When the going gets tough - its off to the sheep

As the song goes "When the going gets tough - the tough get going" and in our case that is off to visit our fantastic friends and their sheep. What can be better than a tranquil few hours spent away from too many working hours spending quality time with friends and loved ones? So, we took Dad for an outing too, and the grand age of 73 he still has a great time visiting the sheep, last year was the first time he had held a new lamb.
The photo's show Dad cuddling one of the larger lambs, and one of me too (dont get used to that) some of the herd charging towards us for some sheep nuts, one lamb over my shoulder being rather vocal, for something so small sure can belt out some noise.
Nearby are also a couple of nesting swans, this is the cob enjoying a rest from guard duty.

Before this we even ventured out for lunch with Mum and Dad, unfortunatly Mum cant visit the sheep just now as she is unable to walk that distance anymore, but this week she is taking delivery of her brand new 'Granny Wizz machine' so should be able to come with us next time.

Great day off for us all, poor OH has been battling trying to fix the old car in the garage for some transport this week to no avail as yet - day off did him good too, back to it tomorrow for us both (After a nice relaxing dog walk of course).

Hope everyone is enjoying the fine weather, nice and sunny here but rather a strong wind as you can see by the wonderful hair do in the picture.

Oh, just one bag today - has to be this one..




~Bags of Swank by SimJaTa~

Easter Weekend

As you know from my previous post this weekend was spent fund-raising and spreading awareness for Woof Beginnings. Friday was the day to set up, great fun was had trying to erect the new small marquee, especially after working out the instructions did not correspond with the poles in the box, so after a couple of hours of trying the instructions were abadonded and after another couple of hours of trying and help from some of the other stall holders we managed to get the thing resembling how it should. Saturday morning from 8am was setting up which turned out to take much longer than we thought too, so the photo is of it 'almost' done. The good news was despite the strong wind there it stayed for the whole event, and this time no imploding or blowing away. I always enjoy watching the birds of prey, though I am a bit nervous of them - but was brave enough to take a couple of pictures of the babies and the barn owl.

Not the best of amounts raised after 3 long days - we only took £79, but then of course the public do not have the same amount of pennies these days to give out. We did raise awareness and manage to send a few people along to the various rescue's we support in the hope of homing some needy dogs, so thats the main thing.

A dampener on the weekend was OH got his car written off in a nasty crash on Sunday evening, him and Alfie were very lucky and both intact despite the car resembling a banana wrapped around the traffic light it was punted into. Took a good few hours after the paramedics, traffic police and tow truck had sorted it all out, and a visit to A&E to have OH checked over. The car has now been crushed into a box. Certainly focus's the mind toward what is really important in life.

No work done for a few days, though I have picked up a custom order on-line so must be getting on with that today. So I hope nobody minds my just showing of a couple of items at the end of this as a reminder what is available in my shop.









Hope everyone had a good weekend, and please remember to cherish those you love - as in the blink of an eye things can suddenly be so different.

~Bags of Swank by SimJaTa~

Sheepdog Duffle Bag/Rucksack

These Sheepdog Duffle Bags by Bags of Swank at SimJaTa, are not on sale in my shop but will be enjoying a journey to the local organic farm shop hopefully next week with some other stock.

This one features a fabulous photograph of my friends sheepdog Nell, in the van with a lamb. Hopefully another bag to show how a photograph can be added to a bag of your choice.

I am currently working on a Dolphin bag as requested for the shop (or at least I would be if I had actually done any work today) and have another sheep one finished which I havent got around to photographing as yet.

So many bags to do, so little time................