Finding the artist within.

While cleaning out a room in my parent's house recently I found a bunch of blank canvases that my Mom had.  On one of them was a taped picture of this:

artist: Ron Burns

The picture had been painted for a Humane Society advertisement but the bright colors and cute face caught my eye.

I had recently gone to a place called Sips n Strokes with some friends and was completely inspired to recreate the experience at home after finding this picture.  After a few months of busy schedules I finally gathered some friends and we attempted to paint our animal friends.

I found a cat for Matthew and Jennifer and I attempted the dog.  We started with the backgrounds, had a break for dinner and went back to work on the rest.

We used techniques that we learned at our past visit to Sips n Strokes.

And before long we had some pretty neat looking paintings.

While the original was really cute, I couldn't help but add some of my own "Duncan details" to my painting.

And I we pleased to see my work appreciated.

It was fun!  We want to do it again!

...and this little doggie goes "arf! arf! arf!" all the way home...

At 3am we load the car to bring Duncan to Frankfurt.

At 6am he will be in the hands of PetAir headed to Atlanta.

Super Dog!

Our little world traveler is off again! ...even though he hasn't realized it yet.

Duncan has a flight out of Frankfurt on Friday. (Well, it was Friday bu tnow the date is changing...maybe Monday or Tuesday, thanks to customs in Atlanta) We are supposed to get him there by 6am - yikes! And then he will arrive in Atlanta around 1:55pm local time. And, Metz has decided to give him a traditional Metz going-away present...rain! How nice.

Your dog doesn't do that?

I had to share this with you.

We have taught Duncan that when we go to bed he has to sleep on his bed on the floor. ..and he does. But, every morning, David sets the alarm to go off around 7am. Does David get up at 7am? No! He reaches for his Bose remote and turns the alarm off so that he can sleep for another hour or two. Why have the alarm set so early? Good question!

Anyway. The alarm doesn't just wake us up, but it wakes up Duncan to. At this point he has gotten into the habit of standing next to the side of the bed whining at us until we give him attention. At first I thought he really needed to go outside to go to the bathroom. But, after several early morning walks I was tired of getting up so early so I tapped on the bed and let him sit next to me. Not only did he just sit next to me, but he curled up and fell back to sleep. AND, he didn't bother me again until I got out of bed. Nice! So now our morning routine involves letting Duncan get on the bed after the alarm goes off. It works well. No complaints.

Well, the other morning it was especially cold in the room. When Duncan jumped up on the bed I covered him with the blanket too. Before I knew it he had shimmied his way up to my pillow too. Before long he looked like this:That's right, sleeping just like a person. It's very cute.

Vampire cookies. I told you I'd make them. It took me a while to get them just right, but they finally turned out the way they were supposed to. Look good huh?I prefer the ones with just the holes...the "dripping blood" just looks messy. I've never been much of a sugar cookie lover, but these turned out OK for my first attempt at them. I don't think I'll do them again though - unless someone begs me for them - because, in the Swafford household, we prefer chocolate chip cookies, hands down!

beginnings and ends

Today in Metz a strike is starting, and it's a pretty big one. All government employees are striking. From teachers, to postal workers, to train employees, no one is going to work, and no one is sure how long it will last. I don't really know all the details, but I hope it doesn't last too long. David and I need to take a train on December 11th to go home!!

In Swafford news... I've been talking to David more about wanting Duncan to come live over here with us, especially since pet sitting our friend's dog. Last night he came home and handed me a piece of paper that looked like this:

We wouldn't have a specific room to put him, but this was just David's way of saying "It's ok with me if Duncan comes over here." !! This is big news, and I'm very excited. I hope I can find the best way to get him over here.

Thursday is Thanksgiving! We will be going to dinner at GTL with about 150 other people (students, professors, and families). My first Thanksgiving in another country, David and my first thanksgiving as husband and wife, and my first thanksgiving without any of my other family. A lot of firsts this year...

And lastly, and David will make fun of me for this... Our last month-iversary is this Friday!! (not that we have been celerating monthiversasries) I told David this is a big deal because we will never have a monthiversary again! Once you reach the first year anniversaries are all that matter... SO, we'll "celebrate" this one. I think we're going to go ice skating :o)