Party Hat Tutorial

Leaping Lizards! She's on the counter!

My husband and I have 3 dogs, and each one is completely different from the other. Each one is amazing, funny and loving. Like people, they have their strengths and weaknesses, and best of all we can always and count on them to snuggle up with us at the end of the day.

Our oldest George doesn't really play with toys that much, he loves hiking and napping. He does however have issues with small dogs, and sometimes barks non-stop for no reason. So we've learned to keep him out of dog parks, and he doesn't go places in public that could have small dogs. The barking we continue to work on and we adapt on the fly with him.

Cali is the middle doggy. She was born deaf, has allergies, her bladder is in the wrong spot so she takes incontinent medication and as a puppy she was a chewer. She's getting older now and doesn't chew as much, but she still loves walks and toys. She's taught us a new way of communication as we use doggy hand signals with her (much like sign language) and we've had to learn ways to get her attention since we can't just call out her name. When it comes to communication you can never have too many ways to get your ideas across.

Skylar is the puppy....full of energy, she likes to jump and she loves to chew. We've gone through countless toys over the past few months. She mastered climbing over baby gates at just 10 weeks old. We take lots of walks, and play many games of fetch, not to mention tug of war. She loves that game!

Over the months the long walks and high speed chasing of tennis balls through our dessert backyard has strengthened her legs.  She's also lean...and long. Unlike the other two dogs who's deep Boxer bellies keep them from jumping too much...Skylar can jump. And she's jumping higher and higher every day.

You see where this is going right? The other night I'm in the kitchen making dinner, when suddenly with a small running start Skylar jumped up onto the counter and slid across the stove, stopping right next me. "Can I have some meatloaf too?"

I called out to Jeff so he could see what she had done, and he burst out laughing. We've never had to worry about a dog being on the counter if there wasn't furniture in front of it that they could climb onto. In that one moment...the whole way we store things changed. No more just putting items we don't want the dogs to eat up high on the counter. I spent the rest of the night moving items off of the counter and finding new homes for them. We can't have Skylar eating the Kurig K-cups now can we??

This puppy is going to teach us lots of things. Starting with patience and different way of organizing. I'm guessing we are going to learn lots this year. What has your dog taught you? Has anyone else had to re-arrange their entire kitchen?

-Kat  :)

Sh*t the year is over already???

2014 was a year of new things for my husband and I. We moved to a new state, he got a new job, we got a new house, and we added a new puppy to our family. We made new friends, discovered new places to visit, new restaurants to eat at. I joined my first ever quilt guild, as well as another quilt group.

I finally tried trail mix..and guess what? I love it and it's now my go-to snack. I also feel in love with hiking. I learned how to quilt on a longarm machine. I tried other new foods as well. Some I liked, some I did not. I learned some new digitizing techniques and had my first booth at a quilt show.  Like I said..it was a year filled with new things.

And now 2015 I just a day away. I'm looking forward to experiencing even more new and exciting things. Instead of resolutions, I'm setting goals this year. So here goes...my official list of 2015 goals!

*Spend  more time digitizing (which in turn will produce more embroidery designs for www.calicocali.com)
*Finally get long arm pantographs to work so that I can digitize and sell those on my website too. (I've been working on this for months but I've run into a few snags. Hopefully 2015 will sort those snags out so I can move forward on this one.)
*Get into a routine with the puppy. I love our puppy...she's amazing. But she's also a bundle of energy...with two senior dogs in the house I'd gotten used to being able to do what ever I  needed to do while they napped all day long. Now, just carrying a basket of laundry across the room is a game to Skylar. "Jump, Jump, Jump, Let's Eat All The Laundry!" Ugh. Deep breath. So for 2015 my goal is to have even more patience with her and get into a set schedule of walks and hopefully naps so that I can work on the above goals with out her chewing up the wood work the moment my back is turned.
*Like most of my quilty friends, I would like to make a dent in the unfinished projects pile. I'd also like to make quilts for charity.  Both the quilt guild and the quilt group that I belong to make and donate quilts to charity. This year I was only able to make and donate 2 quilts to charity and next year I'd like to make a lot more than that.
*I suppose I should add "Blog More" onto this list as well. I can't believe I didn't post one thing in all of December. Whoops!
*My last goal is more of a fun one. I'm hoping that DH and I can take a vacation.We usually travel a lot, and take lots of long weekends to go camping. But this year because of the move and settling into our new house we weren't able to go anywhere. So here's hoping that 2015 brings us a nice balance of routine, new adventures and maybe just maybe a trip to Vegas or someplace "just for fun"!

Happy New Year Everyone!! Here's hoping all our dreams come true!

-Kat  :)