Ho Ho Ho

*

Dash,

Daffycat

and

Miss Molly

wish you all a

Merry Christmas!

[]

Thank you for visiting my blog today!

xox

The Totally Useless Stitch A Long 2014

The 2014 TUSAL is launched! 

Save those ORTs!

What is an ORT? ORT or ort ~ Capitalized, it stands for Old Ratty Threads. These are the cast-off thread ends a needleworker cuts away. These ends are often saved in clear jars as a decorative object. The word, "ort" does appear in the dictionary, meaning: a bit of something left over; usually concerning food. 

Why would you save ORTs and why on earth post a picture on your blog? Not everyone saves them. Some stitchers just toss them in the trash or let them decorate the sofa and floor. Sometimes this inadvertent decorating draws ire from those living with us. Saving these clippings in one place creates a random tangle of lovely colored thread. Posting a photo of this pile is "progress" of a sort and thus, the Totally Useless Stitch A Long was born. 

If you would like to join the Stitch-A-Long:

1. Comment on this post.

2. Get a glass jar or other container and save your thread clippings. Some stitchers include fabric trimmings, thread bands or any other stitching cast-offs they gather. You may continue filling this jar throughout the year OR you may empty the jar and start over each month ~ no firm rules here!

3. On (or about) each New Moon take a picture of the ORTs in your jar and post it to your blog. This is a blog game so YES, you MUST have a blog to be included.

4. Yes, you can use your current ORT jar or jars. This is no contest...the stitcher with the most ORTs doesn't win!

5. You should post a picture each New Moon, even if there has been no "progress" to show. We are aiming for "once a month" here...no whippings for being late, early or absent!

6. When you have posted the picture of your ORTs visit my blog and comment on my ORT report for that month's TUSAL. If I have a Totally Useless Giveaway these comments give you an extra entry. Make sure you comment on the right post, a few comments seem to sneak onto other posts!

The New Moon dates for 2014 are:

January 1
January 30
March 1
March 30
April 29
May 28
June 27
July 26
August 25
September 24
October 23
November 22
December 22

In years past, I have made up a "guest list" by adding a blog link list for everyone that joined ~however~ this year I probably will not do that. It takes hours and hours and hours of visiting blogs, editing the post, checking links, editing the post, correcting mistakes, editing the post. I'd much rather be stitching or visiting your blog on a recreational basis. Therefore, consider your comment to be your entry. Make sure either your profile is set to "open" so people can visit your blog or leave a link to your blog in your comment.

A request: I notice there are a lot of bloggers completely in the dark about your Totally Useless posts. They see lots of people posting pictures of ORT jars but they have NO IDEA why. They might want to join in the fun too! Please put a LINK to THIS sign-up page when you make your TUSAL posts. A link in your sidebar is great but ONLY if your readers SEE it and realize what it is.  

If you want to add the TUSAL link gadget to your sidebar (in Blogger): right click on it and save the photo to your computer, go to your blog's layout and choose "add a photo" and put the address to this 2014 TUSAL post in the link option. Upload the photo and save.

A shout-out on your blog to let other stitchers know about the Totally Useless Stitch-A-Long would be greatly appreciated! Plus, please change the links in your sidebar to this new post!

Thank you for visiting my blog today!

xox

December ORT Report

Yesterday, I was catching up on my blog reader when I saw a post titled something like "Last TUSAL of the year" or some-such. What? I thought. It's not time for that! Whoops, yes it sure was and I'm days & days late! I should be canned as your TUSAL leader. I tell you what!

Sorry about that! It was a crazy, crazy week at work. A severe winter storm was expected and everyone was getting prepared. For those that don't know, I manage a gas station connected to a large grocery store. One hint of the "S" word and we have an instant Black Friday type rush. It makes your work hours go by fast but it does leave you too tired to remember it is the New Moon!

I'm still plodding along on Trilogy's Secret Pumpkin Patch. Yes, since mid September. How's that for a slow stitch? But it does make pretty ORTs for my jar:

This is our last ORT report of 2013. It has been fun. I want to thank my fellow TUSALers for their participation this year! I really love seeing your Old Ratty Threads each month. For those that would like to continue next year I will be posting a 2014 sign up soon.

Since my ORT report has a Halloween/Autumn theme, here's a snappy of my Christmas tree all lit up. Keep things in the proper season and all. That and I'm just pleased I actually got the tree up this year. Monster Molly has pretty much ignored it, if you can believe that!

Thank you for visiting my blog today!

xox

Oh Molly!

Miss Molly is a terror with toys. She is an outstanding dog toy demolish-er. I think she has finally outgrown actually eating them but famous last words ~ right? She loves stuffed toys. Petco sells small, inexpensive ones...relatively. They are still $5 for 2 of them. We bought her a couple last week and it wasn't but an hour or two before one had to be taken away. Did I tell you my daughter calls her the "Monster Dog" lol?

Molly especially likes stuffed toys that crinkle. I decided to try sewing some toys. Toys without too many seams. Or ears. Feet. Tails. Stuffing. Anything that can be ripped off. Or out. You know what I mean!

I bought some fleece throw blankets for $3 and some interfacing. Heaven knows I have plenty of salvaged squeakers. Then I saw these fun, brightly colored terry bath cloths. Wouldn't those be easy to toss into the washer when they get all dog-spitty? I bought two, just to try. 

I cut a piece of high-loft batting to fit. Washed the (crunchy sounding) inner plastic bag of a cracker sleeve and cut a piece to fit and sewed it all up with a squeaker inside. 

Presto! A fun, crinkly, squeaky dog toy!

Molly LOVED it! It squeaks! It crinkles! Whee!

Her newest, most favorite-ist toy ever! 

She also demolished it in about 6 minutes flat, pulling out strings of the terry-cloth.

*sigh* 

Back to the drawing board. Maybe the fleece will hold up better? Fabric ideas, anyone?

Thank you for visiting my blog today!

xox

Knick Knack Paddy Whack

I swear, pets are as worrisome as small children.

So...I get home from work today after stopping for some groceries. A serious cold front is coming in tomorrow with a chance of wet weather so I sure won't want to go then. I let Molly out to pee and put the groceries away. Then I have go out to scold her for watching-herding-chasing cars along the fence instead of peeing. So she dashes over to run the fence with the neighbor dogs. She's been 9 hours without a bathroom break. I go over, tap her on top of the head as she runs by and tell her, "Go pee!" She does so we head back into the house.

"Hey! What is this all over your front legs?

Blood? 

Stop, Molly! Hold still!"

I grab a gauze pad and some bandage out of the cabinet and wrap up her front paw. I can tell she is bleeding from near her dew claw but there is so much blood I can't tell how bad it is. Off we go to the vet, which is just a minute down the street from our house. Our vet is so nice! I walked in and after the receptionist took our names to pull up Molly's records she took her right in. No call, no appointment. Not ten minutes later they brought her back out...bandaged up with a supply of pain  medicine and antibiotics. There wasn't a ridiculous "emergency visit" bill either. 

Somehow Molly broke off a claw in the five minutes she was outside alone. Sigh. Some day she will be an old, lazy dog!

Uhhh...I'm a Border Collie. Were you expecting easy? 

Thank you for visiting my blog today!

xox

Tree Reindeer

I cannot believe it's THAT time of year already! How can it be mid-November already? Wasn't it just Valentine's Day? This year has gone by in the blink of an eye.

Many thanks to Mary T. for the inspiration of this design. I hope everyone enjoys our little deer topping the tree with a star this year!

To receive a copy of the design email me at daffy-cat AT hotmail DOT com. Tell me the name of the design you are requesting. This one is "Tree Reindeer." Don't freak out if a couple of days pass before I respond. I work full time and don't always have time to play on the computer. If you don't receive an email from me within a few days, check your spam folder ~ it's probably there.

By the way...I appreciate comments left here for encouragement!

Please respect my copyright and do not upload my designs to any website or share with other people. Yes, they are free but I still retain copyright.

My designs are published as PDF. You must have the free Adobe Reader installed on your computer to view/print my patterns ~ or a similar PDF viewer.

As always, you can click the cat in my sidebar to see my other free cross stitch designs. They are all still available for the asking.

Thank you for visiting my blog today!

xox

When All Else Fails...Show Some Boobies

For lack of a better title. Or photo. Just try Googling "boobies" to find a photo. Or maybe not!

Every October I tell myself I need to get a mammogram done. I'm 45 and I should have had four of them by now but for some reason I keep putting it off. Fail. Busy with this and that. Forget to call for an appointment, only thinking of it when it's late in the evening. Excuses. Excuses!

When Cathey's breast cancer returned I thought about it more often. Busy, busy, forget, forget. More fail. Then Cathey died. I promised myself I would get my mammogram done. I stopped being busy and I stopped forgetting to call and make an appointment. I owed it to Cathey and to myself.

Yesterday I went and showed my boobies to a stranger who mashed them flat and took photos. But she was a nice stranger! It was nothing like everyone said. It wasn't painful or even uncomfortable. That said, I have an extreme pain tolerance but it didn't hurt at all. (I still feel pain but it takes rather a lot to bother me.) Plus, it took all of 20 minutes and that included filling out all the forms.

They called today with my results...and everything looks great. Which is awesome but I've already got a reminder set on my phone to make my appointment for next year.

You! Are you over 40? Have you had your mammogram? Tell us!

Thank you for visiting my blog today!

xox

November ORT Report

Last month was so depressing I have no words to express. Losing Cathey was heartbreaking. I want to thank those of you that participated in my Pumpkins for Cathey event. I am sure all the blog posts gave our dear Pumpkin a bit of cheer.

My ORT jar greatly suffered my lack of stitching mojo. How sad:

Let's see your ORTs! TUSALers leave a comment on this post with the address to your November update. If I decide to host a giveaway at the end of the year you will receive an extra entry! Are you wondering what on Earth a TUSAL is? Click here for info!

Thank you for visiting my blog today!

xox

A Sad Day

I have news I hate to share with you. Cathey has passed away today. Katie posted to her blog today to let us know. 

Read here.

I am heartbroken for her family.

Thank you for visiting my blog today.

xox

October ORT Report

Happy New Moon! It's time to share those ORTs you've been saving for the Totally Useless Stitch A Long! I just LOVE all the creative ways people come up with to share, don't you? Mine are same-old-boring but shown here with a new start:

This is Secret Pumpkin Patch by the Trilogy. With all the pumpkins floating around out there, I was in the mood for stitching a few! I'm using the suggested DMC with a couple of changes so the treads show up on my fabric.

Speaking of pumpkins...thank you all so much for the great turn-out to my celebration of Pumpkin Day event. I am working on getting the link list together so there is an easier way to visit the participants. 

This would be a really boring TUSAL post without mentioning Molly-dog, wouldn't it? She's so grown-up-looking. Still an ornery, mischievous and sometimes downright stupid puppy! Like getting too excited playing I'm-a-vicious-wolf while I was brushing her and getting smacked smart for accidentally biting me. Molly will be a year old in only a few weeks.

This is a peanut butter flavored chew bone. It's been carefully hidden between the laundry hamper and the night table. Shhhh, pretend you don't see the bone! If you see the bone, Molly will have to find a new hiding place! These have become a fast favorite toy. Molly even knows this toys name, it's so special. I can ask, "Where is your peanut butter bone?" and Molly will dash off to find one!

Now let's see your ORTs! TUSALers leave a comment on this post with the address to your October update. If I decide to host a giveaway at the end of the year you will receive an extra entry! Are you wondering what the heck a TUSAL is? Click here for info!

Thank you for visiting my blog today!

xox

Pumpkins for Cathey

Happy Pumpkin Day!

Decoupage Pumpkins

Pumpkin Day? What is that you ask? It's Cathey's, AKA Pumpkin Patch & Co's blogoversary. 

Mini Crochet Pumpkins

Happy blogoversary, Cathey! Surprise!

Paper Pumpkins

Why am I celebrating Cathey's blogoversary in such a public way? And why on Earth are all these "Pumpkins for Cathey" posts appearing all over needlework blogland? It's my fault! You see, Cathey has cancer and sometimes she gets really upset because she has so much to live for and this cancer just keeps coming up with something else and something else again.

Fall Fabric Pumpkins

I wanted Cathey to know we are rooting for her. I wanted her to know we love her and how much we care. So I sat down one day and emailed everyone I knew and even people I didn't know, "Let's surprise Cathey on her blogoversary!"

Popcorn Ball Pumpkins

And here we are.

Duct Tape Pumpkins

Cathey, this is for you! I had so many of our fellow bloggers respond to my, "Let's surprise Cathey!" plea with an, "OMG, yes, let's do it!" I was totally flabbergasted how many responded. Most of the people commenting here will be leaving a link to their own "Pumpkins for Cathey" post.

Cathey, I hope you know how very much you are cherished.

xoxoxox

If you posted a "Pumpkins for Cathey" picture on your blog please leave a link to that post in the comments.

If you never received the email about this event and would like to show your support for Cathey in her fight against cancer, you can post a pumpkin photo on your blog and title the post "Pumpkins for Cathey." Linking to this post and to Cathey's blog would be nice as well. Be sure to come back here and leave a comment so Cathey can find your post when she feels up to it.

The captions under each photo here are links to tutorials to make each pumpkin shown. Have fun!

The following blogs have posted Pumpkins for Cathey:

1. Stitchyangel's Treasures

2. Harmien - no blog, she emailed

3. California Stitcher

4. Annette's Pieces

5. Fée le point

6. At Brigette's Place

7. Creative Thread

8. Fig'n Craft

9. Stitching under the Southern Cross

10. Veronica's Stitching Vault

11. Mii Stitch

12. Lesley's Stitching Diary

13. The Stitching Lion

14. WendyCarol's stuff

15. Lainey's Stitching Hoose

16. The Stitchin' Chicken

17. Fireflies & Cats in the Garden

18. Caixinha de Pirlimpimpim

19. Stitchers Anon

20. Between Crosses with Nina

21. Tot Hill Farm Stitches

22. Needles Pins and Dragonflies

23. Stitching in Lobster Land

24. What's Next?

25. Tatkis - mouse house

26. Annie Bebop's Coloring Book

27. Lisa V's Lounge

28. Butterfly Wings

29. Gr8dame's Place

30. Stitching Dreams

31. The Twisted Stitcher

32. Missyllaneous

33. My world according to me!

34. Giraffe Crossing

35. Julie's Blog

36. Just Stitching

37. cucki stitching cove

38. Samplings From A Blue Ribbon Girl

39. Blissfully Stitching
40. Seasons of My Mind
41. Porcupine Needle
42. BusyHandsCraft
43. A Stitcher's Story
44. Tangled Threads
45. Aimetu's Stitching
46. Stitching Devotee
47. My Stitching Basket
48. Lesleyanne's Life of Stitches
49. Sharon's Cross Stitch Obsession
50. Bonnie's World
51. Riverside Stitching
52. Kearnel's Korner
53. Bramblewood Stitches
54. Petite Armoire
55. Scattered Threads
56. Country Stitcher
57. Dragon Stitches and Stuff
58. Threadwork Primitives
59. Dixie Samplar
60. Taking One Stitch At A Time
61. Whilst Iris Naps
62. Stitch by Stitch
63. Kathy's Sit and Stitch
65. The Inspired Stitcher
66. A Stitch in Time with Jules
67. Being Grammy
68. Something for Me
69. Sew be it!
70. Bits of My Own
71. Momuboocrea Island
72. XXXStitching
73. Willow Tree Stitcher
74. Raised by Poodles
75. Seasonal Stitches
76. Samplers and Santas
77. Stitching in Crosses
78. All XX's
79. Hanging On By A Thread
80. The Craft Room
81. Words and Blooms
82. Stitching Lotus
83. Lizy Lovely Stitches
84. Stitchin with my Furbabies 
85. Linhas Matizadas
86. Moonraker Lampwerks
87. My So-Called Crazy Life
88. Chronicles of a cross stitching hockey fanatic
89. Doll's Musings
90. Larkspur Lane
91. Carolyn's Stitching Chatter
92. Adventure into Lego
93. More than just Cross Stitchin'
94. Chiloe's Corner
95. Shebafudge
96. Sweet Pea Stitches
97. A Cozy Little Place for Stitching
98. Just Another Stitching Blog
99. Crazy Purple Mom
100. The Stitchin' Chicken
101. Hooked on Stitches
102. Julie's Stitchyknitter Journal
103. Tales Of A Stitching Mouse
104. My Frozen Sunshine
105. Casas e Bordados
106. The Snowflower Diaries
107. Stitchy Mc Floss
108. Julianne's Stitching Corner
109. maude and mozart
110. Clydesdale Stitching
111. Stitch n Chat
112. Caring Stitcher
113. Cross Stitch and Other Musings
114. Random Thoughts from Abroad
115. Nutmegger's Stitching Works
116. Karen's Handiwork
117. Keebles World
118. Stitch Bitch
119. Joanie's World
120. An Arizona Stitcher
121. Notes from under the Mountain
122. Garden Grumbles and Cross Stitch Fumbles
123. Needles and Words
124. A Joyful Stitcher
125. Eye of the Needle
126. this and that
127. Debbie's Cross Stitch
128. Stitching Daze
129. Robin Pichelmyer
130. 1897 School House
131. Crafting with the Stitch Witch
132. I Want To Do One More Stitch
133. And This Little Pig
134. Needle In Hand
135. Sweet Sentiments and Stitches
136. Family Business
137. Gert, Tom & Rusty too...
138. Today I found
139. A Little Bit of Stitching 
140. Crossstitch Cottage
141. Stitchabilities
142. The Teakettle Corner
143. My Stitchin-n-Stuff
144. Colorado Stitcher

145. the grey tail
146. Michelle's StitchCraft Place 

Thank you for visiting my blog today!

xox

To Ruth Anne

Hello Ruth Anne!

I see your many, many messages and emails asking for "permission" to stitch my freebies.

On August 30, I emailed you copies of my freebies. I sent them in reply to the email you sent to me, not from your "Blogger" email. 

Please check your spam folder.

This goes for anyone else that ever asked for freebies too. I don't NOT reply or ever NOT send them.

Spam folders are fabulous...unless the email isn't spam!

Thank you for visiting my blog today!

xox

September ORT Report

Golly gee whillikers! I nearly forgot it was the new moon! Busy at home, busy at work...just too much going on sometimes. Whew - I made it, I'm not early as I'd like to be but I'm not late!

So much went on the last month, I didn't really have much stitching time. Still haven't finished this Lizzie*Kate but I did put a few ORTs in my jar:

Then I found another project that screamed "stitch me now!" and I listened so that one has been kitted and started. I'm such a loose floozy when it comes to stitching. I promise to show you that one soon.

An example of how crazy it's been here. I had hives last month. Went to the doctor only after my hands swelled to giant proportions. I could not make a fist and had no knuckles. Then my throat was swelling up so I went to the walk-in clinic. 2 injections and a packet of steroid pills set me right to rain.

It happened again this week. Oh no! At the first symptoms of intense itching and wee bumps I went back to the clinic. It's cause is a medicine I've been taking for my Rosacea, I'm allergic and won't be taking it again. It was worse this time than I thought - the swelling in my throat was constricting my airways so my oxygen saturation level was low. The gave me a pill, those 2 injections and another dose packet of steroids. I had to wait in the office while it began to work to make sure I could breath. This treatment stops the allergic reaction pretty fast  and I'm back to normal, whatever that is.

More Crazy, got up at 3:30 this morning, had coffee, got ready & left the house, worked until 1:30. Went and got gas. Got home, took Molly out to pee, changed clothes, started some laundry, straightened up the house a bit, Molly out to pee again and left for the city to pick up my daughter, Jessie, to stay with us a few days. We drove back, checked on our car that is in the shop (still not ready) so came back to town. Liquor store, needed wine. Grocery store, needed food. Because apparently you can do some really crazy things drinking wine if you don't eat. I don't really remember, it's all just a blur.

We finally step foot in the house with arms full of chickens, wines and vegetables and peanut butter poptarts to spot this on the living-room floor. Look it snowed! Molly bit a hole in her soccer ball and must have had a BLAST pulling every last bit of stuffing out. That sucker was e m p t y. I think she was sad being alone all day, that doesn't happen too often! Silly Molly, what a giggle she is. 

Now let's see your ORTs! TUSALers leave a comment on this post with the address to your September update. If I decide to host a giveaway at the end of the year you will receive an extra entry! Are you wondering what the heck a TUSAL is? Click here for info!

Thank you for visiting my blog today!

xox

Some Blogging Instructions

Last Saturday I posted about cleaning up my blog lists ~ deleting abandoned blogs or those blogs that no longer point to anything but a notice from Blogger that the blog has been removed. Some of you had questions about how to do this. It's really very easy!

Disclaimer...this is said because you may have trouble with these instructions: If you are using Windows Internet Explorer you probably have A LOT of problems on Blogger. I know I did! I had trouble commenting on some blogs, I had trouble with screwy spaces being inserted in my posts, I had trouble period. I thought it was Blogger. I thought Blogger was crap.

Not True.

Internet Explorer is crap.

Blogger and Internet Explorer do not like each other.

If you are one of those rare people that have ZERO PROBLEMS using Internet Explorer with Blogger my hat is off to you. I wish you all the best! This is NOT THE CASE for most people that I can tell.

If you DO have problems, the fix is simple ~ download a different browser. I changed to Chrome a while back and magically, ALL my Blogger problems went away. ALL the things I griped about, "Why don't they fix this?" were FIXED!

It is heavenly. I love Blogger. I love Chrome. If I never open Internet Explorer again it will be too soon.

Back to my original topic...If you are signed into Blogger and you open your blog, meaning visit your own blog you should see this little "tools" symbol (pointed to by my very crudely drawn red arrow) on the bottom right corners of each gadget on your blog:

If you do not see this button, you might not be correctly signed in. Or you might be using Internet Explorer ~ told you so. Once you click that button it brings up a box to edit that gadget. On my blog I use a "link list" (2, actually) to link to my blogs. Some of you use the actual "blog list" gadget that has the blogs moved to the top in order of recent posts. I used to use that one too but I guess I had too many blogs or something because it never worked correctly, hummm, I was using Internet Explorer at that time. In any case, clicking that tools symbol will let you edit your gadget. When it has opened, make your edits...then scroll down to the bottom of the pop-up window and click save. If you forget to save ~ it will stay the same and all your work will be for nothing!

Some of you are using your Dashboard as a reader. The photo below is an example of the Dashboard, what you see when you've signed in to Blogger. The blogs you have "followed" appear in a reading list. Some blogs you might wish you never followed. Or there are so many it takes FOREVER to scroll through them. How do you get rid of them without going TO THAT BLOG, and clicking the "unfollow" button ~ which you can't do if the blog has been deleted, can you?

Yup, it's that tiny "gear" symbol. Like anyone would know that, right? Click that button and WAIT.

And. Wait.

Wait forever.

Because it takes forever to bring up this list:

Then you can click the settings button for the blog you want to remove:

Then you can click the button "stop following this site." But don't click "stop following" for California Stitcher ~ Annette has a really awesome blog...if you aren't already following, I'd recommend her.

Warning ~ "managing" the Blogs You Follow takes FOREVER. It really does. Click the buttons and be prepared to WAIT and WAIT and WAIT. 

Now then, does that help? If you are asking for help removing blogs in a specific reader, like Feedly just email me. For editing your Bloglovin reader, I have no clue since I don't use it...perhaps another blogger will volunteer to help out?

Thank you for visiting my blog today!

xox

A Hidden Giveaway

If you have been reading my blog very long you will know I am quite sneaky. Sometimes when you comment on my blog, you are actually entering yourself into a secret "hidden" giveaway. Here is another one! Back in June, I noticed I was getting very close to a major blogging milestone...my 20000 comment!

I waited very impatiently for this to be reached because I wanted to send that special blogger a little treat. Finally on July 10, 2013 someone left the 20000th comment! I was so excited I snapped these pictures of the screen on my phone.

Linda of Stitchin with my Furbabies left that 20000th comment on my July TUSAL post. Congratulations, Linda! Here is your prize:

I will get this out in the mail tomorrow!

Thank you all, who read my blog. Thank you for commenting. Don't hold back...on this blog you never know if one of my posts is a hidden giveaway!

Thank you for visiting my blog today!

xox

Cleaning House

I think it was Parsley that recently mentioned something about going through your blog list and deleting blogs that are inactive or that have been removed. Oh my, it's been so long since I've done that ~ I mean the ones you see here on my blog. Maybe since I first set up those lists? It took me an entire week but I think I have them cleaned up! I removed the links that no longer worked and those that went to blogs that haven't been updated in months. Isn't it annoying to click a link and be directed to a blog that was last updated two years ago?

Another thing I did was update my reader. About a year and a half ago I was doing something on Google Reader and somehow managed to delete most of the blogs I was reading. Being in a severe blogging funk, I didn't do too much about it, relying on what was left, who appeared on my following page and on those that commented on my sparse blog posts for any needed blogging fixes. Then Google Reader went away and I had to move so I chose Feedly. However, I was still missing most of my blogs! This past week, as I went through my blog list, I added them all back into my reader. Happy days are here again!

A little note from Molly:

 Mom & Dad went to the pet store to buy me a big bag of dog food. 

They came home with some toys because I keep eating all the old ones.

I got a big peanut butter chew bone.

A stuffed soccer ball and a flat weasel.

 This is a really good bone!

Mom says the whole house smells like peanut butter.

Did I hear dad just open the back door?

Maybe he's gone back to the pet store!

Thank you for visiting my blog today!

xox

Fetch The Brain

Border Collies are funny dogs. Most collies I know love to play fetch. I remember teaching Sheba to fetch. She took a long time to learn! She would run to get the tennis ball quick enough ~ it was the bringing it back part that took awhile. Once she got it though, she was hooked. She would fetch a tennis ball until your arm fell off. But only a tennis ball. Sometimes, to gauge your interest in playing, she would bring you some other toy but if you threw it she would bring you back a tennis ball! Sneaky huh?

Molly picked up fetch right off. She doesn't care one whit what she fetches either. Any toy is fair game! Here are only a few of the toys she has brought me over the weekend to throw:

From top left,  a sea monster, a giant bone (I can't throw this!), a rubber boot, a tennis ball, a chicken, an orange rope, a sad alligator, a starfish, a hamburger, a ginormous tire (I AM NOT THROWING THAT - GO GET SOMETHING ELSE), a stuffed happy ball and we don't know what that thing at the bottom is so we call it a brain. The sea monster and brain seem to be her favorite. Mine too because they have sticky-outy things I can pinch on to pick up and I don't get too very slobbery.

Hi Mom! I brought you an elephant! Wanna play fetch?

What are you doing with your phone? I said I brought you an elephant!

Aren't you going to throw it? I could go get the brain...

What are your pet's favorite things to do?

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xox