Cats, dogs, pincushion swap- fun and games at the zoo!

The cats and kitten are settling in. Nosey Parker is enjoying playing with Gravey, mostly in the morning and then right before bedtime. They get pretty wound up! The baby is putting on weight and seems very happy here. She gets to go outside for about an hour every afternoon and I follow her around to keep tabs on her. She needs to learn where she lives, how to get in, how to climb a tree, etc. I hate this part, but there's no way to keep a cat in all the time here, with us opening the doors a thousand times a day for the dogs. So she needs to wise up, as much as I hate it.

Yesterday, she and NP chased a green walnut around on the driveway until they were both exhausted.

After playtime is over- a nap is a must. And it's usually right where I need to be at the time, too.

Somebody figured out that the safety net is great for playing and napping in. She feels so funny, all waffled up like that.

Beeswax would just like to pretend that this is all a bad dream. lol He doesn't like his routine altered at all. But he fits great in the rolly-ball toy!

Quigley, the puppy, is driving me insane. She has no manners and Jim has had company for several days and she's acting out. I had to take her down to the floor yesterday to calm her, she was shrieking and leaping about like an insane dog and was just out of control. She spends a lot of time on her 2 back legs, standing up and leaping on people, I hate that. I did that Alpha dog thing on her and it helped for a bit, may need to do it a few more times, though. She has the attention span of a gnat, unless there's food involved and then she's very determined and obnoxious.

I'm hoping that Jim can drum some manners into her during the next week, I'm heading to TX to visit a friend and he will be in total charge of the zoo.

Swap-wise- I received a lovely pincushion with a bonus mug rug and fabric and thread and Chenille It from my friend, Nannette/Nanotchka over at Flickr. What a great swap! She made me a mug rug kind of by accident, lol, and then decided to make me the pincushion to match. I just love all of it, the fish pincushion has a 3D fin that is actually a needle case! VERY COOL! Thank you so much, Nannette! I love it all and really appreciate it. She also made me a card with a bird on it, this is such a keeper of a card!

Next post I'll show you what I sent my pincushion partner. :) She's already gotten it and seems to like it.

More madness, how much more can we stand? lol

So 2 weeks ago he brings home Quigley, the yellow lab pup. One week later she was spayed and 2 shotgun pellets were removed. While we were at the vet's picking Q back up, I spotted a calico kitten in a pen, needing a home. Well, 8 years ago, nearly to the day, we had our calico, Tess, put to sleep. We loved that cranky girl! This little girl was so sweet and affectionate and darling, I fell in love with her, too. Mr. Meany said "NO, no way, no how, we don't need a 5th cat!" Oh, fine. He can find and bring home big ass dogs, but I can't have a puny little kitten that was abandoned and found in a cemetery? No fair! I groused about it all weekend but then I got over it and resigned myself to dealing with the current chaos.

Quigley's stitches didn't look so great on Tuedsay morning, so he took her in while I took a nap, I'd been up since 3 AM because of HIS new dog and her licking and carrying on. Grrr. I slept from 7 until nearly 10, got up, had some cold coffee and then he got home. When I asked him what they said at the vet he said they had said congratulations. HUH? For what? And he turned around and opened his jacket. "Congrats, you're a new mom!" lol

Holy cow, that's the last thing I expected! I was stunned. This is his MO, though, I should learn it. Last year I wanted Nosey Parker and he said no until he spent some time in the waiting room with her a few days later. Boom, we had a little white kitten! Same thing this time- he said no and then relented. What a nice man I'm married to!

Isn't she precious? Since she was found in a cemetery, we named her Gravey. lol A friend of mine thought that up, she who shall be called "Auntie Jodi" from here on out.

Looking out the window, it's a big scary world out there! I love the little chubby phase she's in right now.

Playing in the busted basket. What a flirt!

"Lady? You're not gonna make me wear that collar thing are ya?" (She doesn't really know me as Mom, yet.)

It's like "Where's Waldo?" only different- in her cat bed.

We're having lots of fun with her. Nosey Parker is actually handling this a lot better than I thought she would, they play together upstairs and you would think there was a herd of wild buffalo up there, the way they run and crash and make all sorts of noise! The other 3 cats, all boys, are withholding judgement for now, but I think one will come around and the other 2 will disregard her entirely.

So, it's officially nuts around here, but we're getting lots of laughs out of it. :) And Quigley is healing nicely now and learning the ways of our schedules and settling in. Still a little too crazy and exuberant, though, but what can I expect, she's a pup. A big 40 pound pup. lol

The new kid on the block.....

Here she is- the still unnamed new dog- we thought we had one picked out but more I thought about it, I didn't like it. I'm usually the namer in this house, but since he thinks she'll be his buddy and ride in his truck whereever he goes, I was going to let him pick it. Changed my mind about that after he picked "Bristol". I just don't like it, it's too hard sounding of a word, not pretty or fun and I don't know what else we could call her for short. I'm lobbying for "Quigley". I'd settle for Chutney. lol Calypso and Cornelia and Fiona are also in the running.

"Lady? You want for me to stick my nose on that shiny bit for you? It's clean, I just licked it!"

She weighed 35 pounds at the vet's office.

She does know how to sit. She just doesn't always DO it when you want her to. Kids. Hmmmph.

This is my favorite photo of her, she's asleep, thank goodness. This morning she was so overly excited, she was going berserk! Gates don't even slow her down, she jumps better than Carl Lewis and Bruce Jenner put together. I had to shove her outside to chill. (It WAS chilly, too, yay, we finally got some rain and a cool front, hallelujah!)

I went to town today, it was good to get away from the bedlam. The other dogs were bummed about her, Shanzie wasn't even worried about the big storm last night. She had bigger fish to fry. lol

The Scrappy Mug Rug Swap, on Flickr

This is the little darlin' that started it all-

My new friend, Monika, who lives in Germany, posted a photo of this on the doll quilt swap group and started a firestorm! It was decided that a swap was in order and I was enlisted to run it. We had people from all over the world signing up to take part and we've closed the sign-ups now and have 127 people swapping mug rugs. They'll all get their partner info on Saturday. It's been very time-consuming and that's why I'm not blogging much, or visiting other blogs. Plus, I'm a swap mama in 2 other big swaps, one is winding down and the other is just starting, so there's a lot of initial stuff to do. Plus I have orders to fill AND Jim just came home with an abandoned dog, who needed a bath desperately and it looks like we're keeping her, dangit.

I don't need another dog, this will put us back up to 3 big dogs. God, I hate people who dump their animals. She's maybe 7 months old, part yellow lab and was covered with seed ticks, covered! And one flea. Grrrr. She's very sweet though, for a new girl. Acts submissive to the other dogs, which is smart. Gosh darn it. Just when we were getting used to having just the 2 big dogs, now these 2 are all crazed and acting like morons. The cats will freak out once they see her, we haven't let her in it because of all the ticks. They're dying though and falling off and being combed off, like crazy. She has a vet appt this afternoon for shots and a heartworm test, please let it be negative! And she needs a name. Photos later.

I did find time to make a practice mug rug for Jim, he likes it and so do I.

She's so corny!

As I said earlier, I'm doing another mini-quilt swap with a book theme. My partner, Rachel, picked Harry Potter or the Narnia books for me to work from. After much deliberation, I decided on Harry Potter and the Flying Ford Anglia. The Whomping Willow is an integral part of the scene, too. It was fun to make and Rachel and her kids like it.

The label on the back is a lightning bolt, to go with the scar on Harry's forehead that he got as an infant. The scar that burns when Voldemort is nearby!

This is Nosey Parker being corny- cuddling up with my ear of corn pincushion, a gift from a friend. I had given her a book I no longer wanted, a book of fancy pincushions and I knew I'd never make any of them. This one was in the book and it was my favorite. She made me this as a thank you for the book! I love it. Apparently, so does NP! lol Makes a great little pillow.

Oh, and the doll quilt I made, the blue spiderweb? It made its way to Australia and is now living with its new owner, Kate, from One Flew Over...

Now I have to wait to see what I receive from a different partner! I kind of love the wait, it stretches the fun out longer. There are some beautiful things being made and shown every day and it's so exciting to see who gets what!

I WON a doll quilt!

I don't win a lot of stuff, probably because if I see a giveaway that already has 400 people signed up, I don't bother, but sometimes I just have to join in! I got really lucky and won this little beauty, made by Carol, mamacjt, from Flickr. I am so tickled with it, it's just perfect and so cheery. I hung it in the stairwell going up to the craft room. Be sure to go to Carol's blog, she has so much talent and such a great sense of humor, it really shines thru in everything she makes. She is the resident Angel Mama for several swaps, which means she makes quilts and pincushions and all kinds of things to send to people who didn't get what they were supposed to get because their partner "flaked" on them and reneged on the deal. She is priceless and such a dear, kind friend to have and to have a piece of her in my house is a real treat! Thanks so much, Carol! I just love this pinwheel flower quilt, it's incredible!

Here it is hanging next to the placemat that I received from Sudi Laura. Looks good, hey?

I'm in another mini quilt swap, this month's theme is book-related. I can't reveal much yet, but this is a sneak peek of what I'm making for my partner, Rachel. She just happens to love green and purple. :) I should have it finished by tonight but can't show it to you until she's received it. She's supposed to be making me something from the book "Coraline". I've never actually read that book, but I LOVED the creepy movie!

My baby has gotten so big, she doesn't camouflage too well on her quilt anymore!

And this is what Nosey Parker's bite looks like now that it's healed. Temporary (we hope) hair loss. She's feeling great, though. The other day I was on the phone and looked out the laundry room window to see her about 10 feet up in the tulip tree. Next time I looked, there was no sign of her in or under the tree, which was good. I didn't think too much about it after that until an hour later when I went upstairs to find her up on the balcony, in 90º heat! Gleeps, she climbed the tulip tree about 20 feet up and crawled over as far as she could and then she must have jumped the rest of the way to the balcony, I'm so glad that I didn't see that! The branches that get close to the balcony are SMALL! Brittle, even. If she had fallen, it's at least 15 feet down to the ground and part of that is concrete driveway under the balcony. OMG. I hope she never does that again! She's such a daredevil. She does NOT get that from me!

Is an original idea even possible anymore?

I was in my local quilt shop Saturday and they had some used quilting books for sale. I scored a great one for $4, called "Shoreline Quilts", compiled by Cyndy Rymer. $4, what a deal! Anyway, I'm in the shop, browsing thru the book before I realized the incredibly low price and what do I see? A beach quilt with a bottle with a message in it. *gasp* Hey, that's MY idea! I did it on a placemat for a swap a few months ago! I flip to the front of the book to see when it was published- 2003. Ooops. OK, so it wasn't my idea! In fact, my idea wasn't so clever after all, was it? Someone else did it years and years ago. Well, shoot! lol

Here's a shot of the one in the book-

And here's the one I did-

Pretty amazing, huh? I just don't want anyone to think that I copied this idea from the book and then claimed it as my own. I had not seen the book or those photos at the time I made my label in a bottle. Honest!

It's a great book, too, filled with unique ideas and uses of items in the quilts that I would have never (at least, I don't THINK, ever) thought of! :) Apparently, the local used book store saves up quilting books for the local quilt shop and gives them first crack at 'em. I (and you, if you quilt) need to start going to used book stores, the price was great on this one and the others I saw, too.

And there you have today's public service announcement. As you were!