. This Sunday is our first wedding anniversary. For some reason, it sort of makes me laugh. In this upcoming February, Clay and I will have been together for an entire decade. To say we're only on our first anniversary is just a little funny considering the fast pace at which most people seem to be moving at these days. I noticed a Facebook friend this week had posted her wedding pictures... and they only met 13 months ago. Insane! How do you date, fall in love, know they're the one, become engaged and plan a wedding in just a years time? Call me old fashioned I guess.

But yeah, my apologies for the lack of entries this week. Next week should finally slow down and life will return to normal. And by normal I mean, my house will get cleaned and I'll catch up on everything at work... hopefully.

July 17, 2010

DIY: Trash Bag Can

After a nice (very warm) walk with Miss Zora this morning, she's passed out and I was looking for something to do other than clean the house. My beloved Pinterest gave me the idea to do another DIY craft project and document it here. This one is actually something that'll come in quite handy in my kitchen. For some reason unknown to me, I've been keeping my trash bags downstairs in the fruit cellar. Doesn't do a whole lot of good when my trash cans are all upstairs. So this lil gem will look much nicer in my cupboards than a messy roll of garbage bags. Enjoy!

For starters, you'll need the following items: clean coffee can, roll of trash bags, decorative paper, glue, ruler and something to cut paper with.

Measure the height of the coffee can and cut the height of the paper accordingly. Please note: you may have to tape a string of images together to make it all the way around. Tape one end down to the can, then gradually apply the glue and stick the graphic down.

I used tacky glue and it made the graphic bubble slightly. Spray mount may have worked betteer.

Next, cut a hole in the coffee can lid large enough for a trash bag to slide out of. 

Feed the top of the outside trash bag up through the hole and put the rest of the roll in the can. Sadly, my roll of trash bags sat quite a bit higher than the coffee can, but with a little force, I squeezed the lid on over them.

Ta da! Decorative tin for your trash bag roll! 

Sleepy baby.

Again, no fun Five Question Friday topics this week. Bleh. So I'll talk about my favorite topic, Miss Zora! She's definitely a growing puppy... sleeps constantly. After I get home from work, she'll entertain herself for a little while, then come in and pass out. Tonight we all had TV time again. I love spoon time with her on the couch, she's such a cuddler.

She kinda sucks at watching movies, but great at keeping my feet warm.

Great news! We've been accident free in the Archambault household for 9 days now! She's doing so well on learning new things. I, however, have not done well learning how to cut nails. I hate that job. :( I got the front paws done the other day while Clay restrained her, but I was so nervous, that was about all I could handle.

Zora did super well during her bath last weekend too. Just sat in the back of the tub and let me wash, rinse and dry her, no problem. I heart her so much. I'm so happy she's part of our family. xoxo

Z loves her new bed from my mom. Has her name on it and everything.

Such a daddy's girl... loves to cuddle.

Make Your ♥ Melt Monday

Happy Independence Day! I hope everyone is enjoying the B.E.A.U.T.I.F.U.L summer's day. My day has been pretty uneventful. Attempted to grocery shop this morning until I got all the way to Aldi and realized they were closed. Came home, baked some apple crisp, walked Zora, laundry, picked up the house and botched a fish dinner. Grr. Hopefully my apple crisp will cancel that out.

A little later, Clay and I are going to head down to Holland State Park to watch the fireworks. Should be fun. We haven't gone to see fireworks just the two of us since we first started dating (2002). Thought about bringing Zora, but figured she'd be better off snoozing at home. Luckily she seems to do pretty well with fireworks. People have been lighting them off all weekend around our home and she isn't phased by them at all.

Hmm, what else. Not a whole lot really. Got a few pretty busy weeks ahead of me with work, but a busy day is always better than a slow day. Our anniversary is coming up in a couple weeks and we already have a weekend away planned. More details to come. However, I have NO CLUE what to do for a gift. Even if I tell him that we're not doing gifts for each other, he'll still end up buying something and I'll feel like poop once again. Meh. Any ideas?

Again, hope everyone has a great rest of the 4th and an extra high five for those of us who still have tomorrow off too! Woot! (Sorry Clay).

Coke is a male Chihuahua mix.

Dempsey is a male Husky Labrador Retriever mix.

Murphy is a male Hound mix.

Ronnie is a male Pit Bull Terrier.

Shadow is a male Alaskan Malamute.

Stanley is a male Pit Bull Terrier mix.

Long weekend, high five!

Lately, I've been less than enthused about the quality of questions offered on my usual "Five Question Friday" blog source. I've contemplated thinking up my own questions, but let's face it, by the end of the day Friday... I have nothing left to give. Plus, to top it all off, it has been the longest week ever... only to probably be surpassed by next week. Yay Sales Conference prep. Meh. But! A four day weekend has commenced!!!

Behold... cranky pants.