Little Beau Sheep

 

Have any of you used dryer balls in your dryer?  They are a natural alternative to fabric softeners.  Unfortunately, many of them are made of plastic, which brings plastic smell (and what it's made of) onto your clothes, as well as adding to landfills when they are worn.

This is why when I saw these dryer balls made out of 100% wool, I had to check them out.  Little Beau Sheep was started by a busy mom, who handcrafts each ball out of British wool (which can be gently laundered every so often).  It's the natural, reusable, chemical-free alternative to fabric softener.  Dryer balls make your clothes come out fluffy, with fewer wrinkles and less static cling. Thanks to their native lanolin content – which really is Mother Nature’s very own softener – laundry balls naturally massage the fabric during the drying process. So when your garments emerge from the dryer, they feel naturally softer as well. Even better, there’s no residue that softeners can leave behind and no laundry sheets or excess plastic packaging going to landfill.

Sarah's business has grown from a local Etsy shop from her home in the Yorkshire Dales to the world wide web, shipping internationally.  The collection also now includes oil blends to add to the balls to give your laundry that wonderful line-dried scent you remember from childhood as well as felted soaps (a natural exfoliant) and lanolin-based skincare items.

Sarah has also crafted dryer balls from rare breed sheep, with proceeds going to The Rare Breed Trust, a charity that is a champion of sheep of every shape and size.

My order arrived in about 10 ten days and I couldn't be happier with it (and am wishing I'd ordered the lanolin hand cream to go with the hand wash which is SO softening and smells so good).

• Little Beau Peep

Downward Dog

 When you're trying to do some floor exercises on the yoga mat on the floor.

"Do you have a treat down there?"

"Can I have it""

"No?  No treat?"

"Can I climb on your head then?

Barkley Memories - Road Trip!

Winter 2013. It was time for the weekly commute to work, a several hour drive in the usual heavy truck traffic. I left early, to get here before dark, but with what was left of an accident closing all but one lane, it took over four hours.

I'd driven this route for a couple years already while dating my now husband, no accidents and no tickets.  The secret is -

(1) drive a vehicle with an engine that sucks fuel like a CF700 turbofan jet engine
(2) don't break any traffic laws
(3) or don't break them as bad as anyone driving around you.

#3 is easy.  Find the worst possible driver in the world (which is not hard to do on I-65) and when you spot him or her, stay back at their 8 or 4 o'clock position, whichever keeps them between the Highway Patrol on the median and you.

Or simply draft behind the trucks sharing the road responsibly until that smile and glazed look (brains!) in the eyes of the Dart Guy on the back of the truck creeps you out and you have to pass.

Barkley would always travel with me, with a harness that assured in a sudden stop he couldn't turn into one of the Wallenda's.  It did, however, allow him JUST enough room to sit with his rear end on the seat and his front paws on the floor. 

You think I'm kidding, that was how he sat at home when he wasn't napping.

When we finally got to the crash pad,  he would be all excited, RUNNING to the back door in the garage.  Then he realized, this was the small place, with no "Dad", with less toys per square foot, no squirrels to bark at and his pretty friend who took him to the dog park when I worked wouldn't be here until the morning.

And the sulk began.

No one can sulk like a lab.

At least he didn't have to go on call at midnight like some people.