Find You A Sheep...

 ...who looks at your artwork the way Big J does :-).

While I would like to talk to Maisie, even though I feel like I know mostly what she'd have to say, who I'd really like to talk to is Big J.  What a great old sheep.  I'd love to know what he thinks about and understands.  He was very interested in the painting last year as well. 

I've had to wait a couple of days for an overcast sky to take a digital picture of the painting, but I'm sure not going to complain about a couple of warm, sunny days in December :-).  I got the picture taken this morning and it's headed off to "the printer" and if all goes well, we'll be ready to start mailing on Monday.

Solstice Advent

The holidays can be so stressful and are frequently not nearly as fun as I wish they would be.  I always manage to get my tree put up, but there have been some years it's only because I don't want to hurt the tree's feelings and all the ornaments who I know are looking forward to their time to shine.  Once it's up I'm always glad I did it :-).

Last year Wing and a Prayer Farm offered a beautiful Solstice Advent calendar and I decided to treat myself as a challenge to be more deliberate in looking for joy throughout the season.  Every day I had to do something, even just something small, a glimmer, and if I did so, I got to open my solstice treat that night.  I'm good at challenges like this.  I didn't miss a day...and I ended up enjoying every day.

The year has not been an easy one and even though early on I had formulated a plan to refill the solstice calendar pockets this year, I was finding it hard to garner any enthusiasm as it approached.  Still, I knew if I didn't make the effort, I'd end up disappointed so I started scouring eBay for my calendar pocket fillers.  And in doing so...finally started to get a little excited.

By the time all the little boxes arrived and I handed them off to Auntie Reg so she could to open them all up and tuck something into each pocket, I was actually looking forward to December first and thinking about all the little things I could do so I could have a miniature solstice party each evening.

December 1st

Oh!  A new sheep and she has a lamb by her side!

* * * * *

I'll share my solstice prize each night on IG and FB.  If you'd like to play along virtually, please join me!  Try to do something every day that brings you some holiday cheer.  It could be something as big as baking cookies or as small as sitting down to drink a cup of tea with your cat and thinking about a happy memory.  

This is going to be fun :-)

Happy Birthday, Maisie

"Auntie Reg said I could eat some of your cake."

"She absolutely did not say that."

(She probably did ;-)

"It's MY birthday!"

"That darn cat."

11 years old.  Wow.  It seems like only a few years ago she was just a tiny baby...but also seems like she's been here forever.  

I wanted to look back to see when we first started making her a birthday crown.  A fun way to do that is to follow the drop down date menu on the right hand side of the blog screen.  Select the year and then "November" and her birthday parties are always titled in a way that you know you are at the right place.

It's fun...and a bit bittersweet...to see all the old parties and party guests.  It's also kind of sad to see all the comments from readers over the years.  One year 90 people wished Maisie a Happy Birthday!  I wish blogging and reading blogs was still as popular as "the good old days". 

Back to the party! 

We kept Jared away from the cake as long as we could.  Of course Short Round followed him out.  Maisie had had enough "cake" by then anyway.  Everyone else joined a few minutes later and another crazy Maisie birthday party is in the books.  

The Official Party Crasher

 "Can you even believe this?!?"

Maisie had a beautiful day for her 11th (!) birthday.  I'll share some more pictures tomorrow, but couldn't wait to tattle on silly Archie :-).

Thankful For Good Friends

I just watched Jared and Short Round slowly tottering across the driveway, headed back to the barn and it reminded me of a cute picture I took the other day and forgot to share. 

These two are old and pretty frail, but they are staying at it.  Here they'd heard me messing about in the barn and got up and came around the corner to see if I might be dishing up any of the bagged alfalfa.  It's chopped up and mixed with a tiny bit of molasses and it's pretty much the only forage Jared can eat these days.  I set a little out several times during the day so he can "graze".  He frequently has to share ;-).

He still occasionally goes down along the driveway and picks some soft grass at the bottom of the hill.  Short Round always goes with him and if she's not right by his side, she's not far away.  A bit late in the game this fall he figured out that pumpkins were good and I wonder if she taught him that.  

They are like a sweet old hard working married couple and it never fails to make me smile...and snap a picture.