A Message from Auntie Mare

Hi everyone,

Tonight I have a message from Hubby's Aunt Marilyn. Auntie Mare is a wonderful woman. We all love her very much and fight over who she will stay with when she visits from California. She is very funny and can make hubby laugh until he cries. And that is very funny to me!

I received an email from Auntie Mare today and I would like to share it with you. Today is Pulmonary Hypertension Blog Day. So, take it away, Auntie Mare!

"Today is PH Blog Day so here I go. I was diagnosed in 1997 with Pulmonary Hypertension, a rare, incurable disease that causes high blood pressure in the pulmonary artery between the heart and lungs and can lead to heart failure. I've been on several therapies including IV infusion 24/7 for six years; now I am on an experimental drug, some pills that I take twice a day. I have come a long way and I feel better now than before I got sick. Twenty years ago, the only treatment was a heart-lung transplant. Thank God for modern medicine and possibly a cure in the future using stem cells from the patients own bone marrow. Everybody enjoy the holidays. Peace Out."

Auntie Mare can now drive up to visit. Before the pills, she flew up and was attached to her IV making traveling difficult. Now she can even swim in her own swimming pool! Woohoo! We are very thankful for the advances in medicine. We still have our favorite Aunt around and that makes life wonderful.

Today's Etsy store is BeSem Natural Scents. This shop has hand made candles and soaps in yummy fragrances. I would like the Pink Grapefruit and Orange Blossom scents. There is a great deal of sample soaps, six bars for $9.00.

So, two silly items...Ollie has been sitting on my lap since I started this blog post. And his tummy has been talking away the whole time! Seriously! It sounds like he swallowed a kitten! While this is amusing in a gross kind of way, I am not looking forward to his pending explosion! Secondly, Roxy's mom is copying me!! Or I guess I am copying her. Two nights in a row we have cooked the same basic dinner. I am wearing my aluminum foil hat tonight to prevent brain waves entering my head and swaying my cooking. ;o)

Have a good evening! I will let you know about my dinner tomorrow!

Hugs,

Puglette

:o)

Retail Therapy

Hi everyone!

This was the first day of my last full week at my current job. I have had a few leads and hopefully will find something soon. I did apply for unemployment benefits and while they aren't my full salary, it does help.

I received a new swap item today! I got my hedgehog and he came with a little mushroom for company. He is so cute, both are made of felt and hand sewn. I just love him! My daughter will be so jealous of the cute mushroom...but it's mine! Ha!

Dear Daughter came up last Thursday and we had lunch together. She always cheers me up. We went to Michael's craft store and she shopped for some of her swap items. She likes the more artistic, paper crafts. I am hoping she will make some patterns for me soon. We have talked about this and she can draw and I will sew the stuffies.

Daughter brought me a lovely surprise when she visited, some new yarn! What a thoughtful girl she is, it's so heart warming to see your kids grow into kind and generous adults. Here is what she brought, some pink and green bamboo yarn and some pink and red hand dyed alpaca yarn. She also brought a skein of cotton yarn in a pretty pink, orange and yellow mix. I have used that already. ;o)

After that treat from Daughter, I treated myself to more new yarn! Look at these wonderful colors! The light pink and white yarn will be a pair of fingerless gloves for daughter. The huge skein in browns and blues will be for Christmas gifts. The huge pink, yellow and purple skein is for me! That same day, I checked the mailbox and was surprised to receive a yarn swap! Four skeins of wool yarn in a beautiful green. This swap was for a hat pattern and the yarn to make it.

The yarn I bought came from a wonderful yarn shop near my home. Yorkshire Yarns is a fabulous place. So warm and comforting inside. There are of course, hundreds of skeins of the softest yarn you have ever squeezed. And they have several tables and chairs set up for holding small classes. There is also room with two comfy sofas ready for curling up on and knitting or crocheting. There is even a yorkie doggie running round! The staff were so kind and helpful the day I visited.



That photo doesn't do this store justice. The lighting is more mellow and warm. It really feels like you are visiting someones home and they just happen to have a ton of yarn! Those two big skeins were quite a bargain. They are nice and soft and the size of a small pillow. For $11.25 they are the equivalent of three regular skeins. I love to just pet them and squeeze them. :o) I can't wait to start using them!

Today's Etsy shop is The Tiny Fig. This shop has a lot of "kawaii" or cute items. I have learned that kawaii means cute in Japanese. These items are very popular today and a lot of the amigurumi I have been making are kawaii type items. Please take a look around at the cute items, earrings, hair pins, stickers and more!

So last night Roxy had chicken and rice too. Tonight's spaghetti night for hubby and me...what about you?

Hugs,

Puglette

:o)

More Gratitude

Hi everyone,

I hope you have had a good Sunday. We just relaxed at home and watched a movie. We watched the new "Journey to the Center of the Earth" with Brendan Fraser. It was good, a nice afternoon movie adventure.

Today over at Peace Love and Pugs you can see a picture of the mushrooms I crocheted for Joan. We had a swap and I received the cutest collars for the pugs! Look, Ollie's has a tie! I wasn't able to get a good picture of Charlie in her new collar but it looks really good on her.

Can you see the little silver heart on the collar? It says "Made with Love". That is just the sweetest touch. These collars are so well made, they don't have any of that scratchy nylon thread. Thanks Joan!! I am so grateful for the new friends I meet through our blogs!

Today's Etsy shop is Beads in the Belfry. I think that is a very cute name. This is another handmade jewelry shop. There are lots of beautiful silver items, necklaces, earrings and bracelets. I really love these two pendants.

Aren't they pretty?

Off to finish dinner...chicken, rice and peas! Not too imaginative tonight, but it should be yummy.

Hugs,

Puglette

:o)

Grateful

Hi Everyone,

I want to thank you all for your kind words and thoughts about my loss of work. I am grateful for the friends I have made on the blogosphere. Thank you.

I am not sure what I will end up doing, but I am hopeful that I will be able to find work soon. Fortunately, I have a good reputation in my industry and over the years I have made and maintained good contacts. This may also be an opportunity to try a different field of work. My husband and I are looking at all options and will look into possibly working together. We have lots of hope and a great family.

Ok...enough of the mundane...on to the pug pictures!!

We were fortunate to have a lovely clear, sunny day today. Very unusual for late fall in the Pacific Northwest. We had flood warnings during the work week and many people were flooded out of their homes. We don't live in a flood plain so we rarely have any problems, thank goodness!

Since our wedding anniversary is coming up, hubby and I decided to take a break and ride our ferry boat. As I mentioned previously, we were married on the Washington State Ferry Rhododendron. This is a lovely old ferry that runs between Point Defiance in Tacoma and Vashon Island. We walked around the deck of the boat and reminisced about our wedding...we even shared a smooch! I am grateful for my husband, he is a great man and knew this would cheer me up.

After we drove off the boat at Vashon Island we drove around the beautiful island. Vashon is a fairly small island in the middle of the Puget Sound. You can take a ferry at the opposite end of the island and get off in Seattle. We just stayed on the island and went to the local farmer's market and then had lunch.

Of course we brought the doggies along for the ride! They love to ride along and we love having them with us...well, most of the time. They were kind of bratty on the boat, barking and growling at the other passengers. Fortunately for us, it's no dogs allowed on the deck! We stopped by the bank on our way out, Ollie and Charlie were quite interested in the pneumatic tube.

Then on to the boat and all around the island! What fun, riding on Dad's lap! Hanging out the windows...

Honey Puppy was a good girl and sat on the back seat. She's such a good dog. I am grateful for my crazy doggies.

The pugs were very interested in the bag of groceries we bought at the local market. Yummy sourdough bread, ham and swiss cheese for Sunday and some cheesy rolls...they smell so good!!

Finally as the sun was setting, we headed back to the ferry for the ride home. We had a lovely day and hope you did too!

Hugs,

Puglette

:o)