Crafted Love

"I don't know about you, but I'm feeling 22"

2013-05-09T22:10:00.000-04:00

22 has been rad.

I graduated from Architecture school, one of the toughest majors out there.

I added a crazy little ginger cat to our family of three.

I moved into my first apartment as an independent adult.

I married my best friend in the entire world.

I got a really rad job in an advertising agency.

I planned a pretty rad bridal shower for one of my lovely cousin.

I got recruited for my dream job as a corporate Visual Communications Manager.

I became a foster through our local shelter.

I trained a "troubled" dog into being a cuddle bug who got adopted.

I cut off 15 inches of my hair and LOVED it.

I painted walls in an APARTMENT and learned how to life in the "now".

I foster-failed and adopted the craziest dog around.

I fell in love with the craziest dog around.

I had breakfast at midnight in true TSwift "22" fashion.

22: "Peace out, dudes"

Me: "23, you've got some big shoes to fill,"

23: "Challenge accepted"

DONE.

5 tips for surviving your puppy...

2013-04-25T08:00:00.000-04:00

I think I've said this before, but I'm not really a dog person at heart. I'm great with dog, I just I love cats. But when you decide to start fostering, the chancing of even a cat person falling in love with one of those faces is pretty high. However, it's not all fun and games. I knew this getting into being a forever dog owner, however, actually experiencing it is another story. So, for any fellow new dog people out there, or anyone thinking about adopting a puppy, let me bestow what little I can on how to survive...

1. Keep a pair of flip-flops by the door for those "Oh shit!" moments when you see your lovable pooch stooping into the dreaded "squat". Those extra seconds can save you several on the floor cleaning up a mess. Not to mention, every good potty session is amazing for training. We're all for positive reinforcement over here.

2. Try to remember how much that pooch loves you when you come home to your favorite book of city skylines and two new magazines laying on the floor in shambles. You didn't catch him in the act, so reprimanding him for it will do you no good. He loves you terribly and is so very excited for you to be home, try and look past this one slip-up and quietly clean up his mess. You can buy another book and magazines, you can't reverse yelling and confusing your poor dog.

3. Be sure to remember your other furry friends when training your pup. While, not all dogs are aggressive towards cats, most puppies want to play with everyone. Cats included. It's simply playful, but I doubt your feline friends really want a 45 pound puppy in their face even if he properly play-bowed. Having a space for just cats is actually a great way to allow them to get used to each other without making the cats uncomfortable. We, personally, have a space behind the couch, in between the wall, where we have their cat tower and all their cat toys. It's about a 2'x6' space and we have it blocked off with a piece of beautiful (sarcasm) plywood. We also don't allow Harvey on the furniture (bed included) so the cats can still have their cuddle time sans doggie.

4. Save your arm (and house), buy a Chuck-It. I can't even explain how amazing having that $12.00 toy is. If you're unfamiliar of the name, it's the tennis ball tosser that allows you to play fetch without straining yourself (and getting all slobbery). 15 minutes of good, old fetch on my lunch break is enough to send Harvey into fairly long nap. An exercised pup is a good pup. Swear your dog will never learn fetch? Check this out.

5. Start leash training early. One of the first things we bought other than dog food, was an Gentle-Leader head collar. A few days using this properly to keep your dog by your side and you'll be amazed how easy walks are from then on. The one unfortunate thing is that many people mistake these as muzzles. They are not. When people ask I stick my hand in Harvey's mouth and show them that if my dog wanted to bite me, he would :)

Overall, being a new dog mom has had its ups and downs. Some days I could yell out my window at the top of my lungs "I LOVE HARVEY!". Other days... not so much. But as long as I remind myself that Harvey thinks Mike and I are the greatest thing to have stepped onto this earth, it's much easier to get past the rough patches. I know that some day he will be the best trained dog in the neighborhood and will strike envy in dog owners everywhere. Until then, I'll just clean up his messes and continue to give him treats every time he sits, stays, lays, and shakes on command :)

Our Wedding | The Guestbook

2013-04-19T08:00:00.000-04:00

Pre-wedding, Mike and I were going back and forth on what we should do as a guestbook (or if we should even have one). There are a ton of great ideas out there which made it pretty hard to choose. In the end, we decided to go with a photo book of our engagement pictures for people to write on.

I wanted to start having a yearly photobook, kind of like a family yearbook, starting our first year of marriage. I figured what better way to start the tradition than with our wedding guestbook (followed by a book of wedding photos). I used Blurb and put one photo on every page and alternated photo/ blank every other. I made sure that photos were on the same page and the blank pages shared a sheet as well. For example, on the first spread, the photo was on the right and the blank page was on the left. On the very next spread, the photo was on the left and the blank page was on the right. That way, if someone pressed hard when they wrote, you wouldn't have any indentations coming through on the photo. Smart, huh? :)

I prefer Blurb because they offer a free Adobe InDesign plugin that you can install and create your book offline. It makes it nice for designing your book over time rather than having to do it all in one sitting.

At the wedding, we had the guest book sitting on a small table next to our wedding favors and card box. People could come in and write notes or just sign. Some people gave us a little piece of marital advice, some people wrote down funny stories. I'm really happy with this decision to have a photo guestbook so we can look back and remember everyone who came while looking at old engagement photos as well. It's sort of like killing two birds with one stone!

**This post was not sponsored by Blurb. All opinions are my own.**

Our Wedding | The Wedding Party

2013-04-16T08:00:00.000-04:00

Remember that time when I started blogging about our wedding and then just stopped randomly for over 8 months? Yeah - My bad. With all the craziness of new jobs, switching jobs, and the holiday season, I completely dropped the ball on sharing photos. So let's start things up again, shall we? No big deal I've been married for 8 months already. We'll just let that one slide...

So like I mentioned forever ago in our Ceremony blog post... we let our friends where whatever they wanted and just told them the color to stick with. I think it made our wedding even more laid back and fun. We had a lot of fun taking pictures with each other and just being all around silly. I love the way the miss-matched dresses look together and how dashing the guys looked in just plain old tshirts and polos.

One of my favorite pictures, though, is probably this one of my brother and me. Candid photos are the best. My brother is pretty handsome, no? ;)

To check out the rest of the Wedding posts, click here. I'll be back soon with the rest of our wedding photos. I'm such a slacker sometimes!

Dear Harvey, (Harvey Got Adopted!)

2013-04-05T08:00:00.000-04:00

After only two weeks in foster care, Harvey snagged a forever home with some unsuspecting people. I mean, really... who could say no to that adorable face anyway? After his adoption I created a short, ~~cheesy~~, video to celebrate! Take a look... you won't want to miss the ending.

Harvey Gets Adopted! from Allison Affourtit on Vimeo.

Sweet Cherry Pie

2013-04-04T08:00:00.000-04:00

Quick. Name that song.

I am a HUGE fan of cherry pie. My mom learned how to bake them from my Dad's grandmother and then she passed along the recipe to me. It's super secret. And super amazing. You don't even understand. Typically, cherry pie gets made 2-3 times a year and normally around the holidays. Not. Enough. Cherry. Pie.

After she taught me how to bake them I honestly had the urge to bake a pie every week. Together, my mom and I have made pies in all shapes and sizes. Regular pans, small pans, mini mini mini pans... well I decided to add another to the list. Due to random cherry pie cravings and a plethora of mini canning jars from the wedding, I decided to make up some cherry pie jars to freeze for whenever I feel like having pie.

It's super simple. Just find a cherry pie recipe online and put it all together in jars. It's easier if you cut the crust into strips and mold it together int he jar. Freeze, and take out when you feel like some sweet cherry pie. Just put the frozen jar (take off the tops and fabric) in the cold over before turning it on. Flip the oven on to 450 degrees and bake for about 15 minutes or until the top crust starts to brown. There's no need to defrost the pie. So simple!

I made a batch of these for a family friend and my father-in-law who are both cherry pie lovers as well. I'm cooking one of my own as I type this. Any other cherry pie lovers out there?

Wasting Away Again in Margaritaville

2013-04-03T08:00:00.000-04:00

Cincinnati is now the proud new home for the newest Jimmy Buffet’s Margaritaville! I don’t think I can possibly explain how much I love Jimmy Buffet and Margaritaville. Over the years we’ve visited a bunch – Chicago, Orlando, Grand Caymen, Key West, Jamaica, to name a few. Someday I hope I can list off all of them!

My dad turned the big 55 this past Friday and to celebrate, we all met up in Cincinnati for the night. We had a blast and I took home my new favorite drinking cup (blender). I of course had to order a Cheeseburger in Paradise which required singing the song (it's only right). There were balloon hats, bar hopping, basketball games, wine tasting, dueling pianos, and lots of walking around. I can’t say it enough – I LOVE CINCINNATI!

Yellow Springs with the Pup

2013-04-02T08:00:00.000-04:00

This past weekend Mike and I took our foster pup, Harvey, to our favorite place in the world (well, Ohio at least), Yellow Springs. We started out by taking a hike through John Bryan State Park. Once we were on the trail we took Harvey off his leash. To say he was a happy pup would be a gross understatement. He had so much energy he would run up hills, down the path, back up the path, and then jump on anything he could. He stayed fairly close to us the whole time only wandering a few yards.

Who knew, Harvey is an expert tree climber. Getting up the tree? Easy. Getting back down? Well, that entailed a lot of whimpering and foster mom having to come retrieve him from 5 feet up. Silly pup.

After our hike, Harvey was soooo tired. We walked into town and grabbed some corn dogs and fried from a food truck and then went to the Corner Cone for some ice cream. If you thought Harvey loved the hike, you should have seen him demolish an ice cream cone. After blowing through his kiddie cone and half of my cone, we decided to call it a day. I’ve never seen a dog sleep so much in my life. He slept the whole 35 minute car ride home and 4 straight hours once we got back into the apartment. He was one tired pup. We plan to make it a weekly thing and hope the weather is nice enough to go back this Saturday.

Meet Harvey!

2013-03-25T08:00:00.000-04:00

Say hello to the newest addition to our foster family, Harvey ~~Dent~~! Yes, we got to name him this time and of course, in DC Comic fashion, we continued the theme. We believe Harvey is a Dutch Shepherd with a little Pit Bull.

Harvey is the cutest little cuddle bug ever. He loves laying on us (read: sprawling out on us) while we watch TV. He is also extremely smart because of those Shepherd genes. Within the first 15 minutes of bringing him home I had taught him Sit and Stay. After only a day, he no longer needed to be on a leash for walks. He contently stays right by our side, only wandering a few yards max when he sees something interesting. When we call him back he comes trotting, ears flailing around, and greets us with a kiss.

For being only 3-4 months old, this little guy is impressive! We love him already and can't wait to teach him some more advanced tricks in the near future.

Dear Chef,

2013-03-18T08:29:00.001-04:00

We will miss your silly tail that would go crazy anytime we walked into the room. It was your way of showing how much you loved us.

We will miss how you constantly insisted on holding part of the leash when we took you out to potty.

We will miss how you quickly learned that peeing on the carpet meant a trip outside causing us to reevaluate our training methods.

We will miss your adorably sad eyes that won us over one out of five times no matter what you had done previously.

We will miss watching you tear through dog bones as if they were dog treats; You went through nearly one bone a day.

We will miss not having to hide our shoes all the time. You forced me to be a more organized person.

We will miss how much you loved getting in the car and sticking your nose out the window. You got so good at hopping right in without assistance.

We will even miss your slobbery sneezes in the car when too much wind got in your nose.

We will miss how you loved going on walks so much that you didn't care that you were choking yourself pulling on the leash.

We will miss your goofy way of trying to get your lead off of your snout. It looked like you were trying to hide your face and only once did you actually manage to get it off.

We will miss your loud, freight train snores that caused us to have to move your bed to the living room.

We will miss how you playfully stuck your head down and butt up in an attempt to get the cats to play with you. We were amazed you made it so long without a claw to the face.

But most of all, we will miss YOU. We're so happy for you Chef, and so glad you finally found your forever home. We know your new mom will run with you every day and be a great owner since she not only worked for the Humane Society, but is a vet as well. We hope you love your new home as much as we loved having you around for that short month. We're now on to train a new pup to be just as lovable as you so maybe we'll see you at the dog park some day.

While we were drinking green beer this weekend, Chef was at SICSA wearing his green coat waiting to see if this weekend would be the one when someone would snatch him up and take him to his forever home. Apparently that green coat made him irresistible because within 2 hours of dropping him off for the weekend, Chef got adopted!

Project Life | Week One

2013-03-12T13:37:00.000-04:00

I did it! I started a Project Life album! I must say, I don't know why I waited so long! Technically this album won't be a full year (I started the last week in February) but I'll try not to let that bother me. Better late than never, as they always say.

I started by buying the basics. Elise's Seafoam binder and a set of pocket page inserts. I love the mint green "seafoam" color binder. It's so bright and cheery! Emerald is also the Pantone color of the year so I felt it was only right to choose a green colored binder. That, and I love Elise Cripe's Project Life set.

For the cover of 2013, I decided to use one big photo instead of different card inserts. I took one of my favorite Instagram photos and added the "2013" in Photoshop. Then I used the splice tool and cut out six 4x6 sections and printed them on my home printer from the photo tray. Then I took the middle two 4x6 prints and cut them in half by hand (middle column), rounded all the corners, inserted them, and boom! Awesome cover time.

I thought about buying Elise's Seafoam paper kit but decided not to spend the extra dough this early on. I'm sure I'll buy some later on and even branch out into different sets. For now though, I put my graphic design skills to work and created a set of my own. Mike made fun of my color choices at first. Can use guess what they were? My first go-around included the always predictable teal, grey, and black. Real original, Allison. So I started over with some colors I don't normally use. It took a turn towards floral and I have to say, I think I love it!

What happened this week? We brought our foster, Chef, home || Chef was on TV! || I tried out my new camera at my brother's basketball games || the kitties soaked up some rays || we copied Outback Steakhouse to save some mulaa || Ohio had it's (hopefully) last big snow || we outfitted our home for St Patties Day || and the blurred out picture is just some personal family fun that I didn't feel like displaying on the blog.

Supplies used: Seafoam Project Life Binder || Design D Pocket Pages || Design F Pocket Pages || Crafted Love Floral insert cards (I will be sharing more information about these soon if anyone is interested)

I didn't use very many supplies this week since I'm just getting started but I plan on mixing things up soon and getting some more card sets. Does anyone have any favorites or suggestions? If there are any readers that are also Project Lifers, I'd love for you to leave a link if you share it on your blog!

In a Funk

2013-03-07T19:57:00.000-05:00

My friend Allie recently opened up on her blog about being in a funk. It really made me realize how freeing it can be to let down all those walls and be completely honest about how you're feeling. It's quite tempting to put up a front on the internet and only share the happy things in life but that's not the whole story. Lately, I've been in a debbie downer kind of mood and instead of racking my brain on something bubbly and positive to post about, I've decided to open up.

Mike recently started working 2pm-11pm at his office. He has a great job and it's going to take him far in his life, but they are big on seniority. He is a software support technician at a company that services the whole nation. Because of this, they need to stay open until businesses in Hawaii close (11pm here) and because he's the new guy on the block, the late shift goes to him until someone leaves and another person is hired on.

At first, it didn't affect much. Mike still woke up with me for my 8-5 job, I came home for lunch, and I would stay up until he got home. You can probably imagine that would wear on a person. After a while I started falling asleep before Mike got home and he started sleeping in. Both of which are completely understandable. It started to feel like we never saw each other and the only time we had together were weekends and my one hour lunches.

It's probably about week 6 of this and I've got to be honest, I hate it. I feel guilty even feeling this way because I have friends in long distance relationships, one of which is pregnant with a husband in the military. I feel like I have it good compared to other but at the same time, I'm irritable and we put a lot of pressure on making our weekends memorable.

I know this isn't forever and we even know Mike will get bumped up to 11:30-8:30 by August. It just feels like forever. Not how I imagined life as a newly wed but what can you do in this economy? We are lucky we both have great jobs. I am grateful. And now I'm rambling.

So that's that. Have any of you dealt with conflicting work schedules before? How did you make the best of it? In other news, I'm starting Project Life! I figured it would be a good way to pass time alone. Plus, I think this time in our lives is something we should look back on and be able to say "Man, we conquered that crazyfest" :) So I'm sure you'll be seeing a few posts about that here and there from now on.

Outback Steakhouse the Affourtable Way

2013-02-28T13:26:00.003-05:00

I think I'm a hoot. Our last name is Affourtit, pronounced Afford-it. Affourtable... hahaha get it? I crack myself up. Anyway, we've decided that a lot of our income goes to unneeded trips to restaurants. Really, it's not even about going out. I just enjoy going out and changing things up and eating something different than spaghetti or pizza (we're high class in the kitchen, yo). It's also not even about the food. In my mind, I know I could make anything we eat at home. So we did. We made a list of our most frequented restaurants and our favorite meals at each place. The plan was to create our favorite dishes at home. Mike went first.

What was on the menu? Mike loves Outback Steakhouse so we decided to whip up some sirloin, fresh green beans, and garlic smashed red potatoes. It was delicious and so much cheaper! Next up I think I want do steamed peel-and-eat shrimp from Red Lobster. Really, I want crab legs. But Mike says that needs to be saved for a special occasion. Some one go convince him (@MBAffourtit) that every day is a special occasion ;)

Unrelated to food... tomorrow is March! Let's celebrate it almost being spring by starting back ads on Crafted Love. Not good enough? Let's celebrate even more with a sale! All ads are 50% off for the first 10 people to use the code "Springtime". You can order your spot directly from my Sponsor Page. Hurry while they last!

Puppy Love

2013-02-26T08:00:00.000-05:00

I'll be honest. I'm a cat person. For sure. I let the cats take up my whole side of the bed. I will bury my face in their fur any day. I'm not a dog person. I don't like dog kisses. I don't like dog farts. And I don't like picking up poop. But I do love this pup. He is such an angel. I'll pick up his turds any day.

Mike has me beat, however. He and Chef are best buds. He is so in love with this pooch and they are so cute together. Chef is so good in the car. He must know it means dog park time. He is so energetic that it's hard to get him a decent workout without sprinting (which I can't do with a recovering sprain) Mike results to skateboarding with Chef when the dog park is closed. I managed to snap a few pictures of them and I just die looking at them. So adorable!

Chef is currently laying at my feet chewing through his 5th bone of the week. He plows through those things. But I guess it's not my furniture so I can't complain :)

Our New (Temporary) Family Member

2013-02-20T14:48:00.002-05:00

Mike and I decided to become foster parents! This little cutie is Chef. He's 5 months old, part pit bull terrier and (we think) part boxer. He is super goofy when he runs, throwing his front paws up in the air exactly like boxers do. He's also a lot taller than typical pit bulls. We love him.

We will be housing him until he gets adopted. He was in need of some TLC and exercise and we figured what better foster parents than an extremely active couple in their 20s? We've already taken him to the local dog park to blow off some steam and hang out with the other dogs. There was another 6 month old puppy at the park. Chef and Ronner had a blast chasing each other around and rolling in the snow. We bought him a coat to stay warm but it got left in the dust shortly after entering the park. I could just imagine him saying, "But Moooooooom... none of the other dogs have to wear coats!!!" Silly pup.

He already knew the "Sit" command before we took him home but within the first night we had him grasping "Stay" fairly well. He's also gotten a lot better about pulling on the leash. For the most part, he just trots along beside me as I walk/jog. At this rate, Chef won't be with us for much longer!

A lot of people think we'll have a hard time saying goodbye and end up adopting him. I say, "Challenge accepted". While I can't wait to have a dog of our own, I take pride in getting pups and dogs ready for forever homes and while, yes, it will be hard to see him go, I know we will have really made a mark on his furry little life.

So for now, Chef, enjoy your stay at the Affourtit School of Doggie Obedience.

A Question (or two) for YOU!

2013-02-16T09:00:00.000-05:00

Lately, sponsorship has been something I've been bouncing back and forth on whether I should have it. Sponsoring other blogs was a huge reason behind how I got my blog where it is today. For a long time I truly enjoyed having sponsors mainly because I felt like I was giving back to smaller bloggers like bloggers had done for me in the past. I made sure to keep prices extremely affordable (below $20 for even my largest ad) for a fairly long time until I was getting so many sponsors it was hard to keep up. So naturally, I raised prices.

Still, sponsors trickled in and I definitely had my hands full at the end of every month. While I was still glad I could promote other bloggers, sponsorship became a nice secondary income. After a while though, I got a little burnt out. I made sure to send out an email to all sponsors at the beginning of the month informing them of the mid-month sponsor intros post that I did every month. Some people sent in their info to be included, a lot of people either ignored the emails or just didn't want to be included. It got a little stressful. So I went on a sponsorship hiatus.

Well, I'm back. If you noticed, I've mainly got free ads running right now. Mainly because I wanted to make sure I was completely ready before starting back up completely. So, if you wouldn't mind, I've created a short survey for you to fill out. This survey is to see what YOU think works best when it comes to sponsoring blogs. I really want to make Crafted Love not only a fun place to be, but a great blogging tool for those who want to build their own! So sit back for a few and help me help you!

Click here to take survey
(it will only take a moment!)

Fur Babies

2013-02-14T08:00:00.000-05:00

Last night I headed over to our local animal shelter that my aunt runs so I could take a few photos for the new animals there looking for forever homes. I love animals. So much. I just wanted to post a few of my favorites. If you're in the Dayton area and looking for a new fuzzy family member, you should probably head over to SICSA and snag one of these lovelies :)

A Photo a Day Keeps the Doctor Away?

2013-02-08T08:00:00.000-05:00

Now that I have my brand new, shiny Canon I thought it would be fun to start a 365 project. We'll see if I stick to it but wouldn't it be so fun to create a book at the end of the year? Does anyone else have a 365 project going? I'd love to take a look!

02.03.13 - Mike and I had a bunch of friends over for the Super Bowl and decided to lay out some snacks. I'm fairly certain I ate my weight in cheese. No big deal.

02.04.13 - Ever since we got Talia spayed she has been such a cuddle bug! I am loving it! She does this adorable thing where she curls up in a tiny ball right beside you.

02.05.13 - Mike has been working 2p-11p lately which is horrid, but we are managing pretty well. I've been spending my nights alone with the fur babies catching up on my TV shows, getting some blog related stuff done, and mainly just lounging.

02.06.13 - Don't tell Talia but I have a favorite cat. The Bats. He's such a love monster. I can't take it. If there is a blanket on your lap, you can be sure there will be a Batman there momentarily. I love that little [big] goober!

02.07.13 - I really enjoy watching my brother play basketball. He is such a good athlete. I drove and picked up my grandma so she could come as watch as well and ended up spending the night because she lives a pretty fair distance away.

02.08.13 - Before leaving my grandma's for work she cooked me up the most amazing breakfast ever. I'm not sure I'll even have room for lunch today!

A Little Bday Dinner

2013-02-03T09:45:00.003-05:00

Every year for my brother's birthday (he turned 17 last Wednesday! Yikes!) we go to his favorite place in the world... Sake. It's a hibachi style restaurant that also serves sushi (yum). In fact, you might remember two years ago I posted an almost identical post. It's crazy how much older Evan looks in just two years time.

This time we got seated in the darkest section of the restaurant. Thankfully my new camera does really well in low light situations without using the dreadful built-in flash. How has your weekend been so far?

Free Printable | Valentine's Day Card

2013-01-29T08:00:00.000-05:00

It's about that time again! The time for telling your friends and family how much they mean to you (though, you should be doing that every day!) Today, I have a Valentine's Day card for you to snag! You can have it printed front and back at your local print shop, or just print it one sided. Totally up to you!

You can download the JPEG here and here... download the PDF with crop marks here.

Enjoy!