I know, I know – it’s been a while…. I am a poor blogger, incapable of keeping to a schedule, or even regular posts.  But as most of you know, this is supposed to be a blog about my arty-crafty output – and my arty-crafty life has been severely curtailed by a bouncy little fat puppy who LOVES the work room because his mumma zones out somewhere else altogether and he gets to rearrange and change up – or down – all he likes until she eventually becomes aware all is not well ……..  usually by picking up on the fact that it has been Q-U-I-E-T for a long time…………

Last time I zoned out and was concentrating on a work in progress he removed all the paints from the shelf at the back of the easel. took them into the lounge and chomped holes through two of them leaving artistic stripes of blue and red – and therefore purple too – along the bottom of my lovely white door curtain……….. Oh, look – another excuse to change up the decor.  🙂

For me it has been interesting to discover that when I’m in the zone, artistically speaking, I hear nothing.  I am totally immersed.  Totally in the moment, totally zen  🙂  Who knew!

Right now I’m not though.  Right now I’m typing this with a little round puppy sitting beside me doing his best Marx Brother impersonation with a chew stick poking out the side of his mouth which he is chomping on most enthusiastically while occasionally leering up at me and giving me a gentle nudge.

Don’t you love this photo?  Does it make you smile or laugh out loud?

Orlando is asleep on the table which has become his new residence and which he shows no signs of being prepared to give up.  Anything for a quiet life – I don’t host dinner parties any more any way.

Life these days starts with Siddy and me going for an hour long walk, which includes a good twenty minute romp at the dog park.  Except for two or three mornings when the bitter cold Antarctic blast sent all us wimpy puppy owners running for home. While our usual claim to be the Riviera of Antarctica suits us pretty well, sometimes it feels like we are right down there at Scott Base!

Due to any outing being curtailed we must then come home and, after his breakfast of porridge, milk kefer, DE and savoury yeast, its a rambunctious game of fetch up and down the hallway.  Then I can get on with my tasks – but always constantly accompanied by a keen and eager little pup – ‘Whadda we doing now?” “Where we going now?”  “This way?”  “That way?” “Where now?”  “Whadda we doing? Whadda we doing?  Where are we going?”

But I have to say yet again – he is probably the best little puppy in the whole world!

Here are a couple of shots so you can see how much he has grown – I know you want to know!  It’s the same toy in both shots, the first one taken when he was about 9 weeks old and the second one today and he is now 19 weeks old.

We have had our up’s and downs since last I graced your lovely reading spaces – YD’s beloved cat Stanley became unexpectedly and quite seriously ill and was eventually diagnosed with feline aids, picked up many years ago most probably in a fight [he always was a bit of a bovver-boy]  Stanley is a rescue kitty, adopted when he was grown and therefore most likely spent the first three years of his life living in kitty poverty.  Nobody knows for sure.  A cat of much charisma, great charm and friendly demeanour, YD had said a while back, ‘He is not the boy he used to be!’

It was devastating diagnosis.  Getting medication into this cat has always been claimed by his mumma to be an impossibility.  Our slightly raised eyebrows and quiet disbelief in this claim was blown completely away when we found out it took the vet and two practise nurses to hold him down and administer an oral dose. The vet was preparing us for the worst and I was mopping my baby girl’s tears.  But Stanley is not a boy to take anything much lying down, including dying.  He fought back and after three days was on the mend enough to go home.  The vet whacked an intravenous shot of antibiotics into him and since then he has spent most of his time sleeping, waking long enough to eat – and eating more and more every day – then back to bed again.

We got lucky and have more time with this lovely boy.

Recently my dear friend from Serendipity Farm, the lovely Fran aka narf77 had one of her dastardly good ideas and announced that I was to become the proud owner of ‘A Dangler of International Happiness’  This all came about because I admired her dangler in this post.  If you go on to read the comments you will see how she coerced encouraged our shared friends to take part.

A few days back I received a wee package from Hawaii with the first items enclosed.  It was most fortunate that they got through NZ Customs who are notoriously anal about allowing foreign flora into our country in case it grows legs in the middle of the night and eats us all in our sleep …… and look, an original stick figure sketch from the BO exactly as they appear in this fabulous blog ‘Farmlet’ subtitled ‘Living cheaply and richly on an acre in Puna, Hawaii’.

Christi is a writer, married to the Bearded One, who, it appears, is master of anything that needs doing and cartooning as well.  They recently relocated from Washington State to Hawaii and are busily involved with preparing to live as much off the grid as possible.  These are good folks with huge hearts – I love them to pieces!

I have more for you too friends – take a look here.

I admired these on The Twisted Yarn ……………..

and next thing I know I am happily cutting threads with my very own pair of stork scissors sent all the way from the UK.  Aren’t they gorgeous!!  Phil made the pretty cover and I now have a sample of her so neat crochet work  🙂   If you are into things like crazy good knitting and yarn bombing go check her out and see what she gets up to when there’s a break from paying attention to her toddler twinnage, her day job or her allotment!  I know you will enjoy her as much as I do!

I am working in my art room, just small projects that can be worked at without me losing track of the doings of one little puppy.  I hope to have something to show you next week.

Oh, and just in case you are wondering how the detente is going – I now have a daily ritual of a purring cat on my knee with a quivering puppy trying very hard to contain himself beside us – and last night both of them were cuddled up in bed with me for about an hour.  Orlando teases Siddy, Siddy ‘bites’ beautifully and usually gets wapped for his trouble.  It’s great fun to observe 🙂

I’ve requested a ‘family portrait’ for my birthday.   We’ll see.

Thanks for coming by today, I love that you did!