Cricket is here!

We've had the little dickens for a couple weeks now.  He is 10 1/2 weeks old and keeping me pretty busy!  Happy, our 8 year old lab, is very stressed about his existence.  She is constantly growling at him to keep him in line.  Good thing I watched Cesar Milan of the Dog Whisperer!  What an amazing person.  I love his show.  I've definitely learned a lot by watching it.  I think he is so kind to the owners and great with the dogs.  I've learned enough to know that my little stinker's growling when he has to have his paws wiped needs to be nipped in the bud NOW before he gets aggressive.  Housetraining is getting there.  We go outside MOST of the time.  He is doing well in his crate.  We also have a doggie playpen, a portable thing that he can go in when we can't watch him constantly.  

The cat is getting a lot of chase time.  I was initially worried until I saw her come back for more OVER and OVER again.  When he is in his playpen she hisses at him at teases him.  He learned to go UP stairs by chasing her.  Still too little, at 5 1/4 pounds, to come down.

On the crafty front, I made more houses in the chunky swap.  I had a flash of inspiration and made them all from neckties.  It was much less involved than the last sets, other than prepping the bases for them, but I loved the results!

Here are the houses I made:

I used the labels as doors and the tie ends as chimneys.  Here are the ones I received from my partners:

I just love them!  They are from stunnedbanana, WYOKrista, playswithneedles and alteredmommy.  They are really different and look great on my mantle.

I also made costumes for my youngest DS middle school play.  They did a "jr" version of Willy Wonka.  I gussied up a jacket I had for Willy (a girl in our version) by making it bigger and adding sparkles.  It was an old silk jacket I had dyed purple years ago for oldest DD to wear in horse shows.  I also made squirrel tails and ears and the giant blueberry suit.  Unfortunately the suit was stuffed with newspaper and used in between scenes as a bean bag chair by the other cast members.  The only pic I have is of it squashed down with the paper fallen to the bottom and not distributed evenly.  She only had a minute to get into it off stage.  It worked and all was well.  Here is a somewhat blurry shot of the Violet in the blueberry suit and Willy in her jacket.
The kids were great and I helped do makeup which was fun.  My son was "Mr. Bucket", Charlie"s father.

The most fun I've had in the last week was playing with MY NEW EMBROIDERY MODULE! Hubby got it for me as an early birthday present.  The dealer was offering them half off so I took advantage of the sale.  Now my Bernina 440QE can embroider too!  There is quite a learning curve and I need to take the classes but I managed to make a little doggie embroidery to make a bed for Cricket and made two hooded baby towels using a tutorial I found on the net. I already gave them to the momma to be without taking a good pic, unfortunately.  The momma is my dd #2's friend and is having a boy in June.  Oh, speaking of DD#2, she is headed to Miami U, my alma mater!  Hubby went there too, as did my dad and two of my brothers.  She is very excited and I'm proud of her for getting in.  Now we're planning the high school grad party and gearing up for her first year of college (sniff!).

DS#1 got his license!  It's a mixed blessing. He can take his little brother to football and to school but I don't see as much of him!  Good thing he's always hungry - he finds me when he wants to eat!

I'm looking for a laptop now so I don't have to haul my sewing machine from the third floor (my sewing area) to the first floor where the computer is.  My machine needs to be hooked up to the computer as it embroiders.  I also am starting to finally get my serger in operating order. I took a class at the Sewing Expo in Cleveland last March and it inspired me to take it out of the box (three+ years after I got it, shame shame!).

Gotta take care of my new baby.   Peaceful piecing to all!

Jenni