Doggies and fabric fun

I can't thank all of my friends and family enough for your loving, comforting words and cards about Methos. We all miss him terribly. Bug is having a hard time adjusting to being the only Husky as well as assuming the alpha dog position in the pack. She's started acting up, and getting into things that she's never done before. Like this for instance:Yes, it's true, she ate almost an entire strawberry-rhubarb pie that I made for my friend Shawn's birthday! He had a piece the night before at a party we were at for work. I was going to bring it to work Tuesday, but forgot it at home.

Here's the best part; Bug was locked in her crate when the hubby left for work and the pie was in my Longaberger cake taker basket on the counter, with the lid on. Bug somehow got out of the crate, and pulled the extremely heavy basket off of the counter, keeping it upright. How it didn't flip, I couldn't tell you. Then she got the lid off of the basket, took out the wooden riser that was over the pie, and went to town on the pie. I know Daisy also had pie, because I smelled her snout, and she smelled of strawberries! The pie plate was still in the basket, on the kitchen floor, when I got home from work. I'm not sure why they didn't eat the whole pie, maybe it was too tart. I think I may be a tad offended that they didn't finish it off. Is it a commentary on my pie do you think? Who knows what goes on in the Bug brain.

The two of them sucked up to me all night looking for attention, but I gave them the cold shoulder. They were out of the pack for eating my pie. I don't really think Bug cares though. For her, any ramifications are worth it as long as she gets food!

We took Bug and Daisy to the plant nursery this weekend for their "dog days" sale. Daisy won the most lovable dog contest! Bug came in second for cutest dog, but her picture wasn't one of her best. She was hot and panting when they took it. These aren't the pictures from the contest, but they are cute and lovable, aren't they? I guess I'll have to forgive them for the pie.I need to start training Robbie, so he can go out with us too. I'm just petrified that he'll get off the leash and be gone before I can blink. At least if he gets out at home, he always goes to the lake in our neighborhood and I can usually get him back at dinner time. He'd be gone forever if he got loose somewhere else. He listens pretty well to me already, especially considering that I haven't given him any formal training, but if he were off leash, I'm positive he wouldn't listen.

I had my friend Donna's 6 year old daughter and 4 year old son for a few days last week, so I'm behind on my quilting projects. We had some fabric fun though! We tie-dyed shirts, bags and flannel fabrics. I had Anna and Ryan each pick out some flannel fabrics from my fabric stash, then we tie-dyed the white flannel to coordinate with their choices. The results were very indicative of both their personalities and ages. Anna's was more restrained, so as to not make a mess with the dye, so she has a lot of white showing. Ryan's was fully saturated with dye. He squeezed the bottle until it was empty. They also enjoyed figuring out what colors become when you combine them. Everything turned out very well. Now I need to make the blankets out of the fabrics.

The three of us also drove out to Tammy Tadd's quilt shop for some thread. Ryan was a bit disappointed that there weren't very many "boy fabrics." Anna really liked it though. It's so bright and happy, how could she not! I let the kids pick out some fabrics to make pillow cases. Anna picked out some lovely fabrics from the "Chocolate Lollipop" line by Anna Marie Horner. She really has sophisticated taste for a 6 year old. She also skipped recess one day a week in kindergarten last year to take sewing! That's my girl! I pointed Ryan toward the surf board fabrics, and he really liked those, so we got him surfer fabric. They both did a good job of auditioning and coordinating fabrics. I only made a couple of suggestions on accent fabrics. Add pillow cases to my to-do list for this week!

The best part was at the checkout. They give everyone a free 5" charm square of fabric. Anna chose hot pink stripes and Ryan chose bright lime green. Those squares provided hours of entertainment! It was absolutely hysterical! They talked about, invented games with and carried around their fabric the rest of the day. I couldn't believe it. Ryan even brought his into the grocery store with us.

I think one of the funniest things that happened with them was when I was helping Ryan wash his hair and he started singing "I'm gonna wash that man right out of my hair, I'm gonna wash that man right out of my hair, I'm gonna wash that man right out of my hair and send him on his waaayyyy!" I totally cracked up!! The dogs really liked having the kids here too. The kids decided that Robbie looks like Scooby Doo, Bug looks like a wolf, and Daisy is silly, which she is.

So very, very sad

Tonight, on my birthday, we had to put our beloved Methos down. He had a good life, but unfortunately tonight was his time.
He was the best dog a girl could want. We adopted him Easter weekend 2002 from Save A Pet, a local no kill shelter. We had gone the weekend before to donate my Akita, Barqy's food left over from when he passed, just a few short weeks before. I felt then that my heart would never heal from his loss. He was a once in a life time companion. We went to the back room just to "see" the dogs in the shelter. About 5 kennels down, Methos and I locked eyes and we both knew he was meant to help heal my heart, and I his.

I pestered the hubby all week and made him drive to the shelter to be there when they opened that weekend. The workers brought him out to us, I held out my hand for him to smell, and he went right past it and planted what DiscoJen calls his "besito" on my nose. It was a dainty, sweet kiss and I melted. The hubby kept saying "we aren't getting a dog today" but he knew as well as I did that we weren't leaving without him. We walked him out front to "see how he walked on a leash", like that really mattered! Not! Methos headed straight for the hubby's car. He knew it was our car and he would be going home with us.

He was a sweet, charismatic and intuitive dog. He comforted me when I was sad, celebrated with me when I was happy and just was there for me always. He could work a room like no other, and people flocked to him. I joked that we should have named him Don Juan.

I could go on about what a fabulous personality he had, but it won't bring him back to me. His health had been declining for about a year now and it broke my heart to see.

Words can not describe how sad I am that he isn't with us any longer. My blue-eyed boy won't smile or woo at me any longer. Rest in peace my darling, sweet boy.

If it's not Scottish.....

It's Crap!

I love Scotland. Anyone who knows me knows that. I love everything about it. Every year they have the Highland Games down in Oak Brook. I usually go with my friend Amy, who I went to Scotland with the first time. Sometimes the hubbies come along, sometimes we are left to oogle men in kilts on our own. This year the hubby and I went, but didn't get in touch with Amy in time so we missed seeing her. The hubby isn't contented to sit and watch the actual games as I am. I mean really, does it get any better than Tank-like men in kilts tossing a telephone pole with the bag pipes playing in the backround? I think not. Yet he'll watch the tedium that is baseball for hours on end. Go figure. I wasn't able to get photos of the caber toss, but I did get the sheaf toss. The contestants use a pitchfork to throw the 20lb bail over a very tall pole.

This year the weather was lovely so we took the girls, Bug and Daisy, with us. They love the games. They get soooo much attention. We found out that despite being a Golden Retriever, a Scottish breed, Daisy is afraid of the bag pipes and drums. Bug doesn't mind them unless they are between her and food.
Speaking of food, there's only one place to eat. Well, there' s really a lot of places, but only one that I need. Winston's.

They have bridies (ground meat and spices in a puff pastry), sausages, meat pies, sausage rolls, fish and chips, the whole shabang.

They also have ale, not beer. And they do a whisky tasting. I'm told that Amy's hubby did the whisky tasting and was very happy the rest of the day.

The hubby only wanted to stay a couple of hours, so much to my dismay we left early. We totally missed the haggis eating contest and the haggis hurling! The haggis hurling is relatively new to the games here. It's a womens event that while balancing on a half barrel, they have to throw a 1lb frozen haggis as far as they can. How funny is that? I'm just glad the haggis is frozen. Just thinking about a splatted haggis is gross

They used to have a Border Collie sheep herding demo, but haven't the last couple of years. I'm not sure why they don't do it any more, it was great fun. Bug went ballastic over the sheep. I had to turn her away from them while I watched.

The bird of prey tent is always interesting too. I think they are just the coolest birds. This white barn owl was not happy that Bug and Daisy were in it's vacinity. It kept bobbing it's head and watching them. I thought the little fluffy owl was the cutest thing! I thought of Pigwidgeon in Harry Potter. I think it looks like a Pigwidgeon, don't you?