As some of you may know, I am a dog lover. We have a 15 month old mutt of our own and love her to pieces; she brings much laughter and frustration to our lives. And I would be a total mess if we lost her. That is why she has dog tags and is micro-chipped. 

However, not all owners are like this. So this is my plea to all owners, both cat and dog owners: 
Chip, register, and update!!!
Some back story as to why I am blogging about this: This sweet boy ended up on my front port this afternoon. 

As you can see, he has no collar, and therefore, no tags. So I had no clue where he came from, or who to call to say "hey, I've got your dog." I didn't even know what to call him. Thankfully he was super sweet and just wanted some shade and decided to plop down in my garage. I ended up taking him to our pup's vet and found out that thankfully his owners had micro-chipped him; meet Rocky. Turns out that Rocky lives a few houses down from us. And thankfully, his owners registered his micro-chip and kept the information up-to-date. While I was at the vets waiting to get's Rocky's information one of the techs told me that they had just had a dog in there last week that was chipped, but the owners had never registered the chip, so they had no way to get the dog home. How sad!
Please, be responsible. If you have a dog or cat, please get them chipped; then go register the chip information online.  It's so easy, and most of the time free with the chip. Then keep the information up-to-date; if you move, change phone numbers, anything, update the information! Many of the registration sites have a place for you to put your phone number, a secondary number, your address, the vet's name and number that you take your pet to, and even a place to take your pet if they are found, plus more. It's not hard, I promise, and takes very little time to do and can save you a lot of heart ache in the end.
The other point I want to make in this is: don't leave your pets out in the heat. Just like we don't like to be hot, neither do they. Plus, they are more sensitive to the heat than we are; you've got to remember this: they have a thick coat of fur, we don't! And when you do have your pets outside, make sure they have easy access to fresh water. I can't stress that enough: 1) access to water, and 2) FRESH water. Don't leave water just outside, standing getting stagnant; this invites bacteria that is not good for your dog, and also gives a breeding ground for mosquitoes, which carry diseases like heart worm, ring worm, tape worm that are all bad for dogs, as well as things like Zika, Malaria, and West Nile. None of the above are good things, nor things we want for ourselves or our pets. 

So, to recap: Rocky is safe with a friend of his owners and will be picked up this afternoon when the owner gets home from work. :) Take the time to chip and register your pet, and update his/her/your information for the chip regularly. And don't leave your pets outside in the heat; when they are out, make sure they have plenty of FRESH water. 

​-Jen

As Promised, here are some pictures of some of the sewing projects that I have done. Some are from store bought patterns, others from ideas in my head. I will notate which is which :)
I first am going to start out with a non-clothing item that I constructed from a pin I found on Pinterest. In a future blog I will add a how-to video on exactly how to make this bust for making clothes.
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I constructed this bust out of 2x4 Lumber (that I had from a previous project around the house), an old t-shirt of my husbands (Thanks Ben!), stuffing, and packing tape. It has come in very handy. :)

This is a halter top that I had the idea in my head for, and made it. It fits perfectly!

This dress is made from a store bought pattern, and I have made it in White, and a pattern print (for a friend) as well. I also plan to make it in purple, blue, green, gray, and white with blue butterfly lace overlay. Can you tell I just love this pattern? While the dress follows the store bought pattern, I have altered it a little in that I added pockets to the dress; who doesn't love a dress with pockets!?

This dress was inspired by a dress that my mom found at Kohl's and thought I would like it. Well, I did, but not entirely: the price was WAY to high and I didn't like the fact that the bottom was sheer. So I took inspiration from that dress and made mine.

My Dress

I have made other garments like hiker short for me from my husband's old 7 pocket hiker pants, and sleep pants for said husband. I just didn't have time to get pictures of them. :) 
However, I am planning to make another pair of short for me from my husbands old pants here in the very near future, so I will be sure to video how I do it and upload it to the blog.
But for now, enjoy the pictures, and if you have any question feel free to leave me a comment, or shoot me an email through our Contact Me page! 

-Jen

Well, it's been a whirlwind since the last time I blogged. We were able to find a house to rent and have since moved in to it. YEY! We moved into a nice, quiet neighborhood, which both Ben and myself thoroughly enjoy. Eeva now has a nice back yard to run around and play in, which makes my day a ton easier since I don't have to stop in the middle of projects just so she can get some energy out, or to go to the bathroom. It is also so nice not to have to worry about other people not picking up their dog's poop; now all I have to worry about is picking up my own dogs poop so the yard stays nice enough to run around and chase her in, without stepping in poop. haha We are settling in alright, still trying to figure out what all to unpack, and we moved in on the 25th of May. I know, I know: still unpacking?! Yup, no need to hurry. We have everything we need on a day-to-day- basis unpacked, everything else can wait. We still aren't sure if we will be in the area in a year, due to job situations and a general desire to be closer to family, so why unpack everything?
In the mean time, I have been reminded lately that it's the small things that can make a big difference in life. I recently had some work as a seamstress altering a dress and making a new dress off the altered dress. It was an interesting task, and I learned a few things about sewing while making the dress that I never knew before. For the first time, I made and used Bias 'Tape' (I put it in " because it is not tape in the traditional sense of the word; it's not sticky). I now understand why it exists! :) It was used to make the small collar on the dress, and it worked wonderfully. I sadly forgot to take any pictures of the dress. :( However, thanks to my husbands encouragement, in my next post I will be posting some pictures of garments that I have created, whether from pattern or simply from and idea in my head. While I am by no means a professional Seamstress, I am decent at figuring things out, and making clothes look at least not horrible while being worn, haha. 
I was also reminded that sometimes a job doesn't always have pay. Now you may be thinking, "What?! I'm not going to work for someone unless I'm getting paid!" Well, let me explain a little: Due to some of the goals that we want to work towards, I have decided to go back to work, outside the home. This, however, does not mean that I am going to close, or stop, my business. But it seems that I am having a hard time finding a job; no one is calling me back for interviews. So, my loving husband said this:
"You just have to work the job you have now until you get another job." Made me so mad when he first said it. Why? Well, because my current job is a stay-at-home wife, trying to start a home-based business...and to be honest, the second half of that job isn't going very good. I haven't sold any products in quite a while, and running a business kinda takes money. But then I stopped and thought about what he said, and you know what? He was right. There are things that I can do for my business that don't cost a single cent. All they require is time and effort. Things like this blog post, and updating my site to make it more user appealing and friendly. So, that's what I'm gonna do. I'm going to work the job I have now, and pray that God blesses it, and if it be HIS will, allows me to get a call back for a job outside the home. And if He doesn't, I will still praise Him, because He is Always, ONLY Good.
So, with that being said, you will notice that a few things have changed on our home page. (And yes, if you know any thing about Disney, you will notice that there are SEVERAL Tinkerbell references on the home page. I am a big Tink fan and have been since I was a child. Yes, I am a 28 year old woman that still loves Tinker Bell and I'm not ashamed to say so.)  This is not something that I am highly skilled at, or ever good at, but I am trying to do this without hiring someone to do it for me. Things may look a bit disjointed at the moment, but more changes are coming, so please bear with me as I work on my site. 

And if you have read this far, THANK YOU. I know this isn't a blog with advice on anything (typically), or on the amazing world travel, or whatever most of the common blogs are about these days, but it's important to me. So again, Thank you.

Next time, pictures! 

​-Jen