Meet our new girl!

If you follow me on Twitter or Instagram you've already heard the news, but I need to share here too! Chris and I brought a new little friend home...

Meet Cricket! She's a 3 lb. 12 week old chiweenie (that's a chihuahua/dachshund mix). We brought her home on Sunday after a couple of weeks of anticipation. The picture above was taken by her foster mom right after they got here, so we were all very excited and it's a little shaky. And don't judge my Uggs, haha! It's been snowing like crazy here so I have an excuse... at least I hope I do! :) The whole story of how this came about is pretty interesting and full of coincidence, so bear with me while I share it... 

 I have wanted a dog for years, but it never seemed like the right time. Chris and I have talked about it for a while now, and he was definitely reluctant. He wanted to be sure that we could provide a stable and loving home, with plenty of time to spend with a pup and enough financial stability to cover whatever her needs may be. But for Valentine's Day he finally decided it was time to start looking. I've had my heart set on bringing home a little mini dachshund. I had one as a little girl and I absolutely loved her. We knew we wanted something small, Chris said he wanted a chihuahua or a dachshund. I had looked at doxie rescues in our area over the last few years just because, but I never came across anyone that seemed like a good fit. I knew we would get a puppy, for one because I thought it'd be easier to integrate a baby with Jeans, and two because Chris and I had our hearts set on raising a puppy together. I'd also checked out local breeders and found some that seemed reputable, but you really never know, and in my heart I really wanted to adopt. 

When Chris gave me the go-ahead to start looking, I couldn't help but google local doxie pups that night. Lo and behold, I found a PetFinder listing for three chiweenie pups! The three little girls were adorable, but one in particular stood out. They were born in December and had Christmas themed names, the one that we loved was Holly. I was nervous but emailed the rescue organization about her. They got back to me the next day, and she was still available! I filled out an application, they checked out our references, and next thing I know we're buying toys and a leash and picking out a new name! 

Everything seemed weirdly coincidental with this whole process. The timing was perfect, I wanted a dachshund and Chris wanted a chihuahua, and she's a chiweenie! Naming her too- I wanted a vintage-y girl's name like Winnie or Pearl, and Chris wanted to name her something weird and silly (his top contender was Adventure Time, followed closely by Buckets... yeah, he's 6 haha). We were watching tv and someone said cricket, and we looked at each other and said "yeah, Cricket". So she's our little bug and we've maybe been only buying her green accessories because we're dorks like that :)

The story of the pups being rescued is pretty sad (so if you're affected by that kind of thing I'd skip this paragraph...). The pups were born to a chihuahua mom, three girls and one boy, on December 5th. A day later, the mom gave birth to a stillborn puppy, and began to hemorrhage. The owners didn't take her in to the vet for another day, and by that time she was septic and too far gone that she needed to be put down. The puppies weren't getting enough nutrition from their poor sick mama, and the deluded owners were supplementing them with coffee creamer (which makes absolutely zero sense to anyone with half a brain). The vet that euthanized the mama told the owners that either they surrendered the puppies or faced legal action. I'm not sure exactly how, but other arrangements were made for the boy puppy and the three girls went to the rescue together. They were raised from one week old by a lovely foster mama who just did wonders for them. I am so thankful for all the work the rescue and the foster mom put in to save these little girls! 

So there you have it! That's the story of our little Cricket. Things are going pretty well for our first couple of days. We're giving Jeans plenty of time to adjust and get used to her. He has a room that she's not allowed in so he can escape if he needs to. He's gotten close and sniffed her a few times, but he's still pretty unsure of her. It's getting better by the hour, I think, he gets a little closer and less skittish more and more throughout the day. We have our fingers crossed that they'll be buddies soon! 

Please feel free to leave tips and advice for new puppy parents if you have it, we'd love to hear it!! xo

Happy Halloween!

Every year I have grand plans for a Halloween costume but they never seem to come together, mostly because we don't really go to parties where a well thought out costume would be pertinent. I usually just pass out candy by myself (Chris always seems to be working), so a more subtle costume is okay. Last year I was a cowgirl, and this year I'm rocking my new kitty ears headband (which will be up in the shop soon!). It just so happens that I'm wearing gray.... yeah, I'm dressed up as my cat for Halloween. Even Jeans thinks I'm a dork! 

Hope your Halloween is safe and spooky!!

PS: I chose a winner for the Sunglasses Shop giveaway! Congratulations to entry #23, Amanda of Salvaged Strawberry!

Mr. Littlejeans in the tower.

Jeans has had this tower for almost as long as we've been a family. In those almost four years, I've never once seen him sleep in it. But I guess there's a first time for everything :)

Chris and I celebrated my birthday last night. My actual birthday is Saturday, but I'll be working, and we both had yesterday off. It was pretty low key, just the way I wanted... some good food, thrifting, a trip to Target, all of my favorite things! I hope your week is off to a great start! 

Plaid Peter Pan, and a Valentine's recap.

Dress: Vintage (eBay)

Tights and Cardigan: Target

Boots: Thrifted 

This dress is yet another eBay score that I'm so excited about. I have such weird luck with eBay, I'll go for weeks where I check my saved searches at least every other day and find nothing, absolutely nothing, and then all of a sudden a handful of fantastic things pop up and I have to choose which one to go after. This one was a no-brainer, green and blue plaid with a Peter Pan collar in exactly my size? Yes please! I do start to freak out after wearing it for a while because it's a smidge tight on my neck and I get pretty claustrophobic. But it's cute enough that I suffer through :)

I wore this dress to my Valentine's Day date with Chris. We went to Seasons 52 on Monday (we both had to work on Tuesday). Seasons 52 is a pretty cool restaurant with a menu that changes with the seasons. We indulged on appetizers and dessert (it's more fun that way!), like tandoori chicken skewers, rare ahi tuna, chilled tiger shrimp, and mussels in marinara sauce (we like seafood, ha!). We considered stopping by our favorite sushi restaurant afterwards for a "nightcap" but we were too stuffed.

I had a little surprise waiting for me when I got home...

Chris is the greatest, he knew how much I've been wanting a new camera and he surprised me with the exact one I'd been lusting after! Now I just need to get a new lens, and a cute camera bag, and make a fun strap.... :) And, if you're in the market for your very own beginner's DSLR, I'm (most likely) going to be selling my Canon rebel when I get all the specifics sorted out. Email me if you're interested in more info! I've sold it to a lovely lady :)

PS: There's still time to enter the Salvaged Strawberry giveaway! Click here!

A little dose of adorable.

Isn't he just the cutest?

My new favorite thing.

I feel a little silly writing up a whole post about this, but I'm really more excited about this than I should be :) The other day I tweeted about needing a solution for Mr. Littlejeans's insane amounts of fur. Seriously, you couldn't pet him without a pound of hair falling off. A few people responded that I needed to get myself a Zoom Groom, which I promptly ran out and bought!

This thing is fantastic. I love it, Jeans loves it, and my vacuum cleaner loves it (because it has to do less work.... ehhh?) He hates being brushed by a regular brush, but this, I hold it up and he comes running! See how happy he is now? Alright, I won't lie, he lays like this all the time. But inside he's happy!

He's pumped! Do any of you guys with short haired kitties have any other tips and tricks for keeping their fur in control? Let me know in the comments!!

Oh Monday Monday.

I'm back to working my thirteen hour shifts two days a week, and I had my first one yesterday. Let me just tell you, it was rough! I felt completely useless by the time I got home. But I have today off, and I was determined to get some stuff accomplished! I threw on a pretty thrifted (new, not vintage) dress, and headed out!

We went by the auto-body place that's going to fix up my car first, and they said it's going to take about five days. Ooof! At least I can get a rental car. Next we headed to the Goodwill, where I picked up two brand new Target dresses, a few cute mugs, a pair of Minnetonka booties (in really good condition!), and a tripod! I seriously don't want to buy anything new anymore. I can find everything I've been wanting and needing at Goodwill for so much cheaper! I'm going to start phasing out all the newer mass-produced stuff we have and replacing it with vintage treasures soon. I'm so excited about that!

Tonight we're having some of Chris's work friends over, and then I'm going to play chauffeur and take them to a club/lounge place nearby. It'll be interesting, Chris and I have never been to a club of any sort, so we'll see how much we stick out!

In case you're interested, I posted something kind of morbid that I found today on my Tumblr. It's not for the faint of heart or easily upset, but I thought it was incredibly interesting. If you're intrigued, check it out here. 

Just a few recent thrifted finds.

I went to the two nearest Goodwills the other day, and I had a pretty decent time. I found some cute vintage stuff, like this strawberry sauce pot and green plastic mug.

I also got the pretty dress on the left. It's brand new (with tags) from Target, and it's the same style as this one. Every time I go to the Goodwills around here they're packed full of brand new stuff from Target! It's all from the clearance section, and last time I found about a dozen of this dress! Do you ever see Target stuff at Goodwill?

Jeans was being a little helper while I took these photos.

He always acts a little weird when I go into the upstairs room. It's supposed to be my craft room, but I don't get to use it very much, so mostly it's Jeansy's room. I feel like he's my teenage son who's going "Moooommmm, get out of my rooooooom! Stop touching all my stuuuuuuuf!!". (Anthropomorphism, much?).

I get to go into work a little later than normal today, so I'm working on some baby booties for my sister (and nephew!). I'm going into the city on Tuesday to help her set up the nursery, and we're going to make a mobile! We've been scouring Pinterest for inspiration, and I think we have it narrowed down to a few options.

I still have a few sponsor spaces available, if you're interested! Don't forget, if you sign up for the month of September, you get the last week of August for free!!

Lots of Instagram photos!

I've been taking more Instagram photos lately, and I figured I should share some here :) Are you on it? You can search 'susannahbean' to find me.

Lovely new (to me ) vintage dress.

Sneaky Jeans on top of the fridge.

 

I asked Chris to help decorate the shower gift bags, and they turned out a little like jack o' lanterns.

Date night in Chris's new car.

A little kitty arm trying to get me while I'm in the bathroom.

Buttons!

Snugglebug.

Blanket progress.

I couldn't believe Jeans was sitting with Chris like this.

Both of my boys piled on top of me for a nap.

I caught Jeans lounging like this while I was sewing.

Red velvet cupcake from Sweet Mandy B's with my sisters.

Chris and I went bowling together for the first time! I wanted to steal these shoes :)

Today I'll be relaxing before I head into work. I'm working on some new ideas for my shop that I'm super excited about, and I'm so anxious to get started! I know I'll be up too late tonight fleshing out my ideas. But when inspiration strikes, you gotta run with it, right? I hope you're having a wonderful day :)

Photo Dump!

Things have been a little weird this past week, not necessarily in a bad way, but my routine was definitely out of whack and I was totally thrown off because of it. I'm sure you heard about the crazy blizzard that pretty much all of the Midwest experienced in the middle of the week. We were hit pretty darn hard late Tuesday and into Wednesday. The snow is just crazy bananas, our entire back patio set is covered! The weather was intense on Tuesday, crazy winds and just tons and tons of snow falling. Wednesday we woke up early to clear and sunny skies, and the aftermath of the previous night's storm. Clearing out our driveway was just a blast!! Just kidding, it was terrible. Luckily Chris's dad had just gotten a snow blower, and our landlord had one too. We got it cleared, and went in to chill out for a while, only to have to come back out and redo everything because the plows came through! UGH!! It's pretty much cleared now, though the roads in the area are missing lanes and have huge drifts built up on the corners. Here's some photos of our fun day of snow removal...

Because of the blizzard, my work closed early on Tuesday night and stayed closed until Thursday. My usual days off are Mondays and Thursdays, so I had Monday through Thursday off, and I was going stir crazy! All the stores in the area were closed, so all the fun crafty things I've been wanting to do but haven't had time for weren't even options because I couldn't get supplies! Our cable and internet was out, too, so Chris and I played Boggle and Uno for wayyyy too long!

Things finally opened up Thursday, so we ran out to get some groceries and some crafty supplies. We were gone for a few hours, and when we got back we noticed that Jeans had something crazy going on with his eyes.

(see his pupils??)

We were pretty freaked out because it just looks so weird, but we were thoroughly scared when we googled what it could possibly be. Basically, the majority of the websites we looked at said that a difference in pupil size could be a symptom of a whole mess of terrible things, like spinal damage, brain swelling, eye cancer, glaucoma... The list went on and on, and we were scared. We made him a vet appointment the next morning, and after a really great experience with the doctor (apparently he was really well behaved and the vet loved him, and his name!!), we found out it was just a gnarly scratch on the eye with the dilated pupil. That was a huge relief, I was so nervous it was going to be something worse!

While Chris was at the vet with Jeans, I was getting my hair done for the first time in way too long. My wonderful dad had gotten me a gift certificate for my favorite salon in my hometown for my Christmas gift, and I finally got around to making an appointment with my favorite stylist. I felt guilty for being at the salon while Jeans was at the vet, but I'm such a worrier I would have been a complete mess if I went with them.

I decided to change it up this time around, so I had my hair lightened and then dyed a deep red-violet color. It's much more red in person, but not crazy bright. I also got my bangs cut! I've seen so many ladies with pretty straight-across bangs lately, I just had to try! They're taking some getting used to, but I'm in love.


I finally reached a midway point on my ears! I got to 5/8" today, with my ultimate (and final) goal being 3/4". I'm super excited because I have two super adorable pairs of 3/4" plugs to wear! I'm so impatient!

Here's a sneak peek of the crafty things I've been up to.


I wanted to make our bedroom a little nicer looking in the hopes that a well decorated room would mean I kept it cleaner... We'll see how that goes! I made these paper decorations (and quite a few more) to hang above our bed, but I'm having the darndest time hanging them right! I want them to lay flat against the wall, but they keep tipping forward. I'm going to try stronger tape and maybe floral wire to rig something up!

Phew! That was a lot. I also want to mention that if you're interested in buying something from my shop, I will be putting it in vacation mode for about two weeks at the end of February. I need some time to work on new designs, plus we'll be going on our super fun roadtrip with Kaelah and Mike in March!! I'll announce a date for the vacation mode in the next week or two.

I hope you're having a wonderful night!