Happy Birthday Sweet Rusty!

Our precious Prince Russell turned 7 today! He celebrated with a day full of favorites -- an extra long doggy walk with both his parents, followed by his all-time favorite meal of Mighty Dog Rotisserie Chicken, then we sang happy birthday and he opened his gift - a super soft velour stuffed frog. Doesn't he look happy and proud?


Ya' know, he's just so darn cute that nothing else I can say could top this pic. Plus, I'm soooo tired tonight. I'll catch up soon with more news and pics from the campground.


Blessings to you, wherever you are!

Yippee Ki-Yi Yay!

Isn't that what John McClane (Bruce Willis) said in Die Hard? I know, I know, he added another word but nice girls don't say that. Here are a couple of cowgirl bags that I promised a good friend of mine.

Aren't those little "Rodeo Kids" adorable? (Click in to get a better look.) Both that and the bandana are Michael Miller prints.

I'm still working on photography skills, the color on this is a little off. That's actually a pretty red, not the tomatoey orange that it looks like here.

These are for Chris. Chris and her daughter Jordan are serious horse ladies. They show horses on a national level and regularly bring home trophies. I am so impressed. I love horses. When I was young my grandfather got ponies for my sister and me. I was in heaven, my sister not so much! Isn't it funny how siblings can be so different?! Linda is not at all an animal person (my other two sisters are). It's not that Linda dislikes animals, she loves Rusty -- or claims to at least! But I'm thinking she doesn't feel what I do inside, that draw that pulls you and makes you want to cuddle, nurture and protect anything that's furry. Some of you know what I'm talking about!

So while we are on the subject of adorable furry creatures I will share with you a Russell story. Not much of one, but something I found cute. Recently Russ and I were eating lunch alone and I was watching the noon news. Here I have to tell you that I do strange things when I'm alone -- like talk back to the tv, etc. So when they asked a question "how many of you have . . .", I raised my hand in the air. Rusty jumped up and darted off to the window to see who I was waving at. He moved from window to window before he finally looked back at me in bewilderment like "something is seriously wrong with you". Maybe there is. :)

Have a blessed day!

Tag - You're it

On a whim I started blogging last summer, having no idea whether I could even “do” this, wondering if I could think of charming things to show and say and whether anyone in the world would be interested in reading it. I think the most memorable comment on that came from my baby sister. She is the only one of us who lives away and she told me when she reads the blog it makes her feel as if she is sitting in my kitchen visiting over a cup of coffee and catching up on our lives. (She’s forgotten I don’t drink coffee -ha!) But seriously, I enjoy blogging. It has taken me in directions I would have never guessed and gained me incredible friends along the way.

One of those friends is Amy of Park City Girl who tagged me in a blog game. I’ve read these on other blogs and think they are great fun but no one had ever tagged me before now.

So ... here are the rules: You link to the person who tagged you. You post the rules on your blog. Then write six random things about yourself. Tag six people at the end of your post, link to them and let them know they've been tagged. Here are my random-isms:

1. This will make me sound like a dope, but I am right/left challenged. It doesn’t come naturally to me. I still have to visualize my 2nd grade room - the flag is on the left, the door is on the right. (Don’t laugh, I’m serious.)


2. I like eating from a spoon and if I never had a fork, I could deal with that. :) But to clarify, it has to be a little spoon, no big soup spoons for me!


3. I only like to watch movies or tv shows if I can see them in their entirety. If they started four minutes earlier -- nope can’t do that. My husband thinks that’s ridiculous. (Okay, it probably is.)


4. I avoid walking over grates of any kind. When I was little I guess I thought I’d fall through. No chance of that now but I’m still not doing it.


5. I had to change schools five times growing up. Quite traumatic for someone with my personality.


6. These days I almost exclusively drink water or milk - occasionally juice. But on the rare occasions when I do drink soda, I chew it till the bubbles go away. This was pointed out to me on a regular basis by my three sweet baby sisters as we grew up. Not in a kind endearing sort of way. You know, the “sister way”.

So that was fun. I'm tagging Misty, Victoria, Harriet, Laura and Megan. I know, that's only 5, I can't think of another.

I will leave you today with that special picture I told you about.

You guessed it, didn't you - it’s Prince Russell again! But this close-up is so distinct and clear and the color's good . . . yeah, you can’t believe I took it either, can you?

Have a blessed day!

I have lots to learn

. . . about photography. About many things actually, but that's what I'm concerned with at the moment. I like taking photos (more so now with the blog) but I always viewed the challenge of taking good photos as such a huge learning experience and quite frankly I've been LAZY. But with my husband's announcement that I'm going to get a nice camera for Christmas (isn't he TOO GOOD?) I've gone into overdrive this past half-week, researching camera recommendations and important tutorial info. Turns out the camera I've got now is a pretty darn good pocket camera and as I always suspected, I could be doing much better. So with my new found knowledge I changed some settings and now I'm learning and practicing with this one.
Russell is my most convenient subject to practice on although I'm sure he will tire of this before long. You'd think I would have combed his hair first, wouldn't you?! But he's still cute.

No sewing photos today. Thanksgiving preps left me little time to sew and what little I did do I can't show till after Christmas in the event that one of the recipients would find their way to the blog. Which brings me to this -- an exciting milestone for me -- last week my blog had it's 1000th visitor!
Some of my blogging friends probably have that many visits in one day -- I'm grinning because I can hear you snickering, but I'm still impressed!

I'd been thinking about doing some fun little giveaway anyway and I think this calls for a celebration prize. I'll make a little something soon and pick a magical visit number. But this is the reason for the early heads up -- the catch is that you have to comment for me to identify you as that visitor number. It's not hard, honest. Some of you read the blog then email me comments separately - I'm telling you, this is easier. Really. It's simple and fun to comment here and I so enjoy it too. When I get something made I'll post a pic of the "prize", pick a number and let you know the count when we're getting close.

And another milestone -- did you see Free Kibble has reached more than half a million meals?! Hooray! Have you Free Kibbled today? Click on the pets in my sidebar. A simple fun way to do something kind. God bless!

Bed Head & Sleepy Eyes

It's a tough job being a perfect puppy! I just couldn't resist sharing this photo of Prince Russell (aka Rusty). He's not a morning dog and rarely makes it out of the bedroom before 9:30 or 10. I'm sure some of you will be thinking OMG, does he sleep in the bed? Oh yeah. When he feels like it, that is. In my defense, he's not that pampered. I do make him do a skoochy poochy while I make the bed around him. I have a favorite cousin who likes to keep dogs in their place. To him we say . . .


Good Morning Uncle Gordon! :)






This week's sewing projects start out with something I've been postponing (dreading). A Halloween outfit for sweet Sarah who wants to be Cruella Deville. With nothing to go on, I did some exploring on the internet and found the color scheme. I winged it from there (without a pattern) so I hope it fits. The fur is white plush with dots cut from black felt and free motioned on top. There's a slit up the front of the skirt, can you see it? I believe Sarah's mom said she had some black fishnet stockings. Does anyone know if this even looks like something Cruella would wear? Or does it just look fruity, like the Emperor's Robe or something? Ugh, too much worrying!

NOW THE BIG NEWS: I got a very surprising call yesterday afternoon from one of my sisters, to let me know my niece is expecting. Did I say surprising, I meant shocking! So shocking it made me light-headed. My, oh my. I'm sure I'll be posting more about dear Lyndsay and her miraculous adventure into parenthood.

A glorious week of vacation

Long time, no post! We took a week-long camping trip to Hillman Ferry Campground located on Kentucky Lake in the Land Between the Lakes. I spent Sept 12 & 13 (Kyle's birthday) glued to the tv, watching Hurricane Ike devastate gorgeous Galveston Island where we just vacationed this past February. It was heart-wrenching to see the damage to familiar locations in my all-time favorite vacation spot. I can't imagine the residents' emotions and struggles and how insurmountable it must feel to begin thinking about restoration. Our prayers for them.

The remnants of Ike blasted through our area, as predicted on Sunday morning. We left home as the heavy rains began to subside a bit, still battling some strong but manageable wind gusts. The 3-hr drive to Ky Lake was to take us out of the storm path so it was quite a surprise to find that area ravaged by winds. Not rain (which they actually need) but startling wind damage.
Uprooted trees like this one were a common sight. The campground suffered a lot of damage too and power was out in the entire LBL area. The nearest town, Grand Rivers, finally had power restored Tuesday; it was Wednesday evening before the campground got power. So we had an authentic camping experience!

We spent one morning at the Elk & Bison prairie. It's a relatively small prairie (compared to what we visited in S Dakota) and going in of course, you have no guarantee you will see any wildlife at all. So we were most fortunate to see elk, bison and the biggest flock of wild turkeys I've seen.
I hadn't seen elk before, so I was especially thrilled when we saw four! We watched them graze for a while, then bed down under some large shade trees. I'm so glad we spotted them beforehand, once they were down those gigantic antlers blend in really well, appearing to be jagged tree branches or scrub brush.

We saw a huge herd of bison. A sign at the entrance of the park estimated the population at 69 and we think they surely were all in this herd that spread across the roadway as we rounded a corner. Huge and majestic, their appearance is so in contrast with their placid and gentle demeanor. They ambled right up to the truck, lazily taking little notice of me hanging out the window to photograph them. One even took a particular liking to the pickup and spent a good amount of time licking the bumper. Guess he didn't notice the truck was filthy from coming in through the rain -- or maybe he just liked the taste of rain dust and bugs!
Aren't they precious!?

We're guessing this guy was king of the herd, or whatever it is that boss bison call themselves!

Here's our lick-happy friend.

Rounding another bend, here's a huge group of turkeys. We counted at least 15 in the grassy area and there were still more that were harder to pick out in the shaded fringes of the woods.

Saturday afternoon we made the short dive to Paducah to do a little shopping and go to Sat eve Mass. Randy wanted to go to Gander Mountain (an outdoor store) and I went to Hancock's of Paducah (the original Hancock's, not to be confused with the chain stores of the same name). Can you believe all these pieces were on the "end-of-bolt" remnant table?! Check out the Amy Butler, some Ginger Blossom and even a piece of Farmer's Market by Sandi Henderson! Oh happy day! Watch for these to show up in completed projects one of these days.

Rusty loved it all - the wildlife, walks on the shore, scooter rides in the park and of course all the other dogs that were visiting the campground!




And lastly, I will close with a beautiful sunset photo snapped from our campsite. I want to hold on to this peaceful and serene feeling.

Ahhh . . .

Scooter Dog

Isn't he cute?! Rusty loves to ride the scooter. You can't tell in the photo but he's much safer than it looks. He wears a harness that is attached to the faring of the scooter. He can't move more than an inch or two so can't jump or fall off. And I always ride slower when he's along. He peers around the front to see where we're going and it is so fun to see children watch him - they are so intrigued with seeing a dog on a scooter! And by the way, those shades (called 'Doggles') aren't just to look cool, they protect his eyes from wind, rocks or whatever. :)

On to sewing - here's a photo tote I made for a dear lady I worked with at the bank. Marcia retired last week after 40-plus years. I know she struggled with this decision for a long time (believe me, I know how hard it is to let go!) but now she is ready to have fun. She was leaving the day after the party to visit her youngest daughter in Florida - now that's the perfect way to start a retirement! Anyway, her family is her life so I enlisted her daughter's help to pick out some special photos to make this bag.

I have another adorable diaper bag in the wings but can't show photos yet as the shower date isn't until next weekend. And there are still more things I haven't photographed yet - it's been a busy week and a crazy weekend to come. Catch you later!