100 Good Wishes

4-7 Tornados

2011-06-01T20:57:00.002-04:00

... rolled over the state today. Crazy! Weatherman says he hasn't seen anything like this in the 20 years he's been reporting.

Stay dry and safe, everyone!

Back to NEVOG

2011-05-13T17:20:00.000-04:00

We had a nice working relationship with the folks at New England Veterinary Oncology Group while Finnegan was undergoing his cancer treatment. It's been a while since we've talked to them, but unfortunately it looks like we may be doing that again soon: the lesions on Echo's forehead and chin turned out to be cancerous.

We are getting a referral today and need to call them tomorrow to make an appointment. Then we'll have a better idea of what's next.

Fuzz therapy

2011-04-20T16:54:00.001-04:00

(from left to right: Truffle, Echo, Tolly)

Nap time

2011-04-19T16:34:00.000-04:00

Making book folders

2011-04-13T18:31:00.001-04:00

Last night we regressed back to childhood with arts and crafts.

Via People Making a Difference, a couple of us helped to make book folders for Generations Incorporated, an organization that brings senior volunteers together with kids who are struggling with literacy.

The book folders house storybooks, and include discussion questions, challenging words, author information, etc. They are designed to present the reading material in a fun way to the kids, and provide useful material to the tutors. (You can read a bit more about them here.)

We were given folders, construction paper, glue sticks, pens, and picked out a black-and-white photocopy of a book cover.

I chose one from the "Clifford the Big Red Dog" series, and DH chose "Good Night, Moon," and our other friend chose an undersea book whose title I can't recall.

Things I learned:
- it is hard to cut a straight line with a pair of kiddie scissors, but arts and crafts are STILL FUN!
- "eelpout" does not refer to the expression on the face of a miffed moray, but to a denizen of the deep
- I should have chosen "Good Night, Moon." DH's folder looked fabulous! Mine, not so much.
- We'll definitely be back to work with PMD again :)

Soap (now with pics)

2011-04-03T20:44:00.005-04:00

We took a cold process soap class today at a historic school. (Since people were working with scary chemicals, it seemed like whipping out the camera would be an unwelcome distraction. Therefore, this post does not contain photos of the process, only of the soap after it was unmolded the next day.)

We arrived at the classroom and were given a handout on the history of soap and a list of resources. We were also asked to come sniff the scents that the teacher had brought so we could vote on the scents we would use. I was delighted to find that most of these were nice quality essential oils (rather than synthetic fragrance oils), and could happily have voted for almost any of the options. However, I put in my votes for lavender and coriander, while DH selected eucalyptus and peppermint. (The winners were lavender, by a landslide, and lemongrass, by a single vote over peppermint. Sorry, DH!)

We got down to business pretty quickly with a 2.5x sized batch of honey-oatmeal soap. For this first batch, student involvement was fairly limited. We weighed out the different types of fat and stirred them in a pot over a warm burner til they melted and combined. We also measured out lye and distilled water… then stood back and watched from a respectful distance while the teacher, holding her breath, added the lye to water. (That scary stuff, strong enough to eat through a sweater if it gets on you, also releases nasty vapors that you don’t want to breathe.) I think half of us in the room were holding our breath in sympathy!

After both mixtures cooled down (lye mixture with the help of a cool water bath), they were combined, and the whole mess mixed with an electric mixer. About 30 minutes later, after several liberal additions of grapefruit seed oil, and the honey and oatmeal, the soap mix reached trace and we could pour it into the mold. (It smelled so nice, like toast dripping with honey, or oatmeal cookie dough!)

We split for lunch at that time, following a local resident out to where we could grab a quick bite. (Yummy orzo salad!) I kind of regretted leaving my coat in the car. It looked pretty and sunny outside, but even insulated with the cockiness that comes of making it through another winter, it was still too cold for shirt sleeves.

Back at the school, we noshed and pored over the handouts, reviewing the process. Yup, looked quite familiar, now that we’d tried it ourselves!

The teacher returned and gave us more handouts (oh no!): additional things to do once you’ve invested in all the ingredients. How to tweak/alter your recipes. How to try to fix a batch of soap you’ve messed up (worrisome that she has a handout on this!). The qualities of various essential oils, etc.

Then it was back to work for our scented soaps: first our lavender, to which we added loofah and colorant. We did a bit more of the work ourselves this time, two brave souls even tackling the pouring and beating of the scary lye. The new aspect was watching the teacher marble the top of the soap. If you have ever made cream cheese brownies, or any kind of marbled cake, you will have a general idea of the process. It looked very neat when she was done!

The lemongrass soap had the students collaborating (using the third different recipe) and tackling all the steps ourselves. Success! Not as visually arresting as the lavendar but, like everything we made today, it smelled absolutely delicious!

We’ll be able to go back and pick up the firmed up soap tomorrow. Then it has to cure in the basement for 4ish weeks (the chemical process is still in progress). The colors will change a bit too. We saw a honey oatmeal soap bar that she had made and it was quite a bit paler than our pumpkin colored soap mix.

I feel like this is something we could do at home, if we invest in all the ingredients and the (rest of the) equipment (the equipment has to be dedicated only to soap making, for safety’s sake); and if the cats can deal with being shut up in the bedroom for the duration. It was fun and - once we got over the eek factor with the lye - not really as scary as it initially sounded.

Socks for Japan

2011-03-28T19:27:00.004-04:00

I gather the raw materials

Each bag is labeled and filled with a pair of socks and an origami crane

Now it is time to print the notes

Printing half a page at a time allows me to work around the chrysanthemum motif

My rotary cutter works for paper too (although I may need to change the blade) :)

Some socks look better with the chrysanthemum paper

Others shine with the rose paper

Eventually all 69 pairs are ready to go

Uh oh, will they all fit??

The box is bursting at the seams, but it's good to go!

http://jasonkelly.com/helpjapan/ to help

Hearts for New Zealand

2011-03-06T11:00:00.001-05:00

From the eQuilter newsletter on 3/2:

I would say that those affected by the earthquake need money to rebuild their lives and repair their homes, but here is an additional way to send your healing thoughts to those affected:

Hello from New Zealand!

We are asking for Hearts for the thousands of Christchurch earthquake victims. Not the usual hearts, but "Hanging Hearts." Two pieces of heart-shaped fabric sewn together, lightly stuffed, and with a hanging loop of ribbon. These can be any size, any fabric, any style!

We will be arranging a venue where they can all be hung and people can come and take whichever one they like. If you would like to take part could you please send your hearts to [address]

Here are the ones I made. I made a heart template out of cardboard, then traced the shape on the wrong side of a piece of fabric. I sandwiched that with a second piece of fabric and then stitched directly on the tracing (leaving a small opening so I could turn it right side out later). It works very well. Actually takes longer to stuff the thing than it does to machine sew it :)

Family tree

2011-01-17T16:24:00.000-05:00

I may have mentioned a while back that my family did some tests via the Genographic Project to trace our ancestral origins. They looked at my maternal ancestry, and we also had them trace the ancestry of my father's paternal DNA. (On order is a kit to have my dad do his mother's side, which may help us to figure out which of our ancestors was Cherokee - or at the very least will help us eliminate one option.)

I took the (free) option of transferring our results over into FamilyTreeDNA also, which has turned out to be an incredible thing.

Based on my father's DNA results, we were able to identify a few distant cousins in the system. I have been talking to one of the women with whom I share great-great-great-grandparents (I'll call this great(3)-grandparents). It turns out that she has been an absolutely AMAZING source of research. She's shared some published information about various ancestors and - what Laura and I agree is absolutely the neatest document - a transcript of a letter to our great(4)-grandfather Peter from his son Jacob (a prominent Lutheran minister) discussing the former's conversion to Baptism. (The conversion was very successful, to Jacob's sorrow, and that line of the family remained Baptist for generations... I believe up until my father left the fold, although I am not sure about the spiritual leanings of my paternal grandfather either.)

Our correspondence today - email, primarily - contains nothing like this level of detail or historical value, which makes me kind of sad. On the one hand, our future generations may never even have genealogical mysteries to solve as everything will be already tracked and available online... but, then, without the challenges and mysteries to get them excited, I wonder how much they will really care?

First attempt at a holiday mantel

2010-12-20T12:04:00.001-05:00

We don't feel safe putting up a tree because of our two energetic cats, so I decided to try a mantel instead.

I got some apothecary jars (50% off at Sears) and brought down a curly framed mirror from upstairs. With these items, it seemed to be going in an old-fashioned direction, so I collected all the vintage and vintage-look ornaments (including some that belonged to my grandparents). Looking for things to fill the jars, I found whole walnuts, pods for the coffee maker (LOL!) and some stick candy... and then I thought, oh, nutcracker "sweets"!

So the little nutcracker ornament was joined by two big guys and we ended up with this (so far). It may not look like a decorator (or someone with a clue ;)) put it together, but it makes me smile!

(As always, click to "biggify" the image.)

Tea for 2x2

2010-12-19T11:48:00.004-05:00

Yesterday the four of us scavenger hunters went to a holiday tea party at Gore Place, the 19th century home of one of Massachusetts' early governors. (And before you ask, yes, I asked, and they were only distantly related to Al Gore.)

While we were waiting to be seated (there was a children's tea with Santa immediately prior), they funneled us into the gift shop. (Oh clever, clever people!) I found traditional Christmas crackers on sale, and immediately thought they would be a perfect addition to the box I am sending out to my family. What fun for the kids!

We were then ushered in for tea. We were struck by the very grand, high ceilings but noticed that the lines of the room and ceiling lacked the architectural ornamentation that you might expect to see in an old European mansion: all the detail was in the elaborate French wallpaper! The paper in that first room was stripe in salmony pink (with grapes and leaves) and teal (with either corn stalks or acanthus). Imagine a whole room filled with this going from chair rail all the way up over 15 feet the ceiling! As Tim Gunn would say, "that's a lot of look!" You can see it in the background of several photos here. Lovely, eh? Of course, by candle light in the evening it would have been a lot more subtle. ;)

Tea soon arrived (perfectly brewed English breakfast-style tea), followed by blueberry scones with clotted cream, an array of finger sandwiches, and miniature frangipane tarts, lemon squares, raspberry thumbprint cookies, pumpkin bread, and other little bites of yum. I don't know what 19th century ladies and gentlemen would have eaten at an afternoon tea, but this menu did seem designed for modern tastes and obviously with modern resources. (It would have taken some good magic to get fresh berries in December back then.)

Well, old or new, the tea was delicious. In fact, our 'menfolk' agreed that the scones were the best they had ever tasted, and Sara successfully petitioned her father (with much urging from the peanut gallery, ahem) to procure an additional scone from another table. ;)

After tea, several costumed tour guides led us through the rest of the house, introducing each room and its furnishings and purpose, and presenting Jane Austen quotes of interest. Lovely! I was left, as always, with a sense of just how very much has changed since then - so much we take for granted that they could not even imagine - and yet, how much still endures...

Shifty Nifflers

2010-12-12T15:51:00.000-05:00

We used our latest free scavenger hunt card this weekend to do the "Wizard School" (e.g., Harry Potter) themed scavenger hunt at the Museum of Fine Arts.

DH had not read the books, so he took charge of the navigation, which was invaluable (especially since some of us don't really have a sense of direction!). After he got us to the correct room, we'd read the clue, then would translate the creatures and character names for him. Then we all just had to figure out where they were in the works of art!

For the most part, we managed to do that pretty well, although there were a few questions that were perplexing or just plain unclear. Happily we ended up with extra time so we could revisit those stumpers.

One of them involved counting the instances of a particular facial feature on some Japanese demons pictured on an accessory smaller than the palm of your hand. This was above our line of sight, so the guys dutifully boosted (hauled?) the girls up so we could get a closer look. Oof! A magnifying glass sure would have come in handy! But after conferring, we reached consensus on a number, and came out of that room feeling better about our answer.

Another one was a "which one of these items is NOT depicted somewhere in the room" question, which required all our eyeballs to scan everything in the room over and over. Ultimately, we could not find two of the things exactly as described, but deciding that, although a type of animal and receptacle were slightly different than in the description, we had to regard them as close enough given that we couldn't even find the approximation of the other thing.

(I am being kind of general and vague here so I don't ruin the hunt for others if they happen to sign up!)

Finally there was a massive carved fireplace that supposedly had a particular mythical creature in its vicinity. We spent forever staring at it, and just could not find this particular beast, although there were plenty of others (including lots of mashup monsters). The question specifically asked the construction material of said beastie, so we just went with the material that appeared in the greatest quantity. ;)

That was because we needed to start heading back to the entrance so we wouldn't be late - museums are big! We debated team names on the way back and settled on with DH's variant of my suggestion: the Shifty, Nifty Nifflers.

We ended up winning - and the guys thought that they heard that we won best team name also (although I wasn't sure. I did hear the hunt host mention the name, but wasn't sure what she had said about it). The people who came in second were two cute little kids with their parents, so we figured that, since we'd won before (plus the kids were small and had done really a great job), it'd be nice to share. So we passed the prizes down to them. :)

It was a fun afternoon. (And I think we will probably go back - to linger over the art, this time, instead of the questions - to check out the new wing of the museum soon :))

Happy Tolly days

2010-12-04T17:26:00.000-05:00

We took kitty pics this afternoon so we could include photos when we send holiday cards to our vets, animal rescue orgs, etc.

Tolly posed like a champ!

I have slipped the surly bonds of earth

2010-11-30T10:19:00.003-05:00

The crew prepares before the flight

After the balloon is partially inflated, the pilot turns on the flame

The balloon expands

Now inflated, the balloon is ready for lift-off; we climb in the basket and marvel at what we see

Up, up, and away!

We look out over a misty forest to a newly frozen lake

Drifting down over the lake, our balloon's reflection is visible in the ice

We gently tap the surface, breaking the thin shell of ice that has formed

Rippling water and cracked panes of ice are visible in our wake

We drift on through new, grassier terrain now

All too soon it is time to land. Hovering ever lower in a clearing, we throw a rope down to the crew member on the ground, and he hauls us in

Back on the ground, we pause for a few moments to bid goodbye to our balloon before enjoying celebratory mimosas

Mine!

2010-11-28T10:18:00.000-05:00

I had the laptop on the floor. Tolly came over to see what I was doing, so I played his fetching video for him. He had no idea it was him on the screen (of course; cats have no idea what they look like) but he absolutely recognized that toy: he pawed the screen every time he saw the mousie go by in the mouth of that "other" cat.

A gift from Eisa

2010-11-23T17:04:00.000-05:00

When little Eisa was suffering from kidney failure, our vet shared Eisa's kidney panel numbers with us over email, and we were able to update her over email as well. We learned a lot that way.

Because I was (somewhat) familiar with some of the names of things, I took notice when I saw that one of these values was elevated on Tolly's allergies blood test.

The vet who ran these tests wasn't too worried. But because of Eisa, I asked Tolly's new vet to run a kidney panel and urinalysis on him, just to see.

From there, we progressed to an ultrasound today. Where we got the diagnosis of kidney disease: chronic renal failure, just like Eisa's.

Because we have the diagnosis now, we can start him on the kidney diet now, and keep him in peak shape for longer. And from personal experience, we know what symptoms to look for, what to do, and what measures we'll probably end up taking.

Because of what Eisa taught us, I am more sure than ever that we are the right parents for Tolly, and that here absolutely is the best place for him to be.

Tolly fetches!

2010-10-31T13:30:00.002-04:00

Eating joyfully without gluten

2010-10-31T10:34:00.001-04:00

DH is gluten sensitive. It's not enough of an issue to show up on tests (so, not full blown celiac disease, lucky for him), but it does make a difference to his health when he cuts out gluten.

For his birthday gift this year, I signed us up for something neat: a gluten free cooking demo/class at Stir. It took place last week, and it was really yummy and fun!

10 of us sat around a table while a professional chef and assistant cooked a beautiful gluten free meal for us, and led us in discussion of issues, resources, etc. Everyone was really nice, and the food was absolutely delicious, definitely worth having in the repertoire.  It didn't taste like 'dietary restriction food,' just like good, hearty, satisfying fare, so even gluten eaters are likely to enjoy it!

It turns out most of the recipes are variations on ones that appear online. Click through for delicious photos, recipes, and discussion!

* Gluten-Free Gougeres (Pão de Queijo) are little cheese puffs made with tapioca starch that really fulfilled the bread yearning. If you need the recipe (which, fair warning, the chef said was finicky), let me know.
* Pumpkin Polenta with Tomatillo-Avocado Salsa Fresca was comforting and warm with a nice fresh brightness in the salsa
* Along with our entree protein we had Red Quinoa with Roasted Butternut Squash, Cranberries and Pecans. If you have not had red quinoa before, it has a lovely nutty taste! I think we'll definitely go red instead of white next time.
* Maple Frosted Pumpkin Cake. This frosting was so good that I would happily have eaten it by the spoonful, and I generally find icings to be too sweet.

Apparently every time they teach this class they offer a different seasonal menu, so if one wanted to splurge one could take it again and again for a new experience each time. Yum!

P.S. Speaking of dietary restrictions, Tolly has now tried the duck and green pea and venison and green pea cat food, and likes them even less than he does the rabbit and green pea food (so Daffy and Bambi are safe from Mr Tolly). He is now sampling the "hydrolyzed protein" food. I was heartened to note when I opened the bag that it smells more like beef bouillon than like dehydrated peas. We'll see how it goes...

Scavenger hunt

2010-10-20T20:07:00.000-04:00

A few weeks ago we went on a scavenger hunt with some friends. It was a little different than your traditional scavenger hunt:

You’re not hunting for things (put back that Ming vase!) but for answers to tricky and humorous questions about the intriguing places and objects you discover. The team that answers the most questions correctly WINS.

The hunt we tried had us traipsing about the Harvard Square area, examining everything from statues to historic plaques to modern day eateries. And in fact, food was the overarching theme here: it was a snack themed hunt, and our list of clues also included recommended munchies to sample along the way. We didn't know how long the hunt might take, though, so we opted to hunt first and chow later. (Turns out there was plenty of time!) It was a lot of fun, and in fact, our group actually ended up winning, which meant that we got passes to do another hunt for free!

So this last weekend we headed up to Salem to take advantage of those passes. As befits the time of the year, this haunted hunt took us through a cemetery, to several memorials, and to other locales that were significant in the witch trials. We did most of the searching with flashlights in hands, which made it even more deliciously spooky! If anything, I think we had even more fun this time.

Astonishingly, we actually won again, though just by a single point. The second place team won 'best team name,'
and hearing the double entendres they crammed in, we couldn't help but bow to their outrageous naming prowess. The fact that they managed to get the hunt coordinators to recite that naughty name aloud, three times... well, it was almost worth turning over our free hunt cards to them in gratitude ;)

Sorry, Daffy

2010-10-14T11:50:00.001-04:00

Tolly has eosinophilic granuloma complex. As I understand it, his body, in response to some irritant, ends up overreacting and attacking itself too. On him, it seems to manifest primarily as a 2-week long Jay Leno chin or Angelina Jolie lip, but it can show up elsewhere on the body as well.

It is hard to pin down the cause. It can be triggered by something as simple as mosquito or flea bites or a food allergy, though, so once it's clear that the animal is bug-free (which he is), the vet will often have you feed them a hypo-allergenic diet.

I am sorry to say switching up dinner to "rabbit and green pea" was not a runaway success. After some initial interest because of the novelty, Tolly gives it two paws down and says he would rather go hungry. I guess we try "duck and green pea" next.

Somewhere, Bugs Bunny is rejoicing. My deepest apologies to Daffy.

(Read more on eosinophilic granuloma here.)

Truffle knows when he is licked

2010-10-08T10:18:00.002-04:00

Tolly is very thorough when he grooms other kitties.

Look how wet poor Truffle's shoulder is!

The naming of cats

2010-09-30T17:24:00.001-04:00

But I tell you, a cat needs a name that's particular,
A name that's peculiar, and more dignified,
Else how can he keep his tail perpendicular,
Or spread out his whiskers, or cherish his pride?
(-- T.S. Eliot, The Naming of Cats, from "Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats")

Tolly is the name our new guy will wear on a daily basis. But in deference to T.S. Eliot, I wanted him to have a more formal name as well, a moniker that was chosen not just because it sounded like his former appellation but because it had some reference to who he is.

Before kitty ever came home, I had spun up four potential names that could plausibly be a formal form of Tolly. (Keeping in mind that the name Margaret can yield such disparate nicknames as Peggy and Daisy, you will understand that some of the ties to "Tolly" were rather vague.)

After I got to know kitty, one option stood out as being especially appropriate. Tolly has what his first foster mother describes as a "singing purr." He also shows a remarkable appreciation of music: when he heard Stan playing the piano for the first time, he was completely mesmerized. He hopped up on the kitty hammock, and curled up to listen happily like it was a personal concert just for him.

Clearly he is a musical fellow, and so his formal name would have to have something to do with music. The obvious choice among the four options, then, was Taliesin (tah-li-ESS-in).

The historic Taliesin was an ancient Welsh bard "who is believed to have sung at the courts of at least three Celtic British kings." Some rather fantastical legends sprang up around his life, putting him in the company of King Arthur and other famous figures; and drawing parallels, through resemblance of story, to the early life of Finn MacCool.

Rather grand, but how could I resist? Taliesin it was!

(The grandeur of Taliesin also nicely balances the immense goofiness of one of his nicknames - "Hinge," bestowed because some people, ahem, feel his musical purr more closely resembles the sound of a squeaky door than it does a song! ;))

Tolly's story (as much as I know of it)

2010-09-26T19:54:00.002-04:00

Floating like a boat in its waters,
I was thrown into a dark bag,
and on an endless sea, I was set adrift.
Just as I was suffocating, I had a happy omen,
and the master of the heavens brought me to liberty.

(-- from the legend of Taliesin)

Once upon a time there was a couple who loved animals. Whenever they found a stray, or heard of an unwanted kitty, they took it into their home.

They fed the cats, spayed them, and gave them attention... so you would think that this was a happy story, wouldn't you? But 58 cats and two or three dogs is a lot, especially for a two bedroom place.

So one day the woman got fed up and moved out, leaving the man alone with the 58 cats and two or three dogs. And soon he couldn't take it any more, and tried to kill himself.

The man was brought to the hospital.

The city planned to "take care of" all the animals. :(

But people at some local animal rescue organizations caught wind of the situation. They sent out frantic messages to a network of other rescue groups. Each organization promised to make room for one or two, or as many as they could. And gradually all the little offers added up, until every one of those 58 cats had found a place with a rescue group!

One of these was Calliope, an itty bitty foster-based group founded by the women who facilitated Truffle's adoption.

When the Calliope rescuers went to pick out their cat, out of the whole kit and caboodle, one individual stood out: a skinny, scruffy looking black male. He wasn't the prettiest cat there, but there was just something about him. He came up to them, made eye contact, begged for attention... As Claudia wrote, "He was crying out to me to be picked, out of so many."

That was our Tolly.

So we don't know how old he is; we don't really know anything about his life "before." But we do know he will have his "happily ever after" here with us.

Fuzzy

2010-09-24T13:40:00.000-04:00

A sweet moment, fuzzily captured on my crummy camera phone (in real life the blanket is green!!!). It's Truffle curled up on the left and Tolly (who initiated contact) stretched out on the right.

Friends in a day?

2010-09-22T15:27:00.002-04:00

Someone else has put in an adoption application for Tolly.

I didn't even know that this was really an option. On some level I thought that if we were "fostering with the intent to adopt" that he wouldn't even really be available to anyone else during this period.

Thinking I had the time to do it this way, I'd been taking things very slowly, in deference to Truffle. It was clear from their first interaction that Tolly would come out as the alpha cat, and I haven't felt like Truffle was at peace with that prospect. (Echo's wishes are much simpler: she just wants not to be messed with. She doesn't care about any silly pecking order; as long as Tolly lets her be, she's good.)

Now I have to fast-forward the process, because we are supposed to decide by tomorrow morning if we are okay with having someone else come in and meet Tolly this weekend or if he is to be our cat forever and ever.

I wish we had another few weeks to figure this out. I really, really do. It's a little much to expect these guys to suddenly become friends in a day.

Leapin' lizards!

2010-09-21T21:59:00.002-04:00

I have a wall display unit that consists of three shelves that are 16.5" long and 5" wide, with 10" clearance between the shelves. I had seen Tolly eyeing that thing, and thought perhaps he wanted to reach up and play with the nesting dolls on the bottom shelf like Truffle does.

Oh no, Mr. Tolly had higher ambitions. I left him alone in the bedroom when I went out to take a phone call. When I came back, what should I see but Tolly perched on the middle shelf of that wall unit looking very pleased with himself. The silly guy had leapt up there from the trunk and had managed to land on the middle shelf, incredibly, without knocking over a single one of the items on that shelf (or knocking the shelf off the wall, for that matter).

I noticed he'd also leapt up to the top of the armoire to retrieve a cat toy too. But that's old hat for him, he's been doing it on a daily basis for the last couple of days.

When we took Tolly to the animal hospital last week, the vet said he had a 'click' in one of his hind legs. She said this made him more likely to develop early arthritis, and asked me if he seemed hesitant to jump.

Um, no. Mr. Tollypants is about the least hesitant jumper I've ever met.

Umbra and penumbra

2010-09-07T16:10:00.003-04:00

(Truffle on the left, Tolly on the right)

Visit with family

2010-09-05T20:22:00.002-04:00

My little sister was up in the area visiting one of the local schools to look at a graduate program. She came and stayed with us over the weekend.

It was a lovely visit! The remnants of hurricane Earl were wafting around the area so we decided to stay in on Friday night. We got Thai takeout and watched "A Very Long Engagement".

The bad weather cleared out overnight, and we had one of the loveliest days we'd had in a long time! After brunch with bagels, we drove into town and visited the aquarium. (We'd hoped to try a whale watch, but it'd been canceled because of the hurricane weather, alas!) Then we strolled around the historic North End, ruining our appetites with lovely Italian pastries, and then picking at our food at a little hole in the wall Italian restaurant. (Sadly we couldn't take home the leftovers, as we weren't heading home afterwards!)

After ambling along part of the Freedom Trail, we headed over to see "Blue Man Group". DH and I have been a few times, and had tried to get tickets for Laura and Charles when they were out here many years ago, but the show was all sold out. Fortunately we had better luck this time. The show had been updated a bit since I last saw it, and I missed a few of the old segments, but it was still quite an experience (very much unique and hard to describe, so I won't even try!)

(On tap for Laura's next visit - which will be years from now, as she's heading off for a couple of years to do her master's at Oxford: whale watching, the whole Freedom trail... and we'll look into scuba in the area, since she's certified and expressed some interest in doing that here.)

Feed me, Seymour

2010-08-30T16:31:00.005-04:00

He's here!

2010-08-29T16:28:00.003-04:00

Tolly joined us Friday night, and has been staying in my office. He's an incredibly sweet and responsive kitty, will come over to see you if you talk to him or even click your tongue at him, and is just so grateful for every scrap of attention we can lavish on him.

The poor guy still has kind of a 'wild animal' look to him - scruffy fur and an underweight physique. We don't know how long he lived in his last environment, before he was rescued and brought to the home of his first foster mama, but it's going to take a while, with good nutrition and proper care, for him to fill out. Things are definitely moving in the right direction, though :)

Progress!

2010-08-16T20:22:00.001-04:00

Tolly "has been diagnosed by [the] veterinarian. He had his biopsy last week and the results are in; the vet’s office will fax the results to us. He has an allergic reaction, isolated to his head area. It is not contagious, it is not fungal, and it is not auto immune. He’ll be getting a steroid injection very soon to see if that clears things up. The cause is not determined at this moment, perhaps stress, perhaps some other allergen. But first he’ll get the injection and go from there. Once we see him improving, we’ll touch base again. We’ll coordinate with the vet – once he’s improving we hope to be able to have you foster him, finally!"

Waiting, waiting...

2010-08-12T08:48:00.010-04:00

We hope to have Tolly's skin biopsy report back in a few days... in the meantime, here are some pics of Truffle being cute and shiny and enjoying a new mod cat bed from LikeKittysville!

Left handed

2010-08-04T11:02:00.003-04:00

We went back by to visit Tolly and drop off some food and toys.

He seemed quite a bit more at ease this time. His foster mother coaxed him out of the closet with one of the catnip mice we'd brought over, and he really seemed to enjoy having us stroke him while he played with the mouse and tried to munch on the catnip. I was so glad to see a bit of his real personality :)

He also seemed to like the EVO food we brought. (It is high quality food and is grain free, so if there's a food allergy involved in his skin issue, this should help.) He wolfed down a bunch of it, and then started playing a game: standing far away from the bowl, he'd extend his paw to fish a few pieces of food out of the dish; then he would find the pieces and gobble them up. He did this over and over, and always with his left hand, so we figure he must be left handed! (Well, they do say black cats are sinister...)

He's been started on a second antibiotic, and his foster mother says that his face looks better than it did. She's still waiting to hear back about the skin test results. (He didn't seem too bothered by it, as far as I could tell, which was good to see.)

It is hard to wait, but it's better for the health of all the kitties involved to make sure everything is resolved ahead of time.

Foolish humans

2010-07-31T23:17:00.004-04:00

A 2002 study in the Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science that examined adoption rates over nine months in a California pound found that black cats were about half as likely to be adopted as tabby cats and two-thirds less likely than white cats. (cited here)

Magic kitty dust

2010-07-30T22:52:00.004-04:00

Poor Tolly is not responding to his antibiotics, so they are investigating further. Please send magic kitty dust his way so that he will heal quickly and join us soon!

Hello, Tolly

2010-07-23T18:39:00.003-04:00

We'll shortly be adding a new kitty to our feline family. Our little old lady cat Eisa passed away, and it just doesn't feel the same without her :(

Brenda (who helped us with Truffle's adoption) and Claudia (who took his photograph as part of the Gifford fundraiser), started their own kitty rescue organization last year. Truffle has been such a joy that of course we went to them to see about our new kitty.

We met a few kitties, and I really liked a sweet grey and white female... but I couldn't get this black male cat out of my mind. He was so scared when we met him, but all the reports of his personality from his foster mom and rescuer were so positive. And I just thought, well, she's much more adoptable than he is; if he's always this shy, he'll be overlooked for sure. So can't we take a chance on him and see what happens?

We'll be bringing him in on Sunday and will officially be fostering him; if all goes well, and he is compatible with our two, we'll adopt him officially in a few weeks.

They have been calling him Charlie, and he knows his name (clever boy!). But my brother's name is Charles, and it would be a little strange to have a cat with the same name. So we have picked a nickname that sounds close enough to the local pronunciation of Chaahlie: Tolly. (Anyone read the "Green Knowe" series?)

I have several ideas for his formal name, but I think we need to get to know him first.

Saturday in New Hampshire

2010-05-31T20:31:00.001-04:00

Truff photo session

2010-05-01T21:16:00.005-04:00

We took these this afternoon to share at the cat shelter benefit. Thought you guys might like to see how Mr Truffle looks these days too!

This one makes me laugh!

Glass love

2010-04-17T17:19:00.005-04:00

From my paperweights class:

seaweed

flame

fragile planet

Holding down the fort

2010-03-27T08:58:00.007-04:00

DH's grandmother Yuki sadly passed away, so he flew back for the weekend to be with the family and attend the funeral service. Since he has to be back for work on Monday, and the flight takes half a day, he doesn't have much time there at all. He says the time there only slightly exceeds the time he will be spending on the plane, in fact. But it is important.

Meanwhile I am holding down the fort here with the kitties (poor Eisa struggling) and hoping everything and everyone will be okay.

Not so skinny

2010-03-14T19:35:00.002-04:00

Eisa has re-gained 5 1/2 ounces since last weekend! Now some of this is surely just rehydration, but it feels promising. It will be interesting to see where she is a week from now.

New class

2010-03-13T11:31:00.003-05:00

I have a modest collection of glass Josh Simpson planets, so I thought it would be fun to get a better sense of exactly what it is like to create glass spheres. (This will give me a greater appreciation for what a real, skilled artist can do.) So, I will be taking a class at Diablo Glass School:

The glass paperweight is the first step for anyone interested in working with hot glass. This introductory class guides the first time glass artist through the most crucial skills. First you will gather glass from the furnace, learn to shape and control, and how to apply color to the glass. In a fun and informative manner our instructors will introduce you to tools, safety and basic glass theory. Every student will leave with a gorgeous paperweight and a strong foundation for future exploration.

How neat does that sound?

Eisa update

2010-03-09T18:37:00.004-05:00

Our little Eisa was diagnosed with chronic kidney disease last spring. She had been doing pretty well, but recently seemed to lose some of her interest in food. I weighed her and found that she had dropped yet more weight (1.75 lbs in a year, which is a lot when you were 6.25 lbs to begin with).

We took her in to the vet and came away with a hydrated pussy cat and some appetite stimulant. She seemed a little perkier, and that was encouraging.

The vet called back just now with the blood test results. We learned that Eisa's kidney levels have disintegrated quite a bit. Her phosphorus level, in particular, is really high. She's also quite anemic (side effect from the kidney disease).

We'll be adding three additional medicines - one to address the high phosphorus, one to help her red blood cells, and some fluids we can administer to keep her hydrated at home.

We know we are just treating the symptoms - you don't recover from kidney failure. But if she can be comfortable and happy and content, for whatever amount of time she has (I didn't ask about where we are on the timeline) then that is all we can ask.

Cupcakes

2010-03-08T22:14:00.005-05:00

Minis cooling down before being frosted

Tips assembled

Icing demo

Raw materials

Coconut cupcakes with coconut cream cheese frosting

Sour cream citrus poundcakelets with lemon glaze

Queen Mother's cake (flourless chocolate cupcakes with chocolate ganache)

Spiced carrot cupcakes with cream cheese icing

White wine cupcakes with white chocolate buttercream

The prettiest daisy!

Bread

2010-02-28T21:22:00.009-05:00

Waiting for the loaves to come out of the oven

Loaves, rolls, and focaccia cooling

Beautiful challah braids

Rosemary focaccia

Decadent sticky buns

...bottoms up!

Dough to go (at various points in the rising process) for more yeasty goodness at home

Pie day

2010-02-21T19:12:00.001-05:00

At the second session of my baking class, we began with a lecture and demo on pie and tart crust. The instructor used a bench scraper (a.k.a. pastry scraper) to integrate liquid into a flour-butter-salt mixture. This allowed her to avoid introducing body heat and building up those long glommy gluten strands that result in a tough crust.

Next, we selected from a list of recipes. I gravitated toward the blueberry white chocolate cheesecake pie (who wouldn't?!). Although this recipe initially was snapped up by someone else, it ultimately wandered back to me: the other student, upon learning that we would be serving our creations at the end of class, and that there were only enough blueberries for one, chose to switch to a different recipe. She recognized that if she made a duplicate, she'd be able to spirit her version away to a dinner party. Thus, I lucked into making the (to my tastebuds) yummier recipe!

Crust dough needs to be chilled for quite some time before it is rolled out, so we began with pre-made, pre-chilled dough. We rolled it out and filled our various pans. I trimmed my dough to the recommended overhang, deciding belatedly to flute my edges. (Ultimately, these edges looked nice enough when they went into the oven but didn't fare well in baking because I hadn't allowed extra dough for the technique. Plus one crust among many in a crowded oven is never as cossetted as a singleton would be. With foresight, space, and tinfoil, it'll be better next time.)

As we mixed our fillings, an assistant loaded in and kept a harried eye on the baking crusts.

My recipe called for a white chocolate cheesecake layer topped with a cooked blueberry layer. These would be poured into the finished crust, then chilled til cold. There was only about 10 minutes to chill it in class, so it did lose some structural integrity when it was served, but it was so delicious! The lemon zest in the blueberry topping was perfect!

When our treats were ready, we wrapped up by making raw dough to use at home, completing the process (if in reverse order). My dough is in the freezer, waiting for inspiration. I have my eye on the savoury pesto quiche someone else made in class - my second favorite recipe finished that day! :)

Cream puffs

2010-02-14T14:43:00.002-05:00

I caught a cold, so did myself and everyone else in my cooking class a favor and stayed home. Instead, DH took my place, and had lots of fun making these delectable cream puffs!

He came back laden with these puffs, as well as some unfilled puffs for us to fill as we like, and was brimming with enthusiasm about how much fun the course is. I am looking forward to next weekend :)

Ratatouille

2010-01-24T23:05:00.004-05:00

Tonight we went out to get ingredients... tomorrow, homemade ratatouille for dinner and a showing of the movie "Ratatouille."

(And no, I don't plan to let any aspiring chef kitties take over the cooking!)

My baking class

2010-01-13T15:33:00.003-05:00

As a holiday gift, DH gave me a baking class. No, this was not a comment on my current baking skills - I've mentioned before that it would be fun to take a course like this, so he found one and signed me up!

How delicious do these goodies sound?

Week One—Pâte à Choux: In week one, we will discover the
art of making pâte à choux, also known as cream puff paste.
Pâte à choux is a versatile paste that can be used in both sweet
and savory dishes. Students will prepare and sample dishes
such as assorted savory Gougère, Cream Puffs, Éclairs, and
Cream Puff Swans. The class also makes pastry cream and
glazes.

Week Two—Pies and Tarts: Students explore the fundamentals
of making the perfect pâte brisée (pie crust) in week
two. Each student will prepare a standard pâte brisée recipe,
learning how to roll out the dough and use it in various recipes.
Students will make Frangipane and Fresh Fruit Tart, Blueberry
White Chocolate Cheese Pie, Lemon Tartlets, Praline Sweet
Potato Pie, Cranberry Crumb Pie, and Cherry Pie.

Week Three—Breads: Students learn how to work with
yeast doughs, rich doughs, and batter doughs in week
three. The instructor will demonstrate how to knead,
shape, and bake the dough that is prepared in class.
Students will make Focaccia, Rosemary Garlic Bread,
Maple-Pecan Sticky Buns, Rye Bread, and French Bread.

Week Four—Cakes: This class instructs students to
prepare a cake from scratch and to bake and frost it with
simple decorating tips. Students will prepare various
recipes such as an all-purpose Butter Cake, Rich Flourless
Chocolate Cake, Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Icing,
and a vast array of different buttercream, ganache and
simple glazes.

A title

2010-01-10T18:32:00.002-05:00

Aly's girls came up with a name for the crane story! So it is now, officially, "Kiku & Mai Learn to Say Hi."

How adorable is that? :)

Mikey likes it!

2010-01-09T16:50:00.004-05:00

I am very pleased to say that Eisa likes the new kidney-friendly food we offered her!

When she was diagnosed with chronic renal failure last spring, our vet gave us a packet with samples of all the different types of kidney-friendly food, as this stuff is notoriously unpalatable. She was fine with all of it. So we picked the most economical dry food and the most economical wet food and brought them home.

Once we had them home, she decided they weren't okay any more. She wouldn't even touch the dry food. (This is the least picky cat in the household, so you can imagine how bad this stuff must taste.) We switched her exclusively to the wet food, and she was okay with that up until last month. Then, suddenly, no interest.

Here's hoping this one has more staying power.

Playoffs

2010-01-09T08:50:00.002-05:00

DH got tickets for the football playoffs, so we'll be watching those on Sunday. I'm still mystified as to why anyone thought it would be a good idea to have an outdoor stadium in this climate. (At autumn games you get sunburned; in winter games your toes freeze.) He says it is because our team wants to be seen as a tough team, and so they will have an advantage over the cosseted indoor players.

Maybe they could put the field outdoors and have the rest of the stadium enclosed?

Little Eisa

2010-01-01T22:55:00.004-05:00

Please keep our little Eisa in your thoughts. She was diagnosed with kidney failure in May, and had been doing well up until recently. Now she is losing weight and doesn't want to eat, and she is so tiny there is not a lot of extra weight to tide her over...

A crane story

2009-12-25T18:04:00.006-05:00

A few years ago I sent my friend Aly's three daughters a box full of golden origami cranes, which they use on their holiday tree. This year I wanted to send them a packet of origami paper, so I wrote a little story to go along with it.

(I told them they could name the story if they wanted, and they came up with "Kiku & Mai Learn to Say Hi" :))

There once was a flock of golden paper cranes who nested in a tree near the house where Malia, Eliana, and Sasha lived.

The cranes led a merry life. They chased each other around in games of tag. They turned flips in mid-air. They even flew upside-down and hummed at the same time!

The best days were the days the sisters came to visit. Malia would tell stories; Eliana would sing and dance; and Sasha would tell joke after joke after joke. The cranes were so full of joy, then, that they would smile from ear to shining ear.

But there was one thing that was missing. It was something that filled Kiku and Mai, the smallest of the golden cranes, with sighs when they thought about it: crane friends.

When the breeze stirred the branches of their treetop home, Kiku and Mai glimpsed distant cranes in all the colors of the rainbow. They caught flashes of bright wings in the noonday sun and under the full moon. They heard flute-like voices rising together in song; and watched with longing the mysterious, magical games the rainbow cranes played.

Kiku and Mai yearned to join them. Yet the rainbow cranes never invited them to play. Not once. They never even said hello.

This was the sole grey cloud in the lives of the golden cranes.

* * *

One day, Eliana told Kiku and Mai that she had learned a new song. They clamored to hear it.

"Why are there so many songs about rainbows," she sang, "and what's on the other side?"

Kiku started to cry. The song made her feel lonely. It reminded her of what she was missing.

"What's the matter?" asked Sasha, "Don't you like Ana's song?"

Between tears, the whole story came tumbling out. Mai told the sisters about the wonderful rainbow cranes - their haunting songs, their clever games, their loving bonds. And then Kiku spoke, more haltingly, about how it made them feel, to have to watch from a distance. To always be left out.

"You think because they don't play with you that they don't like you?" said Eliana, wonderingly. "But, why wouldn't they like you?"

"Did you ever ask them to play with you?" asked Malia.

"No," wept Kiku, "they never asked us… so we thought they would say no if we did."

"What if...," Malia hesitated, choosing her words carefully so as not to hurt the golden cranes' feelings, "what if the rainbow cranes are thinking the same thing?"

"What do you mean?" asked Mai.

"What if they think you aren't asking them to play because you don't like them?"

"What if they feel left out when they see you playing?" added Eliana.

"Ask them! Ask them to play! You have to be brave!" encouraged Sasha (who almost always was).

Kiku's wings trembled, but Malia said gently, "Sometimes you have to be the one to make the first move, if you want to make a new friend."

"We've never had friends outside our flock," said Mai doubtfully.

The sisters put their heads together to whisper, and soon came out all smiles.

"We know what to do! We can help you make friends," they grinned. "We have a Secret Plan! It will be our gift to you."

No matter how much Kiku and Mai coaxed, that was all the sisters would say!

* * *

One day a yellow envelope arrived at the sisters' house. When Sasha saw it, she cast a gleeful look at the cranes; then ran into the house, calling to her sisters, "IT'S HERE!"

Kiku and Mai looked at each other with shining eyes. That envelope must have something to do with the Secret Plan! They had thought and talked about it for days, but it was still a mystery to them. Now they would know what the sisters were up to! Too excited to sit still, they fluttered down to the windowsill and peered inside.

The girls were hunched together whispering over whatever had come out of that mysterious package. Kiku and Mai nudged and jostled each other trying to see. They could hear rustlings and crinklings … but whatever was making those sounds was just out of sight. The eager cranes could hardly contain themselves!

They waited and waited. Finally, after what seemed like forever, they heard a triumphant "Ta da!" and a great whoop of joy; and saw the girls dash for the back door!

When the door opened, the golden cranes saw a sight that made them gasp: there was a rainbow crane perched delicately on each of Malia's hands!

"Konnichiwa!" the crane on Malia's left hand said in a gentle voice. "My name is Sakura. I am tickled pink to meet you!"

"Kiku!!!" giggled Mai, waving a wing at the cherry-colored crane on Malia's left hand, "It looks like she is!"

"I am Aoi," said the crane on Malia's right hand, with a shy smile. "I was blue before I knew you."

"Mai!!!" whispered Kiku, waving bashfully at the second crane, who was changing color from navy to plum before their eyes, "I think she is right!"

The golden cranes fluttered around Eliana and Sasha, peppering them with questions, interrupting each other in their excitement. "Where did you find them?" "How did you meet them?" "Where did they come from?" "They are so nice!"

"You said you didn't know how to make friends," said Sasha.

"...So we got a packet of origami paper and made some for you!" grinned Eliana triumphantly.

"A chance to meet new friends is the best gift ever!" said Mai with a smile as bright as the sun. And Kiku thanked each of the sisters with a gentle kiss.

Then, turning to Sakura and Aoi, they asked, first shyly, then with growing delight, "Sakura? Aoi? We are Kiku and Mai. Would you like to play?"

Please help, do something good

2009-12-05T10:33:00.003-05:00

Read the story of Anya, Nastia, and Keri Cahill here. An effort is currently underway to try to reunite these long lost sisters. You can follow the latest efforts here.

The younger sister, Nastia, collects postcards from all over the world. If you could find it in your heart to send this girl a supportive postcard I think it would mean the world to her. She's absolutely distraught over the fact that the government has broken up her chance to be with her sister, after all these long years, and she really deserves every kindness that can be shown.

The address is available on the Facebook page, but if you can't get on that page, let me know and I will forward the address to you directly.

Photos and fun

2009-11-28T17:45:00.005-05:00

We went over to pick up Truffle's photo (we chose #4) from Claudia yesterday. We'd initially had some vague plans to go into town later to look at some running shoes (not for me!!!), but Claudia and her husband Ken offered us Neapolitan espresso and cookies, and we ended up chatting with them for a couple of hours about everything from records and iPhones and Etsy and gadgets to vegetarianism and music and marketing and cats. It was so much fun!

And of course the framed, matted photo of Truffle looked so great that we were inspired to frame up some of Stan's photos of the rexes. We had good pics of Eisa and sweet Finny already, but Echo is always a challenge - she simply does not "do" photographs. But we tried anyway because we didn't want to leave her out.

This is as close as we could get - nearly perfect pose from the cat, but with an unlovely background and shot from the wrong angle. Oh well, it'll have to do!

We definitely want to get together with Claudia and Ken again, probably back at our place, so Stan can share his gadgets. And hopefully now that Echo is on beta blockers and Truffle isn't having to model, they'll be feeling as friendly as Eisa was last time.

Diet makeover

2009-11-22T09:55:00.006-05:00

My check-up last week revealed that my cholesterol is higher than it should be. My father and paternal grandmother both have/had high cholesterol so some of this may be unavoidable. But I know I've been really sloppy about the whole sensible diet and exercise thing lately, so I am giving myself a dietary makeover (both to address the cholesterol issue specifically and just to eat better).

I have been trying to limit things like sugar, rice, white flour, etc., and have been increasing my fruit and veg intake. I've also added blueberries, flax seed, and walnuts to my diet, all things which are supposed to help lower cholesterol.

(Speaking of walnuts, we went out in search of whole walnuts yesterday and ended up at a veritable vegetable heaven: a store called Russo's that had aisles and aisles of fruits and vegetables, some of which I'd never even heard of before! It was fantastic, and I can't wait to dig in to all our yummy fresh food!)

As for exercise, I am starting back on that too. Just walking for now. But, we'll see what happens. :)

Truffle photos

2009-11-16T15:21:00.007-05:00

Earlier in the year we attended a benefit for Truffle's animal shelter, and participated in their silent auction. One of the items we won was a b&w pet portrait with a photographer, who also happened to be one of the shelter managers.

We decided to have the photo taken of Truffle (since it was his shelter, after all), and scheduled the photo session for last weekend.

It took quite some time to coax him out, and the first set of photos were taken with him on my lap. Eventually he did pose for some stand-alone shots, although I don't think he'll ever be a fan of flash photography.

Anyway, here are a few photos from his photo session, while they're still online. You can see some of his apprehension on his face in a few of them. We are deciding between #4 and #5.

Bunting

2009-07-14T12:59:00.006-04:00

I've been playing around with making bunting out of fabric scraps. I can imagine using this as a eco-friendly party decoration (in place of the fragile paper streamers that invariably get mangled after a single use) or to make a child's room feel festive and fun. You could glue on felt letters to spell out names or celebratory phrases as well if you liked.

Bunting in its natural habitat ;)

In the pink

2009-05-28T12:46:00.006-04:00

...and here is the chosen pink. Click to see a larger version.

Now I just have to sew it together and figure out the border!

Pajamas

2009-05-24T12:17:00.001-04:00

I whipped up a pair of flannel pajama bottoms the other day. The pattern couldn't be easier, just four pieces of fabric and a drawstring, and would be a perfect first sewing project for a beginner.

I used a sweet baby elephant fabric. If you can't go whimsical with your PJs, when can you?

Kitty noses

2009-05-22T21:15:00.002-04:00

Finny always made the most hilarious, horrified faces when he smelled something he thought was too strong. Be it something pungent like garlic, or something bracing like citrus or mint, anything with a strong scent earned his trademark grimace.

Onions were probably his least favorite of all. So when we went out to look at kitties (back when we got Echo and Eisa) and I had oniony hands, I worried the sulfuric scent would drive all the cats away.

Preoccupied with this concern, it was the first thing I mentioned when we arrived. The woman just looked at me. "My cats don't mind," she said - and she was right, nobody in the place could have cared less.

I never did find a fragrance that he liked. He himself usually just smelled like warm fur (very different than Echo, who smells like fresh bread when she is healthy).

Even today, now that Echo and Eisa are very familiar with the way we smell, a new fragrance barely warrants more than a polite sniff. I haven't figured out Truffle's nose prefs yet.

Edited in August to add:

Truffle's ratings of a few perfume oils:

1) jasmine (kept sniffing)
2) frankincense (sniffed a few times)
3) bergamot (sniffed, looked skeptical)
4) lavender (sniffed, pulled back)
5) sweet orange (sniffed, cried out, ran away)

Double pink

2009-05-21T10:55:00.011-04:00

Here are two other backgrounds I auditioned for the ice cream quilt. Trying them helped me get a better sense of what the quilt wants.

This is a small plaid. The minimal amount of contrast between the background squares and the backgrounds of the ice cream blocks ends up making the quilt feel a little washed out. It is lacking some visual sparkle.

This next option is better but still not ideal. If you compare this fabric with the hand dye (there's a strip showing on the left in the photo) you can see that the colors are very similar; this does seem to be the general shade and saturation that the quilt wants. But I can't help but feel that if I'm going to repeat 6" chunks of fabric across a quilt, the print really ought to be a little more compelling than a pink cowhide pattern...

Back to the fabric store!

You scream, I scream...

2009-05-17T15:49:00.006-04:00

I am currently working on an ice cream cone quilt. I have the individual cone blocks constructed, and am now playing with possible fabrics for the alternating squares. As you can see below, pink seems to work nicely, but I'm not sure whether the particular fabric is right. (I like the shade of pink with the other fabrics, just am not sold on the texture for this quilt.)

I guess I'll just have to drag myself ;) to the fabric store!

(Click to view a larger version)

Heat miser: heat me, sir!

2008-12-23T13:59:00.008-05:00

We'd decided to keep the thermostat nice and low this winter. Things were going well (and we could see it in the heat bills) until Echo's arthritis started acting up and she could barely get around. So we turned the heat up, stationed the big comfy kitty pillow right in front of the heat vent, and added a space heater for good measure. (Of course Echo won't stay too long in any one place, and has since moved into a cardboard box in a different room, but Eisa sure loves it.)

Speaking of heat misers, we recorded and watched the Heat/Snow miser holiday special... was the original "Year without a Santa Claus" THAT bad? (IMDB says no.)

Here's a bit of the original here. LOVE that they got the original Heat Miser voice actor back 34 years later! Go, Mr Heat Miser, go!

I like quilts too

2008-12-19T16:54:00.001-05:00

Truffle today

2008-12-06T22:35:00.007-05:00

Click the photo to see a larger-than-life version, complete with dusty face from exploring under the bookshelf :)

Truffle's categories

2008-12-02T15:22:00.014-05:00

Food:
- anything mom is eating (see also "toy")
- flying things (e.g., a moth)
- crawling things (e.g., a spider)
- anything that is sitting on the surface of the floor (watch the vacuum cleaner get a good workout!)
- anything that sticks out (e.g., pencil in a pencil cup, corner of a book, curtain holdbacks, etc. He is teething.)

Toy:
- anything mom is eating
- plastic eyedroppers
- anything that can be rolled with the paw
- water in a cup or bowl
- suds
- ice cubes
- a nail or a ding in the paint (see also "anything that sticks out")
- door knobs and handles
- Eisa's tail

New kit on the block

2008-11-30T21:16:00.005-05:00

The tall, dark, and handsome (and somewhat cross-eyed) gentleman on the right is my new kitty, Truffle!

We had gone into the shelter to talk to someone about possibly fostering a cat... but after we met all the adult cats, the shelter manager took us to meet the kittens. I sat down and within 30 seconds, mr. kittenpants was up on my lap purring his little heart out. I knew I was dooooomed :).

I put in an application to adopt him the next day :)

(If you want to see Truffle in a silly mood, you can go to the other kitten's page here and click to view the video.)

Happy birthday, Eisa dear

2008-11-18T00:31:00.010-05:00

Happy 17th birthday, Eisie!

Then:

Now:

Homes for snuggle quilts

2008-11-15T18:46:00.008-05:00

We went down to a cat shelter today, and I brought two of the small kitty quilts I'd made a few months ago in honor of Finnegan. (I posted these earlier, as backdrops to a photo of a very expressive Echo, but if you missed them then, you can view them here, now.)

I gave the quilts to the shelter manager, and she was quite enthusiastic about them. (In fact, she encouraged me to think about selling my quilts, and even started brainstorming about places to do so locally. How nice of her! :))

The positive reaction made me feel good (unlike the lukewarm reaction of the other shelter), so I think if I end up making more of these small quilts, I'll be donating them here.

The mind at rest

2008-11-10T12:02:00.006-05:00

I take great joy in wordplay and (sometimes terrible) puns, but always thought that was a waking phenomenon.

Two nights ago, I dreamt that I was out in the woods and stumbled upon four black bear cubs. They were all clustered together inside a hollow tree trunk, drowsily playful and very, very cute. My first impulse was to pet and snuggle them, but, having seen dozens of nature documentaries over the years, I had better sense than that. If there were cubs, there would be a mama bear not far behind.

And indeed it was so. A quick glance revealed mama bear on the horizon, heading my way, with clear intention in her gait. I yelped and took off as fast as I could go.

My friends, watching from a distance, didn't know what had happened at first. One moment I was peering curiously into a old tree trunk; the next, I was streaking across the field toward them at top speed. Then they saw the bear behind me and hightailed it on out of there after me.

In real life, a bear can run at a rate of approximately 30 m.p.h. Fortunately for us, this was apparently the world's slowest bear. We hurled ourselves through the doorway of a conveniently located wooden shack (love how these things appear just when you need them in a dream), slammed the door, and slumped to the floor, panting our sedentary lungs out.

Then I woke up... and thought how absolutely strange it was that I had dreamt of being chased by a bear. I hadn't been to the zoo. I hadn't even been in a toy store. My day had been entirely devoid of encounters with any kind of bear, real, fictional, or stuffed.

And then I realized my brain's inspiration: a conversation about mooning people and being mooned.

How does that fit?

I was streaking across a field with a "BEAR BEHIND."

O brain of silliness, I salute you!

Iterations

2008-11-01T20:36:00.011-04:00

I promised to share the evolution of a quilt here when it was done. I'm not sure that it's all the way yet, but the layout is close enough (pre-border) for you to at least get a sense of things.

I began with the idea that I wanted to build a quilt using a standard split nine patch block. Making fabric choices somewhat at random can give a nice effect, but I chose instead to put it together square by square. (Click on any of the small photos to see a photo that is large enough to see the individual fabrics.)

This was the first iteration. You can see that, with the exception of the center, this version sticks pretty strictly to the split nine patch block.

After I slept on this idea, I decided that the sharp contrast between lights and darks was too sharp. I also found the yellow "propeller" in the center to be a pretty heavy handed "X marks the spot" thing. So I made the corners consistently dark, broke up the propeller blades, started replacing some of the lightest lights (like the ice blue polkadot) with darker fabrics. Here it is in the middle of implementing those changes. Already I'd be hard pressed to find a single split nine patch in the bunch.

Here I finished implementing the changes. Another improvement: the center is no longer surrounded by chunky rectangles, but now contains a pinwheel. Ah, much better.

At this point, there were a few color issues that were still bothering me, like the isolation of the light green squares, and the need to tweak some of the light oranges. Here I've switched out the pale blue triangles adjacent to the green squares for green triangles. Still thinking about the orange options...

...to be continued

Blurry 'Belle

2008-09-09T20:46:00.009-04:00

Little Eisa is very unassuming, and never gets possessive of my quilts. However, I left this one on the kitchen floor for a while, between the tying and the trimming, and she went to sit on it a half-dozen times.

I snuck off and grabbed the camera, and managed to snap a single, blurry photo before she became self-conscious and left. Maybe I'll try to entice her back for another session after the quilt is done. Til then, here is my blurry Dorabelle!

Reading other people's blogs

2008-09-06T22:08:00.008-04:00

Do you ever randomly look up and read about people online whom you used to know? Would you want to know if someone looked up and read about you?

A former classmate of mine wrote in to our alumni magazine with an update not long ago. He mentioned, among other tidbits, that he and his wife now have six kids.

I remembered having heard the names of the first three kids quite some years ago, and thought at the time that the parents had a certain naming flair. Being a good name geek, and always on the lookout for unusual naming choices, I was curious to know what they'd called the three younger kids, so I plugged their names into a search engine to see if I could find out.

It turns out that the family has a blog. It's well-written, engaging, funny, touching, and has lots of great photos of kids and sewing projects. They face some interesting challenges, and reading about those has made me think a lot too. I think I'll want to follow along with this blog in the future.

But I don't feel comfortable telling them I'm reading - somehow this feels like I'd be forcing myself on them or intruding into their lives. Is this wrongheaded? Since they have chosen to write about their lives online, they are clearly okay with having people read what they've written. They link to the blog from their ebay storefront - essentially, they are inviting every Tom, Dick, and Harry to pop in whenever they like.

But are the rules different when it's a Tom, Dick, or Harry whom you know? Would you want to know if someone you knew (even someone with whom you hadn't spoken in 10 years) were reading your blog? Or would you rather remain happily ignorant?

Great Scott!

2008-08-24T16:40:00.012-04:00

The scottie quilt is done!

Now that the quilt has been delivered and I don't have to worry about giving away the surprise, I can also show you the backing (a charming print by Heather Ross). It may be hard to tell since the scan is a little bluer than the actual fabric, but the color of the scottie's ball on the front was selected to match the color of the brown doggy's ball on the back.

Quilt kits redux

2008-08-20T09:19:00.016-04:00

Ever wonder what happened to the quilt kits that I made as gifts for people about a year and a half ago?

(Refresh your memory here by viewing kits 1-5, kits 6-9, and kit 10)

The following kits are done:
- Kit 1 (Tabitha's)
- Kit 2 (Heather's) << updated!
- Kit 5 (Karmen's). I've misplaced the photo of the finished quilt, but here is a photo of it in progress so you can see the border/backing she chose.)
- Kit 8 (closeup of Becca's) (and another showing the backing fabric) (Completed Sept 2009)

The following kits are in progress
- Kit 3 (Deserae's)

What a good job they're doing!

The quilt in question

2008-08-20T00:46:00.002-04:00

If anyone is wondering what has happened to the creation of the 100 Good Wishes Quilt, I apologise for keeping you waiting. With the current rate of allocations, it will be 12 years before we meet the Panda. At that rate, it will never happen as we will be too old. So I am feeling a little disillusioned. I guess I need to see some good news before I get excited about the quilt.

Refocusing

2008-08-14T16:26:00.006-04:00

I feel like I have not been making particularly good use of my time lately, so have been trying to refocus on my creative endeavors a bit.

"Things that are sitting on the To Do list" doesn't necessarily make for an interesting post, though, so I promise I'll keep it brief!

I was able to track down some of the fabric that I wanted for the backing of the scottie dog quilt. It is a very cute and happy print. I now have the whole thing sandwiched and pinned, and am in the process of quilting it in the ditch with variegated thread.

I am such a sucker for variegated thread. The color changes make it visually flicker in and out of the surrounding fabrics on the front, which adds a little bit of extra fun :)

Small world

2008-07-25T11:59:00.005-04:00

Took time out from updating the board last weekend to go and give platelets. The woman across from me was a real champ - arrived later than I did but finished about 20 minutes earlier. (I have some issues with the anti-coagulant they use, so they have to do everything slower with me to make it work properly.)

We were chatting a bit afterwards. It turns out this was her first platelet donation. She had been inspired to come in to give after her dog passed away from lymphoma; this was something she felt would be a fitting tribute.

Small world!

Don't take my picture, mama!

2008-07-10T16:59:00.005-04:00

Regarding snuggle quilts

2008-07-04T14:08:00.004-04:00

To the relatives who have recently visited and admired the photos: Hi, and thanks for the kind words!

Regarding the supposed silliness of spending time on fancy quilts for animals, I don't know if it is a silly thing to do at all. I think the animals who have these in their cages just may end up getting a little more attention from human visitors. If you saw a colorful quilt in a kitty or puppy cage, wouldn't you want to pause and look? That would give the animal a little more time to charm you. Might you not then be a little more likely to bond with this pet and take him or her home? :)

I do have a few more snuggle quilts to photograph, but these will have to wait til the camera battery is up and running again. I may try giving these to the emergency vet clinic that took care of Finny. They were so nice to him, and I'd really wanted to do a little something for them too. We'll see!

Charlotte's web

2008-06-19T17:38:00.011-04:00

"It is not often that someone comes along who is a true friend and a good writer. Charlotte was both." --E.B. White, the last line of Charlotte's Web.

I think from the first time we read Charlotte's Web, we think about it as a story of friendship. But given this last line, would it pay off to start from the beginning and think about it, too, as a story about the power of storytelling to make things happen?

The community came to view Wilbur the way they did through the words Charlotte chose to describe him.

Did Charlotte, by granting Wilbur the self-confidence that someone believed in him, and giving him a goal to strive towards, also actually turn him into someone who could accurately be described in the words she wrote?

Does calling someone's attention to a quality they possess - nascent though it may be - inspire them to cultivate it?

Acrostic

2008-06-07T09:46:00.006-04:00

When people make a donation to the surgical fund at our vet clinic, they are given the opportunity to make a dedication on a 3" x 1" plaque. There is a corner of the vet clinic set aside these plaques. It is very affecting to read the dedications and think about how much love is behind those words.

As I had mentioned to some of you before, I was pretty blocked on what to write. How do you sum up anyone in just a few words? Ultimately, I decided that if I gave myself a framework in which to work, it might come together a little easier.

I chose the acrostic form, and came up with a draft. I asked DH for suggestions, telling him a few ideas I thought we might want to include. He suggested that we substitute "noble" for my original "nimble." Here is the final result:

Funny, impish, nosy, noble,
eloquent, gorgeous, adored.
Never-forgotten.
Finnegan (1992-2008)

Eisa goes in to see the vet at the end of this coming week, so we'll take the paperwork in at that point.

Appreciation

2008-05-31T13:15:00.003-04:00

Went down to drop off the four Snuggle mini-quilts today. None of the people there had any idea what we were talking about. I showed them some information, and recognition still did not dawn. (We ended up waiting 30 minutes for the shelter manager to show up, and she, at least, knew what they were for without the explanation.)

It got me to thinking about how the way that people or organizations receive your gifts (be they material items or gifts of your time) makes a big difference.

Our Project Linus coordinator does a wonderful job with this. She sends her volunteers photocopies of the thank you letters that the hospitals, shelters, etc., send to PL so we can see that what we do is making a difference. This keeps us feeling positive and enthusiastic about the organization and about our roles in it. It makes us feel appreciated.

I think there is probably a lesson in here for me about trying to show more appreciation when people spend time and effort on me as well.

So, for starters: it means a lot to me when people respond to my posts here. It makes me feel that you are listening, and that you care. It also inspires me to keep going here, so if you enjoy my updates, know that your responses help to make them happen! Thank you all, very much!

PJs

2008-05-29T17:18:00.004-04:00

We went to JoAnn's last night to pick up some thread. Of course I could not get out of the store without browsing. In the sale section, I found some flannel for $3/yard, and we were able to stack a 40% off coupon on that, which made it a very good deal indeed.

The flannel is ice blue, and has little white kitty faces and fossil fishes in pink and aqua and white, as well as a non-standard rendering of feline speech - "meiow." The fabric was manufactured overseas, so I am just declaring that to be a regional dialect of Cat ;) [Found a semi-blurry pic online, if you are curious]

I bought 5 yards intending to use it to back Snuggles, but I've kind of fallen in love with the idea of using some of the yardage to make PJ pants too.

(Even Stacey and Clinton can't taunt me too much for age-inappropriate garb if I just use it as PJs, right?)

You are what you quilt

2008-05-22T21:45:00.004-04:00

Here's the first round of tops for the Snuggle quilt(let)s:

You'll notice that I did end up doing a bunch of Crazy Quilt blocks in the end. They may be slower to sew, but to me, their spontaneity and randomness makes them more fun to make than Disappearing 9 Patch blocks. Plus I get to use all the tiny pieces that have been sitting in my scrap bag forever!

Whee, flying monkeys!

2008-05-21T14:38:00.006-04:00

The monkeys and their quilt are currently flying on their way to Michele, and should be there tomorrow before noon!

Here is a shot I took immediately after I tied off the last knot in the thread I was using to stitch the back of the binding. (If you click on the image to see the larger version, you can see a bit of a dimensional look to the squares. That's what happens when you stitch "in the ditch" between blocks. It is a pretty neat effect.)

Not a mad cow

2008-05-18T09:59:00.017-04:00

Yesterday we went in to the local Red Cross blood center to fulfill a little goal of mine.

We'd tried to give blood as a group back on 9/11. It seems everyone else in our area had exactly the same idea, so the blood center was swamped, and since my type O+ sister was pregnant (with Liam) and could not donate, and none of the rest of us had especially useful blood types, they told us to come back another day.

The next time I tried, they'd put the Mad Cow disease restrictions in place. I had spent a quarter abroad, which meant, I thought, that I was no longer eligible to give at all. I felt downhearted, but consoled myself that my type AB+ blood could only be used by 3% of the population anyway.

However, while having a conversation with my friend Katie, who works at a blood center, I learned that, while AB+ isn't that useful as whole blood, it is actually the universal donor for platelets and plasma (components of blood). Once I heard that, I had to see if there was any possible way for me to donate. (After all, platelets are used to help cancer patients, and this could be one more thing I could start to do in honor of my Finny.) NB: I believe that AB+ actually is only the universal donor for plasma, although there is conflicting info on this online.

So I wrote to my overseas center to see how much time I actually did spend in England. The response I got back was crystal clear: quarters are always exactly 11 weeks long. I was safe by a week!

I thought I would see if I could get DH to donate blood at the same time so we could make a morning of it. He was reluctant at first, and finally admitted to a fear of needles. But after some negotiation, we struck a bargain, and he agreed to give it a shot.

Yesterday was the day. We both passed the screening, so he headed to the general area to wait to donate blood, and I went off to give platelets. I will spare you the details as I know some people don't like to hear about medical things, but I will just say my experience wasn't too much different from giving regular blood, except that it took longer. DH was able to go and drop off a box of Linus quilts with our coordinator while I was still lying back in my comfy chair watching the movie they'd set up for me.

When I was done, I walked over to see DH talking with one of the receptionists. They were talking about the next time he was eligible to donate - seems he had gone ahead and started booking his next appointment on the spot! Apparently he not only got around his fear of needles this one time, but has moved past that fear for good! :)

Blocks and socks

2008-05-13T19:10:00.006-04:00

The people from the no-kill shelter called me back today. I am glad I spoke with them before I got started, because I wouldn't have made the snuggle blankets big enough otherwise. (The website says the small size snuggle blankets are about 14" square and the medium 20", but the woman said that 24" would be ideal for them.)

I think I will try making a big nine patch made out of crazy quilt blocks alternating with plain blocks. Maybe I can make some progress on using up some of those random scraps in my scrap bag. I am sure my enthusiasm for this will wane once I see how many hours it actually takes to make crazy quilt blocks, so I have a plan B in mind - to make some Disappearing 9 Patch blocks.

Anyway, this is all for the future. Tonight's plan is to get the sock monkey quilt layered and pinned.

Charities

2008-05-11T13:35:00.004-04:00

I was going through some old email and ran across this link to an article and video on Project Linus, which is the charity for which I make quilts. They are wonderful, and I always want to do more to get the word out about them, so take a peek: Project Linus brings comfort to Kids.

Based on a comment from someone on one of my quilt groups, I am also looking into the Snuggles Project that makes teeny snuggle blankets for shelter animals. This seemed like a great opportunity to use up some of the things in my scrap bag that I don't seem to be able to find a place for in other projects. I called our local shelter last weekend to try to get information about what size they prefer, but haven't heard back. If I still haven't heard back from the time I am ready to get started, I guess I can just measure Eisa and Echo and make the size that would best fit them!

Surprise for Kira (Shh!)

2008-05-06T16:18:00.001-04:00

My sister and BIL are planning to have Kira start on the cello after she turns 4 in August. (She has met her proposed teacher and has observed a few lessons, and is completely on board with this plan.)

She'll be learning via the Suzuki method. The first piece they always learn is "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star." So when I found this tiny child's locket on Amazon, I couldn't help but buy it for her. My plan is to send it out as a little surprise after she learns her first song.

Do you think I should print out a tiny photo of her to put inside of it (even temporarily, to establish the idea that it can contain something)? Or should I just leave it up to her to decide?

Blocks for the kitty quilt

2008-05-01T10:37:00.015-04:00

Tam requested that I share where I am on the kitty wall hanging for Finny's cancer clinic.

I am still pretty uncertain about how it is coming together. Sometimes when you are auditioning fabrics, there is a moment where the colors start to sing. That's when you know you are good to go. I haven't gotten to that point (yet) with this one.

I may pull some of the individual blocks and substitute others. (For instance, I need to move past my crush on the stars and moons background fabric in the upper lefthand corner so I can admit the color won't really work unless I add at least one other warmer blue into the mix). The hyacinth blue sashing between the blocks is also not set in stone, and the potential border fabric is so up in the air that I am not even showing it.

Part of the struggle is that I really want to get the emotional tone right. The colors need to feel calm and meditative, and avoid coming across as unthinkingly cheerful on the one hand, or brooding and dreary on the other.

Of course, it is all on hold while I work on the monkey quilt!

For Michele

2008-04-28T21:41:00.019-04:00

We narrowed possible striped fabrics down to the two below. (The stripe in the earlier photos did not make the final two: the colors aren't quite right.)

So,

1) Which of the following stripes do you prefer? (Click for a larger view)

a) the narrower of the two stripes (a solid red on white)

b) the wider of the two stripes (a stripe with some mottling and color variation within the red)

Here is a close-up of the two stripes next to the red, for comparison

2) There are two possible fabrics we are considering for borders. In the second of the two quilt photos, you can see the starry fabric as the left border and the darker hand-dye below and on the bottom half of the right right. (If you want to see the pattern better, the starry fabric appears in the background of the close-up shot of the stripes above. The hand-dye is the fabric you see as the border of Caedmon's quilt, and in all of the quilt shots I have taken prior to today.)

Which do you prefer?

Kira's sense of beauty

2008-04-27T21:35:00.007-04:00

"If you ever forget Finnegan, all you have to do is look at the picture"
-- Kira, on being complimented on her Finny artwork

I love her faith in the power of art. It's not just her own art, either. When she feels out of sorts, she asks Liam to play his violin for her using vibrato; and when he does, it genuinely makes her feel better. :)

Revised thoughts on aqua

2008-04-25T19:59:00.017-04:00

I had two different aqua fabrics that I thought would work in the monkey quilt - one with swirls and one with vines.

The earlier photographs featured the swirly fabric. (It was the first one I cut, and I didn't want to complicate matters by making changes in the colors we weren't ready to play with yet!)

Initially I was planning to offer both as options, and then have Michele make the call between them. However, after handling both fabrics, I can feel that the vine fabric is of noticeably superior quality. For a wall hanging, the thickness of the fabric might not make a lot of difference, but in a baby quilt (or any other quilt that will get a lot of wear), I really want to use top quality materials.

Therefore, I would like to propose that we eliminate the swirly fabric from consideration, and go with the aqua vines instead.

Monkey business

2008-04-22T14:22:00.007-04:00

Okay, first comparison:

1) In the following photos, you see two different options for the block in the top lefthand corner - a red striped fabric or a dark brown one.

Do you prefer:

a) A monkey quilt that includes a red striped fabric

b) A monkey quilt that includes a dark brown fabric

2) Do you like where I am going with it so far, based on the above images, or do you want to see more monkey squares?

I can do this by substituting monkeys for one of the existing blocks. So, if you would like to see more monkeys, which one other block would you like to have me remove? (ETA: You can see a few examples of this in the Comments)

Michele's decision will of course prevail in the end, but your feedback might help her make up her mind, so everyone should absolutely feel free to chime in!

100 good wishes necklace

2008-04-22T13:24:00.005-04:00

I ran across this delicate little 100 good wishes necklace online, and had to get it for Sandie! Isn't it pretty? I thought I would include a link here for anyone else who is looking for a lovely little thing for a good wishes quilt partner, for someone adopting from China, or just for a friend. :)

More monkeys

2008-04-17T15:11:00.004-04:00

My friend Michele has commissioned me to make a baby quilt for her nephew. (The baby shower is 31. May.) She fell in love with the look of Caedmon's quilt, and the aqua sock monkey fabric in particular, so I ordered some more monkey yardage online a few nights ago.

The tricky part last time was finding just the right shade of accompanying aqua blue to bring everything together. This is something I'll definitely need to audition in person, so I am making plans to go on a grand shop hop (hopefully this weekend - depends on when the fabric arrives) to find just the right thing to make the quilt work.

Hopefully I'll have some stories to share along the way.

Recycling

2008-04-14T09:52:00.005-04:00

After going in to sign our tax forms on Saturday, we drove out to Worcester to a sewing/quilting expo. Several years back we had gone to something similar in Lowell, and had found a number of beautiful and unusual fabrics; so we thought this might be an opportunity to pick up some lovely additions for the kitty quilt.

It turned out that this event was more weighted towards sewing than quilting, so there wasn't a whole lot of quilting fabric, etc., we hadn't seen before. However, we did have a nice experience that I wanted to write about so I'll remember it.

We had decided to bring in one of of our Envirosax (the olive bag from the Retro series) to hold the fabric we were trying to match, and to carry whatever other fabric we might purchase along the way.

When we were paying the cashier for our admission tickets, she was very taken with this bag. I mentioned it was a reusable grocery sack, and it sounded like this was a new idea to her, so we talked about it a bit. As DH and I were walking away, I told him it was too bad we didn't have another bag to hold our junk because the woman had liked this one so much. Voilà - he pulled one of the other bags out of his pocket.

Now there's a sign if I've ever seen one. So I went back and told the cashier we wanted to give her the bag she had liked. She was so surprised and delighted (it was really cute!). She tried to press some money on me, and I tried to avoid taking it, but she eventually won out by telling me she was reimbursing my expo ticket price. ;)

I don't know how she will end up using it (e.g., as a grocery bag or not), but I am enjoying imagining that just maybe she might start a mini-trend for reusable grocery sacks in her circle.