I wanted to wish you all a wonderful Thanksgiving! I'm very thankful to have the ability to share my crafts and dogs with all of you... having the time, resources, and good physical and mental health to continue to run agility, and be creative, and then be able to share that with you, is truly a blessing. I know I am very, very lucky, and grateful. If you have the time off, enjoy it! If you have to work, be grateful you have a job, and hope you have the time off later to enjoy (while we work!).
I will be at a local agility trial this weekend, grateful to have the time to spend with Tesla, in the sunshine and warmth of Southern California... I know many of my east coast friends will be hunkered down in a winter storm. Take care, be safe, and be well.
-Dayle
Wednesday, November 26, 2014
Tuesday, November 18, 2014
Copic Collection Apps YouTube Video by Crafts By Two
If you haven't seen the Crafts by Two guys videos on YouTube, you NEED to check out these two wonderful guys! They are the funniest crafty dudes on the web... They concentrate on demonstrating Cricut products, but they do share other very interesting projects and ideas. For example, one of their latest videos shows us two Copic collection applications for our smart phones. Check it out here:
Crafts by Two Copic Collection Apps Video
They do keep reminding you that since they created the video, the application is now fully in English and reflect the North American market as well (not just in Japanese for the Japan market). And it is also now available for the Android market.
I am grabbing my phone to download these apps RIGHT NOW! So cool... put your collection on your phone and you will NEVER purchase a duplicate pen color again!
The Crafts by Two guys also provide free of charge some SVG files of Sweet Stamp Shop stamps! If you love the Sweet Stamp Shop stamps, here is a link to their website with the SVG files. Remember, if you own a Silhouette, you need the Designer version of the software package to open SVG files.
Crafts by Two Sweet Stamp Shop SVGs
They also have a video on how to turn stamps into cutting files. You can do this easily with the new Silhouette PicScan mat.
Have fun crafting with George and Ken of Crafts by Two!
-Dayle
Update: I have been playing with the Copic_Collection app for Android by Too Corp. I LOVE it!!! So easy to add my collection, and so easy to view which colors I have and, *urm*, need.... I absolutely LOVE the complementary colors option... shows me which complementary colors would go really well with the selected color! And shows me more colors to buy (hee hee). The only downfall I see (and the two guys mention), is that it doesn't save your collection colors to the cloud... I will download the other app and play with it next week. Have fun with them! Let me know what you think of these apps. --dys
Crafts by Two Copic Collection Apps Video
They do keep reminding you that since they created the video, the application is now fully in English and reflect the North American market as well (not just in Japanese for the Japan market). And it is also now available for the Android market.
I am grabbing my phone to download these apps RIGHT NOW! So cool... put your collection on your phone and you will NEVER purchase a duplicate pen color again!
The Crafts by Two guys also provide free of charge some SVG files of Sweet Stamp Shop stamps! If you love the Sweet Stamp Shop stamps, here is a link to their website with the SVG files. Remember, if you own a Silhouette, you need the Designer version of the software package to open SVG files.
Crafts by Two Sweet Stamp Shop SVGs
They also have a video on how to turn stamps into cutting files. You can do this easily with the new Silhouette PicScan mat.
Have fun crafting with George and Ken of Crafts by Two!
-Dayle
Update: I have been playing with the Copic_Collection app for Android by Too Corp. I LOVE it!!! So easy to add my collection, and so easy to view which colors I have and, *urm*, need.... I absolutely LOVE the complementary colors option... shows me which complementary colors would go really well with the selected color! And shows me more colors to buy (hee hee). The only downfall I see (and the two guys mention), is that it doesn't save your collection colors to the cloud... I will download the other app and play with it next week. Have fun with them! Let me know what you think of these apps. --dys
UDAC NADAC November 14-16 2014 Trial
Tesla, Alva and I had a lovely time at the local Valley Center, CA trial... Alva ran in the Veterans on Parade, and had a great time entertaining everyone. He didn't Q all weekend, but he had a blast playing agility with me again, and he didn't injure himself, and that is what is most important. He even took a far tunnel entrance (he was supposed to take the closer one) in Chances, and that made me so happy... look at my distance-challenged deaf dog go 40 feet away to a far tunnel entrance!!! Whoo hoo!
It was Tesla's first foray into half Novice, half Intro level courses, so it was a good test as to whether she was ready to move up completely into Novice. I think she is ready, but we do still need loads of work on weaves, entry and speed. I'm not worried, though... she has the basics down, just needs to see them more in a trial setting. This was only her third trial seeing weaves, so she's still figuring out how to slow down (WHAT??? Slow down????) to enter them properly without shutting down completely (it's all or nothing with her). Here is her first NOVICE Weavers run, where she has to do the weaves 3 times on a course. And this one was very tricky, as there were loads of tunnels to keep her running fast. She only had problems with the first one, and then she kinda shut down on the last one because she just didn't know how to slow down yet... and I think she was telling me "AGAIN??? ugh..." but she did them!
And here is her Novice Jumpers run. It is her first Novice Jumpers Q, and it was a very nice run at that. She had problems for many trials with jumps, mainly because she preferred running straight and fast and not slow down to jump, so she ran past them. The last 3-4 trials, though, she has learned to recognize them as NOT OPTIONAL, and has begun to look for them as obstacles. This one involved many casual turns, so she couldn't speed up like she'd like, but still, she kept her speed and her connection with me. Very good girl!
And, just to be fair, I need to present our official Train Wreck of the weekend... Novice Tunnelers on Sunday! I forgot where we were going, so I completely messed this up, but Tes had no idea I messed up, so I kept going and kept it fun for her. She even had a switch into the second to last tunnel, and that is hard for us to execute! Very nice ending to a train wreck...
I had a beginner handler come to me after the run and say "I felt better after watching you have fun with your dog even though you messed up! It made me feel better about my messed up runs!" Yup, and really, the whole point of us being out there is to have fun with our dogs. Period. Make cookies out of squishy dough, and have a good time :-)
-Dayle
It was Tesla's first foray into half Novice, half Intro level courses, so it was a good test as to whether she was ready to move up completely into Novice. I think she is ready, but we do still need loads of work on weaves, entry and speed. I'm not worried, though... she has the basics down, just needs to see them more in a trial setting. This was only her third trial seeing weaves, so she's still figuring out how to slow down (WHAT??? Slow down????) to enter them properly without shutting down completely (it's all or nothing with her). Here is her first NOVICE Weavers run, where she has to do the weaves 3 times on a course. And this one was very tricky, as there were loads of tunnels to keep her running fast. She only had problems with the first one, and then she kinda shut down on the last one because she just didn't know how to slow down yet... and I think she was telling me "AGAIN??? ugh..." but she did them!
And here is her Novice Jumpers run. It is her first Novice Jumpers Q, and it was a very nice run at that. She had problems for many trials with jumps, mainly because she preferred running straight and fast and not slow down to jump, so she ran past them. The last 3-4 trials, though, she has learned to recognize them as NOT OPTIONAL, and has begun to look for them as obstacles. This one involved many casual turns, so she couldn't speed up like she'd like, but still, she kept her speed and her connection with me. Very good girl!
And, just to be fair, I need to present our official Train Wreck of the weekend... Novice Tunnelers on Sunday! I forgot where we were going, so I completely messed this up, but Tes had no idea I messed up, so I kept going and kept it fun for her. She even had a switch into the second to last tunnel, and that is hard for us to execute! Very nice ending to a train wreck...
I had a beginner handler come to me after the run and say "I felt better after watching you have fun with your dog even though you messed up! It made me feel better about my messed up runs!" Yup, and really, the whole point of us being out there is to have fun with our dogs. Period. Make cookies out of squishy dough, and have a good time :-)
-Dayle
Tuesday, October 21, 2014
Tesla's first Weaver's Q (qualifier)
We are recovering from a great weekend of NADAC trialing... PAC (Palomar Agility Club) just had their Deja Vu games trial, where we run the same course twice. Tesla was entered in Intro in EVERYTHING, including her first trialing experience with weaves. I've been hesitant to send her out to do weaves in a trial... it is one of the hardest obstacles for a dog to wrap their heads around, and trust me, my girl is no different. She nails the weaves at home, but runs past them in class the first time, but once she figures out what they are, she "gets" it, again... I was expecting the same thing at the trial. And what's great about the Deja Vu format, when she messed up the first run, she nailed the second run because she had just seen it. It was a great way to reinforce the weaves in a trial setting. Here is her second Intro weaver's run... don't blink, it goes fast!
She had a great weekend... we earned a bunch of titles! She earned her Intro Weavers and Touch n Go titles, as well as Outstanding Intro Barrelers, Gaters, and Tunnelers titles! She really has come a long way, but as our EGC runs prove, we have a LONG way to go (quite humbling, no matter how "successful" our weekend seemed).
We'll continue to work on finding entrances and independent weaves, but I was very proud of my girl... it's tough to do weaves in the first place, so to have her do them well in a crazy fast trial environment was great!
We are progressing quite well... she is starting to feel "pressure", and we're working on verbal commands. I'm constantly working on timing and speed (for myself, not her!). We'll get there eventually... just enjoying the wild ride now!
-Dayle
We'll continue to work on finding entrances and independent weaves, but I was very proud of my girl... it's tough to do weaves in the first place, so to have her do them well in a crazy fast trial environment was great!
We are progressing quite well... she is starting to feel "pressure", and we're working on verbal commands. I'm constantly working on timing and speed (for myself, not her!). We'll get there eventually... just enjoying the wild ride now!
-Dayle
Friday, September 12, 2014
Prescott AZ Trial
Tesla and I had a blast at the NADAC Turns 'N' Wraps trial August 29-31, 2014. Met many new friends, and had so much fun at a very nice baseball field venue. It was laid back and very GREEN (it's Monsoon season in AZ... they've had more precipitation in two months than San Diego has had ALL year!). Here is a picture I took of the view on my way to the trial site. I believe it is called Willow Lake Reserve.
And here is a link to a video of a montage of dogs at the trial created by Patricia French. Tesla is featured twice in the video. The first time is at the 51-56 second spot, and the next time she "closes the show" as the last dog featured on the video starting at the 3:29 minute spot. The last run was her Jumpers run that she Qed in, a first for her! It was a very nice run which included a nice switch at the end (you can kinda see the beginning of the switch in the video at the end of the run).
I thoroughly enjoyed my time in Prescott. It is a nice little city in the AZ mountains, so there are warm days and cool evenings. And like I said earlier... very GREEN! That's all I kept thinking as I was driving the area... we are in the middle of a desert, and it is GREEN! If we ever get another chance, we'll return to Prescott to visit, and I'll bring the rest of my family along.
-Dayle
And here is a link to a video of a montage of dogs at the trial created by Patricia French. Tesla is featured twice in the video. The first time is at the 51-56 second spot, and the next time she "closes the show" as the last dog featured on the video starting at the 3:29 minute spot. The last run was her Jumpers run that she Qed in, a first for her! It was a very nice run which included a nice switch at the end (you can kinda see the beginning of the switch in the video at the end of the run).
I thoroughly enjoyed my time in Prescott. It is a nice little city in the AZ mountains, so there are warm days and cool evenings. And like I said earlier... very GREEN! That's all I kept thinking as I was driving the area... we are in the middle of a desert, and it is GREEN! If we ever get another chance, we'll return to Prescott to visit, and I'll bring the rest of my family along.
-Dayle
Thursday, August 21, 2014
And though she be but little...
She is FIERCE! That is a quote from Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream" that describes my Tesla perfectly!!! Look for a T-shirt with that quote and a picture of Tes on it soon... :-) Inspiration can come from the past as well as the present.
-Dayle
-Dayle
Wednesday, August 20, 2014
Tesla's Tunneler's run from PDT, Mira Mesa, CA
Tesla had her second Intro Q (qualifier) in Tunnelers at the PDT, August 10, 2014 NADAC Trial. Here is a link to her run. Sorry that I don't have it directly here, but the video I have is HUGE, and it wouldn't upload to the blogger site very well, and I'm not sure how to make it smaller.
It was much better handling on my part than her first Q, and she stayed away from the off course tunnel at the end... very proud of my girl!
More recently: We had a nice time in Mammoth again last weekend. We hiked at Convict Lake, and enjoyed a relaxing trial. Tesla earned another Q in Intro Tunnelers to earn her first Intro title! We have no videos from the weekend, but it was once again a beautiful trial. Hutch and Tesla and I had a blast!
She is having fear issues in the ring involving contacts, so we are going to take it a little slow and help her realize they aren't scary. Our next trial is in Prescott, AZ. I am trying to get her used to traveling and new trial locations, and that she needs to behave regardless of where she is... Wish us much luck...
-Dayle
More recently: We had a nice time in Mammoth again last weekend. We hiked at Convict Lake, and enjoyed a relaxing trial. Tesla earned another Q in Intro Tunnelers to earn her first Intro title! We have no videos from the weekend, but it was once again a beautiful trial. Hutch and Tesla and I had a blast!
She is having fear issues in the ring involving contacts, so we are going to take it a little slow and help her realize they aren't scary. Our next trial is in Prescott, AZ. I am trying to get her used to traveling and new trial locations, and that she needs to behave regardless of where she is... Wish us much luck...
-Dayle
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