Introducing Finnegan (Finn for short)

Well, we have finally made the plunge. We got a puppy yesterday. As many of you know, we have been stalking shelters and surfing pet finder for several months. We have considered golden retrievers, labs, collies, mixes and full breeds. We wanted a larger dog (at least Leon did- it seems that he wanted a "real dog" to walk and didn't want to walk a little one- an ego thing, I think). I wanted a female in order to avoid leg hiking on my furniture. To make a really long story short, we finally found a litter of collie mix pups at the Union County Animal Shelter and decided to drive up and take a look.

This was a litter of nine puppies and they all looked pretty different from each other. There were 5 females and 3 males left when we got there. Their story goes something like this. It seems that the mother and the nine puppies were dumped in a roadside ditch. The farmer that discovered them tried to take them home and find homes for them, but it became too much for him. He contacted the shelter, who found a foster home for them until they were old enough to be adopted out. Enter Faye and Leon. The puppies were delivered to the shelter by the foster parents as we waited in the waiting room. There was one other lady there to adopt one of the females. The puppies were all absolutely adorable. They were all running around the waiting room in an absolute riot of activity. The foster father was able to provide a bit of information on each puppy. Leon fell in love with a little male fluffball named Kermit. We were told that he was a fairly docile puppy compared to some of the others. He was very cute and we decided to take him home. Of course, we changed his name and he has already had his doctors appointment and a bath. A couple of little infections can be cleared up with antibiotics. Oh, I almost forgot, he is not housebroken, so we are outside a lot these days. He is doing very well though.

Silent Night, Holy Night

Well, Sorry about the no-show for the past several weeks. To coin a phrase, I lost a bit of my mo-jo and have been feeling a bit under the weather physically and emotionally. I won't get into all of that, but I do have something that I wanted to share. The Christmas season is upon us and as the decorations come out, It is always fun to get new things. We pull out the same old decorations every year, and I really do love them. We did obtain decorations that would become part of our tradition, but it is always nice to have something new to add to the collection. I recently helped out at the Gift Fest at our church and there were probably fifty-ish raffle gifts that were donated by the vendors. Of course, I had to purchase tickets to benefit our child care center and guess what!!!!! I won.

Not only did I win, but I won the very thing that I wanted the most. There was a lady that made miniature nativity sets and I love all things miniature. I so wanted one, so when I won it in the raffle, I was super excited.

Now the next problem.....these teeny little figures are perfect to set on a table or shelf. I wanted to put it on the coffee table, but I have a cat. I just knew that Max would be batting those poor little sheep around the living room floor in no time. So I wracked my brain for a way to display them and came up with this little idea. I think its pretty cute and now I can put it on the coffee table without fear of them disappearing.

It is hand sculpted using low fire clay and painted with underglaze colors, glazed and fired in kiln.