bits and pieces, crafts and puppies

Today's post is a lot of photos, because I've done a lot of stuff recently and it's always more fun to post and write about photos than it is to just put together large blocks of text.  Plus, I've done that way too much at work recently and I'm sick of it!  So here we go, in themed order...

Dogs!

My irises in the front yard are incredible this year - there are TWENTY flower stalks up, all with multiple buds/blooms on them, and they are just phenomenal.  They're the only thing in my yard that really is amazing, and I am enjoying the heck out of them right now.  Jadzia wasn't quite so sure, however, but she gamely hopped into the flower bed for me to take a photo.  I think this is the year I need to split the irises, so that will be a new adventure later this summer or sometime into the fall.

Martok hasn't learned how to play fetch in the rotation with the girls, so I've been taking some walks with him to get both of us some exercise.  I have also been taking Ezri with me, much to her dismay, as Martok is preferring to walk thisclose to her, as the photo shows.  Ezri is also not a fan of being walked on leash, so she's been pulling a lot, so we got her a harness last weekend to help minimize the effects of her pulls on her own body.  We'll see if that helps!

Craft Projects!

Back in April, I finally got around to getting an ink pad and nice paper to do pawprints of the dogs, and after I was done I used one set of them to put together this frame.  The prints came out really well (and the dogs were surprisingly good about it), although it amuses me that their feet-fur shows up so much in the prints!  The frame is an inexpensive floating-glass frame, so I can easily add one of Martok later, remove them to put together into a bigger frame, or just make a whole new one in the future.  I really like having it up on the wall, it's across from the door to my office so I see it every day.

And of course, I've picked up more spindles, as they're just a big an addiction as fabric for quilting.  These two are Bosworth spindles, both special order.  The smaller dark one has a whorl made from live oak (and a shaft made from bocote) that was harvested in the 1700s and then kept in ponds for use in repairing the US Navy ships at the time.  These ponds were eventually forgotten about and reclaimed by the forest, until they were recently found and the wood reclaimed and used by various craftsmen.  The larger red one has a whorl made from flame box elder and a shaft made from cocobolo, and is stunningly beautiful.  I've coveted something made out of flame box elder for a while, and I am thrilled with this particular spindle.  Both spindles are great to use and have small Phat Fiber sample projects on them right now.

Just this past weekend I cleaned up my sewing room and pulled out the materials to work on Aidan's quilt again.  I have just one panel done so far, though all the pieces are cut out already, and I designed another panel this weekend and it's ready to piece together.  This quilt will be the sibling to Averie's quilt, done very similarly, and hopefully completed in time for his birthday in September.

I finished knitting two pieces in February and March and they're shown here after a wash and during blocking.  The cowl is made from a single skein of fancy variegated yarn I bought from a store going out of business, and I love how the colors pooled to form large blocks in a slanted pattern.  The scarf is made from a skein of Manos merino singles, knitted up on size 9 needles in a simple garter/stockinette pattern I came up with on the fly.  It goes well with our new flyball club colors, and I have a second (nearly identical) one almost done to give to one of my friends on the team.

My first sock has made it to the "turn the heel" phase, and there it languishes.  I'll need to pick up stitches as I continue on, and my pattern isn't very detailed about that so I need to pick up a book or tutorial to figure out how best to make that work.  It's pretty cool, though, and I love the needles I'm using (Signature DPNs), so I plan to pull this one out and figure it out soon.

Still spinning as well, and I set aside my interminable fine spinning of the brilliant red Targhee wool I bought at OFFF last year to ply these two batts together.  The yarn came out very well, one batt is dark purples and one was cream with purple and blue, and I think the overall effect is very nice.  These batts taught me that I'm not so much fond of spinning chunky things, especially uncontrolled chunky things like mohair locks, although I do think the plied yarn came out well.  I still need to wash it, however, as I plied it back when we were still deep into the rainy season.

The last craft for this post is one I did not do myself, but one which I will benefit greatly from - my friend Kristie made me a set of "Unpaper Towels" using the best cheesy Star Trek fabric you've ever seen.  The towels are made from terry backed with quilting fabric, serged into squares, and set with snaps so you can roll them up onto a paper towel roll, then use them instead of paper towels.  I have used them for a few days and I like them a lot!

Miscellaneous!

Between the nicer weather appearing through the last few weeks and my attempts to increase my step count, I've been taking walks along the waterfront at work during my lunch break.  Most days I also take a spindle with me and spin as I walk, garnering several odd looks but no comments as of yet.  Such beautiful views are just a small part of why I love to live here.

 

And then there was this - I had the bottom couple of inches of my hair dyed a rich vibrant purple.  I LOVE the effect, it's fantastic, and sadly it has already faded away to a pale lavendar after just four weeks.  I'm having it redone this weekend, and will see if there's anything else the stylist can do to help it last longer - I'm already not washing the ends and rinsing them in the shower with as cool water as I can stand.  If not, I will probably keep it up until I am ready to cut my hair again, then just trim it all off and go on with my regular golden blonde.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Today marks sixteen days since we said goodbye to Curzon.  Last Friday we picked up his ashes (or cremains, as they are called in the industry) from the vet, which was a very difficult thing for me to do.  I held him in my lap the whole way home, making Chris drive us, and wished so hard that I was hugging Curzon for real instead.  I know that won't happen, but the thought of that keeps hitting me anew every so often and it's like a punch to the gut every time it does.  For now the nice cherry box that his remains are in sits on top of one of the dressers in our bedroom, along with the blanket I made him when he recovered from his surgery and his collar.  Perhaps it is strange to admit, but I do talk to him even as I hate that he's in that box, and I have hugged the box more than once.  It helps, a very tiny bit, and that's all I can do now.

I've also been thinking more and more about the time we had between when we brought Martok home and when Curzon passed, that too-short span of just eleven days.  Curzon was so amazing with the puppy for the first few days, and we had such a good time with our photo session on that Saturday.  He had a great time at practice on Sunday, even as we realized he'd lost the sight in his right eye.  Monday was very difficult, but with more pain meds he seemed back to his old self and we had a good time all week.  Saturday was a beautiful day, and the rest I've already talked about.  I don't like to append too many human emotions or decisions to animals, but I also do think they are wiser and more perceptive than most people believe.  I'm coming to the conclusion that Curzon had been in pain for a while, and when we brought Martok home that was the signal he was waiting for to release himself from that pain.  Curzon had that wonderful Saturday where he played, saw lots of people he loved, and had steak for dinner, and I think that was his way of saying goodbye to us all.

It was too soon for me and Chris, and maybe it was even too soon for Curzon.  But I could never countenance his bright spirit suffering without hope of respite, and I would not want to hold him here in pain - that's why we had the vet come on that sad day.  I can only hope that his spirit will visit me upon occasion, and continue to inspire me in the future.

Wednesday morning photos

Last Friday I was surprised to get a random package in the mail - my sister had sent me a birthday present from an Etsy vendor, PetitBeast.  It turned out to be a set of three Jellyfish Air Plants, which are just wiry air plants with a sea urchin shell and clear line to hang them, which when put together makes them look like little jellyfishes.  These are *awesome,* and I was very excited to put them up in my kitchen window, where I hope they will be happy and you know, not die.

Close up of jellyfish air plants - yay for purple shells!

Jellyfish air plants hanging in my kitchen window - sort of looks like they're swimming against a current, which amuses me.

I also finally did something with the pretty dragon patch that I bought in a shop in San Francisco when I was there with my mom and sister several years ago.  It's just been tucked into the ribbon board in my office at home since then, but I am trying to make strides to use the pretty things I buy rather than just sticking them somewhere "for later" so I decided to attach it to my even older small Timbuk2 bag.  It took a lot of work and a few tries, but I finally got it secured and even protected the knots on the back with some nail polish, so it should be safe for use.  I'm taking it with me tomorrow on my trip, in fact!

Last week I had my phone out and ready to take a picture when I opened the bedroom door, and this is what I got.  Chris is awake before me, and by the time I'm up and dressed he's already let the dogs out of their crates and taken them outside to potty, so Curzon and Ezri are usually waiting by the bedroom door to greet me as soon as I open it.  This photo is a little blurry, but I love the look on Ezri's face and the fuzzy blur of her wagging tail, as well as Curzon trying to get to me as fast as possible despite me not stepping out of the door.

And last but not least, a photo of the handsome boy himself, waiting for me to get dressed this morning  I thought his positioning on the blanket was just perfect and had to take a photo of it.

the month of May in pictures so far

The month of May is passing quickly, and the blog posts that I write in my head somehow don't make it to the computer...so I'm going to do a photo post update!

May 4th was our tenth anniversary,which was spent with our friends in Canada for a flyball tournament.  Most of our evening was spent playing the horribly awfully fun card game Cards Against Humanity, but my wonderful husband did get me a beautiful anniversary band.  It's diamonds and sapphires in white gold, with a black finish applied on the parts where the sapphires are set - very different from the usual band, and I love it.  Right now I'm wearing it on my right hand, however, as a week later I somehow jammed my left ring finger and it's still swollen, so that I can't get my band off or my engagement or anniversary rings back on - very irritating!

At the tournament I got not one but two 0.000 perfect starts with Ezri - and earned a t-shirt for my accomplishment!

Phoebe was quite tired after the weekend, as again she ran as savage height dog and at the age of 13, that's finally starting to tire her out.  I was pretty amused by her choice of sleeping location, as it's only been two years waiting for her to figure out she could sleep on the little cushion I put up there for her.  In other news, we are looking for a wonderful retirement home for Phoebe will she will be loved, spoiled, and not have to deal with bitchy herding dogs for the rest of her life.  I hope we can find one, she deserves and has earned a quite respite for her golden years.

The Subaru has been inching steadily closer to the magical 100,000 mile mark, so one day last week I gave up and just drove around a bit until I got it to kick over so I could pull into a parking lot for a picture.  I had a picture of the 50,000 mark when I got my very first iPhone, but it was lost on a software update soon thereafter, which has always made me a little sad.

A friend of mine gave me this delightfully nerdy 80s version of the Aperture Science logo to put on my RV trailer.  It's fantastic!

Another Windstone dragon has come home to live with me, this one a Coiled Dragon in a limited edition color of Black Emerald Violet.  This is my first one of this type, and the black is incredibly rich and gorgeous in person, very different than the colored sculptures that I have already.

The lilac bush that lives in the middle of the stairwell in the back deck has grown even bigger and this year it produced about 16 flowers - the most ever!  The poor thing hasn't held up well to the heavy rain we had yesterday, however, so I went out and clipped several of the flowers to bring them in for me to enjoy.  I think we're going to have to strap or tie the main stalks of the bush upright, as they've been leaning a bit for a while (aiming for the sun, I think) and are now laying across the guardrail on the deck.  Very beautiful, nonetheless.

On Saturday my friend Christy and I spent quite a while doing squilt-related things, including a trip out to a quilt shop that was having a 25% off sale for their anniversary as well as sewing time.  I managed to complete the quilt top started in the class I took at the sewing expo in March, and I've conceptualized what I need to do to piece the backing so that I can put it all together.  I also spent some time working on the baby quilt that I am making for a friend's son, and of course I have one that I have started for my nephew that I hope to finish before his birthday in September.  I need to get rolling!

But even with all of the quilting I want to do and need to do, I'm still doing some spinning.  I was getting frustrated with the first batch I was working with, so I grabbed another spindle and a different batch of fiber and started a different one.  It's a lovely color and is working a little more easily for me, which is very nice and relaxing.  I just need to do it more often - like so much else!

And as if all of that wasn't enough, tonight I am taking a wheel spinning class - whee!

$400 lasted us fourteen years...

When I moved out of the dorms and into an apartment (really the lower level of a two-story house) after my freshman year in college, we had the Laundry Conundrum.  The landlord had a set of inoperative coin-op machines in the basement, and his comment on the topic was he could fix them and we could not bring in our own later, or we could just bring in our own but the inoperative set stayed put.  Not wanting to rely on either questionable coin-op machines or our landlord, my roommate and I picked up a used set for $400 from another student who was graduating and moving on.

That was in 1998, probably around May or June.  Those machines lasted through three years of college, a cross-country move, and another (almost) eleven years of service to Chris and I (and our pets), before the washing machine finally bit the dust on Saturday morning when the agitator stopped working.  I can't say that I'm overly upset about it, as I've been swearing at the damn things to DIE ALREADY for about four years now - I've really wanted to upgrade to nicer front-loading HE machines, but I couldn't bring myself to replace perfectly fine working machines.  So as part of our errands on Saturday (which also involved getting the Subaru detailed with a Groupon about to expire and de-winterizing the RV trailer), we stopped by Sears and ordered a new set for delivery on Sunday.

 

Chris didn't really have much of an opinion once I told him there was no way I was getting bargain basement bottom-of-the-line machines again, so I picked out the Kenmore Elite HE set that is the current top-of-the-line.  The prices between the three "tiers" were within $300 of each other per machine, and the middle tier was actually more expensive because it was just updated, so we went ahead and got the nicer ones which were a bit cheaper.  I drew a line at paying an extra $130 per machine to have it them in muddy silver (not even a pretty bright sparkly silver, or a nice rich color) instead of plain white.  They have pretty blue LEDs on the front, they chirp cheerfully when powered on or done with their cycle, and there are so many choices for adjusting cycle type that it's ridiculous.  The dryer has an insertable rack for drying shoes or sweaters, both machines have steam options for sanitization or refresh, and the capacity is huge.  The machines have already gotten use with washing sheets and one of the dog beds, and so far so good.  Hopefully they will last us for another 14 years, and by then maybe the new ones will simply live in my closet or dresser and clean things that are put in without any additional effort on my part.  That would be awesome.

Last Thursday (March 15) was the cats' 11th birthday - we got them as kittens when we moved out here in June of 2001, when they were three months old.  I had to throw out all of the bedding in their room a few weeks ago thanks to another infestation of those damn bugs (at least those haven't reappeared in the dog room yet, thankfully), so on Saturday I picked up some replacement beds.  Onyx approves of the pyramid bed for sure, she's barely moved out of it since I brought into the room except when she fell off the top of the wardrobe in it.  After that little incident she sulked in the cat carrier (which has a nice new purr pad in it) for a few hours before trying the pyramid bed again.  I should probably put up some nonskid material to help keep it in place on top of the wardrobe, before she's scarred for life.

Today is March 19th, and last night it was snowing at our house.  This morning the snow was still on the ground, there was some on the road, and the news was full of accidents on the highways and side streets due to the icy conditions.  I'm getting really tired of this - there's record warmth on the east coast (it's been in the 80s where my mom lives), and we're currently running 10F-15F below normal.  And then it snows or ices, which adds insult to injury as then I have to drive the truck to work instead of riding my motorcycle, which is a giant pain in the ass - I don't even get the benefit of going out at lunch, because if I move the truck then someone will take my spot before I get back, and the truck can only fit in half of the first floor due to the height.  Bah.  Hopefully the La Nina pattern that's been keeping us in this cold and nasty pattern for the last 18 months or so will clear out in the next few weeks like the weather blogs say it will...if I don't get a summer this year, I'm not responsible for any actions I take the following winter!

from snowmageddon to icepocalypse

Despite the best predictions of the meteorologists, the winter weather continued throughout yesterday with both freezing rain/ice and additional snow.  We got a layer of ice early in the morning, followed by steady snow that put down another 4-5" or so throughout the day on Thursday.  This led to some interesting results, with all that wet heavy snow then encased in ice...

View out the back porch late yesterday afternoon, showing the (nearly) final extent of the snow. My estimate is that from Saturday through to Thursday night, we got over a foot of snow here at our house.  Certainly enough to keep us housebound for most of the week!

This is one of the crummy ugly semi-dead trees from the ravine, which started leaning threateningly over the driveway in the morning.  Usually you can barely see it behind the evergreens in the ravine, so it was way out of its comfort zone at this point!  We moved the truck out of the driveway just in case, and that turned out to be a good move because the tree came down around 8pm last night.

That's going to take some quality time with a chainsaw and a few trips to the dump to solve.  Thanks to Chris and our friend Brian, the driveway is passable on one side now (so we can probably get the Subaru out) and they're planning to take out as much as they safely can tomorrow.  I've already got a call in to the tree service we've used in the past to come take down the rest, as there's another small tree tied to this one which is beyond our skill to remove safely.  Additionally we lost a maple on the side of the house, though thankfully not the beautiful Japanese maple that grows next to and over our deck.  And of course, plenty of branches dropped throughout the night last night - nothing says "sweet dreams lullaby" like the gunshot sounds of branches snapping and falling to the ground below.

We also got some absolutely awesome icicles out of the storm.  Some of them were pushing 2' long or larger before they came down in the (relative) warmth and rain today.

I took some pictures from the laundry/cat room yesterday, and Onyx was very curious as to what I was looking at outside the window.  She is not impressed by snow, or really much of anything.

Both Chris and I have been working from home most of this week, and I'm very thankful we have the jobs, equipment, and managers to allow us to do so.  I'm not a fan of trying to drive in winter weather in Seattle, and I personally think it's prudent to just stay put and wait until it's gone unless there's a true need for me to go somewhere.  After I finished work today, I spent some time working on a baby quilt for a much-wanted little baby boy who was just born this week.  It's made from a fabric collection called Deep Deep Sea (with a few additions), and came with a panel of sea monsters that I've cut up to use as the centerpieces with strips framing each one individually.  I've completed 2 of the 7 panels, and done most of the work on a third so far.

 Completed and in-progress panels.

 Additional panels, cut strips, and uncut fabric.

And today I finished the second ball of yarn on my first knitting project, my simple garter stitch scarf.  I had to learn how to unknit to take out the last row I originally put in, as what seemed to be plenty of yarn only left a 3" tail which is not enough to weave in, or so I understand since I haven't done that yet.  I'm pretty happy that the knitting is nice and even, with another 9" of length gained from the second ball to match that obtained from the first.  I'm now halfway done!

 

I've also made biscuits for the first time this week, as well as a version of pain de mie, but I will save those for another post.  Dinner is just about ready - black forest ham and mashed potatoes - and I'm ready for it!

Snowmageddon in Seattle

Seattle isn't meant to get snow.  Between the steep hills, sharp turns, and sea-level elevation, the city is not equipped to deal with snow or ice and so when it happens every few years, things generally shut down.  Both Chris and I are lucky enough to have jobs where we can work from home (or vacation/sick time if we can't work for some reason), so neither of us have gone anywhere for the past few days.  I did go to work on Tuesday morning but came home around lunchtime to avoid any issues with the additional snow.

 

We got about 4-5" of snow on Sunday, followed by another 4" or so on Tuesday morning.  On Tuesday, Chris built a snowman - it has chuckits for arms and a tennis ball for a nose.

Ezri discovered the tennis ball nose and found that insulting, so she tried very hard to reach up and get it.

 Trying to play fetch with tennis balls in the snow doesn't work very well, so we threw snowballs at the dogs instead.  You can see the ball heading for Curzon's head just above and to the right of him in the photograph above.

Ezri also catches snowballs, then lies down and eats the snow.

 All the trees look like they've been dipped in confectioner's sugar.

This is the branch of the tree out in the kennel, visible outside my office window.  We got another 4-5" of snow yesterday, and it's been pretty sticky stuff so the trees are hanging onto it tightly.

I got tired of throwing snowballs, so I brought out a basketball to kick around in the snow.  Curzon loves this game!

Ezri will play too, if you can get her attention away from stalking Phoebe's tennis ball.

They're trying to tug on the basketball here...that didn't quite work according to plan.

Jadzia didn't like the snow very much this time - she seemed grumpy and cold the entire time I had her outside and didn't even want to look at the camera.  So I sent her back inside with Phoebe after just 15-20 minutes or so, and kept the other two out for a while longer.

Curzon, however, LOVES the snow and it sure does make it easy to take good photographs of him!

Phoebe spent her entire time outside playing with a tennis ball, as she drops it, digs it back out, chews the snow off of it, runs to a new location, and repeats the whole sequence.  I tossed her up into the wheelbarrow for more entertainment for me.

Picture of our snowy house and truck!  Of course Ezri had to shake right as I took the photo, so she looks weird.

 

Today will be more of the same, as we are both working from home again as the snow melted slightly yesterday afternoon and then froze solid, and the city is under a Ice Storm Warning until about lunch time.  The dogs are not very happy about having to punch through an ice crust when they walk outside!  Even all of the runways are shut down at SeaTac airport, which is pretty impressive as I don't recall that happening in the time I've been here.  So today we will stay home, work on our laptops remotely, and I will probably play with my buckyballs and knitting again.  I made a hexagon-based snowflake yesterday in honor of the snowstorm - pretty!