Bliss

I have time to myself...well I did till Tracy convinced me to join in a card swap!!  Decided I would try and combine them with some challenges. So , first is my High hopes entry, lots of dots. This is a favourite image, the carrot express. It is coloured with copics and twinkling H2O's. the paper is a mixture including SU and whatever spotty stuff I could find.

  Riley is a man! LOL!  He has a girlfriend here to make puppies with and he's figuring out what he's sposed to do. Don't think he'll be able to go back to Camilla, his gorilla, when Gemma leaves!!LOL. Gav was a bit worried yesterday that Riley might be gay, cos they played together, but that was it!

Onto the last Twilight book now....what will I read when I've finished that?!  Nothing will compare!!LOL!

Quick card

I've found a few minutes to sneak away from my dog show tasks , as I've been having paper withdrawal symptoms . This could be a dangerous condition!@!!!  ..and here is my entry for Stampin for the weekend...well past the weekend! The challenge this time is to use a digital image on your card. This cute one is from Dustin Pike, and I like it cos it shows what happens in our house. Soft toys get unstuffed! Colouring is with copics, paper is BG, stray buttons, cardstock and felt flower from SU.

 If it  sounded like I didn't love my wee gingaroo the other day, I was just tired , and a cuddle and a sloppy kiss from Riley was all it took to make it all better. He is a gorgeous wee boy, and still quite immature, so it may take a lot longer to get him competition ready!!! So Trace, you don't need to be on mailbox alert...yet!LOL! Though I was chasing him around this morning when I realised he had stolen my crochet flowers and the cotton I was using,  and had them scattered and tangled, and now I can't find them all (I have 20 to make for our scrapbook class) so will have to get busy again ! Luckily they are quite quick to make! He had a wonderful time, balls of wool and cotton are just made for ratbags like him to destroy!

Frosty start

Didn't want to get out of bed this morning, neither did Riley!LOL! Think its the first time he's seen a good frost and he wasn't impressed. The poor wee gingernut couldn't get back inside fast enough( for those non-kiwis reading this Gingernuts are a classic kiwi crunchy ginger biscuit , great for dunking in tea! ). Dabba however LOVES cold crunchy grass to roll in. I'd love to see her in snow....

 Had a busy day yesterday with a large group of ladies at Kai Iwi. We did a workshop with them and had a lot of fun. Hope they all enjoyed themselves!

This card is my entry for the Sugar Bowl challenge this week.  There is a great sketch to follow and I couldn't resist chopping up some of my new MME papers for it. The flower is glimmermisted then distressed, the ribbon I dyed with distress ink, the image is a GG from sugar nellie, coloured with copics.

A Spoon Full of Sugar

 The challenge on A Spoonful of Sugar is to use lace on your card. This paper is BG Boxer , and the image is another gorjuss girl.  Sentiment and card stock are SU.

 Its a horrible weekend here, (hail at the moment, and Abbie is getting nervous so maybe there is thunder on the way)  but Queens Birthday weekend usually is, winter officially starts for us now.  Poor hairies have been stuck inside  all day again. Riley and Patrick are busy teasing each other.  I've had a clean out of my craft room, cleared some old books of Gav's out...more room for STUFF!!!

 Tracy came around this morning with Bailee.   Abbie , Vinnie and Riley all showed Bailee their repertoire of tricks to get some treats. Abbie shakes a paw, Vinnie dances on his hind legs and takes a bow , and Riley spins like an idiot, left and right , over and over and over and over.....! Trace...your girls need a dog!  

Gorjuss Brat!

Gorjuss Girls!!

Finally got a chance to play today!  Have had a busy week with one thing and another and this is the first time I have had my new gorjuss girls inked up.  This card is for the Sugar Bowl challenge this week.  The papers are BG , cardstock is SU.Haven't had a chance to get to a zillion other challenges I had planned on doing...still we have a long weekend and the weather forecast doesn't sound good.....

  Riley had his first night of training with the main group. The little s..t was so naughty, kept running off to check everything out.  I spose it was a new bunch of people and dogs, but still...!!!! Trace, he's another step closer to being mailed to you, tho you probably don't want him now you have your own cute wee fluff ball!

 The boys went to bed with Dad the other night , while I was still busy with other stuff, and look who snuggled into my spot! Vinnie only snuggles in when I'm there!

Quilt

Well, we've been for a walk, the rain held off for us, tho Riley still needed a towel dry, he likes to dive thru long wet grass!! His wet fringe flopped right over, I've had to trim it so he can see. 

 The quilt is finished tho it needs a final tidy up, threads & fluff etc. Very proud of it, for 11-12 hours work! I'll be avoiding pins for a while, don't know how many times I stabbed myself!  Now, just gotta keep the cat off it....he likes fluff and fabric as well as paper and plastic! Speaking of fluff, Riley might be a problem too, he likes to unstuff toys...he might try to unstuff the quilt! Guess it'll have to go where they can't get at it unsupervised!

Riley's a BIG boy now!

Yay! Riley graduated on Monday night, he now gets to train with the real agility dogs! He was rechristened " The GingaRoo" as he has a wee bit of spring in him!!!! and he's a ginga and he is an Aussie by birth! Perhaps I should give him his long overdue haircut so he'll be able to see where he is going now!

Finished a card last night for the Friday Sketchers challenge using a magnolia image courtesy of Denise. Thanks Denise! Now I have some Mags to play with! .... doesn't feel finished somehow but it's one of those ones you could play with endlessly till you were happy....anyway, time to move on! She is coloured with SU inks and copics and finished with some crystal effects.

( Blogger is playing silly buggers , it took 4 goes to upload this photo!!!)

Cute Card Thursday

This CCT challenge was to include letters or numbers.  I've used a High hopes image that I love ...might have something to do with the dog! I've been playing with bits of copper art foil again, love these metal scraps. The papers are BG marrakech again! Coloured with  copics (including the WRONG colour that Denise ordered for me....) 

Riley has his training graduation tonight, if the thunderstorms forecast don't eventuate. That means he moves up to the big boys group on Thursdays then. Guess I'll have to get motivated and start entering him in shows ...kinda hard when we're moving into winter.  I'm more of a warm weather competitor! 

K9 Dreamin!

What do they dream about? Chasing rabbits, chasing cats? Eating? I think Riley dreams about agility and little girl poodles!  He had a fun time at agility training last night, ran a course off lead!!!!!!! (cept for the weaves, we're working on them)  flirted with Nai  his favourite  girlfriend, made friends with Flash,  shouted a bit at Ted E Bear, and spun on the spot so many times his little pea brain must be totally addled .  Home for tea, then he crashed. Then about 1.30am he started howling in his sleep! What a crack up!  This high-pitched AAAARRROOOOO!  We only hear it when he's in a deep sleep. ( Vinnie never howls, he's not a dog....).  

Blue & Green

 The challenge this week at A Spoonful of Sugar is to use blue & green....the image is one sent from a fellow stamper, don't know what it is! Papers are a mix of BG & K& Co. Coloured the image with copics and SU markers. Had to colour the flowers to match, with markers & inks.

Riley is back in the good books, he ran well today at agility for me, around dogs he'd never met, OFF LEAD!!!  He even played with Ted E Bear (who is a big black bear alright). A quick visit to Marise's for a girl cuddle fix and Riley was dumped by Charlie, think this is why he bullies puppies...trying to get his own back! Anyway, might keep him for a while longer.....

Naughty Riley!

      Well I've had a quiet week,no cards, and no scrapbooking as I've been too sore to do much except go to work and come home. As least I now have an x-ray booked for Monday. Bout TIME!!!!!

Took Riley to agility training on Monday and he was such a good boy, really worked hard for me. However....we have just had cute wee Charlie stay the night with Gav's parents and Riley was verrrrry naughty!  He tried to bully the poor puppy. Needless to say, Riley spent a fair bit of time shut away in time out. Sigh...he can be hard work some times. Charlie thought Abbie & Vinnie were cool tho they weren't all that impressed. Charlie thought Vinnie's couch was cool, the cat toys were cool, but the cat was a bit scary. I got the job of brushing and cutting toenails. Easy peasy Val! Don't know what you were worried about!

BEEP!

What a night! Straight home from work, rushed out to agility with Riley....the little sod cocked his leg on my trackies!!!!  Got home, too tired to make anything crafty , then went to bed. 12am there was a BEEP!  Woke up to find Abbie missing, tracked her down in the bathroom, hiding from the nasty BEEP!   Then there was another BEEP!  Got Gav out of bed to disable the smoke detector in the hallway which I can't reach. Got into bed. BEEP!  Is it the one in the lounge?....about to climb up and disable that and another BEEP from somewhere said it wasn't that one. Meanwhile Gav went to the loo and Abbie tried to squeeze in there with him!!!LOL! No room darling girl!  BEEP! Can't find any more smoke alarms!!! Where is the noise coming from...no not the house alarm, that is WAAAAYYY louder.  Says Gav" Oh, what about the two smoke alarms I haven't put up yet?" Where are they? Not sure....  5 minutes and several BEEP!s later found them on top of the fridge. Batteries out...Yay! Back to sleep!  4am Riley starts to grizzle and jiggle in his crate. " Mum I drank lots of water tonight I need to go wee!" Well, I'm sure that's what he was saying cos I let him out and took him outside and it took him ages to empty his bladder! Back to sleep , Gav up at 6am, 6.20am the lights in the bedroom come on..." I've lost my wallet! Have you seen it? Got any cash for my lunch?" . So my day started...hope it improves....

Scrappy

Well this makes a change, its not green!!!!  Don't know if I like it but anyway, had fun just using up scraps of SU & BG papers and found a High Hopes image I coloured ages ago but never got around to using. It was coloured with water colour pencils, copics and twinkling H2Os.  I like this image, reminds me of how Bruno used to snuggle....

 Visited Denise today and found out she's been ordering more stamps on the net! Tsk tsk! Sposed to be saving !!!! At least they are WOJ and I want some, so as long as I get to play with them I'll be happy!

Hope you had a good safe drive home Trace, it was great to meet you and Annette. Hope we weren't too noisy.....  Does hubby like the piccy of Riley? Gav was a bit peeved when I said I almost gave his ginger Poo away. The little toe-rag would be missed around here if I did.  He can be very cute!

A night out for the boys

Well we had fun at Tracy's!   We made card holders,( Tracy actually had to teach a class instead of abandoning us to figure it out!!)  ate lots, talked lots and of course, the whole point of the night out, we met the lovely Trace and Annette. Hope they recover from the experience soon..... Its so nice to actually meet the people you communicate with by blog.  Bad news is that Trace wont still be in Auckland when we go to Senz, she's off to live in the deep dark south. 

Riley & Vinnie were invited too!  They cuddled lots, chased the cat, ate the cats biccies and Riley had a photo shoot with Trace. What a star. He was so tired he crawled into my bed this morning and decided to stay there!

Coffee or scrapbooking?

Yay! Long weekend! Not working today, and this morning am off for a deep tissue massage...bliss. Yes it will hurt, the lovely Annette brings tears to my eyes usually but afterwards I feel great and maybe she can get past this muscular block that makes my nights so uncomfortable. 

 Its raining, its cold, the dogs wanna go out to check their pee-mail ....I wanna curl up with a coffee and a good book....but wait, maybe I could do something creative.....hmmm.  

 Riley has his new leather jacket, he is such a cool dude! Pretty scruffy tho, he needs a hair cut!  Now he needs a little helmet then he can go on the motorbike with his dad....or not! Probably wouldn't suit Gav to be seen with the gingernut.  

Blossom

Well, I guess I've been very uninspired the last week. Tired and sore means no desire to play with paper and stamps.  A friend who is training as a bowen therapist came around yesterday and set up his massage table in the lounge and I climbed on to be one of his guinea pigs  , oooops I mean case studies!  Well, Vinnie kept reaching up and grizzling to be lifted up, Riley kept leaping onto my back from the floor ( Yes, its official the aussie ginger is actually a kangaroo, he's spring loaded) and Abbie kept nudging me . So they were all banned from the lounge except Abbie who settled down beside the table to keep an eye on me.  We shall see if its helped at all after a follow up session next week.

 Spent the day at Tracy's yesterday getting her and Marise hooked on copics! (Copics are quite addictive you know).  I think Denise & I are now banned from her house.  

 I gave Trace the sketch off Tiets blog to do , and she did it, so I thought I'd better attempt it myself or I might be accused of being slack . Blossom is another sugar nellie stamp and she's pretty cute, but then they all are. I'm Cheating and adding this to cute card thursday challenge as well.

 

Monday again

Managed to put together a card finally. Have been having withdrawal symptoms. More BG paper! 

 Back to work and I'm only a semi-invalid today. Still need my back crunched one more time, there's a pinched nerve that is driving me crazy! At least I can actually move. Took the dogs out for a walk this morning and as Vinnie went down the steps he suddenly lifted a paw and screeeeeched for  a whole minute...poor neighbours, hope they weren't planning on sleeping in! Riley joined in the "fun" and barked at him. Vin has an ongoing leg/paw injury, he jumped from my arms one night at training and hurt it then. Vets can't find exactly what it is, and he is such a woosie boy, I think his serious agility days are well and truly over now. He'd prefer to sit in my arms and watch anyway .

Got a photo of Gav's new brother, Charlie, sent to us. Isn't he cute? Looks like he could be a bit of a cheeky monkey Val, just wait till he has really settled in.... Oh, and Riley has sent him some toys like his to play with.

Well, a half hour job sorting Denise and her blog turned into 2 hours.  Gee Denise...lucky you had some cadbury mini eggs to revive me! If you haven't tried these...DON'T!! They cause a serious addiction.

 

Boring!

This is what my lot do when I'm at work......NOTHING!

Well, Riley is always busy with his toys but the old girl just sleeps and Vinnie sulks cos mummy isn't there to cuddle him!

We have another golden retriever staying for a few days and so she is so submissive, Riley thinks he can boss her around. I wish she would stand up for herself, she needs lessons in assertiveness! That little ginger is too full of himself.  Entire Males! Who would have one? 

Rory

Moving a bit better today, though I think I need my back crunched back in line! Had a little play with Rory and some BG Marrakesh paper. Never thought I'd like orange but I love these papers. The copper strip is copper foil from my leadlighting stash.

Dogs are busy with their Sunday meaty bones and Gav has been painting around the front door. Next step is the baby gate to stop Riley rushing out the door when its opened! I'm hoping his agility training will bring a bit more control, he's just so full on and full of mischief....

Riley Red Ted

Well I must say I was very proud of my boy, he focused, did what was asked, ran thru the tunnels with great joy and behaved well....... most of the time! He had a wee grumble at a male terrier, but I think that was cos he's fallen in love with Nai, the little girl poodle in his class. Hormones! If he wasn't destined to be a breeder, we'd have them boy's bits chopped off ASAP!