My Favorite Gift

shhhh - don't tell JB (he doesn't read the blog)

my friend made - yes Made - me a rain chain.

I adore it.  it's made from heavy dog chain, and cute little buckets.

It makes me smile every single time I see it.

So Far Behind

~ I'm never gonna get caught up

~ After DC, we went everywhere - 5 states and a district in 10 days (DC, Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania.)

~ I was able to meet 3 blogging friends in person, but only took photos of one (which I've shared)

~ I went fabric and yarn shopping - didn't buy much of either.

~ We came home and the holidays were in full swing.

~ I was able to make some things happen this year by making them social (the holiday lights)

~ My friend Y and took Cuteness to see the gingerbread houses.

~ The theme this year was train stations and they were beautiful as always.

~ Cuteness loved the Merry Go Round.

~ Cuteness was scared of Santa

~ I did all my holiday sewing last minute.

~ It's still not done.

~ Saturday is my 17th Anniversary.

~I think I have enough apps on my phone.

~Anyone have a Nook?   I haven't downloaded a single book yet.

~The holidays are low key at our house and for that I'm thankful.

~Hope you had a holiday that was Merry and Bright and that you safely see in 2012.

~I miss this space and will make more efforts to be here more often in 2012.

~I miss my velveteen friends.

~Thank you all.

Good Bye Sweet Boys

Jackson Short

Henry Borg

I have been very blessed to have met both of these boys in real life.

I adore their humans and they were pretty sweet too.

Today I am sad to say good bye to them.

Their lives were too short.  

Arlington

Before leaving the DC area - we took the subway out to Arlington.

It was the only day of our entire trip when it rained - and I mean dumped down water.

Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

Changing of the Guard

Row upon row upon row of headstones.

The majority of the people buried here defended our right to do whatever we want.

The amphitheater at the Tomb of the Unknown.

This was a very sobering day for us and not just because of the rain.

I'm glad we made time to get there.

Today I'm Thankful For

Holiday Light Displays.

Healthy Dogs and family.

Friends to make holiday memories with.

Snow!  Even if it's in lights.

All photos from Bellevue Botanical Garden's Annual Holiday Light Show.

Hmmm - Where Did I Leave Us?

Our last day in DC. The weather was fabulous. We are huge fans of architecture.

I need to stand up straight and start dieting - UGH!

Inside the Library of Congress - Beautiful

Isn't this amazing?

Blogger Meet Up #1

On the second day of our vacation (or really the first real day) we figured out the DC subway and took the orange line to the end to meet ChanKnits and her Knight at a mall that wasn't too far from them.

She is absolutely as lovely in person as she is via her blog and email.  My only wish - that we had been able to meet someplace less public and had more time to just sit and visit.  But the menfolk were a bit restless.....

a photo of the two of us - i look like the golly green giant and she is dainty and petite. 

As we were leaving - JB was attempting to get some shots for my pattern page

and I was pointing out the error I saw when she held it out.

Even The Knight was interested in finding it.

Back in the Groove

I'm trying to get back in the groove after vacation.  It's harder than it sounds.  Especially with the holidays right on the heels of that vacation. 

So, for those that don't know - we flew to Washington DC and then drove all over the East Coast - incluing Virginia, Maryland, Deleware, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.  I had real life meet ups with 3 bloggers which was lovely.  I was absolutely amazed by the architecture everywhere we went.  Today - I'll give you some photos of the Lincoln Memorial and Washington Monument taken the night we arrived.  All photos where taken by JB and none of them have been edited. 

Happy Birthday Doodle Bug!

Today is Abigail Jane's 12th Birthday

She is an old girl - but she's still going strong

with the exception of some arthritis in hip, she's healthy as an ox

and really - shouldn't she be allowed to have some joint pain? 

in people years she's 84!!

Happy Birthday - wee one

Random Thoughts on Thursday

I'm just filled with random thoughts that don't make a ton of sense these days.  I was trying to get a photo of Mr. Beauregard's eye - it's recently got all cloudy.  But he didn't want his photo taken - and this was the best I got.  And I had to hold his head to get it. 

I'm thankful that a dog's sight is not their first sense - especially in a scent hound.  But it still makes me sad.  He's coping well and other than his eye being super cloudy - he's not acting like his vision is impaired at all.

We've started adding frozen blueberries to all of the kibble because a very good friend said that it could help with his sight.  I don't know if it helps or not, but they are all enjoying the purple  goodness in their food.

Do you give your dogs only dog toys?  My big hounds *love* anything that makes noise - seriously.  So last week - after an especially long day - I bought them a noise making pig from the angry birds game.  Yes, it was a kid's toy, and it was fairly expensive for how long it lasted.  But for 3 days Lucy adored it.  She pranced through the house with the piggy in her mouth, she'd bring it to me so I could throw it (yes - we do throw balls in the house) and chased it.  She wrestled with Beau over the piggy and she made it oink.  She was in heaven.  When her not so gentle mouth broke the noise maker - well she was done and she ripped it apart to get the offending broken part out. 

The good news is she will still play with it a little bit.  But now it will become one of Beau's treasured babies.  He picks one every morning, takes them around the house and yard, carries it everywhere until he had breaky - then he's done with it until next time.

Until next time - have a safe and happy Thursday.  Remember the little things in life that make your life worthwhile.  Hug your pups and humans and tell them all that you love them.

More Napkins

As much as I love the tree napkins - I adore these.

I cut the fabric 13" square, rights sides together, sewed, pressed, trimmed, turned, pressed

and then I did a little zig zag around the edges to close the turning opening.

I adore the subdued print on the front - but the polka dots on the back - love.

I had more of this fabric available than the plaid - so this is a set of 12.

Personally - I love a set of napkins that has at least 4 more napkins

than you would normally ever use.

That's so you can rotate them all in usage

but you have extras if one gets stained or torn.

I really need to make some more napkins for me.

Knitting

Sometime last year, I friend of mine mentioned that she needed a little something to throw over her shoulders and wear to a fancy schmancy party. 

At that point I had just invested in knit stitch dictionaries and had some very pretty black sock yarn.  So, with ideas, yarn and needles in had - I set to work.  I will tell you the first several times I tried it - it did not work.  

Then finally it clicked.  I've now written a pattern and have it out for test knitting.  I've knit it twice and hope to have a pattern available around the end of the year.

This feels pretty cool.     

Sewing

My sewing lately has consisted of the crafty variety.  Much, much earlier this year, I signed up to Pay It Forward and I'm just now getting around to actually doing so.

Somewhere last year - it all runs together these days and I can't remember anything - I saw these very cute tree napkins. 

With just slightly over a yard of each fabric, I made 8 reversible half circle napkins.  Of course there are no photos of them not folded like trees.  They are all exactly alike - I just folded them differently.

I think they will match the dishes of the recipient well and I hope she likes them. 

I love using cloth napkins and really should make some more for myself some day.  They are super easy to make and don't take any time at all.  AND when they are done you feel like you accomplished something - while napkins should "fit" with your dishes, they are still flat!

Visit - Part 2

In photos.

Brief description: Sunday we had brunch at the Space Needle restaurant.

Then we took monorail downtown, walked around Pike Place Market.

And just generally had fun. Enjoy our day.

Catch Up

 I've mentioned that The Princess came to visit last month, right?  It was 4 crazy, see everything possible in Seattle days. 

First stop on the tour?  Dick's Drive In and the Ballard Locks.  Seattle is full of public art - and the *kids* decided this was art to be played on.  You can see only one of my kids was acting like a monkey and hanging from the sculpture.  Kids!  You can't take them anywhere.  From left to right:  The Musical One, The Boy, and The Princess. 

We also went to Freemont and saw the Troll this day.

The above was a plaque I saw at the junk market we went to on my birthday - love it!

Have a fabulous week everyone - I hope to have some sewing and crafting to share soon.  

Model Dogs

And by ~Model~ I don't mean perfect!

The Musical One was asked to knit four Steelers themed hats.

It just about killed JB to put one on his head.

But she consistentely used him as her fit model - which was good.

The stripes on each hat are all just slightly different.

While Beau & Lucy didn't like wearing them at all

I hear they were well received by the persons who ordered them.

Ruffles

In the middle of September Lori interviewed Lynne for National Sewing Month as a podcast through Sew Forth Now.  The theme was returning to sewing and one of the links Lori included was to Ruffle Fabric and a tutorial for making a ruffle skirt.   I immediately ordered both the silvery grey and a rich brown ruffle fabric. 

I thought the ruffles would run parallel to the selvedge, so I ordered 2 yards (needing enough to round my hips).  However, the ruffles run perpedicular to the selvedge so my 2 yards of each color was enough to make 4 knee length skirts - for adult women!  Of course it helps that one of the friends I made a ruffle skirt for is short - seriously - her skirt is 18" long verses mine at 26".

These are super easy to make, althought I'm not sure how to wear it.  (and honestly - posture?)  I'm not positive the sweater was the best choice, I think a belted button down might have been better.

While JB said it was just "Meh" it was fun to wear and I felt girly all day long.  So - do you have any styling tips?  How would you wear a ruffly skirt? 

Toil or Trouble

What is with my face whenever I have photos taken?  Anyway - yesterday I did nothing but putter and play in the studio and I had a great day indeed!  

I plugged my sewing machine for the first time since the retreat - the first weekend in October! 

I bought this cute Halloween print at a local quilt shop this past summer - it was on clearance and I think I paid about $10 for 3 yards.  How could I pass it up?  It hung out all summer - but really the window for wearing a skirt that says "bubble, bubble, toil & trouble" is pretty limited.  So, After cleaning up the studio and putting away the summer fabrics - I found the Carolyn skirt pattern and got to work.

I added 4" of length to the pattern pieces and it's just about perfect.  The entire skirt was sewn with black thread, and because it's a quirky I didn't put a lot of effort into finishing the inside.  I did fold the seams under and topstitch them to keep the fabric from fraying.

Here's a close up of the print? Isn't is cute? I can honestly say that most people I work with didn't notice it was Halloween themed.  You can also see in the close up - the seam topstitched with the black thread.  Which is really a seam finishing technique.

The one most thrilled with the skirt?  The neighbors 3 year old son.  While I was putting candy in his bowl, he was pointing out witches, cats and bats.  But he couldn't find any ghosts!

Why Yes, I Did Fall Off the Face of the Earth

Those two (The Princess and The Boy) came to visit, there were birthdays, day trips and lots of running. 

Will catch up as soon as I recover. 

Whatever Lola Wants

Lola gets.

Because, really, who could refuse this face?

Lola is my coworkers 7 month old mastiff puppy.

She comes to work 2-3 times a week.

She's very laid back and with the exception of camping out right in fron of the copier

she's never in the way or stops you from doing your work.

I think at 7 months - she weighs in at just under 70 pounds.

Look at the size of those feet!

Today's Dog on Thursday is brought to you in Memory of Thor.

Have a fabulous day everyone.