Allie's Christmas Through the Year...

Time for Allie's Christmas Through the Year!  Make sure to check out her webpage to see the projects everyone is making!  This month...I completed some placemats for shut in seniors.  Meals on Wheels likes to deliver these with food...

 more purses...

 more dolls and dogs...

 some burp pads for the soon to be mom and dad in our family...

Happy Holiday!

after the storm

30 minutes after I posted yesterday, we lost power again.  Fortunately, power was restored after 8 hours; many others in our valley are still not lucky.  First days of school have been cancelled and many businesses are still closed.  We've been asked to conserve water and although the city says it's drinkable, we are drinking bottled water.

 I feel blessed that we did not sustain any real damage.  Although our streets are lined with debris and tree branches, people are out cleaning up and arranging the branches for the street department to get them:

We are so blessed that no one was seriously hurt in our family or neighborhood.  My stepson Nik did have major flooding because his sump pump didn't work when the power went out.  Still, his family is fine and the insurance company will take care of the house.  Some folks weren't so lucky.  This poor family in our neighborhood had not one but two trees fall on their house:

One tree fell on top of the peak, the other is still on the side of the house.

No one seems to have been hurt but who knows what kind of structural damage the house took?  Today I am counting my blessings and grateful that we were spared.

Good Night Irene...

We made it through the night okay.  It was tough to sleep because tornado warnings occurred east of us and I was concerned that we might get some here.  At 4 a.m. we lost power but our local radio station was broadcasting our local television news crew so  I could keep tabs on the weather with that and the weather radio.  I hate going through these things with just me...I wonder how I would get three dogs down to the cellar.

Lots of flooding here in the Lehigh Valley.  It's not unusual for us to have flooding with heavy rains but we live at the top of the hill and are safe from flooding except the normal leaks in the basement.  But the rest of the valley is hit very hard and the rivers haven't crested yet. 

The winds have begun and that is as dangerous as last night since we live in a city with tree lined streets.   Keeping our fingers crossed that our trees stay intact!  Take care to all those in the path...

Hunkering down

The siblings:  Greta laying down and Teddy sitting up for photo.

To my dogs, a crate=safety.  During our recent storms, Greta has been visiting Teddy's since she doesn't have one of her own.  Sometimes Teddy finds this vexing, as in : "who's been sleeping in my bed?" But now they are going crating together. 

Here in the Northeast we have had so much rain, nearly 8 inches so far in the last 3 weeks and more expected with Hurricane Irene.  Our trouble will be be high winds and tree problems...either branches falling down or whole trees are known to fall when the ground is this saturated.   In our neighborhood, even slight storms can cause power outages (as it did already this morning).  We'll be posting as we can and pray that those along the east coast will all be safe.

Take care!

It's a jungle in here...

Last night we had torrential rains.  The ground is saturated and we do have some run off but I don't remember the garden being so happy in a long long time.  I have so enjoyed gardening this year, almost with as much passion as when I first started.  So bear with the various garden pics I keep posting.

The peegee hydrangea tree (pictured below) is in full bloom and full of butterflies, bees, and assorted insects.  I always seem to forget how much the insects love that tree.  Soon the caryopterist and sedum will start blooming and the critters will shift their affection to those plants...

In the meantime, we are appreciating all the bounty that has been gifted to us this year!

Poodled

He's cute.  He's photogenic.  He never stops barking.  Yep this is Ted, the drama king of the pack.  Except yesterday he got sick, stopped eating, and just wanted to lay down.  We will get test results in a day or two.  He seemed to be responding to the antibiotic shot last night.  Around 10 p.m. he started eating a wee bit and then I sent him and the two other dogs out to do their business...

And a minute or two later, I smelled it.  SKUNK!!  Teddy is barking,,,,, I run out get him and Greta in the house.........and then realized that someone was AWOL:

Seamus has taken to scaling the back wall to get close to bunnies, cats, squirrels or possibly skunks.  He just loves other animals.  And he was not in the yard anywhere...I called and called him, went to the back gate of the yard to go find him (he usually doesn't go far) and ran into......

Oh yeh the skunk.

Ran back to the wall and there is Seamus, unsure of how to get back in the yard.  The dork wouldn't jump down so I had to pick up his 56 lb body to get him home (and he wriggled and struggled too, the little devil).

Of course the back door is open and I walk in to find how fragrant our house is and then check the barker.....

who smells like hell.

So I have to pick up that 71 lb boy and get him in the shower.  I think my adrenaline must have been running sky high because I'm not normally this strong.  I hate washing a dog that is sick but I literally had no choice.  The funny thing is, it really wasn't a skunk smell, made me wonder if he rolled in something dead  That smell came out of him really well...

Greta and Seamus escaped being skunked but my house smells like, oh yeh, skunk...I had to throw out the shoes I was wearing because they definately had the scent on them.  The attic/sewingroom/quilt storage area is sealed off for now and the windows are all open.

Once in a while the dogs get the best of their humans and then the human gets poodled.  I've been poodled but good and if my husband doesn't put lights out in the far back yard when he gets home......I am a gonna poodle HIM.  I've been bugging him for lights there because I could forsee this happening......grrrrrrr

off to buy more febreeze.........hope your day is better than my night was!

Greetings from the soggy Northeast!

This past weekend, we got over 4 inches of rain in less than 12 hours!

 We've had more rain since then but meanwhile, the hydrangea bush looks like it grew a whole foot since Friday...

The anemone are blooming like crazy now.  These flowers are among my favorite. The foliage is disease resistant and the flowers are so enjoyable this time of year:

I might need to mow soon but for now, I'm enjoying the garden as much as possible!  How is the weather where you are?

Thank heaven for little girl dogs...

"Paddie" by Sam George, 2011

I love this new illustration of Paddie by Sam.  The sketch captures her sweetness and he even made sure her collar is the right color red.  Thank you Sam!

I always miss my baby girl Paddie, who passed last September.  It's funny how a girl can change things up so much but both DH and I are loving our new girl, Greta.  Sh really is a sweet little (er, rather big) baby girl.  Here is what greets me after I shower.  She sits patiently outside the door until I am done...

 with her favorite bone (DH refers to this as her 'ceegar').

I love my boys but the girls take such a special place in my heart...

Gifts from Canada's Best!!!

Got me a great package in the mail late Monday!  Wanted to post about it yesterday but for whatever reason, blogger was being difficult.  So....drum roll please!

The package was from Sandra in Canada!  We are doing some swaps right now, I make some things for her goodie bags and in return..., oh wait hers even comes in a pink gingham gift bag!

 But wait there's more!!!  She made some sunbonnet zippies for me to give to helpers when I do my "History of the sunbonnet quilt pattern"  lectures!   Of course I have to keep one for myself :)  Because they are too cute.....

She even embellished them!!!

But wait there's even more!  Just check out these two dear sunbonnet charms, they are adorable!!

And even sent me a bag of stars for my projects (those will be used well).

Thank you dear Sandra!  I just love my package of wonderfulness! :)

Mystery

Not much to report here.  I've been reviewing my fabric stash and have a couple of stacks started:

for bibs, placemats (for seniors who get meals on wheels), burp clothes for odd shaped fabric and some wall hangings for the kids to craft. 

I do have one unusual thing to report.  On Saturday I found this in my mail box:

Isn't it pretty?  I am just not sure why it was in my mailbox or who left it....