Kitten Rescued Twice in One Day

Sharing a local news story with all my fellow furry friend lovers (and its not even a doggy story!)...

The Boston Globe article is here and here is the MSPCA page link.

Kitten Rescued Twice in One Day Receives Holiday Season Good Will
Thursday, November 29, 2007

Injured Kitten Retrieved from Road and Dashboard to Undergo Donated Surgery

Dasher, an eight-week-old stray domestic long-haired kitten, rescued twice Tuesday is being scheduled for surgery to save his leg at the Angell Animal Medical Center in Boston.

Dasher was originally found by a Good Samaritan in the middle of the road in Taunton after being struck by a car. The quick thinking individual scooped him up and brought him to the warmth of her car only to have him seek refuge in the dashboard. After fruitless attempts to retrieve Dasher, the car was brought to Silko Honda in Raynham which donated over five hours of labor from three technicians to rescue Dasher for the second time in one day.

Dasher is now being scheduled for surgery at Angell in an attempt to save his leg through the insertion of metal pins to stabilize his injuries. To donate to aid in the treatment of stray animals through the Angell Special Fund please click here.

Last Call!

Last call for entries to my contest... come people, help a dog out! Do it in honor of Dogs on Thursday!!!

Its been a superCRAZYbusyNONSTOPnotimeTObreath kind of week... so forgive the lack of new photos or knitting content. I finished my knitting & doggy cookie baking for the Holiday Open House at A Knitter's Garden this weekend and delivered all of my packaged & priced product to Joanne last night - big weight off my shoulders and now maybe my darned eye will stop twitching (I noticed an annoying eye twitch the past week and when I googled it, of course the big culprit that came up? STRESS!). Tonight I have a work event that I'm still stressing over and preparing for... oh the joys! I've also now realized that I do not have a Saturday (and barely any Sundays) free until after the holidays... ay, yi, yi!

So, in honor of DOT, 2 announcements for local doggy Christmas photos with Santa events... If you go to either one, please tell them Nichole sent you!

This Sunday, Dec 2 at The Grooming Emporium, Lowell, MA

Saturdays Dec 1 & 8 at Woof It Down, Windham, NH...

Pet Holiday Photos at Woof It Down!!

Saturday December 1 & 8

Time: 10:30 - 1:30

Many styles and formats to choose from at great prices!

No appointment necessary.
Pets are required to be on leash please.

Enjoy your Doggy Thursday... if you hear screaming, crying or uninteligible jibber jabberish today, its probably just me trying to get through today's work event... wishing I could just go home and curl up on the couch ala Teutul style...

CONTEST - 3 days left!

In case you haven't heard, I'm running a CONTEST ... and you have just 3 days left to enter! Click here for the details.

I'm still hopeful that I'll get that ASPCA ticker at the top of my blog to reach my $1,000 goal... will you help? If you do itemized tax returns (esp if you own your home), you need tax deductible donations, so what better way than to help the homeless animals through such a wonderful organization and get in a tax deductible donation before year end?

I realize I've yet to post the prizes - sorry, life has been hectic! - so now I'm going to just wait and post them when I post the winners. Trust me... you won't be disappointed if you enter!

Please remember, if you've entered in any of those ways, you must email me at LapdogCreations at AOL dot com and let me know... don't forget to include your snail mail addy in case you win!!!

Foster Update: My little sweetie pie, Sophie is still with us... and looking for her forever home. With each passing week, she continues to grow & blossom in our home and I fear that we will become a 4 doggy household... which means we would have to limit vacations greatly eat pb&j for dinner on a regular basis not be able to foster any more for a long, long time. She is that loveable and it would be quite easy to make her a permanent family member (even though I've always said that if we ever became a 4 doggy home, it had to be a Boston Terrier... that she is obviously not, but...). We brought her to CT with us for Thanksgiving, where she won over everyone's hearts despite her shyness (if only Mom-Sue wasn't allergic, I think she & Matt's Dad would've consider adopting her!) and she will be celebrating her 1st Birthday with us next week on December 6th......

Teutul still insists on being the baby of the house, but he's getting good with sharing the attention... (l-r Sophie, Lola, Teutul)

11 and 0!

So what if it wasn't the prettiest or most graceful... we're 11 and 0! GO PATS!

Winter Wonderland Week 4

This week's Winter Wonderland Coffee Swap topic is...

What is the ideal setting for enjoying the perfect cup of coffee? Who would be there - or would you be alone? Inside or out? Morning or night? With food or just the steaming cup of joe?

I would have to say two ideal settings... The first, sharing a good cup of java while sitting and catching up with friends. It doesn't matter the time of day, but with the dropping temps inside would be key! Food is fine, but not necessary. With all the hustle and bustle of not just the holiday season, but life in general, it seems these times are too few and far between these days. The second setting, would be a nice morning sitting on the couch, hanging out with the dogs and sipping a nice cup of coffee while knitting or even just doing nothing. Again, with all the hustle and bustle, these relaxing times can sometimes be too few and far between as well!

Excuse me while I bake...

Excuse my lack of blogging while I'm a complete mess covered in flour (whole wheat) and peanut butter! I've been loosing my mind baking a butt load of dog cookies for the past 2 days. And mind you... I normally do not bake! I'm having fun though (and finally getting to use my kitchenaid mixer for the first time!), making cookies to sell at A Knitter's Garden Holiday Open House this coming weekend, December 1 & 2. Click here for details and please come out and say hello if you're local! We will have loads of hand knits and great gifts... including gifts for the lovely pooches on your list, including my 2 types of dog cookies - peanut butter bones and ginger flavored snaps -- both of which have been approved by my furry taste testers! Of course, you'll find everything you need for that knitter (or crocheter!) on your list too... Joanne has a shop full of wonderful goodies to surprise them with!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving

from our home to yours...

please click on this link for a special wish from the dogs!

When Life Hands You Lemons...

Some of these silly things are so true, its scary...

You Are Lemon Meringue Pie

You're the perfect combo of sassy and sweet. You always know how to brighten someone's mood, but you're not overly sappy. In fact, you can be a bit too honest at times. And most people find that refreshing. While you're always true to yourself, you keep things light. That's how people are able to stomach your slightly bitter outlook. Those who like you have well refined tastes. You're complicated - and let's face it - a true enigma. You enjoy defying expectations, and there are many layers to your personality. There's not one easy way to define you.

What Kind of Pie Are You?

Happy pie baking day almost Turkey Day!

A Sculptor, I am not

I'm still playing a little catch up with blog posts and today its all about the "Going to the Dogs" needle felting class I took at Halcyon Yarn a week & a half ago. I got up at some awful hour earlier than usual (after a night out at the TSO concert mind you!) and drove the 2+ hours North by myself... through sun, clouds and even snow!

Shh... don't tell Matt I took these photos while driving. He may not approve of my unique skill of photoing-while-driving in snow squalls.... mind you, I think its quite a talent! You're probably wondering why I even took photos.. well, it was the first snow I'd seen of the season... around the Portsmouth area and I just felt like documenting the trip (side note: we got our first snow fall of the season here in Southern New Hampshire today, though just a dusting).

I'm not big on bridges, but I always find driving over this one that leads from New Hampshire into Maine interesing.

I actually made it to Halycon early for the class (even after a MickeyD's pit stop!), surprisingly! For anyone who knows me, you know I am so not a morning person and I often have that running-late thing going on. But alas, I made it a bit early and met Lisa there for the class. Our instructor was the wonderful Marianne Dubois, who brought along several of her gorgeous creations for us to oooohhhh & aaahhhh over!

She's been in to dragons lately... this one was my favorite!

We started the class making a basic, fun dog. The object was to make a standing dog of fun colors. Well, I quickly learned that cursing does not help your needling I wasn't cut out to be a sculptor. My doggy came out nearly twice the size he was supposed to be and I had quite the time "sculpting," but in the end I was pretty happy with the cute fella... though he still needs some more needling and finishing touches to be complete.

Here's Lisa and I (click each for additional photo) showing off our first doggies of the day.

You can clearly see her's is much nicer (and more of normal size!) than mine. She's definitely got a talent for needle felting!

The second part of the class was to sculpt a standing dog that was to be more realistic. Damn, the class got difficult! Again, a sculptor I am not... but I gave it a go and I will pick it up again after I finish all this crazy holiday knitting. Marianne was very patient, though it was clear some people (ah-hum... Miss Lisa!) got it more than others. Now I know why I knit.... but again, I will pick it back up soon and work on it. I want to get the Fleece Dog book (hello, Santa... are you out there?) and work with it. Will. Get. The. Hang. Of. This.

At the end of the day, we left with this (and lots of roving to finish at home with). That's my mess creations on the right and Lisa's to the left.

That black blob of a mess is supposed to be the start (inside portion - which is only black because it'll be covered on the outside by black and apparently the usual inside of white shows thru when felting over with black... did you follow all that?) is supposed to be my Lola... or maybe Teutul... as you can see, it can turn in to whichever one at this point.

They didn't have any blonde-ish fleece for us so I couldn't start out with a Zeus...

Marianne also realized this should probably be a 6 hour class next time (ours was a 5 hour class with a lunch break). We were her first class working on the dogs and apparently they take much more time than her usual felted starter animals... go figure! It was a great class and I did learn a lot. It was great to spend the day with Lisa too!

Another FABulous Swap Box!

Last week I received my swap box for the Fall Into Autumn Dishcloth swap. It arrived a little late, but my wonderful spoiler was the amazing Cass and she emailed to let me know things were a tad behind a couple times and actually revealed herself in email prior to the box's arrival. And boy was this box so worth the wait! LOOK!!!

Everthing was wrapped up so nicely... one package even had a little dog collar & "woof" tag wrapping it!

Until I tore into it all faster than the speed of light and found all this yummy-ness!

OMG, can you say S-P-O-I-L-E-D??!! Cass included one of the most wonderful, kind notes ever and explained to me that this was not a traditional "dishcloth swap" box per say, but it came to me with a spa theme. Me loves spa theme... very nice!

There were so many cool & unique things inside the box, inlcuding knit-theme hand stamped mini note cards, a "Wag More, Bark Less" (such words to live by!) sticker that will soon find its way to my car and the coolest little notebook that was made from a Black Dog Ale 6-pack box.... how friggin' cool! Cass included my babies and sent them some great chicken & carrot organic dog treats that they've been drooling over! And... there were, of course, some wonderful handknits & beautiful cotton yarns...

There you see a most amazing stoneware mug with a custom knit cozy (this is going to be so perfect all winter long!), 2 face cleansing cloths, a face scrubby and a luxurious eye pillow (for which I was eyeing - no pun intended! - and anxiously awaiting the pattern on Cass' site!). There's also yarn ... 2 skeins of Sugar 'n Cream, a skein of Cotton Ease and a skein of Pakucho Organic Cotton that I can not wait to try! It is made in Peru and feels so super soft.

Then there's the "mmm... good" part of the package...

There is a vanilla travel candly, Te Tao bath & body set, chocolate, tea (including some Teaology Lavender Mint that I can't wait to try) and the most delicious Butter Cream coffee, which we've made 3 times now and love it. It goes especially good with the seasonal vanilla spiced rum coffee creamer that's out now! YUM-O!

Thank you Cass... this was a fan-tab-ulous spoiler box and you really nailed me to a "T"!

In other knitting related news, I spent some time packaging up my first few sets of stitch markers that will officially be for sale at A Knitter's Garden (I'll get to some more for Etsy shortly, after I finish all the knitting & gifts for the AKG Open House). Here's the first 8 sets of "Stitch Markers by Lapdog Creations"...

Here's a close up of 2 of the sets...

Stay tuned for a recap of my Dog Needle Felting Class...

10 and 0!

In all these "what are you thankful for" posts & contests lately, did I mention I'm thankful to be a Boston girl??!! 10 and 0 baby!

I promise some knitting & swap package content later today or tomorrow... I swear, I even downloaded the pics this morning! For now, you get some more smiling Tom & some really cute Pats fans lined up to watch the game...

Winter Wonderland Week 3

This week's Winter Wonderland Coffee Swap topic is:

The Thursday upcoming is Thanksgiving in the U.S., so let's all - American and not alike! - just share a post with what it is we're thankful for. A wonderful thing to do any time of year, I thought it'd be a nice thing to share for this week with the group!

Thanksgiving had always been my most favorite of the holidays... up until we lost my Nana, whom I was extremely close to, on November 23, 2003. Suddenly Thanksgiving got a huge black cloud over it....

If you've been reading my blog for awhile, you know that during the summer my family went through some stressful times with my Mom's sudden hospitalization, which turned in to a Stage IIB Colon Cancer diagnosis. She underwent surgery and was told all of the lymph nodes were clean, however they put her on a radiation and chemo pill schedule to be certain. She finished up her radiation treatments a couple weeks ago, however will continue on the chemo pill for another 4 months and recently found out she will not be able to return to her job (she had planned for retiring next fall at the age of 62).

I don't think the sadness of losing Nana will ever become "unattached" to Thanksgiving, however I think the black cloud has lifted. I realize that the holiday still means getting together with family & friends and being thankful for everything you have. I realize that its okay to be happy during that time again and I have fond memories of many Thanksgiving dinners at Nana's house with the family.

I'm most thankful for good health, family and good friends, esp those good friends who've been there during Mom's cancer. I'm also thankful for having started this blog and being able to vent through it... and for meeting so many new and amazing friends through it in the past year!

Dogs, a CONTEST & some more Dogs!

I had planned to post about my dog felting class for today's Dogs on Thursday post, but I forgot to download the photos... so that'll wait at least another day.

I want to remind everyone about my contest! I have some great prizes, including hand dyed sock yarn, stitch markers and more... I just keep forgetting to photo them to post the official news. Entries have slowed down to a screaching halt tremendously (I'm not sure if everyone is busy knitting snuggles or something?!?!), so I will offer up another entry to anyone who posts a link on their blog (even if you've already done so). You must leave a comment here to tell me you've posted a link though! I'm really hoping to reach my $1,000 goal to with the ASPCA by year's end, so please help if you can and remember every bit counts for these precious animals, whether is $5, $10, $20 or a million dolars, it all adds up! Plus, you can win some great prizes! Don't forget to send me an email if you've entered in other ways as well! Special thanks to The Princess who donated some wonderful dog toys & treats for the prize loot!!!

Speaking of contests, hop on over to Bark 'n Knit and enter her I'm Thankful contest! Please tell her I sent you! Also, she has just begun to teach a group of children how to knit... so give her some much due props!

Since I haven't downloaded any photos off the camera this week, I really don't have too many new ones to post, but here's a few more of the beautiful, sweet, smart Sophie, who is still residing with us (almost fitting much too well in our household!). Sophie is looking for her perfect forever home, she just needs to find that right match (not in a major city like Boston or Providence)!

Messing up the couch with Lola...

Hanging with Teutul...

Playing the paw game with Zeus...


She's very photogenic and loves posing with our kids, as you can see...

Winter Wonderland Week 2

This week's Winter Wonderland Coffee Swap topic is:

I love the holidays, it turning colder here, and I love coffee. As the cold of winter approaches, do you change the projects you work on? Do you work on gifts for others or do you continue working on projects for yourself?

Well, by the "nature of the beast" - meaning the temps are cooler and there's less playing outside and more lounging inside, I do tend to knit more often now. I also tend to pick up those heavier wools that kept sticking to my fingers during the hot sticky months. I'm currently knitting away on items to sell at A Knitter's Garden Open House on Dec 1 & 2 and as soon as those are finished, I'm diving in to some very optimistic gift knitting.... optimistic that it'll be done in time for Christmas, that is! Wish me luck. After that, I hope to spend a wonderful winter working on some of the hundreds many projects I have stashed for myself, including a couple of sweaters and many, many pairs of socks! Heck, maybe I'll even get a jump on next year's holiday knitting!

Merry, Merry Christmas...

Trans Siberian Orchestra. 3rd row. Last Thursday night in Manchester...
Yes, its beginning to look feel a lot like Christmas! I snapped a few photos & video clips with my cell phone and will share...

If you haven't seen TSO, what are you waiting for??!! Major Rock Concert meets Broadway meets Christmas... for a solid 3 hours of amazing entertainment. Amazing musicians, wonderful singers, spectacular light & laser show, heated pyrotechnics... what could be better?!?!



We went to our first TSO show last year and absolutely loved it, so when we got the pre-sale announcement this year we jumped on it and asked some good friends to join us. The morning of the pre-sale, I got right on and sat in the "virtual waiting room" for about 20 minutes before our tickets popped up to buy and was thrilled when I saw that they were third row! Nice!

Guitar player Chris Caffery likes to come out mid show wearing something local. Last year it was a Monarchs jersey... this year, first came the Monarchs jersey, which turned in to a Tom Brady jersey, which turned in to a Red Sox jersey. Smart man.

This is one of my favorite TSO songs from The Lost Christmas CD (if you don't have it, get it... awesome CD!).

After a brief few hours of sleep, I got up early Friday morning to head two-plus hours north to Halcyon Yarn for the Dog Needle Felting class. I'll fill you in on that later this week (with pictures!). It was a wonderful, fun filled day spent trying hard as hell to learn learning the art of needle felting alongside Lisa. I even drove thru a snow squall on the way up... yes folks, its beginning to feel a lot like Christmas!

King Tut becomes a star...

Head on over to the Dogs of Thursday blog today and you'll find my baby Teutul in the spotlight! Thanks to Paula for such a fun & cool blog! Also, for those of you with doggy children, don't forget to particpate in DOT and sign up for the Dog Holiday Ornament Swap! This is going to be a fun one!

Speaking of DOT, our kids received their goody package for participating in the DOT Halloween Parade. Thank you Paula - they love it!

Zeus was the first to check it out...

Miss Sophie claimed the tennis ball...

and held on to it for as long as she could, until Teutul came in and threw his usual "its mine" temper tantrum and Sophie just gave him the look...

Sophie is still with us and still available for adoption! She's had some applications, but all have been people who live in the city and we really don't feel that's the right setting for sweet, shy Sophie. As for the question if she really does have an overbite (since you can't really tell in most of her pictures), you can see it pretty well in the photos above with the tennis ball. It does not hender her whatsoever and in fact, gives her some uniqueness! I just can't help but sharing cute pictures of her, she's becoming quite photogenic. Here's another one...

I caught her & Tut sharing the couch the other day, in a most cute-ful way!

Since its DOT, I wanted to show off my new tote bag... a late birthday present from my wonderful, talented friend Jenn, who also happens to be my hair dresser (I got my hair done last night - thanks for the great cut & color Jenn!)...

Don't you love that doggy fabric??!! The brown bottom & handles are actually a faux leather and they are sooooooo nice! It feels like wonderful worn in leather, I can't believe its faux! She put lots of great pockets in there too... sized for DPNs, circs, tape measure, cell phone, water bottle, etc. So perfect... Jenn rocks!

Make sure you check out her Etsy shop, although she hasn't put too much up there yet because she's crazy busy with holiday fairs & stocking store orders... but she does have some great totes up there now. Get one for yourself or a gift.

Speaking of Etsy, be sure to check out Michelle's new shop! I snatched up her adorable sheep needle protector before anyone else could...

I so love him! She sent me a free candy corn stitch marker too - so cool! Small, small world moment: Michelle and I have been emailing quite a bit this week after we discovered that we grew up just a town apart! She's even the cousin of an old friend of mine... SO weird, but SO cool!

Now for some knitting content (are you still with me in this long post?)... some finished coffee cozies for the Holiday Open House at A Knitter's Garden...

Also, the start of my Potpourri shawl, which along with my lace shawl are hibernating until after the holiday open house knitting is done!

Since it is Dogs on Thursday, I'll leave you with this "I'm Beautiful and You Know It!" close-up of my lovely Lola (did you notice her nose in the picture of the inside of my bag above... if you look very closely on the left edge of the pic!)...