Snow? Really?

That was yesterday. We had about 7-9 inches in places. Worst storm of the season... after the season was technically over. Gotta love the midwest!

I did get some work done on the memorial room. It needs some wall art and a chocolate Labrador puppy. It also needs me to redo the wallpaper as it didn't stick well the first time. Hopefully I won't have to use a different paper. I really like this one.

Thanks to the snowstorm, we didn't get to go to the alpaca show yesterday. And since the wind was coming from an odd direction, I couldn't spray sealer onto any wallpaper. So my backup plans for fun were out the window.

But today it's gorgeous, if a bit chilly, and we made it to the show!

And I found a new friend!

That's all for today.I need to get back to cleaning. FuzzyHusband was sick all last week, so not much got done. He was so sick that he actually stayed home for a bit. Poor guy. Now we're playing catch up... and by "we" I mean "me" because he still can't catch his breath.

See you next weekend!

A Year in Mourning

Or at least that's what it felt like.  I'll fill you in with the Cliff's Notes version.

While I was visiting with my grandmother for the last time I got the call that Marti, my friend I'd organized all the quilting miniatures for, had passed away. We wouldn't be able to make it home in time for her funeral because we were too far away. Plus she'd have wanted me to stay with my grandmother... so we stayed.

That's not to say I didn't enjoy the time with my family, but it was bittersweet. Even in all the beauty that is our home. Gus enjoyed himself, despite being confused about sledding on dry stuff that didn't melt.

 Our time together was too short, but isn't it always? We headed home and I was numb. My doctor increased my medication doses and I voluntarily increased the visits to my therapist. Many small family dramas last fall made everything seem more intense and less deal-with-able.

 My grandmother passed in November, two days before FH and I were to celebrate his little brother's wedding. I was sewing around that time. Quilting to be more precise. I focused on projects and just tried to make it through the holidays.

I started to come out of my mental shell in March when another friend for guild, who was very close to Marti, passed away suddenly. For me it was like loosing Marti all over again. I hadn't really been able to mourn her before then.

I was starting to come to terms with things when I was rear ended by a hit and run driver. That wasn't very helpful to my mental health at the time. Fortunately I was only bruised and my car just needed new bumpers. Bumpers plural as he pushed my into the car sitting in front of me as we waiting on a red light to turn green.

Spring came and went without me really noticing. I knew there were things I wanted to do each day, but I couldn't make myself wake up enough to do them. Turns out I needed my medication dose lowered, which we did in July. It took a while for the effects of my meds to even out.

That's ok since I had all the time in the world to wait since in July I tore my lower trapezius muscle and right rotator cuff. That was the polar opposite of fun. I'm still fighting the physical pain from the incident as I type this. My doctor thinks there's a bone spur that broke loose and was hidden by tendons, etc during the initial xrays. Hopefully that will get dealt with sooner rather than later.

So that's where things stand at the moment. Oh and my father was diagnosed with Parkinson's too. Like he needed another autoimmune disease to peck away at him... *sigh*

But I finally have enough mental energy to start posting here again. It will likely be only once a week, like it was last year. I have been working on a few projects off and on for the last year. I'll be trying to fill you all in on those in addition to the current projects.

Here's a something I was working on last fall with a little help from Miss Pixel.

I'll tell you more about it next time. Until then!

All of the Things!

I started out moving structures around the house in the attempt at making room for a new printer when we finally get one.  The building for the quilt shop was moved upstairs, which is nice since it's currently sitting where I want it to live.

  Artie "helped."

Then I finalized my sketches for the shelving I need to construct to hold the fabric bolts.  

 I also worked on bolts for my quilt shop and cut fat quarters... lots of fat quarters.  Here are the bolts: 

Then I started making birthday gifts for my mini friends in St. Louis:

- One friend has a HUGE dollhouse that has a wonderful sewing room.  I thought some mini fat quarter bundles would be a nice addition.

- Another friend has been painting miniature watercolor landscapes for a couple of years.  I thought she might like to start her own mini artist's studio.  The portfolio is made of card and covered with a piece of real-life wallpaper that had a neat texture.  The darker "leather" is a football texture scrapbook paper.  I modified the handle from the original by wrapping waxed linen with the scrap-booking paper.  The directions are in Dolls' House Details by Kath Dalmeny.  Same for the watercolor paper with proper deckle edges.

- A third friend had missed two years' worth of birthdays and Christmases, as she was on a mission trip.  She'd been working on a mini quilt shop, so I thought some more fabric and some fat quarter bundles would be a nice addition.  She got three bolts and three bundles, plus one each for each of her last three birthdays and two Christmases.

- I designed a special piece of stitching for Aunt Pat's birthday, but I'll talk more about it further down.  It didn't get finished until Saturday.

Tuesday I woke up late to the news that a friend of ours, Joe, had passed away suddenly on Saturday and his funeral was to be Wednesday night.  That sort of derailed my train of thought for a bit.  FH came home early Tuesday and we cried for a bit.  Joe was 31 years old and it's still unclear as to why he died.  The coroner hasn't released a final report.

After going out for comfort food Tuesday I wandered over to my favorite quilt shop and spied a brilliant blue fat eighth that reminded me of Joe.  he favorite color was blue and this fabric was in the specific shade of his favorite shirt.  It begged to become a bolt of fabric in my quilt shop, so I bought it... and 15 other fat eighths that were neat.  After we got home, I made these:

As I tried to sleep that night I decided we should wear some blue to the funeral, so on Wednesday I made these pins.  They are forget-me-not flower yo-yos, made from the same blue fabric as the miniature bolt.  FH  wore the singleton on his suit jacket and I wore the group of three as a brooch on my shrug.

Then I didn't do much for the rest of Wednesday into Thursday.  Friday we drove south to see friends and I slept for most of the day.

Saturday I finished the last of the stitching on this birthday gift for Aunt Pat.  Originally I was going to turn them into cushions (1.25" square), but there isn't much room in the scene for cushions.

However she needs wall art, so whilst she's in Tuscon, AZ for the N.A.M.E. convention, she's in the market for gilded frames of the correct size.  Aunt Pat gets to visit The Mini Time Machine Museum while she's there.  I'm jealous!  I told her to watch out for witches named Tessie whilst she was there.  I'm afraid if they met there would be more work for me to do for Pat and for Casey to do for Tessie!

Anyways, the design is modified from a piece of embroidery I found in 18th Century Embroidery Techniques by Gail Marsh.  During the 18th century it was popular to work designs completely in chain stitch, usually on muslin garments.  In 1759 (according to Ms. Marsh) the tambour method of embroidery was introduced in Europe.  The differences are mostly visible on the back of the work, but tambour allows for turning curves and corners better.

Aunt Pat's current roombox is set in 1755, so I used plain old chain stitch for the piece.  I chose the colors to coordinate with the doll, who is dressed in pale peach silk.  The foundation fabric is fine cotton lawn, basted onto muslin.  I will probably be the one to frame them once she gets her frames bought.  That will be on another trip south.

We got home late Sunday night.  Then I had to deal with all the unpacking, laundry sorting, oil changing, grocery buying, etc that gets done after a trip.  Happily our neighbor had invited us for dinner tonight, so there wasn't a need to do any cooking.

That's all for now.  I'm working on the quilt shop this week.  We'll see how far I get with any of that.

Pollux: Loved Now More than Ever- March 29, 1999 - May 24, 2013

I know I'm a day late... I've been distracted.  It took me a while to come to grips with things and figure out what I was going to say.  I've borrowed some details from Castor's memorial because, they were twins.

Pollux was born as one of seven kittens to a mother owned by a couple other college kids in the town my university is located.  He and Castor were the only two Siamese looking kittens in the entire litter.  We wanted named that wold reflect their twin-like appearance and ran through several, rejecting the most obvious ones like "Cain and Abel," "Romulus and Remus," and "Heckle and Jeckle."  I came up with the idea of Castor and Pollux.

Like his mythological counterpart, Pollux did indeed outlive his younger brother.  His personality was different from Castor's in many ways.  First off he was more reserved, still friendly, but he would give people time to settle in before he'd invade their laps.  He also would take a turn around the room to visit with all of the people before settling down.  

Unlike Castor, I didn't pick Pollux.  I didn't want Pollux.  I wanted their white and gray brother who never got a name.  My then boyfriend picked Pollux as his kitten.  When we split up, he left Pollux with me.  I was saddled with a second set of vet bills for another cat with irritable bowel disease.  It was hard, but I made sure I could afford the food they had to eat so they would be sick less and medicines when they needed it.

Over time, his nickname became "Pollywog," which eventually shortened to "Woggs."  He began to become more of "my" cat than I wanted, but he was still my responsibility and Castor loved him.  I learned the hard way that he had a penchant for pasta in Parmesan sauce and peppermints.  Peppermint was his absolute favorite, but he wouldn't turn down the chance to steal pasta.

After Castor died, Pollux was my link to both Castor and Confetti.  We also became more watchful of his condition, in case he started developing any of the same symptoms.  For almost two years nothing changed.  He still loved to drink water from the bathtub after someone showered, still slept on his back with his front feet curled over his belly, and played with his toys.  Then he snagged a claw on something, pulling it out of his foot and the wound became infected.

Last Monday Pollux wasn't doing well at all.  He was still fighting with the flare up of irritable bowel disease that came with those antibiotics he had to take for his foot.  His balance was off, he seemed more distracted, and despite eating like a horse he was still loosing weight.

FH and I decided to see how he progressed during the week and to spend as much time with him as possible.  Artie and Pixel didn't seem to care about what was happening, but Artie did become more aggressive toward Pollux.  I think Pollux's smell was changing and that bothered Artie.

I spent a lot of time stitching in Pollux's company last week.  We'd listen to the birds outside the window and he'd sniff the air when the breeze came through.  Sometimes he would decide I needed to put down my work and have him in my lap.  That's when I'd watch a movie and pet him until he decided to go have a snack.  We also let him fill up on his favorite canned foods.  At night I slept with him in the guest room, shutting the young cats out.  That way he had me to himself.

Friday rolled around and he was no better, in fact he was worse.  When we listed off our observations about his attitude and symptoms, our vet told us that Pollux's liver was definitely failing and it was very possible that his pancreas was also failing and the irritable bowel disease may have turned into cancer.  That left us with only one option for his care and comfort.  Pollux didn't flinch and like Castor, he looked relieved.

Artie and Pixel spent some time looking for him after we came home with the empty carrier.  Gus did some investigating of his own and did his best to make me relax.  I've been trying to wind down from the stresses involved with palliative care and loosing a member of the family.  

Enjoy your rest, my Pollywog Kitten.  Remember me to Castor, Confetti, 'Bert, Tempie, and Meat Loaf.  I'll see you all again someday.

Requiescat in Pace Tempie Bun; 8-1-05 to 9-14-11

September 14, 2011

 This news will probably shock most of my blog friends.  I'm still in shock.  As Wednesday's post was automatically going up at 9:00am, I was watching Tempie refuse to eat again.  And she started exhibiting strange neurological symptoms.

I called FH and he came home from work.  We gathered her up and started driving south.During the ride she snuggled close to my hands and dozed most of the way.  A couple of times it looked like she was having tiny seizures.

 We don't know how it happened, but somehow her intestines and gut became distended creating a block sort of like a kink in a hose.  To make things worse her gut flora were all out of whack, making her gassy and somehow preventing the fluids we were giving to reach a plug of dried food in her intestines. 

 There was additional damage to her intestines as well and a necropsy confirmed she would not have had much more time with us.  And none of that time would've been comfortable.

  I think every human in the room cried.  She's fought off every other challenge in her life.  I guess she just used up all her strength too soon.

 So she went to sleep one last time at the vet's while in her daddy's arms and me stroking her head.  The vet kept saying sweet things to her and she went to sleep.  She was a wonderful companion and can never be replaced.  Binky free my sweet angel.  You are forever loved.

In Memoriam

Today I need to take a moment to say good-bye to a friend.  A fine needlewoman, artist, dressmaker, and photographer.  I will miss our random lunches and learning new things from you.  Most of all I will miss your intelligence and dry sense of humor.  It was an honor to know you.  Requiescat in Pace.

In accordance with a promise I made while she was still alive, I am refraining for ever putting her name on the internet.  Thanks for understanding.

Castor: Forever Loved- March 29, 1999-May 22, 2011

Where to start?  It's had to describe anything that's been a part of one's life for nearly half of it... even harder when that "thing" was a living being whom you loved.

  Castor was born as one of seven kittens to a mother owned by a couple other college kids in the town my university is located.  He and Pollux were the only two Siamese looking kittens in the entire litter.  We wanted named that wold reflect their twin-like appearance and ran through several, rejecting the most obvious ones like "Cain and Abel," "Romulus and Remus," and "Heckle and Jeckle."  I came up with the idea of Castor and Pollux.

From Wikipedia:

"In the myth the twins shared the same mother but had different fathers which meant that Pollux was immortal and Castor was mortal. When Castor died, Pollux asked Zeus to let him share his own immortality with his twin to keep them together and they were transformed into the Gemini constellation. The pair were regarded as the patrons of sailors, to whom they appeared as St. Elmo's fire."

 It took a while to figure out which was which, but their personalities helped make the distinction.  Spookily enough the mythological Pollux also outlived his brother.  That thought has been haunting me for about a year now...

Castor wasn't the runt of the litter but he was the smaller of the two.  I started referring to him as "my littlest love."  It stuck even when he became the bigger of them.  Even after baby Confetti came into our lives.  He loved playing fetch with paper wads, eating canned pasta (I didn't start him on that), and being outside on walks.  And people.  Being a university student I had friends coming and going almost every day.  Castor loved everyone and just knew they were there to see him.

Saturday morning everything was as normal as it had been for weeks.  Then right as the vet's office closed, Castor took a turn for the worse.  FH and I debated and decided we would wait and see if he was really in pain or if he might be able to wait until Monday morning.  He seemed fine through Saturday evening but Sunday morning was a different story.

He was so tired and couldn't walk on his own any longer.  Thankfully our vet works for the emergency clinic, so they were willing to work with us and our special needs.  FH and I decided (with our vet) months ago that we wanted a necropsy preformed so we'd be better prepared if Pollux starts showing these signs.  Usually the emergency clinic doesn't hold bodies for testing, but after a couple of phone calls the arrangements were made.

Everyone got to say good-bye here at home.  Castor loved on Artie like always.  Pollux has been increasingly upset for the last few days and didn't want to have much to do with his brother.  They did touch noses one last time though.

It was bittersweet letting him go.  Stopping the pain outweighed our own sadness though.  Castor was relaxed the whole time, from the car ride to the end.  In fact I'll swear to my dying day that he looked relieved.

Pollux and Artie are both sad and confused.  I'm hoping Artie can keep Pollux from slipping into a depressed funk.  Tempie hasn't noticed Castor's absence yet but she will eventually.  As for me, I'm stuck between relief that he's not hurting and being totally shattered that my baby's gone.  We've been preparing for this day since before moving to this house last year.  In fact we weren't sure he'd see his 12th birthday, but he fought hard to stay with us.

I believe he's earned the rest.  I know he's basking in the sun at the Rainbow Bridge with Confetti, 'Bert, and their Uncle Meat Loaf.  I'll see them all again eventually.

Good-bye, Castor, my littlest love. I will love you forever. See you at the Rainbow Bridge.