pixels wishes...

you all a happy valentine's day. and look... her rabies tag even looks like a heart! how apropos.  i, on the other hand, am going back to bed with my friend nyquil. i shouldn't have bragged that i made it through most of winter without getting sick.

let's get caught up, shall we

well, someone finally noticed that i hadn't updated the blog in a month. thanks, sis. and since i hadn't posted in awhile, i thought i'd give the blog a fresh look with a new header, a collage of my favorite instagram photos. (click on the link on the sidebar to follow me on instagram where i post a photo or two almost daily!)

so... let's get caught up in what's happening around here. our little finnigan is growing like a weed. he keeps us quite busy. finnigan runs at either a 10 or a 0... there's no inbetween. he's either in his crate snoring or running around like a maniac. we have yet to truly cuddle with him. he thinks he can fit everything in his path in his mouth. and he tries. and then you're chasing him around the house like a fool. i know he's laughing to himself when that happens. he throws hissy fits when he doesn't get his way. and he knows EXACTLY when his next meal is and he will let you know as loudly as he can that you are 30 seconds late with his meal. we love him anyway.

here he is in puppy class with his daddy.

we make finnigan suffer hold a "down" pose before he can eat.

his dangling participle.

and his sweet face.
and let's not forget our oldest, pixel. she turned 5 recently. as a friend commented.... "she doesn't look a day over 4!"

she spends her days in the life of luxury.

and in other homefront news, thanks to my bootcamp trainer, meridith, i've rediscovered quinoa. i'm addicted to quinoa and kale cakes . i make a variation of this recipe. they are so good! i usually serve them with guacamole on top.

and who knew carnations lasted so long?? these have been thriving on my kitchen island for the last 2 weeks. like the vase? it's an antique dental spittoon i bought over the holidays. i love the shape and color and try to forget that people at one time spit in it.

here in flat, farm country we see a lot of hot air balloons. i snapped a photo of these guys taking off at the end of our street one weekend.

and in shop news, i've been doing a lot of custom work. here's a sampling.

these minty stripes went out to a favorite customer. i LOVE her logo/signature!

 malachite-inspired business cards for another favorite client in palm beach.

 after i designed those, i found this image online. yep, rolex and i think alike.

more green.

 and some purple.

and a custom baby shower invite for a friend.

 well, that about sums up my january. i'll be back real soon with another post!

merry merry! our christmas card!

our christmas card is always one of my favorite things to design each year. it takes months of planning and scheming to think about what silly getup/pose i can make pixel do. this year was challenging because we had to incorporate our newest member of the family, finnigan. and when we took this photo, finnigan had yet to learn basic manners. getting him to sit still for a split second was a challenge (and actually it STILL is!... 2 months later).

after lots of photos and some hysterical outtakes, we chose this as the best photo. the caption followed. (click to enlarge.)

last year's card. (i LOVE pixel's expression!) 

2010's card.

and 2009 (which was sent with a year's update from pixel). still one of my absolute favorite photos of pixel.

and with these, i am signing off until 2013. merry christmas! and thanks for following up with pixelimpress!

randomness around here via my instagram photos

i've had one day off in the last 4 weeks, and, in the spirit of the season, this is what i did. i threw some ornaments in a bowl...

and spray painted my real antler for another holiday display in the house. it turned out so good i'm eyeballing other things to spray metallic gold.

and in shop news....

i love creating holiday photo cards. this bride had the perfect photo for my confetti newlywed card.

lots of personalized stationery going out the door ...

these were some gorgeous calling cards i printed for a customer. we added her pink logo. i love it on the mint stripes.

these are a favorite this year in the shop. i'm about to print another batch.

and now for the four-legged news...not everybody works as hard as i do during the day...

steve's been working hard training the little guy, finnigan. this day he got a double sit at the backdoor before playtime in the yard... their favorite passtime.

i caught finni in this action shot the other day.... nice faceplant, dude.

AND....steve and i have been watching breaking bad on netflix. i'm obsessed. so much so, that i'm gonna pepper my language with b*tch and yo. don't take it personally.

"i'm just going to look, i'm not gonna buy anything"

i uttered those words to my husband as i walked out the door saturday morning. i was heading to a design center's warehouse sale just a few miles from my home. they hold the sale twice a year when they have overstock and too many items that they've cleared out of model homes. they have quality, name brand furniture, rugs, artwork and accessories at up to 90% off.

most people show up 2 hours before the sale starts to wait in line for the doors to open. i don't. i show up 1 hour after it starts, after the craziness ends. they tell you to bring stickers with your name and phone # on them so you can walk run through and label the items you want to buy. it's an honor system. you don't touch another person's marked items.

i spotted this sofa stacked with items that weren't marked sold. the sofa wasn't marked sold. i gasped. i checked with several clerks and they too agreed it wasn't sold. i slapped my sticker on it. i texted a photo of it to hubby. i had been wanting to update one of our living room sofas for awhile now. this was the look i had in the back of my mind. and i found it. the perfect color, wooden spindle legs, rolled arms, and comfortable... all at an unbelievably low price. there wasn't a thing wrong with it. fast forward a few minutes and it was on a delivery truck to my house.

"i'd have been crazy not to buy it." those were the other words i uttered to my husband later that day.

as you can see, someone else likes it also.

no puppies were hurt in the making of our annual christmas card....

i promise. contrary to the below evidence.

enjoy these outtakes from our photo shoots this past weekend.

October....

has come and gone, way too quickly. what did we do during october? i'll show you in a few instagram shots. (by the way, you should follow me on instagram... i keep up with that more than the ol' blog... link is on the sidebar.)

i cooked butternut squash and kale with cranberries and pecans. it was wonderful. steve even liked it.

these two got better acquainted. finnigan does everything pixel does. they have playtime in the backyard with their bones and a laser at nighttime. it's loads of fun. (i've come to call finnigan finninnigan. i've done it so much that now i stutter when i say finnigan.)

f-f-finnigan is in puppy class. he's the star pupil of his class. ok, fine... he's the only one in his class. but even if he weren't, he'd still be the star pupil.

i put a few pumpkins and mums out for my fall decorating.

our lavender is blooming.

i made some new things for the shop, including these super cute gingham and deerhead hang tags. everyone needs some. you can get them here.

and we all took a few naps. this girl is the queen of napping.

pixel here with the latest news

mommy's busy, so she asked me to fill you in on what we've been up to....

i'm swimming!! finally!
mommy and daddy took their time introducing me to the swimming pool. they waited until the sod around the pool was fully developed so i didn't get all muddy coming out of the pool.  because we all know that if i'm muddy, mommy's not happy. and if's mommy's not happy, nobody's happy.

here i am heading down the steps, to....

daddy!

hi, pixel

head up, head up, keep my head up.

almost there

phew, the steps.

it took me a few laps to realize the best way out. i tried turning toward the side of the pool to get out, but, um, that didn't work out too well. so now i use the steps like every one else.

mommy loves taking close ups.

here i am, in action.

i do a mean doggie paddle.

and then, after 47 laps, i crash.

and crash hard.

and in other news, mommy and i are really really really proud of daddy. he rode in a 100k (68 mile) bike ride a few weekends ago. he got up at 230 in the morning, drove a few hours with a neighbor and arrived at the starting line at dawn.

they rode thru an air force base.

way to go daddy!