Paw it forward

Duke was so excited. He got something in the mail the other day. It was a package form none other than Sugar. He participated in Sugar's "Paw it forward"

Just look at those goodies he got.

This is Duke's "Enough of the pictures, I want to try the treats" look.

And this is his "Look how nice I sit up" look.

Yeah, I caved right after that one. I have pictures of us shaking on it and me actually giving him the treat but holding the camera with one hand while trying to interact with Duke made for some very blurry pictures. Thank you so much Sugar, Duke just loved the goodies.

(this next part is  copied right from Sugar's blog)

It's my turn to do Paw It Forward.

Here are the rules ... 

“The exchange focuses on doing an act of kindness without expecting anything in return other than that the recipient will, in their turn, pass the kindness along and ‘paw it forward’ in their own way. This is how it works…we are going to agree to send something fun, inspiring or uplifting to the first 3 bloggie friends who post a comment on this entry. In turn you will then post about this on your blog, then send something to the first three friends who sign up to play along through your blog. There are no cost restraints, but don’t go crazy! The little something you send can be something you made, bought, were given or found. No biggie, just a gift that will make the person smile. Maybe something unique from where you live? And, remember that kindness doesn’t have to involve money; there are untold ways to help others every single day, everywhere you go – just look around.” SO PAW IT FORWARD… 

If you would like to take part in this game, then please indicate clearly in your comment and I will ’Paw It Forward’ to the first

3 bloggie friends who say they want to join in.

The daylily

I have some lilies growing on the side of my house that I've always called tiger lilies. When I decided to post a picture of them here I thought I would check to make sure I was calling them by the right name first so as not to appear less than knowledgeable. What I discovered was that I've been wrong. They are actually day lilies. Oh well now I know. And now you also know that I was less than knowledgeable about my lilies.

Raspberries anyone?

We were out on a walk and spotted these berries.

 Duke was wondering if you liked raspberries because he wants to give you some.

He's so funny.

Identification please

I was walking through the basement and spotted a bug on the window. A few years back, before I was bitten by the camera bug, I would have run for something to swat it with. Now I need to photograph bugs before they die. So I ran for the camera and luckily it was still there on the window when I got back. I have no clue what this thing is. Any of you know?

It's more of a silhouette but you can see the shape of it and check out those hairy legs....ewwwww. I had the camera real close so I could try and get a good macro shot with my older camera. When I pulled the camera away from the window the bug was gone. I turned the camera over and there it was sitting on my lens. I just about dropped my camera.

Totally unrelated to the bug, I'm sure you noticed a new look. You may see things change frequently around here until I decide what I really like. I'm not totally sold on this yet. Who knows I may end up just going back to the way I had it. Only time will tell.

What's the buzz?

I've spent the day doing something totally out of the ordinary. I cleaned my house top to bottom. What? You do that on a regular basis? You say it's easier to keep up with that way? Well maybe you're right but it seriously cuts in to my blogging time and I can't have that. I just don't understand how things manage to get so messy around here when it's just Wade and I. It couldn't possibly be the fact that I get busy working on something and leave everything laying out instead of putting things away. Oh well, no one comes over here anyway so we're the only ones that ever see it. It bugs Wade but I say "tough" if you don't like my mess, clean it up yourself. Otherwise he can wait until I'm darn good and ready to take care of it.
So the buzz for today is I was cleaning and didn't have time for anything other than this picture for my post.

Hope you guys all had more fun than I did today

But mom, I don't want to come in.

Aw, poor Dukie.

Doesn't he look so sad? He wants to swim just one more time. I always have to laugh when I look at his face. He looks like he's been eating mud or something. I've used the whitening shampoo on him but I just can not get that clean. I even asked the groomer we go to the last time I was there what to do. She told me there wasn't anything that would get that clean.  I guess Duke is doomed to a life with a dirty face.

Look what just flew in

All that sitting in the grass playing with the weeds finally paid off. I managed to get a couple pictures of birds. They aren't the best but I'll take what I can get.
This one I enlarged quite a bit because I was quite a ways away when I took it. If I would have posted the original you would be sitting there saying "yeah, sure there's a bird there Ann" 

 This one was just a little too busy chowing down to turn around and say cheese for me.

 I just love going out in the backyard and hearing all the singing going on in the trees. I don't always see them but I can hear them and I know they're there.

May I bug you for a second

This won't take long I promise. Due to the fact that I have temporarily run out of ideas I will simply bug you and then be off.

 So tell me what's bugging you today. It might make you feel better to get it out.

Knickknack Pattywack

You can give the dog a bone.

But don't even think about trying to take it back from him.

 He may look like he's sleeping in the next one but believe me he's got one eye on that bone.

 He did actually growl at me for getting to close to it. This isn't the first time he has gotten overly protective of his prize. I bought him a soup bone at Christmas time and he was growling at anyone who got too close. He's not like that with any of his toys or other chewie items. He seems to be quite proud of himself for guarding his treasure so well.

 Or is he daring me to just try and take it away?

The green green grass of home

I would like to say that I have a perfectly manicured lawn free of weeds. It would be a lie if I did. There is an advantage to having all those weeds mixed in with the grass though. It gives me something to do when all the birds fly away when I try to take their picture. I know there are much better things I could be doing than sitting in the yard taking pictures of weeds. Why though? I like it when the neighbors think I've lost my last marble.
Here's a few things I found in my yard.
There's quite a bit of this.

And lots of this.

I liked the way this root from the tree looked although I should have moved the grass out of the way.

 And of course this is the cutest thing I saw in my yard.

 He might also be responsible for making the birds fly away. I could blame it on him but then they fly away when I go out alone too so he's off the hook for that one.

Father's Day

What Makes a Dad

God took the strength of a mountain,
The majesty of a tree,
The warmth of a summer sun,
The calm of a quiet sea,
The generous soul of nature,
The comforting arm of night,
The wisdom of the ages,
The power of the eagle's flight,
The joy of a morning in spring,
The faith of a mustard seed,
The patience of eternity,
The depth of a family need,
Then God combined these qualities,
When there was nothing more to add,
He knew His masterpiece was complete,
And so,

He called it ... Dad

~~Author Unknown.~~

Happy Father's Day to all you dads out there, I hope that you are enjoying your day.

Duke plans on spending the day with his human dad today.

And he hopes you all get to spend time with yours too.

What I made for Amanda

Remember the other day I told you about a project I had been working on? Well today I'm going to show you what it is.
I got the idea when I was looking through a book and saw a card that they had used the king of heart from a deck of playing cards. The whole project just sort of took off from there.
I dug into my stash of cardboard and paper and before I knew it I had this.

I was going to send it to her just like this but the more I looked at it, it just seemed to be missing something. I thought about it a couple days, played around with it and decided it needed to be framed. Since I liked the cardboard frame I had made before I thought I would make another one for this. And here is the finished project.

 The tiles that spell out their names are little squares of cardboard that I painted and attached the letters to. Then I strung them on some twine to hang them from a picture hook. I found the headline "Great Catches" in the sports section of the newspaper. There was more to the headline of course but those two words fit perfectly with the theme.

 Notice it also has the words "with two arms" under the headline. Then I found a quote that I really liked, printed it out on parchment paper and glued it to another piece of cardboard.

 Finally one last picture of the back. I know it's not real exciting but I used the crackle paint on the back of it too.

Since I writing this in advance and scheduling it for a later day I don't know what she thinks of it yet but I hope she likes it.

Brenda Photo Challenge (6-19) Bed Time

It's time for another Brenda Photo Challenge. The theme is bed time. Now this is one that I can really get comfortable with. If I had sweet little grandchildren I would be able to use pictures of little angels in slumber but I don't have any. I could take pictures of me sleeping but, well, um, I would be sleeping and how do I take a picture then.
I decided on a typical week night bed time routine.
Of course you have to brush the teeth before you go to bed.

 I'm not the morning type at all, so as little thinking as possible when I get up is my plan. Therefor I always pick out my clothes for the next morning and set them on the dresser. That way all I have to do is grab them and get dressed.

 As much as I would like to forget to, I have to set the alarm. I wouldn't want to be late now would I? 

 Well that about covers it. Now it's off to bed and nothing but sweet dreams. But wait. What is this? There seems to be someone already in my bed.

Shhhh, don't wake the puppy. Now you know I had to sneak Duke in here.

Now go and check out the rest of the bed time entries. That's where I'm headed right now.

Quilled card

I have a little project that I've been dieing to show you. I made a couple of things for Amanda and I want to be sure that she got them before I post them. I'm writing my posts ahead of time and scheduling them so it's hard to know for sure when she'll get the package. I think it's pretty safe to at least show you the card that I made for her.

 It's nothing super fancy but I liked the way it turned out. I made the flower pots and stems in photoshop elements then printed them out and glued on the quilled flowers and leaves. I'll give it a couple more days then I'll be back with the other thing that I made for her. Just a hint, it's another one of my cardboard projects.

Look up

Isn't it funny how you can walk by something hundreds of times and never really notice it and then one day it just sort of jumps out at you? While walking through the park I passed by a house that sits at near one of the entrances. Behind the house is a very run down garage. I can certainly understand why I never paid much attention to it. It's really quite unattractive. On that particular day I was looking up while I was walking and noticed the roof of the garage all covered with moss. Maybe it was the moss, maybe it was the way the light was hitting it, but I just liked what I saw.

I wouldn't want this thing sitting out behind my house unless it was fixed up but the roof just happened to catch my attention.

While I was looking up I took this picture too.

Bath house

Over the weekend we did some more yard work. Cleaning the bird bath was one of the jobs that needed to be done. Duke was the one that pointed out how dirty it was.

Just look at all those happy birds out there now that they have a clean bath.

 Duke is quite satisfied with a job well done. Now we can just chill out and enjoy the view.

Backyard visitors

The birds have been flocking to the backyard like crazy. I've always had birds but not the variety that I've been seeing so far this year. Normally it's the sparrows and the robins that I see. So far I've spotted, sparrows, robins, goldfinch, house finch,  blue jay and cardinal.

The pictures aren't all that good since most of them were taken through the window. Every time I go outsideand try and get pictures they all take off. I've also had to use my old camera since I can't get close enough with my new one. Maybe one of these days I'll be able to spring for a new lens but for now this is what I get.

Scenes from a Mopar Show

Last weekend there was a car show being held at the borough park. Of course we had to head on down and check out all the cool cars. This one was strictly Mopar and since Wade is a big Dodge fan we couldn't miss it.
Loved the front bumper on this truck

And here's a few more that I got pictures of.

Unfortunately it was raining quite a bit that day in the morning so the turn out wasn't all that great. There weren't nearly as many cars there as there has been other years. It was still fun to check them all out and pick our favorites.

Screened

I was just playing around with the camera the other day and taking pictures of just about everything. I took one through the screen in the window and I was quite surprised how it turned out.
Have a look for yourself.

Instant texture added to the picture. It made me think what else I could use. I just may have to do some more experimenting.

Yard Work

With warm weather you always have plenty of outside work to do. Aside from keeping the pool clean, weeding the flower beds and trimming hedges there's also lawn maintenance.
Wade takes some time to cut some of the branches off of the pear tree. If you ever ran into a pear tree branch while mowing you would know why. The branches have nice little thorns on them and mowing around that tree can be a real pain, literally. Wade hates that tree.

While he does that Duke inspects the mower. After all it's a very old mower and one should check everything out before proceeding. Front tires look good, seem to be holding air pretty well.

Mower deck looks all clear.

Yep, everything looks fine there too.

 Oh piss on it, lets just go have a cold one.

Sorry, just couldn't help myself with that one. I had to do it.

The Boxcar Children

I remember when I was a kid reading a series of books called The Boxcar Children. They were all about the adventures of the Alden children. After the death of their parents they were to live with their grandfather but they ran away and found an old abandoned boxcar that they lived in.
It's been years since I thought about these stories but I saw something while out walking that brought them all back to mind.
This may not be a box car, but it was close enough to remind me of the books

Did you ever read The Boxcar Children? What was your favorite book when you were a child?