Woof woof! I do!

As promised I dressed up my needle felted pair of dogs for their wedding day. The groom is sporting a rather dashing top hat and the bride has a sweet flower veil. They are wearing matching turquoise collars with the groom having a bow tie and the bride a jeweled necklace.







The will be off soon to serve as a cake topper for an upcoming wedding. They are so cute I am going to miss them.

Who let the dogs out?

This seems to be the never ending question as kids go in and out the door all summer long. We live on a busy street so this is a big concern for us with the dogs. This weekend wasn't a happy one for our older dog. She appears to have injured her good leg while trying to get off the couch. Poor thing can't even get up now. We have to carry her outside. I guess she won't be making any of her mysterious escapes anymore.

My sister's family is also going through a difficult time with their older dog (only 8 years though). The poor thing was diagnosed with cancer last weekend and she is fading fast. She was running around with our puppy this summer without a care in the world. The cancer has moved in fast and spread to her internal organs. The family is facing some difficult decisions this month. How do you explain this to young children when its so hard to deal with as an adult?


I have been working on these little needle felted dogs for a custom order. They have kept me busy nearly the full morning -- which I need as I adjust to this QUIET that is almost deafening (kids at school all day now). They are just so awesome -- I can't believe I made them myself.

This handsome fella is a Bernese Mountain Dog



This sweetheart is a Husky ...



I will be "dressing them up" this evening so they are ready for the "big" day.

Rainy days, clematis, and a cute little squirrel

We are enjoying our first rainy day after pretty much a month without rain. Everything was turning brown and the asters are flowering early this year due to the drought. My autumn clematis is blooming and looks so beautiful along our fence. So many white blossoms.


I can't help but taking more and more pictures of it. I am so glad I remembered to keep it watered during the drought.



This little squirrel is a custom order gift for bride's maid and will accompany a pair of wedding birds to the wedding. I love the cute little eyes!



We survived the start of school last Thursday but I am missing my youngest now that she is at school all day. She talks so much and it is much too quiet without her. Normally she can drive anyone up the wall with her chatter -- but I love it sometimes. Am I the only mom out there to miss their kids when they finally go off. No one else seems to mind and most are celebrating.

Twenty years!

Today is our twentieth wedding anniversary! I can't believe that that much time has gone by. The years go by so fast. My husband fixed me breakfast in bed this morning (crepe suzette and caramel cappuccino) with a dozen red roses.


This is a photo taken on our wedding day as we walked together out of the church. I was so happy that I just closed my eyes to savor the moment. Whenever I see this photo it brings me back to that moment of pure happiness.

A nice day for a hike

We are meeting up with my sister's family to hike Mt. Kearsarge this morning. It should be a fun hike and the day is nice and cool. We are bringing some cucumber sandwiches and snacks to eat at the summit. Now if I can just get everyone out the door ... including me ;)

These are two more sets of wedding birds that I finished and sent off last week.







.... We had a lovely day hiking. The young kids pretty much ran up the mountain on a very steep rocky trail. We brought along our younger dog and my sister brought theirs too. What fun those dogs had as they wrestled and tumbled up and down and up and down and up and down the mountain. Overall they probably traveled the equivalent of several mountain climbs. And they never seemed to tire at all. I with my knee and recent ankle sprain and my oldest daughter with her ankle sprain were a little slower going up. The view from the top was breathtaking and so clear. We enjoyed the panoramic view of all the other mountains surrounding us. The trail we took down the mountain was considerably easier than the trail up.

Late afternoon we drove to my brother in laws parents house to enjoy their new in ground pool. It was heated so the kids were in heaven. They didn't want to come out of the pool. We left for home when it got dark at 8pm and even then we had to drag the kids out. The young kids were making a lot of progress in their swimming too!

The last days before school starts

We have a few more days before school will start next week. I am really going to miss summer with the girls. The school year always seems much too hectic. But this year I will have more free time with my youngest in school for the full day. It will be an adjustment for me. I know most people can't wait for this but I think I will miss my time with my youngest.

Anyway I did get to photograph two of my wedding bird couples this morning and wanted to share their cuteness.

Changing landscape, sand castles, and teenagers

We packed up our things for the beach yesterday morning and my oldest daughter invited a friend. As usual it was difficult getting out the door. My youngest is always difficult when it comes to getting ready to go anywhere. Today it was "I hate the beach!" So after an hour of "threats and intimidation" and then "outright bribery" we were happily on our way. Our picnic basket was a bit pathetic - a few cold water bottles and sodas and two mostly finished bags of chips. But the important thing is we had a plan -- a plan to stop at a little store just before the beach to pick up salads and sandwiches. I often wish I was the kind of mom that was better organized. The kind of mom that would fill that picnic basket with sandwiches, homemade cookies, and folded napkins. BUT overall I think I do ok. The beach trip is 3 hours round trip so its not an easy trip for me.

The day was absolutely perfect -- not a cloud in the sky! And temperature-wise I can't remember a more comfortable day at the beach. Without an umbrella were were quite happy. The tide was just finishing its climb up the beach and I was reminded of my promise to my youngest (as part of the bribery) to build sand castles with her. We had a lot of fun trying to build our castles while the waves washed them back to sea. Finally we moved high enough to enjoy a few waves but still allow us to build our elaborate drip castle. It was quite pretty and she was thrilled with it. We left our pail and shovels in the castle's "lake" and went off (about 10ft away) to collect shells amongst the waves to add to our castle. After several trips back and forth from the ocean to the castle we returned to the castle to find two adorable children stomping and bulldozing (with a toy truck) our castle down. I told them that it was our castle and we were working on it but they just smiled at me and continued their stomping. I looked up at their mother which sat only about 5 ft away but she seemed oblivious. My daughter's eyes were filled with tears and her little lower lip was quivering as she held back her tears. I walked her back down to the waves and hugged her. I suggested we take a walk along the beach so we gathered up her sisters and friend and went off for a walk.

She talked about the castle incident for a long time as we walked -- not able to understand why they would do something like that. I tried to explain to her that these things happen -- some kids are like a force of nature. But I couldn't help thinking there was something lacking in the parenting skills of their mother. Finally we reached a point of land where the waves were converging from two directions and created some rather large and exciting waves. The older girls were in the water body surfing and experiencing the fun and painful realities of "sand" burn and what waves do with bikini bathing suits. But they had so much fun and laughed the whole time! My youngest too was enjoying the waves as they crashed along the sand and finally forgot about the castle.

We returned to our chair and blanket and I stopped by to speak with the mother of the two children. I just wanted her to know how upset my daughter was but even though she did apologize she laughed at me and told me to lighten up. All she had seen was a pile of sand. I indicated that we had left our beach toys there while we were collecting shells for the castle. She said there were toys everywhere on the beach. I told her that I always taught my children to respect other peoples belongings and not to destroy sand castles. And I asked her what were were supposed to do -- put up a sign saying "Off collecting shells to decorate the castle!" Overall it was a humiliating experience standing there as she laughed at me. I guess I should have realized that any mom sitting that close to us as we built our castle and then allowed her kids to destroy it wouldn't really care how we felt afterwards. Sigh.

Later we built another castle and my daughter cheered up considerably.

The tide had turned and we took another walk along the beach to explore the sand bars.


We have come to Crane's Beach for many years now and love it. I was so amazed today to see such a change in the sandscape. We always remembered a sand "island" out in the water but everything was completely changed. Instead we followed a rather long sand peninsula out into the ocean. At the point were exciting waves that were crowded by many children and adults.


The other exciting adventure was the teenage boy that was eying my daughter and her friend. They were really enjoying the attention as they played in the water and built sand castles. It was so cute as he walked back and forth on the beach and watched them swim. Of course all this attention made these two teenage girls much too giggly and silly!



We stayed on the beach until after 5 when most of the crowds had left and made our way back to the car all covered in sand. Overall it was a wonderful day at the beach even with the castle destroyers.