Housewife, 54

Now those of you that have no reference point to the Dog Show World will have no idea what that heading means...  But for those that do, you will jump for joy when I share that Elvis went Winners Dog, and not at any ol' dog show either,  but at a Specialty!  This is a BIG DEAL! In one of my previous posts I was lamenting the challenges of showing a dog in "the Breed ring" - that it is terribly political and so frustrating to participate when one is not an avid competitor.  It takes a lot of entries ($$) and a lot of traveling around to lots of dog shows ($$) to get the judges to realize that you want to be taken seriously.  Never mind the dog - so often it doesn't seem to matter what the poor dog looks like at all!  What seems to matter more and more is who is at the other end of the leash - are you SERIOUS about this and have you shown your dog to me enough times that you have 'earned' the privilege of being granted a point?  Well that h...

Ah me.... Where to begin? So much has happened since my last entry that I am at a loss as to where to pick up again..... I suppose that the most challenging occurrence was the loss of my friend, Lynne.  She was a dog-related friend, and I have gotten my 2 most recent Afghan Hounds from her; Maija and Elvis.  She has been a mentor and adviser and so much more.  Even though we were not close - we did not chat over the phone or hang out together very often - we still kept in touch via email and attended the occasional dog show together.  We had several other hobbies in common; gardening, cooking and home decorating to name just a few.  In January I had contacted her to line up spring dog shows where we could meet up and show our dogs.  She told me then that she had some health issues that were finally diagnosed as lung cancer, so she would be out of commission for a while - I was going to be on my own showing...

Okay, I am remembering the old proverb that if March comes in like a lion, it goes out like a lamb... and I hope it is true!  March 1st was not really so bad, but March 2nd was a bear of a day!  I had all kinds of things going last weekend; an Agility Seminar from Friday through Sunday, and on Friday afternoon I was supposed to slip out of that and go to a dog show in Milwaukee.  Well... the weather forecast got worse and worse: from rain showers, to rain turning to snow, to rain turning to LOTS of snow, and instead of staying north of us, the freeze line came farther south and HIT.  Hearing these changes I decided fairly early in the day that I should NOT drive up to Milwaukee, as it was a pretty sure thing that no matter what, I was going to have to drive home that night on bad roads.  I stayed close to home and just went the 13 miles down to the Seminar, and boy, was I GLAD!  Not only was the seminar really good, but by the time we finished up Friday aft...

Even though it has been a very mild winter for Northern Illinois, it is still with us.  Today it started to snow again, BIG, JUICY flakes that looked like manna falling from heaven.  We had about an inch of snow on the ground in just a half-hour, but it then slowed down and we haven't gotten much more.  We are supposed to get 6-8" overnight, but I hope they have over estimated - again. This is the view out my back door this afternoon.  You CAN see the big snowflakes! An update on my projects:  I have finally finished that second sock from Christmas. They are delivered to DS and I hope he likes them.  I had to take a break from sock knitting.  My hands and my attention were just wearing out!  I also needed to get a prayer shawl made for a good friend that is going through Cancer. Now I am going to finish a sweater that I started last winter! I got the budget made out and the family bookkeeping is going well - or at least as much as I can d...

I canNOT believe that it is actually January!  The weather here today started out to be sunny, and the high temperature may have reached 60F.  Of course, by the time I got around to going outside, it was cloudy and in the 50's, but that was perfectly fine with me!  I enjoyed a walk with my dogs and put away some of my outdoor Christmas decorations.  I also did a bit of pruning on my fruit trees - just snipped of a twig here and there. I have had a good week.  The first week of January is usually good for getting organized and I did a bit of that. On Monday I took Elvis down to the Club and had a really good training session with him.  Taking a break from training is really good for Afghan Hounds! Tuesday I had a bunch of my knitters come to hang out and knit at my house.  That is always fun and it seems that several of them had made Resolutions that included coming and knitting on various projects or learning new techniques. On Wednesday, I took d...

Good Grief!  Where does the time go? Well, looking at my last post, I have an idea that I have been knitting to the exclusion of almost everything else!  I did get two of those pairs of socks done in time for Christmas, but the third pair was only one-half done by Christmas day, with the second sock just started.  I gave them to him anyway, and am still working on it now.  Give me another week or so and I should have it finished.  Then I am taking a BREAK from socks and finishing up some other projects this winter.  I'll start on socks again in the spring when I don't want a heavy project to drag around. This fall has not been the kind to curl up with a cosy pile of knitting in your lap.  It has been unseasonably warm all though New Year's.  We may have had  a couple of days where the overnight temperatures got down into the 20's, but most of the past 2 months have had daytime highs in the upper 30's or 40's and overnight has been in the ...

I have always loved 'useful' crafts.  Now, I understand that the term 'useful' has different meanings for different people.  For me, it means something that I can use on a daily or weekly basis.  Cooking is certainly a craft, but more often thought of as an art or science.  I think it is all three.  Sewing is a craft, but if you have little or no money to buy nice clothes that fit properly, it becomes a daily necessity ;-)   I learned to sew at a very young age, and as a child, most of my clothes were made by my mom or myself.  I also learned other useful crafts as a child: embroidery, macrame (which for me definitely falls into the not-so-useful category, as well as latch-hooking rugs) some crochet and knitting, and tatting.  But other than sewing, all of these other craft skills were at a very basic level. While I was an avid seamstress, I did not have any interest in quilting for a long time.  I blame this on my mom.... she was not a qu...