Weaving and a little pooch pic

Afghan woven out of handspun is finished. It's much prettier in person, I just couldn't get the color right in this pic, probably taken too early in the day with artificial light. It feels wonderfully soft.

As I was trying to get that picture Misty kept walking in front of the phone so I finally told her I'd get her picture.…...she's a ham and wanted to be on the blog.  She's learning more and more each day but somehow we can't get her to be somewhat calm when seeing other people, she never calms down, even after hours of someone being in our house. Hoping she eventually acts like the two goldens we've had in the past where she'll be excited to see people but then calm down after 10 minutes or so.....right now it's seeming like she'll never improve but we're hoping.  She's doing great in obedience class - she loves going and excels, probably because she's a show off........she does seem to be the most social in each class.

MIA

Been MIA from the blog lately - just haven't had anything to say and nothing to show.....such is life sometimes. I keep hoping that I'll get back to what was my normal for a couple decades - weaving almost every day, doing other fiber stuff, and enjoying hibernating at home. I seem to need that for my mental sanity and it's just not happening.  I told my husband yesterday that now I understand why some people turn to drinking to escape life.....not that I will but I can how it could happen. What would work for me is to delve into a big pile of fiber and stay there for a while!

This morning I finished up a crudely quilted huge tote bag.  I always bring totes to the grocery store but never think about them when shopping for other treasures, especially where I'd need bigger totes than grocery store size.  I found this fabric in my stash when I recently reorganized the fabric cupboard. It's a panel from the Sisters Quilt Show from 2008. I'm not sure what my original plan was for it and I had totally forgotten I had it. I didn't put it back in the cupboard - I left it on the desk to think about what it could become and a huge tote was the answer.

Here's the backside of it.  I'll keep this in one of the vehicles. I'm going to make another huge tote in a sealife print to keep in the other vehicle.  After finishing this up I went out and pruned the grapevines and one plum tree, I did all the roses a couple weeks ago.  I still have another plum and 2 apple trees to do sometime soon. I also cut back to the ground a bush near the grapevines with huge stickers on it - my husband will pull out the remaining bush soon.  We've got 3 more of those horrible bushes to pull out as they'll be in the way of the deck once we enlarge it...…...yet another project. My husband was working on the garden area making it more permanent with fencing and a structure for the netting to go over top to keep the birds out - last year we did it quickly just to protect the plants.

Last week we were on the coast - it was beautiful. Misty loved looking down on the ocean from the bluff. It's weird but she's more excited about walking the streets and going to the dog park than she is about frolicking on the beach - so unlike our last 2 goldens.

Birthday girl

 Today is Misty's 1st birthday.  We had a serious talk about the fact that she's now one and needs to stop acting like a 6 month old......

…...she didn't listen...…in one ear, out the other...….

Too much Santa

Too much Santa celebration yesterday - Misty ended up under Sam's desk sleeping it off.

Visiting Santa

I was going to wait until the 25th to post this pic but Misty insisted I put it up now.  She was so proud of how well she did visiting Santa...…….other than not wanting to leave when it was the next dog's turn. She could have stayed on Santa's lap all afternoon. I wasn't listening to what Santa said to her but I hope he didn't promise her any plush toys as she'll gut them within minutes.

Reindeer

It's hard to believe but we did get Misty to sit still with reindeer antlers on - she seemed to like it.  what will be interesting is how she reacts to a picture with Santa this weekend - hope Santa has an extra beard in case she eats his...….

Surfacing......

I'm surfacing for a bit. Life has been overwhelming and I just haven't had anything to say. I'm going to try to make an effort to get back to blogging in the new year......if it doesn't happen then I guess it wasn't meant to be and I'm not going to fret over it.

I did recently finish up a towel warp. I've woven this draft before but this time I just didn't care for the results as much - not sure why as I used the same size threads - the only difference is previously it was all cotlin, this time unmercerized cotton. They're ok, just not as pleased as I was with the first batch. The rest of what I've been working on are gifts...….finished, wrapped, shipped - hurray! One of these years I'm going to go straight from Thanksgiving to New Years and skip everything in-between........yep, sound like a scrooge but not really, just overwhelmed and stressed...….

We were on the coast recently - Misty sure knows how to relax.....she's either running flat out or she's snoozing like this, not much in-between.....she wears me out.

This and that.......

 I started working on another small hexxie project.  This one a gift so it got pushed to the front of the to-do list above the hexxie afghan project I'm working on while riding in the car.  I love the colors for this new project, not sure what the background will be, have a few options. This is all that will be shown of this until after the holidays.

 Misty's Aunt Patricia brought her a baby wubba earlier this week.  She promptly chewed the ears off and now the brains are leaking out so wubba had to go to the hospital for stitches. She might have to stay in rehab for a bit until Misty decides she can live for a while before having her brains ripped out again. This pup is hard on toys unlike our past two goldens who just loved them.

Misty runs all out crazy and then all of a sudden collapses, this time with the rope toy still in her mouth. This is what she's doing at the moment so I'm hoping to get in an hour or so weaving right now, better hurry and take advantage of the quiet.

beach r & r

I just can't seem to find time to post and really, do I have anything new to say or show, nope.  But here are some pix from over a week ago over on the coast. We don't know if this is Misty's first time to the ocean since we adopted her at 8 months just a few weeks ago but we're guessing so by her reaction. The little waves on the river inlet had her crawling on the ground, I couldn't get my phone out quick enough to catch that picture.

She's watching birds here - she's definitely a birder

Oh, the water - who knows what would have happened had she not been on a leash

She's definitely a water dog unlike our past two goldens that only liked to get their legs wet but nothing else and they weren't about to swim.

Not sure what caught her attention here

And here she is back at home laying under the sewing table as I'm working at the adjoining table. I had to put the sewing machine pedal up on the table so she wouldn't lay on it.....this does make sewing difficult......but she's so danged cute when she sleeps.  Her coat is just starting to come back in on her stomach from being spayed a few weeks ago.

Still for a minute.....

Here's a better picture taken this morning on our walk. She was still for a minute because she heard a dog barking off in the distance. Visit to the vet today to check on her spaying incision - bit inflamed but ok. X-ray to check for the missing wooden clothespin she munched down. Nothing showed up although sometimes wood doesn't show in the xrays - vet not concerned. Picked up Heartguard, got her dog license, talked about still feeding large breed puppy food. For being as petite as she looks she still weighed in at 53 pounds. They've got her in their calendar for when shots are due so we're all set up. Got home and placed a Chewy order - wonder how long it will take her to figure out what Chewy boxes look like...….

New family member

Yesterday we welcomed a new baby into our home - she's an 8 month old golden retriever named Misty who needed a new home. After losing our old golden Bailey we didn't feel like it was time yet but here was a golden needing a home so it felt right. Her owners are older and ill and just can't care for her any longer - heart wrenching for them. We found out about her through our neighbor Jill, mom to golden retriever Rio. Misty is beautiful, she's so sweet, she's also into everything. She's so busy I can't catch a good picture of her so here she is napping and getting all rested up so she can go 'shopping' around the house for something to get in to again. I'm sure she'll be full of energy again soon. She's a handful but then isn't every puppy. We're hoping she doesn't eat too much 'stuff' and get in trouble because she sure wants to grab everything and chew it up. This morning it was a wooden clothespin unrolling a roll of toilet paper and trying to eat that. At least she's housetrained so we don't have to worry about that. Wish us luck...…