Friday, December 12, 2008

Shocking Dog Torture and Other Fun Stuff

Seriously, just look at her face. Did I lie?? This weekend I hope to torture the horses with some similar stuff.....ooowaaaa (evil laugh) I can hardly wait - what fun!!
Ahhhh, come on mom - do I HAVE TO???


Yep, sorry there Annie Banannie - there's always gonna be things in life that you just gotta do.
*sigh*

And this little poochie here is Tiley. She's our friend's little dog. We were dogsitting for the weekend; so we tortured her a little bit too. Mean, aren't we?? Isn't she cute??
I wonder what she was thinking...



Last Sunday afternoon I went up to my very dear friend Betty's house and we had loads of Christmas fun! She has this awesome little barn that her husband converted into her very own workshop. I just love it! It's reminiscent of a Santa's workshop, complete with a little woodstove and a workbench and a desk and all sorts of stuff. It's her very own little personal space for when she needs some personal quiet time. She can walk out there and make a cup of coffee and work on her latest project, or read a book, or take a nap or just veg out for hours all alone with no one to bother her. Ooh, I wish I had my very own little workshop like that!! Just take a look and see for yourselves.


Cool huh? This is her workbench where we proceeded to create masterful works of art in the form of Christmas wreaths. She had all kinds of tree boughs from which to choose. We had Douglas fir, Cedar, Grand and Salal. We also had pine cones and dried flowers and wheat and all sorts of stuff that my friend has collected.


Can you read this sign??? I will give you a little hint, but so far not one person that I know of has been able to figure out what this sign says without being told. Okay, so here's your one hint. You need to be thinking of an old Norwegian guy with an accent like someone who's from Minnesota. Years ago Betty gave us one of these signs and we have it proudly displayed in our barn. hee hee - it's soooo fitting. Well, come on...what's it say??


Give up??? Okay, I'll give you another little hint...

Y IS DER SO MENI MOR ORSIS ASIS DEN DER IS ORSIS ?

Ha!! Cracks me up!! Have you got it??? NO???? Come on you guys!!

Okay, I'll tell ya... Why is there so many more horse's asses than there is horses?? Now, you must say it using an old Norwegian/Minnesotan accent or it just won't make sense! I love this sign. Stumps everybody, but then everybody laughs. And like I said - very fitting, wouldn't you agree?


Here's the little woodstove which we of course had a fire in. It was pretty cold that day and quite wet too. We were all fogged in and it was very Christmasy feeling.


Here's my little friend now. She's making us some hot coffee so we can warm up a bit. Yummy!



And this is a beautiful etched glass portrait that my talented friend made. Isn't it just lovely?? I'm telling you guys, she is one very artistic lady. She makes a mean buttermilk bisquit too!


See those two mossy looking things up there? Those are pieces of bark that my friend has tied together to form a vase of sorts. We later turned those into artistic little treasures too. Oh, and see that rusty barbed wire up there on the wall??? Yep, that's right, it's rusty barbedwire. My little friend has a "thing" for all things rusty and especially barbed wire. She's got quite the collection!
The inside walls are all lined with old barn wood and the interior of the whole place is very rustic and quite homey. With all my friend's treasured collection of delightful goodies, the atmosphere is of comfortable yesteryear. A cowgirl's dream!!!



And speaking of days gone by, this photograph is of my lovely friend and her handsome husband many years ago. They are as much in love today as they were back then. I dearly love them both. In all my years, I've never met more beautiful people than these two. I am truly blessed to count them among my most treasured of friends.


Everywhere you turn, there are more objects of cowboy art.

And of course, we had music!! Christmas songs to sing along with. What kind of a Santa's workshop would it be without Christmas music??


And looky here - she's even got a little sink with real running water! I just love , love, love this workshop!! So much fun...do you think my hubby might make me one for Christmas?? hmmm, now there's a thought...



Sssshhhh!!! This is my friend's "other" boyfriend. She just loves John Wayne. See, I told ya she was a cowgirl!!



I just love all of this stuff!



And here is my wreath. All done with a little raffia bow and some dried red roses. I now have it hanging just outside my door at home. Thanks Betty!!


And here is Miss Betty's gold star that she made out of paper. I think it's beautiful, don't you?



And this is the dried floral arrangement made out of some of the stuff that Betty has in her vast collection of collected goodies. Remember that shot earlier of the bark tied into a vase - well here it is all finished. There is wheat, larkspur, roses, oats, oregeno and all sorts of stuff thrown in for fun. What do you think?? Should we quit our jobs and start up one of those little cottage industries?? Do you think we've missed our callings??? Yeah, you're probably right - we'll keep the day jobs. But, we had a blast making these and laughing and singing and drinking wine oops, I mean coffee and walking in the woods with our poochies and...oh, I almost forgot the dog torture!!


Yep, here they are - the two tortured dogs!! This is the active part of their jobs. The rest of the time they were sleeping. Lazy hounds!! That's Annie on the left and Gus on the right. Aren't they a pair?? They are trail walking fools those two!!
So... this, is my kind of Christmas. Time spent with good friends - talking, laughing, eating, drinking and generally enjoying the simple pleasures in life. Yep, I had a blast and I'll always remember our afternoon spent together in my friend Betty's delightful workshop in the woods.
Thank you my dear friend. I love you, have a very blessed and wonderful Christmas!!





16 comments:

Gail said...

I had the phrase almost figured out and then saw it below! Shoulda put it lower where I wouldn't cheat!
That is our plan for our grandparents old house...the craft etc shop. It is two rooms with a lean to. In all our farm cleaning, we have had it empty two or three times and fill it up from somewhere else.
We want it where we can paint, redo or build furniture or just whatever we want to do.
The smokehouse will be Marcy's flower, herb, plant, grass drying place.
We can both dream of wonderful shop like your friend's.

Gail said...

I got carried away with the shop dreams and forgot to mention the dog torture...loved it and you gave me some good ideas.

gtyyup said...

What an absolutely fun day!!! I wanna go!!!! That's what life's supposed to be about...love, friendship & fun.

I hope to torture my herd this weekend too...waiting for that dang snow to get here! My dogs were tortured...now I'm on to the horses & burros!

Thanks for the heads up on Brad Cameron. I'm actually thinking of trying to do the Buck Brannaman clinic at Redmond in July...we'll see...it's right in the middle of haying of course.

Katie said...

The dog torture really cracked me up. Why do we have the urge to dress them up? I don't know, but it is a lot of fun. I wish I could have been up there with you guys.

Anonymous said...

Oh, it looks like you had tremendous fun! What an awesome little workshop!

Grey Horse Matters said...

Those dogs are adorable even if they seem a little miffed. Poor Tiley seems to be thinking. "Where's my mom, I need to be rescued"! Love the workshop and all the artistry going on there. Looks like you guys had a lot of fun.

allhorsestuff said...

http://rockinroxie.blogspot.com/2008/12/gesst-blog-frum-forriner.html

Haha! Tortured dogs reminds me of this really funny post "Straight from the horse's mouth!" It is on a blog that is written by a mare!
Check it out!

Neat-o- little work Space your freind Betty has..man I could go for that!
Very NIce wreath ya made yourself and all the hand made old looking dtuff inside that space is cool. My fav is the straight bar bit she had on the wall.
Fun,fun,fun!
That saying is darned funny too!
KK

Sherry Sikstrom said...

Love the workshop and your Elves sure look cute. We have an old log cabin here that I would love to refurbish into a guest house or workshop but it is a big dream for now.Betty and my husband would be happy to chat ,I just bought that same John Wayne poster for Martin he is a hige fan of all things western.

Lil Mama said...

Oh I love this blog! It's got all my favorite things, Crafts, Cabins and dog's in silly hats.

Donna said...

Sounds and looks like a wonderful day! My favorite picture of our two pups is of them wearing scarves and sitting under the wood stove with the stockings hanging behind them. It only took 2 hours to get the shot, but we never talk about that part!

20 meter circle of life said...

They have that same sign at Moe's in Newport on the Bay Front. Its been there every since they opened. MMM Chowder sounds good right now!!

Melanie said...

I love that sign!!! I have seen it only once before, but seeing as how my hubby's family is all Norweigian, I no longer have any difficulty reading their language...lol!!!!

Your friends' workshop is fabulous! Every woman should have one...even it it is used for gabbing! :)

PS-Those pooches look great!

panthercreekcottage said...

oh golly miss molly, i'm blushing now. thanks for the kind words. we gotta do it all over again next year k? get our katie up there too!

And i gotta quote miss hepburn concerning my dadgum boyfriend,
"when you buy a cotton shirt, you want to get....good simple long lasting cotton. No synthetics. That's what you get when you get john wayne. That's what i got. and as you can see, i liked it!

Anonymous said...

looks like you're living the country life.. here too where it's 14 below today...

happy xmas to you and the menagerie
gp in montana

Fantastyk Voyager said...

Now that's my kinda shop. I love to tinker in crafts like that. The etched glass is beautiful.

The dogs are very cute!

Laughing Orca Ranch said...

That sign cracked me up! I saw it and waondered about as soon as I saw the first photo you posted, but I still kept trying to figure it out and was almost there...and then I cheated. hehe! So funny!

And I loved seeing your tortured dogs. I'll be torturing my horse and possibly my llamas and goats this week. Can't wait!
(evil laughter) Bwahahaahaaa!

Your friend is awesome! HOw long have you been friends? How lucky you are to have someone so talented, crafty, and fun to call friend.

~Lisa
New Mexico
(where it's snowing with 7" on the ground already, and promises of a foot by tomorrow night)