Erica is going on hiatus for a while...

... because it's honeymoon time!! Wes and I got married in April but decided to wait on our honeymoon. I'm not sure why exactly but I'm sure it had to do with work (ick!), finances (double ick!) and cooler autumn weather. I don't have any fun crafts, delicious recipes or deep life lessons today. Just a bunch of pictures I stole from the Internet. Well, not exactly "stole" since I'm not claiming they're mine... so I suppose I'm only borrowing.

For our vacation, Wes & I will be taking a road trip out west.  We'll be gone a few weeks. I'll be sure to journal my experiences and take plenty of pictures so I can blog about it when I get back. In the meantime, please revisit my previous blog posts at http://ragsreborn.blogspot.com/

I can't find any pictures of cute old Asian ladies with American husbands so this will have to do.

If you've read all of my blog posts already and need something else to read, I would like to recommend "A Man Called Ove." It was the August book for my book club.  It was such a popular read that the library was completely backed up on reserves. I reserved the book in mid-June and didn't get a copy until the week after my book club meeting. LOL Once I got it, I read it in three days. It is a light read with both humor and sentiment. 

The holiday season is upon us and I would like to encourage everyone to shop locally. There are so many great artists and crafters out there who can make a much better gift than anything store-bought. Also, yours truly can make a pretty great custom order pillow. ; ) I've actually been pretty busy with custom orders lately. I will blog and post pictures after I come back from vacation. 

Here are all the shows that I will be a part of! 

       It'll be great to do ALL of your Christmas shopping locally and support vendors, artists and crafters. RagsReborn will be at the following:

Saturday, November 7th- Triumph Family Worship's Craft Fair

Saturday, November 14th- PC West Fest

Saturday, November 21st- Earlywine YMCA Craft Fair

Saturday, December 12- The Crown Center's Handmade Fair

I am unsure if I'll apply to be in any other ones this year but if I do, I will be certainly posting about them as well. It's vacation time and I'll talk to you guys in a couple of Mondays!

Erica uses an old t-shirt for something else...

...but no worries, I'm not abandoning pillows. NEVER!! (although, I am thinking about abandoning totes.) This is a project I made probably a year and a half ago. It's currently hanging in Courtney and Alex's living room, as it was part of a birthday/housewarming gift. You can tell the shirt is dated because Downtown Oklahoma City does not look like that anymore. Where is the Devon Tower? LOL I got this shirt at the first Plaza District Festival and it was my first Oklahoma shirt. I wore it all the time (before wearing shirts bragging about your state was cool) and it got old and faded. And then  it was turned into art, as all good things should be turned into instead of being thrown away. The heart is something I saw on Pinterest. I put the two together and came up with this.

Courtney with her awesome gift!

T-shirt & pushpin yarn collage tutorial:

Materials needed: canvas (a simple 8 x 11 one you can get at a craft store), t-shirt, pushpins, yarn, ribbons, hot glue, scissors, and any other decorative items (I used a bird charm and some star shaped beads.)

1. Cut the sleeves off the shirt. Then, cut out whatever part of the shirt you wish to use. I used the entire front side of my old t-shirt. Make sure the shirt is a little bigger than the size of your canvas.
2. Fold the edges of the shirt over the canvas and hot glue the edges to the back of the canvas.
3. Hot glue ribbon around the border of the shirt. Between the glue on the ribbon and the glue on the back of the canvas, the shirt should be pretty secure on the canvas.
4. Lay the pushpins upside-down in whatever size and shape heart you want. Once they are arranged in place, turn them over and push them through the canvas.
5. I'm sure you can do this with one very long piece of yarn but I opted for several smaller pieces. Take your piece of yarn and tie it to one of the pushpins. Then, pull it across from pin to pin in whatever pattern you choose. I chose no pattern at all. When you're almost to the end of the piece of yarn, tie the end to another pushpin and cut off the excess.
6. Do this until you run out of yarn. I used about 4 or 5 small pieces of yarn. I tied each one to a different pushpin and wound it from pin to pin until I ran out and had to start with a new piece of yarn.
7. Measure and cut a piece of ribbon the same size as your heart. Going from pin to pin, hot glue the ribbon to the top of each pin until your heart is lined with ribbon. This will prevent the yarn from accidentally slipping off the pushpin.
8. If you have decorative items to add, do it now. Otherwise, your are done!
9. Oh wait... one more thing... hot glue some yarn (or ribbon) to the back of the canvas so you can hang it up.

Erica sews one heck of a baby shower gift.

Wicker basket toy box with soft blocks that spell baby's name.

I've written about dogs and wrote a few craft project tutorials so next in line is infertility. This isn't a "feel sorry for me because I'm an infertile b*tch" type of blog. It's actually quite the opposite. One of my best friends, Courtney, is having her first child. I've read many many articles about this... one of your friends is having a baby and you're left feeling like a failure of a woman...what to do next?!?!?  Infertility is as much of a mental disease as a physical one so there are tips from professionals on how to cope with this news and how to be a supportive friend and how to deal with your own insecurities while also being happy for your friends, so on and so forth. After reading all these blogs and other people's advice, I thought it was all rubbish. This is something I will have to deal with for the rest of my life so I'd better figure out how to do it on my own.

Courtney has been my friend for years, even in my own self pity and doubt there was no way I could possibly alienate myself from her just because her reproductive system works and mine does not (that was one of the tips: excuse yourself from pregnant situations because you are not obligated to attend baby showers and go shopping for maternity ware.) When she first announced she was pregnant, I felt an initial pain but it slowly wore off because I was genuinely happy for her. I knew she was newly married and I knew she wanted kids.

Courtney has been great throughout her pregnancy. She's treated me like all her other friends. I have not been excluded from anything just because of my infertility. She tells me all the ups and downs of her pregnancy. I empathize with her and rejoice with her. She evens asks for my advice (which I find very strange since I have never gone through this experience myself). At first, I thought we would only talk about non-pregnancy related things so it wouldn't be awkward but I was wrong and I'm glad I was. Over these past 7 months, I've learned all about little baby Ruthie. I know what her room will look like and how she will be parented.  I am so very glad to meet her soon. (^_^) Courtney says she'll refer to me as Aunt Erica. Hahaha!

One other awesome thing about Courtney is that she was still down to do regular friend stuff with me. Her life was not consumed by this new child. We have gone to our favorite sushi restaurant (even though she couldn't have any of the yummy raw rolls), she's gone RagsReborn t-shirt shopping with me and she's even invited me to the gym a few times (each time I expressed great concern over her health and told her we probably shouldn't be doing strenuous activity. But, she says exercise makes childbirth easier and we're only walking on the treadmill...stop worrying, Erica.) She's also had me over for dinner with her husband, who always offers me a beer, which I accept, but I still feel bad drinking in front of a pregnant person. 

One of the things I read was to do something useful with yourself (aka gain a hobby) so you don't have to worry about how you cannot have kids and your pregnant friends have something to look forward to that you do not have. I already have a hobby and I decided to use it for Courtney and Ruthie. A few weeks before the baby shower, I had an idea... kids like blocks--don't they?-- but blocks are hard and have sharp corners. But pillows aren't dangerous. So, why not make soft pillow blocks and make them personalized? My baby shower gift will spell RUTHIE BETH SAPP in blocks. After a few days of work (and a trip to the craft store), I have this:

The extra green ribbon is to a affix gift card I have yet to purchase. 

So, I survived my first "baby announcement struggle" as an infertile. I'm pretty proud of myself and have found my own ways to cope (I'm not discrediting all the advice I read but sometimes you just gotta do your own thing.) Courtney has been great, I have been great and now I have a top notch handmade baby shower gift. Courtney and Alex have requested diapers, a book for Ruthie's library and are registered at Babies-R-Us ... shopping will be a brand new battle but for now, I feel accomplished. The baby shower is this upcoming weekend and instead of feeling anxiety, I know I will be okay. 

This blog will be mostly pictures of Erica's new puppy.

I've had a rough few weeks so I think it's time for a "fluff piece." And what better to lighten the mood than a puppy? Here is the story of me and Wes' new love...lil baby Athena pup. <3

Around some time in June, I decided I wanted a second dog. Sadie is great but two dogs are better than one. I talked Wes into it and we started our search. We wanted a puppy (under one year old), female, 30lb maximum once full grown and from the Oklahoma City Animal Shelter. That's where I got Kensington from and I feel like that's the best place to truly rescue an animal.
       We went to a few adoption fairs--saw one dog I was going to get but I didn't have cash (who doesn't use a Square reader nowadays?) & then saw another at a second event but there was some weird stuff going on with the volunteers that prevented us from getting it,
              visited the pound (none met our qualifications),
                           and almost got a dog from a coworker of mine (which, I know isn't the pound but that's where the dog could have gone if no one had adopted it). Nothing worked out. The Universe was against us and it was like infertility all over again but I wanted a puppy instead of a baby.

A coworker of mine's cousin works at the Oklahoma City Animal Shelter and gave us updates as soon as puppies became available. I also checked their website weekly to see if any dogs that were brought in met our qualifications. It took us two months but we finally got one. And she was worth waiting for... meet Athena! She is a two-month-old Border Collie Australian Shepherd mix, which just happen to be Wes' two favorite breeds of dog.

Athena Zucchini Kirtley adopted August 20th, 2015

She has had a whirlwind of a life thus far...

I adopted her on my lunch break and dropped her off with Alan and his dog, Sonja. (There are two incredibly cute videos of Athena playing with her, they're on my Facebook.) Sonja was her baby sitter for the day and then Wes picked her up after work to go on her very first shopping trip.

She got a pretty purple collar and some yummy puppy food. 

After shopping, Athena got to meet big sister, Sadie! Sadie still doesn't particularly like cuddling together but she shares her bed and toys with Athena and they love to run around and play. Sometimes playing entirely too rough, though *rolls eyes*.

Sadie's first encounter with her new baby sister.

That was just the first night home. The next couple of days would hold more adventures. She had her initial vet visit on Friday and then my mom's birthday party on Saturday. Athena was one happy little girl.

Car ride home from our very first vet visit.

Then like all good things, it all came to an end. Athena had pretty severe pneumonia. She didn't show any signs of it and the vet didn't catch it during our visit. Sunday morning, Athena was having a fitful sleep. She was coughing and hacking, her little nose was running like a faucet and she refused to move. Wes decided it was time to go to the emergency vet. 

At the ER with pneumonia symptoms. 

She was immediately put on fluids and her chest scans didn't look too great. She definitely had pneumonia and possibly distemper (we later found out that test was negative). She stayed at the emergency vet for the next three days while slowly improving. The following Tuesday, we picked her up, paid our ridiculously large bill and were sent home with medicine. She was still a little sickly but, luckily, she is a fighter and she's happier & healthier than ever now. 

She's learned how to both break down and crawl over the baby gate.

Athena is one smart cookie. She knows where her food and treats are located, she's played with all her toys and has learned how to hoist herself onto the couch (which until that point was Sadie's only safe hiding spot.) She hasn't completely mastered potty training or walking on a leash, yet, but she is a pro at busting out of the baby gated bedroom.  LOL She can hold it while she's in her kennel for a few hours. Her favorite pastime is pestering Sadie. It's good that Sadie has a playmate now because she seems younger and happier, too. Athena is very curious and always mimics Sadie and tries to get into whatever Wes & I are doing, especially if our activity involves food. Oh the joys of owning a puppy.

She also loves climbing on things...like Wes. LOL She is a handful but also incredibly adorable. The perfect puppy. She'd probably win awards for being the best puppy ever if we entered her into a contest. Wes intends to teach her tricks when she's older so we might look into agility training and competitions. But that's much much later. Right now she's just enjoying life as a mischievous little brat.

So there it is- the newest member of the family. Sorry this wasn't a recipe or craft tutorial but who doesn't like pictures of puppies? Am I right? My day job is slowly killing me and I have no energy to do anything after work so I have no creativity. Blogging is hard. Crafting is hard. Please buy pillows from RagsReborn so I can take my soul back from Delta Dental. Hahahaha... okay, I'm only half joking. Maybe. But...switching to a serious note... my upcoming schedule of shows:

November 7th- Triumph Family Worship's Craft Fair

November 14th- PC West Fest

December 12- The Crown Center's Handmade Fair

I will be writing about, posting pictures and advertising each of these shows on my social media sites so stay tuned! The rest of the year should prove a busy time for RagsReborn :D

Good night from the pups and have a wonderful rest of your week!!