Links to Love

I've stumbled across some great links lately that I thought you might enjoy, too.

A cooperative blog with valuable gardening tips, recipes, and ideas for living a sustainable life:

Simple, Green, Frugal Coop

AMAZING food blog which includes a section for budget meals (I'm planning to make the soft pretzels soon):

Smitten Kitchen

Tutorial on making a toddler's dress out of a men's button down shirt:

button shirt to toddler dress recon *NEW MINTY FRESH TUTORIAL*

A very detailed tutorial with LOTS of pictures on how to machine quilt:

Anyone Can Quilt: Machine Quilting 101

A fabric outlet on etsy (Anna Maria Horner, Amy Butler, Heather Ross, Alexander Henry - I'm loving the roosters):

A Fabric Outlet

I hope you enjoy these links as much as I did!

We'll be going on vacation tomorrow, so please excuse my absence over the next week. I'll do my best to post some beach pics next week... sorry to make you jealous. :) I'm so excited! It's been over 2 years since I've last seen the ocean. Too long indeed...

Uh-oh, Cocoa

Our dear, sweet Cocoa had to have eye surgery this week. He was born with a condition that often affects Labrador and Golden Retrievers, where the eye lashes on the bottom eye lids fold into the eye. Painful, I'm sure. We had to wait until he was a little older to have the surgery, and since he's now 3-months-old, our vet said that we should go ahead with the procedure.

Poor, Cocoa! He's miserable with that lampshade on his cute little head. Every time he comes near one of us, he almost knocks us down trying to rub his eyes on our legs. We really have to watch Sara Lynn around him. He doesn't mean to do it, he just can't help himself!

We are scheduled to take him for a check-up next Tuesday. I hope they give us the okay to take that thing off of him. I'm unclear on how long he needs to wear it (my husband was the one who took him for the procedure.)