My baby is growing up! We are working on self control this month, and it's not Milo's choice. In the picture above, I have put him in a "sit" and "stay" and walked down the hall. With a treat in my hand.
I look away for a second to test him and sometimes he stays for a second, which is great!
Milo: She walks miles away, starts looking at something that must be really interesting if it causes her to look away from ME
ME: As I said, a second, and he jumps up and follows me, becoming distracted at the kitchen door...
Milo: Well, that might have been a morsel of the chicken Mama was holding, she is pretty clumsy (I love her though) and I was hurrying to see what she was looking at without me. She might have needed my help! I'm VERY helpful, you know!
Me:.... he calmly plops down at my feet! Milo: There! I did "come!" Where is my treat!?? Ain't I cute?
Me: oh yes. Cute. That's why you're still here. And the fact that I don't know how to shake you.
So we continue to work on Sit, stay, and wait.
This month he has also learned to lift his leg to pee. At first I praised him, but that was a mistake. I did it because until then he drenched his front legs while squatting.
Now he pees to mark, and leaves his mark all over the 'hood!
I can see there will be a need for fine tuning.
He also accompanies me to the inside toilet every time I go. Milo: Well, it is a fascinating place and Mana is easy to trap in there because I'm so big now! I walk past her, reach around to grab the "play paper" that unrolls. I grab a bit, pull, spin!! grab it farther, more spin!!! Whee!!! I could do this all day but Mama seems to be annoyed at me. Who can figure out mama's??? I'm just helping... Me: ... himself to paper which he loves to tear up.
He has also been using those big boy teeth too much. His toys are shredded... why this one had yet another amputation this week.
Milo chose this little Bronco's Bear in CO this summer. It has little pellets inside along with the fluff. How do I know? They are no longer all inside... they bled out during the unfortunate amputation.
Milo:Heeeeeeyyy... whatcha doin daddy-O?? That's my bear!
Me: or what's left of him. Two arms and one and a half ears are gone.
Milo now brings us a toy, a special chosen toy, and pushes it in our laps to chew on. If we have the temerity to take it, he wrestles it from us and runs off. Then immediately returns to drop it in our lap.
Milo: what fun to torment them! I'm faster! They should know that by
now! Still, gotta keep them occupied so I pick out the right toy, to get
their attention away from the little screens. When they are stubborn
and won't play, I chew on my bed.
THAT gets their attention! The Mama
especially seems to hate me chewing on my bed toy.
Now that he is often free of his braces, he is getting around the baby gate and going up to the landing on the stairs...
He forgets about the times he's stumbled coming back down. Milo: well it always seems like a good idea in the beginning. Then it's all, "Milo! what are you doing??!" and "Milo, do NOT come up the stairs without me!!" I mean I am a BIG BOY now, with BIG teeth, and BIG legs, and BIG ideas and have lots to do in life. I want to get at it!
Welcome to this week's list of likes. I did a post with a lot of likes a couple days ago... please go there for a better list. It's been a challenging week again but even when life is throwing stones at you, there is usually a number of good things to like as well.
I get the daily emails from The Writer's Almanac. I haven't had time to read them lately but this caught my eye... Robert Louis Stevenson, who said, “There are no foreign lands. It is the
traveler only who is foreign.” And, “Our business in life is not to
succeed, but to continue to fail in good spirits.”
Remember this grand home in CT?
Another thing I liked was the side entry, with the room above it... look closer
I think this was where drivers would pull up the horse and buggy, and so the people would be protected from the elements going into the house. Mostly these are a roof, this one had an entire room over it. I just imagine my writing desk in front of this window.
I'm a fan of Angela waltersMidnight Quilt Show. Our cable went out so I remembered this and watched her show on Edyta Starr's feathered star quilt. Then I found this one with her showing us around the Houston Quilt show this year 2017! How fun! Watch...
I remember meeting Jenny Doan one year at Houston... squealing like a piglet... and she's so nice.She does youtube tutorials from Missouri Quilts
I love the Quilter's Quest (a shop hop) here and am glad I got to do it one more time. I did not even try to visit the really far shops but hit the ones I love best and ran into people I love too!
Here are a few photos I took:
Jinny Beyer is one of my favorite people.
She is so accomplished, and she loves dogs. She cried with me when she heard Cole passed, and rejoiced with me to see Milo prancing around her front yard!
If you bring your Jinny Tote bag in to the shop, you receive a free fat eighth of fabric!
I got two sale kits for heart needle cases, and some new to me water soluble glue sticks, and they gave me a free 8th and a block magnet!
As I was leaving I ran into my friends Linda, Patty and Barbara. We caught up a bit, then I moved on to Capital Quilts
Before I left Linda's group had caught up to me there so I thought, I have no pics of Lind and I after all these years! Linda welcomed me into the art quilt group called Fiberlectic long ago. It is no longer, but our friendship survived. She and I recently spent an afternoon chatting and sewing.
Again, she is very accomplished, owned a quilt shop for years, wrote a book, made patterns and is a good friend whom I will miss. Luckily there is FT now. Not the same but it's a good thing.
At Capital, I got this pattern, imagining one day to find a suitable rental for us to move into, and me making a Christmas quilt with it...
I think it would be great to use my Christmas stash of prints, and the white with gold print as neutral.
they had little wool on wool kits that would be great but I didn't buy one. I suspect I have one somewhere in the studio.
They also had these calorie free lollies!
It's that a fun way to use the clothesline? They were on a stick and would make a grand Christmas decoration!
The big I Like this week came from Milo's surgeon. I was afraid to call them for a follow up appt because I had let some of his PT appts slip in the search for a home to rent. One of the good people who read my words here, wrote to me, asking if she could help from a distance.
She did help me by listening and prayer, and suggestions. She encouraged me to call for an appt on Monday.
I now had a deadline, and made myself call late in the afternoon on Monday and we met with the doctor yesterday. After evaluation, he said we could start leaving Milo out of the brace half the time! He said limit the movement, no rough housing and put it back on for long walks in case we meet up with other dogs.
He said Milo may be able to lead a normal life, time will tell, but that the surgery and brace allowed the ligaments and tendons to retract. It's no guarantee but it's a step in the right direction.
Milo's likes:
"I like doctor Leisure and I showed him how I prance around and bite at Daddy, and jump up and wiggle! I'm an exceptional wiggler! Why when Mama wanted to clean my ears, and shave some matts I wiggled so much she nipped me!
That's okay! I'll heal as you know! I love having my fur free again to blow in the wind! Mama washed the brace and you should have heard the words she said when it came out of the washer!!! Why in all of my 8 and one half whole months of life I've never heard that! It was all tangled but dang, she figured it out and I had to put it back on for one walk but that's okay because I now know it's not fur-ever.
I've been wearing that thing almost half of my life!I still wear a t-shirt at night to keep me from licking.
as IF!
Please enjoy these other people keeping lists of their fun this week! And as always, please let me know if you did a post and I'll add yours in !!!
I grew up in Tampa Fl. and we didn't really have a "weather" Fall. We started to school which told us Fall was coming, we planned Thanksgiving dinner which meant Fall, we watched movies set in other states that had colored leaves, we made handprint turkeys
but it wasn't til I visited my husband in Amherst MA that I really saw Fall.
Then we moved to Maryland and I got to know Fall up close and personal.
This is an older quilt made to celebrate my poodle Cole when he was Milo's age. He loved picking up a twig with dried leaves and shaking it like a maraca. Glee!
I painted the leaves then appliqued them with Cole buddy and his teeth are rick rack and stand out!
The picture was taken on my bed recently while I'm cataloguing all my quilts, I'm taking pics of each one.
Now for a few random shots from recent trips
Step into my parler...
don't you love seeing into a house through a window as you pass by?
This house turned out to be too small for us however... I am a quilter so I need more square footage! lol
It was in the antique store I visited recently in Mt. Holly. The store was an old car repair maybe an old wagon repair building.
I coveted this type set drawer unit. OMG to have the space to have one of these to hold beads, buttons and trims!
Ditto this writing desk/chair combo. I like it, but you need the right space and that's larger than we've found.
"S" for stained glass
How pretty to have one or all of these in your home's windows! Did you ever try stained glass? I did as a young woman. I took so many craft classes as a young 20 something. I really love stained glass but I didn't listen to my instructor, and just made a quick cut in class and hadn't put back on my goggles. Yup, a bit of glass scratched my cornea turning me into what looked like a pirate with patch for a week. I recently gave up my glass scoring tool and lead came.
I kept a couple items I made in class.
I thought this was an odd but interesting awning... never saw one like this before, have you?
It feels really good to walk where our ancestors did. Compared to Wethersfield this is a Johnny-come-lately home but I still think about the person building this before the Revolution happened. What did they think? Did they realize life would change here in the colonies in just a few years? What an act of faith to build a house in a land as wild as America. Still is.
I enjoyed this Fall display of white pumpkins even though I love orange ones. With the wagon and hay it creates a tableau. I wonder if children pulled each other with this wagon long ago. I wish it could tell the story to us now.
Hindsight makes us think people who lived before us should know what was coming but they like us, just live that day not knowing if their decisions were good or not. They had to make life decisions and cope with the changes as they cropped up like we do.
I need a good time traveler to tell me what's coming.
The sign under this window says, "please watch your step"
I know, I know... life is watching your steps...
Being careful, looking ahead, making decisions and dealing with the problems that happen anyway despite your careful planning. As a friend told me recently, "you can make plans but you can't plan the outcome"
It's a balance of planning, thinking and taking risks
A precarious balance of pots!
As a person who seldom fit in, I loved seeing this sign...
People are always telling me how I am "different" and somehow it doesn't sound like the celebration it should be, know what I mean? We are all "different" and it's just the differences which make us interesting.
If we accepted that people are different and it's okay, and actually valued that, we could go through this life easier I suspect.
Milo's stick has no dried leaves to rattle, but he could still carry it around.
So he did.
(He was just as content since he didn't know he was missing dried leaves)
What do you think?
Did you enjoy this post? There is another one from the same trip right HERE! click to see it!
Welcome to this week's list of likes! I Like grand old homes! This one in Whethersfield CT had a little fairy village in the side yard next to the old iron fence
Any of you have a fairy village in your yard? I heard it's all the rage. I like odd architectural details on a house...
if you can, squidge this one bigger to see the odd bowing out peak at top. I also love a big porch!
I LOVE the tiara/Fascinator bought in Frederick last weekend.
Drew said I must have it, so he got it and I wore it around town.
So many people asked about it. I decided to wear it as often as I need to remind me I am the Queen of something...
cute enough to show three times! I love a tiara anyway, but this one would be perfect for New year's eve, or birthdays or to remind me to make life special.
I Like big fall leaves and I cannot lie!
I liked this video of new short haircuts for 2018, and watching the hairdresser cut long hair!
I did a LIKE post yesterday that has lots of my likes in pictures, check it out: A trip-through-time
I am struggling with life right now. This post from the blog Peace With My Life made me feel I was sharing some of my burdens, and I hope it helps you too. At the very least it is thought provoking and should start dialogues through the world. https://peacewithmylife.com/2017/11/02/soul-listening/#comment-20665
Milo's likes:
Milo is into shoes. He hands me my shoes when I point and ask "give" and now he brings shoes back to his bed. He doesn't chew on them, just likes to bring them back to the family room.
Milo: I love Mommy so when she seemed so happy I picked up her shoe
for her, I thought I'd just keep bringing her shoes so she would clap
her hands and say "good BOY!"
But
she doesn't seem so happy... I'm confused. Shoes by the door, "good boy!" shoes in the family room, "no no Milo, bad!"
What's a poodle to do??
Join these people also keeping it positive today!
(as always, I encourage you to keep track of your joys each week and let me know if you do a post)
What time is it? time for a trip through an antique store! What is it about grandfather clocks? I love them!! Grab a seat....
and something fresh to drink
put down that sewing for a minute
let the kids put on their own shoes... after all they need to learn to use buttons
And enjoy a trip through time...
Quilts made by people like us who love to sew fabric, see colors and lines appear, and feel the soft comfort of beauty
Have you ever wondered where all the quilts you've made will end up?
I really liked the fresh look of this old quilt. The color scheme is very modern. The block is slightly different from the one I've done...
With curved piecing instead of straight line. I imagine someone working like my grandmother did, in her lap with paper templates and a pencil line, small stitches, one after the other late into the night. Just one more stitch, just one more block. The mix of neutrals with a few neutral blocks thrown in is fresh.
I liked the setting on this bear's paw. The intermittent sashing. Slight color variance. Hand quilting. The paws float in white, but the white is broken up by the broken line of green too.
I wonder if the maker dithered over choices the way I do?
Looks like she probably took someone's UFO and set it herself with fabric close to the original color.
Shall we drive to the fabric store???
Off to the garage...
I had a heart flutter when I saw all of these!
as a child, I discovered one like these in our old garage. It was rusty but just the right size for my little legs to reach the inside pedals.I felt the thrill of a first car! Shall we take the blue convertible or the firechief's car? Red looks good on everyone! Did you have a car like this?
Well, time to put down our toys...
And go to an estate sale for more fun objects. Objects collected over a life time...
This was the home of a quilter I suspect. She had two or three machines for sale and this cool table...
I thought it was so very clever. Then this weekend I saw an artisan in Annapolis had made a console table covered with yardsticks!! No new ideas under the sun!
I wanted this cabinet, with the birdhouse and the tea servce
I wish I could tour the cellar too...
The home was awesome... built in 1800's with the pretty details one never see's today. I want to imagine growing up here, wearing the button shoes, swinging on a swing on an old old tree...
Granny sitting on the porch with a pan of beans in her lap to shuck for dinner that night.
I suppose the trees would have only been a couple hundred years old at that point
Old trees, old when the first homes were built, older now.
Old but functional barns harken to another time
For a sentimental person who loves history and people and just wants to imagine living in this time it was a trip into imagination... A lovely New England Fall day
