Meet Wafer-Foster Puppy #3

As most of you know, I foster future Dog Guide puppies for the Lion's Foundation of Canada Dog Guides. On February 10th we welcomed home our third foster puppy, Wafer. She is another yellow labrador retriever and she came home on her 7 week 'birthday'. We still have Yoshi, now 9 1/2 months old, and she will likely not be returning to Dog Guide 'University' for her formal training for another month or two. If you'd like to know more about Dog Guides or fostering a future Dog Guide, please click on the above link. Yoshi and Wafer are 2nd cousins.

Getting ready for Wafer's first car ride...she curled up and slept with Yoshi the whole way home!

Yoshi's never far from her new 'little sister'.

Being my first winter baby, I made some sweaters to keep Wafer warm when
I had to take her outside for 'bathroom' chores. This sweater was made using
a free pattern from http://www.mimiandtara.com

Hey Wafer, are you sure you want all of that?
The shirt pictured here is a little 'onesie' that I cut off and hemmed.

Sleeping in her crate with Lampchop.

Wafer's first shopping mall excursion.

Escalators are one of the many things to which future Dog Guides must be exposed.
"Mom, is this the cookie machine Yoshi told me about?" asks Wafer

Sitting pretty!

Napping together.

Yoshi seems to always be close to her new baby 'sister'.

Blowing raspberries on Wafer's belly! Haha

Baby it's cold out here!

More snuggles...Yoshi's sharing her bed with Wafer.

Another shopping mall outing with my Mom, Yoshi and Wafer.

Yoshi tried on her hockey buddies jersey.

Just hanging out...

Thanks Auntie Marilyn for my pretty name tag!

If I try really hard I can jump like a kangaroo!

Getting sleepy...

Yoshi likes to be close, even when Wafer is learning to nap in her crate!

DLP Week 4: How a Page Can Take Over...

This week on Art to the 5th's Documented Life Project, the Art Challenge was 'Writing' and the journal Prompt was 'Words with Friends'. I always start my spread by setting up the journalling boxes along the right side of the spread so that I can 'document' my life for the week even as I work through the process of creating the art on the rest of the page. That way there is no pressure to hurry the art along and theoretically even if I don't finish it during the week I can always come back to it without falling behind on the actually recording of my dailies.

Because of the challenges, I pulled out washi tape that was postage related or 'writing like' and then put some actual postage stamps to use.

I have several stamps that contain various kinds of scripts so I were used to get me started filling the blank white pages.

Using two different blues and a purple pen-all I wrote 'letters' to friends, family and even myself in the spaces left by the stamps. I quickly began to overlap the script areas and stamped script in all different directions.

 I then adhered some bits of collected paper: part of an envelope in which a letter was sent to me by a friend, a little gift card envelope and a beautiful little tree. The diamond shapes were cut from a paper napkin (I take the layers apart and only use the top, printed layer).

A bit of black was added in the form of some bold black circles. These were inspired by some art I saw in a display window of a clothing store in a mall.

At this stage I started adding layers of paint, doodles and collaged elements and words. It's during this process that the page kind of took over and went from being all about letters to being more about books and words.

Because of one of my dailies, in which I wrote about the 'puppy pants'* I made using a pattern I found on this wonderful site called Mimi & Tara: Dog Clothes Patterns, I made a tag that includes a couple of pictures of Yoshi modelling her fancy pants. The tag is tucked into the little gift card envelope.
*(Lions Foundation of Canada Dog Guides breeds their own puppies, and since the females in Yoshi's litter are being considered for the breeding program, they are all being kept in tact until after they are brought back to the training school. As such, she may go into heat while she is still with me.) 

World of Threads...

A perfect 'sit-stay'

Last week, while Yoshi and I were puppysitting a 13 wk old Future Dog Guide puppy, we were in Oakville and had some time to fill, so I decided to pop in to see the World of Threads fibre art exhibition. What an incredible show.  If you haven't seen it yet, it runs until Nov. 30th and it is well worth seeing!

Here is just a glimpse at a few of the pieces, with these two future dog guides in the foreground.

The puppies were more interested in who was
coming down the hall than in the art behind them!

In addition to enjoying the art, it was a wonderful training opportunity for the puppies. Yoshi is now almost 7 months and she and little Kermit were amazing ambassadors for the Lions Foundation of Canada Dog Guides!

Kermit, how can you sit without slipping?

I loved this particular installation, although the photography doesn't do much for it. The location they chose, with the back lighting, was fabulous but very hard to photograph.

It's on the floor...does that mean we can touch it?

Yup, enough with the fibre art...

No, I'm done posing...

This piece was beautiful...stunning colour and texture...I can only imagine the time that went in to it!

Yoshi, you'd look pretty in a crown like this!

Okay, one more good 'sit-stay'
and then can we go?

Seriously Yoshi, we need to find a
12 step program for your mom...
this fibre art addiction is worrisome!

Kermit was thrilled to be home again and
'out of jacket' so he could resume wrestling
with Yoshi. She doesn't look it here, but
she enjoyed the playtime just as much!

A Few More Threads and a Puppy Update...

For those of you that have been following me for a while, you'll know that I am a foster 'mom' to a future dog guide puppy through the Lions Foundation of Canada Dog Guides. Well, Dime turned 6 months old a couple of weeks ago, so I thought I'd share this with you so you can see how he's growing.  He's such a smart little fellow and is so very well behaved! I'm so proud of the little guy*!
(*I weighed Dime on Saturday and 'little guy' is 25kg/55lbs)

I've also got a few more hand dyed threads that we're still drying when I did  Monday's post so I thought I'd show you those too.  These are a slightly thicker thread, but I love the colours I've achieved, especially that last one.

Have a fabulous weekend!

Festive and Fashion Forward...

Are these two not the most adorable (although quite serious looking) little puppies you've ever seen?  

That's Dime on the left, with his sister Darla.  They were all dressed up in their festive gear, as well as their official 'Future Dog Guide' jackets, ready to participate in the Fergus Santa Claus Parade on Saturday.  

This was only the second time they've seen each other since being separated from their litter mates, yet they seem to be drawn to each other more so than to the other puppies that were there that day.

Oh Look...A Distraction!

We've got a new little fellow in our lives.  I've become a foster 'mom' for a future dog guide puppy.  His name is Dime and he's 8 wks old.  He's very clever and is adjusting well to our home.  I do laugh at him when outside because he's very easily distracted by every leaf he sees, thus the title of the post.  Needless to say, being fall there are a lot of distractions outside. LOL

Casey seems to like him and they've already had a few great play sessions.  It's really hard to believe she's 13 yrs. old when you see her romping and wrestling with Dime!

Although he's crate training, and therefore sleeps in his crate, sometime after playing he does snooze with Casey for a bit before going into his crate for nap time.

Linking up with Kim Klassen's Texture Tuesday.