Meet Scout

When you have children, you tend to forget how tough the first few weeks/months are with an infant.  The challenges fade as everything works out and that is when people decide to have more kids.  It's been ten years since we have had a puppy and twenty since we've had one as young as this gal.

MEET SCOUT!
We picked her up Sunday.  It is a long long drive for a puppy to make in a car but for the most part, she was sweet and slept in the wash basket we had for her in the back seat (no dogs in our front seats due to airbags).  The first day was great and she began learning her new home.

my friend Linda with Scout on Sunday:

She may look big but she is actually a teenie weenie.

Soooooo....she was up a few times Sunday night.  Actually she is up at 12:30  a.m. and 4 a.m. but that is to pee and then we put her back in the crate.  

This week we are working on crate training, having her respond to her name, and housebreaking.  We are pretty layed back,  She doesn't care too much for the crate but I sleep aside of her and stick my fingers into the crate and she settles down.  We are getting there.

I find myself going back 20 years when we had Paddie.  She was only 7 weeks old when we got her.  The boys were a few months old when we adopted them.  Monday we woke up and clearly Scout was getting more comfortable!  It was suddenly PUPPY MADNESS!!!  Running and digging and getting into all sorts of baby mischief.  

"Are you watching me?  Because I am about to bite the leaf you said 'No' about."

Like Paddie, Scout adores sticks.  

And like all our poodles, she loves toys, REALLY loves toys.  We are grateful for the teething toys since she is in that baby biting stage.  We gently but firmly reprimand her and give her a substitute for our fingers, clothing, rug, furniture......

The ol' "baby with the box" syndrome.  Why play with your toys when you can drag the bucket that stores them?

She does love her walks and has already learned many of the neighbors and where they live.  I wasn't really prepared for the getting up two times a night but things are gradually settling down.  She is learning her routine, and we are reminding ourselves that she is just a young YOUNG baby and we have to be patient.  

Photos are a challenge with this one 😊.  I'll keep ya posted how progress is coming.  The housebreaking is done and she is doing well with that.  Crate training is getting there and she pretty much responds to her name....and praise.  

Maybe tomorrow we will work on putting a collar on her.  For now I use a training lead and trying to get her used to something around her neck.  

Have a wonderful day!

It's Thursday....and like #25 is here....

Greetings from the Garden!!!

How are things in your world?  We are fine here and busy with the usual spring work.  Today is our "I like Thursday posts" sponsored by LeeAnna at "Not Afraid of Color."    

Head on over to her blog to visit a variety of happy blogs :)

In case you didn't realize it, we live in a tiny house and have a small yard that well....has a lot of flower beds.  We only grow a little grass out front and mostly that is just a pathway.  So I haven't had any place to add plants but this year, Mr. 3P&N is building a vertical garden for us.  I'll probably use it to grow herbs.  It's keeping the mister busy while he is home and I'll be glad for the growing area.  Photos will follow whenever he is done.

Blooming this week...

 Delicate colored tulips, 

I have no idea where these came from but I love them!

 Be still my bleeding hearts.

And here is lovely lungwort with a happy be clinging to it.

I really like gardening (in case you couldn't tell) and moving plants, creating new borders and in general just changing things around is always a lot fun.  New bed created this week:

I like visitors in the garden, I'm still not sure what bird this is, but he sure did scold me on Sunday as I was weeding.

 

 Then I realized that there are now two nests in the willow tree.

Here's the clearest photo of the closest one:

I like how animals communicate.  It sometimes astounds me.

 Early this spring a sparrow was hoping around me as I gardened and he too was scolding me (or maybe it was she, hard to tell).  Finally it ended on the base of the bird bath.  I got the hint, brought out the bath basin, and filled the bath.

And peace reigned once more...

Here is my new bird bath that I fell in love with at (of all things) the grocery store.  I just put this one up on Sunday:

 And we still seem to have the cat highway going through our property.  I took this photo from inside our kitchen at the latest interloper.  He knows where the bird bath is...but the birds know when he/she is nearby.

I hope you are having a wonderful spring!

I like #24!

Well it's that happy day of the week, sponsored by LeeAnna at "Not Afraid of Color."  Be sure to visit all the sites of positive energy.

I'm late to the festivities this week because I've been lecturing all week. I like meeting quilters and learning about what they like and appreciate in a quilt.  It's a lot of fun and so many people have so many techniquest they love.

I like Ruby Short McKim.
Yes, the quilt designer--I've been studying her quilts for the last two years and have a new quilt program that focuses on her designs.  In my opinion, she is the most innovative quilt designer of the 20th century.  Tonight I launch the first lecture at a guild not too far away.  It's fun to meet new quilters but it's really fun to re-visit guilds to see how members are doing.

I like being outdoors in the garden and I like sharing with you all the changes that happen there.  With the recent warmth, it seems like plants are growing two inches each night.  In two weeks we've become quite green here.

My son and daughter-in-law helped mulch the front yard last week.  What's not to like about that?  

 I like pansies,

 grape hyacinth,

 pink tulips,

and an annual called "stock"--it smells like cinnamon.

 I love my swing retreat...

 and the patio where we gather with friends.

 And I hope you have a nice retreat too.  It's fun making your own little paradise and even more delightful to spend time there when you are done!

Have a great day!

Happy Easter!

I Like #23!

I like spring.  I like to watch the garden come alive and how every day during my morning tour of the garden, I see wonderful things that have happened overnight.It's like having my own special show in the back yard.

I do agree with a quote I saw awhile ago that said something like "if you want to teach a child about miracles, have them plant a garden."

This week I like daffodils.

I know where almost every plant came from in this garden.  It's not unlike how I know where each piece of fabric was obtained in my stash.  These daffodils were all from my son, Peter.  He used to give me daffodil bulbs for my birthday.  

Daffodils are interesting because they are very diverse in appearance and eventually, with help of the bees, new species are formed in your very garden.  It's very exciting to find a new strain!  These are just the ones blooming now.  We lost the first batch with the snow (except the ones that I had picked beforehand).  

Daffodils are what you want to plant if you have a problem with deer or squirrel eating your flower bulbs.  Every part of the daffodil is toxic and squirrels won't touch them.  

I know this well since I have planted about 200 tulip bulbs in my garden at one time or another.  I have under 5 tulips left.  One year, my brother gave me tulips with distinct red pattern on the leaves.  When they didn't resurface the next year, I thought the tulips hadn't made it through the winter.  WRONG!  I found them surfacing in my neighbors grass where the dang squirrels had planted them.

I like the honey bee quilt pattern.  I prefer the 19th century version (with the solid square instead of nine patch).  We have a lot of honey bees in our neighborhood.  It's surprising to garden visitors.  We live in a quiet neighborhood in a small city.  However, the Oyster House restaurant down the street keeps bee hives on it's roof.  I like that.  Bees are in so much trouble here with hive collapse that our orchard growers actually send their hives to the south for the winter.

I like all the rituals of spring:  changing decor to mirror the warm and happy months, purging things (especially clothes) and springtime projects (usually involving paint or some other messy thing that should be done outdoors).  I'm off to do more work and wish you the happiest of Easters!  Stop over and see LeeAnna from "Not Afraid of Color" and all the other participants in the Thursday celebration!

Premie Poloozza Concludes...

Premie Palooza concludes for the 2017 year.  I've made 62 all together and tonight they get turned into our guild and sent to the local hospitals.  I've purchased flannel for next year's batch and am looking forward to creating more. 

I hope you have a great day!  

I Like #22!

LeeAnna from "Not Afraid of Color" initiated this Thursday celebration!  Visit her blog to find more inspiration and cheery thoughts and check out the other participating bloggers.

Speaking of participating bloggers, I like that this weekly event allows me to meet other bloggers.  I am now getting to know Jocelyn over at "Canadian Needle Nana"!  Love the blog title as my original blog title was "Three poodles and a Nana".  I always learn from other bloggers and find it all motivating!

Speaking of Nana's...
I like keeping parts of my family members around me, even if they have passed on.  My brother is contractor and at one point, he replaced the windows at our Nana Betty's house.  He asked to put some of the old windows here until he could find the best salvage place.  In return, I got to keep two of them.  I think he thought I was nuts (my husband sure did).  Years after our Nana passed, I had my brother build me a weird little display window from one of the windows and I display it for every season.  The spring/Easter Nana Betty window is a little over the top but I like it:

I like crates for dogs.  I know some people think this is cruel but to be honest, my dogs have all loved their crates.  At one point we had three crates for three fairly large dogs--an astonishing thing for a cottage with only 1200 square feet.  Our dogs would sometimes just get tired of commotion of holidays and visits and retreat to their crates.  I recently found these photos and started laughing:

Greta (laying down) moved in with us for a few months while my mother was ill.  After a few weeks, Greta was miffed that the other three dogs had a crate and she didn't.  So she decided to move in and take over Teddy's.  As you can see from those eyes, he wasn't very happy about it and I did have to chase her out of there.  

It's spring, my allergies kicked in with a vengeance yesterday and it's time to do more yardwork (oh goodie, more pollen--yes, I do wear a mask).  I like a funny thing.  My city actually picks up yardwaste as part of their garbage run from spring to fall.  We are the only municipality around here that does this.  It sounds like a funny thing to like but look at it this way.  My property is primarily GARDEN.  Just from the clean up I've done in the front yard, I have three garbage cans and 5 large brown bags full of waste.

Now I have to tackle the back yard and there is more work (and waste) because a lot of branches fell during our storm.  Here is some of the winter carnage:

We may have high taxes but the one thing we do get out of living here (besides a great neighborhood) is this not-so-little convenience.

That's all I have for this week.  I'll see you next week and have a great day!

I Like #21!

It's a wonderful day when we send some positive energy out into the world! LeeAnna from Not Afraid of Color is our hostess with the most-ess.  Please check out LeeAnna's website (oh and today she has the lovliest post with lots of antique sewing things!!!).
I like family, especially the young generation in our family.  Last weekend we threw an impromptu engagement party for my niece and her fiancee.  They are just the sweetest couple!  Both are biologists and work for the USDA.

 Maggie and Cody have decided to elope instead of a big wedding.  This seems to be the trend in the young people in our family.  You might remember that my son and daughter-in-law were married in a surprise-casual-wedding.

I like making throw quilts for my family.  My goal is that I have given at least one quilt to everyone I love.  Here is the one I made for Jenny and was able to give her it at the engagement party.  The kids are hilarious together.  They end up crashing together at my Mom's house and play board games (and lots of yelling and teasing) through the wee hours.

I like our playing pups!  Opie is the beagle and Cashew is the smaller yellow dog.  They had a blast as well this past weekend playing with Greta.  Watching the pups play is as much as watching toddlers!

I like 20th century quilts and have a particular weakness for Mountain Mist quilt patterns.  In keeping with the first day of spring, I thought I would post a photo of this Mt. Mist tulip quilt:

In case you don't quilt, Mt. Mist is the oldest batting company in the U.S.  During the depression--and for many years afterwards, Mt. Mist offered quilt patterns on their packaging wrappers.

Have a wonderful day!!!