Rally Obedience

As we are nearing the end of 2016, I'm starting to revisit my 16 in 16 list, and one of my goals was to get another Rally Obedience title with Lindor. Although we still have one leg (one trial at one show) to go to get our Intermediate CKC Title, we have enjoyed taking lessons and practising and becoming more familiar with the sport. It's really incredible what the dogs can accomplish and so cool to watch the other handlers with their dogs. It definitely strengthens your bond and the labs especially love to be out and about working.

Lindor doesn't look too thrilled about her ribbons but I was happy with scores of 93 and 96. Maya decided to get into the photo shoot and show off her nice new haircut. She feels like a velour blanket. So soft. There was a little pudge under that fur though so we'll have to work on that over the winter.

ADS Auction Wrap Up

I got to hang out at Conestoga Mall yesterday handing out Auction prizes to the lucky bidders. It was a lot of work but we raised $3800 and that makes one family that much closer to getting a lifetime companion and assistant to help make their lives a little easier.

Max was the sweetest, softest Golden Retriever I ever met. I just wanted to smuggle him home. He is just about to be recalled to start his Advanced Training and his lovely handler will have to send him on his way.

What a great service the puppy raisers do for the community and so difficult to let these babies go.

Harley is a big ole yellow Lab that looked up everytime the Mall Custodian wheeled his garbage cart past.
He is currently in Advance training...

It was a busy day at the Mall and lots of people stopped by our Booth to chat and ask questions and make a donation. It was encouraging and made the Auction work that much more worthwhile. Now its on to the Christmas baking.

October 30 Day Challenge

It's been so long since I posted, even the format of Blogger has changed so its another technical learning curve for me.  We have been doing great on our 30 Day Challenges, in fact, we have been exchanging our cards AHEAD of time but I haven't gotten around to posting because I've been busy with this....

I was the ADS Online Auction Chair for 2016 and it was a big job soliciting donations and uploading photos and descriptions of the 110 items but it was a big success and the main part of the Auction ended last night so now I should have time to catch up on other pursuits.

So on to the October challenge. We both used Fall themed items. I borrowed the Lawn Fawn pie stamp and came up with this....

using this stamp set...

I apologize for the over-exposed photos but it's winter, what can I say?

And Keri used a Penny Black stamp set featuring hedgehogs but I couldn't find an image on the Internet to show you. Here's her card....

She also used the circle die cutouts from Your Next Stamp. A super versatile item to have and can create many different looks by changing the background paper.

So there you have it. I'm back at least for the time being.

Cooked Cabbage

So I had a weird encounter at the grocery store the other day. I was stopped chatting with a friend in front of the cabbages and this lady joined in, assuming we were talking about the many uses of cabbage. One thing led to another, my friend bailed on me and I was caught talking to this Polish lady for about 20 minutes. She told me everything I needed to know about cooking cabbage so I felt I had to give it a try.
Tip #1 - use purple cabbage
Tip #2- fry bacon and don't dump out the grease, YIKES!
Tip #3 - add a splash of malt vinegar
Tip#4 - add a tsp of sugar or a few plums (whaat?)
Tip#5- a little bit of grated ginger adds a nice taste
Tip#6 - cover and let it steam
Tip#7- if you get gassy, add some peppermint, if you don't have any, break open a peppermint tea bag and stir it in
You get the idea. I actually ran into her 2 more times even though I was hiding in the pharmacy. I got a small history of Poland while I was doing my grocery shopping. Oh well, I just think she was happy to share her wisdom in the culinary dept etc.

So I kind of based my recipe on this and then added a few of her suggestions....

Cooked Cabbage
1/2 red cabbage coarsely chopped
4-5 slices of bacon
1 large onion diced
1 tsp sugar
salt, pepper, dash of paprika and onion powder/garlic powder to taste

Fry bacon and then add onion and cabbage and spices. Cover and steam and occasionally stir for about 20 minutes or until tender. This was really good and I didn't need to use Tip #7

Freshly Made Sketches

I'm back with my favourite Sketch site. I like clean and simple cards with not too much frou-frou and this fits the bill to get the mojo going. I borrowed a cute Gina Marie Onsie die from my friend and before you know it, I had whipped up 4 baby cards.
Here's the Sketch 259...

And here's the card I made based upon it...

I think it would work great for a boy!

September 30 Day Challenge

We DID have these cards made and exchanged before the last day of September but I'm just getting around to posting them now. It is so much fun seeing what the other person comes up with using the items that they borrowed from you.

This month, I borrowed Your Next Stamp (Fisherman Guy) not sure of his real name and I have given it back but this is what the set looked like...

Oh ya, it's called "Keeping it Reel" and I confess I copied my idea off something very similar that I spotted on the Internet. I need to go back to my Sketch challenges but can't seem to find the time lately.

I sponged the clouds in the sky again. My picture looks a little washed out. It's much nicer in person as they always say.

Keri borrowed this sweet stamp set from Simon Says Stamp that  had just arrived in the mail...

And here is her card....

It's so nice only making 2 cards instead of the usual 10 or so that we make for Card Swaps, this way you can experiment with some techniques that you want to try. Keri used the new scratch off which have a hidden sentiment underneath.
So that's it. Hope to be doing a little more cardmaking once the snow flies.

Autism Dog Services Grad

So I volunteered to make and fill bags for the Graduating teams of Autism Dog Services for 2016. The Ceremony was held at the Parade of People and Pets that took place last Sat at Confederation Park in Hamilton and although the weather didn't cooperate, we had a nice large pavilion to take shelter in. More on the actual event later.

I made up cards with help from my friend Keri for the 10 families that would have their lives changed by welcoming a Service dog into their family. For such a small organization, this is a great accomplishment to match so many teams up.

And inside the card...

I also made a bunch of Chocolate covered Oreos for the bags and for the Silent Auction.

For the bags, I found a design on my Silhouette for both the dog name and the child's name and used my Lawn Fawn alphabet dies to cut out the actual names. I was happy to finally use the Silhouette again. I should be using it more often.

The bag was stuffed and topped off with tissue...

It was a fun day and making the bags was right up my alley. Although I'm very glad that this Event is wrapped up and I can move on to some other things, like CLEANING!