OK, it's the holiday season, gifts to buy (& make!), tasty treats to bake, and all that crap.  I usually enjoy most of it, but to be honest I am a 4th quarter player, and perform best that way.  I was that way at work too, lax til the end, then final hard push and get things finished brilliantly.

This year in addition to the holidays, we've been adopted by a feral cat.   Remember the impossible-to-trap orange kitty?  We trapped him!  It took a 'drop trap', and some bungling around like 2 of the 3 Stooges(neither smart enough to be Moe), but we did it.  A drop trap is exactly what it sounds like, a box like contraption propped up by a stick with a string.  Put food under it,  kitty goes to eat, pull the string, simple right?  Then you manuever the kity into a traditional trap via a sliding door. That part-not so simple, be we did it!

Anyway, brought Randy to the vet for exam and neutering.  I also had a full blood workup done on him.  Turns out he has FIV(kitty aids), and a mild positive for feline leukemia.  Sigh.

First off, Dr. Senk from the Long Island Cat Project is amazing.  I had a list of things I wanted her to address.  She called me to let me know of his test results.  Feral cats who test positive are usually euthanized, so putting him back out was not an option.  So I asked if I could keep him in, but isolated from the housecats.  I was pretty surprised when she said yes, absolutely.  As long as he has a good appetite he deserved a chance, just wash your hands after being with him.  So we're giving him that chance.

Let me tell you he got the royal treatment.  Neuter, 4 teeth pulled and his teeth cleaned, a cut on his tail sutured, a lump in his mouth got a cortisone shot, wormed, flea treatment, a bath and grooming!  The world needs more people like Dr. Senk and her staff.  She went down the entire list of items with me, and sent him home with medicine and a special diet for his diarrhea.

I brough him home in a small cat carrier and put it in a metal cage-like dog crate, with a dark sheet over it.  Just like this. We weren't sure if he'd freak out being inside.   I waited a couple hours to open the carrier and feed him.  When he came right out of the carrier and gobbled up his dinner, I cried!  He had a good long drink of water too.  He was still pretty subdued after his big ordeal, but I felt better, that's for sure.

He used the litter box without even being shown!  He's not freaking out, but understandably he's scared.  This being a spoiled housecat thing is new to him.  After eating he retreats into the carrier.  But he's not cowering, just cautious.

Since he had teeth pulled on Thursday, I waited to put out his dry food until Saturday and he gobbled that up too!  He gets dry kitten food, as much as he wants,  to fatten him up.  He only weighed 6.1 lbs.  I knew he was skinny, but that was a little shocking.  He's got a good winter coat which disguised his skinniness.

His blood work came back from the lab and he's also in the beginning stages of kidney failure, not uncommon in older cats.  He drinks and pees a lot.  But we're addressing that with good quality gluten free cat food.  All foods you can get at the pet food store, I found a lot of info on the internet.  Checking labels for ingredients shows which flavors of Fancy Feast, Friskies, or whatever are gluten free.  Easy.

So we're working on resolving his tummy issues, putting some weight on him, arresting his kidney problems, and socializing a full grown feral cat!  Easy peasy, right?

So I woke up this morning and discovered I was down to my last pair of clean underwear.  And I only got lucky with that because it was buried under some camisoles. Time to do laundry...

I got these sweet old curtains at a rummage sale a while ago.  They were kind of an odd configuration, one normal size valance, one tiny wee valance, and a teeny tiny pair of cafe curtains.  They weren't in the best of shape, a few stains, and some of the balls had fallen off the ball fringe.  But I loved the vintage santa and candy cane pattern, so I threw them in my bag for a quarter or a dollar or whatever they were.  Then they sat in the basement for a few months until I finally threw them in the washer where they lost even more of their balls :(

And I really didn't know what to do with the weird setup.  I actually thought maybe I'd make an apron or something.  But then I put the normal valance in the dining room just to see how  it would look.

Missing balls aside, it looked pretty cute.  So then I thought of fashioning a matching valance from the remaining pieces, but they weren't all that big.  Then it hit to to just put them up as they are, the cafes on either end, wee valance in the middle.  Since nothing is as easy as  it seems, the rod pockets on the cafe pieces were too narrow for my rod.  Strange, considering the two valance pieces were fine.  There was a generous hem though and I was able to remove the stitching and re-do it a bit wider.

So I'm pretty happy.  I think the ball fringe really makes the look though, so I'm thinking about replacing it.  I think just removing it would leave them naked, lol.  So they're going to remain more shabby than chic for right now!

(The souvenir trays don't normally live over the windows, I just need to find a permanent home for them!)

Alternate title: How I found religion in my toast.

No miracles here, just a nifty toast thingy.  Embosser?  I ventured to the mall on Wednesday to pick up some gift cards from Anthropologie for the nieces.  If only my kitchen could look like the kitchen area at Anthropologie, I'd die a happy woman!  Anyway, since I don't go to the mall often, I hit up a couple other stores, one of the favorites being Urban Outfitters.  They always have such cool, weird, retro, kitchsy stuff there.

I got some Christmas cards, a sock monkey ornament, and this Holy Toast maker thingy.  Cause who doesn't need a little holy on their toast!  Please note, I'm not poking fun at religion, it's just funny when people see Jesus in their English Muffin or Nixon in their potato chip(see Johnny Carson).  My only disapointment is that it's not Elvis.

But they might just do me in!  I'm working on these scarves for the WWII Museum; every year they collect them for distribution to veterans.  Since they request easy-care acrylic, I've been picking up Simply Soft when I see it on sale.  The problem occurs when I have just a little left over yarn.  Then I need to get some more to use up what I have.  It never ends!  And the pattern is a simple mistake rib, mind numbingly simple.  I'm usually all over mind-numbing, but I do have my limits.  I have enough yarn to probably make two more and that will be it!  I set out to make 3...

We planted some late carrots from seed.  It seems like they've been in the ground forever, but this is what we got, carrots for Barbie!  It was well below freezing the other night, so I had to pull them.  The birdbath froze completely solid.  The weather's been fairly mild so I didn't expect winter to come over night!

Isn't this the cutest little thing ever!  Of course it is!  It's the Dumpling Bag from Interweave Knits.

Before and after felting.  Best thing of all-it's a one night project!  ONE NIGHT!  Ok, I knit it yesterday and did the embroidery this morning.  I know how to embroider, and am not too hopeless at it, but it's not one of my favorite crafts.  I did however, enjoy doing it on this little cutie pie.  If the french knots look weird, it's because I thought they might unravel during felting so I added a stitch to tack them down.

One more for fun.  It's wee!  I knew it would be, I used size 10.5 needles instead of the 13's, and worsted weight yarn instead of the double strand called for in the pattern.  I think it used half a skein of Patons Classic Merino.  I copied the neat trick of using a balloon as a form from some of the Ravelry users.

Unbelieveably, balloons are something I did not have on hand so I had to run to the party store this morning for some.  While I was there I also managed to pick up a styrofoam head.  As I joked with the cashier, doesn't everyone need a styrofoam head?

It's done!  I even sewed in the little tag!

Somehow it seemed there were about 400 ends to weave in. I think they were breeding when I wasn't looking.  But it's done, yippee!

Reports of my demise have been greatly exaggerated... or something like that. I've just been sort of blah.  It's been cold.  Not cold really, but once the house gets cold it stays cold and sometimes it's colder inside than out!

So I've been hibernating with the Cherry Ames books.  So far, I've worked my way through Student Nurse, Department Store Nurse, Dude Ranch Nurse and am now into Army Nurse(written in 1944, WWII !).  Department Store Nurse took place in New York City(my hometown), it kind of made me wish for the days when we had full service stores with a nurse on duty in case you fell off the escalator or something.  And I liked the big chase where they went out to Idlewild Airport, now JFK, to the terminal building.  Ha!  The terminal building is now the International Arrivals Building, and there are 9 additional passenger terminals, some having  more than one building!  But I am thoroughly enjoying the books.

Cotton bibs, from the first Mason Dixon book.  Fun and Easy.  I even managed to put on the buttons and add my little personalized labels.  I'm also finishing up Knitty's Devan.  I just set in the sleeves, it's blocking a little in the basement, then I'll finish up the side seams, sew on the buttons and weave in the 400 ends it somehow produced.  Many thanks to Penny for showing me the proper way to set in the sleeves!

Yay, a real live finished item!  Once more, yay!

OK, my little fancy-schmancy tag that says 'handmade by vaxgirl' isn't sewn in yet, but I think we can call this one in the bag.  Ends woven in and everything.  Finished with a capital F.  It's a baby sized sweater, so don't get too excited. 

Note the little dish of lavender buds to keep mosquitoes from the porch, and the flyswatter for when it doesn't.  I've tried all kinds of things this year to repel them, dryer sheets clipped all over the porch, lavender plants, lemon thyme plants, and now the lavender buds.  Nothing's working so well, good thing cute fly swatters were 3 for a buck at the dollar store!

This is the beginning of an adorable baby sweater from Knitty called Devan.  The front and sleeves are knit from self-patterning sock yarn and the back from a solid.  It was a good excuse to try the new Red Heart sock yarn.  So far I like the way it's knitting up, but I did make a couple changes.  I substituted a rib edge for the rolled edge.  The rolled edge is adorable, but it was rolling way too much so I ripped it.  I also stuck with the smaller needles rather than switching to the larger ones after the ribbing, and eliminated the solid color at the hem.  I'm hoping it all works out, the Knitpicks has a different feel and may be a hair thinner, so I may be looking for a different solid when I get to the back.

It's a charmed life I lead these days.  In between getting my breasts jammed in a vice(mammogram), blood sucked dry, peeing in a cup, it seems I've lowered myself to cleaning cat poop off the neighbors lawns.

First off, I'm trying to wrap up all the pesky, long neglected medical maintenance before our medical insurance changes next month because the husband quit his job.  Sounds bad but not really, independent contracting is fairly common when you work in IT.  I did it for a time about 6 years ago.  So we need to be buying our own health insurance and I'm trying to catch up on all the annoying tests I should be getting at my advanced age, before the switchover.

I saw Randy-the-red-cat poop on the across the street neighbor's lawn yesterday morning.  He's got a couple issues, one of which is the leg.  It's better than it was, but he still can't bury his poops.  And his tummy's not well which makes it even worse.  I'm treating the symptom right now, but it needs to be addressed by the vet when we grab him for the big snip.

I ran over and cleaned it up before anyone got an unpleasant surprise.  Then it happened again this morning next door.  So aparently now I've become not only the crazy cat lady, but the crazy cat lady who collect their poops too!  All this at 6:45am.  It's a wonderful life!

 
Late summer in the garden.  Tomatoes ripening on the vine, gentle breezes wafting the air, sun tea brewing in a jar... mosquitoes eating one alive!

We thought the white hydrangea was a goner and I almost had the tree guy rip it out.  But we cut it back and it revived and even bloomed!  I love my hydrangeas, so this makes me pretty happy.  The big star found a baby at a rummage sale.

No, not a urine sample on the stove.  It's mint syrup.  I have so much mint this year I had to do something with it and I still have dried mint from last year.  So mint syrup for mint juleps!  I used 2 cups water, 2 cups sugar, and about 2 cups mint leaves and simmer 5 minutes.  If it works out well I'll make some from the spearmint too.  Of course I've never had a mint julep, so I'm not sure what it should taste like, but anything with bourbon must be good!