Wow... my baby puppy papillon is growing up! This past weekend, July 25-27, 2014, at Performance Dog Training's NADAC trial, Tesla competed in her first trial as a very baby-brained 18 month old. We competed in the new Intro level, which is just right for where we are in training. It gives her experience in a competition environment, but the courses are simple and short, just long enough for her attention span. She was SOOOOO GOOD! We only had one Q, but that was icing on the cake. I really wanted good start line waits, and she was PERFECT!!!! even in front of very enticing tunnels! And, I wanted good contact behavior (uh, that needs more work!). We didn't Q most times because she is still learning to seek out obstacles, and MOM (um, yeah, me) needs to learn to be faster so that I am in the proper position to path her properly through the obstacles. I was worried she would have zoomies in every run, but she stayed relatively focused throughout, only having issues with the judge (once), and the jump setters (a few times). She did have issues with Dan's dog walk that she thought was our trainer's teeter, which threw off all of her contact behaviors. But that is a baby dog thing, and we'll work through those issues...
We even survived a big-time THUNDER and LIGHTNING storm on Sunday right overhead (and yes, it was very loud and scary, and not just by SoCal standards!). The storm was so bad that people got hurt from a lightning strike north of us in Venice Beach. Tesla was scared when a BIG crackling boomer went off near us (less than a mile away), and she shook the entire time the storm traveled over us, but was fine once it left the region and was farther away. I'm grateful she is so resilient... I'm also grateful Hutch wasn't there that day... he would have been a mess, and I probably would never be able to get him out of the house ever again.
Even after all that, she performed like a champ! I was very, very happy with her! For our first trial, we did very, very well... Here is her Q run, the last run of the weekend, Tunnelers. I was amazed I made the front cross (and if you listen hard enough, you can hear the judge think so as well :-D lol). She almost had a 5+ yards/second run, very, very fast! Don't blink... it goes by quickly. It isn't the greatest angle, but beggars can't be choosers... I'm just grateful to have a record of it at all! Thank you, Shira!
I also have her Jumpers run from earlier in the day as the rain started, just before the boomers began. We missed a jump, but overall, she followed my signals, and even had a nice switch at the end:
She is going to try my handling abilities... she is so much faster than Alva, and very much her own girl! When she gets more confidence (oh, lordy!), she is going to be faster still... Mom, you better get your stuff together!!!!
I'm proud of her, nonetheless... I hope you enjoyed watching my girl strut her stuff. If I get more videos from the weekend, I will post them.
First of all, apologies for being MIA these last few months. I have been very busy getting ready for the SoCal Shop Hop! This year's theme is Books, and I chose for our store, Cool Scrapbook Stuff, "Around the World in 80 Days" by Jules Verne. Every store needs to create a 6"x6" layout that will hold wallet sized photo(s), and decorate their store based on their chosen theme. I wanted the decorations and theme for the store to stay true to the BOOK, as opposed to the movie versions, which took major liberties with the modes of travel our group of adventurers took, so I kept it Victorian and vintage-y.
The Take n' Makes I created for the Shop Hop used Authentique's Abroad line, which was released early this year, and a train from Carta Bella's Well Traveled line. All other embellishments on the Take n' Makes I created using my Silhouette, or were stamps by Magenta. Here is a picture of the main page:
I created the suitcase, suitcase handle and corners, and the canvas print and cut center using my Silhouette. I also cut out the "80" in the middle of the canvas to give a little more dimension. The suitcase opens from the top (attached by a tiny piece of velcro), to reveal an empty suitcase perfect for photos and journaling. And yes, I made the wire "steam"... try making hundreds of those! Ugh, my fingers will never forgive me! We were also very happy to find the Magenta clock stamp... it was ideal for this page! I think the page turned out great!!!
Here is a picture of the secondary page (which is optional, but our store always does one):
This time I used the "book" theme, and created a book (with pages and corners) and the compass print and cut (by Lori Whitlock from the Silhouette store). The Magenta stamp worked perfectly for this page, and the Shop Hop theme! All of the pictures (ship and book cover) came from Authentique. I do believe this page works very well with the first page, but is still a good stand alone page as well. I was quite proud of how these turned out.
In the next few days, I will take pictures of the store and everything I cut out for the decorations, and post them here. I do believe it was one of our best Shop Hop decorating accomplishments, and I'm quite happy with the end results.
There is one more weekend of Shop Hop, so if you haven't done so, please drop by the store and see for yourself everything we did! The ladies all worked hard to make it a success, so we'd be happy if you saw it before it all comes down.
Until next time, keep cool, keep traveling, keep reading... -Dayle
Just a quick note that I now feel the Silhouette Studio program is stable enough to approve downloading and using it. Test cut works again, many print and cuts work again. It still doesn't do auto registration with their canvas, but with the reinstatement of manual registration, it now at least works that way. The file uploading and saving issues have been resolved. Many of the "disappearing" cursors and indicators have also seemed to be fixed.
There will undoubtedly be more updates, but the current version is usable enough, and not frustrating enough, that it is worthwhile to start playing with it, if you haven't already.
Some of the new features I *LOVE* are: ability to cut by line color; creating polygons (any number of sides!); creating perfect arcs; and, the overcut feature. If you haven't played with any of these yet, do so! They are fun, practical, and oh so useful! After my next class, I will discuss some projects using these new features!
Just FYI,
There is a latest update for version 3 that was just released today, May 27, 2014. It includes fixes to MANY of the bugs I've fought with since the last update, most importantly, test cut. I am hoping that this latest release will have fixed most of the major issues I've had with version 3. I will play with it this week and give you an update on how I feel about it. If most of the issues are REALLY fixed, I will give my blessing to all of you to safely update to version 3. It really does have nice new features... if only they didn't mess with the stuff that worked BEFORE!!! Keeping my fingers (and toes) crossed... -Dayle
I had to create a fast make and take for Cool's free Make 'n Take Wednesdays... luckily, we just got in a super cute graduation line from doodlebug design called 'the graduates'.
Doodlebug has quickly become one of my FAVORITE scrapbooking companies, for both their cute designs and bright colors! I was inspired! I went home last night to contemplate what I could make... I decided it would be easiest to just cut stuff out of my Silhouette Cameo, and then let the public assemble it. I also figured it would be useful to make a gift card holder, since every graduate appreciates the gift of plastic!
Since I was pinched for time, I went to the Silhouette Online Store to find a suitable gift card holder design. I found the perfect one, by Jamie Cripps, called 3D gift card star gift box. The star design exemplified how I feel about graduates... they are all-stars for their achievements!
I used black cardstock for the box, and being thrifty, I used the cover packaging from the 12x12 paper pack to create the box cover design. I also used one of the sheets of owls from 'the graduates' and fussy cut one of them out. For the stars, I used a gold metallic vinyl sheet from SRM that matched the graduates gold, and a POW! silver glitter cardstock from American Crafts. The gift card box turned out really cute, if I do say so myself...
Hope you were able to drop by the store to create the make 'n take. If we have leftover supplies, we might have a Happy Redux day next week! Give us a call at the store (858) 679-9100 next week to see if are or not! High school graduations don't take place in San Diego until June, so there is plenty of time to get the perfect plastic, and make the perfect gift card holder, for that super achiever!
Okay, okay.... yes, it has been FOREVER (well, 3 months) since I last wrote anything into my blog. It's not that there hasn't been anything interesting to blog, it's just that there has been TOO much going on! I've taught 2 days of Silhouette classes (with 2 different projects to design), had NATCH poles to make, a wedding to attend (with a card to design), and a bunch of dog issues to deal with (more on that later).
And to top it all, Silhouette America has updated to a new (and VERY buggy) Version 3 (v3), which has been the bane of my existence the last month or so since it's release. I recommend to anyone who has NOT updated, to WAIT until the new version's bugs have completely been worked through. Print and Cut is quite buggy, some people are still experiencing Library problems, Test Cut is non-functional (and not usable for Portrait owners!) and there are other functions that are still "not quite right". Version 2 (they call it Legacy) is available on the download page if you have already updated. Uninstall v3, then download and install Legacy. It will save you a bunch of headaches until they've worked all of the bugs out of v3. Trust me, you don't want to deal with the v3 headaches right now...
In the next few days, I'll post pictures of the projects I've worked on in the last three months, and more details about the wedding :-) And yes, I promise! I've said that before... but I'm determined to get caught up!
And now about the dog issues... Alva, my heart dog, my deaf agility dog wonder, is injured. He had not wanted to weave for awhile, and at his last trial at the end March, he didn't even want to run. I knew then that he was in a lot of pain, somewhere. His chiropractor diagnosed a stress fracture in his right hind foot (which I think just put things over the top for him). Also, after many doctor visits, he has been diagnosed with medial shoulder instability in his left shoulder, as well. The doctor wants to have a scope done to determine how much tissue damage is in his shoulder, then a rehab/ strengthening regimen will be established. The only "cure" would be reconstructive shoulder surgery, but at his age (9.5 yrs young), I really don't want to do anything that major. If we can "retire" him, and do rehab/strengthening to make him comfortable for the rest of his life, then that is my preferable choice for him. Of course, that means he (and I) are grounded from agility for awhile, maybe forever... I was told I can't make him worse right now. After 2 months of rest, he's a basket case, and feeling REALLY GOOD. My guess is, the stress fracture has healed and the shoulder inflammation has gone down. I'm going to run him in a few ground games at the next NADAC trial (no weaves, no jumps, no contacts) until I can get an appointment for a scope scheduled. At that point, he's going to be in recovery, wearing a hobble restraint (a contraption that keeps his shoulders square, so he can't extend the joint in any funky way) for at least 3-5 months. It will probably be longer. I'm quite sad that I've lost my agility partner, but I also feel very good that he'll finally start healing for real, and be pain-free.
In the meantime, Tesla has been developing into a very fast, but crazy, agility dog. She has her OWN ideas about what the course design SHOULD be :-p It also doesn't help that her mom is too slow to keep up with her so that she gets timely handling cues so she does stay on course. When we disconnect, she is off to the races!!! It's funny, yes, but she really does need to learn that we run agility as TEAM, not as a "I know where I'm going, you aren't stopping me!" BRAT... at least I know SHE isn't a velcro dog! She is quite confident in going 10-25 ft. away from me taking whatever she sees in front of her! Unfortunately, those obstacles aren't part of the course... she is going to be blast to run, regardless of how things are SUPPOSED to go... but she is soooooo not ready for prime time!
Hutch is doing as well as Hutch can... he had some very nice runs at our last trial in Ramona, in an indoor horse arena. It surprised me how well he did... Here is one of his runs from that weekend, EGC Hoopers, Novice:
I have some hope that he may someday progress to the point of actually doing more than 2 runs a day. But he will never go past Novice, nor will I push him. He will progress as far as his fears allow him, and he has come so far already. I'm quite proud of him, actually. In the above video, he gave me his "POP" behavior at the end of the run, which he only does when he is happy and comfortable. Conquering his fears has been his greatest accomplishment, and he has many more fears to work through, but so far, he has been a champ, in my eyes.
Look for more posts in the next few days with projects I've done... PINKY SWEAR!!! -Dayle
Sorry about being MIA these past few months... been very, very busy
with life, as usual. I do have a new Silhouette project I will be
posting soon, and here is some news about Alva, my agility dog.
I
had a pleasant surprise at the PDT NADAC trial a few weekends ago...
my friend Ronni brought back NADAC awards earned through 2012 for most
people in the Southern California area. They are in the form of medals,
different styles and sizes depending on what you've earned! Alva got 6
awards, most of them in the Novice level, and one Open award. Here's a
picture of them all:
Aren't
they PRETTY???!!! I'm particularly thrilled with Alva's Novice
All-Around award. It is the big one :-). It means he earned Superior
titles in everything: 100 points (minimal 10 Qs) in ALL of the games
(Chances, Jumpers, Touch n' Go, Weavers, Tunnelers, and Hoopers) and 200
points in Regular Agility. Most people do not go for Superior titles.
Most earn their title (30 points) or at most their Outstanding title
(60 pts in the games, 100 pts in Regular) and move up to a higher
level. We stayed in Novice to get better... and we stayed in Open to
prepare for Elite. Yes, it takes longer, and includes many, many
expensive trials, but it was worth it, because we are so much better as a
team. I will do this with every one of my agility dogs. And look at
the cool, shiny, pretty medal we earned! I'm thrilled... Alva couldn't
care less, but it makes me happy. Bling always does! -Dayle
