Where Have I Been?

I've been training Biscuit to live in a crate when I'm not home (he hates it) and sitting in the car with him for about 30 minutes twice a day trying to get him over his phobia of riding in the car. Poor thing got so sick the first couple days I had him, all my visions of riding around the world with him vanished. Well---for the time being anyway.

We now sit in the car and talk. I sometimes sing, accompanying the radio, to him--they say dogs love their masters no matter what so I'm sure he doesn't mind my singing. We have graduated this week to starting the car and me driving forward and backward up and down our short driveway. That makes him so nervous that he won't even take a "good Boy" treat. When we get out of the car I try to make the whole thing fun by letting him roam around the yard a bit, smelling everything to make sure nothing has changed while we were on our 30 minute journey.

When I'm not sitting in the car feeling like an idiot when someone goes by I've been cleaning out the cupboards in the loft. All I've found were an old pair of my husband's boots and a collection of little ducks that I once thought were sooooo cute and now wonder why I thought that. I'm keeping them though, I'm thinking they would make great models for needle felting.

I've thrown out 7 bags of shredded paper, carefully camouflaged in 2 layers of garbage bags. I took them to the recycle center and tossed them in household garbage rather than paper, because I had visions of a criminal carefully taping the shredded stuff back together to get my credit card or social security number....ok, so I have an avid imagination!!!

Hopefully I'll finish all the cleaning this week and I can get back to what I really want to do--embroider Biscuit a new blanket, needlefelt one of those ducks, finish knitting the sweater I started last winter, so that I'll have it for next winter when hopefully I'll be moving to Wisconsin where its considerably colder than South Carolina. Then I also have a shawl on the LK 150 that I really want to finish so I can get something else on it. In fact if I would hurry up and finish it I could put the HK sweater on it and finish that. I think that's the first project I'm going to do next week AFTER I finish the loft this week.

Why is it that life has to get in the way of fun? Confucius says: It does not matter how slowly you go so long as you do not stop. OK Confucius, I'll stick with the job this week!!! Can't promise I'll keep it up next week though.

Felted Foursome Put To Work

Today I decided to round up my spindles and store them in the Felted Foursome. Now that I found the spindles, I see I need to search the loft for the rest of them and of course buy more to make the Foursome REALLY look good. I can't think of a better excuse to buy a decorative spindle.

I did put my rolled up double needle holder in too but I think I'd love this handy thing if it was filled with spindles. I may stop by the hobby store and get a couple wheels and make a couple for myself as well.

Biscuits Blanket

I've got one more blanket to embroider but I hated to make the sweet little thing sit upstairs all day while I did this one. Well, it didn't take all day but it seemed like it. I finally brought his bed up and a teething bone for him to keep him occupied. He loves these blankets, I have one for the couch and one for his bed. I take whichever one I grab first and put it in his car seat and he tucks his head in it and sleeps when we go somewhere, that is he sleeps till he gets carsick. Well, his baby tummy will grow up sooner or later. Lucky these things wash and dry fast.

He's Here!

The baby came home with me today. When the girl drove up with him couldn't believe how beautiful he is. I strapped him into his car seat and off we went to Pet Smart. I had bought pink collar and leash so traded it for black with rhinestones (of course). Also got him some food and a water bottle because it was hot today and he was panting. I had taken a polar fleece blankie with me and was really glad because he got sick on the way home, luckily he got sick on the blankie, not the car seat. After all, poor baby has never ridden in a car, let alone up curvy mountain roads. His hair is so silky and shiny, its like an angora goat's hair except its straight. Gee Wizz, if the groomer cuts any of this I might have to spin it. Here's some pictures of my little beauty (Lindsey, my GD suggested we call him Biscuit. I like that name although everyone in Pet Smart stopped to pet him and wanted me to call him Snowball. He's petigreed and a lot of his family lineage had Christmas in their name. Since he was born on December 20, we're calling him Christmas Biscuit, Biscuit for short.

Maltese Puppy is Mine

What a cute face, I hope they snapped that pix quick, the little girl looks no bigger than the puppy and these puppies are small.

Check out that fuzzy coat.

Isn't he cute? The people who approved my adoption for the female 2 yr old Maltese never called me back to set up a time to meet them after telling me they'd meet me on my way home from the airport Monday. I was a little leary about them anyway because they didn't want anyone to know where they live and they approved that adoption awfully fast. Another rescue group that I called said they were great and to go ahead even though she had a dog I was interested in. So---when they didn't call me back I decided those people were a bit risky!

Meanwhile, I went to Google and searched for Maltese SC and found this site: http://www.kijiji.com/ . Its a little like Craigs List but maybe easier to find things there. Listed in my area was a little 17 wk old puppy in a city very close to my home. I emailed the lady and she is going to have him groomed and ready for pick-up today. I'm so excited. Only hitch is I have a dentist apt at 2:30 and if I get out in time I can meet her, otherwise it will be Thurs morning so I'm going to tell the dentist to HURRY!

Its up to the grandkids what I'm going to name him. Watch for more later. I'm so excited I'm thinking about calling the dentist and asking him if he'll skip lunch and just hurry me up...

Petfinder found a pet for me

This is Georgia, she's a 2 yr old Maltese, presently residing in a pet rescue in a town close to where I live. I found her on Pet Finders and submitted an adoption application for her.
There's also a dog named Fancy that I like but I pretty much wanted a Maltese. I'm going to go meet her on Monday. This little dog will require grooming but I suspect I am going to keep her hair cut into a "Puppy Cut" which will be easier to maintain.

I can't wait to meet her, she's sooooo cute. My grandaughters and I have already renamed her as GEE GEE. Unless there is something horrible about her that I can't tell from the picture or write-up she'll be going home with me. I'm going to stop at Pet Smart and get a car seat so she can ride with me when I travel around. I'm excited!!

I need to add that the dog I loved so much and had to give away was a Louisiana Catahoula. These dogs are bred to hunt wild boar in Louisiana. That's fine for where I live now, we also have wild boar in our woods surrounding my house and we also have bear and deer. I found out my beloved Susie was keeping the deer out of my yard because now that she's gone the deer have eaten all my azaleas. I don't mind, DNR says they are starving in our mountains because of the long drought we've had so if my azaleas help them that's ok with me.

The thing is, Susie could stay with me because I'm trying to sell my house. She barks at anyone who drives up my driveway...not something you want when you're selling your house. She also is way too big to move to an apartment in the city. That's the biggest drawback to Susie, I'm moving to a city apartment. Susie would be miserable in such a setting. Her new home has acres and acres to run in. She doesn't have to be tied up. She loves her new owner and I GAVE him my golf cart which Susie absolutely, dearly loves. She sits in the seat next to her new master and rides all over the place, barking at his other dog so that he won't get in. Its HER golf cart she figures. He said she comes from wherever she is, even if she's half way across his pasture..when she hears that golf cart beeping.

So, hopefully you'll understand that even though I loved Susie so much and hated to give her away, its best for her and the new dog is supposedly the perfect pet for apartment dwellers.

Our second attempt at Needle Felting

Lindsey and I decided to try our hand at needle felting again today. This time, rather than working together we each worked on a dog. Lindsey's family has 2 golden retrievers so she took a look at her dog and made one, laying down just like hers does. I told her she should felt some hair from her dog but she said no, this one is a puppy and not real hairy yet. My little dog is a terrier of some sort. I'm calling him a Terrier Mutt.

Both of us are learning how to do this and we've decided that there's just no "one way" of doing it. She is using a clover tool to make the base and then a regular needle felting needle for the fine tuning. I'm just using the regular needle tool, I have no idea which size, I just took one out of the pack and went for it. I suppose now I should really learn which needles do what and work accordingly.

This could be addictive. I can't wait to get home and take a look at all the fleece I have stored in my loft. I know for a fact that the Beast fleece will make a dog like my Susie that I had to give away back in November before I started traveling around visiting my kids.