Allllmost Wordless Wednesday!!

We are back to school.
Report cards are due today.
This is how I feel.


Thanks for stopping by.
I'll try to perk up!

Pinterest Pix - Allllmost Wordless Wednesday!!

More reasons I like animals
better than most people I know.


They don't worry about whether their butts look big.




They make good lookouts.




They don't care if you think they look tacky.

Stolen from Pinterest - Another Great Idea!

Well, more like borrowed and tweaked.

I saw this done with scraps of yarn.

I knew the birds (and squirrels!)

would like fabric scraps just as well.
Especially Michael Miller scraps, LOL!

Brilliant!

YAY, It's the WEEKEND!!

I'm hoping to do a regular post sometime this weekend. Again, things have been really hectic. I will be adding some new items to Etsy this weekend and I have some orders to fulfill...besides the usual "excitement" of laundry, washing floors, etc.

I also have not forgotten that I have totally dropped the ball on the

GIVEAWAY!! CLICK HERE

if you still have not entered to win one of my three prizes. I will TRY to get it together enough to at least set a date for the drawing!!

At least spring break is coming...maybe I can finally catch up.
Thanks for visiting!

Why I Like Animals Better Than Most People I Know

So I have this board on Pinterest called Why I like Animals Better Than Most People I Know. It's pretty self-explanatory. CLICK HERE if you wanna see.

In honor of Allllmost Wordless Wednesday, here are a few of my pins, along with the captions I've created. Enjoy!

They don't care what you're wearing or what you do for a living.


They understand camouflage.


They don't need to pay a lot of money to get a gorgeous long white train.

AWWWWW Wordless Wednesday

Don't forget to register for our GIVEAWAY!!
CLICK HERE!!


There are lots of these guys
serving a life sentence at the SPCA.
ADOPT, don't SHOP.

AWWWWW Wordless Wednesday

I Made You Something!

Okay, so I didn't really MAKE it.
Doris Day is not here at my house.
Happily, she IS still alive and kickin
at the ripe age of 89.

But I did 'photoshop' it for ya!
Here's the original pic of the
legendary actress/animal activist.

Have a great Valentine's Day and
be kind to animals.
Or else.

Wordless Wednesday

Happy Wednesday,
Cat Lovers!

Lori Smith Needs to STOP!

LOL, at least that's what my great friend Linda and I always say. Lori Smith (CLICK HERE) is a quilt designer/genius and she needs to be stopped, because her patterns are SO ADDICTIVE. That's a picture of her spectacular Pieces of Time quilt. We won't talk about the fact that I've completed all 31 blocks and it has STILL become a UFO, waiting quietly for me to jump in and tackle those borders. We also won't talk about the fact that I have her Heritage pattern, still untouched. But that's not really what this post is about.

So if you remember my Be Mindfuls, you may recall that I promised you a peek at a project that's near and dear to my heart. It all started with Lori again, and her wonderful Folk Art Pleasures pattern. I LOVE the pattern, but I also love Jeanne's idea (CLICK HERE to visit her Spiral blog) of redesigning some of the blocks to better fit my own life.

With apologies to Lori for muddling up her borders with letters and numbers, here is a pic of her Folk Art Pleasures (FAP) quilt.
Many of the blocks are perfect for me, just as they are. However, some will "fit" better if I change them. For example, see C4, the chicken one? I have no particular 'truck' with chickens. I never had one as a pet and I certainly don't eat them, so that's one block that I'm going to change. And there are definitely not enough (or ANY) cats in her blocks. And see B2? I'd like to be holding the hands of TWO little boys, rather than just one.

Thus far, I've only completed 7 of the 16 blocks: A2, A3, A4, B1, D1, D2 and D4. I'm working on A1, and that's my current Be Mindful project. I'll post pictures of my blocks tomorrow, even in their current, wrinkly/un-ironed state. But if you've made it this far in today's post, you deserve a reward. Here's a closeup of my version of A3 - it's FOSTER! Here he is in real life:
And here he is in a fabric tree. Check out his Mad Eye, LOL.
In real life, he doesn't go outside and he doesn't have red moons. But his eyes really do look like that when he looks at our dogs.

If you click on the Mad Eye pic, you can see some applique "warts". In particular, you can see the pencil line where his tail connects to his body. (I've since learned not to draw the bottom of that U-shape, because it's hard to turn it all under.) I guess I'm still Celebrating Imperfection. CLICK HERE to read the Warts and All post.

Check back tomorrow to see the rest of the blocks and thanks for stopping by!

Meet HARVEY!!!! Or Why I Never Want to Go to Prison

Here's Harvey. If you've been reading this blog, you know we adopted him from a prison in Virginia, Lunenburg, to be exact. Let me just say...OMG, I DO NOT want to go to prison. EVER. Razor wire.Loud clanging constantly. Guards with guns walking around. Guards with guns in towers. Reinforced, razor-wire enclosed gated areas with the gates on timers...I guess if you manage to get through the first gate, they have time to shoot you before the second one clangs open??????????? And did I mention that there's a lot of razor wire????

Anyway, the handlers (inmates who train the dogs) could NOT have been more professional!!! They were extremely knowledgeable, and just really, really...professional. We felt like we had a session with two professional dog trainers.

So anyway, I'm scared straight.
And Harvey is adjusting SO well.

He has definitely been abused at some point and can be EXTREMELY fearful. Loud noises scare him (the clanging in prison had him flinching constantly. Sudden movements scare him. Wiping his muddy paws scares him. Foster scares him.And there are just so many things he's never done. We could not get him to jump into the truck to go home...think about it, he has probably never ridden in a vehicle except in a cage. He had never seen steps until the handlers (who knew we have a two-story house), started working with him on a set of 3 steps.But now ol' Harv is running up and down our steps, wrestling with Deegan and beginning to understand that petting does not equal hitting.We are so happy to give Harvey the chance at a normal life. Well, as normal as a dog's life can be when he is ruled by Foster-the-Dog-Killer...

Thanks for sharing our joy!

Sometimes You Gotta Do Something Crazy

Have you ever had a time in your life when you knew you were about to do something that does not make sense, but yet it seemed 100% like the right thing to do??

Harvey is like that, because we already have some pets. If you've been reading this blog for a while, you know that we have a dog named Deegan and some cats. Strictly indoor cats. Five, to be exact. Two were feral kittens we captured and one is still unapproachable.

The cats and Deegan get along fine. Well, except for Foster. Deegan is terrified of Foster.

With good reason.
You may remember this post, written by Deegan.
Foster is not his favorite thing.

The cats are not good playmates for Deegan. After all, they're CATS and they do not like Deegan licking them and trying to chew on their ears. They find him coarse and repulsive.

Deegan is almost three and he needs a friend to wrestle with.

Enter Harvey.

Harvey is 4 years old and has NEVER lived in a home. He had lived in a shelter for his entire life until he was rescued by a great organization called Fetch a Cure.

You can click the link above to read what they do, but basically, they rescue dogs that are considered unadoptable (like 4 year old dogs who have never lived in a home) and they use inmates at Virginia's correctional facilities to train them. It's great for the inmates and it's life-changing for the dogs. It's like
Cell Dogs on Animal Planet, if you ever saw that program. It's a second chance for everyone involved.

So, we are going to be Harvey's new people! I told Deegan about it, but he did not seem to understand. I told Foster about it and he is NOT HAPPY. I guess he'd better adjust. Harvey comes to stay at our house next week.

We'll be picking him up at the prison, which is 3 hours away. We'll be meeting the "handlers" (inmates). I'm not allowed to wear blue jeans or revealing clothing. (Dang, I guess I can't wear my bustier gown, which would have been perfect!))

I'M SO EXCITED, DID I SAY THAT?!
Dog fans - stay tuned to hear more about Harvey!

When ANIMALS Attack!!

So I have this weird thing about rain.
I love to go out on the porch when it's raining.
I find the sound of the rain sooo relaxing.
Normally, that is.

Last night during a torrential downpour,
I went out on the porch.
My mistake was taking Deegan along.
Normally, Deeg listens pretty well.
But not last night.
He went shooting off the porch
to the other side of our driveway.
I couldn't see him because of our vehicles
but I immediately heard this
horrible, frenzied snarling.

I could not IMAGINE what on earth
he was doing. I went flying off the
porch, screaming his name, running
toward our truck. I still couldn't see
either him or his combatant.
I got within about 3 feet of our truck
and suddenly THIS CAME SNARLING OUT AT ME!!!!!!!For a split second,
I thought he was a big, gray cat.
I started to bend toward him
in the dark and the rain
before I realized what I was looking at.
I think he felt trapped, with Deegan
on the far side of the vehicle and
me bending toward him on this side.
That raccoon was definitely
in fight or flight mode
and he had chosen FIGHT.

He looked WAY madder than that.
Like this mad.
Fight or flight didn't work so well for me.
I was so petrified that
I stood rooted to the spot,
screaming as loud as I could.
Incredibly, the raccoon must have
decided I was not a threat.
He lit off across the yard,
toward a drainage ditch,
with Deegan right behind him.

My feet finally unfroze and I went tearing
after them, again screaning for Deegan.
The raccoon zipped into a drainage pipe
and Deegan FINALLY stopped and looked at me.

I was still screaming at the top of my lungs.
Deegan was cowering, because I think by then
I must have looked like this.

I think that's the scaredest
I've ever been.
I shook for about an hour.
Miraculously, Deegan appeared
to be unharmed.
He was not bitten.
There was no blood.

You have to kind of wonder
what our neighbors think.
Thank goodness for noise of the rain,
because the way I was screaming,
I wouldn't have been surprised to see this.

Quickie Post

Just popping in to say that I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving, if you live where Thanksgiving is celebrated or that you're at least having a nice Thursday! My arms have been too full of baby to type much - Pop Pop and I are in our glory! Hopefully, I'll have some new pictures to post soon. In the meantime, here's a couple of cute puppies just to make you smile!

Things I Don't Understand, Part One

Kim Kardashian's wedding

I do understand that it's her money, to do with as she sees fit. I also understand that she thinks she works hard for it. (Hmmm, try working construction or teaching kindergarten, Kim.) Maybe someone should have told her that it's not about the WEDDING...it's about the MARRIAGE (which, in her case, lasted 72 days.) But anyway, all I can say is that if I EVER had a spare 10 million dollars, I would hope to do some good with it. I would work to stop stuff like this

and thisand maybe do something about thisKind of makes you understand why people in other countries
are sometimes not too fond of Americans.
But we're not all like Kim.
Some of us do stuff like thisand like this.

Why I Like Animals Better Than a Lot of People

I guess that sounds bad. But it's true.
Here are some reasons:

They're not afraid to tell you when you look stupid.

They listen to their moms.

They're not afraid to reach for the stars.

They know how to relax. Without alcohol.

They're not afraid to be themselves.

They're loyal.

They're good listeners.

They don't need words to say thank you.
Hope my animal friends gave you a smile today.