This is the Life

Hello there and welcome back!

We're not done with summer yet, but pretty soon we'll be thinking "fall".  In fact, I already am.  Geez, it's so close!

My Sleeping Mouse from Colorado Craft Company is from one of several "card kits" I created directly after Christmas last year.  This kit had the makings for three cards with focal images stamped and ready to color, card bases made up with designer paper, as well as embellishments chosen and tucked into the bag.  They were infinite fun from start to finish.

 

This little guy was colored with Copics, cut with the matching die, and set onto an oldie Poppystamps Woodland Oval.  The designer paper is Brutus Monroe Autumn Tapestries with Freshly Made Sketch #707.  The flower is Cottage Cutz.

All three cards from my made-up kit are pictured below -- Colorado Craft Company This is the Life and Sleeping Mouse.

I think they'd make a cute little gift set tied up with raffia, and I have a friend with a fall birthday who might just love them.

No challenges today, just playing in my room.  Our son is coming this weekend and I have a big, hearty soup to make, so I'll be in the kitchen after a friend and I take our pretty girls for long walk in our hilly neighborhood.  Sophie's sweet friend, Myrtle, is a mini-Australian Shepherd who lives just around the corner.  The two of them make quite a pair!

One more of just Sophie with her new collar from one of the craft booths at our local Blackberry Festival last weekend.  It's only for dress up, not for everyday.

Thank you for joining me.  I wish you a lovely day!

Weekend Update

When you don't have grandkids... 

I hope you don't mind a few photos of my other obsession -- Sophie and Ridley.  They're the biggest part of my life these days.

Thank goodness for them.  I'd like to think they're living their best life because they sure make mine a whole lot better.

Love

💕

Doggie Beach Day

How about a little Sophie and Ridley today?

It was almost like summer last Monday when my son and I took the kids to the beach.  It was Ridley's first time at the actual ocean shore as opposed to the bay and he loved it.  Everything's okay as long as his big sister Sophie is with him.

Low tide and gentle waves on a warm and windless day -- perfection.

I accidently got in over my ankles with my shoes on, so might as well have fun with it.

Ridley is now 10 months old, Sophie 2 1/2 yrs.

The photo below is my favorite of the day with the way they're leaning into each other, sharing their joy.  I never fail to appreciate how lucky I am to have the two of them in my life.

Wishing you a perfect day!

New Year Update

Hello, friends.  Maybe you've noticed the sparseness of my posts lately.  I'm behind in everything and everywhere I turn there's another job to do, another matter to address.  Do not worry, I'm okay, I've made a few cards and will start posting them soon and then I'll be ready to get behind again.  Isn't that the way it goes sometimes?  As Rich's health grows worse there is more required of me.  Just in the last month there has been a big change and I'm still adjusting.  I'd hoped it was a temporary setback, but perhaps not.  Nevertheless, we keep on enjoying what we can whenever we get a chance to do so.

The photo below was taken the Sunday after Christmas when my son and I took Sophie and Ridley for a fun doggie day in the dunes.  My favorite part of the dunes are the woodland trails where we can walk for miles.  Here we had stopped for a rest in a mossy patch.  You can tell the dogs had been having a good time by how their tongues are hanging.  Our Ridley is growing into a fine young man, isn't he?  He's 8 months old now.

Pictured below is Christmas day -- Sophie wants ALL the toys!

That's all I have for now.  Cards are coming soon.

Happy new year!

Sunday Moment

Aside from the many activities involved in running a household and managing life in general...  there's mornings in my craft room (they're always with me):

Afternoon in the woods:

Weekend at the bay:

And a spectacular winter sunset view from my front yard:

Just wrapping up the week, keeping in mind the things that bring joy.

I hope you find some joy today.

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Taking a Moment

Pausing mid-play in the back yard to appreciate my favorite fall colors... of the furry variety.

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Outside my kitchen patio door is the promise of a beautiful day.

Sometimes I just have to take a moment.

Wishing you a beautiful and joy-filled day.

Sophie and Ridley Update

Hello! I've been working on cards for next week, but Saturday seems like a good time for an update on the kids.  The first picture is the most recent I have, and it represents how we start our days.  Just look at these two, sigh... I cannot complain that two such beautiful, soft, warm, loving creatures are this eager to see us first thing in the morning.

The first week or two Ridley was given plenty of opportunity to explore his new home and garden and learn how amazing it all is.  I hope his brother has found a good home as well.

Of course, we had to take him to the sand dunes at the first opportunity.  Sophie is SO happy to share her joy with Ridley!

It's as though Sophie has been waiting for him all this time.  She mothers him, teaches him, loves him.  She's always been a very special girl, but Ridley has truly brought out the best in her.

My heart is full.

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How I Spent My National Dog Day

You knew I couldn't stop at one, didn't you?  What better way to celebrate National Dog Day (Aug. 26) than to give Sophie a little brother?  Say hello to Ridley!

Rich came up with the name, by the way.  This is the guy who said a second dog was all my thing and he really had no input, yet it turns out he laid awake at night thinking of names.

Ridley is already 16 weeks old, one of the last two left behind from a litter of nine.  The others must have been really something because to my eyes Ridley is perfect.  He has the sweetest, most gentle way about him.  His color will darken as he matures, and he'll fluff out a bit, but never as much as Sophie.  He's what Rich and I call the Field and Stream model.

Frankly, I never expected Sophie to be as big and fluffy as she is.  She's a whole lot of lady and can be quite boisterous and sometimes oddly grumpy, but she seems to have taken quite happily to her role of big sister.  I think they'll be good for each other.

Ridley was raised to this point outside in a pen, not in a mean, heartless way, but in the way that some would raise a working class dog.  Earlier siblings have gone on to be avalanche rescue heroes or fine hunters.  He had never been walked on a leash, or house trained, or socialized outside the family.  His home was rural, and there were no kids or grandkids.

Well, never mind all that because we've found him to be affectionate and at ease with every human and dog he meets, and he's met quite a few in the four days he's been with us.  He's okay with the leash, but nervous about the street.  Best of all -- he had one pee accident in the house and that was the end of it.  He practically house trained himself!

I tried and tried to find a suitable rescue dog.  It didn't have to be a Golden Retriever, but it needed to be a friendly, intelligent dog, preferably not a puppy, but young enough to handle Sophie's exuberance.  I'd hoped for a medium-size mixed breed, but a daily search was fruitless.  Then I saw Ridley and his brother in a local shopper ad... the rest is history in the making.

What a pair they're going to be, and what a good life they'll have together!

It's Labor Day weekend and our son is coming to visit.  He's crazy about Sophie and couldn't wait to meet Ridley.

I'll be back with cards very soon as I have some scheduled posts.  You know how I am with the camera, so I'll be back with more pics of the kids soon, too.

Have a good day!

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A Slice of Life July 2025

There was a time this post would have been full of flower pictures, but sometimes there are other distractions to capture my attention... starting with Sophie.  She'll be two years old in August and has grown into a sturdy and very fluffy girl.  She was good enough to stop and let me take her picture, but she definitely had adventure on her mind at the time.

The picture below was actually taken in June.  Town turkeys, geez.  Ordinarily they're only here in the fall.  They don't bother me so much and, heck, I think all babies are cute.

The young buck in velvet, below, caught my eye through the window, so I went out with my camera thinking my photo efforts would be a gentle way to shoo him from the garden.  It worked, but he lingered in the woods for a while.  He's probably been visiting here since he was a fawn.

Pictured below, Sophie is beckoning me to her favorite place of sticks and loam and the scent of critters who've passed along the trails.  She's at the head of the path right behind our garden shed, leading to the network of trails I cut years ago.  Just like Wally and LuLu before her, Sophie has the run of the place with or without my supervision.  She's a good girl and knows her boundaries.  She doesn't stay down there long without checking in, and she comes running gleefully when she's called.

The fawn below is standing at the very same spot in which Sophie was pictured.  A doe and two fawns were lounging alongside our shed, and the buck was munching on native foliage nearby, probably part of the same family.  This fawn is robust and healthy, but just as I took this picture another smaller, paler fawn stood up and wobbled weakly into the woods.

I was and still am very worried about the weakling fawn, and fear I may find another casualty in the woods this year.  I waited a while and then ventured quietly down the path.  Just a few steps in I found the family resting once again.  The weak fawn is laying down, the healthy fawn is standing the other side of Mom.  You can see its two back legs in their knock-kneed stance just beyond her.

Finally, Sophie is now at the front end of the yard in the cool shade of the cherry tree where she loves to roll in the emerald lawn and chew on the sticks she brings up from the woods.

The past two summers I let the garden go.  I was grief stricken the summer of 2023, then the summer of 2024 Rich was very sick and I spent all my time as a caregiver and chief cook and bottle washer.  Over the last 5 years we've lost 4 trees, changing the look of the garden significantly.  The deer were already eating everything in sight anyway, so I threw up my hands.  This spring the whole front of the yard and half of the side were torn up for sewer line replacement.  It's never ending.  However, once the landscapers finished the huge job of putting our yard back together I decided I missed my garden and now I've started over.  Hence the back and foot pain, sigh.

It will never be the same, but a person has to just keep going forward with hope... and lots of deer spray and altered expectations.

Have a beautiful day!

Farm Scene

Hello and happy Friday, friends!  Just a little something I colored for the Penny Black Saturday Challenge -- "On the Farm"  -- for March.  Wait, what?  That was two months ago.  At that time I pulled this stamp out thinking it was my one not-yet-used Penny Black stamp that looked somewhat farm-y, and then I don't know what happened, but I didn't get it done until now.  That's the way it goes in my stamp room -- I'm easily sidetracked.

I'm enjoying my playtime with last year's Penny Black stamps before I start on the new Penny Black.  This one is from the Scent of Spring set.  Looks like someone's been gathering eggs.  Stamped in Memento London Fog and colored with Copics.  A little gingham and wood grain helps with the countrified look.

Down home at the Miller residence Sophie is happy to be helping in the garden.  See her smile?  She's my sweetheart. 

Playing along here today:

Penny Black Saturday Challenge -- Monochrome or Anything Goes

Thank you for stopping by to say hello!  Have a happy day!

Stamps:  Penny Black Scent of Spring and Super Day  Paper:  Neenah Classic Crest Super Smooth Solar White 80 lb, Mintay Farm Life designer paper  Ink:  Memento London Fog and Toffee Crunch, Stampin' Up Bashful Blue  Coloring:  Copics  Other:  Lil' Inker Silly Stitched Die Set, Spellbinders A2 Bracket Borders One, linen thread