My sweet pup is one year old today.  In celebration (and to try out the new camera I got yesterday, a Canon SX20), here is a little photo gallery of Russell and Big Brother George!

Here he is, playing with his present.  That grunt was kind of scary at first!  Happy Birthday, my baby! <3

… has been spent coughing.  And coughing.  And coughing.  I have some kind of bronchial spasm going on, along with a double ear infection.  Swell.  But it gives me an excuse to hole up with a pot of tea, some old movies, and my knitting!

Here are some Stripey Socks knit from Noro Silk Garden.  I learned how to make jogless stripes, and stripes in ribbing without leaving those little stray colored bumps in the purl section of ribbing.  Cool!  But, winter is sneaking away rather quickly, and these are some thick, warm socks, so I started on some bamboo socks in a beautiful orange/rust/pink colorway dyed by my friend Rebecca at Vinca Leaf.

The pattern I’m using is Hedera.  Hopefully it will be cool and lacy!

I had to knit him his own little sweater, too.

Every year we cut down a tree at a local tree farm.  Very local, as in 2 blocks away!  We love this farm and we also pick blueberries there in the summer.  This year I decided to get fancy and selected a different type of tree than what we usually get- I chose a white fir.   Due to a heavy workload this time of year, we often don’t get to bring a tree home until a week or so before Christmas.  We installed ours in the house on the 13th within an hour of cutting.

A week later, we discovered this:

I’m a bit of a fire phobic, so OUT the tree went.  I tried vacuuming up the needles and ended up spending an hour unplugging the vacuum cleaner!  So we ended up sweeping the carpet and attacking the rest with a shop vac.  Whew.  Yesterday we went searching for trees- a lot harder than I thought it would be- and our local farmer was snowed in, so I couldn’t go back to him.  We finally found a farm stand with three lonely frasier firs and brought home a little one and set it up.

24 hours later, I am glad to report that it is behaving nicely.  No needle vomit on my carpet.

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL!

Kitchen has been finished a couple of weeks but I just took pictures yesterday:

Notice that I still haven’t put knobs and handles on!  The drawers and cabinets seem to work fine without them, though

But I’m innocent, I tell ya!

I’ve wanted a French Bulldog for years.  At least 4-5 years.  When our Irish Wolfhound died, I started going to dog shows and meeting frenchies and their handlers/breeders  and really liked the ones I met.  But we decided to get a labradoodle.  We got George and wouldn’t trade him for anything- he is the wonderdog- we love him SO much!

I kept researching frenchies in the meantime- my dream never went away.  Well, Louie died back in May so I started looking again.  I found a breeder who had an expectant bitch not too far away- Pennsylvania- so I kept in touch.  A good frenchie from a reputable breeder is hard to find and it’s exceptionally hard to get on any sort of waiting list.  I checked out this breeder’s dogs through OFFA and mom and dad and most of the others mentioned were listed as being tested for and passing numerous important health tests.  She was in the breeder recommendation list at the French Bulldog Club of America.   She was friendly and readily answered any questions I had, so I counted myself lucky to find a breeder I could talk to!

I was worried about seeming stalkerish and putting her off, so I forced myself to wait a week or two between emails.  Finally the pups were born and I had to be patient again as I wanted a companion, not a show animal.  It’s very hard for a breeder to tell which puppy has potential or not.  At 9 weeks she made her decision and I held my breath.  Both boys were show prospects.  I could have cried!  But then she offered me the boy she wasn’t keeping, as a co-ownership where I would keep him and she would show him.  But I didn’t want to have to keep an unneutered male, so with great reluctance, I told her I would have to pass him up.   A day or so later, she said she had discussed it with her husband and decided a good home was more important than being able to show the dog, and offered him to me!  We were all ecstatic!

She was going to a show in MA just after the pups turned 10 weeks and I asked her if I could meet her there, 2 hours away, instead of driving 6 hours to pick him up.  She agreed, and we met on Wednesday and picked him up!  I have to say that Lesa Manoskey is the most wonderful lady.  She was kind and helpful and is a very conscientious breeder.  I am so very lucky to have found her!  She was just as amazing in person.  Thank you so much Lesa of Bigstar French Bulldogs!

Oh, I suppose after reading all that, you want to see pictures of the little guy.  Meet Russell!  He is already proving to be quite the funny little guy and we love him very much- I’m sure he will be starring in this blog quite often in the future.

This is travertine 2″ mosaic and the accents are slate.  I grouted today and barely finished in time to go watch a local kids’ band play at a saloon in Newport.  Katie’s drummer guy was substituting for the drummer in his big brother’s band and he was GREAT!  They all were.

We took a road trip to DC to be touristy- that was fun!  And wow- you never really get a sense of all these great landmarks until you actually SEE them in person, know what I mean?

I’m still working on the kitchen and hope to post a picture of the completed project in a week or two.

I’m also waiting for news as to whether I will be new mommy to a French Bulldog!

YAHOO!  One painful month later, the counters are finally in.  So are my snazzy new microwave, black sink and brushed nickel faucet!

We still have some crown moulding to put up as well as the moulding that goes along the bottom of the cabinets.

Oh, AND the tile backsplash.  I’m thinking travertine with a few of my tiles as accents.  At first I was going to do the whole backsplash in my tile, but, yeaaaaaaahhhh NO.

It is so nice having counters again!  But now that old fridge is starting to look pretty bad…