Happy Birthday April! (And other updates!!)

First and foremost I must with my beautiful llama, April, a happy 18th birthday!  It's hard to believe she's that old, she's in amazing shape.  If I didn't have 2 little geldings to show I would definitely be taking her back into the show ring this summer!

April and I in 2002 at the Great Lakes Regionals.  She placed 1st in Heavy Wool Adult Female & Top 3 Heavy Wool Female!  

Next, an Abby update.  She's recovering nicely from her spay, today was her first day of freedom!  She built up a lot of energy not being able to walk or play for 10 days, but she's finally tired out tonight...it took a lot of work!

Sound asleep...upside down!  I have a weird dog...

Fell asleep mid-chew.  Notice her cool new collar...its a topo map!

This is an older (pre-spay) pic...but too adorable not to share!  Hank is sleeping on Abby!

It takes quite a lot to make Abby cock her head these days!  She was very amused with the sound of my desk drawer closing.

And the quintessential "guilty dog" look...or rather she's trying to make me feel guilty for not playing with her!

Sitting around with Abby while she recovered (since we couldn't play or take walks for most of the time), I got a lot of knitting done!  I finished 2 more baby gifts for a friend, a cute frog bib and the most adorable stuffed turtle toy ever!  The turtle took a lot of time, and I'll probably never make another (the shell was pretty complicated to put together), but I love how he turned out!!  There's some pics of older projects too, plus the roving that I just spun up.

Fingerless mitts I made over spring break.

Baby hat made with the leftover yarn.  I plan to add a flower or two.

My long awaited handspun convertible mittens!

Sheldon the turtle.

Abby making friends with Sheldon.

Froggy bib!

Shetland/alpaca/glitz roving I spun up.  May turn into a state fair project.

And last but not least, some llama updates.  Bluff is due in 2 weeks, though my mom swears she's going to have the cria before her due date.  She's huge, so I'm sure the cria is plenty big.  Now to get started on picking a name...the theme is mountains since the dad is Ridge Runner.

Bluff and her 2010 cria, Lily.  Lily is the cria that we lost to a dog attack January 2011.  Bluff's new cria will be a full sibling to both Lily and Bluff's first cria Rainier.

The same day as Bluff is due also marks the start of our show season for 2012!  The summer may be rather sparse, but I'm anticipating a busy fall!  I'm going to post a show season preview soon!

Ralph and T (the two red guys in front) are my main show string for this year!