Thursday, January 22, 2009

Second dog obedience class

Well, it was an interesting night. Bailey and Dad arrived late to class due to an appointment running late but once there, Bailey really only wanted to visit all the other dogs. She was rather high strung and oh so excited to see everyone. Too excited to pay much attention. DH and I enjoyed watching our son, Ben, take her through the lesson. He found it was a little daunting and sometimes not as easy as it looked. Bailey did go across the bridge once we got her to climb the stairs to the bridge. Until the instructor took her collar and leash and kind of tugged her up the first step, she wasn't budging again, but then she took off. We have our homework for this week and hopefully the weather won't be so freezing cold that we can manage to do some of it.

I did finally get my sewing machine working but I'm not 100% convinced it is finally not going to give me lots of trouble. Cross your fingers for me though. I have tons and tons of sewing projects I've not had time to get to and would enjoy getting done.

I won't get that much accomplished in the stitching or sewing dept this weekend as I'm working but that isn't all that unusual for me. I'm just going to have to squeeze it in somehow.

More later

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Snow day!

Yesterday we had snow flurries here and that is always special. Here it only snows every few years and then it usually isn't enough to stick to the ground. Yesterday was typical in that it would just barely be snowing and then our hopes would rise as it started to get heavier and begin to stick....but, then it would stop. Oh well.........

We did get a couple of photos of our puppy experiencing her first snow. Bailey would snap at the falling snow trying to eat it before it fell to the ground. She's only 8 months old and not too sure about this white stuff falling from the sky.















I managed to stitch a little this past weekend on my projects. The Heroes project is one that is special as this is for a petty officer in the Navy that was killed in Iraq. My family has volunteered with the Navy Sea Cadets for awhile (about 5 years or more depending upon which one of us you are looking at as we have all volunteered at one point). This petty officer was a reservist at the reserve center where we drilled each month. The second piece is a piece I wanted to do because my DH and I enjoy ballroom dancing and if we were younger, much younger, we might have looked a little like this design once upon a time. You can't see much as I started on the moon and water first but as it comes to life, you will see it "develop".

Recipes tried and stitching finally!

It was a good weekend for me........though I had to work at my part time job both Saturday and Sunday evening, I still managed to get to finish laundry (back to the laundramat due to our washer being dead) and I cooked and did a little cleaning, but most of all, I got to finally stitch for several hours.

I made 2 batches of scones........first one wasn't all that good....too doughy but the second one was good. Then we had a good dinner of chicken breasts in Garlic Parmesan Cheese Sauce over egg noodles, baby carrots in brown sugar and pineapple tidbits and peaches.

I managed to stitch some on my memorial to a fallen hero. I joined a stitching group some years ago that is stitching memorials to fallen soldiers, sailors and airmen from both Iraq and Afghanistan and through two moves, going to Australia and getting a second job, this project was getting moved around so much I could not find it. In the move from the old house to the new one, I lost my sewing room for awhile so that we have a guest bedroom. I finally dug through all my stuff and found it! I really want to finish this piece and get some others done as well. I'm finally feeling like stitching again and that is a welcome feeling. For quite some time now, I've just not been in the mood and I've missed it.

I'm still arguing with my sewing machine and it will be traded in if I can't get the tension to work properly. I have not been impressed so far with the Singer machines. I had a Kenmore and it worked well for years and then started having problems that just could not be fixed so I gave it away when I bought a new Singer machine. Now, I'm so sure the Singers are worth it. I have lots of fabric and projects I want to get to but right now, I've got to work out this tension problem or it won't happen.

More later. God bless.

Thursday, January 15, 2009

First day of dog obedience

Well.......it was freezing outside but Bailey was so good! She did very well and excelled at her commands. The instructors were right, you can really tell when a dog has been through puppy kindergarten first and then goes into obedience classes. We did SIT and COME (on the leash) well. We learned MOVE and something called a TURN ABOUT (basically the human does a U turn and doesn't tell the dog so they just have to be clueless until you step in their face!). Bailey had to be just about dragged across the bridge though. She was supposed to take the lead and go across a wooden bridge with me on her side but she is so timid, she wouldn't budge. The instructors said to give her time and she'll come around.

We are trying to size a car crate for Bailey. It's hard to guess what size she will end up being since she is a small golden so far. Our car is an SUV but it is designed a little different than a minivan so some crates won't fit. We will have to measure and see what will work and what won't. Our crate at home is too big for the car.

Tomorrow it is supposed to drop to around 9 degress F outside so I'm glad we were in the low 30's tonight and had lots of layers on. Would hate to be out there tomorrow night.

God bless,
Linda

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Welcome to my blog


I thought I would try to start a blog and maybe manage to update it periodically with interesting information and maybe some photos of my progress on certain projects.

Tomorrow starts our dog obedience classes with our new puppy, Bailey. Our previous furbaby was our beloved Kodo who we had loved and cherished for 12 years. She left us in June and our home just wasn't the same without a furry friend there so we adopted Bailey. Bailey is our first purebred dog and she is an AKC registered golden retriever. She sure lives up to the characteristics of her breed. She loves to play and loves the water. Currently she loves to dig up every bulb I ever planted last Spring after we moved into our new home! Of course our first lesson would come outside on one of the coldest nights expected to break record low temps! Oh well......at least Bailey has a fur coat to keep her warm!

I'm also working on finishing some unfinished cross stitch projects. I have a couple of pieces that are long overdue and a couple of not so old ones that still need to be finished. I'll try to post photos of those projects later.

Hope you will come back and visit often.
Til then,
May God bless you and keep you safe and warm.
Linda