Dear Santa

Stamping is something I really like to do,

so I am making a little list just for you!

Pick one, two, or three sets for me

cuz I sure would love to find them under my tree.

I really have been very good this year

And there’s nothing I’d love better than some new stamping gear.

Just contact my demonstrator to order from my list

I’m sure by now, Santa, you’re getting the gist!

The goodies will appear at your front door

Simple for you, and for me, stamping galore!!

Thank you Santa

She's Batty Designs

Thinking Crafty

I'm up north still working. I'm loving my work but missing my family! They are still down in south-western Ontario. Boy do I miss them! Drew and Sassy are in the picture above and poor Princess is still at home. It's just Noel and I up here. At least I have ONE member of the family with me.  I'll be back home mid-May when my contact is up. I'll miss my working up here and all the wonderful people I've met but nothing compares to being home with your man and dogs!  I also can't wait to get back home so I can have scrapbooking workshops and crafty nights again! I love getting together with other people to laugh, eat and create! Until I get back home I wanted to give my friends a chance to order from "Stampin Up" with ease. Since there are so many good products out lately (I'm LOVING all the halloween stuff!) I didn't want anyone to miss out! Now that I've set up this website, my friends can now order online without all that paper work or having to figure out a time when I'll be home to look through the catalogue. They now offer the catalogue online (although I still love having a "paper copy"). Also, placing an order online gives you special discounts and everything is delivered right to your house! How wonderful! 

JAMIES.STAMPINUP.NET

Halloween 2008

Halloween Dogs!

Princess and Noel are all dressed up for Halloween in there bandanas and their halloween collars from the OSPCA!  The Halloween collars are a fundraiser for the shelter and made by one of the awesome (EXTREMELY dedicated) volunteers named Julie!  Julie is already planning out christmas collars!  I already know that Princess and Noel are going to be two of her biggest customers!

 

Halloween has hit the shelter!

see more here. 

ASPCA Support

The End of Another Weekend

Drew and Princess came up north this weekend. We went to a "barn warming party" (where we got the full tour and met 2 cool horses, a donkey and lots of dogs!), completed some running around, and took Noel to get her teeth cleaned - she was the "demo dog" during the Pembroke Animal Hospital Annual Open House. We saw her while she was "out" getting her teeth cleaned. She was part of the "tour". Unfortunately she wasn't ready to come home until after Drew and Princess left.  She couldn't get in and out of the truck by herself because she was still so groggy. I had to help her and now my back is killing me! I think she feels worse though because she's been sleeping ever since she came home and hasn't even had anything to eat! Poor doggie. At least her teeth will be sparkling like the stars! haha. While we were at the Open House Princess and I had our picture taken together for "Pet Pix".  I think I'll be able to pick up our picture next week. She was such a good girl at the Open House... she even handled the tile flooring like a pro!

This week looks like it's going to be another busy week. I have training to go to (over night) in Brockville with my boss and a co-worker. I'm looking forward to it - one of the seminars is on volunteer management so I'm hoping there will be some helpful, innovative and relevant ideas and information. There's also a craft night this week.  I'm also hoping to continue to implement the new volunteer program options.... and find some people to help us with snow removal before the snow comes! eek! 

This Goonie has moved...again!

Before I get into the move... here's a picture of my last visit home!  We are in the craft store (one of my favourite places!.. it's also someplace that i should not be left alone in around Halloween with a credit card! lol).... anyways, this is us trying on some geeky headbands they had out for halloween.. and guess what? Drew was the one who put the pig tails on first!  Then i had to join in with rabbit ears!

Moving on to...THE MOVE!... so i moved again!  I didn't feel comfortable where i was at anymore so i made like the jefferson's and "MOVE ON UP!".  As you can tell by the picture below, Noel was very tried after the move!

So as it turns out, i don't have access to laundry at my new place so i had to venture out into town and find a laundry mat! and i though going down 10 flights at the apartment building was a hassle!!! pst! .... oh well, i brought my homework and some magazines to pass the time.  I was also out representing the OSPCA as usually with my tote bag!

In shelter news, we're getting ready for the "All for Animals Charity Auction" that's coming up in November. Here is one of our shelter cats modeling a cat carrier that was donated to the auction!... the funny part about this is he didn't want to get out after! haha. silly cat. 

Last week i had to find a foster home for this cute little girl.  This puppy needed some well deserved recovery time in foster can so i was on the hunt for a foster home!  Until i found one and they came to pick her up we got some cuddle time in :)

So there you have it.. i've moved, the shelter is still busy busy, and i've been to the laundry mat for the first time in my life. Other than that i'm stuck with dial up internet which is so ghetto!  I mean i love all this retro but this is a bit much!  It took me all afternoon just to upload the pictures for this post! ack! ... so don't be disappointed if the blog posts aren't as frequent... i mean, who wants to wait around all day for pictures to upload? not me!  I can't complain too much though.. at least i have internet now!  I was without a phone and internet for a week (no thanks to bell!)... speak of bell, they really get my goat!  they were supposed to hook up my services on friday by 5pm... and you guessed it, they didn't! so i call them and they said they are sending a tech out on SAT and i need to be home between 8am and 5pm! ... i was like are you freakin' kidding me?!?... so yes, beware, bell will tell you one thing and then do something totally different and not even tell you... then they'll make you wait around all day just to have dial up internet that is THISCLOSE to being useless anyways. bah! 

Noel in the Newspaper!

The awesome students at Keys school here raised a buttload of money for us! YAHOO! Noel and I were on the scene to accept the cheque on behalf of the shelter.  Noel did so good at the school!  All the students were out in the halls when we came in because classes were changing and she was loving it! She didn't get startled or nervous!... She just walked down the halls like she was a student... greeting kids along the way haha. Our picture should be in the North Renfrew Times paper shortly. 

Not much to report

Like the title says, there's not much to report, although today I drove one of the shelter trucks for the second time today. I love driving it because it's so beastie haha. My work week is done already because I've already put in 40 hours! All that is left to do this week is a meeting tonight and then I'm heading home for a long weekend. I added a picture of one of the new shelter dogs. She reminds me of "Tucker".

Weekend Update

I picked up some "weekend reading" on friday night ;)

This is one of the babies wondering around the cat room since Harely went home. I can't remember what his real name is but I call him "mouth piece" because he's always meowing at you demanding something haha! As you can see he had something to say in these pictures. I think it was "pet me women!" haha.



The great Yard Sale of 2008 was yesterday. Our super star Lea had everything organized and knew exactly what to do to get things done and done well! I wont know how much we raised until work tomorrow but I know it was a lot! We did well but I have to say, "thank goodness it's over!!!" .. that was one long day of doing the "nickel and dime dance" with people!

This was my favourite shirt of the day! haha!!

Here's the set up I had going on for one of the "O" Nights at the shelter this past week. Not a bad turn out and I think we gained some new volunteers. I have interviews this week and next week with them to see what they are interested in.

Just watching me leave after work. This is one of this kitty's favourite places to hangout.

Mouth piece found a friend! .. actually I think he was demanding that place by the window at this point.

This deer was around for a while at the shelter just hanging out on the drive way, and then later, we saw that the deer at got it's self stuck on the dump side of the fence (as seen in the picture below). Silly deer. At least it was smart enough not to run out onto the road.

After the Long Weekend

I was able to go home for the long weekend and it was good to see my man and my babies! I hate being so far away from them. Thankfully, I can book extra hours over the next two weeks and score myself another long weekend... just another reason why fundraisers are a WIN WIN situation!




Drew and I got "SingStar" for the PS2. Turns out we're hams and absolutely love it! We played all the songs on "pop" and "80s". Turns out we're better pop stars than we are 80s stars. That was kind of disappointing. We also realized that Drew is a better singer than I am! Who would have thought? I could only beat him on Cyndi Lauper and Madonna! haha. At least I had those songs on my side! I would have cried if he beat me on any Lauper song!


We also took a trip to Michael's Craft Store. What a mistake that was! haha... I love the place and every crafty thing under it's roof BUT I always spend too much money in there... especially when it comes to the Halloween loot!



Today at work was busy again, especially since we didn't have anyone on reception. That makes for a very crazy day with an excess of interruptions. It's hard to focus and stay on track when we don't have someone to field the calls and direct visitors. Today I was trying to focus on getting ready for the orientation nights I'm running tomorrow and Thursday, working on some auction stuff, seeing how our fosters are doing, and generally catch up on my list of things that I didn't get done last week. I actually got a decent amount of work down today despite the interruptions! YA ME! :)


On a sidenote, I burnt my hand at work on Friday. Harley the cat jumped up onto me while I was getting hot soup out of the microwave. Oops.






My "Stand Tall" bracelets came in! They are part of a campaign to help find a cure for AS. I suffer from AS everyday so please check them out and PLEASE PLEASE support this cause!

Hedgehog Cake

At the staff meeting today we had a super cool cake! haha.

P.S. I'm looking for Pet Related Crafts for the shelter's Christmas Craft Show in Dec. If you can donate a homemade pet related craft, please let me know!

Sleeping Good

<---The picture on the left is from inside my vehicle (so although the sticker looks backwards, it's not! haha)

It's so much easier to get to sleep up here and stay asleep! There's no traffic or sirens waking you up at all hours or the night... or drunks coming home from the bars!

Today was another crazy day at work! There's lots to catch up on and I spent some time today trying to get the files (and myself) organized. I also caught up with Erin (the girl I'm covering for) so she could give me the low down on what's what. Now that I've talked to her I have even more work to do haha!

Tonight, since I've been home from work I've done a few things that I wanted to do today at work but it just wasn't going to happen because we share an internet connection. I set up an online shop and a myspace account for the shelter. That stuff doesn't feel like work though so I don't mind doing it from home.

Tomorrow morning we have a staff meeting. All our staff meetings are potlucks so I'm looking forward to all the food! haha!

Work Day #2

I had another great day at work today! There is still lots and LOTS of stuff to catch up on and I'm pretty sure it will be awhile before I'm swimming and not sinking in tasks. I sure keeps me busy and working hard though! I'm so impressed at the work ethic of all my co-workers! Everyone is so hard working and is there to get stuff done! They are moving and shaking up here in Petawawa! It's so great to see! I'm really honored to be apart of things!

Today I was introduced to one of the local veterinary clinics as well as introduced to "Safer Testing". They test all the dogs to see if they are safe to be adopted out and wont hurt anyone. They also score them on personality traits so potential adopters can "meet their match". It's a great tool to find the perfect match between pet and owner!

I also got some exciting news this morning! I updated the shelter's blog with a quick post from the "Doggie Spa Day" and Provincial Office contacted us to use the pictures I took for an upcoming spot in the "Newshound"!










I hope all is well in South-Western Ontario! Be sure to send me emails and message of encouragement! With the support of my friends and my family I know I'll be able to work even hard to help the Renfrew OSPCA shelter team be as successful as possible!