Baby, It's Cold Outside

The thermometer tells me it's -2F (-18 C) and this does not make me happy. I did managed to get money together to feed the birds this year, unlike last year with lots of doctor appointments and inevitable co-pays.

I took some pictures yesterday because a melanistic squirrel had come to dine. He's on the left and a regular grey squirrel is on the right.

There was also the tiniest goldfinch I'd ever seen on the finch feeder.

Today there's a dusting of snow covering the ice from yesterday afternoon, and steam is rising from my heated birdbath.

These days FuzzyHusband is much less fuzzy, at least when it comes to his head. I happened to pick up a crochet magazine whilst getting supplies before the ice hit on Friday and found a handsome hat pattern that called for a yarn I had stashed. And more luck, I already owned the correct hook size!

So I came home, put all the groceries away, filled bird feeders, and bided my time until I had to pick himself up from work. What I should've done was triple check that the hook was where it belonged. You can see where this is going, can't you?

Himself gets a ride home from a coworker who was coming into town to see a movie. He makes eggnog and I decide a jot of rum in my chai would be nice and warming. THEN I decide to look for my hook. And its missing.

So before he could enjoy his freshly made drink, FH puts shoes back on and drives me to buy a new hook. What we didn't know is the ice storm had started. He almost turned us around. But he's happy that he didn't.

Now I must brave the weather and the streets to go check on a friend's bunny. I'd been watching him all week and couldn't go over yesterday. I did give him lot of extra food on Friday just in case I was trapped yesterday. Happily a neighbor (who is unfamiliar with rabbit car) checked on him yesterday and he was fine. Don't let the cute face fool you. He's gnawing on my boot in this picture!

Once I'm home there is a long list of chores that needs doing. That's what I get for doing nothing yesterday but dishes and crochet. See you next week and stay warm!

Bonus picture of Pixel because she was just too cute not to share!

An Old Needlepoint UFO and Critters

This week's been filled with happy things!  The flash flood receded and FH was finally able to get back to work.  The office building wasn't damaged at all!

It appears Pixel and Pollux might be closer to accepting Gus into their lives.

Pollux is also beginning to feel better finally.  We did have to put him back on steroids, but as soon as his IBD calms down, we're going to start weaning him off them immediately.

I did manage to find where I'd put the violet tool case this week.  It was in a seldom-used work bag.  So it's back in the queue of things to finish.  Hopefully this coming week.

I'd been wanting to do something different this week, but I also wanted to work on a UFO.  Happily my needlepoint heart sampler rolled out from the depths of the workroom.

I honestly don't remember when I started it, or even why I bought the kit.  I do remember having fun with the two green sections and being irritated when I figured out the two-tone pink section didn't look like the sample picture.  The lighter pink lines are supposed to be thicker.

Then I was frustrated by the cream sections of continental stitch until I figured out I needed to mount the canvas on stretcher bars.  Then I needed to rip out the cream wool (for the second time) and redo stitch those sections.  Then I figured out I didn't have enough cream wool left from the kit.  That's when it got shoved in a bag and forgotten.

When the heart rolled out, it was right before I was headed to a guild meeting in the next city over... the one where the needlepoint shop is located.  So I started frogging the cream wool.  When that was done, I did the solid pink section (reverse scotch stitch), just to have something else to do.

Well I got new cream wool on Wednesday and got going on the upper cream section.  The tension is still off, but that's due to a lack of experience/practice this time.  I briefly considered frogging it again, but the canvas was started to show signs of wear.  Samplers were meant to be teaching tools and proof of practice anyway, so I left it in.

The background was fun to stitch.  It's pearl cotton done in a reverse continental stitch.

I still need to get the embellishments done and fill in around the background with something.  That way plain canvas won't show along the edges when it's framed or turned into a pillow.  Unless I turn it into an ornament or something.  But then all the neat texture from the pearl cotton would be lost.

But since Wednesday I finished four sections of this canvas, so I'm pleased!

That's all this time.  Depending on how fast I get the embellishing done, I should have more than one project to show off next Sunday.  But we'll see when next week rolls around.

Update on Critters

Anna from Random Thoughts of a Stay at Home Mom popped by and asked how Castor is doing. She read about him a while back when I made him his sweater. I'd given a link to the sweater post to the original designer's blog and Anna has just made a sweater for her kitty, Flake. If you've got the time check out the sweater on it's adorable model.

It occurred to me that I've been not only neglecting the blog, but in my sporadic posts I've only hinted at how the animals are doing. So since I find myself with some time today, I'm going to remedy the situation. Here we go:

First a look at Pollux. As you can see he's completely relaxed. Besides that his last checkup labeled him with fantastic dental health and great body condition. There have been no flare ups of either his irritable bowel disease or the sterile bladder infections that have plagued him in the past.

He has slowed down a bit, but he's 11 and we've had odd weather for a few weeks. If I'm starting to creak around he's got to be creaking around too. His favorite place to sleep is the cat condo next to the door to the deck. Sunlight streams in those windows all day.

The mice did not cooperate with a recent picture. Ada is starting to look like an old mouse, but she is still doing well. Alana keeps her warm and makes sure she eats, so life is good for two ladies who were in danger of becoming snake food.

Tempie and 'Bert are doing much better now.'Bert has recovered beautifully from the sudden episode of gut stasis/skin infection last week. He's back to eating normally and running around the family room, kicking up his heels. His round of antibiotics fir the skin infection will be done next Tuesday.

Tempie's mouth has healed from her dental-work. She's giving us more ammunition in thinking she's a carnivore in bunny clothes by wolfing down her food every night. Since she can't get to the cats' food anymore, she makes due with obliterating hers... and 'Bert's if she can reach it.

Finally Castor has put some weight back on thanks to a combination of steroids and probiotics. However he started having seizures about a month ago. He's on medication for them and it appears to be working. Other than having no memory of his favorite game/toy, fetch with a paper ball (which was his favorite for eleven years), the two seizures we can verify did not do any major damage.

We think the seizures may be related to some developmental issues he showed as a kitten due to complications during birth. [I adopted him from friends of a friend who owned his parents. When his mother was giving birth he was stuck in the birth canal for a bit. It took about a month after I brought him home for him to walk normally and he's always been both a klutz and a little dumb.]

The vet suggested an MRI, which I'd really like to get, but FH and I had to weigh the options and costs. For the price of the MRI we can get him all the medicines he needs for at least five years. That includes the steroids, the probiotics (which aren't cheap), and the cans of tuna and wet food we mix the probiotics in. Given the news in the next paragraph, you'll know why we decided to skip the MRI.

The steroids did in fact stop helping his guts behave normally (or rather as normal as they ever got), and therefore the vets and I are fairly certain he is developing bowel cancer. But the drugs make him hungry, so we're keeping him on them for the time being. If this was just a bad flare up of his irritable bowel disease the steroids would have worked and kept working. FH, the vets, and I agree that we do not want to put an 11 year old cat through a biopsy of his intestines so we're just going to ride things out. It may be a year, maybe two. More if we're lucky, less if we're not.

Recent blood tests (within the last month) show his numbers look good, so I'm hoping that we're in the extremely early stages. We also know that his teeth are still in fantastic shape (which will help with his overall health) and he's developed arthritis in his hips. These last few mornings have been stiff ones for him, but he solves that problem by sleeping in sunbeams on the window seat in my sewing room.

Castor is still extremely vocal with his demands to go out onto the sun porch and to get my attention while I'm working on something. At night he comes and cuddles with us on the couch and tries to nose his way into our dinner dishes. So other than a mess (understatement) around the litter boxes and him forgetting what paper balls are for, he's the same spoiled, lovable, sweet kitty that looks like he's been helping with one too many projects involving white paint and glue.

Speaking of projects, I've got a in the works currently, and one if them is of the miniature variety (finally!) and I hope to start posting again with more regularity.

Confetti Update

Just so everyone is up to speed, there will be no recovery for Confetti. The ultrasound this morning proved the vet's theory of a cardiomyopathy.Basically her heart is working harder because one of muscle walls has thickened. It's congenital, meaning there's nothing we could really do to prevent it.

We are working on getting her stable and then we'll see if medications can bring her some relief for a while. We're lucky it even got noticed since cats tend to be stoic when they hurt. She's comfortable in the sun right now, so here's to as much happy time as we have left. Currently she is on a medication for the fluid around her lungs and we just started a cardiac medication to help her heart pump better. We also have to give her fluids each day so the medicines don't dehydrate her, but not so much fluid that her lungs are put in danger. She also gets whatever she wants to eat, which is never much as breathing is hard enough right now.

Thank yous to everyone who have commented on the first post. It really means a lot to us.

I will be posting occasionally and will let everyone know how things are going.

This wouldn't be as hard if Castor wasn't so sick too....

Left Field

I won't be around blogland for a few days. Confetti's heart has started to fail and FH and I are working with the vet to see if we can get fluid expelled from her lungs. If that improves by tomorrow, we may have a couple of options to treat the heart.

I will keep you all updated when I can.

When You Need Things Done...

...ask the cat.
Pollux here. Mom's busy unpacking things so I thought I would show you the best part of the new house. The sun porch. Saturday was nice and warm so Mom and Dad opened the back door and let us explore. Here I am sniffing around the wood pile. Mom says that won't be staying long. It's supposed to be stacked neatly further away from the house so we don't get termites. Here's my brother and sister coming outside.
We aren't sure why our cat tree is out here, but Castor found it.The wood pile became uninteresting after a while, but this picture shows the plexi-glass portions of the walls really well. The upper parts of the walls are filled in with screens so there was a very nice breeze. Mom said the walls would protect us from owls, hawks, and coyotes, but still let us get fresh air and sunlight. They will also keep my brother from getting into anything that will make him sick if he eats it, so I guess they are ok.Confetti has found the blinds that are on the walls. Mom has opened most of them part-way so we can get some sun.Here's one last picture of our adventure. Castor has found where Mom put some of the plants she dug up from the old house. When the snow is all gone she will find places to put them.That's all for now. I'm going to finish my nap that was rudely interrupted.

Cute Filler

Frog and Toad

We've had some visitors in the garden recently. I thought you might like to see them.

FH met this fellow one day while he was checking the tomatoes.
This frog almost got squished when I was headed out for lettuces the other night. FH saw him in time and I went around from teh front door instead.

There isn't much to report on the mini front, or the garden front for that matter. Things are growing and watering is easier with the new hoses. As far as minis go, I've found a suitable case for the Shabby Chic room to be protected inside, but this will require a complete reworking of said room. More on that in future posts. I've also started a tablecloth for Ezzie's house. I was going to start her house, but I need FH healed so he can help me cut the base for the house to set on.

Speaking of FH, he's slowly feeling better. We're still waiting on the results from the MRI and until then we have no idea what the problem really is or how to treat it.

The new cable for the camera is here, so I can return the borrowed one to LittleD's mother. :-)

That's about it for now. Tomorrow I should have some pictures of the gardens.

Stopping for the night.

I have unearthed a portion of my main desk in the craft room. It is now possible to see table as opposed to piles of stuff. Hoping to get that the rest of the way cleared tomorrow and get a good chunk of my center "island" table emptied as well.

More boxes of random things have been sorted through and dealt with. These boxes appeared the last time my mother came up to visit. Apparently she didn't remember me telling her that specific piles of things left behind when I moved here a year ago were for Goodwill or junk to be thrown out. In fact the "trash" written on one box didn't ring any bells either. This is what happens when I listen to my mother when she says, "Don't worry about the rest of this right now. Just get the critters into the U-Haul and get going before it's too late to drive." There are more of them in the garage. Ugh. Oh well. She really thought she was helping. I can't fault her for trying. I just wish she hadn't carted them up right after I finally had gotten everything already here put away in the limited space I have. *sigh* Wishes, horses... yeah.

Of course the rest of the mess that grew around the boxes came from working on a project in front of the TV in the living room and then having to quickly put it away. And taking supplies for specific projects to miniature club meetings and not having a chance to sort it and put it where it belongs. And trips out of town that result in bringing home more treasures that don't get sorted because washing the cigarette smell from our clothes is more important that playing with new toys. And then Yule happened and more stuff got shoved out of the way... This is how chaos is formed.

I'm hoping to get the room sorted out before the pain kicks back into high gear. I'm racing Nature and the clock, since I'm waiting on the arrival of a certain Greenleaf dollhouse kit. FH helped me come up with an idea for the contest as a nice distraction from the barrage of medical tests that are in my near future. I will post pics after the contest is over.

In other news the critters all seem to be doing alright. Castor's stomach has calmed down so much on the new food. Pollux and Confetti aren't showing any signs of the food disagreeing with their systems. Both rabbits are enjoying the warmer temperatures that mean outdoor trips.

Speaking of critters and cute things, if you don't already read Boulderneigh hop over there to see some of the first pictures of this lambing season.

That's it for me tonight.

Spring Fun

FH and I took the bunnies outside yesterday so they could play in the yard. Tempie was having a decent time until a particularly obnoxious neighbor child came over and pestered her. 'Bert was his usual terrified self. I would like to note that he was as relaxed as possible for him until the boy came into the yard.

Hopefully I can take him out this week during the day when the children are all at school. He should have a more enjoyable time then. I am thinking his harness has gotten a wee bit tight around his middle too. So we may be replacing it soon. Too many treats and not enough time to run them off.

Lovely People... Lots of Them

I wanted to say hello to three more lovely folks who have started visiting.

Golden Unicorn Miniatures has a wonderful blog full of gorgeous miniatures. If you want to see some beautiful pictures, go have a look!

Doreen, not to be confused with my mother-in-law of the same name, has to great blogs full of miniatures! One is for miniature projects, the other is filled with adorable miniatures. Both are a treat to read through.

Daisy Carpi has four blogs that will make you lose time going through the pictures: 1/12 scale miniatures, her life-size paintings, handmade miniatures, and building a set of shops.

Be warned. I lost my Sunday between these six blogs. But is was so wonderful.

I also thought I should publicly say how wonderful Sharon at In Stitches, Karen at Karen's Shetlands, Leigh over at Leigh's Fiber Journal, Miz Minka over at Miz Minka's Musings, Michelle at Boulderneigh are. These great fiber artists have life-sized fun, beautiful landscapes, and multitudes of critter adventures on their blogs.

Paper art. That's what I call Alice's cards. Alice not only makes drop dead gorgeous cards, but she is occasionally allowed by life and her feline "helpers" to make miniatures. Visit her at Double Purr.

For a portrait, landscape, or still-life painted in words please visit Pamella and Edward at From the House of Edward. You will be breathless.

Last but not in any way least, are Catzee and Rascal. They are Leigh's four-footed kids. Their antics and perspectives on life make me think and laugh. Especially since I have a multitude of pets.

These wonderful people have been following/visiting me from the beginning. Their presence makes the world a more beautiful place and stretch my horizons. They are beautiful.

I hope I haven't forgotten anyone. There are just so many wonderful bloggers out there. If I left anyone out, I will remedy the situation quickly I promise.

Thank you to everyone!

**
I did nearly forget someone and didn't catch it until I had published the post. Eek!

Maia, at Maia's Twinkle Miniatures, is a wonderful artist and has many gorgeous pictures of her miniatures. Go for a visit and see what I mean. She's also the only person who decided to play the Pay it Forward game with me this time around. Amidst the planning for this year's miniature show, my bright spot has been brainstorming ideas for her gift! And I've settled on... well, you'll just have to wait until she's received it! ;-)

The Adventures of Ada and Grace

Meet FH's new friends:

Ada

and

Grace

FH has been wanting to have a "wuffie" (read mouse or rat) for a few years now. Normally when I look at them at the pet store I think they're cute and walk away. Today however I saw a calico mouse. I did a double take. She actually has calico coloring and little tigeress stripes on her back.

So I suddenly found myself purchasing a habitat and proper food for a wuffie and pointing out Ada to the salesperson. I got home and set her up in the mouse house. When FH got home he was very happily surprised. We quickly came to the combined conclusion that Ada, who was yet unnamed, needed a companion. We went back to the same pet store and he picked out Grace.

FH is a computer programmer, thus he named the girls after faous women in the field of computer programming. Ada's namesake is Ada Lovelace, the first computer programmer. She was the only legitimate child of Lord Byron. Grace is named for Grace Hopper, who wrote the first compiler for a programming language and programmed the Harvard Mark I calculator.

The new girls are causing quite a stir with the household cats. They are very much interested inteh comings and goings of the mice. We decided their habitat must be locked in FH's craft room whenever we are sleeping or out of the house for any length of time. Confetti is already known as a successful mouser. Unlike the rabbits, the mice can't bully the cats back.

The Shabby Chic room will be finished soon I hope. It's hard to work on a project when FH keeps late working hours. I never know when he's coming home on nights like these last few. Hopefully I will get the walls put together tomorrow and get more little things finished.

Bitter Bloody Cold - with editted update

The kittens and I are about to go curl up in the bed with FH. I've been up running water through the washing machine's pipes to make sure they don't freeze again. We have faucets on down the hall in both bathrooms, but the last time a pipe froze it was the cold water line to the laundry. So in the morning I will be doing even more laundry.

I'm wishing the bunnies could reliably curl up with us in the big bed too, since it's colder than normal in the house. Sadly the bunnies would fight each other all night and then run around the house instead of staying where it's warm. Not to mention Tempie is still too fat to properly wash her butt by herself, so ew. It's almost time to give her a bit of a shave soon.

At least the drafts in the front room have been mostly dealt with. We have a large chunk of fleece hanging over the front door and plastic film over the windows. We couldn't get anything over the sliding glass door, but it's not too bad. The office and my craft room are the two coldest rooms in the house.

I feel sorry for FH having to go out in this horrid cold in the morning. He's still got a bit of that cough. We're waiting for him to get paid so we can afford the $50 bill for the new medicine for Castor. The vet is having the drugs compounded into a gel to rub in his ear. I hope it works with only one does. The way things are looking we wouln't be able to afford that as a regular expense. Their special food is bad enough.

Pollux is so easy to pill. I wish his brother was the same way. He gets a pill every other night with very little difficulty. Confetti is sowhere in between the two, but she only has to get a pill before she sees the vet. Tranquillizers are best for her and the vet. The bunnies get liquid medications. That's the easiest thing in the world. Tempie actually think some of her medicines are treats. She will keep licking the syringes after they are empty. We have not had to medicate 'Bert for anything yet. Force feeding him has happened, but not medications.

Anyhow I'm being stared at by a pair of green eyes who want me to make room on my lap for the rest of her. She gets cold easily and likes to burrow under blankets and into laps. If we bother to crawl ot of bed tomorrow I will post the high (hahaha!) that the temperature reaches.

**edit**
It's less than 12 hours after the original post. The cold water to the washer has frozen. FH is coming home with a space heater to point at the wall. That worked last time. The high right now is -7F. The expected low is -19F. That's without windchill. All the schools are closed. Holly and I are not going gallivanting today as planned as it's too bloody cold and the kids are home. I'm going to go prep things for FH's return and check the faucets at the back end of the house...again.

Critter Pictures

I haven't had time to figure out how to edit digital video to make the clip of Tempie opening her presents postable. So I'm going to try and placate the people who really want to see it by putting up regular pictures.

How things went

The cats all had fun removing their stockings from the tree and relieving them of their contents. Case in point Confetti who had to be instructed as to which stocking she could play with. Observe if you wish:



The Beast of Antioch (Tempie) had a great time attacking her wrapped gift. I got a video but it's 4 MB too big to post here. If I can figure out how to edit it a bit I will put it up. The other bunny was more scared of his present than interested in it.

We both have sore throats and feel sort of cruddy.

Friends came for dinner. I made my first ever turkey. It was actually good. Mashed potatoes, mixed veg, stuffing, cranberries, gravy, and biscuits were on the side. The cranberries and stuffing were from scratch since they're better that way.

Dessert consisted of mint fudge brownies that our friend made (omg they are good!), peanut butter balls, Heath bark, and the aforementioned cookies from the previous post.

Things are quiet again. The critters have nestled down for the evening. FH is on the couch reading forums and blogs via the laptop. I suspect if he was feeling better he'd have out one of the new books he got today. Between his family and I he got a good start on tools and a library for leather.

I got my first ever subscription to a doll house miniature magazine from my in-laws, some books, some cross stitch charts and kits, a ball winder, a set of knitting needles, and my wedding ring repaired. Oh and an obnoxious little snowman that plays "Up on the Housetop" when his arm is squeezed. FH just loves that. I think his mom gave it to me on purpose! ;-)

Speaking of FH and leather you can check out his various projects here from time to time.

What the Animals Say

Pamela over at The House of Edward paints beautiful mental pictures with words. I believe everyone who reads her blog feels better for having done so. It's really that good. Go give her a read if you haven't already.

The subject on my mind today is related to a specific post she made today. She talks about the legend where at midnight on Christmas Eve the animals are given the gift of speech.

What the Animals Say

We hear you talk about houses,
saying you won't leave us behind,
that we are your family.

Thank you for the shelter,
the soft places to sleep in the Sun,
the warm laps to curl up on.

We know you make certain
that we have what we need
no matter what happens.

Thank you for the food,
the bowls always refilled,
the water constantly fresh.

We hear Momma cry
when she can't save more animals
because we would be neglected.

Thank you for your love,
for the gentle hands,
for everything you give us.

What will the animals in your life say?

Have a Joyful Yule, Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Delightful Kwanzaa, and whatever else you choose to celebrate.