felt dogs

All posts tagged felt dogs

Where to start…

Posted by kenleighacres on November 28, 2016
Posted in: 2017 Calendar, Uncategorized, wildlife. Tagged: , , , , , . 1 Comment

That seems like a good title after being gone for awhile 😉 My poor blog has been neglected due to the ease of Facebook and Instagram.  I thought the followers here might be interested in the trips we have taken this year and the calendars that have come together due to them.  I am still very busy with the Felt Pups and sheep and life on the farm is good!

Today only, everything in my Etsy shop, calendars included, is 10% off.  Use code CYBER2016

The Felt Pups give me an excuse to use my camera almost every day…here are the photos that I chose to go in the coming year’s calendar…

Nothing brings me joy, like getting outside and taking photos, and the South Steens area of Oregon did not disappoint!  We saw a lot of wildlife, including Mr. Owl…

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Some lovely antelope….

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My favorite, the Bighorn Sheep….

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…and some incredible Wild Horses!  We hiked many miles to find them and being able to walk among them was something I will never forget!  Here are the photos I chose to go in the Wild Horse calendar…

Our big summer trip was to Glacier National Park…Montana now has my heart and we will definitely be returning!  Here are some of the pictures and calendar pages from that trip…

Woolly Wonders in the Eugene Magazine!

Posted by kenleighacres on March 1, 2014
Posted in: Farm Life, Felting, Jacob Sheep, Photography, sheep. Tagged: , , , , , . 5 Comments

Our farm and sheep are in the Eugene Magazine!

Eugene Magazine

I am so excited to finally share this project!  A neighbor has been intrigued by our sheep and approached us with the idea of writing an article for a local magazine.  We have been working together for over a year and it is so fun to see it in print!

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Here is a photo of him taking photos of the rams last April.  I love the resulting photo that he captured of the big boys for the layout in the magazine.

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His writing style captured the whimsical nature of our sheep and I am just thrilled with the article as a whole.

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It is very weird to open a magazine and see a picture of myself…I really would have preferred it to just have photos of our sheep 😉

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Working on one of my Felt Pups.

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The last paragraph is my favorite 🙂

You can find retail locations for the Eugene Magazine on their website.

…and we have a winner!

Posted by kenleighacres on January 28, 2014
Posted in: Felting, Jacob Sheep, Lambing. Tagged: , , . 2 Comments

I really thought Canby was going to be first…but Mollala snuck past her and had this adorable little girl!

Mollala-lamb

Not too long after, Canby had a big boy.

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Both of them are lilacs and sired by Chrome.

Since they were so close, I have decided to give out two prizes!

The 1st prize goes to Laurie Wirthlin for choosing Mollala.

The 2nd prize goes to Toni Sergent for choosing Canby.

Laurie and Toni, please contact me at kenleighacres@yahoo.com

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From all of the lambs and the Felt Pups…thanks for playing along with us!

To keep up with all of the lambs, you can visit our website – www.kenleigh-acres.com

Well under way…

Posted by kenleighacres on January 27, 2014
Posted in: Farm Life, Jacob Sheep, Lambing, sheep, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , . 32 Comments

With 19 lambs on the ground, we are in the full swing of lambing now.

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The first time mamas are doing a fabulous job!

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My son is thrilled with his lambs.

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We have been enjoying some lovely weather!  This is Susannah and her lamb, Magique.

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She is such a serious lamb.

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Scout has the exact opposite type of personality…she is silly, silly, silly 😉

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I love the interactions between moms and babies.

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…and of course it wouldn’t be lambing time without babies calling for their mamas!

Up to this point, all of the girls have had their lambs on or close to their due date.  How did I know what their due date was???  We used marking paint on the rams during the breeding season.  I would do my rounds in the morning, take a note as to which ewes were bred the previous day and write their name in my calendar.  I then calculated 149 days (average gestation for our Jacob Sheep) and mark that date in my calendar.   It has allowed me to take a little bit of the stress out of lambing time.  A lot less wondering and waiting.  It has been GREAT!

Unfortunately, I took a week off and took a road trip with a friend and attended the Jacob Sheep Breeders Annual Meeting in Missouri during breeding season.  My husband did an AWESOME job of holding down the fort, but he didn’t write down the dates like I do…I admit, I am a bit of a type A 😉  So, we now have a week of lambing with 6 girls that look close, but no dates written down.  I thought it would be fun to have a little contest and have you join me in my guessing game.

*** I wrote this blogpost last night and am now revising it because 4 new lambs greeted me in the barn this morning 🙂 ***

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Ailsa had a set of ram lambs.

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Liberty had a couple of lilac ewe lambs…

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such a good way to start the day 🙂

So, there are 4 options now, they are….

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Mollala

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Canby

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Avalon…biggest girl of the season

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and Legacy

Now to make it totally fair for the people who don’t know what to look for, I am including photos that don’t hold very many clues.

To enter, leave a comment on who you think will be first to go.

Want to know what I am giving away…

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One of these little guys…your choice.  I made them while creating my felting kits and would love to have them bring a smile to someone’s face.  Feel free to comment here or on my Facebook page.

A BIG Shout Out!

Posted by kenleighacres on November 25, 2012
Posted in: family, Farm Life, Felt Scarf, felted birds, Felting. Tagged: , , , , , , , . 2 Comments

I want to send a big THANK YOU out to everyone that has supported this small business!

My dear husband that puts up with my crazy schemes, the friends I can bounce ideas off of, my mom who I can call at all hours to discuss and brainstorm, and our fabulous customers!!!

My studio was open today for ‘Small Business Saturday’ and we had a great time.  For those who couldn’t make it, due to distance or schedule, I am offering FREE SHIPPING in my Etsy Store.  This special will continue for the rest of the month!  Use the code SHOPSMALL.

Having the studio open was a great excuse to finally get it cleaned up, organized, and find someplace for all of that fleece!  I can finally see the bed in the little bedroom and you can walk on the floor in there now 🙂  Tomorrow I will be sorting through the fleeces and deciding what their fate will be – roving, yarn, batts, felt, for sale, or a special project for me.

Here are some close-ups.

Felt critters, felt kits, yarn, and colored roving.

More felt kits, felt owls, felt sheep, bird pillow, prints, and cards.

Aromatic felt soaps.

Books to make your own Felted Friends!

Colorful Nuno Felted Scarves.

I did a little of my own small business shopping and bought a couple Bluefaced lamb fleeces from Tumble Creek Farm in Bend, OR.  They arrived a few days ago and I spent part of today washing and dyeing them.

Any guesses on what they are going to become…

Little Felt Poodles 🙂

Thank you again for everyone that has supported us!

Yay for MOO!

Posted by kenleighacres on October 26, 2012
Posted in: Dogs, Farm Life, Felting. Tagged: , , , , , . 1 Comment

I have wanted to order business cards or holiday cards or something from MOO for a while now, but for whatever reason I hadn’t ordered any yet.  I was introduced to their products by Joan at Mud Ranch and the quality is outstanding!  Plus, you can choose to have different photos on the front of your business cards – very fun!  I was ready to order some cards with my felt pups on the front and as I looked around for the best deal, I found my way to MOO.  The process to create your product is easy and the turnaround was very fast!

Love the box they come in 🙂

The quality is exactly what I expected!

Love them!

A couple of the cards had a white line on the bottom.  I noticed it, but I wasn’t overly concerned about it.  I just thought I would use them for personal use.

The day after my order arrived, I got this e-mail from MOO…

 ‘Little MOO here again – the bit of software that manages your order with us.

I’m getting in touch because we spotted a problem with your order, and because we want it to be
perfect, we’re sending it back to Big MOO to get printed again. We’ll
put it at the front of the line, but there will be a slight delay before
you receive it – we’re very sorry about that. (But we’d be even
sorrier if your cards arrived looking anything less than perfect.)’

My jaw dropped!  They noticed the problem and reprinted my whole order and I didn’t even contact them about it.  WOW!!!!!  Talk about customer service!

I will definitely be ordering from them again.  Thank you, MOO!

Felting for a Cause

Posted by kenleighacres on October 19, 2012
Posted in: Dog Photography, Dogs, family, Farm Life, Felting. Tagged: , , , , , . 35 Comments

I have been asked by a few people ‘how did you come up with making dogs’ and ‘why are you making them’.  My close friends/family that know ‘why’ I am making them have urged me to share a little.  So, here is a little bit of information on what the felt pups are helping support.

When our son came into our lives at 18 months old, neither one of us thought it would be ‘easy’.  Anybody who thinks raising a child is easy, is in for a big surprise.  However, we did not envision the journey would lead us to where we are now.  When they say ‘it takes a village’, it truly does and we have been very fortunate to have some incredible village members.  We have gotten some great help along the way, but lately it feels like someone finally gave us the puzzle pieces we needed to finish this very complex puzzle.

Our son has been seeing an occupational therapist for sensory issues for some time and he has glasses for his strabismus, but he was still struggling.  There is nothing worse than seeing your son struggling and not be able to help.  The consensus was that he needed vision therapy.  His eyes were not teaming correctly and that was causing him tremendous difficulties.  The price tag made our jaws drop.  This was not the first time we had been told that he needed vision therapy, so despite the jaw dropping price tag, we knew we needed to make it happen.

Who knew my love for dogs and felting would be the answer to our prayers.  I have now made 42 dogs and each one that is ordered is a blessing.  We have a long ways to go, but the path seems a little less cluttered with road blocks.  In a weird twist, my youngest niece has also been helped because of the journey we have taken (see I told you it takes a village).  She was having severe difficulties and with the help of a sensory specialist, is now on a better path as well.

I feel a strong urge to help more children and to bring more awareness to both sensory issues and vision therapy.  If you have not heard of Sensory Processing Disorder, I urge you to look at the  Sensory Processing Disorder Foundation page and learn more about it.

****This contest has CLOSED****

****As a ‘thank you’ to all of the support I have received and to all of our friends for helping us along the way….I am having a giveaway of one of my Custom Felt pups!****

To keep up with my felting adventures, you can visit my Kenleigh Acres Facebook .

Prints, cards, pups, bags, calendars, and more information on my Felt Pups can be found on my Kenleigh’s Fiber Studio website.

Meet Kenzie!

Posted by kenleighacres on October 13, 2012
Posted in: Dog Photography, Dogs, Farm Life, Felting, Fiber. Tagged: , , , , , . 5 Comments

On my Kenleigh Acres Facebook page, I have been introducing the new felt pups as they are created.  This particular felt pup is near and dear to my heart and needed her own blogpost.

Meet Kenzie!

Here she is in her later years.

She was my first dog and it was so hard to say good-bye.  I had her for 14 years and she was my heart dog.  I have a print hanging in my office that was done by Mary Anne Radmacher and part of it says…

‘kenzie – the finest walks are the longest ones with you.  no matter what time brings you will always walk beside me.’

I wasn’t supposed to get a puppy, my parents were getting a puppy for my younger brother, but I got impatient waiting in the car.  I walked into the area where the puppies were and she crawled out from under a ledge and I knew she had to come home with me.  One of the things I will always be grateful for is that my parents let me bring her home.  My brother came home with her brother, Willy.

This makes Felt Pup #42 that I have made.  With orders stacking up and Christmas gifts being ordered, she wasn’t on my list to make, but the universe works in mysterious ways.  My mom has been bugging  urging me to make a ‘Kenzie’ for my little mascot and I kept saying, at some point I will make a ‘Kenzie’, but not right now.

Earlier this week, I was working on a Border collie that ended up turning into a ‘custom’ Border collie and the coloring wasn’t close to the same.  Funny thing is that the coloring was exactly what Kenzie looked like.  She was a Border collie/Aussie mix and had a natural bob tail.  She used to love bringing the horses in and she would have thoroughly enjoyed the sheep chores, unfortunately we didn’t have the sheep before she passed away.

She can now sit on my desk, keeping me company and herding the little felt sheep.

I’m happy to have a littler version of Kenzie in my life again and I share the sentiments of my sister that had this to say about her felt ‘Kodi’ – ‘…looks just like her and how I wish that it could come to life!’

To see more of the Felt Pups, you can visit their new website – Kenleigh’s Fiber Studio

25 dogs and counting…

Posted by kenleighacres on September 4, 2012
Posted in: Crafting, Dogs, Farm Life, Felting, Fiber, Jacob Sheep, Photography, shearing, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , . 10 Comments

It all started on July 27th when I posted photos of a felt dog that I made as a ‘thank you’ gift for someone who went above and beyond for us.

Say ‘hello’ to Doc, a Blue Heeler.

I posted photos on my Kenleigh Acres Facebook page and the orders started coming in and the dogs started moving out!

The first group shot.

Some of them have been special replicas of dogs that have moved on and left a hole in their owner’s hearts.  This is Kodi.  She was a very special dog for my sister and I can remember hiding her in my room as a tiny puppy for a few days before Christmas, many years ago.

This is Sally Sue…a Basset Hound.  Don’t tell the others, but she is one of my favorites 🙂

More dogs and another group shot.

A fun group of Aussie girls…

Bubbles, Dabble, and Mardi.

Some of the dogs are serious workers, much like they are in life.

When I finished this American Eskimo, I went to bed thinking about where I wanted to take a picture of it the next morning.  My mind went on a creative tangent and my poor husband woke up to me asking him if he could help me take another group shot of the dogs on the back of one of our sheep!  Bless his heart, he just kind of shook his head and said ‘sure’.

So, we boxed up the pups and headed out to the pasture.

An adult ram in a breeding group isn’t the sheep I would normally choose, but Aragon isn’t really a ‘normal’ ram.

My husband scratched his chin while I set the dogs on his back.  Aragon just kind of melts and goes into a trance when you touch him.  Perfect for taking photos!

Unfortunately, he also wags his tail, so a couple of the pups took a plunge.  They were set up again and…

we got the shot!

I added a little bit of wording and

I now have a sign to take with me to the upcoming fiber shows.

I love that my passion for sheep and dogs have collided in such a fun way!

All of the dogs can be seen on my Kenleigh Acres Facebook page.