Tuesday, August 28, 2012

Scamper at 4 months

We've been having a great time with our newest member of the family.  His name sure suits him - he scampers here and there all day long (and at night - well let's just say it doesn't make sleeping out in the living room much fun according to my daughter and her friend!).  Last week we took him to the clinic to be neutered.  Poor husband was pretty sad about it, but both he and the cat bounced back just fine.

Since it's a low cost clinic we all showed up at four to pick up our pets and the clinic manager gave us all one big speech about after care.  The main things I gleaned were to keep him in his crate for an hour after getting home to let some of the drugs leave his system and help him calm down.  Then to keep him in an enclosed space for a couple days to keep him from running around and jumping.  Finally to wear his e-collar for two weeks to keep him from licking at his incisions.  What follows is what really happened.

We arrived home and I left Scamper in the crate to help settle him down.  He proceeded to bang that silly cone against the front and sides of the cage.  I covered the cage to encourage him to rest.  Finally it got quiet.  Then I saw the bottom of the blanket moving around.  I lifted the blanket to see him - without the cone of shame, poking his front legs through the wires.  Well, we made it about 25 minutes so I took him out and re-tied the cone on.  We put him in the bathroom with his litter box and a comfy blanket and shut the door.  More banging and meowing.  He did not want to be left in there alone at all!  The banging got louder and we suddenly heard the squeek of the medicine cabinet door opening.

The little mischief had jumped up on the cabinet and was making a mess!  I put things away, set the laundry basket on the toilet to discourage him from jumping up again and left him alone.  5 minutes later we heard the laundry basket hit the floor.  Obviously, he did not get the memo about warm, safe, dry and clean because he wanted out of there.  I decided that maybe some dinner would settle him down.  I gave him a quarter can of wet cat food and he quickly downed that and wanted more.  He ended up eating the entire can of food!  Since the plastic cone was making him miserable I created a softer one out of timtex and fabric.  He seemed to struggle against that one less, so we let him stay out and he proceeded to go about his usual evening routine of terrorizing us and attacking our hands and arms and feet.  Finally he went to sleep in a chair.  We all went to bed and hoped he would behave during the night.  We were very happy to find him with his lovely new cone on in the morning!



Frankly, I don't think he ever really realized that he had any reason to slow down.  After three days he outsmarted the cone and we retired it.  He's been a normal happy cat ever since and is healing up well.  He sure has grown a lot since we first got him and is becoming quite the handsome young man.  We sure enjoy having his mischievous self around and look forward to lots of playing and cuddling with our Scamper!  He's hard to get a good picture of because he's always moving - that camera loop is so tempting...

Monday, August 27, 2012

Goodbye, August

This month has flown by.  Actually it has driven by - I think we've made a trip at least once each week to Eugene, where my daughter will be attending college in a few short weeks.  We are excited that she's got a job teaching at a dance studio, but we've had three trips just for that alone!  That's really been cutting into my productivity, as well as the fact that it is quilt show season and I've had to work extra days at the quilt shop.  Plus I think I've got a touch of the blues as the girl is leaving soon (Thursday!!!).  She'll be doing "Daily Doubles" for the Dance team.  Then we go up September 20 to move her into the dorm.  In the meantime, we need to order her textbooks, laptop, and attend to a few other details.

I have been doing a bit of shoveling out in my sewing room (partly because of that little Scamper cat, who is growing like a weed).  I'm to the point of finding piles of fabric that were supposed to make a project, but I don't remember the project!  Time to start making notes about these things I guess!  I've found some pretty things to play with, for sure.

There are also some projects at home that need to start getting worked on because they involve painting, and the paint dries much better when it's not pouring down rain outside - I'm sure those days are just around the corner, too.  I think it's time to make a list and get down to business - I have so many ideas and plans in my head, I feel paralyzed.  And I want to take more pictures, haven't really done much of that lately either.  Well, fall has always been my favorite season.  Getting the kids back to school always has spurred me to be more organized, and get things done, so I am hoping I can keep that trend going, even though the school thing makes me feel a little more sad than glad this year.

Enjoy these last few days of August - it's a wonderful time of year!

Friday, August 03, 2012

Making Clothing from Scratch

Have you ever made clothing from a pattern?  I used to do it a lot more than I do now.  It just seems easier to go to the department store and buy a top or pants from the rack than it is to make them from scratch.  I just made what I thought would be a really cute top.  It's a peasant style top with ruffle sleeves, out of a cute fabric that looks like bandana fabric.  When I tried it on my daughter looked awe-struck.  Not in a good way.  "Why are those ruffles so big?" she asks.  Then she suggests that I could make clothes for Lady Gaga.  Nice.  I know my taste can be a little questionable at times, but when I looked in the mirror I had to say that I probably would not be wearing this much.  At least not out in public!

I think that's the biggest problem with making clothes from patterns is being able to not only match the proper fabric type with the requirements of the pattern, but being able to visualize what it will look on your body.  Not to mention choosing the right size, which is always waaayyy larger than the size you buy in the ready made department.  Sigh.  No one likes that at all!  Not to mention the amount of ease they add into the patterns is generally quite a bit more than I've ever seen anyone wear in real life.  Usually not entirely flattering.

I think I will probably make another top out of this pattern, but make the regular sleeve.  And maybe I'll look up Lady Gaga on twitter and see if she can use a red, white and blue top for her next music video.  Who knows, maybe she needs a seamstress?!

Which is why I like making quilts.  You don't have to worry about how it's going to fit, and there is always someone who absolutely loves it even if you don't!