Happy New Year!

Well what a state on the weather for a New Year's Day!   It's hammering down with rain and that put paid to my lovely long New Year's Day walk with Max, but it wasn't to be, he's not a happy chappie in the rain so there's no way he's up for a stroll with me today.

Yesterday though was a totally different day, we took a lovely wander around the streets then finished off with a game of "fetch" in the field at the back of our house.

Lovely.

Missed! HA!!!

I've been busy....

I have truly got the stitchy bug!   Since I finished up August's Peridot Fairy in October, I've been busy creating Mirabilia's Stargazer.   I've been seeing her a lot on a dark fabric but decided it was a little too "lost" on a dark fabric so I played, I came up with Fireworks by Polstitches.

And here she is all finished .....

So what do you think?

Introducing ...

And here she is, in all her glory!!

I'm so thrilled with her!   Just 9 weeks from start to finish - whoo hoo!!

Fame At Last

Guess who's in this month's "You Dog" magazine?

Yep, Maxie Boy!!  Can you see him?

Here's the original ....

Happy Chappie isn't he?

Catch up

Sometimes it's hard to find the time to write, but when I do and re-read all the posts, I'm always glad that I did.

I've been cross stitching rather than knitting lately (Bec's fault, blame her!)   She kept nagging me to either finish one or start another - actually, it was "why don't you finish Sabrina?" but I think I got so bored with her, purely because she's so big that I thought if I didn't start one, I'd never cross stitch again, so I started Mirabilia's Peridot Fairy.  So far I'm eight week's in and ready to "bling" her up.

 

So what do you think?

There's a reason why I've chosen this one, not just because August is my birth month, but I also want to do June (my daughter and mum's month) and April (my grandmother's).   Can you imagine all three of them together?   Stunning!

Swansea Vale

Another glorious walk today, this time a little nearer to home although we did have to take the car.  Gary knew about this marshy land and thought it a good place for him to explore.

First of all, we walked in the long grass...

Oh hello, dad!

Then we discovered a bog and pond, so explored that...

A bath inevitably followed....

Dog days

For two weeks I'm on my holibobs, so with the weather a lot cooler now than of late, we decided to take Max to Mumbles for a long walk.  He's not allowed on the beach during the summer months so we took a hill walk instead.

He loved it.

On the way back, we discovered this ...

Thankfully buggerlegs didn't see it or he'd have been off like a er, rabbit up a whatsit...

Anyway, a treat awaited him for being such a good boy.

Yum!!!

Weather

I'm never spun out at how quickly the weather can change, but being caught out in it is just no fun, especially when you have a dog who hates the rain.

So there we were, having a great time up the park... see how dry it is?

Can you see me, Mum?

Rabbits?

Love a stick

Nom nom nom

Suddenly, the heavens opened, and I have one very wet, unhappy doggy on the end of the lead....

Hurry, Mum!

Not happy....

Just look at his ears, aww......

18

Tomorrow my daughter turns 18, you know the cliche, where did the time go?  Yep, it's been like that for me.  I can't believe that she's 18.

She's finished school, started college, passed her driving test (first time), drives her own car and is training to be a nurse.

So, tomorrow she turns into an adult.  Oh.  My.  God.

Where did the time go?

Beach day!

Today we took Max to the beach - he absolutely adored it...

First he went down to the sea,

But the waves were a little scary ... see how big they are?

Then we dug holes ...

Sandy noses followed:

The result?

Caught him singing to the car radio again...

Buggerlegs!

Last night, Max and I went for our nightly walk.  I took him along the same route that we normally go (we do deviate quite a bit, but this route is the main route to get to where we're going).   I digress.

We discovered two cats.  Now we have a cat, and they both tolerate each other, but any other cat is game on for Max.   You've seen pictures of him before wearing a harness - it's a police one so it's really sturdy and recommended for Staffys.   Then tell me this:  how did he slip out of that harness?

He flew across a street and into someone's garden after these two cats, thankfully there were a bunch of kids  who helped me chase after him but obviously they wouldn't go near him as he was a strange dog (to them) but to be fair to the oldest one, once I grabbed him, I couldn't hold him and get the harness back on but she held on (she must about been around 10, bless her).  Once he was safely back in harness, they all crowded around him and he just lapped it all up.   Attention Seeker.   I call him a Little Sod.

Four pairs!

Well last month I managed to knit and complete four pairs of socks, yes, FOUR PAIRS!!  I'm amazed.  Do you know what I think it might be?   I only log on once a day in the morning: I have to leave at a certain time for work and all my chores that I need to have done before then have to be done.  Once I get home at night, my chores are done once more, cook, wash up, laundry etc., and then I sit down and knit.  No logging back on, just uninterrupted knitting.

Now when I say, uninterrupted, you may think I sit and do nothing but knit, but oh no.  I have a young dog remember?  He tortures me to play fetch which I have to do, as I just can't resist his sweet little expectant look on his face (or the fact that he'll drop his toy on my yarn, or on my pattern, or in my lap, wherever it'll cause the most inconvenience really, but that's by the by.)

So this is the fourth pair of socks completed in January...

Darkus by Rachel Coopey

I'm just so proud of these as the cable was really fiddly and complicated (for me) but I got there in the end and I'm thrilled with them.