Life In The Dog House

MondayMakers @ayliN – Nilya

Filed under Block of the Month, Lap Quilt

Tagged as Block of the Month, BOM

May 3, 2015 · 15:01

Spirit the Cheerleader

We all got up bright and early to head to St. Albert so that I could participate in the Run Wild Half Marathon. Spirit was a great cheerleader at the start line and attracted tons of attention. There is something about a Berner puppy. Everyone just wants to meet her and smooch her up.

After the race we had to go to Spirit’s conformation class. Her brother, handsome Samson, was in the same class so we finally got a picture of the two of them together. Although Spirit is about the same height as Samson she looks dwarfed beside him. He also weighs about 13lbs more than her (that’s about 20% heavier).

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Tagged as Berner, Bernese Mountain Dog, Blogpaws, Spirit

May 2, 2015 · 18:07

May Goal ALYoF

This is my May goal for A Lovely Year of Finishes. It’s a lap quilt I am making out of Little Black Dress 2. I need to finish the piecing, quilt and bind.

Thank Goodness it is Finished Friday

Filed under A Lovely Year of Finishes, ALYOF, Lap Quilt

Tagged as A Lovely Year of Finishes, ALYOF, Little Black Dress

April 29, 2015 · 19:15

ALYoF April and FAL

With only hours to spare I just put the last hand stitches into my binding to officially finish my April goal and my first FAL for the 2nd quarter. Yippee!!! It is a lap quilt that I made as a surprise for someone special.

Linking up to the finish party at Sew Bittersweet Designs

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Filed under A Lovely Year of Finishes, ALYOF, FAL, Finish-A-Long, Lap Quilt, Quilting

Tagged as A Lovely Year of Finishes, ALYOF, FAL, Finish-a-long

April 29, 2015 · 07:48

5 Months Old

Our little girl is 5 months old today. On the way home from a play date at the off-leash park we stopped at the Vet for a weigh in. I was shocked to discover that she was 54 lbs (see Grandma….no worries). I took a bunch of pictures of her and the rest of the kids so that you can see how much she has grown and how quickly she is catching up to Wally.

Spirit, Wally and Tilly

Wrestling with my big brother

Spirit loves to cuddle. Unfortunately she is so big and klutzy and she doesn’t recognize her own strength. She usually ends up hurting me when she is trying to give me lovin’.

Look out….here I come

Mmmm ears!!

Giving Mom a big wet willy

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Filed under Baby Pictures, Birthday Pictures, Blogpaws Wordless Wednesday

Tagged as Berner, Bernese Mountain Dog, Blogpaws, Spirit, Tilly, Wally, Wordless Wednesday

April 28, 2015 · 19:09

WIP

Lately I haven’t been quilting as much and I’ve been really bad at posting updates. A new puppy and life is taking up much of my time. I hope that things will begin to settle down a bit and give me more relaxing/down time for quilting.

I have completed the March and April blocks for the 2015 QuiltEssential Block-of-the-Month program.

I’ve also made a little progress on my “Little Black Dress” lap quilt. I just have to figure out how I want to finish it.

On Sunday, QuiltEssential Co had their annual Block-of-the-Month quilt show. I had a real shock when I walked in the door and saw my quilt hanging there with a 1st Place ribbon on it. I was so surprised that I forgot to take a picture of it. I have this old picture. You can read more about this quilt here.

It is very densely quilted but I didn’t take many close up pictures of it.

Linking up to:

Monday Makers @ayliN-Nilya

Show and Tell Tuesday @I have to say

Sew Cute Tuesday @Blossom Heart Quilts

Too Cute Tuesday @Funky Polkadot Giraffe

Linky Tuesday @FreeMotion by the River

Handmade Tuesday @Ladybug Blessings

WIP Wednesday @The Needle and Thread Network

WIP Wednesday @Freshly Pieced

Needle and Thread Thursday @My Quilt Infatuation

Filed under WIP

Tagged as Block of the Month, BOM, WIP, work in progress

April 21, 2015 · 18:30

Our first water adventure

Now that the ice jams are gone, I felt it was safe for Spirit to be introduced to the river at the dog park. The first time she followed a bunch of dogs in and came bounding out. The second time she ran in and hit a deep spot and her head went under the water (at 2:14). She was a bit surprised but recovered quickly. It took an extra 30 minutes of running around to get all the dirt, mud and excess water off her coat before I would let her back into the car.

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Tagged as Berner, Bernese Mountain Dog, Blogpaws, Spirit, Wordless Wednesday

April 11, 2015 · 19:20

Q2 FAL List

It is time to post my wish list for the 2nd quarter of the 2015 finish-a-long hosted by Adrianne at On the Windy Side. I can’t believe this but I don’t have any UFO’s and just two works in progress. Shocking!!! Getting my longarm allowed me to completely wipe out my pile of quilt tops.

My first WIP is a lap quilt that I am making out of a layer cake called “Tapestry” (this WIP is also on my April ALYoF goal list). I don’t normally buy pre-cuts but I went to quilt show and they were so reasonably priced that I couldn’t resist.

My second WIP is also a lap quilt that I am using charm squares from a fabric line called “Little Black Dress 2” and a few additions from my stash.

Filed under FAL, Finish-A-Long

Tagged as FAL, Finish-a-long

April 11, 2015 · 18:59

Spirit Goes Home Again

This afternoon I took Spirit back to the breeder (Tailspin Bernese Mountain Dogs) so that Coreen (Grandma) could see her. I could see that Spirit definitely remembered her and was curious to be back at her birth home.

She was very excited to see her Mom Sophie again….unfortunately the feeling wasn’t mutual. All was not lost because Jake, a beautiful 6 year old Berner, was quite nice and gentle with her. She looks dwarfed by his huge head and 110 pound body.

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Tagged as Berner, Bernese Mountain Dog, Tailspin

April 8, 2015 · 08:58

Happy Birthday Wally

My handsome, golden boy is 14 years young today. There is nothing he loves more than Timmy Bits so he got 14 Tim bit ends. Here is a cute video of him inhaling them to celebrate the big day. Spirit offered to help eat them but no deal!

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Tagged as Golden Retriever, Wally

April 5, 2015 · 16:49

April ALYoF Goal

It’s time to set my April goal for A Lovely Year of Finishes. I started this lap quilt back in February using a Moda layer cake called Tapestry. I’ve got a quite a few of the blocks pieced so I have to finish the rest of the piecing, add in the sashings, etc. My goal is to have this one completely finished by the end of April.

Made by You Monday @Skip to my Lou

Filed under A Lovely Year of Finishes, ALYOF, Lap Quilt, Quilting

Tagged as A Lovely Year of Finishes, ALYOF

March 29, 2015 · 17:48

FAL #3 and March ALYoF

Well it took two FALS (first quarter FAL list) and one ALYoF (March) but Leftovers IV is finally finished. I did a lot of ruler work on it and quite a bit of dense quilting. I was able to cross two items off my bucket list with this one…..a string quilt and a HST quilt.

To see more pictures and read about the making of this quilt click here

Linking up to:

Monday Makers @ayliN-Nilya

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Sew Cute Tuesday @Blossom Heart Quilts

Too Cute Tuesday @Funky Polkadot Giraffe

Handmade Tuesdays @Ladybug Blessings

Linky Tuesday @Freemotion by the River

WIP Wednesday @The Needle and Thread Network

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Filed under A Lovely Year of Finishes, ALYOF, FAL, Finish-A-Long, Quilting

Tagged as A Lovely Year of Finishes, ALYOF, FAL, Finish-a-long, HST, String Quilt

March 29, 2015 · 16:14

4 Months Old

Our “little” girl is officially four months old today. She had her final set of shots on Friday and she was 40.5 lbs. Although she has grown quite a bit taller, her weight hasn’t changed in 2 weeks.

We have been puppy sitting a friend’s dog for the last week. They have been getting along famously. They wrestle all day at home and the two of them have spent many hours running at the off-leash park. I think I am going to miss her as much or even more than Spirit will. She not only kept our little girl busy and out of trouble but all that activity made for a very tired and sleepy puppy when they weren’t running around.

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Filed under Baby Pictures, Birthday Pictures, Blogpaws Wordless Wednesday

Tagged as Berner, Bernese Mountain Dog, Blogpaws, Wordless Wednesday

March 13, 2015 · 13:51

Can you caption these photos?

When I saw these pictures I couldn’t stop laughing. It looks like Spirit was trying to give Hope a clear message. In the first picture she is sound asleep with her nose parked in Hope’s behind and in the second one her eyes are wide open and see appears to be pushing her paw against the area that is offending her.

Sleeping blissfully unaware of what is about to happen

OMG….Hope farted in my face

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March 5, 2015 · 18:03

Puppy Heaven

Last weekend we went to Patty’s acreage to have some fun and give Spirit a chance to meet some new dogs and people and give her the first real opportunity for an off leash run. She is a bit of a timid little girl so I wasn’t quite sure how she was going to react. I was prepared just in case she was overwhelmed and decided to take off in the opposite direction. I have to give credit to the power of a group of wonderful dogs. She was totally relaxed and immediately joined in with the group. She made appropriate play signals and I never saw any fear or anxiousness in her body language. It was truly a beautiful thing. After our walk we all headed inside to enjoy a meal together. It is wonderful to be able to have a house full of dogs and never having to worry about any dog aggression issues.

The gang….6 two legged and 6 four legged adventurers (David the missing camera man)

A tired and content puppy

Taking a wee nibble of Boomer’s jowly cheek

Hope and Wally relaxing after a beautiful afternoon outdoors

Did I mention that Spirit was exhausted….

Tilly looking rested and relaxed because everyone took turns carrying the princess….she sure knows how to work a crowd.

Spirit kept trying to lick Wally’s tongue

Beautiful, shiny black Hope

Filed under BlogPaws, Spirit, Tilly, Wally

March 4, 2015 · 12:57

March Goal for ALYoF

It is time to set my finish goal for March. I have the perfect UFO. Leftover’s IV has been on my FAL list two or three times already but has continued to be neglected. I took it off my frame twice to work on other quilts. I just have to finish the free motion quilting and bind it.

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Filed under A Lovely Year of Finishes, ALYOF, Quilting

Tagged as A Lovely Year of Finishes, ALYOF, Quilting

March 1, 2015 · 07:49

CPR Spirit Style

Yesterday we renewed our First Aid certification. We are very lucky that one of our SAR group members is a certified instructor. Dawn very graciously agreed to come to our house to teach the course so that we wouldn’t have to leave Spirit at home all day. Although it was a little bit of a challenge to do the course with 3 dogs helping, I think it may have added a little bit of spice to the class. Spirit was very interested in the AED, especially when it was talking.

Time for a break

Flirting with the instructor hoping to get Mom and Dad a good grade

Time out for a little butt scratching

Learning chest compressions

I am enjoying the course so much that I am smiling!

Practicing mouth to mouth

Our not so little girl is 3 months old today. Yikes time is flying by too fast!!!

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Tagged as Berner, Bernese Mountain Dog, Blogpaws

February 28, 2015 · 19:07

Feb ALYoF and FAL#2

I can’t believe it but I actually still made my February goal (original post here) and have my second FAL (original post here) for this quarter. Having a new puppy has really limited my quilting time but when the little, furry devil-child is sleeping I am able to steal a few moments of creative time. I did a lot of ruler work on this quilt to enhance the shapes in the design. If you want to read more about my Quilts of Valour charity quilt and see more pictures click here.

Filed under A Lovely Year of Finishes, ALYOF, Charity Quilt, FAL, Finish-A-Long, Quilting, Quilts of Valour

Tagged as A Lovely Year of Finishes, ALYOF, FAL, Finish-a-long, QofV, Quilts of Valour

February 22, 2015 · 14:36

Hypothermic Half Marathon

Little Spirit came to cheer me on at the start of this morning’s race. It was a tough one with very icy conditions and a cold breeze. I did manage to finish tied for fourth and 2nd woman overall but I had a very slow second half of the race. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to stay for the after race ceremony so I didn’t get my medals.

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Filed under Races, Spirit

February 21, 2015 · 14:59

12 Weeks Old

I am shocked at just how fast Spirit is growing. She looks like a dog…not a puppy. Her big furry coat makes her look huge but if you touch her there is just a little skinny body under all that fur.

This is a cute video showing Spirit’s first time going down the stairs and how much better she was the next day. Both Wally and Tilly got in on the action.

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Filed under Baby Pictures, Birthday Pictures, Blogpaws Wordless Wednesday, Training Video

Tagged as Berner, Bernese Mountain Dog

February 15, 2015 · 12:51

Happy Valentine’s Day

Filed under Spirit, Wally

Tagged as Berner, Bernese Mountain Dog, Golden Retriever, Spirit, Wally

February 15, 2015 · 12:47

11 Weeks Old

Happy Valentine’s Day

What a difference a week makes. Little Spirit is gaining a little more confidence each day. We’ve been for several short car rides and each time she shows less signs of stress. We’ve gone from being afraid of going up and down 3 small steps on our deck to mastering all the steps up (and down) to the second floor of our house. She’s gone from 22.5 to 26 lbs…and Friday night was the first night that she slept through the night without needing a potty break. Yippeeeee!!. Getting up at 2am, dead lifting 26 lbs and schlepping her down the stairs was getting to be really hard on the back. And I’ve saved the best news for last….we’ve made it two days in a row without any potty accidents in the house.

Here’s a fun video of Spirit running in slow motion. I giggle every time I watch those ears flap up and down.

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Tagged as Berner, Bernese Mountain Dog, Blogpaws

February 11, 2015 · 15:56

Wordless Wednesday

10 weeks old

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February 11, 2015 · 15:36

WIP, BOM and a new puppy

It doesn’t matter how many dogs we have had in our lives, I always forget how much work a new puppy is. I’m not sure I will be making my Feb ALYoF goal. By the time I get Spirit settled in my sewing room, it is time to take her out for a potty break. Don and I tag team who is watching her.

I did manage to finish the borders for my Quilts of Valour top. I hope to get them sewn on this week and maybe get the backing finished so that next week I can start on the FMQ before I head back to work on the 23rd.

Thank goodness the Feb BOM is a very quick and easy one so I managed to get it completed. That’s two months in a row….only 10 more to go.
A

Here’s a couple of pictures of my sewing room helpers. I love that Wally is holding a pink stuffy between his paws and Spirit is snuggled up next to him. The second pictures shows why I can’t get much sewing done. Spirit is all wrapped up around the legs of my chair so I can’t move it to get up and shift between my sewing machine and iron. I love that cute, fat belly (you can check out Spirit’s blog here).

Linking up to:

Monday Makers @ayliN-Nilya

Made by you Monday @Skip to my Lou

Show and Tell Tuesday @I Have to Say

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WIP Wednesday @Freshly Pieced

Filed under A Lovely Year of Finishes, ALYOF, Block of the Month, Quilts of Valour, Spirit, Wally, WIP

Tagged as A Lovely Year of Finishes, ALYOF, Block of the Month, BOM, QofV, Quilts of Valour, WIP, work in progress

February 11, 2015 · 15:15

A new playmate

Hope, a beautiful English Lab and a former foster puppy, came over to meet Spirit. She really needs another dog to play with. She is too rough with Tilly. She treats her like she is her own personal squeaky toy and believe me Tilly squeaks when Spirit jumps on top of her. Wally is almost 14 so he doesn’t really play all that much any more.

At first Spirit was afraid of Hope as she did laps around the back yard and did fly-by’s really close. Over time she relaxed a bit and they had a little fun together.

I also got some cute video of the girls in our family room and even Wally played a little.

Filed under Playing

Tagged as Berner, Bernese Mountain Dog, Spirit

February 7, 2015 · 21:14

Ten Weeks Old

This is Spirit’s third day with us and she is settling in just wonderfully. I’ve always dreaded getting a puppy in the winter because potty training can be a nightmare when they don’t want to go out in the cold. Well this doesn’t seem to be an issue for Spirit. She loves the snow and never seems to be cold. I’m freezing but she is sprawled out on her belly luxuriating in all the fluffy white stuff.

I’ve been playing around with the GoPro and the head mount. I don’t seem to be able to get the angle adjusted properly so that I can keep her in frame most of the time. Frustrated, I gave up and used my old Canon Powershot and got this short video of her playing in the snow.

Filed under Baby Pictures, Birthday Pictures, Playing

Tagged as Berner, Bernese Mountain Dog, Spirit

February 6, 2015 · 17:57

Meet the Parents

This beautiful girl is Spirit’s Mom Sophie, more formally known as Can Grand Champion Werlwind’s Playing with Fire. Spirit’s registered name is Tailspin’s Winter’s Spirit. Here are a couple more pictures of Sophie at different shows.

This handsome fellow is the sire Bacchus or Am GCH Alpenspirit Sweet Celebration. I didn’t realize until I was typing this blog post that Spirit’s name is also part of the Kennel name of her Dad….that’s neat and totally by accident. While it is lovely that both of her parents are grand champions, the most important things for me was to find a breeder who really cared about their dogs and participated in Berner Garde. Berners have so many health issues and such a short life span. After watching our poor Tango suffer through DM, it was important that our breeder tested her dogs to see if they were carriers of any of the major diseases Berners are prone to. Healthy body and good disposition are the most important to me.
.

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Tagged as Berner, Bernese Mountain Dog, Tailspin

February 5, 2015 · 14:40

Day 1and training begins

We had a pretty good night considering how stressful the drive was for her. We just hung out for a couple of hours letting her explore us and the dogs. We did one quick ‘charge the clicker session’ and then headed to bed. She whimpered for a couple of minutes and then fell asleep. All night I kept looking over the side of the bed wondering if she was awake and needed to go out. I woke her up at 4 am and and took her outside. She peed and pooped and then we just hung out on the kitchen floor for a couple of hours. Just before heading back to bed I did another quick ‘charge the clicker session’. I knew she already understood the game. As soon as I clicked she was looking for the treat. Again she settled in just a few minutes and I got to stay in bed until 0730. That’s unheard-of for me.

I decided to start our first training session with the Staples easy button. I put it down and she went to sniff it. Click – treat….and she had the game. I got Don to video our second session. You can tell from the first moment of the video that she knew what she needed to do to get the click. Once I raised my criteria and didn’t click for a nose touch you can see her mind working to try and process what was going on. She looked at me and then at Don…thought about for a few seconds and then came back to the button. That is just what I Iove to see. She didn’t give up and walk away from the game.

After her lunch, I brought out the easy button again. She accidentally hit it with her paw and the recording went off. I made a big, happy fuss and she was so pleased with herself. The next time I put it down she immediately hit it with her paw. I just wish Don had been video taping.

Here is one more quick video of her playing. I can’t help but laugh as I watch her pounce on the ball.