Christmas Switch-Out: Living & Dining Rooms, Outdoor Decor, and Bonus Snow Doggies

On January 9, 2017 By ArlynnIn Country Decor2 Comments

Ding, ding, ding!! 😉 I am finally finished with all of my redecorating tasks for this Christmas Season, whew, that was a bit of a marathon this year. Well, if truth be told, it is every year, but the good thing about the passage of time is that it helps one to forget the difficult parts of tasks and only remember the good feeling that one gets when said tasks are completed. So as I do every year, I had approached this year’s redecorating with the same fervor that I do every year. 🙂

I will give you links to my two YouTube videos where I show and tell you how I completed all of the decorating and in addition, I provide a few tutorials–two lantern centerpieces and one of a centerpiece around my Grandma’s lamp in the dining room. Here are a few pictures of what is featured in the first video link…”Episode #4″:

Here are a few pictures of the second link I will provide for you below. In this I will show you how I decorated the outdoor spaces (in the freezing cold weather…gracious I was shivering while trying to talk…haha).

All righty…Here are those two links—**Stay tuned though** as I will also share some pictures of the pups in the little snowstorm that we got the other day as well as show you a little video of them romping around a bit. 🙂

We got about 3 inches of snow the other day, and our 3 pups had a great time playing around in it–and are still having fun going outside and just plopping down in it. The temperatures have been so cold that the snow is still laying pretty much where it fell.

They had a blast playing out there, we didn’t get too much snow, but, it was enough to provide some entertainment and a couple of good romps for all three of them–Sophie and Gracie are both 9 years old now, they acted like they were 9 months old…haha…Here is a little video show you the sheer joy a few snowflakes can provide:

All righty, I’ll close out this little post, I have another thing to share with you in the coming days, I made a new cream burlap Valentine’s Day wreath to hang out on our front door and will provide you with the tutorial in my next post. 🙂 Here is a sneak peek at the final product…

I hope y’all are staying dry and warm, the temperature on my computer says that it is a whopping 8 degrees outside at the moment (very cold for these parts). Temps are supposed to rise later this week, but, for now…brrrrrrrr…I think I’ll go and cuddle up with one of the Newfs and get me a nice hot cup of tea. 🙂

Until next time, y’all take good care!

**In crafting there are no mistakes, just unique creations…**

~Arlynn ❤

Doggie Photo Shoot

On December 3, 2016December 3, 2016 By ArlynnIn My Dogs6 Comments

I only have a few passions in my life, God, my family (hubby, kids, and beyond), my friends, my crafting & decorating, and way up on the list, my dogs. Chris and I had dogs when we were children so I think that that cultivated a love for ‘man’s best friend’ in both of us. Our house just wouldn’t be the same without a fur-baby in our midst; we’ve been owned and loved by at least one at a time throughout our entire married life. Currently, as most of you know, we have 3 wonderful beings that dwell with us, our 2 Newfoundland dogs, Sophie and Samson, and our Golden Retriever Gracie. I took a little time away from my Christmas decorating, shopping, and other busyness of life and took each pup outside separately to take some shots around our yard, pairing the sweet gentleness that exudes from their pores with some of our Christmas decorations, then Chris came and helped me coral all three for some group shots. All three were extremely well-behaved and posed with no prompting from Nillas (their usual “pose for a picture” treat) or any other kind of coaxing food.

I will quit yammering away here and just show you a smattering of pictures that I and then Chris captured:

This is Samson–Admittedly, there are more pictures of this fella–he is so easy to work with and he has a calmness about him that is just unsurpassed (except when he sees a deer or is barking at someone walking in our yard):

Here is Sophie–She is now 9 years old but still acts like she is 9 months old. She listened very well to me out there, but, she was laser focused on e-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g…haha:

And here is Gracie (that silly upper lip just didn’t want to cooperate), she is closer to 10 than 9 now-a-days:

We really need to get her her own silhouette! ❤

Gracie had eye surgery almost a year ago to take care of Glaucoma…As you see in this picture, her eye has shrunk down to almost smaller than normal now, she is blind in that eye, BUT, she feels no pain and is as happy as a clam every single day of her life:

And now for some group shots:

And then I climbed into the picture with them:

These three don’t get out front much, I do think that they’d stay around the house off-leash, but I never want to take the chance that they might take off after a deer…I can see myself trekking over the river and through the woods in pursuit…uh…not a pretty picture in my mind’s eye. 😉 Most of the time, they are either inside snoozing, or out in the safe fenced backyard that they all enjoy to the hilt. That said, I do think that they really enjoyed their time out front posing, sniffing, watching, & surveying their property–We had a great little time of it…They are three wonderful blessings in our lives. ❤

And… now…, I’ll get back to the frenzied state in which I dwell every year in this interim time between Thanksgiving and Christmas–My favorite times of the year, albeit one of the busiest. 🙂

Until next time, y’all take good care!

~Arlynn—AND—Sophie, Gracie, & Samson

Packing: Cameras and Tech’y’ Stuff

On August 29, 2016April 20, 2019 By ArlynnIn Vacations2 Comments

Chris and I are by no means professional photographers, but, that doesn’t mean that we don’t try really hard to take great pictures that will help us remember where we were on any specific day in time and it also doesn’t mean that we haven’t tried to provide ourselves with the tools with which to accomplish those very important tasks. We use our cameras daily, and to date, I have over 63000 pictures in my Photos program on my computer dating back to 2006 in digital and then even further back, I have some dating back to as early as the 1930’s–pictures that I and other family members have scanned and that I’ve added to my library. Pictures mean the world to me, they speak volumes when one can’t find descriptive words, they hold memories that sometimes may be fleeting but are conjured again when one gazes upon a particular picture. They are one of the most important things in our lives, so therefore, we have utilized many cameras through the years; and as the years have passed the quality of digital cameras has improved drastically which makes for an even more pleasurable picture taking experience now-a-days.

When we embark on our travels we always take quite the array of cameras and accessories; our destination is what dictates what we take with us. Since Alaska is one of our favorite destinations, I will show you what we normally take there so that we can try and capture the beauty and grandeur that is Alaska. We normally will do 8 day cruises in Alaska, but, we do many excursions inland off of the ship that provide tons of photo ops…not to mention Glacier Bay a Unesco site that I never tire of and will go back to as long as we are able to do so. We always say that we might take less cameras, but, we did that one time and I got frustrated because I have found that I like to have a camera with me no matter where we are or what we’re doing (especially on a cruise ship and especially now that I have this blog and am always cognizant of things that I want to capture so that I can bring them back home and share them with y’all!!) 🙂 The one time we went with only one camera…well, I about went batty! lol

All that said, here is what we normally take with us:

This is “my” camera…You see, I get Chris’ hand-me-downs…lol…And this beauty is now MINE. I cannot tell you how much I love this camera, no honestly, I really can’t–I feel so grateful that I’m able to have something like this to utilize…and not just for vacation pictures…but also for everyday, run of the mill pictures…all of my family, dog, house, and crafting pictures are taken with this camera. For those of you who might not know, my precious Mom passed away from Alzheimer’s a few years ago. There are so many things that I miss about her, her gentle ways, her wise advice, having long phone conversations with her, well, so very many things. 😥 One of the things that I miss the most is the ability to ask my Mom where was this picture taken and who are those people in the picture–I never want my girls to have that problem, I want to provide them with all of the pictures and information that I can that will help them know and remember me (IF that horrible disease happens to catch up with me one day). So you see, cameras are an extremely important and invaluable tool for me.

And when I’m on a cruise doing ‘scenic cruising’, *this* is my very favorite lens and I insist on using it…much to Chris’ chagrin at times. 😉 😉 Of course I’m just kidding, Chris is so sweet and he laughs at me because I insist on using this lens 🙂

Here I am heading to Hubbard Glacier on the Coral Princess last (2015) summer…*notice* the lens on ***my*** camera…:) ***YES…SCORE!!*** 😉

This is Chris’ camera, and notice which lens he has on his camera when it is here at the house. Admittedly, both of our cameras sit out on the kitchen table all of the time and I will grab whichever one that will take the best picture of whatever I’m working on at the time:

Since we both utilize this lens and have a real fondness for it, here are a few close-ups:

A few extra lens’ that Chris will take along with us on vacation are these:

This is a wide-angle lens:

Here is an example of a picture that Chris took with that ^^ wide angle ^^ lens:

The next lens is great for taking portraits…Chris calls its a 35mm prime lens…

Here are a couple of examples shots that he caught of a sunrise over Kauai and one of the Lion’s Gate Bridge as we were heading into Vancouver last April:

And then there is this wonderful zoom lens–not as expensive of a lens as our ‘favorite’, but my goodness gracious, wait until you see the shots that Chris caught with it at Margerie Glacier in Glacier Bay, Alaska last summer (2015).

First, here is a close up of that big zoom lens:

And here are a set of pictures of a calving event at Margerie Glacier that Chris captured with that lens:

Amazing shots!!!

Okay, there is one more little accessory that Chris takes along and this little gem will help to increase the zoom by 1.4x and it fits on both big zoom lens’:

We purchased a new, small Sony video camera before our Hawaii cruise last April (2015) and I’ve gotten a ton of use out of it, yes, while on that cruise to make a video of our Mini-Suite on the Star Princess … Here is a link if you are interested. Also, I’ve just recently used it to create all of the videos in my Video Home Tour series. And I’ve set it up on a tripod and used it to video myself giving crafting tutorials–those can be found under Video Tutorials on my Home page if you are interested in taking a peek. 🙂

And just yesterday, Chris was a sweetheart and got me a new small camera to take on our upcoming Canada and New England cruise. Okay, let me explain why <sigh>. I have gotten into the habit of having a camera draped around my neck at all times while on the ship and while on excursions. I really love having fast access to a camera that is not my iPhone because I typically don’t carry that around the ship with me.

Here I am last summer in Alaska with my older small Nikon camera around my neck:

–I took that one to Hawaii and I wasn’t happy with its performance…especially when I took video with it in the Piazza–I have tons of pretty crappy quality video from our Hawaii trip, so crappy in fact, I never used any of them in my Hawaii Blog Series. So Chris researched and researched and then purchased me this new small and very spiffy Canon Power Shot so that I can hang it around my neck on our Canada and New England cruise; it takes wonderful still shots and also fantastic video:

It has an adjustable screen that I can pull out and manipulate into different angles. for instance, when I’m in sunlight and the glare is hitting the screen…I can angle it a different way, or if I’m in other situations where I might need to see the shot I’m trying to capture, for instance while taking shots that might be above my sight line, etc…:

It also flips all of the way up so that we can use it to take selfies if we so choose…haha. 🙂

I think it will be perfect for me to use on our cruise and beyond, I’ve already attached my Vera lanyard to it and am ready to put it around my neck and head off on our next adventure.

To finish up, here are a few other tech’y’ items that we take with us on our cruises. This is a device charger–It will charge anything with a USB cord attached, great to have on the plane especially if there is no place to plug in…You can find one here:

This is a 256 gb SSD (solid-state drive) and it contains some of our favorite movies and such that we can watch on the plane via my laptop. OH yeah, btw, if you want to watch your own movies in your Stateroom, simply take a HDMI cable and hook your laptop up and take a little timeout to watch your favorite flick…works like a charm:

Speaking of a laptop, yes indeed, we always take a laptop, and yes, I do purchase an Internet package on board our ships–although, this time I won’t have to because we have moved up to Platinum level with Princess’ Captain’s Circle and we actually each get free internet minutes to use while on board…yay! Don’t judge me please, I am one of those people that does not enjoy being disconnected from the world. 🙂 Not only does the laptop provide me with a bit of contact with my friends and family, it also becomes the keeper of all of the pictures that we take on our cruises.

We take several download cords as well:

AND one last thing….My Selfie Stick—LOL Yes, that is now a necessity and something that I utilize quite a bit. 😉 🙂

Chris carries all of our cameras in his carry-on bag and I carry the laptop, selfie stick, and smaller camera with me…It all works well for us and we know that we will be more than ready to catch any picture memory that may come our way while we are lucky enough to be out and about enjoying this great big world of ours. We are so grateful to still have our health and that we can both put our feet on the floor in the morning and go through our days with only an ache or a pain here or there. 🙂

Next up and to finish up this series, I’ll discuss a few packing tips and tricks that I’ve discovered and have utilized…My goal for our upcoming and future 8 day 7 night cruises…ONE suitcase…I *can* *do* *it*— I think…;)

Until next time, y’all take good care! ❤

~Arlynn ❤

Here is a shot of me with the pups, Gracie the Golden, Sophie the Black Newfoundland, and Samson the ‘lap’ dog–also a Newfie. All so special and sweet!! ❤

Mother’s Day: Cookout & A Tribute

On May 10, 2016May 10, 2016 By ArlynnIn Special Occasions6 Comments

Being a Mom is what I know, what I love, and what I cherish. I never really had a desire to “be” anything else, some say I should have been an Interior Designer, possibly a Nurse, or maybe a Teacher, instead I have learned how to decorate my home in my own way & style, I certainly felt like “Nurse Mom” when my girls were little, and goodness knows I’ve done a lot of teaching through the years (and learning as well). I was lucky enough to be able to choose, and the hubby and I made the decision together, that I would not work outside of the home while the girls were growing up. That said, I volunteered a LOT when my girls were in school. 🙂 I have continued on as a “Domestic Engineer”; the girls are now out on their own and flourishing, and I still stay home and do my crafting, decorating, DIY projects, and now this blog (which has grown outside of its original parameters of being *only* a ‘crafting/home decor’ blog)…I am so grateful!! ❤

Anyway, we just celebrated Mother’s Day on Sunday so I thought I would give y’all a glimpse of how we celebrated–We didn’t do anything all that exciting, but, we had both of our grown and gorgeous girls here at our home along with our daughter’s boyfriend. We had a lovely day, one filled with tons of laughter, fun, hugs, and love. 🙂

I must take a moment to pay tribute to my beautiful Mom who passed away 3-1/2 years ago after a long battle with Alzheimer’s. Oh how I miss my Mom and oh how I hate Alzheimer’s and how it takes our loved ones from us one teeny, tiny, infinitesimal, bit at a time–It is torture to watch them go through the stages of Alzheimer’s, just torture. A bit about my Mom though, she was brilliant, she was beautiful, she was sweet, and she was the best Mom to me (an only child) that she could have been–she was an amazing woman! I will not lament further about her battle with Alzheimer’s today–maybe one day I’ll be brave enough to write a post about how she fought so long and so hard–but, not today. I will share a few pictures of her though…Here is her graduation picture (from college–she was a Biology teacher).

Here is a picture of her on her wedding day to my Dad; I always thought that she looked like a princess:

And here she and I are on one day when I was visiting her in the nursing home not too long before Alzheimer’s was finished ripping her away from us:

To say that I loved my Mom to the moon and back is an understatement. ❤ My sweet cousin Stacey, sent me this beautiful saying the other day–It completely expresses my feelings about my Mom:

I didn’t mean to get maudlin ^^up there^^, but, I couldn’t write this post without paying a bit of a tribute to my sweet Mom. ❤

Moving on now, here are some pictures that I took as the hubby and I were preparing for the kids to stop by on Sunday. As a rule made up over 3 decades ago, the hubby usually handles preparing the outside and I handle preparing the inside. I have found those lines to be somewhat blurred now-a-days though because truly, he and I help each other out here, there, and everywhere. ❤

Our grass has come in beautifully this Spring, the hubby has done an amazing job seeding, fertilizing, planting, and I’m sure doing many other things that I’m not in the know about…haha. Here are a few pictures of our home after he was finished mowing and spiffing up the yard…

And of the pups sitting out on the front sidewalk flanked by my favorite flowers, Gerber Daisies. Left to right, Gracie the Golden Retriever, Samson and Sophie the Newfoundlands:

The hubby also power washed the entire patio, it was pretty messy after the winter. I arranged the furniture, and put a few touches of this and that around to try to make it feel comfy and cozy out there–I love using red as an accent color:

The kiddos arrived on Sunday afternoon and we had a lovely time together…Here are just a few shots of us enjoying the day…

Left to Right: Dustin, our daughters Candace and Christin, & me–Sophie and Samson (brown) the Newfs in front:

And I can’t forget the fur babies:

Something on that grill sure smelled gooooooood!! 😉

Speaking of the food, the hubby cooked hamburgers, hotdogs, and chicken on the grill…along with peppers, onions, zucchini, and mushrooms…And I, for once in my life, bought (instead of making) macaroni salad, potato salad, & cucumber salad. Christin brought her wonderful deviled eggs and we added baked beans, chips and dip, and a cheese ball to the mix. We arranged it all out on the kitchen island and had a little buffet line and then carried our plates out to the patio (and are all on diets now…goodness…between the Hawaiian Cruise <~~~link to my cruise blogs~~~ and now this day, I’m struggling, but I will get back to my good eating regimen…really had already after the cruise, but, I did splurge on this most special of days). 🙂

I had prepared the island the day before–As I said up above, I really love using red as an accent color, I feel like it is a happy color (used in this way) and one that really pops. 🙂

I had the very best Mother’s Day that one could ever imagine–Having my family here with me was the best gift they could have given me… ❤

I did receive this too…VERY special!!! Thank you Christin!! ❤

How in the world did I get so lucky as to have two such wonderful daughters (and Dustin too, because he is fast becoming a member of our family)?! I sure don’t know, but, I do know I feel blessed and am so grateful to have them!! I definitely felt the love on this most special of days!!

Until next time, y’all take good care!

~Arlynn ❤

Short Synopsis of Past Pets & Then Brushed & Beautiful (Highlighting Sophie, Samson, and Gracie)

On March 28, 2016March 28, 2016 By ArlynnIn My Dogs2 Comments

Our three pups, Sophie the Newfoundland, Gracie the Golden Retriever, and Samson the Newfoundland (Brown) add so much joy to our lives on a daily basis; we could not be more loved than we are by these three loyal creatures. ❤

I love having dogs in my life and have had a least one for pretty much every year of my entire life. I had a gorgeous German Shepherd as a child, her name was Nikki, and she is what awakened my deep seeded adoration for anything with 4 legs. 🙂

Here is a picture of Nikki:

My hubby and I have had many dogs in the 30+ years that we’ve been married. Here is a collage picture of all of the pups that we’ve had the privilege to be loved by and to love. ❤ They include:

Shelby – Golden Retriever
Sadie – Husky
Tori – Rhodesian Ridgeback
Keisha – Toy American Eskimo

We had one more *very* special girl that I didn’t include in that collage, her name was Maddy and she was a Bernese Mountain Dog. Here is picture of Maddy:

I will take just a second to explain why this precious girl touched our hearts so very much! She had many health problems throughout her years on this earth and unfortunately she only lived to be 6-1/2 years old. It all started out with horrible hip dysplasia (at 6 months of age…so, so young…can we talk about backyard breeders? Well, that is a whole different subject that I’m pretty passionate about but will not lament upon here…just know, that all of Maddy’s health problems stem from poor breeding). 😥 Anyway, we had both of her hips replaced…two separate surgeries 6 months apart.

This is 3 months later and Maddy is recovering from her second hip surgery. A Femoral Head Ostectomy. Her surgeon at Virginia Tech tried to do the THR, but they had placed the prothesis and on the way to xray to check it out, it luxated...so a FHO was necessary. :( But Mads made the best of it. :) <3

Maddy is recovering from her first hip surgery here...a Total Hip Replacement. She was such a trooper!! <3

After that, one health problem cropped up after the other, to name just a couple, allergies to *every*thing & what finally took her from us MegaEsophagus. I will not go into detail about that awful condition here, just know, it was a fight to keep Maddy healthy and aspirating pneumonia, a complication from MegaE, is what finally took her from us. All that said, she lived a very full and loving life with us–she touched our hearts from the moment we said hello to her till the moment we had to say goodbye. ❤ Maddy gets her own collage here:

She loves it outside when it is below 70 degrees

***We MISS you Maddy-Girl***

All righty–There you have it…My life with my dogs in my past, very full, very loving, and wonderfully enriched because of what they gave to me through the years.

Back to the present day now:

Yesterday, my hubby and I sat down to brush our 3 beauties because dontchaknow it is “BLOW YOUR WINTER COAT” (Spring) Season here in our house. I was getting quite sick of chasing those doggie hair tumbleweeds around the house with the vacuum (I vacuum at least 2 -3 times a week at this time of year). SO, we managed to get our creaky bodies down onto the floor with them (not as easy as it used to be…lol. 😉 <~~~ Only half kidding there. 😉 And we went to work on them with all of the tools needed to brush out undercoat, de-matt those matts that we came across, and a pair of scissors might have been in use as well to trim up some “Angel Wings” that Samson likes to grow…You can see said wings in the picture below (that big swath of hair right in front of his back leg):

Anyway, here was the end result…

People ask me all of the time how we get our pups to pose to prettily…Well, the big secret is NILLAS (Vanilla Wafers). They LOVE Nillas…W-e-l-l…let me rephrase that, the girls Gracie and Sophie LOVE Nillas…Sam could take or leave them–He is NOT food motivated at all as you will see in the following pictures. 😉

So, here comes the Nillas–Gracie and Sophie are quite excited, Sam, eh, not so much…lol…

The “WAIT” command was given, Gracie and Sophie were listening but focused on those Nillas…Sam, well, he was napping. 😉

Then, Sophie just couldn’t contain herself any longer and she scarfed her Nilla right up and down the hatch it went. Gracie was still in wait mode, bless her heart. And Sam, well, he had now entered REM sleep. 😉

These three just fill my heart with love and make me giggle each and every day–I do love them so very much!!

AND one more picture that might put a little smile on your face today…

OH dear me…Yes, the word “challenging” does come to mind. 😉 😉

***Until one has loved an animal, a part of one’s soul remains unopened***

Until next time, y’all take good care! ❤

Arlynn ❤

A Mishmash of Winter Weather (Doggies & House)

On February 16, 2016February 16, 2016 By ArlynnIn My Dogs2 Comments

They were calling for 1-3 inches of snow, we got over 6″, then it all turned to sleet and then eventually to freezing rain. They were calling for the temperatures to rise above freezing by 9pm last night, the temps didn’t rise above freezing until after 8am this morning which left us with quite a coating of ice. OH joy, joy, what a mishmash of cold wetness we’ve experienced in the last 24+ hours. 😉 Well, hey, I can’t complain too much, I’ve been safe and warm in my home, the hubby has been here with me, and my pups have had another snow day to enjoy. 🙂 Here are a smattering of pictures that I’ve taken in the last 24 hours or so. 🙂

I started my day yesterday with letting the pups out in the backyard to play…This was the first picture I took as I walked out the back door, a smidgen more than 3″ of snow I’d say…

Of course, our Newfoundlands Sophie and Samson and our Golden Retriever Gracie had a blast romping and playing. 🙂

These pups just love the snow, I swear they eat their weight in it as well…OH well, they will remain well- hydrated. 😉

I walked around and took a few pictures of the house too…It was quite the winter wonderland…

The hubby came home early as the roads deteriorated quite quickly…This is what his car looked like…yikes!!

Thankfully, the sun is shining brightly today and the ice and snow are melting quickly. Folks are bustling around town again today and all is just about back to normal. 🙂

I will admit, it is so hard to stay staunchly on my diet on those days when we are kind of stuck in the house, but, I didn’t do horribly badly…haha…still though, I have plenty more to lose…one second, one minute, and one day at at time. 🙂

No more snow is predicted in the foreseeable future, but, in years past we’ve been known to get a good storm in March, so we’ll see what happens as we move forward in time. 🙂

For now, I will enjoy this beautiful day and thank the good Lord above that we are all safe, warm, and happy. 🙂

Until next time, y’all take good care! ❤

~Arlynn ❤

Blizzard Jonas: Dogs, House, and SNOW!

On January 27, 2016January 27, 2016 By ArlynnIn Home Tour, My Dogs4 Comments

“Snowzilla”& “Snowmageddon” were just two of the names that the blizzard “Jonas” received as it roared through our area last weekend. In the end, it was an historic storm that dumped a copious amount of snow on an area that isn’t used to having to deal with *that* much snow. Goodness gracious, it was a mess around here, we just don’t have the snowplows and other resources that Northern States who routinely get snow like this have. Here at our house, we got upwards of 2 feet of snow, and I heard of some areas that got 30 and 40 inches of snow; it truly did shut us down for quite a few days. In fact, the kids still haven’t gotten back to school.

I do enjoy a good snowstorm every now and again, I spent my days cooking some of my family’s favorite meals…

Chicken and Yellow Rice one day:

Beef & Vegetable soup one day:

And Spaghetti one day:

I also made a wreath on one day:

Sam and I had a few moments like this…haha…

I took a ton of pictures of our pups playing in the snow and of the house. Here are a smattering of pictures of the dogs (Sophie the Black Newfoundland, Samson, the Brown Newfoundland, and Gracie the Golden Retriever). Be prepared to scroll a lot as I took many, many shots…haha. 😉

Thankfully, my hubby had invested in a snow blower last year, to say that that came in handy is an understatement! He used it to create a nice oval track for the pups in the backyard! This was genius on his part because even as big as our pups are, they were having troubles traversing through the mounding and drifting snow…

Here are some shots of the house during the storm:

I was taking this picture:

And then the snow finally stopped and the digging out process began:

I’m hoping upon hope that this is the biggest snowstorm that will come our way this winter! I am very grateful that the storm happened to fall on a weekend when the hubby was off and didn’t have to try and traverse to work. I am grateful that we had food in the house and that I was able to hone my cooking skills a bit. I am grateful that one of our daughters came and stayed at our house and kept us company as the snow fell and that our other daughter and her beau were safely tucked in their home warm and cozily hunkered down. I am grateful that my family and friends also weathered the storm and are sufficiently dug out now and are starting to enjoy their *normal* life again. We all took a moment or two to *pause* and reflect on the beauty and fury that nature can bestow upon us in a moment’s notice. I will say that I’ve had my fill of snow for this winter and will be quite happy if I don’t see another flake fly. 😉

Until next time, y’all take good care! ❤

~Arlynn

Christmas 2015: Doggie Treats & Stockings

On December 8, 2015December 9, 2015 By ArlynnIn Seasonal DecorLeave a comment

As y’all know by now, my family is the most important thing on this planet to me. Now, when I say my family I’m not only talking about my kids, hubby, dad, aunts, uncles, cousins, nieces, nephews, and so on, I’m also talking about my doggies.

Here they are…from left to right…Gracie the Golden Retriever, and the Newfoundlands Sophie and Samson. ❤ ❤ ❤

They are such a part of my heart and our lives on an every day basis; to say that I’d be lost without them is a huge understatement. So, at Christmastime, these pups also receive their own stockings and said stockings are usually filled with a couple of their favorite toys and treats.

Let me show you the stockings that I just ordered up for my pups a couple of weeks ago. My cousin Stacey that y’all have met for a few guest spots here in my blog, the most recent being her “Light Up Christmas Canvas” post, gave me the link for these Customized Holiday Paw Stockings. Here is a picture of what I ordered this year:

“Valentino” is our daughter Candace and her beau’s pup, here is a picture of that little dude:

I have already collected some stuffed toys with which to fill the stockings, but, I thought I might like to make them some healthy doggie treats as well.

I have a couple of great recipes that I’d love to share with you, the first one is from Stacey and her gorgeous white labrador Piper. Here they are looking stupendous last summer at the beach. ❤ ❤

Stacey made these treats for our pups last year, here is a link to the recipe:

Homemade Peanut Butter Dog Treats–Stacey did want me to let you know that she substituted “real bacon bits” (the kind you can find with the salad dressings in the market) instead of frying real bacon. 🙂

Piper did a taste test and gave her hearty approval. YUMMY!!

And here I am feeding them to our pups on Christmas Eve evening last year, they LOVED them!!

A lovely friend of mine named Anna gave me another doggie treat recipe and my pups just gobble these up!! Here is the recipe:

Pumpkin Dog Treats:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease cookie sheet.

Ingredients

4 Cups Oatmeal (Old fashioned or Quick Cooking)

1 – 14 oz. can of 100% Pumpkin (not pie filling)

1 Tsp. Cinnamon

1 Tsp. Vanilla

1/4 Tsp. Ground Cloves

2 Large Eggs

Dump all ingredients in a bowl and mix well.

Drop by rounded teaspoons full on cookie sheet, flatten with the back of a spoon and bake for 1 hour. Let cool on cookie sheet for 5 minutes and then remove to cooling rack or waxed paper to finish cooling. When completely cooled, place into storage bags or tightly sealed container and keep refrigerated.

Makes approx. 6 dozen cookies

I searched for pictures for an hour this morning and couldn’t find one of them partaking in these spiffy treats…<sigh> OH well…

I will share some recent pictures of our pups though…

My life would definitely not be complete without these precious beings in my life…and as I have said before, yes, I am one of *those* dog moms…haha. 😉

Until next time, y’all take good care! ❤

~Arlynn

⚜️ Arlynn's Country Craft Corner ⚜️

Tag: Newfoundland Dogs

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Christmas 2015: Doggie Treats & Stockings

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