Our Furry Babies in the Snow...

It's cold, 4 degrees this morning, and we are expecting a high of 23 degrees today, but at least the sun is out.  Izzie and Emmi have differing opinions about the snow.  Izzie LOVES it, she runs through it, rolls in it, and isn't in much of a hurry to come inside.  Emmi, in her little coat, HATES the snow.  She stands at the door, looking up at me like she's asking why she has to go out there... She stays inside the path that is shoveled for her, or at least very near the path, and she rushes back inside as quickly as she can.  Although, as I've said before, if she sees a squirrel out there she would run after it and not pay any attention to the snow.  With her ears flying in the breeze and her feet kicking up the snow, she tries her best to catch those squirrels.  It's funny!!  The other thing she likes is when daddy is outside with them... They both love it when he tosses snowballs, they run and try to catch them as they break apart in their mouths, it's cute.  Emmi doesn't pay any attention to the fact that she's in the cold snow when she's playing with daddy!!  When it's this cold outside though, they can't be out too long, their paws can't take the cold snow too long.  I know they have doggie boots, but neither of our dogs would like that very much! lol!  Emmi is a good sport about her coat, but that's about all she would go for!

.¸.•´¸.•*´¨) ¸.•*¨)
(¸.•´ (¸.•` ♥  Thank you for visiting today!  Wishing everyone a great day, stay warm and safe out there!  ~Trina

Wordless Wednesday - SNOW!

Well, just a few words... These pictures are from a previous winter, but snow is definitely on its way!!!!  Burrrrrrr....

.¸.•´¸.•*´¨) ¸.•*¨)  

(¸.•´ (¸.•` ♥  Thank you for visiting today!  Wishing you a GREAT (and warm) Day!
~Trina

Wordless Wednesday - Inspiration is Everywhere!

.¸.•´¸.•*´¨) ¸.•*¨)

(¸.•´ (¸.•` ♥  Happy Wednesday and THANK YOU for visiting today!!  Wishing you an INSPIRING Day!!
~Trina

Eeeeek, A Snake!

The weather has been absolutely gorgeous here lately, with temperatures in the upper 70's to low 80's, beautiful clear blue skies, sun shining, a slight breeze... Very difficult NOT to be outside!!   (I think I just sounded like a meteorologist!)

So, I thought I would take a little break from my clay work and spend a bit of time enjoying this unseasonably great weather.  A little time to stop and 'Smell the Flowers' ~ Something I don't do often enough!

I thought it would be fun to take Izzie and Emmi out for a walk by the creek.  Well... I walked, they chased squirrels and birds up into the trees... Their favorite pass-time!  

Izzie and Emmi love to chase squirrels up this big Weeping Willow that's on the bank of our creek!

While they were romping and playing I was soaking in the sunshine.  Then, all of a sudden I felt like I was in one of those movies where the audience knows there's a BIG snake lurking, but the character (that would be me) is totally oblivious!  I don't really know why, but I looked down, and there it was!!!  Right at my feet!!  It was a SNAKE!  I think I screamed... I KNOW I ran!  NOT a fan of snakes, and this one was looking right up at me, with his forked tongue sticking out, as if he were mocking me!  I have no idea how long the snake was that close to me.  He wasn't a huge snake, but he was big enough, that's for sure!  My fearless dogs had no idea, they were fixated on the squirrel they chased, trying to catch him!  They would have LOVED to to have gotten a hold of that snake, I'm quite sure of it!!  But, yes, they had no idea mommy was having a small outdoor crisis.  I'm sure they looked at me when they saw me run, but they always see me do seemingly funny things... They paid no attention!  A lot of help they were!  lol!  Once I settled down a bit, I went back to where the snake was, and he was gone.  Slithered away to his home somewhere in our yard.  Oh dear, now I will have to be even more on the look-out for snakes when I'm outside.  That was enough of the outdoors for me, for a bit.  So, back inside to my clay creations I went, to settle for enjoying the sunshine from the windows of my studio instead.  That snake was MUCH TOO CLOSE for COMFORT!

.¸.•´¸.•*´¨) ¸.•*¨)

(¸.•´ (¸.•` ♥ Thank you for stopping by today for a visit!!  I wish you a 'snake-free' great day!!

~Trina

Wordless Wednesday

 

 

.¸.•´¸.•*´¨) ¸.•*¨)  

(¸.•´ (¸.•` ♥  Happy Wednesday!!  Wishing you a GREAT Day!!
~Trina

Wordless Wednesday - A Walk Around Our Yard... On This Very Foggy Morning

 

.¸.•´¸.•*´¨) ¸.•*¨)  

(¸.•´ (¸.•` ♥  Happy Wednesday!! Wishing you a GREAT Day!
~Trina

Loving SPRING!

It's spring finally, and it's so pretty outside!!  Our trees are blooming and the grass is so green from all the rain we have had.  It's such a nice change to see all the beautiful colors of spring rather than the drab greys and browns of the end of winter.  It sure seemed to take a long time for it to feel like spring here...  Our fur babies, Emmi and Izzie, are having a lot of fun chasing all the squirrels, chipmunks and bunnies out of our yard.  One chipmunk sits on a little stone birdhouse that our cousin made for us, and taunts our little dog Emmi!  Emmi love to sit on the back of the couch and look out the big front window to watch what's going on in the front yard.  From that vantage point, she can see the birdhouse perfectly and that chipmunk seems to know that he can be seen, but not hurt...  He chatters toward the window and Emmi goes crazy!  I have tried to sneak outside to take a picture of that little chipmunk, but he's too quick!

.¸.•´¸.•*´¨) ¸.•*¨)  

(¸.•´ (¸.•` ♥ Thanks so much for visiting today!  Wishing you a GREAT Day!
~Trina

Wordless Wednesday

Well... Maybe just one word... 

SPRING?

.¸.•´¸.•*´¨) ¸.•*¨)  

(¸.•´ (¸.•` ♥ Thanks so much for visiting today!  Wishing you a great day, hope it's warm and cozy and spring-like!
~Trina

Zehnder's Snowfest 2013

We lucked out this year at the Zehnder's Snowfest, the sun was out and it wasn't windy, so it was very nice walking around enjoying all of the snow and ice sculptures.  We have gone every year since I've lived here (2009) and each time I froze!!!  We went on Saturday and I thought we were going too late in the day because the sun had been out all morning but was disappearing on us.  As soon as we got to Frankenmuth, the sun came out and stayed out.  Yay!  There were some great sculptures this year and I took lots of pictures, here are just a few.

This one was titled 'Windblown' ~ 

We were commenting on how our hair never looks this 'calm' in the wind.

 This Sailboat had so much great detail, 

difficult to capture in a photograph...

 I thought they did a good job on the little Planter's Peanut Guy

 This Dolphin was one of my favorites!

Star Wars...

This one also had a lot of great detail... 
Couldn't get the whole piece in the picture though

Which one is your favorite?

Click on the years below to see more snow and ice sculptures from other years:
2012 and 2011

.¸.•´¸.•*´¨) ¸.•*¨)
(¸.•´ (¸.•` ♥Thank you for visiting today!  Wishing you a great day!

~Trina

A Wonderful Visit With My Mom!

My Mom came up from Texas for a wonderful visit.  She was here for four days and we enjoyed every second!  We packed a lot in to our time together and it was great to see her.  We all loved having her here!!  Our time to say good-bye came much too fast, as it always does.  It's so difficult to take that drive to the airport when it's time to go home, especially not knowing when we will see each other again.  I'm so glad to have so many great pictures of our time together, sharing a few here today...

There's a little place I drive by every day, to and from work, and I've always heard how great their Apple Cider and Apple Cider donuts are... So we stopped by, it's such a quaint and fun place.  We had a yummy snack and shopped in the little store. One of the other customers was very nice to take the above picture of my Mom and me for us.

My Mom took this picture of the front of the little store.  
They had it all decorated for fall and Halloween.

George, our daughter Melissa, my Mom, George's Mom and I spent one afternoon in Bay City.  It was a gorgeous day, we had lunch outside on the patio of the restaurant.  Perfect day for dining outside!  After lunch we walked along the river.  They were having a 'History Weekend' on the banks of the river and there were all kinds of great things to see.  People dressed up from different times in history, sharing examples of how life was lived back then.  My Mom captured the next four great photos while we were there:

My sweet daughter threw me a surprise birthday party ~ My birthday isn't until the 23rd, but she wanted to have the party while my Mom was here.  It was such fun and I was definitely surprised!!  We ended the party with a bonfire in the back yard.  Thank you Melissa!!! You made my birthday EXTRA SPECIAL!!!  :)   On another day we enjoyed an afternoon at a Pumpkin Farm, and went through the corn maze.  I was so glad my Mom got to see some of the changing colors as we drove around!  We enjoyed stopping along the way to take pictures.  Here are a few that I took, it was the perfect day for picture taking!!!

 I love this!  My Mom took this picture at the pumpkin farm...  

The man who carved it was there last year too, and we enjoyed watching him carve.

.¸.•´¸.•*´¨) ¸.•*¨)

(¸.•´ (¸.•` ♥  Thank you Mom, for such a wonderful time while you were here!  

We miss you! ~Trina