Emmalyn

A huge huge congratulations to my dear friends Sarah + Phil Teeple on the birth of their daughter Emmalyn Sue! Although Sarah wasn't scheduled to be induced until December 12, Emmalyn decided to make her appearance today at 9:24 AM weighing 7 lbs. 1 oz., and was 20 3/4" long. Mother and baby are doing fine.

Again, congratulations Teeples on your beautiful family! Sending all my love to you guys and can't wait for a visit after the New Year. xoxo

DIY: Decorative Painted Acorns

I originally came across this project on my beloved Pinterest site and have wanted to do it forever. Fall is finally here and as soon as the acorns started to drop, the collection began. Unfortunately, there wasn't single decent oak tree along my normal walking route, so my mom was beyond helpful with gathering enough acorns. Guess doggy poo bags come in handy for other things. :)

When collecting, keep in mind that the burr oak (aka mossy-overcup oak and scrub oak) has the largest acorns. You will want big ones. Filling up a vase takes quite a bit and painting them can become rather tedious. Another thing I did was stick all the acorns in the freezer for a few days. Acorns are pretty buggy and you'll want to kill them before you start your craft project.

Create a white paint and Elmer's glue mixture for your initial coat over the entire acorn. This is also the time you'll want to glue any caps back on that may have popped off. Then put a second coat of just white paint over everything.

The next step is to paint the caps brown. This took me a good solid two coats. I put wax paper down to help with things not sticking. After the brown is dry, go ahead and paint the rest of it with the color of your choice.

The final step was to spray everything with an aerosol mod podge as a protective coating and to give them a little shine. I found this cylinder vase at the dollar store to put all the acorns in. Ta da!

A + Z Time

While Clayton is in Missouri this week for hunting, it's been a lot of Andrea and Zora time since I got back from West Virginia. I've also decided that Clay's side of the bed shouldn't go unused while he's away, so Zora's keeping it nice and warm. We'll see if he gets it back.

Zora was also a bad ass trick-or-treating assistant. She waited by the window and then would come woof at me when kids were coming to the door. Worked out pretty well since I was trying to multi-task and clean house while handing out candy. I put the baby gate in the front door so Zora could see the kids, but wouldn't get outside.

Andrea and Zora weekend was pretty uneventful. I spent two days cleaning out the Malibu. That poor car... Clay trashed it. Anyone have a super-duty upholstery cleaner to recommend? I've tried Resolve, a felsnaptha bar, Awesome, Shout... even with my big carpet scrubber, those seats are stained with grease, oil, dirt, deer blood, Mountain Dew, Little Debbies.... (I married a 27 year old child). Any helpful hints would be greatly appreciated.

We also had a play date with Mojo and Grace at Kristen's house. Zora apparently forgot how to play. :/ I also fixed the fuzzy computer feet marks in my kitchen table. Well, hopefully. Had to do a few coats, but hopefully it'll all even out. Um, other than that, hope to do a few craft projects this week before Clay AND my parents come home.  :)

Have a great week everyone!  

We traded bandanas, so we were each other for Halloween.

Sleepy baby.

Zora's mini prison while I worked out in the garage.

She likes Jello... and cool whip.

I swear, the course ate our balls.

I went golfing with my dad for the first time ever today! Well, kinda. Let me back up. Many many moons ago, Clay took me golfing as a surprise. Let's just say it ended badly. As an athlete, you'd think I'd have semi-decent hand-eye coordination. Um, no. Could not connect with the ball to save my life... even with a driver. My best shot was with an iron or something that banked off of a tree onto the green. It was rather amusing to the group of old guys who opted to stand by and watch this disaster.

Today was a different story. (Yes, I warned my dad ahead of time that I was horrible.) He took me to my first driving range for a test run. I actually did a lot better than I thought I would and really had a lot of fun. I may or may not have swung the club similar to a baseball swing, but hey, whatever. And yes, sometimes I whiffed it hard enough to make it fall off the tee and roll 3 feet away. No judgement.

After feeling a bit more confident, Dad and I headed to a more deserted golf course to save me from any embarrassment. My driving range victory was pretty short lived. I lost a ball in a tree on the first hole. Yes, IN the tree... just decided never to come down. Then on the same hole, hit another one into a huge overgrown area that dad refused to fish through due to snakes. We started out with 10 balls and came back with 4... and that includes the additional 4 we found. Fail. But I swear, the course ate our balls. We would hit one straight down the fairway, and by the time we drove up to it, the ball was gone. The long grass and shit ton of leaves didn't help. The highlight of the day was the house dad nailed 200 yards away.

Also went and saw where dad works down here in WV. Saw some really cool pictures of the flood they had back in the... 30s? There's even a sign with a line indicating the water height that's on the second floor of the building. The flood walls around the entire campus... well, town actually... make it look like a maximum security prison. My favorite part of his work was the metal row boat tied up in the rafters of the parking area. It's there to get people over the river if it ever floods and they're stuck at work. Yeah, no joke.

Emergency boat.

Welp, better get off to bed. Aunt Cindy and I have a 10.5 hour drive tomorrow and we're hoping to hit the road by 7:30 AM. Eww.

Portfolio tummy tuck.

Yes, I sucked the fat from my blog and website layout. Cleaner, less cluttered, simple. I know, I feel like I change them quite regularly, but I can't help it. I spent the last week (of my vacation, yes) asking my friend Google how to make certain changes to my blog. I think it's how I'd like it... for awhile at least. I was hoping integrate my blog and website by using Wordpress, but tech-savvy I am not. Anyways, check it out.  :)

On the serious side, my many thoughts and prayers are with the Sagan/Sorensen/Winsemius families and friends tonight. Another young life left this earth too soon from a family still grieving from two other losses just recently. My heart aches for them. This is another heartbreaking reminder to cherish every single moment of your life... for time favors no one. Rest in peace Derek.

WV: The land of bad manners and few teeth

Since Mr. Clayton decided to take all of his vacation time to hunt this year, I decided to use up one of my weeks to visit the folks in West Virginia. Flew down here after work on Friday and will drive home with my aunt next Sunday. Saturday was a typical Zylstra family vacation with a lot packed into one day... pretty sure we're still recovering. Drove to Fayetteville to visit the New River Gorge... the scenic overlook, the top, middle and bottom of the gorge, a waterfall and hiked out to a large rock overlook. It was an excellent day spent with family.

New River Gorge - Grandview overlook

Fayetteville bridge over New River Gorge

I may or may not have been on an excessive eating binge while I'm down here... but dear Lord, puppy chow is irresistible. I just at the powdered sugar remains from a tupperware of puppy chow... with a spoon... like a crack addict. No judging, please.

...aaaaaaaaaaand, Miss Naomi is my little love bug this week. She lives in the same apartment complex as the parents; adorable. Plus, she just stopped by with her Nala Halloween costume... omg. Hang in there ovaries... soon.

Naomi and I

APB Newsletter launch!

Attention boys and girls... the Animal Placement Bureau newsletter has finally been launched! After about a month and a half of building the template, collecting subscriber lists, finding stories, getting the right permissions and all the other little details... the newsletter was finally launched yesterday afternoon. I know Friday afternoons aren't the most ideal time to send out mass mailings, but I really wanted to get it out in the beginning of the month and was too excited to wait until Monday.

So far there's been a pretty decent response despite that 69% of the mailing list has yet to open it. I was granted access to both the APB Twitter and Facebook accounts in order to link the newsletter to both sites. I find myself checking the status reports quite often to see how many more opens, clicks, re-tweets and likes we're getting on this. 

Feel free to check out the newsletter HERE and subscribe if you'd like to receive these every month! 

e-newsletter eve.

Holy freelance projects rolling in! And holy stuff to do at work! Feeling a bit overwhelmed right now... deeeeeeep breath. I just finished up the Animal Placement Bureau e-newsletter layout and all prep work, so hopefully it can launch tomorrow! Fingers and toes crossed that all the subscribers actually receive a functioning email... no broken links, no missing pictures, no jibberish of any sorts. Check out the APB Facebook page to sign up for these monthly newsletters. Stay tuned everyone... more to come tomorrow.

Hunting Season... Day One

Ah, hello hunting season... we meet again. You dirty homewrecker. As day one of being a widow draws to an end, I reflect on how awesome I am. Spent my day going to the dog park... twice, cleaning the house, shampooing carpets, eating 1/2 a bag of Oreos, watching an entire season of 24 and painting acorns (don't ask). Yes, that's how cool people like me spend their Saturday nights. At least Zora doesn't desert me.

Speaking of the dog park, I'm digging this little social experiment more and more every time I go. It's doing wonders for socializing the pup and I just love how she plays so hard for 45 minutes or so, then passes out at home. She gets to play, I get stuff done without having to baby sit her... win win. Yes, I still have to supervise her every movement. It's like taking care of a toddler. I follow her from room to room every minute of the day. I still fear for my furniture and as of last night, Zayla and Zora decided to have a territorial pissing contest in just about every room of my house. Awesome. 

Let's see, what else. Freelance work has been keeping me pretty busy. Swamped, really. Can't complain though... gives me something to do while the husband is prancing through the forest. Um, going to West Virginia at the end of the month to spend 10 days with mom, dad, Aunt Cin and Miss Peanut. Definitely looking forward to that. I talk to my mom or dad every day while their down there and it'll be nice to finally meet the neighbors and dogs they reference. Excited to meet all 3 of Peanut's boyfriends... she's such a floozy. ;)

Well people, gotta get to bed. Church in the morning, THEN.... decorating the house! The only thing I like about fall/winter is being able to decorate for the different holidays. Good stuff. :)  'Night everyone. 

Save a life. Take better photos.

Yes. Better photos save lives. It appalls me that shelters think throwing up unflattering photos of animals behind a chain link fence with crap in their eyes and dirty fur makes them marketable. Most people won't take a second glance at an animal who looks possessed in their photos. Take a look at this video a fellow designer sent me... common sense people. Common sense.

A thumbs up to The Animal Placement Bureau for taking most of their animal's photos in front of a backdrop, in good lighting and multiple poses. I look at Petfinder and can't help but wonder how many of those dogs will never get a fair chance because someone can't be bothered to attempt to take a decent photo of them. You don't have to be a professional photographer to take a better photo. For example:

1. Get the dogs out from behind the chainlink fence.
2. Wipe the gunk out of their eyes... no one wants a diseased looking dog.
3. Give 'em a good brushing.
4. Crappy lighting inside? Go outside and use the natural light.
5. I know how animals choose to lay/sit sometimes, but please, no crotch shots.

Really people, it's just not that hard. Take a look at some of these photos. I give these "photographers" the Mmmm, no. award.

I'm pretty sure this dog needs all the help it can get. A pretty bow would work wonders.

Ooooh, pretty ball. Oh hey! There's a dog in the background!

Dude, he looks crazy.

I promise the big, bad doggy won't attack you. Please move in closer or use this cool feature called "zoom."

There are no words.

...and my most favorite profile picture...

Really people?!?! When marketing homes and animals, never ever ever should this phrase be present! Why would anyone waste their time considering purchasing something they cannot see. Mind boggling, I tell you. Mind boggling.