Back to crafting, and Say "Hello" to our new addition to the family.

I started this blog as an incentive to make art more regularly. I've been going off topic with things life has thrown me over last few years, so I thought I'd share a few things I have been creating.



The latest make was a card for my daughter's birthday, she loves owls.

 ....we're not out of the woods yet, I made another woodland creature card. A special request from someone for a fox card for a special granddaughters birthday.

and last but not least, I wanted to share my latest news;
As I mentioned in my last post, our lovely Labrador Amy was never on her own, she always had Piper for company. We wanted Amy to have another doggy playmate, so we got a new baby labrador puppy dog in December.

Meet Amber;

  Is this not the face of mischief? 

This photo was taken on 23rd January age 3 1/2 months old.

                                       This baby photo was taken in December.

She has kept us busy with training, keeping her out of trouble, playtime and entertainment, hers and ours.
We called her Amber because of her beautiful, soft strawberry blonde colouring especially around her ears and back. I love her ears, they're so silky, velvety soft!
Amber wanted to chew everything and everybody  from day one.
Amy, though initially frightened of our new "land shark", has been very good and extremely patient with our new excitable, sometimes naughty puppy.
Thankfully this exploratory biting phase has passed and they get on great now, only soft play biting when they are carrying on and playing, though Amber thinks all the toys are hers.
Amy gives up her ball whenever Amber wants it,  so Amy picks up a different toy then that's the one Amber wants. Poor Amy, she's such an angel, so gentle, generous and good.

This is Amber at around 6 months old.

Amber (now almost 9 months old) and Amy waiting patiently on a treat.

These last two photos were taken a couple of days ago.

Thanks for visiting

Love

Alexandra xx

Our brave wee Piper.

Hi everyone,
Sorry for falling off the web, it's been a long time, I've been missing you but my art and crafting mojo had almost absconded since my last post, I haven't been creating much until recently, sorry I've nothing ready to post today but I have a few photos I promise to share soon.

Since the beginning of last year, I had been spending much of my time with our lovely dogs and nursing our wee Piper helping her back to being able to get out for her walks again, which she achieved gradually over last summer, though she could only cope with shorter walks since her cancer treatment. I know a lot of you sent love and well wishes for her, and I was asked by Pam how she was doing. Sorry Pam, for not replying sooner, but I wasn't ready to talk at the time as you'll probably understand if you read on. Sorry this is a bit of a long post.

I'm writing this with sadness, our lovely Piper was unwell towards the end of last summer.

She had been diagnosed with glaucoma, a painful eye condition, mid August, she was given pain relief medicine and eye drops to reduce the pressure in her eyes. 
We noticed around this time, she was beginning to be a bit fussy eating & we put it down to side affects of her new medicine.
On the Sunday evening later that week, we recognized she had another infection in her womb which had been treated with antibiotics the previous month. After the medication she seemed to get better for a short while, but it was back. This time it was worse than it had been before.
She was still off her food, normally she had a great appetite, quickly clearing her dish. We tried giving her flaked fresh fish, then roast beef and also tried chopped breast of chicken to encourage her to eat, but she only ate half leaving remaining half in her dish.
We took her to the vet early on the Monday morning, and were waiting outside the surgery when she opened.
The vet recommended surgery straight away, without the operation she wouldn't last much longer and treating with more antibiotics  wouldn't help, as infection would reappear, so it was arranged for her to go through surgery later that morning. 
Our vet phoned a bit later, to say she wouldn't be strong enough to survive this as her heart developed problems when they anesthetized her.
This was devastating, after her battling so bravely with cancer and dealing with going blind, to suddenly be given this news. We couldn't watch her go through any more so I'm sorry to say that we had the very difficult decision to make to let her go. We know it was the right decision, but it was heart breaking, I'm glad she had her family with her when she slept her last sleep. I'm now writing this through tears. We still miss her terribly. She almost reached her 10th birthday.
Amy, our blonde girl was a great comfort, giving us a bit of normality with walks and our doggy routine, though I'm sure she wondered where Piper was, and was missing her too. They'd always been together since they were puppies, they were the best of friends and always had each other's company. 

Here are Amy and Piper at the entrance of Chatelherault located in a village near Hamilton.
This was the area of one of their favourite, bigger, 2 hour walks.

Wonderful memories will stay with me.

It has taken me a long time to be able to talk about this. 

Thanks for your kindness and well wishes.

We miss you loads and will always love you, our brave wee "Pippa"

Love Alexandra x