On the way to flyball

Bleys and Jubilee on the way to flyball practice this morning. Jubilee did awesome, as expected. She didn't care who she ran for, Derek, me, whoever. As long as there was a ball involved she was fine. Bleys did all right as well. He still gets a little spooked when a dog is coming off the lane and he is supposed to go on it. And he still doesn't grok that it would be great if he actually caught the ball from the box, but it's going well anyway. I think they both had a good time.

Roland was nice enough to join me this morning to help wrangle both dogs and crates and whatnot. It was nice to have him there, but it is very early, so I'm not sure how often it will happen. Oh, and there are a couple other pictures of these two on the way to practice in my Flickr account if you are interested.

Hanging out

After a short morning at the dog park everyone wanted to hang out with Roland. Apparently that's the place to be. I wanted to spend longer at the park, but Jubilee chased about a million tennis balls and frisbees and she was panting really hard and wouldn't take a break. So we came back early. I figure if it comes down to it, we can go back later and use up some more energy.

Jubilee

I'm dog sitting this weekend. A woman named Andrea recently moved to the area and has been practicing with our flyball team. She runs with a team up in Jacksonville, so going to practice with them every week isn't going to work.

Anyway, Andrea had to go away for the weekend so I'm looking after her gorgeous lab Jubilee. Isn't she beautiful? So far we've just been hanging out, but I think tomorrow we will leave Roland in peace to grade papers for a while and go to the park. Then on Sunday we will all troop over to flyball practice. Should be a good time. I'm not sure Jubilee will do a flyball run without her person, but even if she doesn't I can take my Chuck-it and we can play fetch after the practice. That way when Andrea comes to pick up Jubilee later on Sunday she will hopefully be all tired out and ready to relax for the rest of the day.

Human Flyball

One of the ladies from flyball had this linked on her youtube page. This is what happens when the tables are turned. Warning the videography is questionable at best, and a bit on the loud side.

Power

And one more time. This was a cute design, but it doesn't ring my bell, like the skull, rampage, or panda ones.

Rampage!

You guessed it, another onesie. This one was a little difficult because the edges of the applique were so complex, but it's one of my favorites.

Jolly

Another onesie for Etsy. This one has a white fleece skull appliqued on it. I think I might like this one better if it was on a onesie that wasn't white. That way the skull would stand out more. As it is I'm liking the fleece appliques the best. They give it an added dimension with the soft feel. Although I still think the cherries are best suited to the sheen of satin.

With a cherry on top

Today I appliqued this little onesie to sell on Etsy. I also tried another design, but something went awry and that one didn't turn out. Oh well, I will just have to try again. I have a couple other designs I want to try out and I'm hoping I can find relatively cheap onesies in other colors. I will have to go hunting at some baby stores. Some of the designs look best on the white, but some others might be cute on other colors. I found that gray one from yesterday at target for not too much, and they also had red and navy. As my mom used to say about my attempts to clean my room...It's a start.

Munch

Today I made this baby bodysuit to sell on Etsy. Bodysuit? Isn't that just a onesie? Well yes, it is, but it turns out that 'onesie' is a copyright of Gerber, so only Gerber bodysuits can technically be called onesies. I had no idea.

Anyway, it is a long sleeved heather gray 12 month onesie, which I appliqued this totally adorable panda on. The panda is white fleece with embroidered detailing, which gives it a really nice soft feel and adds some interest. I think it is super cute, and I think tomorrow I'm going to try out a couple more new applique designs.

Can't you just hear the barely audible little crunching of bamboo leaves?

Embroidered Storage Box

Yesterdays craft was making this embellished photo storage box. I bought the white box and then covered the lid with some fabric I embroidered. The white, purple, and black motif matches the sewing room of my dreams (which I started in Michigan, but had to leave behind and now I can't pain the walls). Originally the design was to put grommets in the sides of the box for a ribbon holder where you can just pull the ribbon to dispense it. But I decided that I wanted a neater, cleaner look and skipped them. I also added some lengths of dowel to keep the ribbon tidy in the box. I'm thinking about making another one to replace my old photo storage box as well. There are more pictures of this on my flickr page (just click on the picture) including a closeup of the embroidery design.

Stowaway

Roland is at his Georgetown reunion this weekend, however Bleys didn't seems to want him to go. Here he is trying out his chances at stowing away in the luggage.

Peanut Butter Kong

One of Bleys' favorite things in life is a Kong toy filled with peanut butter and then frozen. However, we quickly discovered that if left to his own devices he would get his ears all up in the peanut butter creating quite a sticky mess. So, now before he gets this delectable treat I pull his ears back with one of my hair ties. Admittedly he doesn't appreciate this and it looks pretty silly, but the peanut butter is enough to distract him from the embarrassment of it all.

Watching

Do you ever get that feeling, like you're being watched?

Spirit

I just watched Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron and one of the bonus features on the DVD was a learn to draw Spirit section. I figured I would try it out, despite the notorious difficultly level of drawing horses. Not having a whole lot of drawing talent, I think didn't turn out too badly. At least you can tell it's supposed to be a horse anyhow!

Fame

In the category of interesting things you learn when you have sitemeter. I sometimes like to look at from whence visitors came, and today I found out that Bleys is more famous than previously known. He can be found here (2/3 of the way down), although I apparently should be embarrassed that I made him that costume. And he can be found here as an example of a well restrained pooch, although for most shorter trips I prefer the safety of a crate. If we are driving over 1,000 miles though I sort of feel bad stuffing him in there for days at a time.

Storm Riders Embroidered Apron

So, for a while I've been eyeballing an add-on to my embroidery software that would allow me to take my own images and digitize them into embroidery designs. It's a little on the expensive side, so I've been putting it off. However, last week, I finally broke down and bought it. It.Is.So.Cool. My first effort was the flyball team logo (you check out the original here). Which turned out pretty well, if I do say so myself. I'm still figuring out the program and what it can do, but I think it looks pretty professional.

The reason I chose the logo to do first is that each flyball team needs have someone to load the tennis balls in the flyball box during races. The woman who does this for the Storm Riders team, Lane, is a really nice lady. She is in the process of training Jake, her rat terrier. Jake and Bleys are pretty close to the same level I think, but Jake has the potential to be much faster. Anyway, Lane does this awesome job for the team, without much thanks most of the time. I thought it would be nice to give her an apron (most people who do this job wear one to hold the extra tennis balls within reach, but out of site) with the logo on it. I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out. Although I sort of made up all the dimensions, so I'm going to tell her that I will make another one wider/longer/whatever-er if she wants.

Tricky

Bleys is pretty good at his Buster Cube, maybe it's time to graduate to some more difficult puzzles?

La-Ti-Da

You know those Target ads that have been on lately? Well, the song feature in them is by a band from Grand Rapids! Who know who we will be hearing next...Skatey-Eight perhaps?