Just a few bitty blocks to show...

  The theme this month for bitties was "dogs", so I used a clipart piece for inspiration and made these-

little pups in the bathtub.  The ears are 3D but I tacked them down because they had a tendency to flip up.

 In the Bitty Block Bee, Denise's theme is mushrooms, so I made her a faerie ring.  I love this one, it's different from what I usually make, I embroidered the tiny mushrooms onto the dark green.  I like the light green fabric with the rings on it with the birch/aspen tree trunks, looks really pretty. 

 And this is her other one- the magical musical mushroom!

 I stitched the lettering on by tracing the letters onto vellum and then laying the vellum on the dotted fabric and a piece of newsprint under the fabric.  Stitched on my lines and then had to pull off the vellum from the top and the newsprint from the bottom, then tie off all the threads.  That took a while! Then I sewed the top of the mushroom all the way around to another piece of dotted fabric, sliced the back piece open and turned it and pressed it.  Then slip stitched it down onto the background, after making and attaching the stalk, using the same method. 

Turned out good!  Reminds me of a place in Orlando I went to a few times in the 70's- The Infinite Mushroom.  It was a fun head shop full of wild and crazy and colorful things that came in pretty handy back in my youth.  *ahem* 

Bizbee continues to grow and now there is only one place in the house that he hasn't been to- the top of the computer armoire.  Oy.  It won't be long though- he saw Gravey jump up there from the rolltop desk and he's been plotting and scheming ever since!  This is the same launching area where he knocked over 2 lamps just a couple of weeks ago.  Kids. Sheesh.  And boy kids are even tougher than girl kids!  He's knocked over more stuff than Nosey Parker and Gravey combined.

We love him to bits, though.  He gives the best head-butts and rubbing smoochies on your face and nose and chin, then he licks you with the roughest little tongue ever.  We call him The Exfoliater. LOL

Nag, nag, nag...... and a rant.

So you're tired of looking at ornaments, eh?  Fine, look at this instead while I listen to my husband shovel snow and call his idiot dog who has learned how to climb over our fence and took herself off for another romp in the woods, chasing deer and turkeys.  I swear, she's worthless and I'm not getting any fonder of her the longer she's here.  If someone has to tell me 20 times a day that she's a good dog, it makes me wonder who the heck he's trying to convince, me or himself?  Yeah, she's good.  Good at grabbing at you with her teeth, snapping at you when you reprimand her, good at climbing fences and standing up on her back legs with her front ones on the kitchen counter.  She's good at climbing OVER the other dogs to be the first one out and she's good at shrieking for an hour if you let her.   She can eat a bowl of food in about 4 seconds and then she just wants more.  This dog has issues and I am not real happy with her here.  She's disrupted the whole house and I wish he'd never had that chip put into her.  I keep telling her if she runs off again, don't bother coming back.  But she always does, dammit. 

  I want to love this dog, but I don't.  I love the other dogs and all of the cats, but this dog is a sociopath, just like his black dog that died a couple of years ago.  It's the same dog in a different color.  Not lovable.  Annoying, stubborn and bullheaded.   We both call her "him" all the time because there isn't anything feminine or dainty about Quigley.  And Mr. Softie who usually has nothing but good to say about her is actually contemplating a shock collar.  Like the remote for the TV, I want to hold onto the remote for a shock collar, too.  Heh.

Thanks for letting me rant.

 OK, onto happier things that might convince you that I'm not really a monster- A mug rug for my partner in the swap.  I made this yesterday and last nights snowfall made for a really pretty backdrop.  This is the chair on my little balcony off the sewing room.  I won't be sitting out there for a while!

                                     

 Hopefully my partner will like it.  I think it turned out pretty cute.  Red and aqua are so pretty together and such a popular color combo these days.  On the back are a slew of little hedgehogs.  Now I'm busy making more bitty blocks and contemplating what I shall make for my new partner in the doll quilt swap.  I'm thinking of doing something in a rainbow village type setting.  Like this- blue sky at the top, turning into purple mountains, a red/orange/yellow village and then greens at the bottom.  All the colors of the rainbow.  Hopefully I can pull it off.  I'll probably do most of it with raw edged applique and just piece the turquoise stars in the sky.  We'll see!  At least I have an idea, that's a relief!

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.

Paisley.... we won the lottery when we got her...

For the last 14 years, we've been lucky enough to have a sweet collie girl named Paisley Maree. She came to us at the ripe old age of 3 months when her previous owners decided to have her put to sleep because she had a problem with fleas and mange and they didn't want to bother with her. Their loss was our gain. The vet was a friend of ours and was at our house when that call came in, to have her put down. She immediately offered her to us and we jumped at the chance. I mean, who doesn't love a collie, or the thought of having one? Turns out, collies are the NICEST dogs. And Paisley, who had every reason in the world to be miserable (infection raging, pustules flaring, sores weeping, and many flea bites, etc) was the happiest little puppy with the most tremendous spirit. She looked positively gruesome but we didn't care, we fell in love with this pup at our first meeting. All she wanted was to cuddle and play and scamper. So undemanding, she would take a nap where ever she was and that pink chair was a favorite spot, she would stick her head under there and snooze.

The vet convinced us that her face would eventually grow hair (they later admitted that they didn't really know that for sure but were hopeful) and we treated her mange with a daily dose of Interceptor, a once-a-month heartworm pill. It was sort of an expensive experimental treatment, not one recommended by the AVMA, or whatever it's called, but it darn sure worked. About 60 pills later, she was clean of mange mites.

She grew up to be just like she was as a pup, happy, fun and calm, but quirky. She would go for a walk (before we had a fence) and always come home toting something, either she'd find an old bottle in the woods or tree branch, a long deer or cow bone, something, it was a riot.

Paisley and I were really close, she wouldn't leave my side when I was sick in bed for a week, many years ago, and she continued to show that same kind of devotion for her whole life.

She and the other dogs had a game of stealing Daddy's hats. She didn't much like to wear them, though. :) Camo was not her color.

She was a real beauty, in our eyes.

Paisley had a few other problems, but nothing we couldn't deal with. She never lost her appetite, meals were a favorite time of day for her.

Monday, July 19, 2010 she had to be put to sleep. Her sweet heart was failing her and she couldn't get enough oxygen in her blood, she was constantly panting hard and no matter what we tried, it was getting worse. She was exhausted, she had given all she had to stay with us and it about killed us to make that final trip to the vet's office. We had her for just over 14 years and it was not enough. I miss my sweet girl but I'm glad she's not suffering anymore. The house feels so quiet and empty and I just hate this. My husband is so good to me, with the extra hugs and pats and kisses. He misses her too, he was the best daddy that girl could have wished for.

We'll miss you forever, Sweet Pea.

Lettuce entertain you!

Artemis is our only boy dog, he's big and red and kind of goofy and very suspicious of strange foods. You should just see him with a marshmallow- he takes it, finally.... puts it down, crosses his eyes at it, picks it back up, puts it down, noms on it a bit, puts it down, this goes on until it is a mushmallow and very yucky. lol But he loves a nice bit of lettuce, especially the hard, crunchy stalk. Usually. This evening, he just wanted to hold it. lol While laying down. On the sofa. Where I sit. I know why he's holding it, though, because if Paisley knew it was there, she'd take it from him and he'd have to let her because she's shown him her teeth before! Rawwwwrrrrr!

We had a lovely snowfall the other night, about 9" all told, when it was done. First one out in it? The invisible white kitten we all know as Nosey Parker, but in truth her name is Snow Leopard! The big boy cats all hate it when we get snow like this, in fact- one of them walked out the door and pooped in the snow, right there! We were aghast, but didn't really blame him, except for the fact that there are litter boxes all over the place when the weather gets bad. Silly Sammie.


I finished the last of the 25 string blocks. Now I'm supposed to cut 1/4 circles out of some of them. Somebody better come over here and do it for me, I don't think I can! I love these blocks. I used up a lot of my favorite fabrics making these and don't know if I could ever make anything so pretty again, that's how much I'm taken with these.


And I've started a new little project- can you tell what it will be? I'll give you a hint, I needed to use to my color wheel to lay out the lines and the colors. And none of those fabric scraps are more than 2" long or wide, not that I measured or anything. :)


Wouldn't you just love to see me make something dull and grown up for a change? I hope you don't hold your breath. lol