A Whole Flock

Here are the birds which arrived in the exchange I posted about earlier. I am still waiting for one that is late, but hopefully it will find its way to me eventually. Aren't they nifty? They are all so unique. I will eventually hang them in my studio where I know they will inspire me.

I made a 9" quilt block to go into a quilt for a friend (thankfully i don't have to make the quilt!). I honestly can't remember the last time I made a plain ol' quilt block (the round robin not included, because there was nothing plain or ol' about that!). I got to play with some of the fancy stitches on my new machine, which was fun. The guidelines were pink/red hearts on a cream background. I think it came out cute.

Spring has certainly arrived when the dogwoods bloom. They are our state flower and while they are quite unassuming small trees during most of the year, they put on quite a show in April. This one is in our front yard.

Rosi just turned 5 months old. We are two weeks into puppy training class and she is a model student. This past week we were to start instructing "sit" without verbal cues. She had it down before the end of class. She still has a lot to learn, but she's a smart little girl. She's about 40 lbs now and we're all speculating at how big she'll actually get. Mom was only about 45 lbs, but we're thinking maybe 50-55 for this one. Time will tell!

Here's a recent photo. She took the pillow out of her little puppy bed (which she ignores) and had a ball removing all the stuffing. Since it was her pillow, we allowed it, but the stuffing did not go back in the pillow, so the fun's over. She hasn't touched any of my pillows, so as long as we have that understanding, all is well. Actually she is very good about not chewing on things that don't belong to her.

Yesterday was momentous - Rosi barked, ( a real, deep, doggie bark) for the first time. I just stood there staring at her a bit dumbfounded as if I couldn't quite believe it was coming from the dog in front of me. Three or four hearty woofs and it was over and she hasn't barked since. Guess she's found her voice.

It's so hard to believe that she's been with us for only 3 1/2 months, and she has grown so much. Where did that roly poly lump of pudge go? I knew that dogs reached physical maturity in a year's time, but I had no idea that they did most of that growing in the first 16 weeks. So here's a photo of the little lump when she was only 10.6 lbs. It's hard to even remember now!

In spite of all the growing, I'm glad I don't have newspapers all over my kitchen floor any more!