Scavenger Photo Hunt, May 📷

Well this will be a May to remember. Thankfully things are starting to open up, slowly sounds good to me. Thank goodness Katie didn't close, here's her I live, I love, I craft, I am me ... scavenger photo hunt.

The words for May are...

Circle...
This was taken through the cat house tunnel, they don't go in there very often.

Star...
Nathan made this in his art class at school last year. I really should frame it and put it in my craft room.

Square...
I stitched this for my Mom one Mother's Day, this square was made into a cube.

Splat...
Sweet Chewie has a cool splat on his chest.

DH said it looks like a Yeti so we should have named Chewie, Cheti - we'll just go with Yeti as his middle name.

Triangle...
And hey, Ming and Maximus get their photo shown too. Here are four triangles, their cute little ears.

My Own Choice...
This is our neighbour's cat, Harley, who likes to come visit our two and show off that he's allowed outdoors! This was taken through the glass in our front door and is actually a diamond shape.

This was a fun month, I hope to see you next month for a new set of words.
Continue to take care out there, one day at a time.

Friday's Stitching Ground 💚

This Friday I decided it was time to spend time with Maximus in the bedroom since that's where he's most comfortable since Chewie arrived. It's almost been three weeks, I wonder how much longer he's going to be a wuss?!

Then Ming wanted to know what was going on and joined us.

Still a little sloppy in my eyes, but I'm not going to worry about it. Each square does represent something and you'll see when I'm finished.

This. This is what greets me in the morning when I come out of the bedroom. This is Chewie smiling at me. And he wiggles and tries to jump on me, he's a lover for sure!

Thank you for those who had dog tips, I still need to respond to comments. He's learning how to sit, stay, and release when I give him his meals, it's a slow process. He has to be in his crate while we're eating and he's very good in there while waiting. He stays in the yard with us and loves to play with the ball and frisbee. Even better when we chase him! For the FIRST time last night, he didn't whine, howl, or cry when I put him to bed in his crate and he slept in until 7:30, awesome! 
I think he knows he's been rescued and he appreciates it, I couldn't imagine letting him go anywhere but here.
Have you been fortunate enough to be able to foster? Were you a foster failure like us?! 😆

Friday's Stitching Ground 💕

Even though this didn't get done in time for our anniversary, I'm still stitching and will be done with it whenever.
Chewie has scared the cats away, although Ming will sit with me if she's wrapped in a blanket!

From far away it looks okay, so I'll keep at it, making it my own.

And later it was movie time with the boys and kitties, no dogs allowed!

Chewie is still crying when we first put him in his crate at bedtime, but he's getting better and will sleep until about 6:30 or so.

He likes to jump on you for kisses, but we're trying to stop that. I do have a water bottle to squirt him with when he's jumping or trying to get the cats and he's not very fond of it. Ming still teases him by meowing to announce her arrival in the room and then runs when he wants to check her out. Her favourite is running upstairs because Chewie is too scared to go up that far. Max is slowly coming out more, but he's still very skittish.

Chewie still has a lot of learning to do, but we just need to be consistent with him. Do you have any dog training tips to share?

A Jumble of Events 💖

On Wednesday, we celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary. It certainly doesn't seem that long ago! Here we are at the same chapel, how nice that it's just down the road.

For our 20th, we celebrated early in Dubai, what a fantastic experience.

This special year, we were planning on going to Iceland to celebrate. Well, that didn't happen... yet! I don't know when we'll be able to go, but hopefully when things get back to normal, or rather, the new normal.

So instead we ordered from our local Mexican place and brought it home since pick-up is the only thing available. We snuck away to the basement and ate at the bar to make it a little different!

We don't really do gifts, but I did get beautiful roses and I made DH a wooden stitch piece to include our 25th.

And hey, my flowers from Mother's Day still look good.

This was taken on a sudden short visit to my parents earlier in the week. My Dad decided to take some of my Mom's CBD oil as a sleep aid and ended up taking too much by mistake. He was able to call a friend to come over and take care of Mom for a little bit, she was still in bed at 1:30pm because he couldn't take care of her. My nephews were luckily able to come help out until I got there, big relief. So I spent the night and helped with Mom. When I got there, Dad was still out of it, but at least he wasn't slurring his words. I think his only experience with drugs was his last!

The following day, his friend came over to pick him up to get his car, but he was still not feeling well enough, especially to drive. So I went to get it instead, old school driving! Roll down windows, huge steering wheel, bouncy seat, push button radio with cassette player, and nothing electronic. Ah, the 80's!

Today, Gman2 was able to get a hair appointment in another county for him and Nathan. Do you think they needed it?!

BEFORE

What a difference, they clean up nicely! They were both so happy to finally have their haircut. I have to wait until next month, hopefully our county will be open by then so I can visit my hairdresser. 

AFTER

I wasn't sure if the Hawks had come back this year since I hadn't seen them, but today I certainly heard them and then saw them.

This is one of the babies, I also saw another one, but no more.

And it's another year with Mom, Dad, and another part of the family. I could only get the two together today.

Off to do some stitching and I'm looking forward to our pizza Friday with the family, especially since the guys make it!

Friday's Stitching Ground 🐕

This was a different Friday from last week!

I had Ming join me for a little bit, with Chewie just waiting to love on her. And Maximus is still hanging out in the bedroom.

I think he was getting a little tired while waiting.

I have been working on The Haunted Mansion this week, but today I thought I would start Peppermint Purple's Corners of the World. I will be personalizing it for a special occasion, I just need to figure out how I want to place everything. It's not as neat as I'd like it, but hopefully it will improve the further I go.

She still teases and sort of tolerates him, at least she can outrun him!

He really is a sweet boy and he's finally getting better in his crate which makes a good night for us all.

So back to blackwork, any suggestions on making it look better?

24 Hours to Hell and Back - a must see! 📺

In other news, we have this to look forward to tonight!

Gordon Ramsay 24 Hours to Hell and Back: Save Our Town - Ellicott City.

If you can't see it tonight, maybe you'll be able to see it later online.

This beautiful little town is about 10 miles away from and it's my go-to place for a walk with the family, window shopping, and antique shopping. 

It was devastated by TWO floods, which kept it closed for a while and still has many empty shops.

This clock was recovered in the first flood.

"The clock is a replacement from the original clock that was swept away in flood water in 2016. Pieces of that clock were eventually found. The face is displayed in a museum."

This was from the 2016 flood.

The show was taped in February, and I knew it was going to be crazy busy there so I didn't go take a peak while he was there.

I hope you can see a little bit of my neck of the woods, it's lovely there!

A different kind of Mother's Day - 🦴

Just what I wanted to do on Mother's Day, wake up at 3:45am...

To arrive here at daybreak...

To to get this frightened little guy to foster... all totally worth it.

He is a six month old Labrador that came from Shreveport, Louisiana. He's supposedly part Rhodesian Ridgeback, but I'm not seeing it.
We decided to foster since I'm not sure we're I'm ready to adopt and this is the best way to find out. His given name is Howard, which is what we have to list him as when he's up for adoption (unless we decide to keep him.) But Nathan wanted to name him Chewy for Chewbacca. Or maybe it should spelled Chewie?

OMGoodness, he smelled SOOO bad, poor little guy! A bath was a must as soon as we got home. DH washed him x3 and the water finally became clear.

He was still a little scared, but at least he smelled better! 

He was a hungry guy, luckily the bowl slowed him down a little.

Ming was brave and put him in his place, letting him know who's boss around here! But Maximus was nowhere to be seen and is still in partial hiding.

 We've all been good at being safe, so Gman1 joined us for the day. He made my requested dinner, spinach lasagna, and Gman2 got the salad together.
Here we are getting ready to enjoy the cupcakes from Kupcakes and Co. that I picked up the day before for Mother's Day. I had the strawberry and champagne one, delicious!

Later that evening I was stitching and had some company, this sweet boy.

Everything was great until bedtime/crate time. I guess it was rough traveling like he did to get here in a van full of other dogs in crates and he was in one with two other dogs, maybe his siblings?
He barked/howled for 45 minutes before settling down, waking up a very unhappy Nathan after midnight.
On Monday morning DH woke up to this and asked if I had pulled out the tray. Nope, Chewie did that all by himself! And he pulled the cover off the top, tore it, and made it very difficult to get out.

I have been taking him out about every 1 1/2 hours, and yet he still had an accident on the carpet. I couldn't clean it up straight away since I had to take him outside. When we got back in, he got in the trash when I was getting it out to clean up his mess. He was quick and snatched a cupcake wrapper that had coffee grounds on it which ended up all over the kitchen floor. Ah yes, fun times.


I had to put his bed next to me because, you know, he's my new appendage! But Ming is still queen and got to sit with me. He's not allowed on the sofas, although I think he'd like to try.

I don't know who's worse, Chewie for "chasing" after her, or Ming who likes to tease him by coming out and talking to him! I think it's Ming. And Maximus is still hiding out in the bedroom.

He's really is a cutie and has such potential. As long as he can be good with the kitties, he might just have to stay with us! How can you resist this precious face with his little Lambi?

Friday's Stitching Ground 🍺

Well, a full finish didn't happen last weekend. But after some darn frogging, I just need a couple more stitches and I'll be finished. Let's try again this weekend!

I was so close to being finished, but realized I had started the upper right coral too low, ugh.

I did add beads to the bubbles per Jo's suggestion, thanks Jo! They might be a little big, but they're staying.

If you didn't catch it from the first photo, DH and I were watching The Mandalorian this evening. Look at him, he's so stinking cute!

How appropriate since I stitched up The Child, or maybe better known as "Baby Yoda" this week! The crib looks white, but it's really a light grey.

Has anyone else been watching it? We've been enjoying it and sometimes Nathan will even watch it with us, although he's already seen it several times!