And This Little Pig said Pups & An Exchange

Evie is such a laid back mum.

All of the Magnificent 7 pictured. Can you find them all?

 My black and cream boy, just like his big sister Podge. 

 Podge taking a look over the side of the whelping 

box. My God 6 boys!

 Podge checking out the brothers & sister, under the watchful eye of Evie.

 Two black & creams together.

Friendly Stitchers Fall Exchange this is what I sent to Mary in France.

 

And the beautiful exchange I received from Mary, 

which sits proudly on top of  my bookcase.

Well, I'll try and post tomorrow, but Sue and I are off to see Ben Affleck's new film "Argo", can't wait.

See you next time... LiBBiE in Oz :@

And This Little Pig said Puppies Day 2 & 3 & 5

Yes I am behind, in just about everything, 

the pups are now 9 days, there eyes are 

starting to split and will be starting to open

in the next couple of days. 

Photo above, two days old.

 Mum! Please! People are watching!

 Two days old. 

 Our girl is a little cheeky :@

 Three days old, and all snuggled in together.

It's spring here in Oz, and we are going from high 30's C back down to near 0.

Five days, and yes she is still poking her tongue out.

Meah finally getting a chance to check out the new 

house members, she waited for Evie to go 

out to the little girls room.

I think she believes that if she stares at them long enough...

  

...they will go away :@

So tomorrow will have... wait for it... more puppy photos, and photos of an exchange, received and sent.

See you next time... LiBBiE in Oz

And This Little Pig said New Puppies!

Yes we have been keeping a secret, but first Mary this is the reason your exchange was not posted today.

Seven Little Bundles of Joy

 This was Evie last night, with her not happy face :(

 I left for work this morning at 8.30am, to quickly do a few things and go back home. I thought she was only in the early stages of labour, if that. As what always happens a few things came up to do, so I didn't get back  home until just before 11.30am to six puppies. SIX! 

 Tonight all lined up, it goes like this... Boy, Boy, Boy, Boy, Boy, Boy & Girl

Yes you did read that right 7 puppies - 6 boys and 1 girl! She is chocolate.

Anyway yes I have been worried, as Evie was so big this time, I really thought we were heading for a Caesarean, but she came through like a trooper. 

Meah is quite funny she gets all upset if the puppies whinge, Quincy is quite jealous, and Podge is very intrigued, she was really funny when I put the whelping box up in the kitchen last week, she walked straight in laid down and went to sleep, as if to say I know this, it's hard to believe that it has been 20 months since I have had litter of puppies.

Now you can all look forward to weeks and weeks of puppy photos :@ The other pups I have been babysitting get their 2nd needle tomorrow, and will leave a few days after that, well except for Ezri.

Mary your exchange will be in the post tomorrow, and yes your parcel arrived today, it is beautiful, thank you, and will put photos up tomorrow, between pup shots.

See you next time... LiBBiE in Oz

And This Little Pig said Life and an iPhone

Well how's your life been lately? This about sums mine up. Came back from the yards on Wednesday (sorry no CowDay photos) and the boss says, 'I've got some bad news for you, I broke your coffee cup.' My fav coffee mug! Brought if a couple of years ago. Do you know how hard it is to get a blue reindeer coffee mug at Christmas? And it was perfect, just the right curve on the lip. Well it's gone... maybe not, thinking of gluing it back together and putting it on the bosses bookshelf :@

No life hasn't been that hard really, just very busy, and with the tax time upon us in Australia, life is insane, but look at this pretty photo, Cotton Field taken with iPhone, while driving, no I wasn't the driver.

Mistress Splinter, yes that is her name giving her Indian Runner Duck impersonation. Splint was one of quins, yep 5, the only girl, and she was like a little splinter of wood.

Coming to work yesterday morning, lovely old vintage car, and American, as we sit on the right when driving.

Haven't seen much of the Long Dogs lately, have photos just haven't put them up. L to R Evie, Podge and Quincy. In their bed, enjoying the winter sun.

Quincy

Evie and Podge, mother and daughter, they look so alike these days, thankfully Podge is more cream than tan, she has also lost all that white that was on her chest.

Never in a million years would I have got this shot if I was trying to!

Well there you go, a very quick update, all photos with the wonders of iPhone :@ No stitching, looks like it's gonna be a busy lead up to Christmas, only have three, no could be four finishes for my Crazy, and have touched my big piece since I started it in January... Ouch.

Seeya soon... LiBBiE in Oz (fingers crossed)

And This Little Pig said Long-Dog & Christmas Tree

This is sort of like a 'Where is Wally?' but it is really 'Where and what is Meah doing?' Sitting in my clean washing! A white dog on my black towels! Looks so innocent, doesn't she?

Miss Meah Moo doing her impression of the Long-Dogs.

Evie, Quincy and Podge

Quincy

Quincy and Podge

Today I decided to put up the tree, late I know, but better late than never. I haven't had a tree up at home in years, my old tree and all my decorations and lights are at work. Black tree I got a few years ago at a post Christmas sale. Very sparsely decorated... reindeers and a few balls. Must get some lights :@

Green Deer

Blue Deer

and Silver Deer under the tree

And on a closing note Jennifer and Abigail over at Feathers in the Nest are having a very generous giveaway for Christmas, go on over and have a look.

Talk soon... LiBBiE in Oz

And This Little Pig said A Little Bit of Everything

First the Long Dogs said G'day... Podge, Quincy and Evie.

One of the reasons I've been a little remiss of late, that and well life, a PD James novel I am loving it! As the blurb on the back reads...

In a pitch-perfect recreation of the world of Pride and Prejudice, PD James elegantly fuses her lifelong passion for the work of Jane Austen with her talent for writing detective fiction. She weaves a compelling story, combining a sensitive insight into the happy but threatened marriage of the Darcys and the excitement and suspense of a brilliantly crafted detective story. Death Comes to Pemberley enshrines the qualities her readers have come to expect: psychological and emotional richness of characterisation, vivid evocation of place, and a credible and superbly structured plot, in a powerful and distinguished work of fiction.

I'm about halfway through, and I think I have worked out who the 'real' baddie is, we will have to see if I am right.

Ever get so close to the end of a piece that you start to itch to see it done, well I am almost there with Northern Nights, hopefully this weekend.

I know I have missed a couple of Cow-Day-Wednesday's but below is a series of photos I took last weekend at a special cattle sale, my good friend Sue is moving to China for a couple of years for her husbands work so sold all her cows, including her bull Enzo, who is a real softy, well as soft as a 900 kilogram bull can be, that's just under 2000 pounds. She was feeding him bread.

 

Well its off to bed, seeing as I started this post yesterday :@

Seeya soon... LiBBiE in Oz

BIG PS I changed a setting in my commenting, if you have problems leaving me your wonderful thoughts and views, please email, so I can try and work out which is the right one to tick.

And This Little Pig said Crazy Finishes No 11 & No 12

Well Crazy January Finish No 11 and No 12 done and dusted! Oh this is a long post.

I finished Little House Needleworks Ornament 2010 Red House in Winter on August 15, it was around this time that my old Boss was having surgery, and then the unthinkable happened, and he passed away, so these two ornaments will always be Neil's ornaments.

Little House Needleworks Ornament 2010 Pear Tree, was what I was actually working on, when he passed. I love all of Diane's patterns, but this one from the moment I put the first stitch in all the way back in January, never gave me a warm and fuzzy feeling. Every time I picked up my unfinished Crazies, this one was always shuffled back into the dwindling pile. What made me pick it up to finish it, I will never know. It will hang on my Christmas tree this year, but I think it will be tucked around the side only just in sight... poor Pear Tree, it has never done anything wrong.

So in my month long blogging break, I have been cross stitching like a woman processed, Little House Needleworks Ornaments 2010 Frosty Flakes is very close to being finished, fingers crossed tomorrow, if not early next week. And I have really gotten stuck into Gracewood Designs Northern Nights, which I am loving.

My beloved dogs (that's Podge above and don't let the cute and innocent look fool you) ask to be let outside anywhere from between 5am and 6am, so have fallen into the routine of stitching for about an hour before starting to get ready to go off to work. A friend has lent me their Hawaii Five O the original DVD's, which have been fun to re-watch, a lot I don’t remember, well I was young :-) anyway it is nowhere near as corny as I thought it would be, but there is no comparison between Jack Lord and Alex O’Loughlin (pause for a moment, well a few minutes to imagine Alex swimming in my imaginary pool) but it has been great to pop in the DVD's and watch while I stitch.

This is a result of what cute and innocent can do, you know when you are scrambling for something to write on, thankfully I had copied this hastily written note on a proper note pad before Miss Podge helped herself to it, and I have no idea where she found the floss.

Evie and Quincy enjoying the morning sun, while trying to see through the lace curtain to people walking by.

My Meah, Moo has it all figured out, she gets up on top of the armchair (my grandmother would not be impressed) and finds the break in the curtains.

I am still trying to convince the long dog crew that it really is spring, and they no longer need my old coat to curl up in.

It is not working.

Our local Agricultural show starts tomorrow, this is the one and only rose I have anywhere near being ready to enter, photo taken on Monday, this afternoon it looked like a beautiful Valentine bud. Well it's being picked in the morning and entered, I can only hope. No one and I mean no one has roses this year, everyone is complaining how late they are, plenty of buds, just none that are anywhere near ready. Mr Lincoln, he needs one more day! Entered LHN Pumpkin Hollow Farm, and CCN Pumpkin Cottage in the needlework, but have a feeling they may just be "too American". Have photography entered as well, big entry, but one can only try.

Lastly again I would like to thank everyone who sent me messages of support and prayers on the loss of my old employer, they helped but at the time I was not capable of replying. I have been lucky in my working life to have never had a ‘bad’ boss, and have been truly blessed with my current employer and my old boss, both have treated me like family, one a younger sister, and the other a daughter.

So to my little Bossman, a wonderful family man, husband, father, grandfather, friend and gifted surgeon, rest in peace, you are missed by many. On a serious note, Neil you really have to do something about the Rugby World Cup, give our Wallabies a bit of a push will you!

Neil 3 October 1934 – 19 August 2011

LiBBiE in Oz