The fence peeker!

Dudley is totally the most nosy dog I've ever come across - just the rustle of a piece of wrapping paper - even if it's not the rustle of a packet of cheese - and he's there beside you, watching. It's the same with all deliveries and, apart from food, it's a ritual that he has to be shown everything as it's unpacked. The same when I make a card - he has to look very seriously at the end product and gently bow his nose to it, before it can be put to one side.

Earlier in the week, he was mooching around the back garden and homed in on his favourite place to have a 'nosy' into next door's garden - through their fence. There's a small gap where the fence panel meets the horizontal gravel board (their house and garden is built lower than ours) and Dudley likes to spy on next door's garden, family, children etc.

So there he was, bent down with his rear end and plume of a tail in the air to have a good 'gander' when all of a sudden he literally shot up into the air, hastily backed off and then began barking at the fence.

Len was in the garden and had seen the whole performance, so he went over to quieten Dudley down. Then, he too, bent down to look through the horizontal small 'gap'. And there, staring right back at him, was a pair of very angry looking eyes ........ belonging to 'Teddy De Shih Tzu' who lives next door! You don't mess with Teddy, so whether he'd tried a little snap at Dudley's nose we don't know - but it was quite comical! That'll teach Dudley to be a 'fence peeker'!

Then, the other day, I was thinking about the incident and remembered I made this card as a result of Len and I spotting a different neighbours' cat, spying on us through a knot hole in the fence - well away from Dudley's 'sneaky peek' position:

This was made way back in January 2012 (HERE on my blog if you really want to know more). At the time, using lots of flowers, pearls and lace was 'the thing' that many aspired to when making their cards. 

Life is much simpler now as new ideas, tool and techniques have entered the card making arena! But, at the time a good few of us thought they were very pretty. And I didn't have a clue about image manipulation - what I took on the camera was what I published!

I prefer how we are now, but suddenly remembered that I have a load of really lovely flowers stored in here. Wild Orchid crafts was a favourite place to shop! Plus lots of flat silk ones, leaves, lace, ribbons and bows - plus more for sure.

IF anyone reading this, sorry UK only though, would like me to fill and post a parcel box of flowers etc. to them - please feel free to email me, using my own email address on the right hand side bar. I would love to send you some totally free Happy Mail.

The Really Useful boxes currently housing all those embellishments are never touched these days and would be better put to use storing other stuff. If there are no takers within a couple of weeks or so then I'll try some online sites that I know of - otherwise they will be heading for the bin, which would be a shame.

Remember, the results of Challenge #429 can be found HERE. And there's still a week to play on the current Snippets Playground challenge!

Pixie's Snippets Playground - Challenge #416 - results

 

Cold and grey weather right now, when the sun does come out to play it's such a delight. We had about an inch of snow last weekend, and a few flurries since, but nothing to compare with the snow and storm Arwen in some other parts of the UK.

 

Now for the picks from our previous challenge. Many thanks to Amanda for being our Guest Designer!

And here we go:

Oh wow, I adore this card - made by Bunny. The light bulbs are so realistic - die cut from snippets of Brusho coloured paper or card. Don't they look just like glass, fabulous!

Makes me want to have a little play with my own Brushos again. I got dis-hearted when, due to being overly enthusiastic/heavy handed, I often ended up with very muddy looking results. Bit like a child painting really - sigh.

I know, I picked Carol L for two challenges running ☺ But this really elegant card totally jumped out at me - brilliant use of monochrome snippets and the pops of red and silver.

I truly do try hard to spread the picks around, but it would be unfair of me to bypass a card like Carol's.

And my final pick this time is such a sweet card, made by Helen F. House Meece images are a huge favourite of mine and this card is cute as can be. I adore the addition of the curls and snippets of 'wrapping paper and ribbon'! Such a great touch.

I've stayed with three picks again - life is a bit busy right now. Thankfully the pre-Christmas panic I got myself into a few days ago has abated - mostly just through slogging away at things and ticking stuff off a long list of things to do.

We had two new Playmates this time - both of whom I sort of 'poached' from the brilliant Christmas Kickstart Challenge which ended on 30th November. A new Christmas Kickstart challenge begins on Tuesday morning folks, over HERE!

I really do urge you to hop over to Bobby's blog HERE - plenty of wonderful ideas using snippets strips in the same post! 

And Prudence joined us via Instagram as well - go HERE to see her great Christmas tree card!

Do come back and play again soon ladies!  

I know that some of you do prefer not to link in from a blog, but use other social media such as SCS, IG, FB and Flickr. Whilst I may choose you as a pick - sadly I can't always spend what often is quite a bit of time fiddling around trying to get your images onto Blogger. Often I have to save images, if I'm even allowed to do so, to my own hard drive, resize, save again and then pick them up from there. In future I will give links but no image in those cases - sorry! You'll still be in the prize draw of course. Some folk merrily predicted that Blogging would come to an end a couple or so years ago - I have yet to see proof though.

That's the picks from Challenge #416 in the Playground and we had 40 entries, including two new Playmates. Now for the prize draw which is a Pink Ink set of stamps and matching dies, from me. And the winner is:

Lesley G

Congratulations Lesley - a little while since your last win so this one is certainly due! I think you'll love your prize - enjoy!

Please send me your address, even if you know that I know it already, with your full name at the top as well so it can be can be copied and pasted for speed and ease. It's also confirmation that you still would like the prize of course.  Please put Playground Winner or similar in the subject line of your email in case it drops into my junk mail. Email address is on RH sidebar as always.

Remember folks, there's still almost one more week to run on the current Ruby's Memory Challenge #417 which you can find HERE. There are two lovely prize bundles to choose between - kindly donated by two of our Playmates.

Breaking news: Next Sunday, 12th December, is the start of the Grand Christmas/New Year Draw in the Snippets Playground, with lots of prizes to be played for on many of the days during the four weeks it will run. I'll publish all the rules as usual next Sunday - but basically it will run along the same lines as previously. You must clearly use snippets remember!

Last Sunday's Ocado delivery was a total repeat of the other week when Dudley ran and got 'Honka Duck' to show to the delivery person - a young lady this time. Dudley adores most ladies, she almost melted on the spot, and of course he then did several of his tricks (dancing on his hind legs, few spins and plenty of cute smiling looks) - flirty little show-off that he is ☺. 

I said at the beginning we had about an inch of snow last weekend. Here's Dudley doing zoomies around a far corner of the back garden clipped from CCTV footage. He uses the 'plug' for the rotary washing line socket as the marker for one end of his chosen circuit. The netting fence is to keep him off a huge patch of bare soil left after we had gardeners in to remove some massive shrubbery not long ago, about four times the length shown, in readiness for a project next Spring. He would love to get in there and have a good dig for sure!  

I love the top 'action' shot. Although Dudley has seen and been out in snow in previous years, it was still a huge novelty and his absolute joy was a delight to behold!

He blends in well here doesn't he - good job he's got those lovely dark eyes and button nose!

Lots of love from Dudley Dog and of course me,

Pixie's Snippets Playground - Challenge #413 - results

 

Now for the picks from our previous challenge. Many thanks to Sarn, our Head Prefect and creator of much mischief as well as lovely cards, for being our Guest Designer.

And here we go:

It's always great to see really clever ways to use up snippets - especially those longish strips we all seem to accumulate! Sandra H brought the above card to share and it's a lovely example of how to make the most of your snippety strips.

Wowser, what a wonderful selection of Halloween treat bags, shared with us by Carol L. Mind you, sharing via a blog post doesn't taste as yummy as in person! No doubt there will be Halloween treats in the Playground Treehouse though.! Really lovely to see you back playing with us Carol!

What a card, made by Jane W! Tons of snippets used and the detail is stunning. I thought the 'berries' were clear 'dewdrop' gems but Jane actually used clear liquid pearls - really effective as well.

 

Sharrie joined us for the first time from her new blog, bringing this lovely card - all the colours I love as well!

I accidentally didn't introduce you to Samantha, a new Playmate from Challenge 412 - and this is really pretty card she shared:

Come back and play soon! 

That's our joint picks from Challenge #413 in the Playground, we had 46 entries in total and one new Playmate. Now for the prize draw which is a Stampin' Up 'Vertical Sentiments' set of stamps - from Sarn. And the winner is:

Kathy K

Congratulations Kathy! Knowing your style of crafting, you're sure to use your prize to its full advantage!

Please send me your address, even if you know that I know it already, with your full name at the top as well so it can be can be copied and pasted for speed and ease. It's also confirmation that you still would like the prize of course.  Please put Playground Winner or similar in the subject line of your email in case it drops into my junk mail. Email address is on RH sidebar as always.

Remember folks, there's still almost one more week to run on the current Ruby's Memory Challenge #414 which you can find HERE. The prize is an Echo Park 'Candy Cane Christmas' set of dies plus a Neat & Tangled 'Medallion Flower Builder' set of dies, kindly donated by Kathy A who is also our Guest Designer.

We tried out the Mangar Elk 'rescue/rising cushion' the other day - with Len on the floor as guinea pig just in case there were any issues. It works a treat, although Dudley wasn't too sure about it when the air pump was running. 'What sort of dragon-like beastie is that then?'. Naturally, we both hope it's never needed but it sure beats a wait of several hours for help to arrive! 

Here's Dudley catching a few extra ZZZZzzzz'z on our bed before I made it the other day. And yup, that's the latest 'Stinky Monkey' beside him (still not as loved as previous ones) - plus his very first very grubby now 'rustle and squeak hedgie' puppy toy from Sarn, over three years ago - which he still loves and often uses as a pillow! 

He looks so sweet and innocent - but trust me, there's mischief brewing as soon as he's awake! Folk have mentioned that perhaps his name ought to be 'Tinker' - well, that's always been one of his nicknames from almost the word go! So you were right in suggesting it.☺

And, for your entertainment, here's Dudley 'spinning for a treat' - a little ritual after he's done a 'poop' each day. His record is seven spins in one go! The 'lunge' at the end is because Len always pops the treat on a unit beside my desk for me to give to him. And if I'm not fast enough he (Dudley) hops up and down like a demented Easter Bunny! If you have the sound on, he's panting a bit as he just did a few racing laps of the garden (zoomies, to celebrate a successful toilet mission) he then charged indoors and raced up the stairs, two at a time to my craft room, where he knew I'd be waiting to give him a treat.

Sorry, I just can't 'crack' uploading the video onto Blogger - here's a link to it on YouTube, it's also on Facebook:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJsl-A5-rrI

Love from myself and the usual happy 'high-five and woof' from Dudley,

MERRY CHRISTMAS! FROM DUDLEY & STAFF

Just a quick post to wish you all a VERY happy Christmas, despite the mess we're all trying to cope with.

Speaking of mess, on Tuesday Len spotted Dudley race upstairs - looking decidedly naughty. He followed him and caught him on our bed chewing an offcut of wood he'd picked up very quietly from the garage where Len had been working. We think he was about to try and hide it in the bed - little tinker

It's almost impossible to get a photo of him these days as he just fidgets as soon as you get the camera out. This is the best Len could do:

His lovely pale peach ears are hidden by the false 'beard' on the hat to keep it on for at least 30 seconds and his nose is his Winter 'snow nose' which happens each year so isn't unusual. Despite my daily care, once he hit two years old he does have a bit of discolouration around his mouth and under his eyes. He'd just had a huge drink of water before this was taken so his beard is wet which makes it look more pronounced.

But, he's still our beautiful boy and is such a joy, if anything with more character. During the run up to Christmas he's been  into absolutely anything and everything. We can't move without him trotting along to check out what's going on!

He also doesn't look too thrilled about 'doggie sized Santa hat' but if you look closely just below the middle of his nose, there's a little smile lurking as if he just knows it's his duty to act up! 

Stay safe, enjoy Christmas Day and I'll be back ASAP!

Special woofs from Dudley as well as lots of love from Di, Dudley and Parsnip xxx

Pixie's Snippets Playground - Challenge #383

Hot and humid week here - and Dudley has spent a lot of time in front of various fans - looking like he was going to take off!

It was his Birthday on Wednesday - low-key as he's generally a laid back kinda guy, but still a fun day. He had some cards, as many zoomies as the heat would allow and lots of cuddles - doesn't take much to keep our pup happy!

Many thanks to all you lovely people who left good wishes on his Birthday post HERE.

Anyhow, here's my snippets card for this fortnight - and it's young Dudley's Birthday card, from Len and myself:

I used:

- 5.5" x 4.25" white card blank, side opening

- a background piece of paper from Whimsy's 'Rainbows' paper pack. I wanted this pack so much for another reason that I ended up recently having it sent from the Simon Says Stamp in the USA. My current passion is rainbows and it's a super pack of double sided paper!

- then, before  I matched the background if I'm honest, I chose a couple of  matching plainish yellow snippets from Lawn Fawn's 'Really Rainbow' paper pack, another paper pack that I love

- next I broke out the pack of sentiments stamps and there was almost enough to overwhelm me - but I had a plan

- took one piece of yellow snippet and used  stamps from Lawn Fawn's 'Critter Chatter Pets' set of sentiment stamps to stamp rows of words, using Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink across the piece. To be fair, it wasn't as easy as I hoped but got there in the end

- now I had a black words on yellow stamped background (remember, I'm often in a hurry here so my horizontal spacing could have been better IMHO) - but the words butt nicely against one another across where you're stamping thanks to the straight and equally spaced side  edges to each stamp

- then trimmed the full sheet of Whimsy 'Rainbows' paper down to 5.25" x 4" so it would sit nicely on the white card blank

- I wanted a large 'speech bubble' die to create an aperture but didn't have one and suddenly thought I could create my own without shelling out for a die I would rarely use by die cutting an oval using a Spellbinders die into the 'rainbow' sheet and then just snipping a 'v shaped notch' - easy peasy and works a treat!

- adhered the backing to the speech bubble aperture using a glue pen

- then stamped the little dog, coloured and die cut him using a die from the adorable Lawn Fawn 'Say What? Pets' set of stamps - using Pro markers for the very soft colouring

- stamped the sentiment strip onto a snippet strip of the same plainish yellow paper from the Lawn Fawn 'Really Rainbow' pack, trimmed it top and bottom then adhered to the patterned 'speech bubble' rectangle, with some overhang

- trimmed either side of the strip to fit and then added the whole panel to the card front

 - added the little die cut dog, just sitting on the sentiment strip

- final touch - added a peel off in silver and gold holographic design for Dudley's age - 2!

Bit washed out looking in the photo but in real life it's very vibrant and the black stamping is a real solid black, this bright sunshine is so unforgiving. A fun card to make and to be honest I was spoilt for choice with all the sentiments plus a dog, cat and birdie just in the 'Say What? Pets' set - let alone the other sentiments set of stamps!

And needless to say, here's the prize for this fortnight:

It's a little bit special to celebrate Dudley's Birthday and a nice prize to use for pet owner cards. It's the 'Lawn Fawn Say 'What? Pets' set of stamps and matching dies as well as the Lawn Fawn 'Critter Chatter: Pets' set of stamps - same as the ones I used for Dudley's card. The sets are suitable for dogs, cats and birds - and there are even a few fish sentiments in the 'Critter Chatter' set of stamps.

As always, the Snippets Challenge will run for two weeks and the Playground gates will close at 11am UK time on Saturday 8th August. The gates will open again at midnight UK time on the same day.

It's a maximum of ONE entry, please say in a comment if you wish to play and be a possible winner of the prize. Please also link back to the Playground in your blog post to be eligible for the draw.

Remember, if you link into the Playground and don't say clearly that you want to be in the draw in a comment on here, then you will be bypassed if your name comes out of Mr Linky. I'm sure you all know I ask for a positive 'yes' on the blog post itself - just in case you're only playing for fun - otherwise I don't add you to my little list.

As I used two sets of stamps, a set of dies - and also the Whimsy 'Rainbows' paper pack for the first time, it means I can join in with Darnell's NBUS #16 challenge HERE!

It's July's Rudolph Days challenge over at ScrappyMo's don't forget - runs from 25th to the end of the month.

Apologies, I haven't posted off the winners 'Art Deco stamps' prizes yet from challenge #381. I forgot I needed to order A5 hard backed envelopes from Amazon - they're here now but still in quarantine. I'll post early next week! 

And, we have a photo from Dudley's 2nd Birthday! It was taken by one of the CCTV cameras, so the quality isn't brilliant - but here's the little guy anyhow - just lying on the frizzled grass, sniffing the fresh air - having had a good poke around the garden, hence the mucky mouth ☺:

Stay safe my lovely friends.

Lots of love from us all - Parsnip, Dudley and of course me,

Pixie's Snippets Playground - Challenge #373

We've actually had sunshine here with no rain, for at least two days this past fortnight. Happy dancing here - especially from Dudley who hates going out in the rain and getting his paws wet!

Here's my snippets card for this fortnight:

I used:

- 5.5" x 4.25" white card blank, side opening

- snippet of SU's 'Dapper Denim' card stock, trimmed to an eighth of an inch all round smaller than the card front and glued it on top

- snippet of plain white card and a couple of floral snippets from a Me To You, Tatty Teddy (ancient!) 'Spring Chic' set of papers, probably one of the first paper pads I ever bought

- trimmed the white card to a little bit bigger than the card front so I could work with it more easily then stuck the couple of floral snippets on, with a diagonal line separating the two from one corner to another. They're the same design with the background colours different (one cream and one pink) so the difference is quite subtle

- trimmed the floral panel to an eighth of an inch all round smaller than the 'Dapper Denim' frame, and glued it on top

- the image was good fun to do. First I stamped the cat and sentiment onto a snippet of white card stock, using Memento 'Tuxedo Black' ink and a PaperArtsy 'Squiggly Mini 25' stamp 

- then coloured the cat using pink and turquoise Faber-Castell Polychromos pencils and Sansodor blending solution, matching as best I could to the floral paper background  

- trimmed the image down and popped it onto a slightly larger rectangle of 'Dapper Denim' before gluing it onto the card front - finished!

The stamp actually had a sweet little paw print just above the cat's head but I snipped that off as it looked a bit weird to me, even if it was meant to be a kitty thought bubble - and the little paw would be so cute stamped a few times onto the card's envelope or even elsewhere on the card front. The cat is a purrfect size for an ATC of course, and doesn't even need to be coloured - I just fancied using colours that aren't your usual kitty colours as the image is quite funky!

BTW, how I always know exactly what colour any plain SU snippets I'm using are 'cos I made up a swatch of all the SU card I have, many moons ago, and have added to it whenever I've bought new colours (albeit not bought any for ages now) 😀

And here's the prize for this fortnight:

It's not one but FIVE chances to win a Paper Artsy ' Squiggly Mini 25' stamp. I've got five of these brand new (not chopped apart as I did with mine, I leave that decision to the winners) cuties on offer as they aren't expensive, we have lots of cat lovers in the Playground and I'm quite conscious that I don't often have kitty themed snippets prizes. Plus it's a little celebration that Dudley is so much better. Ha - I raided his piggy bank 😀

As always, the Snippets Challenge will run for two weeks and the Playground gates will close at 11am UK time on Saturday 21st March. The gates will open again at midnight UK time on the same day.

It's a maximum of ONE entry, please say in a comment if you wish to play and be a possible winner of the prize. Please also link back to the Playground in your blog post to be eligible for the draw.

Remember, if you link into the Playground and don't say clearly that you want to be in the draw in a comment on here, then you will be bypassed if your name comes out of Mr Linky. I'm sure you all know I ask for a positive 'yes' on the blog post itself - just in case you're only playing for fun - otherwise I don't add you to my little list.

Our news here:

I had to go to the hospital eye clinic during the week (long story) and for now am all in the clear on all fronts with eye issues, even a cataract alert isn't causing concern. Whoopee! Mind you, whilst I was waiting for the pupil dilation drops to work in the hospital waiting room, a man gave one single cough and it was like a bunch of meerkats on high Coronavirus alert!

Earlier in the week some eedjit strolled into one of the practices in - despite what seems to be daily text reminders from them not to do that. The waiting room cleared and the reception area was closed down and then sanitised - as well as the fleeing patients being tracked down and contacted.

We had our usual Sainsbury's delivery on Thursday and apparently they are already geared up to delivering to homes with Coronavirus/Covid-19, or those in self-isolation and potentially undiagnosed. Basically, 'unload groceries on the doorstep, ring the bell and then run ..................fast'. It's not really funny I know but we do seem to be whipping up a real storm of fear, as well as panic buying, here in the UK.

Dudley is doing really well - his rash patches have cleared up and he's been so good when we needed (morning and evening) to swab the patches with saline solution, dab it dry and then apply and rub in the gel on several places - mostly on his tummy. He's such a happy little soul and just lies on his back on our bed to be administered to when we say the magic 'roly poly' words!

His latest thing is that the other evening Len was talking to me and purely said the name 'Arnie'. Arnie is his little doggie friend from over the way and Dudley began hopping about with anticipation, giving it a few woofs of excitement! Its obviously lodged somewhere in his memory that Arnie is his friend who has a go at 'hare boxing' when they meet and lots of waggy tails. 

And to finish with:

Len often relaxes on a sofa with his feet up in the evening to watch TV, and Dudley seems to know he's the most comfy spot to lie on and have a snooze! I took this really quickly the other evening, up until then he'd been totally asleep with his paw holding his favourite toy - but he did briefly open his sleepy eyes when I sneaked up with the camera. His dear little nose goes a bit brown in Winter, Bichons are the same I found years ago. And, there's a tale to his toy. 

He is known as 'Stinky Monkey the Fourth' and he's fairly new, since this infection flared up and we ditched or washed everything we could. But 'Stinky Monkey', and this is the fourth one we've sneakily substituted since he arrived with us, is very special - he's Dudley's most, most loved toy in the whole wide world. He is his comfort blanket and he sucks his face until it's deformed and quite gross to be honest, and has even chewed an ear off a couple of his predecessors.

It always chokes me up a bit to think that, when he came to us in September 2018, his 'luggage' was a starter pack of puppy food, a few favourite treats, a little tennis ball, his cuddly fleece puppy blanket - and 'Stinky Monkey the First'. He had lots of other stuff here to welcome him, including goodies from his Auntie SaRn - but it was the little bag he brought when he left his doggie parents with all his worldly possessions in that was so sad. He's made up for it since though!

Hope you all manage to steer clear of Coronavirus/Covid-19 and that you find time to come and play this week. I'm a little behind on commenting at the moment but will catch up ASAP.

Lots of love from us all - Parsnip, Dudley and of course me,

A little 'pupdate' - as my friend SaRn would say

We took Dudley to see Georgina the vet again today. He trotted in happily to her room this time, a week ago we had to slide him along the floor - a bit like a puck in ice hockey!

He's going great guns apparently. The outer stitches are dis-solvable so, until the crusty line/scab goes, we'll keep his onesie on - that was one less trauma than I expected to be honest as I thought the outer stitches needed to be removed. She confirmed that they did indeed dig deep and quite wide to be sure of clear margins just in case it was exactly what it turned out to be. But, he's totally clear now - hooray!

And, best of all - he can finally now have free run of the house again. The pure joy on his face when I moved the lower stair barrier and said 'Off you go then Dudley' was priceless. He goes up two at a time in bunny hops and was up there in a trice, on the landing with his tongue hanging out - grinning down at me :)

And, once again, Georgina reiterated how helpful our rapid detection and getting him to the vet had been. There's no knowing how things could have panned out had we just left it and we're just so very grateful things worked out well. It isn't over reaction to have things checked out after all and if you ever have concerns, this really is a lesson in getting to your vet soon.

Next, I queued at the village Post Office for ages (returning something for Len, so not even my own post) - Christmas madness is starting! Afterwards could hardly squeeze into my car for the huge 'Tonka Toy' car parked so close you'd think it wanted to be more than friends with my little car. My new one is now delayed until mid-January - purely at the manufacturer's end, sigh.

Then I ran the gauntlet of our local Sainsbury's and stocked up on a lot of Christmas (with long shelf life or freezable) goodies. Needless to say, full of shoppers with bursting trolleys - and literally four tills open in what's one of the biggest supermarket stores in our area.

Came home and finally collapsed - and there's still two weeks to go - I might have peaked early!

Dudley update - the results

I'm using almost the same words I've used to at least a few bloggy friends- right now I can't reinvent them so here goes:

Georgina, Dudley's favourite vet, phoned us late this afternoon with his pathology results.

Using fancy speak it was a melanocytoma - basically a melanoma,which thank goodness is benign.The wound is so big as they took away a fair bit of margin around it and the borders of that are totally clear. I'm so relieved and yet stunned - melanoma was my worst unspoken fear, and possibly theirs, and of course it's wonderful that it's benign/hasn't spread.

From the rapid bit of Googling I've done it seems to often stem from a hair follicle if it's on the dog's tummy or such and also it tends to affect dogs under one year old. Exactly Dudley's visual symptoms and around his age group.

We apparently did really well to jump to attention and get him to the vet when we did and will both be giving him an even more thorough check at least once a week, although with luck he should sail merrily through to old age.

Of course, he'll lie on his back and absolutely love being stroked! Hooray for Dudley - a positive result and he's also 'positively' delighted at the prospect of being fondled even more than usual.

Which takes us full circle -  as that's exactly how Len initially found it in the first place!

And the little chap? Fast asleep and totally oblivious here with his head on one of my slippers, with my foot inside, so he knows if I move away from the desk!

With grateful thanks for all your positive thoughts for this happy outcome, and a happy albeit unknowing woofle from Dudley.

Much love,

Pixie's Snippets Playground - Challenge #365 - results

Well, that's one week I don't fancy repeating. I did a little post last thing on Thursday to let folk know that Dudley came through his little op. fine. He was still very groggy and twittering like a little bird when we brought him home. We've have such a lot of good wishes for him - they're certainly helping us to get through quite a distressing time and I'll add a later update further down this post.

First of all, let's get going with this fortnight's picks:

Liz really came up trumps, creating no less than 17 cards! To see how she did it, do hop over to Liz's blog HERE - she's very kindly got the sketch of how she divided the sheet of paper up there for us to see, Amazing!

Eemeli used a ton of different snippets for this lovely card  - and she was brave enough to colour the image first and THEN go on the hunt for snippets to pick out the image colours - very impressive indeed.

Heather skipped in with these two lovely cards. Such a perfect design for using up little snippets - a great one to CASE I think. And the combination of blue and green patterned paper is perfect, topped with a snowflake and a matching green button - love them!

Boy, that was hard to whittle down this time round - everyone is so talented in the Playground, it gets harder all the time to choose.

And we had one new Playmate this time:

Nora

Do please hop over to welcome Nora and comment on her beautiful work.

So, that's my picks, and our new Playmate from Challenge 365, and I do hope they've given you some inspiration for ways in which you can use up some of those snippets.

We had 55 entries and including one new Playmate this time round - a nice steady number of entries!

Time now for the prize draw, which is for the SWALK 'Friendship' stamp and a Gemini 'Stitch Edge Circle' set of dies. And the winner is:

Tina

Well done Tina - it seems like ages since you last had a win! Please send me your address, with your full name at the top as well so I can copy and paste or just write straight from the email onto the envelope - for speed and ease. It's also confirmation that you still would like the prize of course and I'll post your prize once I hear from you. Please put Playground Winner or similar in the subject line of your email in case it drops into my junk mail. Email address is on RH sidebar as always.

Remember folks, there's still almost another week to run on Challenge #366 - you can find it HERE. The prize is a Neat and Tangled 'Paint Night' set of stamps - plus the matching set of dies. And do remember that we still have our Guest Designer Karen's wonderful snippets make of a gorgeous wreath as well as a very generous give away - over on her blog HERE.

I'm so sorry I didn't remind you girls to go and check for the winner of Karen's first giveaway for the Snippets Playground (who was Gail Scott). I think Karen will probably post the next winner's name as soon as challenge #366 closes.  That's what threw me as I give myself a week's grace to do the results write-up these days. Once again, huge thanks to Karen for being our GD and also for her commenting on your entries, as well as her generosity and wonderful inspiration.

And more wild life, we've just spotted a fox picked up on our CCTV the other night - having a mooch around the front garden. We've occasionally seen one trotting up and down past the house but not one venturing so close. It's doubtful if it could squeeze under the gap we deliberately had left at the bottom of one of the side gates when the back garden fences were replaced - just enough for a hedgie to get under. Otherwise young Dudley might meet his match!

We've also spotted the little hedgie on CCTV, still coming to feed now and then - but the last time we spotted him 'live' and had an opportunity to capture him was the evening before Dudley's op. - and there was no way I could focus on trying to fit in taking him to the rescue centre when it was all I could do to get Dudley to and from the Vet.

Dudley went into the Vet's animal hospital at 8:30 on Thursday and we collected him at 4pm, so it was a long old day. In fact, they had anticipated we could collect him at 2pm but when I phoned to check, he was still too groggy and they wanted to keep an eye on him for another two hours. He just laid his head against me in the car on the way home and closed his eyes with a sigh of relief. He alternated between dozing in silence and twittering like a little bird all evening, covered with his little fleece blanket - and most of the night. Yesterday was a pretty quiet day as well but today, Saturday, he's bounced back into his usual lively self and the problem now is to stop him from doing 'zoomies' around the house! We've got the stair gates back in place, thankfully they're portable - and Len is carrying him up and down the stairs when needed as he usually bounds up them two at a time. And yup, he came home wearing a cute dark blue onesie. I took the dressing off his wound yesterday as instructed by the Vet - bit shocked at the length of the incision but my guess is they may have played it safe. Of course he has a pretty big shaved patch there, and also a small one on a front leg where the IV was inserted and one on a back leg where they placed the blood pressure monitor. So he certainly looks as if he's been in a bit of a battle.

Len managed to take a photo of him yesterday. I've tried to capture a photo of him standing up showing off his onesie properly - with his lovely plume of a tail poking out of the back end where the poppers are, but no luck yet.

Dudley goes back for a quick check on Monday and then we have a wait a further week for the pathology results and his second follow up appointment. So that will be 11 days after his operation (the weekends got in the way!) and with luck he'll have the stitches removed and we might be able to leave his onesie off. It's working really well and he's quite happy wearing it - although having to undo the poppers and roll it up out of the way every time he needs the toilet is a bit of a palaver, but much better than a cone or similar.

Anyhow - here's the photo:

His head looks huge - partly as it's close to the camera but also his body does look so small in comparison once his fluffy coat is flattened! Actually, you can see a 'dip' in the hair on his front right leg where it was shaved for the IV to go in - it looked very red and bruised when he first came home but already it's calmed down a lot.

Edit: Success late Saturday afternoon. Not brilliant but here's Dudley at the door to my craft room watching Len go down the stairs:

His tail is flopped over covering the cute little strap which goes up onto the back of the top of the onesie (one either side of his tail). The pad at the back is partly to stop the onesie from riding up and also to protect his (ahem) crown jewels area in case that was the operation site. The onesie was supplied new by our vet but they're sold by Amazon as well - made by Medical Pet Shirt and they come in 11 different sizes (His Nibs is an extra small size).

It's going to be a long week and a bit for us until we get the results, but we can't change those and have to be thankful that his op. went off without a hitch.

Both Len and I have been so touched by your concern and the many lovely comments of support. It's meant such a lot to know he's so well loved by people who've never met him. But then, he's that sort of dog - full of personality and a total joy each new day.

Love from Parsnip, a happy wave from Dudley - and of course hugs as always from me,