The Nifty Foodie's Life

A while back, I entered Millie for a pet photography contest sponsored by local photographer, Lacey Rabalais. As you may already know (especially if you follow me on Twitter), I take TONS of pictures of Millie, mostly on my iPhone, but none of them are anywhere close to looking frame-worthy.

I thought winning this mini session would be a great opportunity for Millie to run around, let loose and get photos of her in her prime hyper, happy element. Luckily, because of friends (and some readers), Millie won the free session!!

When Millie saw Lacey with that camera, it became a fun game of **catch me if you can** for her. She was running in circles, and whenever she finally calmed down for a picture, she started running again. Eventually, her little puppy-ness caught up to her and she calmed down for some tremendously adorable photos!

Check them out here!

I have to say, Lacey really did an awesome job with Millie. She played right along with her and was very patient with our excited puppy. Her photographs perfectly captured Millie’s personality too. I look at every single photo, and tell myself that’s SO her ::insert emotion here:: face. It’s so wonderful to have these captured in photos. Thank you, Lacey!

After Millie’s session, Lacey graciously offered to host a pet photography session GIVEAWAY on my blog!! Wahoo!!

Credit: Lacey Rabalais Photography

This is only for my local Baton Rouge area readers, though, since Lacey can’t exactly drive to Vermont or say, Paris in 10 minutes.

Also, check out Lacey’s specials this month for Military Families, Families with adopted children, and of course, for your PETS!

Giveaway Details:

• One person will be randomly chosen to win a free 30 minute session, which includes an online gallery to view your pictures and also, receive a disc of 10 images from the shoot.
• TO ENTER: Just leave a comment here or on Lacey’s blog about your lovely pet or pets by Sunday, November 7th at 11:59pm.
• You must live in the Baton Rouge area to be eligible to win.

Best of luck!

I’m starting a new little series on the blog about sewing patterns with my reviews on them. I’ve been learning new techniques with these patterns, and I thought it’d be fun to blog about these!

Earlier this month, I visited family while the hubs was away on a business trip. I knew there were going to be major Columbus Day sales at the local JoAnn’s, so my Mom and I went there for the sole purpose of making Millie into a sea monster. The reason? Well, PetSmart was having a costume contest and I thought she’d have a great time with the other dogs.

To note: Millie is about 40 lbs. now. Not a super large dog, but to Simplicity patterns, she was too big to get a costume pattern for. So, I had to get creative and base it off of a dog coat pattern (Simplicity 9520).

After that, I started looking in the cottons for something green that screamed “sea monster”. I couldn’t find a thing. However, in the specialty Halloween fabrics, I came across a polyester mermaid print. It was perfect, but I was intimidated, because this was a very shiny, slippery fabric that I’m not familiar with sewing.

I also bought blue felt with plans to add some spikes…it ended up being a really cute touch! I also originally wanted to add wings, but I was promptly reminded that sea monsters swim. She would need fins instead. Thank goodness for leftover quilt batting!

There was a HUGE pitfall to this pattern. When I originally started cutting and piecing this together, I realized that this pattern was way too large for my dog. It was a one size fits all thing…sort of lame, no? So, I ended up tailoring it to size, using lots of Beggin Strips and saying ”don’t eat that” repeatedly. Apparently, polyester looks appetizing to my dog..sheesh!

Also, when I started sewing the polyester, it started to fray…a lot. So, for the polyester, I ended up lining it with some muslin. It helped a lot with the sewing, and also probably felt better on the dog.

After a good bit of thought, I ended up nixing the hood, as well as the sleeves. I know Millie, and she isn’t a fan of being clothed. She’d try to rip those off for sure!

When I finally tried the finished product on her, it was a pretty good fit!  Thank goodness.

However, there was another pitfall. Those fins were her newest toy. She was literally trying to rip them off, unless I held up a treat (as I did to snap this picture. In the end, I pinned them back a bit, and it ended up being OK. After 5 minutes, she barely noticed her costume!!

Unfortunately, she didn’t win the contest at PetSmart. Dracula, a wagon full of yorkies dressed as Playgirls and Hannah Montana beat her out. I guess next year, I’ll try to go more trendy.

By the way, if you can take a second to vote for Millie in Blue Buffalo’s Halloween Costume Contest, I’d totally appreciate it. Just go to this site, search for “Millie”, click her picture and vote! No log-in needed!

Rating out of 10: 4. Dear Simplicity, dogs are NOT one size fits all, and the pattern writing/diagrams left me fairly confused. :\

Whoa! I haven’t posted one of these in a while. Oops! I decided to add some cute doggie pictures in here, just for kicks. 

• I’m in week 2 of the 10 week weight loss challenge. I started up kickboxing again on Monday, and talk about a kick booty class! Whoa…my legs are still sore from the class! I have class again today too. The teacher warned us to get our abs ready. Ruh roh!

• I’m already working on another group of items to bring into the Etsy shop. I’m having so much fun working on this shop, and so far, I’m super excited to say that I have sold 1 bandanna and have 6 people who “heart” my shop! Thanks for the support y’all!

• I won a Road ID bracelet on Krista’s blog: Commitment is Liberating. I’m really glad  to get to have one of these since I do walk Millie often, and I’m hoping to get back into the C25K really soon as well. Better safe than sorry, right? Oh, and I ordered it in Pink….just because.

• For some crazy reason, it’s less than 40 days until Thanksgiving! Can you believe this year is almost over? What the heck happened to the time? Ugh…

• I ordered some new glasses this weekend. I haven’t owned a new pair of glasses in over two years. These are the frames…I’m such a dork, I know.

• My Fantasy Football team this year stinks. I’ve won two matches total. Why can’t I ever make good picks…ugh! I feel like I have the most injuries ever, but I don’t want to let my players go.

• I want to apologize to my food blog readers. I have been making the same things over and over, because it’s not quite cold enough to bring on the Fall/Winter recipes. Recipes will be coming soon. I just need the weather to decide if it’s still Summer or if it’s Fall yet. Gotta love Louisiana, right?

This weekend, I drove to my family’s home right outside of New Orleans. I decided since my family has half an acre of land and a happy 10 year old lab eager for some lovin’, that my puppy would probably love an outside play date.

These two had a blast! I couldn’t stop smiling, because they were just so happy! I was surprised their tails didn’t wag right off!

For a 10 year old dog, Dixie still has some energy and even had time to give me a “thank you” smile.

At one point, I decided to bring a bag of treats outside, shake it and this was the reaction. FULL SPEED AHEAD! Just look at those ears haha!

Of course after a treat/water break, they went back to their fun.

Then, since Millie is only 9 months old, she ended up spazzing out, aka running in fast circles around the yard. Dixie decided to instead just take in some sunlight and pose for the camera.

It was a great weekend indeed….how was yours?

This turned out to be a wonderfully, positive weekend. I decided to just put the funk away, and instead of sulking around watching TV, it was time to embrace a positive attitude like a long, lost friend. I can’t tell you how great this weekend felt, and how optimistic I am about Monday bringing a better week than the last.

Saturday morning, I decided to just sit in my chair and sew. I opened the blinds, let the sweet sunlight in the room and just relaxed while the machine hummed. Great things were happening: I was sewing my first quilt.

After some sewing therapy, I came to realize that all 6 of my quilt rows were done.

Happy note: I only ripped one square out, since it was upside down.

I can’t tell you how much more relaxing sewing is now that I’m starting to get the hang of it. Even though this quilt is just a lot of straight lines, I’m very proud to say I’ve improved since sewing project #1.

It’s so crazy to see that my first quilt top ever is almost done. This is just amazing to me.

I’m quite intimidated by these pajama pants. After reading the measurements, I’m going to have to add quite a few inches waist/hip wise to these pants, since our society is obsessed with vanity sizing. I’m normally a size 22, but McCall’s size 22 fits a department store size 16. Totally dumb, right? I bought some muslin to play with adding inches, because I don’t want to ruin my pretty fabric figuring this out. Maybe I can get these done by the end of the month? Hopefully, at least the muslin version.

Since we are having company over this weekend, I decided it was best to make the craft room more inviting, and to fold my fabrics in a basket, rather than keep them scattered across the guest bed. Looking at all of these fabrics next to each other is just so deliciously colorful. I love it! I’m feeling less overwhelmed now that my craft/guest room is clean again. Maybe that made the sewing less stressful?

Sunday morning, this little girl kept my spirits high. How can you not be happy looking at this face? We did have a long day ahead of us, and her smile kept me going. I love this dog.

It was, of course, Father’s Day. My Dad is the guy who buys everything he wants/needs, but as a very money savvy guy, I bought him an Entertainment book and a GC to Wal-Mart. Don’t judge me here Wal-Mart haters. I know I could have bought him a Cabella’s card (he LOVES hunting) or something else, but this is a store I know he will actually spend money at without feeling forced. I remember our weekly Wal-Mart trips…beat the heck out of going to the Mall with Mom! (No offense Mom…you know I hated clothes shopping!)

Here was the main part of my Sunday. My little sister, who is a senior in high school (feeling old right now), played Lady Thiang in “The King and I” for a local production. It was nothing short of spectacular. I wish I had a voice like her!

I ended up taking over 100 pictures of the production, because I found out the videographer that the production hired ended up quitting on them (terrible, right?). I know my sister loves memories of every show she is in, so with my new lens, I went wild on the pictures. Parents of cast members were even asking my Mom to ask me to get shots of their child, since the point & shoots apparently couldn’t get decent pictures without use of a flash. Before you call me rude, I tried to take pictures only during the lively parts, so no one would hear the shutter click. No judging allowed..now these kids have memories!

Oh, and a side note, her costume? My mom sewed them (she had two). She’s amazingly awesome with a needle.  

How did your weekend go?