Can you see her?

We have an addition to our herd of critters.  We lost our last cat of 13 years about 2 years ago and have adopted this 3 month old black kitten.  She is nearly impossible to see when she hides under the bed or the sofa or on a suitcase in the storeroom (which she finds quite comfortable).  I have decided that she will be called Coalette since except for that white tuft on the end of her tail she is pretty much coal black. She has been in a home with dogs and has just moved right into ours as if she were the queen of the realm.  She will be strictly a house cat as we are in a pretty busy neighborhood.  Next week she will get her vaccinations and spaying will follow in a few more months.  She has long hair (which I swore I wouldn't have again), but it is not as long as our previous cat. 

February stuff

 This month has been so busy, but what month isn't? Don't know where my life is going, but it is moving way too fast.  We celebrated our 48th anniversary as we always do..with food!  The Mr. played in a couple of tournaments which allowed me some time to haunt the flea markets and vintage shops and spend time with friends.  This cute little gnome suspended from his britches with a clothespin will hang above my gnome home this spring and summer.  I just couldn't resist him on the shelf in a garden nursery I visited.

 I scored another tray in the same vintage shop in Ft. Collins where this original blackboard tray idea tickled my fancy.  So...well, I hurried and got these on the wall too. The little birds are exactly the right color for my kitchen decor and grace my window sill.  I hesitated at the price of $8.00 each and after a brief discussion with the clerk, she went to the back and came back with a reduced price.  Couldn't resist them either!  Turns out she was the granddaughter of a dear woman who cooked with my mom for years at the school cafeteria where I attended school.
Small world sometimes.

Crafting again

 I knew yesterday that I was in for a rough weekend.  Woke up with one of those head colds that suggests impending misery!  Today my head felt like it would explode and my sinuses are so sluggish, I find it nearly impossible to breath.  Roger and I took a nap after lunch and I do feel a bit better.  I really don't have the time to be sick.  I missed my workout at CURVES and a UFO (unfinished object) quilt meeting today. 

The tray project is finished.  A great place to make notes, the blackboard pleases me.

The large tray, and you can see by the yardstick, that it is pretty big was given to me by my mother-in-law about 45 years ago and in the past, held my silver tea service.  I really am not into serving on or with silver, but have kept the tray.  After my earlier post about the trays I saw, I knew this would be perfect for a vacant spot on my dining room wall.  Not wanting to paint on the tray, I used a piece of vinyl flooring as the surface.  The backside of this flooring works as a great surface and I had taught a floor cloth class using this as a canvas.  So with a coat of gesso, and you can paint anything with gesso, and a couple of coats of flat black paint sealed with an 

acrylic spray, it was born.  I was not wanting to buy a large can of blackboard paint, and with my past experience with the alternative method, I knew it would work fine.  I used adhesive back velcro to adhere it soundly to the tray and I am loving it.

More projects

 OK, I have been away from this blog for a few days, but life happens!  At night sometimes, my brain works so rapidly, that I know I have to prioritize my projects because my life isn't going to last long enough to finish all that I want. This piece of glass as you can see, incorporates two small plates, one just a candy dish and the other a blue depression piece.  I saw a similar art piece years ago in a magazine and knew that I would do it one day.  I lost the example, but luckily one of my dear friends had kept the same magazine and I found it while looking at her stash last year. These pictures show the piece in the foiling progress and although I have begun soldering, it still sits unfinished as I have other fish to fry before I die.  (Honestly, I jest as I plan to live forever!)

 This past week we had a snow storm that could have been a doozy, but luckily for us, most of it went south, so for us it was only a typical winter snow.  The boys below, both being imports from Missouri, don't much care for the cold and snow so they stayed warm by snuggling together on the couch.  That doesn't happen very often, but they have begun to bond a little more it seems.

Three of my quilting buddies decided to take a FART (fabric acquisition road trip) before the storm last week so we traveled across the border to the greenie state and they have wonderful fabric shops. We also had a great lunch and found a new vintage shop that was WONDERFUL!  One of the blackboard projects on silver platters has already been given birth downstairs in my studio and I can hardly wait to share it with my friends.  So the teapot glass project is still unfinished, but will hang in my kitchen soon I am sure! (along with the blackboard project of course!)

More quilting

 Our quilt guild has over 100 members and is a very active group.  I am privileged to be a part of this guild and have made some great friends.  I don't think one is ever to old to learn and I am learning new things constantly.  At the 2nd meeting of the month, we have a series of "clusters" which are groups of people learning new techniques from wonderful teachers.  There is no cost, unless a pattern needs to be purchased for a larger project.  The ornaments in the top picture are completed "cathedral window" examples, all of which can be incorporated into a larger quilt.  I have done the cathedral window quilt in the traditional fashion and it is very time consuming and uses a lot of fabric.  This technique is so much faster and more economical! The second picture shows one method of turning back the "windows and the bottom picture shows all four.  There are only two different patterns, but depending on how the stitching is done on top, the end result is 4.  I have ordered a pattern for a large quilt and will have at least two more "cluster" sessions to complete all of the techniques. 

Top and right squares are the same and left and bottom are the same. They are just tacked in different places.

On a totally different note, our daughter lives in Washington and has been without electricity for at least 5 days.  Finally she and her husband got power on today.  We forget what we have until we lose it.  But she got her fridge cleaned out at least.  Gotta find at least one good thing.  They did have a wood burning stove, so were not without heat, but really....it would be tough to be without for that long. 

Craft and crab

 So when we went to Wash state for Christmas and went to Boston Harbor, we met this family with a small boy who was out for the day.  As we had informed them that we were from Wyoming earlier, we heard the mother say "Show it to those people from Wisconsin."  I turned and said that we were from one of those "W" states, but not Wisconsin.  Anyway, they had spotted a couple of crabs clinging below the pier and after a little prying, the boy's father pulled this one up for us to see.  We got a lesson on "sexing" them which I can't remember.  It was something about the number of stripes on the belly.  But it really was the first crab I had seen.  Actually our daughter had just picked up a 3 lb crab for our dinner, but unfortunately, he was wrapped in paper and I didn't see it again until he/she was ceremoniously dropped into the pot of water, screaming and kicking that night.  YUM!

I am embarking on another of many projects which I have wanted to do for a very long time. This is going to be a penny rug.  However, as with most projects, I tend to jump in without a lot of research 'cause I am so anxious to try a new craft.  After carefully stitching these black wool "pennies" onto the wool background, I  realized that I need to complete the pennies first. DUH! Did you know that since these are so large, they are derived from early American coins.  Their pennies were much larger than modern pennies. Women used these large pennies as a template to draw around the wool scraps.  Fortunately, my quilt guild has an opportunity table and someone left a box of wool squares in beautiful colors.  Yeah!

New year resolutions

 With the onset of the new year, gardening is tugging at my soul.  These wonderful clay or stoneware plant markers were a gift from my daughter.  Note the detail on both the front and back of the 12 plus inch babies!  They are almost too pretty to poke into the soil, but alas, in they will go.  Won't my herb garden look spiffy?  In fact, I have a couple of buckets of clay and still have not decided to put my kiln up for sale, so I may have to put my own spin on this idea.  I have a stained glass project waiting in the basement to be foiled and some quilt projects needing attention also.  Gotta get in gear!

And speaking of quilt projects, this is another table topper which I made for another friend for Christmas.  It was like a puzzle getting it put together, but apparently I did get everything cut properly and stitched correctly as it all went together just fine.

As for the new year and the resolutions.  When you get to be 65, as a lot of baby boomers know, you need to change a lot of things; one being the way you choose your insurance.  One big thing we have discovered is that some plans offer some advantages over others.  The plan we choose this year allows me to go to a fitness center for no charge.  The other thing that happens after 65, is that some of us discover rolls of excess fat that just magically appear.  How did that happen?  So, I am hoping with my resolution (get better FIT) that my rolls will shrink.  Today was my orientation on the many machines that will offer enough resistance to strengthen my flabby muscles.  Indeed, I have gotten lazy.  If I can remember how each machine works, and I am finding that the memory also gets flabby,  I hope to keep this only resolution this year.  Wish me luck!