Last Sunday I got on Facebook (which isn't something I do very often anymore) and the memory at the top of my feed was this photo of my little Lemon Bean on the first night I brought her home! I had been planning on doing a post about her at some point, and since it's been two years since I got her, it seemed like good timing :)

She is such a funny little thing, and she brings so much joy to our lives it's kind of ridiculous. I'm not one of those people who thinks of animals as being equal to a person (I know she's just a dog), but I do make plenty of fur baby jokes and she's very important to us.




I work part time, but there's been times over the past couple of years when I didn't even do that, and having her here is so great. I don't think it's good to always be by yourself, and a pet is such a good companion to have around. Lemon is playful, snuggly, funny, and she gives me something to do and focus on. She follows me everywhere, and she has such a good personality. Having had several pets over the years, it always surprises me just how different animals' personalities can be. And they're so much smarter than we give them credit for sometimes.

We used to have an aussie/heeler mix several years ago, and unfortunately he was not the breed of dog for us. I did a lot of things wrong with him, and he was just too much to handle. Dane could not stand him, and I ended up having to find him a new home. It took so much convincing for Dane to agree to get another one!


I had been begging and begging for months, and Dane finally agreed to some of my terms (small, inside dog, non-shedding) and I thought I had a breed picked out and I was going to start saving my money. I originally wanted a Havanese puppy (look them up, they are the dang cutest!!) but they are super pricey, so I was perusing Craigslist on a regular basis in case something came up that was a good deal.

Well, one afternoon, I got home from work and started browsing online. I saw an ad for some schnoodle puppies (mini schnauzer/poodle mix) that were as cute as all get out! One of my favorite bloggers/card makers Amanda from Wit & Whistle has two adorable schnoodles, so I knew they were little teddy bear dogs. I did some research on the breed, and they make for such a good pet. Plus, when we were first married, we had a mini schnauzer that was stolen from us, so we knew we liked that breed.

I called Dane and commenced to begging again, haha! It took some bargaining, but he agreed to let me go pick one out, and I was over the moon!


I knew I wanted a girl, and they had a few sable colored girls, and one black. I thought I wanted a lighter colored dog, so I was looking at the lightest of the sables and I was planning on picking her out. Well, I got there and my plans changed very quickly! The family handed the one I picked to me but then the littlest of the litter, this tiny black thing, came waddling over. I picked her up and just melted!

That was it for me. I said it within seconds, this was the one I wanted, and it was just too funny that Dane and I had already decided on the name Lemon after Liz Lemon from 30 Rock, haha! Not very fitting for a black dog, but that's what it was and I think it suits her just fine ;) Plus, I started calling her Lemon Bean almost immediately. So now she goes by Lemon, Lemon Bean, Bean, Bean-Bean, and occasionally Yemen or Melon, because apparently it's a hard word for toddlers.

She has been my little shadow for the last two years, and even Dane couldn't help but admit that she was very cute when I got her home. Now he's gotten almost as attached to her as I am, and she loves him too. She practically throws him a ticker tape parade every day when he gets home from work, and she will lay on his lap and stare at him so adoringly, it makes us laugh so hard!



She's such a friendly dog, and she loves people, other dogs, cats, you name it. And I ask Dane all the time, "Aren't you so glad you let me go and get her?" And he is :)

I also thought today that I'd share some of our favorite dog products, as well as some things I have on my wish list.

1. These treats are hands-down Lemon's favorites. She goes absolutely nuts for them, and I love them because they clean her teeth. One downside of the poodle gene is that they have notoriously bad teeth as they get older, so one way I'm trying to prevent that is by giving her these. And I feel like too much wheat is bad for anyone, so I love that they come in a grain-free option!
2. These little bouncy balls are durable, and they have a squeaker that isn't terribly easy to get to make sound, which means it's less annoying. Plus, it has a hole for putting treats and it makes a great puzzle toy she can work on for long periods of time. It usually hangs out in the car for her to have something to do while we're in town.
3. This de-tangler might be the number one must have on the list, especially for poodle mixes, or any dog that has high maintenance hair. Since Lemon is a non-shedding breed, her hair has a tendency to get knots and mats pretty easily. Rubbing a little of this over her fur before I brush her makes it so much easier, and it even gets tough matting out! I just use a little extra on those spots and voila! 
4. Now we're onto my wish list items. While a treat jar is probably a must, this one is so cute that I may have to get it once we move into the new house. How adorable would it look on a shelf?
5. Lemon has had a few different beds since we've gotten her, and I've been able to figure out what works with some trial and error. This bed has a removable cover that will make washing easier than her current bed. Plus, it's super affordable and available on Prime!
6. Lastly is this squeaky pig. Lemon had a little squeaky pig toy when we first brought her home, and she loved it so much! So when I come across squeaky pigs, I gotta have them! This one has the highest durability rating for this brand, and I actually got her a smaller one that was rated a few steps down. Normally she will destroy a stuffed toy in 10 minutes, but that one lasted a couple of weeks. Since this one seems so much tougher, I think she's going to be getting it for Christmas :) (yes, my dog gets Christmas presents, haha!)

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Yesterday we celebrated our ninth wedding anniversary!

In July we hit our decade mark of being together, and it seems like so long ago, and also like it was just yesterday. That's a long time to get to know somebody!

I'd like to think we've learned a thing or two over nine years, but I don't think I'm one to give marriage advice. We've had our ups and downs, good times and bad, like any marriage. And nine years is enough time to get comfortable and know each other pretty well, but even after all this time, I think we're still learning some things. As your life changes, so do you, and still, on occasion, we learn things about the other one that we didn't know.

Overall though, we know each other's likes and dislikes and I always joke that we are two peas in a pod! We have a tendency to say the same things and read the other's thoughts all the time, and we always get a good laugh out of it when we do.

And that's probably what I'd say my favorite thing is about us, the laughing. We are both kind of dorky, and we love to make each other laugh. We have the same sense of humor, and we enjoy being silly. I would say laughing is the best way we get over arguments. It's hard to stay mad when you're laughing together, haha!

Alright, that's probably enough mushy-gushy about us, and I wanted to share how we celebrated this year! I had a hard time coming up with something fun to do that was a little out of the ordinary. We wanted to go out, but we've tried most of the restaurants in our town, and even though we love to go to our favorite places, I wanted something a little different.

I was up the night before, wracking my brain, and since southern Oregon has some cool hidden spots, I decided to get on google maps and see if anything came up. We both enjoy being outdoors, and the weather this week has been perfectly fall, so it seemed like something would work out! I was scanning around our area and the name Mckee popped out at me.



I looked it up, and it turned out to be the Mckee covered bridge over Applegate River. It's no longer in use for driving, but it's a pedestrian bridge with a day use park next to it. Apparently in the summer, it's a great swimming spot, but I figured (correctly) that 57 degrees and a chance of showers would give us the whole place to ourselves. So, after work, I had Dane pick up pizza and meet me and I drove us out there. He didn't know where we were going until we arrived, and I lucked out and he'd never been there before either ;)


So we had ourselves a romantic little pizza picnic, and checked out the old bridge. There was also a covered gazebo that had a neat vintage piano (that worked!) but I didn't get a picture before it got dark. It was so nice, and we both agreed that we enjoyed it more than if we'd just gone to a nice restaurant. And the setting was so neat, I think we'll definitely be back.

Now, in the interest of transparency, here's some blog/instagram vs. reality for ya! ;)

Here's what I had pictured in my head:


And here's what it actually looked like, haha!!


Still nice, but definitely less pretty!

If you live in the southern Oregon area, I definitely recommend checking this place out, and if not, maybe check and see if there are any cool historical places in your own area!

Happy Thursday, and happy fall eve! Thanks for stopping by :)
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A couple weeks ago we went to the Oregon coast with my parents and siblings for my dad's 50th birthday :) We stayed at this little town called Yachats (Yaw-hawts) that my parent's always like to stay in, just a little bit south of Newport, Oregon. I intended to share some pictures from the trip last week, but those post-vacation-blues got to me (and things got busy) and I wasn't able to get it done.
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Happy Fri-yay!

I realized this week that I haven't kept you all updated on our house buying process as of late! I promise I didn't mean to be so rude, haha.

It hasn't been that long since we've decided we were ready to go all in and buy a house again, and we thought that it was going to be a simple process since we had already found a house to buy.

Well, as these things tend to go, we aren't buying that house after all. There were some unforeseen complications that would have required us to wait a while longer than we originally thought, and in that time we ended up changing our mind.

We've been living in a very small space since we moved to Oregon, (675 sq ft!) and it was going well enough that we thought we could look at places to buy that were on the small side. The fact that housing is so expensive over here was also a factor in that choice too, haha!

But, as the weather got colder and we were stuck inside more and more, it started to feel a little more claustrophobic. Then, my family all got to come over from Idaho for Christmas, and I have a big family! Including my parents, there are 10 of us altogether, and trying to have them all over while they were in town was no easy feat.

After that we decided that while living in less than 1,000 sq ft could work for us most of the time, my family comes over several times a year and it's really important to me for them to get to come to my house and stay. I only see them 5-6 times a year and I want to be able to accommodate them when they're here.

I also miss being able to host company at our house. We have friends with nice big spaces and we go to their houses pretty often, but I love having people over and it only took one time to realize that it wasn't an easy fit in our small house!

We don't have kids and I thought I could get away without kid friendly space in our home, but it turns out that when all of your friends have kids and toddlers, you kinda need some where for them to play when they come over...

For all of these reasons combined, we decided to back out of our house purchase and start looking for something bigger. So far it's been a lot of big fat disappointment (stinking expensive housing market), but we're officially on the hunt!

We know it's going to require giving up on some of our wish list items, but that's life. You rarely get everything you want! So we're going to be busy looking for that just right place, and it will most likely still be a fixer.

I'll be sure to share when we've finally found the one, and hopefully I can learn a bit of patience during this process, because I can already tell I'm going to need it!

That's all for my update for now. I hope you all have a great weekend! Thanks for stopping by :)

A couple weeks ago, my niece and nephew celebrated their birthdays, and in true Amy-fashion, their gifts were super late!

Luckily for me, the kids enjoyed them more for the fact that they didn't expect them, and it was more of a surprise ;)

The cause for late-ness was the fact that I decided to make my niece a hop-scotch, and I should know better by now than to think I can make a gift in any decent amount of time! I was so stressed last Christmas because I wanted all of my gifts to be home made, and I should have learned my lesson.

Oh well, they always get done eventually....

Anyway, here are some pictures of the hop-scotch!



Their cards I just slapped together, but I had a little bit of fun playing around with gouache and Photoshop to make them. I wasn't thrilled enough with them to offer them in the shop, but I thought they turned out pretty cute.


What do you do for your kids/nieces and nephews? Would they appreciate a home-made gift, or is it store bought all the way?

Thanks for stopping by!

You guys! This is a very exciting week :) (even though I've been down with a nasty cold!)

It's my birthday! Today I am officially half way through my twenties, and that feels super weird!

I know that some people stop getting excited about their birthdays as they get older, but that isn't the case yet for me. Maybe it's just the narcissist in me, but I LOVE my birthday, and I usually end up celebrating birth-week instead ;)

I'm thinking this year about coming up with some sort of 26 before 26 list, and if I do, I will definitely share. It might be a good way to knock some goals off of my list!

I had planned on being done with my new blog and card designs by now, and doing something big for you all in celebration and thanks, but life gets busy and I'm not quite prepared. But I will say that I have something in store, and I can't wait to share it all with you!

For now though, I am off to go celebrate with my friends and family. My mom is treating me to a birthday brunch (she knows how much I love brunch!) and tonight my parents are taking the whole family out to the rodeo. It's going to be a good day, and hopefully a good year as well!

Thanks for stopping by :)

I'm back!

I seem to have a very bad habit of letting this little blog of mine just sit and collect dust!

I'm not one of those people who can just consistently knock out posts, especially when things get busy!

And things have been especially busy around here lately. A couple weeks ago, two of my little sisters had birthdays, and we went out of town to see our Oregon family for Thanksgiving. Then with work, and a bit of procrastination, all of a sudden we're two and a half weeks from Christmas, and I'm barely starting my shopping!

Of course, the glutton for punishment that I am, I decided to do a mostly home-made Christmas this year, which means that even though I did most of my shopping today, I still have to make all of said gifts.

Yeah. Wish me luck.

Anyway, it's also been weeks since I've been on here, and last I remember was that I promised to share my sister Tiffany's sweet 16!

I love, LOVE planning parties, probably more than I should. So, when she asked me if I would plan it for her, I obviously jumped at the chance!

Her favorite colors are teal and maroon, so to incorporate those colors, and the season, I thought plaid would be just the thing. So the theme was fall and plaid, even though there was snow outside at the time!




I made the cake, and I tried my hand at making my own fondant using this recipe. As far as fondant goes, I think it turned out pretty good! However, it was also my first time using fondant, and it definitely showed. They say practice makes perfect though, so I guess I'll just have to make a few more cakes!




I've been wanting an excuse to do a hot cocoa bar for years now, and I finally had the chance! This might have been my favorite thing from the party, and now I just want to do cocoa bars with every get together I have!



Next time I'm back on here, it will hopefully be to show off some of the sketches I've been working on lately, and some of the Christmas gifts I've made!

Thanks for stopping by!