Happy Mother's Day to you!!

Make a Smilebox postcard

M-O-M-M-Y needs C-O-F-F-E-E

I don't have a problem with caffeine, I have a problem without it!
Enjoy your morning,
Annie

Puppy and Patterns or Patterns and Puppy

I'm not sure what has been taking up more of my time...the puppy or the pattern I just finished writing and publishing. I'll start with the puppy. Really, this is just a photo post.

This is just one of the signs that greeted us as we pulled up into the place where Lucy lived her first 8 weeks of life. The sign says "SLOW Golden Retrievers at play". Lucy comes from a great family.

A sweet little kiss for daddy.

Lucy helping herself with the leash.


Frog legs


A good game of tug


All tuckered out

Here's the other busy P...I've designed May Day baskets! Or baskets for whatever you find useful. I wish this holiday would have more of a presence in our world. It's kind of like a random act of kindness except the receiver isn't supposed to know who it's from. One would hope that it puts a smile on their face and a bounce in their step. There are four different sizes and styles and I had so much fun taking pictures of these. I love fresh flowers and I really should have some around the house because they make me happy when I see them. As some would put it "Food for the soul" Yep! And the candy was delish too. Anyways, I decided to put this pattern in the Etsy shop since I labored this project. But I learned a lot through the whole process. I think the hardest part will be giving these baskets away. I love them way too much.

Have a Happy Easter!
Annie

A quick note

The names were put into a bowl for the drawing and Laura, my coworker, drew Pink Sky's name. Congrats! Please email me with your address and I'll drop it in the mail to you. Thank you to you all for your interest. Please try to knit a bird if you can.

We're off in t-minus 18 hours to pick up Lucy Lu. Eeeeee! It's been a loooooong two weeks waiting.

Cooper's Flock :: Would you like to help?

I learned of this heart breaking story here. I wanted to show my support so I requested the pattern from Lucinda. A few days later Susan had a drawing for some Blue Sky Cotton yarn and she selected my name to receive a skein. My little birdy is done and he's quite sweet. I just need to package him up and send him on his way which may eventually end up in a hospital pediatric intensive care unit bringing comfort to families who are overwhelmed. Lucinda is trying to get 100 birds knit up by May. I hope she receives more than that!

Would you like to help? I have plenty of the Blue Sky Cotton left over and I would love to pass it along to you if you would like to knit a bird. Go to Lucinda's site and request the pattern. She'll email it to you as well as the address of where to send the bird. If I have more than one taker, I'll have a drawing. Let me know by emailing me by the middle of next week. You can find my address over there to the right of the blog. I would love to "pay it forward".

Annie

Meet Lucy Lu B-Dawg

We managed to pull off a big surprise for our kids on Saturday. Since Nala's passing the kids have been asking when they can have another dog. It took my husband and I quite some time before we were ready to think about another pet but now we feel the time is right. We told our parents to keep an eye out for a litter of Golden Retrievers and it only took a phone call from my father in law to find a family (the Gieske's) who had pups that would be ready around Easter. On Saturday we took a drive in the country and told the kids that we were going to try to find a farm that had some spring baby animals we could see. After a couple hours of driving we were a mile away from the family with the puppies. We told the kids that we were going to just pull into one of these (thousands) of farms we passed to see if they had baby animals. As we pulled into the Gieske's my daughter became quite alarmed that we were going to show up without an invitation. Her comments were "Daaaad, we can't go here. We weren't invited." Ignoring her plea to leave we drove up the driveway, parked the car, hopped out gave the owners a big wink and asked if they had any baby animals we could look at. They gave us a tour of the barn and farm and even had baby calves which we didn't know about. How perfect of a plan it was!

Kitties in the barn seeking shelter

Baby Calves sucking fingers




A fun ride around the farm with a new friend

Peeking in


This is 2 year old Hunter being friendly

At the end of our tour we were told there was a big surprise in the basement. Even after showing our kids the puppies they still didn't know they were there to pick one out. They were having fun playing with the five puppies and then I told my daughter to select one because we get to bring one home in two weeks when they are ready to leave their momma.
I wish I could have captured the look on her face. Later as she was holding a puppy she asked "Am I dreaming?"

As for the name, well they couldn't decide on a girl name so it became "Lucy Lu B-Dawg" If you've ever watched Air Buddies one of the pups name is B-Dawg.

I think we'll call her Lucy, for short.

If you need a puppy fix watch this video of the big surprise:

Mittens and other stuff

I'm having some fun with the felted sweaters I've collected. These mittens are so warm and soft. They are lined with fleece to make them super soft inside. I know Betz White has a pattern in her Warm Fuzzies book but this was a pattern (very similar) from a friend who has caught the sweater-thrifting-felting-sewing bug. The first pair I made for myself. The second pair was a gift for a friend who generously loaned her sewing machine to me and I finally returned it to her because I bought one a couple months ago. Yipee! The third pair is a gift to have on hand. (no pun intended, ha!)

...and I made a couple 'custom order' photo albums.

So in the previous post I mentioned that we attended the Home and Garden Show and saw Shane Tallant. Here's what he autographed to my daughter. So true!!!

Finally, the birthday parties have come to an end and now we're left picking up the peanut shells, cardboard boxes, crumpled wrapping paper and empty cans. It was fun for all and many memories made.

Take care,

Annie

Hello

Life is sure getting in the way of blogging. I even had special requests to update this.

What's the update? Not much knitting but a whole lot of partying.

*We celebrated our daughter's ninth birthday a few weeks ago and tomorrow we celebrate our son's fourth birthday.
*My husband and I enjoyed a short stay on the North Shore at our favorite resort, Larsmont. We went snowshoeing on what we thought was a 3 mile loop and ended up being 5+ miles. I'm glad I survived to tell you about it.
*We attended the Mpls Home Show and heard Shane Tallant speak. He is quite funny and had some great stories. My daughter and I got his autograph afterwards and if I can figure out how to get a picture off my phone camera I will share with you. She's excited 'cause she's sitting in his lap. Lucky girl.
*Attended a Variety Show at my daughter's school. She was the accompanist and her friend sang. Very sweet.
*I won second place in a contest for a bathroom makeover. All the tile we need for our project was the prize.
* I've been sewing sweater mittens. (I'll post pictures later)
* I'm knitting some Fetching for a friend

See, I have excuses. What are yours?