Dogs and What Else is New

Sometimes it's better to just type first and then add the pictures in second. I have the hardest time trying to add type after I have the pictures in place. I wanted to share with you the newest pictures of three of my dogs. I was sitting on the couch downloading pictures from my phone to my e-mail so I could up-load them at school (and here) so I took a few quick snaps of my dogs. Taegan wasn't in the mood so I left him alone.   Below is Mr. Finnagan.  He is my only non-gray Shi Tzu.  He is also a foundling - found running in the streets after a major rain storm a couple of years ago and when we had thunder and rain the other day, he and Taegan (another one afraid of thunder) were my constant companions. 





Finnagan

Next up is Miss Fiona.  (a foundling)  She was found by a neighbor who thought it was one of mine and to tell you the truth, I thought it was mine, also until she turned her head and looked at me.  

Miss Fiona

 I wasn't going to keep either one of these, but after searching for 3 months and no flyers, ads in the paper or anything, I kept them.  Due to the oilfield traffic, we get people who just up and leave the apartments a couple of blocks over and put their dogs out on the street when they can't keep them or don't want to keep them.  It's sad, but unfortunately part of life.  Last, but not least, is Mr. McCallum.  He is my Yorkie and is a handful sometimes.  He is smart and inquisitive and gets into trouble all the time.  (mostly by climbing over the baby gate on the stairs and taking the squeekers and stuffing from Finnagan's toys.)  this was his second picture.  He moved in the first and I told him we had to take it over and he posed so pretty for me. 

McCallum

 What am I currently working on?  That is a good question.  Last weekend was a semi-quilt-in (only 2 days) for our group and I didn't know what I wanted to work on, so I followed in my mom's footsteps and pulled an unfinished project out and decided to put it together.  The blocks are from a color challenge over at 15 Minutes Play.  I had made 13 of the blocks before I got busy and had planned on coming back to make the other 3 later, but then decided I was finished.  16 didn't go together as well as this 13 did.  I found this fabric in my stash - it's a Terri Mangat fabric - and it is perfect for this quilt.  I plan on adding a small dark brown border (background fabric for the blocks )  and then I am calling it done. 

Color challenge quilt top in progress

 I took a journaling class at the Ogallala and below is my start of the journal.  You take two pieces of muslin and fuse them together.  Then using red and blue thread, you stitch the lines to make your fabric look like a sheet of paper.  I painted the letters and pig and then free-motion stitched around them, added the spider, web and words.  I plan on adding more words and pictures on this one and then I will make several more and put them together in book form.  This was fun and interesting. 


Journaling with the machine

Let it Snow, Again

 You never know about the weather in west Texas.  A couple of days ago it was in the upper sixties/lower seventies and today - - - today we have another 6 - 8 inches of snow on the ground and more falling. 

This was taken about 15 minutes ago over my back fence.  You can't see the snow falling in this picture due to the angle of my camera. 

This picture - taken 25 minutes ago - is out my back window and you can see how hazy it looks with the snow coming down.  Little bitty snow flakes now.  The flakes  were big and fat on the way home from school. 

Yes, we did have school today, but unlike every other school district around us, we were there all day.  Most of my students weren't, but I was.  My largest class of the day (83% there) was this morning when there was only about an inch of snow on the ground and the roads were slushy.  I ended the day with only 28% of my class at school.  I had no students at all from one of the high schools.  (I teach students from two different high schools and they bus over during the day for my class).  When you live in the desert, anytime it gets really cold here, attendance drops.  Add in some snow (okay, a lot of snow today) and attendance is practically non-existent.  We just aren't used to this.  This has been our third major (more than 4 inches) snow storm in about one month.  We had a large one in early December where we got to stay home and have a snow day.   We had a beautiful white Christmas for the first time in about 18 years and now, another white day.  Like most of the students, I am hoping that our school district calls for a snow day tomorrow, but they don't make those decisions until about 4 o'clock in the morning.  So, I will  have to wait until tomorrow to know if I get to stay home and sew or not.  Oh, well, I will get up early to find out tomorrow.

Speaking of getting up early, I read until almost 1:30 this morning finishing a book and then the dogs woke me up at 2:30 barking.  My first thought, was great, they are out of water.  But, no, it had started raining and Taegan is afraid of thunder storms.  So, they all joined in to wake me up. (except Irish, who slept through the entire night.  Being deaf, has it's rewards)

Previous picture of Taegan sleeping on the floor

Now, it wasn't thundering, mind you, but Taegan knows that thunder and rain go together and so, when it starts to rain, he panics.  I got my phone, set the alarm clock, grabbed a quilt and layed down on the couch to snuggle with my scardy cat dog.  I also got McCallum and Fiona in the snuggling deal. 



Fiona and McCallum out in the snow today.  They would look at me and then I would start to take their picture and they would turn their heads. 

Once Teagan was comforted and had moved out of my arms to the other end of the couch, I went back to my bed - much more comfortable than a couch with three dogs laying on you.  However, the alarm went off really, really early and I am looking forward to an early night tonight and hoping for that snow day tomorrow where I can crawl back into bed and sleep for a couple extra hours. 

edit:  school just got cancelled for tomorrow!  This is unheard of for them to cancel this early (6:00 p.m.) but I guess too many parents had complained and we are expecting more snow overnight.  I am glad that I don't have to even set my alarm clock tonight.  Enjoy . . .



Miss Fiona Lake/design wall monday

Here is the newest addition to our growing family. This is the one that my neighbor brought to my house thinking it was one of mine. It wasn't at the time, but since I have had her a couple of weeks, I have seen no evidence of an attempt to find her, she came without a collar and has apparently been well taken care of up until now, she is now mine and has the name: Fiona Lake. I have always named my dogs with a first and middle name. Her middle name is because she was found over here by the lake. I have found that she really doesn't like to have her picture taken. I would call her name and she would turn her head away or tuck it under the pillow! These are the best two that I had that weren't blurry from her turning her head so fast. Our Miss Fiona is a bit camera shy.
Below is a picture of my two other shi tzus. You can see why my neighbor thought this one was one of mine. She looks a lot like my Irish and when they are walking side by side, even I have a hard time sometimes telling them apart. She is fitting in great with all the boys and is even teaching McCallum, the yorkie and the baby of the bunch , to mind his manners.




Here is what I have up on my design wall today, Monday, January 7, 2011. I am working on my le petite challenge for February. I have all the center blocks done and sewn together and I am currently working on the borders. I am not sure if I want to do the same as everyone else, so I am playing with scraps and trying to figure it out as I go along. I also miscounted and made an extra block. I thought I was being so careful, but I guess making one block ahead of cutting out the rest, threw me off. I can't decide whether to put it in the corner of on the back. I will have to see after I play a bit more. I am going to finish this one earlier since last time I almost missed the parade. I was putting that final border on the last day of January. If you saw my quilt in the parade, you will notice that Sinta took my picture from my blog with only the three sides attached. It really looks better now with all four sides. To see more design walls on this Monday (or any day) just go to Judy's blog and check it out.





P. S. Dinner was great out with my friends. We had a lot of fun at Johnny Carino's for our monthly get together. There was gossiping and good times had by all!! I now have a new favorite for Monday nights. Their family platters are on half price and I got food for several, several meals for less than it would have cost me for one. I love a bargain!!