Pink Hill Manor - design by Blackbird Designs
The pugs had a great agility weekend. Aoife got two second place finishes in Novice FAST and her Novice Fast title and Clancy got his first ever Excellent Standard Q! And since he is still in the A class, it was first place! I uploaded a bunch of youtube videos from the trial - the link to my page is on the left side of my blog. Aoife didn't run nearly as well as Clancy did - she was her usual crazy self. On Saturday the only thing that kept Clancy from Qing was dropping the top bar of the triple jump. Broke my heart for him both times because he gives everything he has to the moment and was so awesome on both courses.
But I did have time on the train! I'm getting close to the end of this one. Hopefully this week. In fact tonight I'll toss in the next chart with the floss just in case I'm closer than I think I am.
Took the train in this morning and look! I stitched! :-) This should go quickly now that this house is done. This is one of my favorites from Anniversaries of the Heart.
I finally a picture of Isabelle where her eyes aren't glowing. It's so hard to take nice photos of black dogs. Between her color and the fact that she almost never stops moving, it's been tough. :-) I really need to get a good photo of her with the pugs. Then you can see just how much bigger she has grown. 
Just to clear up any confusion I do live with four pugs. :-) But I only own three. Georgie officially belongs to my mom who I live with. When I move out in a couple of months Georgie will remain behind but don't worry, he won't be alone. He will be living with Lily the big yellow lab that also belongs to my mom. In the event that something happens to my mom, I will happily take Georgie at that time to live with me.
Now that I'm back on puppy patrol, I don't have as much time to stitch at night as I did the days Izzy wasn't around. But as I've said before, any progress is progress! :-)
Loving my progress on Pink Hill Manor. My dye lot of Jacky Brown isn't as pink as the photo and it's a nice color.
When I got her home Izzy ran around with the pugs and greeted each one. The pugs were like, where've you been Iz? Georgie was especially happy to see her. She didn't stop waging her tail until we went to bed and she fell asleep.
She is bigger than all of them!
I'm one happy camper. And I am here to tell you, it really is easier with only one puppy. Breakfast was so easy without Hunter around. I think most things will be easier with just the one. I'm so glad I get to find out. 
I stitched over the weekend! Miracle of Miracles. :-) I didn't have as much time as I had planned. I kept getting distracted by this pile of dust and this pile of laundry, oh, look there is a dust bunny! And before I knew it, it was Sunday afternoon and I finally sat down. But the house is nice and clean. 
I had a really good start to Pink Hill Manor. Almost the entire border complete in just two train rides? I wish they were all so constructive. But the seasons are changing and it's almost light for the morning train and light for the evening train and that really helps keep me awake. Who knew I was half bear? I'm coming out of hibernation! LOL!
A Wish For You - design by Blackbird Designs
I've been trying to find time to start stitching again. Enough feeling sorry for myself already! :-) I'd love to get this piece finished over the weekend and since I don't have any plans, if I just plant myself on the couch and ignore my Facebook page, I might actually do it.
As you can see not a lot has been stitched in the last two weeks. Mostly because of the following photos. It's still full blown puppy time at my house. :-) So between the puppies, a blizzard and jury duty last week, I haven't had much time to stitch. And whenever I try, one or both of the puppies wants to eat my project. Not good. 
Hunter playing while it was still snowing. I had to shovel a path for the pugs.
I don't let Hunter on the couch but every time I turn my back this seems to happen. That's Molly with him.
Izzy loves to go back to bed after she goes outside - every time she comes back in she runs right to the bed and snuggles in. She is not much for the cold and snow. 
See what I mean about turning my back? Hunter, Aoife, Izzy, Molly and Clancy all taking a nap. When Izzy came two and a half weeks ago, she was smaller than my smallest pug, Aoife. Now she is bigger than the biggest, Georgie. 
Molly and Izzy taking a nap. Yes, Izzy is special and she gets to sleep on the couch. 
I have all but begged my sister and brother-in-law let me keep Izzy. My sister is willing but my bil won't. They have no clue what they are taking on. Maybe if they had been able to train Hunter to do anything I would not be so adamant that they are making a mistake but that 5 month old lab is out of control and they are clueless as to what to do. Now they are going to ruin another. And my bil has stage 4 colon cancer and is in no condition to take on another puppy and my sister isn't up to the job either as she is sick with an autoimmune disease. I told them it was stupid idea before Ken got sick but now it's asinine and borders on insane. 
It's been a wild couple of days at my place. Last week my brother-in-law had some pretty intense surgery that was very unexpected. He originally was supposed to go in on Wednesday but the surgery was stopped midway through after the docs realized that it would be much more complected then they first thought and rescheduled him for Friday. So I picked up my sister's 16 week old yellow lab, Hunter. Such a sweetie! The pugs even like him despite his larger than life size. :-) My sister needs to be at the hospital as much as she can and not worrying about Hunter was a huge relief for her. 
Sweet Hunter. 
Hunter and Georgie deciding what to play with next. 
She is the sweetest thing ever. I'm secretly hoping she will be just too much for my sister and brother-in-law, with his very long recovery before him, to deal with and she will get to stay with me forever. :-) Yeah, I know, it's just wishful thinking as my sister stopped by last night to meet her and also fell in love. As it is, it will just kill me to give them both up after three or four more weeks. I think one little black lab is perfect payment for all my trouble. :-) 
Izzy would make a wonderful agility dog. At nine weeks old she is just a tad smaller than the pugs. By next week, she will be larger then all of them.
So not a quilt or stitching piece was worked on since mid-last week. I just don't have time with all the chasing after puppies I have to do. :-)
Sewing Bird Pinkeep - design by Country Stitches
Here is my progress on A Wish For You. I've almost finished the house. I thought for sure I was going to get this chart finished over the weekend but I ended up working on a quilt top. But I didn't get that finished either. But I got in lots of nice naps with the pugs and that was as good. :-)
I finally got started on the fourth BBD piece to the Anniversaries of the Heart collection - A Wish For You. I wish I could say it was because I was in the Alps skiing or on the beaches in Cancun but in truth I was in Gurnee, IL on my butt watching TV and eating bonbons. :-) This one won't go as fast as the last one did - that is one big honking house! Shades of Houses of Hawk Run Hollow all over again. I love the colors of this one and I love to stitch houses so it at least will be fun.
Anniversaries of the Heart Bonus #1 - design by Blackbird Designs
As you can see, I only have a bit to go on block #3. I should have stitched more over the time off but I just didn't feel the stitching bug in me. I had a great agility trial with the pugs. Both got a qualifying score and the other runs we just one little thing away from a ribbon. They are both getting so good! I was a very happy pug handler. :-)
A week ago I really thought I would have this block completed by today but a bad case of food poisoning on Thursday pretty much ended that idea. I was on my back for a solid 24 hours with the rest of the weekend a loss. I have never been so sick in my life! Stitching was the last thing on my mind. But hopefully with a couple days working from home this week I'll and being able to find more stitching time and I'll start to make some progress. My dye lots of my overdyed floss are off compared to the chart. I not really happy with the colors (it's the alphabet I don't care for) but I also just want to move forward. So that's the plan. This piece will be so large that I'm sure it will end up fitting in nicely. Or at least that is what I'm telling myself. :-)
Valentine Rose design by Blackbird Designs
Here is the start to the bonus pattern #1 (what a boring name). This one is going to fly! I'm losing track of where the publication of the charts is at. Maybe through September? That would leave three more plus the bonus pattern #2. I wonder if I can get caught up before the last one comes out. That would be sweet. :-)
I'm so close to finishing up Valentine Rose I can taste it. :-) Just that little bit on the house and it's finished. I have the chart and floss to start the next section and most likely will tonight on the way home from work.
When I got home I had a wonderful surprise waiting for me! A box of Christmas goodies from Edgar! How cool is this? He even included some treats for the pugs. Edgar those cherries are to die for and what can I say about the white chocolate?? And I can't wait to try the jam. Huge thanks to you and Rico. You guys are the best. :-) That is Clancy checking everything out as I unpacked it.
I don't often chat much about Georgie my fourth cool pug and I never chat about Lily the lab that also inhabits my life. But here they both are keeping each other warm during this cold streak. They can be found like this most days. :-) 
I'm almost ready to start the last step of Valentine Rose - filling in the bricks on the house. But I won't have much time for the next week to finish. Tomorrow I have dinner with friends so no stitching time there. On Thursday to Sunday I'll be attending my big agility trial of the year in Milwaukee - Hounds for the Holidays and I'm staying this year in Milwaukee rather than driving home each day. I'll bring the stitching along but I'm sure I won't have the time or energy as lots of friends will be there.
I got a lot stitched in on Valentine Rose over the weekend. All that is left now is the big honking house. I did make a couple of changes - I made the vase longer to cover the personalization and I added the flower on the left of the short vase. I like how it turned out. I also changed the funky "S" on the door. I never like how it looked in past pieces so I figured why not change it for this one? :-)
Snow Garden - design by Blackbird Designs
Here is the start of Valentine Rose. Not sure if I will work on it much over the weekend. I'd rather get some more done of my silk glove project. 
Have a great weekend!
Just a few more stitches to place and I'm finished with the first part of Anniversaries of the Heart. I'm going to find a couple more keys to stitch in rather than the personalization recommended. In fact that is the plan for all the charts to the series. I'll pick out something from another chart in the series or something that relates and stitch that rather than the initials of others. 
