Shoulda-Woulda-Coulda

I haven't written resolutions since I was a kid.

I should. Probably.


My Mom always had us sit and write them after Christmas, then we'd stick them in our stockings to find next December and review. We never seemed to keep the papers them beyond that.

Making goals and working towards them, integrating them into my daily To-Do lists. I need to do that. Perhaps I'll make it my resolution. That and taming my PAPER TIGER which lays claim over all my paperwork and consumes an "extra" counter in my kitchen.

Summer Flies

Summer is rapidly approaching and anyone with pets knows this means one thing...

...shedding!

This is the fur from less than 10 minutes spent brushing our two year old cat. The one year old cat ventured over to see what we were up to, but was more interested in licking the brush than being brushed. Plus, she still has kitten fur, so her little tuft of black is small.

To borrow an idea from Marie, I have a Nifty Thrifty Idea for you...

My Dad use to Fly Fish. My Mom use to tie him custom flies. The best flies she ever made included fur from our Siamese, much like this big pile of fluff I've got. Whenever she made a fly with fur from Dusty, it only lasted a cast or two before being gobbled up.

Now, whenever I brush my cat I feel GUILTY about throwing away all that Great Fur! I've even thought of selling the fluff online, but always talk myself out of it.

Today, I saved all that fur in a container.

Here's my proposal to you... if you fly fish and would like to try some flies made with cat fur.... go brush your cat / neighbor's cat / etc. BUT! If you don't have access to a cat, PayPal me $0.82 (to pay postage and PayPal Fees) and I'll drop some fur in an envelope and send it to you. Then, you'll have to let us know if cat fur on your flies works as well for you as it always did on the flies my Mom made.

If you'd like some Free Cat Fur for Fly Fishing Flies, PayPal eighty-two cents to me at me at leavemealone {at} yours {dot} com, along with your address, and I'll send some right over to you!

Jack and Ziggy

Just a few pictures I have had waiting in the wings of Jack...


...and the kitten, Ziggy.

These pictures were taken June 14th.


As you can see, Jack is quite the character (and still "Superman" from time-to-time) and Ziggy is a VERY tolerant kitten! :D

Quilt in the Works - Happy Hour Update

So. Here's what's been happening with the quilt I recently started:

Monday 7th - Made two test blocks. Calculated cutting dimensions. Cut Pieces from WOF strips.

Tuesday 8th - Cut more pieces from WOF strips that were directional.

Friday 11th - Cut pieces from FQ and whole squares (VERY directional fabrics).

Monday 14th - Finished cutting last few blocks.

Resulting in this pile of pieces:


I know it would be "easier" to just have one set of cutting dimensions, but I prefer to get the most use out of my yardage, that and I just plain like doing the math! Doing several different cutting scenarios also wound up breaking the cutting into more manageable bites... I cut 81 blocks (80 for the quilt and 1 for me).

Tuesday 15th - Next up, matching the fabrics into their blocks:


Just about every fabric will have two blocks backgrounds in the quilt. There are three "windows" of one fabric, and a few fabrics will have one window.


There were just a few fabrics that didn't want to "work" with this quilt, they were almost all batiks. It would have been a little easier if I'd had a few more lights in the quilt. I prefer to have good contrast in my blocks, but I had enough medium and darks that not all of the blocks have the best contrast.

Wednesday 16th - Starting to sew some of the blocks. 26 done, 55 to go.


Monday 21st - Finished 14 more blocks and started another pile.

Already I can see some of my "favorite blocks" coming together. Isn't it true that every project has some units you just love more than others!

The project is moving MUCH slower than I'd hoped due to the fact that I hurt my back and after four weeks of trying to "ignore it", I've realized I need to rest and ice and drug it. As a result, I'm pretty loopy much of the time. When I'm honest about my pain level, sitting at the sewing machine isn't easy. It actually makes me cry (literally) though, because I want to be sewing and "doing things" instead of sitting, A LOT. Anyway, that's why I've not been bloging... not much is going on, and I'm loopy from the medication, and typing on the PC winds up hurting my back too.

Okay. Enough whining! Here's a picture of one of my "helpers" to lay out the blocks... Zagawuki.


Jack also was helping to pick fabrics to go together. At first, he kept putting the same fabrics together, then I got him mixing them up a bit.

Icky Ziggy Friday

I had a bit of a scare last Friday when I took the kitten and puppy in for their first Vet checks.



I've noticed the kitty's bloated abdomen, but didn't really have any clue what could be causing it. Up here it's highly recommended that you de-worm your animals, so we did. Then, an experienced nurse came in (and then the doctor) and told us the kitty had worms. Also, she had sores in her mouth which could have been from Feline Leukemia.

So. We waited for a blood draw and some test results. It was during the wait that I first noticed I was getting the blisters from my sunburn... at first I thought they were hives from all the animals at the veterinarian's Office, but soon realized it was from the sunburn.

One hour and $54 later, the test came back negative, but what a yucky way to spend a Friday afternoon!

All in The (Animal) Family

The plan was always to have two cats and a dog in our household.

When Casey found her new home, we were going to get a kitten from my sister (her cat didn't bother my allergies). That didn't work out (getting the cat from Sonya), but, last Friday, we stopped at the local Animal Shelter. We came home empty handed, because although we'd been planning on getting new pets, I wanted to check with Tom first. After he gave us The Green Light, Frank and I went back and picked "Ziggy Ziggers" out of the eleven kittens at The Shelter.

At five weeks, she has a nice, playful personality. The most curious thing about her is that she can be purring and crying (complaining) at the same time! We all like her though. Here's Zoom Zoom first meeting Ziggy.


53 hours after bringing Ziggy home, Zoom Zoom and her were playing together. It was great fun to see! Although my camera was downstairs and we were upstairs! :P

Originally, I'd planned to get a kitten, then in a year (or so) get a puppy. Well, after doing some reading last month, I realized that raising a puppy and kitten together would probably result in a happier animal home.

So, this morning, we went back for a 3-month-old puppy we'd seen on Friday. He was available for adoption at 10:18 this morning. We got there about 30 minutes early, "talked" with the puppy, filled out papers, and I was putting the key in the ignition to leave at 10:18.

Jack is so delighted with his puppy, whom Jack named "Zagawuki"!

I suppose I should explain the names. We have an Alphabet CD from Parents Magazine. It's got one alphabet song at the beginning and then one song for each letter of the alphabet. The "Z Song" is called "Zig, Zag, Zoom!" On a road trip last February, we decided it would be fun to name our new pets Zig and Zag (since we already had a Zoom!)

So, now we have:

Ziggy and Zaggers spent some time following each other around.


After just a few hours they are playing and hanging-out together.


Zoom Zoom will probably take a few more days to adjust to the dog, but on their first meeting, she just pooffed up her fur, arched her back, and glared at Zaggers. Since she's 12 pounds of fur, and he's just six pounds, he sniffed her nose again, turned and walked away... no aggression from him, and no hissing or swatting from her.

I was very unsure about going back to the Pound for Zagawuki... he is VERY little (that's good for the size of our house but not necessarily for little kids). Whenever Jack handles him though, Zagawuki just licks Jack. After a few hours with Zagawuki, I'm happy with him. I think he's going to be very trainable and well-mannered. Oh, they said they think he's a Chihuahua mix.

One other thing, for those of you who knew me while I was pregnant, you will find this part the most humorous of all... while pregnant I often said "we're going to wait to meet our child before we name them; since you don't go to the pound looking for a "Spot" or a "Rover", you find a dog and then name it." Well, now I've done just what I said people "never did"... I went to the pound looking for a "Zig" and a "Zag!"