THANK YOU!!! The raffle is now closed.

Vinnie's Raffle was a HUGE success! We raised over $2200 dollars for 4 Paws Sake!

The four winners are being notified, and selecting their prizes. I will post all of the details (winners and prizes chosen) within the next few days!

Thank you, again, for being a part of all of this! I am still amazed, thrilled and truly humbled by the generosity of so many whom donated. Words seem inadequate.

Raffle, Raffle, Raffle! VINNIE IS HOME!!!! Who wants some WOLLMEISE, PIDDLY BAGS, or perhaps some other GORGEOUS YARN???

After nine days in the doggie hospital, our beloved Vinnie is home! It was determined that he had IMHA brought on by a severe reaction to being vaccinated.

RECAP: Upon seeing Vinnie's photo at the 4 Paws Sake website, our family felt that we could give Vinnie (Schnauzer/Poodle = Schnoodle) a loving home, and decided to be his foster family with the intent of adopting him. We needed to make sure, prior to just jumping into the adoption, that he would work out with our other (very old) dog, Bridgette. After going through the application process, Vinnie came home with us, and we all fell very in love with him. He was a PERFECT match!

Two weeks into fostering him, he very suddenly became extremely lethargic, stopped eating, playing, etc., and, within a few hours, was urinating almost straight blood. We contacted 4 Paws Sake, and got him to the 24 hour animal hospital.

Vinnie's blood-work came back showing him to be dangerously anemic. I don't know vet lingo, but his blood was at a 9, when a normal dog's is between 40- 49. He underwent a transfusion, and was tested for a number of different blood diseases and disorders. Some of these tests had to be sent to the University of Michigan to be run. He was a VERY sick dog, and we really didn't think he'd make it.

4 Paw's Sake vowed to stand by Vinnie, and continue to pay his medical bills, no matter what, to find out what was wrong with him, and get him better! Cindy, president of 4PS, was on the phone with his vets daily, and with me, keeping us updated. Finally, Vinnie is back home with us...a bit on the thin side, but getting back to his old self a little more every day!

TODAY: His Vet bills, with ongoing blood tests, medications and treatments, are over $2,000. Even after the discount that the vet gave to 4PS, the bill is still over $1000. THAT is where the RAFFLE comes in!

In order to raise money to help pay for Vinnie's Medical Bill, as well as to support the MOST AWESOME 4 Paws Sake organization, I, with the help of some great friends at Ravelry and Yarn Haven, am holding a raffle. Here's the deal...

For every $5 you donate to 4 Paws Sake, using the 4 Paws Sake DONATION PAGE (paypal), you will receive a ticket into the raffle to win one of the four lovely (and most desirable) prizes listed below. For every $20 you donate you will receive ONE EXTRA ticket ($20 = FIVE tickets). Here's how it will work...

THE RAFFLE

1.) DONATE: Go HERE and make a donation using your PayPal account. You MUST use THAT page to make your donation/buy your raffle ticket. For every $5 you donate to 4 Paws Sake, using the 4 Paws Sake DONATION PAGE (paypal), you will receive a ticket into the raffle to win one of the four lovely (and most desirable) prizes listed below. For every $20 you donate you will receive ONE EXTRA ticket ($20 = FIVE tickets).

When the PayPal page pops up, enter "FRIENDS OF VINNIE" in the long blank box that says "Item," and enter your donation amount in the "unit price" box.

2.) FORWARD your donation confirmation page from PayPal (the one that will show up in your email) to FriendsofVinnie@gmail.com This will serve as your ticket entry. This will also be the email addy I use to contact you, should your number be drawn, to get your mailing address and prize preference. Also, forward me your RAVELRY user ID if you have one. Feel free to send me your blog as well!

That's it! It's THAT STINKIN' EASY!!!!

The GOAL is to reach $1,000 $2000 in donations!!!

Okay...WHAT ARE THE PRIZES??? There are four prize groups:

"GOOD DOG"

Wollmeise, Compari Orange, 80/20 Sock Yarn (purchased during the March Loopy Ewe sneak-up) and an adorable "Good Dog" Piddly Bag from Piddleloop as well as a gorgeous zipper pull, Puppy Stitch Markers, and "Friends of P" buttons! This prize is valued at over $65. Thank you to Jen and Wendy of Piddleloop for donating this one of a kind bag and adorable accessories!



"PUPPY LOVE"

Wollmeise, Frosch 80/20 Sock Yarn (purchased during the March, Loopy Ewe sneak-up) and "Puppy Love" Piddly Bag from Piddleloop! This prize is valued at $50. This bag also has a grommet (not shown) to pull yarn through should you choose. Further views of this bag can be seen here.



"MALAMUTE"

Yarn Pirate, Malamute, Sock Yarn and "Blue O's" Piddly Bag from Piddleloop! This prize is valued at $50. This bag also has a grommet (not shown) to pull yarn through should you choose. Further views of this bag can be seen here. Thank you to TTOWNKNITIOT for the donation of the Malamute!



"VINNIE 'S PALS"

Yarntini, Vintage Stripe, Fingering Weight Sock Yarn, 3 Skeins of Sarah's Cashmere Yarn , Jelby Stitch Markers, a Yarn Haven Small Project and Yarn Tote. Special thanks to SIGH, Jelby and Yarn Haven for these donations! This prize value is immeasurable...This particular Yarntini yarn has gone for as much as $100 on eBay. The rest of the prizes in this group are valued at $85.



On April 30th, 2008, I will draw a number using the Random Number Generator to determine the four winners. The number chosen first will have first choice of prizes; the second number drawn will have second choice in prizes; third number drawn will choose of the remaining two prizes, with the fourth number drawn receiving the remaining prize. Any donation received after 11:59 PM EST, April 29, 2008 will NOT be entered into the raffle.

The winners will be announced here, on this blog, on April 30th, 2008. Each winner will be contacted and notified of their prize options after the previous prize has been claimed.

None of the donations can be refunded once sent.

SPECIAL THANKS to the following shops and individuals for donating their time, skills and products to help Vinnie: Piddleloop, TTOWNKNITIOT, Jelby, SIGH, and Yarn Haven! Also, thank you to the stinkin' AMAZING folks at the "Friends of P" group at Ravelry, and Yarn Haven for just being AWESOME!

The RAFFLE will begin at 1:30 PM EST, on April 9, 2008.

Please feel free to link up your blog or website to promote this raffle and cause! The puppies NEEEEEEEEED you!

WE DID IT! YOU DID IT! THANK YOU!!!! THANK YOU!!!
Okay...wow...still in shock....moving onto the the next part of this plan.



The NEXT goal is to hit the $2000 mark! This money, I have been assured, will go to cover all of Vinnie's rescue expenses, initial exams, vaccines, etc. The rest of the money will go to help
MARLEY <----------------Click here for Marley's story.





One of the gals at Ravelry, MYGIRLROBOT, created this button (resize it as needed) to be Vinnie's official "button." You are more than welcome to use it on your blog, ravatar, in emails, whatever! You can snag it by taking it from here, or from flickr.

Mo!

As many of you know, our very sweet, new dog Vinnie has been extremely sick and in the animal hospital since Friday night. We are very, very worried, and are awaiting test results that will help determine what, exactly, is wrong with our poor boy. Please, please keep him in your thoughts and prayers...he has been through so much these last several days, including a blood transfusion. I cannot even go into detail because it saddens me a LOT.

So today, while out and about, I came across this lovely angora goat. He reminded me of Vinnie...sigh. He and I got to talking, and discovered we have so much in common - especially our love of fiber. He has agreed to live with us, and become my knitting buddy. Ain't he the cutest? His name is MO (short for MoJo).



Hurry home, Vinnie. We all miss you so stinkin much!!!

Meet Our New Alpaca!

I swore it would be a cold day in HECK before we got a second dog. Denial is a beautiful thing. Meet our new alpaca, VINNIE!

He's a rescue dog alpaca, two years old, and perfect! He's a Schnoodle (schnauzer/poodle)! He's a big, long, cutie pie! He belongs to Bizzy...the poor deprived child has been wanting her own dog for quite some time.



Here he is modeling Cara's finished socks! They were done in Lisa Souza's hardtwist merino - Mars Quake.


Thanks for lookin!

Just Call Me Mother Nature

Now that I have finally finished a pair of mittens for myself, the temperatures will most assuredly be warmer. No need to thank me....t'is my pleasure.

Odd and Loose Ends

I don't think we've had enough snow yet. Seriously, folks...I run my errands every Tuesday, all afternoon, and end up at knit night in the evening until about 8:30 or so. EVERY STINKIN', TUESDAY, there is some sort of white, lumpy precipitation, be it ice or snow, attacking the earth from skies above! I literally slid home from knitting on Tuesday night in my sleigh minivan. It all started out as freezing rain, and ended the next morning as this:


Okay...got THAT out of my system. So remember all the socks I had hoped to deliver to the gals in California upon my arrival? Well, Jessi's got done:

...but Cara's didn't. I was having far too much fun socializing on the airplane. Ya meet the most "amazing" folks at 30,000 feet. So, I'm finishing up hers and mailing them out ASAP. Almost there...

Just finished up my February block for Ellie's afghan, and need to get started on March.

Something I've been meaning to show you...Becky knit these (modeled by Bear) wonderful Fetchings up for me, and presented them to me at the knitting retreat. They were coveted by all. Thank you, again, Becky.

In other random news....Hubster and the girls presented me with a new camera before I went on my trip. The family camera is far too big to just toss in a knit bag - this one is JUST what I needed. Bizzy picked out the color. Yea, I'm cool.

I used it for all of my California pictures, and they turned out to be GREAT! So, thank you, again, dear family.

Speaking of family...I attempted to fix the red-eye in this pic of Bridgette, but had some trouble. Sorry if she looks a bit creepy. In any case, here is the obligatory PET PHOTO of the WEEK.


Thanks for lookin' everybody, and stop on in for coffee sometime!

Honeys, I'm Hooooooome!

Hi gang! I had SUCH a wonderful time in California hanging out with Brenda! We stayed at a gorgeous hotel, ate delicious meals, drank delightful spirits, drove up into the mountains, shopped, walked the beach, took in all the sites, enjoyed The Oscars, laughed, and laughed, and laughed, and laughed.....all without being arrested! Yay, US! Thank you so much, Bren, for being a superb hostess, and most spectacular friend! This was a much needed change of pace and TREAT for both of us!

We visited every available yarn shop in Ventura County, including Santa Barbara! In complete and total honesty, I love my little Yarn Haven more than any of them. I would describe a few of the shops more as yarn "boutiques" as they had these fancy shmancy shops, but their yarn selection was very limited and/or the yarn was so "exclusive" that it was completely unaffordable. Overall, this was a good thing in limiting my purchases. Here are a few of the ones I ended up welcoming to the stash. There are a few more that have yet to be photographed. The ones I'm showin' you now were taken on the railing of the balcony off our suite.

...a couple of lovely skeins of worsted superwash from Lorna's Laces purchased at
Anacapa Fine Yarns in Ventura. MMMmmmmmm.

Next up: more Lorna's Laces in a sport weight purchased at
The Loop and Leaf in Santa Barbara. Brenda picked out this one.

Here's a closey of it (pretend I wasn't so tacky as to get the price in the pic).

This one is called Jellyfish, and is from Dashing Dachs. How can
one be at a beach resort and NOT buy a yarn called jellyfish!?!

Close up:

Now, I must ask y'all to hang in there with me while I show you a few million other shots from my trip. There are ooooooodles of them, but I will attempt to post only a portion. If you'd like to see everything, they can be found HERE at my flickr account. I give you fair warning that I became completely obsessed with the little grove of palm trees at the end of our hallway - so feel free to skip all two thousand shots of those.

Here's our hotel:


Here's the back...we were right on the beach!


This is the view from the end of our hall. Every morning (as we walked down to the MOST scrumptious breakfast buffet), this is the scene that greeted us:


Me, texting pictures from the beach:


Our walk to the beach:


These (Bird of Paradise) were everywhere around the hotel:


The grounds were AMAZING!


Resting after yarn shopping...poor Bren:


The view from one of the higher elevations in Ventura:


...and lastly...for Ellie and Patti who LOVE to make fun of my fat little toes...


Speaking of Ellie...special thanks to you and hubster for staying with the girls while I was gone. I couldn't have enjoyed myself without knowing you had things under control!!!

Thanks for looking, everybody! As much as I enjoyed myself, I have missed many of you bunches! Keep warm and see you soon!