Last minute craft project

The inspiration:

A Colourful Canvas

The ingredients:




The finished product:








The whole thing only took about 2 hours, and that includes the time I spent running around town looking at, and rejecting, about 200 pumpkins. (The ones that looked perfect in the pile all had a lean or a wobble when I sat them on the ground).
Thanksgiving Day is NOT the time to decide to do a craft project like this. Michael's was sold out of all the nice harvest-y coloured ribbons so I had to settle for this wimpy looking one, but over all I was pleased with the result. So was the recipient :)

Thanks to Sue for the idea and the instructions.

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Catching up

I know, I know, I'm a bad blogger. I'm so far behind I don't even remember the chronological order any more, so this is just a random mish mash of stuff.
Taz did eventually end up being a cone head for a few days.




Poor girl was NOT happy about that.




She is perfectly fine now, though. Once the stitches came out, she still looked kind of freaky with bare patches all over, so we shaved her down to try and even it out.
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Taz & I spent a wonderful afternoon at Big Hill Springs park




It's so pretty there.




Of course Taz's favourite part is the creek.












Then there was a weekend in Canmore. We were puppy sitting Muñeca, so of course there were lots of walks around the pretty paths there, and a couple of visits to the Quarry Lake off leash park.




Had to try out my new shoes.








So we headed to Bragg Creek to hike the Fullerton loop. Unfortunately, we got there at the exact same time as a large group. What are the odds, eh?




We lagged behind until we got to the decision point of the trail, hoping they would do the loop in the clockwise direction, but of course they didn't. I didn't want to listen to them all afternoon, so we went up the steep way. It was a little steeper than I remembered, or maybe I'm a lot older...either way, we were both pooped when we got to the top.




It was worth it though. All the pretty views are on the front side.
















I enjoyed it so much that I went back down the same way.




Stopped at Allen Bill pond for a cool off.








Back in the city. Look at the baby tower!




Sitting at the kitchen table one day, I swatted 4 wasps in about 10 minutes. Obviously, we had a problem. Dan discovered a hole in the outside wall, right by where our microwave vents. He got up before dawn the next day to spray, but it wasn't wholly successful, the wasps were still finding their way in. So, what started as a minor irritation turned into a full scale, 3 day project that involved removing the microwave, cleaning cupboards, plugging the hole, etcetera...




Out for a walk with Taz one morning, I was taking pictures of the sunrise. I turned around and it looked like someone had hung a painting on the side of the Real Estate Board building. Pretty cool. The sunrise pics that I took were crap, but I liked this reflection.




We've had just the best autumn this year. Tuesday we finally got the killing frost, but I grabbed the last of the flowers from the garden just in time.




Couple of cold days this week, but temps are starting to rise again, so the Indian Summer continues :)
It would be good weather to get the city parks cleaned up and ready for winter, but somebody in charge of the Parks Department budget messed up big time, so everybody was laid off early this year. Dan's last day of the season was Thursday - about a month earlier than usual! He's a happy man,! He has a long list of things that he wants to do before we head south.
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This & that

Look what was delivered yesterday - a thank you gift from Enmax!




A beautiful gift basket filled with gardening goodies. Look at this stuff...a planter, a tote bag, a vase, a pail with a ready-to-plant dahlia kit, a bag full of more dahlia bulbs, seeds, knee pads, 3 hand tools, a couple of solar lights, a Welcome To My Garden sign, glow sticks, a roll of twist ties, a nice pair of pruners AND gardening gloves! Wow!




And as if that wasn't enough, there was another little gift bag with this handy dandy mini solar charger for phone, I-pad etc. Pretty cool eh?




Other random stuff...

I usually lose (get trounced!) when playing Lexulous against the computer, But every once in a while I get a good word in. See? I got Cowling(s). Sure, I still lost, but it's always fun to get my name in there.




I actually won a game of computerized Mexican Train. I have a better chance of winning against my computer friends than I do against the real people, but I miss the MEXICAN TRAIN call and the clicky noise of the dominos.




The Smashed Potatoes that I pinned from the Pinterest site were a hit.




But the Hash Brown Casserole that we had for breakfast today was just okay. Unfortunate really, because there's enough to feed a dozen people.




My money laundering experiment.




Remember the big hailstorm that we had a couple of weeks ago? I meant to post this earlier, but forgot. This is 19th street the next morning. Kinda pretty, I thought.




Taz continues to improve daily. The stitches still look like Hell, but they don't seem to be bothering her too much. We're still keeping a close eye on her to make sure she doesn't scratch at them and tear them, but so far, so good.


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BENIGN!!

All of them! :) :) :) :) :)


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Frankendog. Warning- graphic content.

Frankendog! She just needs the little screws at her temples...

We finally took the lumpy old girl in to have some of her many lumps removed.

We know that golden retrievers are something like 60% more likely to develop cancer than any other breed, so even though her vet has been telling us for a while that he wasn't worried about the ones that she had, she's developed more recently, so it seemed prudent to have them checked out.

We identified 7 that were potentially problematic. 2 on her chest, a huge one and a small one on her back, 1 on her tummy, a fair sized one on her right hip, and a small odd- shaped one on the back of her left leg.

She went under the knife yesterday. When we picked her up that afternoon, I almost lost my lunch. My beautiful little girl looks like something out of a horror movie.




The two on her chest were aspirated (needle stuck in and fluid drawn out) and it was determined that they were nothing-to-worry-about lipomas (fatty cysts), so they didn't remove them.

This is the big one on her back. It was also just a lipoma, but we wanted it removed anyway because it was so large. Not that we care about what she looks like, but everybody that pets her kind of freaks out about it and that, in turn, causes me a lot of stress and anxiety.



This little one was also on her back, but it was harder and smaller than the lipomas, so it will be sent to the lab for analysis.




This nasty L-shaped incision is the one on her right hip, it's going to the lab too.




As is this one from her back left leg.




And the one on her tummy.




Poor Taz doesn't have a good side to lie on, so she had a very uncomfortable night last night. She seemed to settle down a bit when we let her up on the bed with us, and even slept for a couple of hours, which means everybody slept for a couple of hours. Albeit uncomfortably. (yawn)

The vet suggested that we put a t-shirt on her to stop her from licking the incisions, beats heck out of those Elizabethan collars, but she doesn't seem to be going at them, so we might dispense with that.




We put it on when we went to the park last night, and this morning, more as a warning to other dog owners that something was wrong, and to reign in their animals around her, but it impedes her movements and catches on the stitches, so I'm thinking it has to go - even if it IS stylish.




Anyway, she seems much better today. She's figured out how to lie down without hurting herself, so she's spent most of the day snoozing.
My co-worker phoned this morning to volunteer to cover my day for me tomorrow so I can stay home with her again. (Thank you, Anne!!!)
Dan will be home with her on Friday, and by the time we have to go back to work on Tuesday, she should be on the mend.

We won't get the results back until next week sometime, but we have our fingers crossed for good news.

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...and ACTION!

Dan's 15 minutes of fame should air on an obscure cable show in about two months, and possibly on mainstream network T.V. as a commercial for Enmax too.




Enmax called a couple of weeks ago and asked Dan if he would mind appearing on camera to tell the world why we chose to go with solar power, and he said that he would. Of course, he was thinking that it would be a 3 minute interview in the back yard with a representative from Enmax, and a guy with a videocam, and maybe 10 seconds of that would actually make it to air. WRONG!!!

At 8:30 on Friday morning our house was invaded by a full crew, complete with a script, make-up, and enough Starbucks coffee and pastries for a small army - and they were still here when I got home at 5:15!!!

Apparently they did two separate tapings. One was a commercial for Enmax, and the other was part of a news segment on the aforementioned cable show.

Friday morning was cold & raining - not a great day to be standing in the back yard talking about the merits of solar energy, so our house was rearranged and staged for indoor interviews, and shots of Dan turning on the T.V. ,and light switches, and using the microwave, etc.
They brought a nice flower arrangement as a prop and also to thank us.




Luckily, the sun popped out in the afternoon, so they were able to get the outdoor stuff done also. Too bad they didn't come before the hailstorm when the garden looked nice, but there's nothing we could do about that.
Dan says that Taz made a couple of accidental cameo appearances by wandering into the backyard shots :-) Please, no pawtographs, we don't need a diva on our hands.

Dan, of course, is a pro at that kind of thing. He has no problem with speaking in public and he has experience in front of a camera. He was the hot air balloon pilot in that hokey movie in Argentina, and he's had his mug splashed on the front page of the Lifestyle section of the Calgary Herald wearing a flight suit that he sewed himself, but I think he was a little bit intimidated when the 3-ring circus showed up at the door. He says that he's not happy with his performance, and he's hoping that it never sees air, but I'm betting he did a great job! As the crew was leaving, they were gushing about how easy it had been to work with him, and what a natural he is!

I'll try to get some autographed 8x10 glossies out to his fans soon.

Gotta go. There are lots of pastries left, and they're calling my name.

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After the hailstorm

Holy crap! That was the LOUDEST storm in the history of the world! Just ask Taz - she thought the sky was falling, I'm sure. Well, it sorta was. Most of our hail was just a bit bigger than pea-size, but there were some pretty significant chunks in there too!




Bigger than a dog's nose.







The good news is that our new solar panels appear to be un-damaged, the bad news is that my garden is completely flattened! I've spent most of the day on clean up duty. I've filled 6 garbage bags so far - and that's just the deadfall, I haven't gotten around to dealing with the damaged plants yet. That might have to wait until tomorrow; my back is starting to complain.







This was the pretty pink Lavatera.




This was the big, bushy bleeding heart.




The clematis vine that made a miraculous recovery from last year has been pretty much stripped bare.




The window box before & after.




The hostas really took a beating.




And my breakfast view has changed from yesterday.



Oh well, I can always look forward to next year's garden.

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