Dusting off the Punchneedle!

As usual I'm always waiting to the last minute or so it seems to finish up projects. Maybe it's because I start too many!!! It's time again to update the Poppy Shop for Feb 1st. Primitives By The Light Of The Moon

It had been awhile since I had used my oxford punch needle so with having located it again and my cotton yarn what fun I had making two little mats. I must say that yarn sure makes the work go faster. Then I blew the dust of my punchneedle and was able to make a couple of new punches for some little boxes I found at a local antique shop.

It just seems like I couldn't keep one tool in my hands for long because before you knew it I found my embroidery needle and with a pattern from Betty's booklet "Meet Willie The Perfect Sheep" I made a little redwork pinkeep.





Time is almost up for the giveaway for the pinkeep. It's listed a couple of post below. So find it and leave me a comment and I'll add your name to the list.

Happy Trails....Ginger

The Dove Tenants

I was over on OORVI's blog reading about her latest search for new tenants for the garden and I must saw I totally understand her frustration with the sparrows.

We have a somewhat similar situation with the doves. We happily took in a pair last winter when we had lots of snow, they took up residence in the tree near our back door and they do guard duty by sitting on our fence and watching the world for me when I am not outside.

Now of coarse we expected that they might have some young ones and we didn’t mind that at all. What we didn’t expect was that every aunt, uncle, brothers, sisters, grandparents etc would come to visit and then STAY. They now all line up in a row along MY fence waiting to check out Mr and Mrs Doves new home and family and I must say we have been hearing quite a lot of squabbling going on lately. I think some of the extended family want to move in but it’s only a small home so there isn’t enough room.

So of coarse, I had to put a stop to this and I am now on fence patrol. When the extended family descends I go outside and sit quietly watching them. I pretend to be sniffing at something as I inch closer ....pretending that I don't really see them and then when they are are relaxed at me being so close............. I suddenly lunge and bark bark bark wildly at them. Of coarse there is a BIG commotion of flapping wings and cooing noises and many of them will try landing on the fence on the other side of the yard....but I just race across there and bark all the more until they finally leave. The things we do for our tenants!!!

~*Winter Days*~

It's still cold here in Oklahoma. The ground is still covered in sleet mixed with snow and ice. You can actually walk across the yard and not see your footsteps. The cows stay close by the feeders and just make an occasional trip down to the frozen pond to get a very cold drink.



The sun is out today and the ice is beginning to fall from the eaves of the house and the trees.




I have been working some on the "Whiskers" runner but not so sure that I like the background. I believe I will take out some of the darker green and find something that blends in a little better.

The last couple of days I've been trying to put together a few more things for the Poppy Shop that needs to be updated on the 1st of February. It's hard to believe January is almost gone. With that said back to work!

Happy Trails....Ginger

Okay.....Let's get this game rollin

I figured our little game needs a bit a push to get it started so I will give a few more of my buddies a letter and then they can give 1 buddy from their list a letter......and that should get things moving along nicely. You don't have to give them the letter from their name either....I just did that so I could remember them all at once :) And I am giving you my big sad - come and play look....so off we go. ( Mom says I should mention that the reason I am looking at the camera with such a sad look is because I am sitting right next to the bath tub and this was my "pleeeeeaaassseeee I don't need a bath" look.

R - for Ricky
K - for the Key west Collie Essex and Deacon
D - for Katie & Dawn
L - for Ludo
M - for Morgan
T - for Tatum Tot
A - for Abby and Aiden

*~It's That Time Again~*

Time for a giveaway! It's been cold and icy here on the plains of Oklahoma. Ol' man winter is showing his stuff and I'm warm and cozy in my sewing room. I just finished up this little pinkeep and want to give it to one of you. So just leave a little note on this post and I'll sign you up. If you don't have a blog just leave your email address. I'll announce the winner on Saturday night January 31st.




After a full day Sloan eagerly awaits seeing his Daddy and Papa so he can go home and see his Mommy!

Happy Trails....Ginger

Okay - a game to play

I read about this on another blog that my mom visits ...but thought what a great idea. We are going to play the letter game. And this is how it works. You pick one (just one) buddy from your list and you give them a letter. They must then list and describe 5 things beginning with that letter.

For example if someone gave me the letter "B" this is what I would do.

Ball - one of my favorite toys is my big fluffy soccer ball...except for when mom washes it, then I have to roll it around and get it all good and dirty again. I love my squeaky tennis balls too....but they seem to be always disappearing......please send them home if you find them.

Blah - is how I feel when it is cold outside and mom complains about her old bones and we can't go for a walk. I love the cold of winter for me....but don't like it all for the mom....I will even put up with the warm weather if it means we can go out more.

Biscuits - I don't care if you call them cookies or whatever....to me they are all yummy and you can never have enough...well you can when your mom controls the box. My favorite ones are carrot and blueberry which not only taste yummy but smell soooooo good.

Bye Bye - is what I said to my dad as he left for the week again.......I miss my dad when he has to be away but love it when he comes home because then I can get all happy and jump around and bark bark bark

Buddies - I love all my buddies, it is so exciting to log on and see who has left a message and to visit their blogs and see what they have been doing.

Okay.....got the idea. So I am picking the letter "C" for Josh and Jess. Then what they have to do is on their blog, list 5 things they like, don't like, are thinking about or what ever and why. And remember guys when you have finished, give a letter to a buddy on your list and lets see what you can come up with.

Just a Doodlin'.....

It's been another busy weekend and I don't feel like I accomplished one thing. Do you ever feel like that? Sure I got loads of laundry done, attended a birthday party for my nephew, went to church, made several trips into town. Come to think of it I guess I accomplished more than I thought I did!

I thought I would share a couple of little doodles....nothing fancy just been thinking about planting flowers. The farm store we stopped at over the weekend already has seeds out. Just right click on the picture and print it out it's your's for the usin' just give credit to the designer if you would.


I find myself looking at this little one and seeing just how fast time does go by. He does love his PaPa! He has to be doing whatever PaPa's doing.


Of course a snack of crackers and cream cheese is a big hit.



PaPa was busy looking at a book so Sloan had to get in the recliner and look at one too.



This bubble blower sure makes blowing bubbles a breeze. It's a good thing I don't mind bubble splashes. You know they grow up so quickly or do they PaPa???





Happy Trails to You....Ginger

Snoozing

Josh and Jess posted a challenge to show a photo of ourselves snoozing. Amazingly when the mom sorted through the hundreds and hundreds of photos she had taken, we discovered we only had ones of me when I was I was tiny. Most of this is because the mom can't sneak up on ......I ALWAYS hear her coming. So we will post the ones we have which were taken when I was just 8 weeks old.

The first picture is of me on my little bed. Mom would put this over the air conditioning vent and I just LOVED it. As you can see, I also loved to sleep right on the edge of the bed. The second photo is my two favorite sleeping things....my blue moose and my air conditioning vent. I still have my blue moose although he is now covered with one of dad's old sock and is much the worse for wear. And of coarse I still love my air conditioning vent (when it is blowing cold and not hot!!!!)

Thank you to Essex and Deacon / Peanut Butter Concern

Thank you to Essex and Deacon who nominated my blog for Awesome Blog Award over at the Bone Zone - on Dogs With Blogs. If you would like to vote for my blog or any of the other nominees...please head on over and cast your vote :) Here is the link - but you do need to have a logon to the Bone Zone to be able to enter. As you can see from my meager list, I don't have all that many buddies, so if you could spread the word, it would be much appreciated.

I would also like to remind all furry families especially here in the USA, to be careful about giving us any biscuits with peanut butter in. On Jan. 20, PetSmart recalled seven kinds of its Great Choice dog biscuits. For the list of recalled peanut butter products, see the Food and Drug Administration site at www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/peanutbutterrecall/index.cfm.)

"While the risk of animals contracting salmonella is minimal, there is risk to humans from handling these products so we want to underscore that it is especially important for people to wash their hands and to make sure that their children wash their hands after feeding treats to pets," FDA officials say.

"Salmonella can be transmitted to humans who have touched the contaminated product. While salmonella is not common in dogs and cats it can cause serious infections."

Symptoms: Pets may be lethargic and have diarrhea, bloody diarrhea, fever and vomiting. Some animals may have only decreased appetite, fever and abdominal pain and pets may be carriers with no visible symptoms.

Please.......We don't want sick buddies or their moms and dads.... so just be careful during this latest food scare.

Strange things at the lake today

Well.....what can I say!! I AM SO HAPPY!!!! The mom surprised me this morning, we got in the car and she took me to my favorite lake...which I walked on!!! Something odd has happened to the water...mom only let me take a couple of steps near the edge.....but I can say now I have walked on a lake!!!! Now of coarse the first thing I had to do - was sniff everything, rocks, twigs, trees, grass....you name it and I sniffed it. here I am checking out the trees....then just savoring all those good smells. Mom thinks it funny when I sniff as my cheeks puff out....she says it looks like I am rolling the smell around my mouth making sure I get the very essence of it.















The next big decision was to go this way or that way.......I could go towards the corn field or go around the lake.......it was a tough choice and in the end mom said "Come on - lets go straight, so we did.















Now as we are walking along I suddenly heard this LOUD LOUD voice and it made me jump to attention. I was thinking "WHAT WAS THAT!" It was saying "This is an exercise, this is an exercise - red alert, red alert, this is an exercise" and it repeated it over and over......then there was some other funny sounding alarm ringing noises and then just when I thought it was all over...another SOUND that really had me worried.....so worried I started howling at it! Here I am in the photos.....looking at the where the sound was coming from and then here I am am howling (darn mom and that camera thing) Anyway, not to keep you all in suspense mom said it was okay, the lake we go to visit is the Offutt Base lake which is of coarse right next to the Offutt Air Force Base and the loud voice I could hear was a loud speaker (I wonder if that is some kind of monster?) Mom says they were doing a "drill".....what ever one of those things is. My dad has a drill in a case but mom says it's different from that. The sound I heard that made me howl was a bugle .......I don't know that is either but it sounded like someone was having their tail stood on and it hurt my ears!!!!!















We continued our walk and I must admit I did keep looking over my shoulder just to make sure that bugle monster wasn't following. Now something else peculiar happened too....as we walking this white stuff kept hanging around my nose. I tried biting at it and the more I did that, the more of it appeared. Mom says it was my own frosty breath........I HAVE FROSTY BREATH????.....is that something to be scared of??? I guess not because I eventually stopped worrying about it. Anyway, we had walked a very long way and I was getting very tired, so on the way back I kept looking down the road and bugging the mom by saying "are we there yet????" Then finally I saw my car......which the Mom calls Miss Molly. I was so happy I went racing over it and waited for mom to open the door and then jumped in so quick and flopped on the seat. Mom gave me a bowl of water which I slurped up laying down.....and then we we were off and I snoozed all the way home.......thinking about my wonderful walk. Mom says I should say how brave she is...even though it was bright and sunny, it was only 28 degrees!!!

Progress!

So far I'm making a bit of progress on ol' Whiskers. The background color is a muted old looking green.

When I start something I like I can hardly wait to see it finished. Perhaps this won't take so long after all!

Oh someone asked if I have taken lessons on hooking. A friend of mine did show me a bit a couple of years ago but for the most part I've looked in books and just a few weeks ago I bought a couple of dvd's by Gene Shepherd. They really show you step by step.

Well back to pulling a few more loops.

Happy Trails....Ginger

Me & Mom

Hi dad!!!!!! My dad is away again this week but I know he always checks my blog to see how I am doing. How I am doing is AWFUL.........grrrrooooooooaaaaaaannnnnnn..... the mom got me in a bear hug and held tight until the camera went off. Now you all know I am not fond of hugs or even being held so this was a once in a blue moon event!!!! what ever a blue moon is. The mom must of taken 10 photos.....and in each one I moved, she finally put a cookie in front of the camera and I was so busy watching that I forgot to move. Darn that cookie fixation thing!!!

Apart from that, not a lot has been happening. Dad was away in some place called Colliefornia last week and was home for the weekend......I was SO happy to see him!!!! I bounced, I spun around, I woofed......I was giddy with excitement. This week he is somewhere called Terriortenasee. He was laughing at the mom last week because it was nice and warm in Colliefornia but now we are laughing bacause it is snowing in Terriortenasee and it isn't here. It has been very very cold though and the only places mom will take me is to the pet stores and as much as I enjoy those it's just not the same as a nice long walk full of sniffs. So how do you guys cope with winter and not going out as much? What do you do to keep from getting bored?

"Whiskers"

I honestly have to say I haven't been hookin' long. Rug hookin' that is! I tried it about 2 years ago and struggled. I've seen some wonderful things done with the wool and hook and decided I just needed to give it another try. So I bought a new hook from a dear friend and drew off a pattern and away I went. Amazing what a different hook will do for you. So after making some small mats and rugs I decided to give myself a challenge.

When Dad and I went to Texas back in the fall I stopped by Stonehill Spinning in Fredericksburg. The gals there were so nice and I purchased a couple of patterns.
"Whiskers" is a big fall runner measuring 20 x 62 1/2 inches.

Hopefully by this Fall "Whiskers" will be totally done!

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Sloan loves to climb...and it really keeps you on your toes. He was so thrilled this morning when his Daddy dropped him off to see a new slide waiting.







Happy Trails....Ginger

$1500 Prize~Winning Hamburger!!!!

Everyone is given a talent...great or small it's what we do with it that counts. You can hid it under a bushel or you can put it to use.

One of my sisters "Jane" has a knack for cooking. Cooking in the modern family is becoming a lost art with fast food on every corner and the ease of a microwave in almost every home. I wonder about the generations to come.

Jane has two girls and has had them in the kitchen helping prepare the meals since they were very little and to keep them inspired they have entered the State Fair, magazine contest, the Pillsbury Bake~Off and the Oklahoma Beef Cook~Off.

The last two Beef Cook~Off's held here in Oklahoma, Jane with one of the girls has been selected to come to the contest. With over one hundred entries the judges try them out at home themselves and narrow them down to two finalist in 3 different categories. This year Jane and Mandy Jo were the finalist in the Kid Pleasers category. They were invited to OKC to a steak dinner the night before the contest and stayed in a nice hotel. My Mom goes along to cheer them along!

Jane and Mandy Jo made a Hamburger with a special sauce. The children participating with the parent has to be involved in the preparation. They have exactly 30 minutes to have it done from start to finish.

In the Kid Pleasers category they won 1st place receiving $500. Once all the category winners were announced the grand prize winner was chosen...and the winner is

Jane and Mandy $1000.00

Now Jane had told Mandy before they ever went that she could have half of the money if they won.



Mandy and Jane were interviewed by local tv stations and will also be featured in March on RFDTV. Mandy plans on taking her big check to school on Tuesday for Show and Tell. Her plans for the money is buying her and Big Sis' Erin a Wii game system and then the rest goes in the bank.



Mom and Erin are happy about the results and are looking forward to the next contest!

Happy Trails...Ginger

Needle Punch, Hooked Rugs, and Lil' Quilts

Jenn and I have been busy with needles, thread, floss, wool, and hooks making new items for our shops at LPS and CFP.

We have both shops filled with hooked rugs, pinkeeps, cupboard hangers, and some other sweet offerings.

If you find a few spare minutes we would love for you to stop by!

Happy Trails....Ginger

Cottage Cheese twist and turn

The mom and I braved the cold again this morning and headed off to the other pet store. She decided to get something that she thought would be fun for me to play with and that would be a challenge, so she bought this thing called the twister. The concept is that you fill it with treats (thank you to Josh and Jess for the cottage cheese suggestion) and then because of the shape of this thing.... as you try to get the treat out, it twists and turns. Now the package said ideal for Shelties - well obviously it had never been tested with a sheltie because it took me all of 10 seconds to realise that if I put my foot on it, it couldn't twist and turn and all that yummy cottage cheese was mine (note from mom - thank goodness he was on the slate floor with this - it would not of been pretty on the carpet!!!! although he did a good job cleaning up) Mom says she needs to find something more difficult to get out of it. Oh and a hint too....we found lots of Christmas goodies at the pet store marked down by 75%!!! She stocked up on lots of treats for me but said I have to make them last all the way until next christmas......and they expirey dates are not until 2011 so they should be just fine.

PS - mom also bought so organic carrot and apple cookies and they are like little round balls...she put those in my twist and turn and it is driving my crazy trying to get them out!!!!!!

Grandma's Helper!

Most week days you'll find my lil' helper right by my side. He loves to sit in a rocker that once belonged to his daddy and eat snacks and watch a video.



He likes to help with the laundry....



Even sweep the floor...guess I need to buy him a smaller broom!

Today he's not feeling so good so it's lots of time spent cuddling with a blanket and watching video's.



Yesterday, my sister Jane watched Sloan in the afternoon and I was able to make it to a rug hooker's guild. It was an afternoon to sit and enjoy some time spent hooking and admiring what everyone was making!

Happy Trails....Ginger

Do you like cuddles?

Josh and Jess suggested I should stay inside with mom and have cuddles.....there is just one problem....do you know I have never been a cuddly dog. (I do make an exception for my dad - for him I will jump up in his chair and have a cuddle, especially if he has been away for the week) but that is about. I think it is because I am always so hot....... with all my fur I am either sleeping on the slate in the laundry or by the front door. I never just jump on the sofa and sit next to mom for a cuddle although sometimes I like to snooze by her feet. Mom thinks it's kind of odd really as she has had me since I was six weeks old and I have always been with her since that time. She has ALWAYS played me with every day and I have always been allowed to jump on the sofa or bed but have never really shown much interest in it. I was just wondering about my other buddies and whether the girls are more cuddly then the boys?

I be so bored.......

It is so cold at the moment, we had a blizzard yesterday and I could barely even get out my back door the wind was so strong, then when I came in mom laughed and said I looked like a yeti. I am not sure what that is, but she said I looked like one. We did brave the cold and go to the petshop this morning ...the winds has gone and it wasn't snowing anymore and I got lots of pats so it was worth going out. I said hello to the cockatiels and the ferrets - (dog oh dog do those guys smell). The guinea pigs were all hiding so I didn't say hello to them. Do you know there wasn't another dog in there!!! How sad is that, its a pet store, it should be full of furry friends. Mom said it was too cold for sane peoples to be out.......so I guess that makes her a little crazy. Really though, she just worries about me getting bored even though I go on my tread mill 3 times a day, do my agility and play games and do training throughout the day...she still thinks I need to get plenty of new smells and sights. It is going to be a long week as it just supposed to be getting colder and colder. Today it was 11 F and by Friday they are say -10 F.

~*Almost 200 Quilt Books For Sale *~Plus More To Come

I've been busy loading in more pictures of the quilting books I have for sale. There are also a few needle punch books and embroidery thrown into the mix. As I add new pictures they will be at the top of the list.

I still have a knee high stack to get listed...so keep checking back.
Here's the link....Books for Sale


I've just finished hooking two more rugs. The goat is a pattern I picked up when I went on a trip with my dad to Texas. I love the colors...of course red is one of my favorite colors.



This little mat is one I designed for simple little reminders of spring. I've been thinking of my tulips and other bulbs tucked beneath the cold ground. It always a nice surprise when they begin popping up!

Happy Trails....Ginger

I won't live long enough to....

Make all the projects in all these books. I'm cleaning out a major portion of my quilting and painting books along with a few repeats of rug hooking books.

I want to sell them all...but not sure just yet where to list them all. I'm guessing there are a few hundred.







I just hope the camera battery and computer holds out!
If your in NEED of some quilting books you might stop back soon.

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Here's a link to a start of the massive list of books!

Primitive By The Light of The Moon Picturetrail

Happy Trails...Ginger