Wandering Camera

We are just back from our holidays on the west coast of Clare with the dogs so I though I'd pull together some photos of the pups for this months wandering camera link up with Soma @ Whims and Fancies!  I'll have a sewing update on Friday as it wasn't all play and I did get some quilt tops finished and made massive headway on the round robin quilt to share with you then!  For now over to the furballs:

There was lots of this:

Maggie is now bigger than Charly and at 6 months old is all paws!  Wilbur on the other hand at 10 1/2 is on 5 tablets a day and slowing down massively these days.  I've been calling him Snuffalufagus as slow and steady seems to be the way of it these days!  Poor mite had an arthritis flare up so short walks on the beach is all he could manage while the other two bounced around him!

You can tell when he is not happy as his normally relaxed droopy face gets all scrunchy and wrinkled with the effort of walking.   Feels like this could be the last year we walk him on Doonbeg beach.  So while Wilbur snoozed in the back of the car, the puppy mania continued:

Then Maggie got tired!

But not Charly!  Who's eleven?  Not me!  I'm still a puppy!

In the middle of the break we came home for a few days as Maggie had her neutering operation and had to wear the cone of shame!  She managed amazingly well with it, better than any of our other dogs.  Patch used to get stuck in a corner and just stay there forgetting he could walk backwards!  Maggie had fun running after Charly scooping her up in it and clever dog managed to figure out the cone covered the food bowl so Wilbur couldn't get at it!

Then the humans had a holiday!  My cousin and her husband came to visit from Chicago and we wandered around the loop head peninsula admiring the scenery of the Wild Atlantic Way and finding some really good pubs open for food despite it being October and the end of the tourist season!

Some of my favourite photos - Queen Charly who clearly owns the whole beach!

The two pals!

And the senior citizen having a wander!

Linking up to

Visiting Quilt Shops in Utah

Our family holiday to Chicago for my cousins wedding was the perfect excuse we needed to extend our trip and go and visit G's sister who lives in the suburbs of Salt Lake City.  Being quite a distance from Ireland it made sense to do a hop skip and a jump and fly via Illinois!

Knowing my love of quilting, we stopped off at a place just outside Salt Lake City called Gardner Village to get some coffee and cinnamon rolls and while the lads were enjoying the break I got to wander around and take some photos!

Halloween preparation was in full swing and this display caught my eye and brought me to a quilt shop selling finished traditional quilts.  I was intrigued by the pricing as I don't know about you but I find pricing quilts really tricky.  I generally don't do commissioned quilts and tend to make just to make and have fun exploring design.  I tend to give my finished quilts as presents rather than sell them, though at some point that will probably have to change as my finishes gather.  (I'm a slow finisher but I can dream of having a bunch of finished quilts!)

I loved the crafty Halloween touches all around the shops in the village! 

Then I stumbled upon Pine Needles and was in quilty heaven for a bit!

This was more like it!  Lots of colour, beautiful fabrics and inspirational makes dotted all around the place!

I asked permission to take photos and kind of got carried away as you can see! 

Pine needles offers quilt and bag patterns, kits, quilt of the months and lots and lots of gorgeous modern fabric!

I love the Christmas display...

but seemed to spend almost all my time and dollars in the Halloween section!

I made quite a few purchases...

 and whole heartedly agree with these sentiments as afterall:

and

No truer words were said!

 

Utah was great fun and we spent quite a bit of time catching up with family and out and about hiking down Snowbird mountain, learning about dinosaurs and homimids...

and we got to hear the Mormon Tabernacle Choir rehearse too (all 300 of them!)  We had a nice wander around Temple square.  After all when in Rome... I'd go back again tomorrow and not just for the quilt shop!  I loved the dinosaurs but G loved the mountains best.  The sunshine was nice for a change too!

Borrowed a hat - still got sunburned wearing factor 30!