Dressage and Dog Jackets

I have been on a dressage kick lately. My past few lessons I have been jumping, so I finally let myself do dressage for a few days in a row. (It's my favorite!) Jack has been amazing! He is getting much lighter in my hands and is really stepping underneath himself and using his hind end.

This is unfortunately the best picture I got from my ride on Saturday. I wish I had a good one from his trot work, but I felt like posting a horse picture anyway!

The other thing I did last week was make a dog jacket for the Ryan's new dog, Lanson. I have never made one like this before. I have made a polar fleece sweater for Dylan but that was from a pattern. This one I made by just taking the measurement from his neck to the base of his tail and around his girth. Then I sketched out a shape on tissue paper, cut it out, and traced it onto polar fleece. It is double layered, so he will stay nice and cozy! I just used polar fleece that I had on hand and some left over Velcro that I had bought to fix Jack's fly mask. I was nervous that it might not fit around his neck, but it actually fits quite perfectly!

It felt nice to give him a cozy jacket so he won't be shivering around the barn anymore!

My other sewing project that I am working on right now is a helmet cover for cross country. I will post pictures once I finish it. It's coming along but I have to figure out how to attach the brim part and make it look nice. Working on it is making me excited to go cross country schooling! Go away winter!

HELLO!!!!!

If there is one thing that Dylan is not, it is shy about asking for attention when he wants some. And why bother walking all the way around someone when through the legs saves half a second?

Spoiled?

Is Dylan spoiled if this is just a part of his squeaky toy collection? He absolutely loves stuffed dog toys with a squeaker in them. Even though he can't hear the squeak, he likes the feel of the squeaker squishing in his mouth.


He will choose one toy and stare at it, waiting for someone to kick it for him. He's a shepherd, not a retriever, so he doesn't always bring the toy very close to whoever is supposed to play with him. When he is waiting for his toy, Dylan can be very narrow-minded and patient. He will stand or lay down for minutes on end until someone gives in or simply notices him waiting.

Then, snap! As soon as the toy is kicked up in the air, he springs into action and snatches it out of the air. Even though we question his eyesight sometimes, he has extremely good eye-mouth coordination whenever he is playing.

Then, of course, the waiting starts all over again. "Daddy, won't you play with me instead of taking my picture?"

This Old Navy bear is his overall favorite, but he rotates through all the toys. His new favorite right now is a lamb that Megan and Aaron just bought him. The way to Molly's heart is through food, but the way to Dylan's heart is a fuzzy new squeaky toy!

Dreaming of Spring

This is what I am daydreaming about right now... a field of tulips in the sunshine!The sunny day yesterday gave me spring fever, and now I'm wishing for the sun to come back out as promised! I shouldn't complain because it's at least above freezing here, not below zero like it is back in Minnesota. Thank goodness for the Pacific Northwest climate!

Dirty Jack, Clean Jack

This is what Jack looked like on New Year's Day when I went out to get him. He was so dirty that I had to stop at my car to get my camera. He's saying, "What's the big deal? I had a nice roll in the mud!" Thank goodness I could just pull the blanket off and have him mostly clean underneath. Otherwise tacking up would be a nightmare!

I put a new blanket on him today. It's a Rhino medium weight with a high neck. It looks like it's going to be wet and cold this week, so I wanted him to be covered up a little more. Plus the tail flap is torn off his Schneider's blanket in the first picture and I need to sew it back on. I love the color of this blanket. It matches him!

I'm sure I'll show up at the barn tomorrow and he'll be nice and dirty in his brand new blanket. Horses will be horses!

It's Done!

I finished the tree skirt! I cut all the pieces and sewed the squares together yesterday. Today I put everything together.

It fits perfectly under the tree. And since Christmas is technically until January 6, I got it done in time for the Christmas season!

Here is a close up of the back of the skirt. The flannel with the holly on it looks really cute. It almost makes the skirt reversible! And I completely love the eyelet edging. It is the same design I had on my baby blanket, so it has good memories for me.

The patterns of the fabric look good together. It took a little rearranging to get the right look with the different colors and prints, but I think it turned out exactly as I hoped it would.

Since the pattern for the tree skirt came from my mom, I will think of her whenever I look at it :-) I am so proud of my project!