Snappy

Today's Experiment: Ginger Snaps



The verdict: Needs more spices, maybe more cinnamon and cloves, and perhaps fresh ginger.

Dominion

And because I wouldn't want any of you to go without your Bleys fix. Soak up the majesty.

Weeds

It's about that time in my life when great gobs of my friends and family are having children. I'm still not particularly interested for myself, but being crafty like I am I simply can't pass up the opportunity for cheap sewing projects. The only real problem being I don't know the exact sizes of my cousin's kids. Plus, I'm not sure if sewing sizes differ from store sizes in the infant department as well*. So I made a couple of dresses in the 6 month size to see how they went. I'm pretty sure they will fit Keith's little girl or, who knows, maybe Marcie will have a girl. Anyway, they were fun to make and only having about a yard of fabric in them, not terribly expensive. Here they are.

This one is made from a pale yellow cotton with little purple flowers, and has a mottled purple overskirt. The waist seam is accented by a purple ribbon.


This one was a little more expensive because I didn't use a cotton or broadcloth. Instead, I used this really awesome satin twill (but it was on sale so that's cool). I made the piping out of the same color ribbon that accents the waist and the bottom hem so they all match. I wished that I had a larger design to embroider on the front, but I didn't have anything else that I liked as much as the butterfly and didn't really want to buy something new.



*For those who don't know, clothing manufacturers have been changing sizes of clothes so that people will feel thinner for a long time now. Your sewing size is probably about 2 to 3 sizes larger than your clothing size. And when people throw that Marilyn Monroe was a size 12 thing around, first it's probably not true , and second if it was that would mean today she would wear a 6 or an 8.

Yo ho!

Roland and I enjoy a web comic call the Order of the Stick. At the site they also have a forum, I mean who doesn't these days, where people discuss the comic, D&D, and just about everything else you can imagine. One of the quirks of the site is that people have taken to making avatars that resemble the characters of the OOTS. This is where all the blog-tets avatars came from. However, being the nerdly type gamers that they are the peeps over at OOTS also change their avatars from time to time to reflect holidays, life changes, etc. (now you know Roland and I fit right in). Being as yesterday was Talk Like a Pirate Day there was a rush of pirate themed avatars. The dude who drew mine is one of the best there is, Chris the Pontifex. He was kind enough to update mine to be piratey!



I love how she looks like she's daring you to ask how far up the peg leg goes.

Not so sticky

Today's adventure? Cinnamon rolls.

Divination

I just finished my latest craft project. An ottoman and pillow for the chair I recovered for Roland's office. I don't have access to any sort of saws or other tools to make a wooden box that could be covered for a normal looking ottoman, so I went with a pattern I found for making one with a gallon paint can and some foam. It's more of a pouf than an ottoman, but it was doable from the building materials standpoint. I did have to ask my Dad to cut me a 12" circle out of wood and send it to me, though. It turned out okay, not great, but okay. I think if I made another one it would look better. I also made a pillow out of some leftovers from the chair and the pouf. It's reversible with one side being navy red with navy blue corners and center and the other side being navy blue with navy red corners and center.

Conflicted

So do you want the Good News or the Bad News first? The Bad News, okay then. I was at the vet yesterday and Bleys has a heart murmur. This is very common in Cavaliers (like hip dysplasia in labs) but I was hoping we would put it off for another couple of years. We are still in the diagnosis phase at the moment. They did some initial blood work yesterday and we are going in again today for some more specific stuff. Hopefulyl I will have a full diagnosis soon and we can start on whatever meds are appropriate.

Since I'm very carefully not thinking about the implications of so early a heart murmur, my biggest issue right now is that I'm getting shuffled of on a different vet today for the appointment. This happened earlier this year but the problem wasn't a big one (even a vet tech could have taken care of it) so I didn't mind. However, I went out of my way to find a vet that had extensive experience with Cavaliers. I got recommendations from local Cavalier breeders and showers and visited a bunch of vet offices to find one that suited me. I also drive about an hour to get there each time. I guess you could say I'm kind of picky, but after Doc how could I not be? Anyway, for now I'm going to assume that they just wanted to get all this preliminary stuff done as fast as possible, but when it comes down to cases I'm going to need to have my one vet or I'm going to need to find a different facility.

Speaking of Doc though, I did email her about getting a dental scraper for Bleys' teeth (which are not responding to the tooth brush so much anymore) and so maybe she will be able to shed some light onto the situation when I have some more information. I can't tell you how thankful I am that I have that connection. Being about to order stuff that isn't readily available to the general public is such a life saver. Thank you Doc! I miss you.

Okay onto the good news. For the past year Roland and I have had Florida Annual Passes to Disney World. For any who don't know, this means you pay a certain amount for a year long pass to get in the parks. There are a bunch of other perks as well, including cheaper room rates (especially in the off season), special deals they email you about, and currently the most important, you get into new/refurbished attractions early during special Passholder Events. We took advantage of this before Expedition Everest opened. The passholders got to go back over there and check out the area and ride the coaster during a special weekend a few weeks before it opened to the general public. That was mostly for Roland (I'm not so keen on roller coasters), but now it's MY turn. When our passes expire at the end of October we are planning on letting them lapse to save some money. We have visited Disney a lot this past year so taking some time off isn't so bad. However, one of my favorite things at Disney, the Living Seas, has been under refurbishment for over a year and is set to open in November. Grrrr, I thought I was going to miss it. However, we just got an email that they are having an annual passholder preview in mid-October. Woot! Not only will I get to see the Living Seas that is smack in the middle of the Food and Wine Festival that Roland and I love so much. Plus it is in the off season so there will be less crowds and the temperatures will be going down so it won't be quite so hot! I doesn't get much better than that! I'm very excited. Couldn't tell, could you?

WP Experiment

This is a test.

Wish pie

You may or may not have noticed that one of Bleys' favorite toys is a Kong toy with a Nylabone stuck in the end (so far he likes all the flavors). Roland discovered this a long time ago and we refer to it as frankentoy. It has provided Bleys with many hours of enjoyment and when we replace the nylabone there is much rejoicing. As near as we can figure he likes it because it not only provides him with some awesome chewage, but also because the Kong toy allows him to really use his paws and get a good grip on the thing for some serious gnaw action. Here are some prime pics of his cat-like paw usage.

But then I guess he got a little lazy one day because when I got up from the couch to go to the kitchen he followed me leaving behind this:

You should see him pounce on a tennis ball.

Finished

My latest craft effort was the recovering of a used chair for Roland's office. I think it's mostly for his students to sit in? It isn't the best chair ever, but it was the right price. Free. However the fabric had seen better days so he asked if I could recover it. He asked for navy red and I managed to find some fabric from the sale table (they have a lot of flat folds that are uphostery type fabric - the left overs from someone elses order usually). I didn't use a pattern I just sort of made it up as I went along and it turned out okay. The back is a little baggier than ideal, but other than that it went all right. Plus I got to use my staple gun!

Sad

No more Crocodile Hunter.

28

Happy Birthday to Bleys who is three today. He had a very full day: A long walk in the morning, breakfast, a nap, doing some therapy work which mostly involves ladies loving on him for an hour, a snuggly nap, dinner, a short nap (above), a Frosty Paws (below) in celebration of his B-Day, and now another nap. It's a good life.

Where's the red carpet?

Bleys and I have just made our triumpant return from pet therapy. It went well, though Bleys was a little clingy. I'm hoping that with some time and experience he will be more willing to hang out with the people and not be near to me all the time. He kept his eyes on me pretty much the whole time (which is a good thing, but he should be willing to get petted away from me), then again it was our first time in a new and different place with some new people about. I think, overall he did very well. Yay Bleys.

A new wrinkle

A drum set. In fact I think it's a whole band, but it's the drums I hear/feel. As Dan always says, there is no volume knob on a drum set. In short I think the people living below us have a band. It being evening I'm trying really hard not to let it bother me, but boy is it getting hard. It probably doesn't help that I'm developing a head ache. I seriously don't think it's related to the drumming, but it's hard to separate the two. The dude(tte) playing isn't bad, not good either, but not bad. I only catch fleeting sounds of the other instruments so I can't attest to their level of proficiency. It sounds like they are playing covers (we're pretty sure Sweet Child o' Mine was on earlier). I guess I just see this going downhill from here. I'm used to living in a house and I don't particularly want to deal with the noise problems. You just don't bring a drum set into an apartment and remain on good terms with your neighbors. And if they have some sort of crappy (sorry I'm a little crabby about it right now) band put together they might just want to show it off to their friends in what will might just end up as a late night party of some kind. At which point I'm gonna blow a gasket.

I really wish we could afford a house, but I've pretty much given up on that ever happening. When we moved I thought maybe after a few/five years we could think about it, but I just didn't have a good grasp on the realty reality. Even if we could afford a house the property tax wouldn't be doable. Kind of depressing, but that's what happens when a small house in a decent neighborhood costs close to $500,000.

If I had

I think these are cool and I would want one if it wasn't so expensive.