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.

last quilt of 2012

At the beginning of last March, I went to the Sewing Expo in Puyallup, and one of the classes I took was a "slash it up" quilting class.  The technique taught used twelve fat quarters stacked up and then cut up in a random pattern, then shuffled and reassembled to create a quilt top.  I finished the quilt top in the spring, but it kind of languished as I worked on Averie's quilt (and started, but stalled on Aidan's quilt) throughout the rest of the year.  In November, however, I decided that it needed finishing to give as a Christmas gift to my sister in law, and so I worked hard to finish it up.

Ezri decided to photobomb the picture of the finished quilt, shown laying over our couch.

 Fold of the quilt showing the backing (including the feather fabric I had to use to complete the backing) and the striped inset made from the leftovers of the original quilt blocks.  I had bought out the rest of the bolt of the brown/black fabric used for the sashing and intended to form the whole back of the quilt, but it wasn't enough and I couldn't find any more.  I used a neutral feather pattern to take up the space, and while I wasn't thrilled with it I think it did turn out looking pretty nice.  I also had some difficulty with seams, and ended up using some bits and pieces of iron-on labels to cover those problems after the quilt was completed.  I managed to make it all look intentional, but this wasn't my proudest finish to date for sure.

Back of the quilt after washing - you can see more of the random straight-line quilting that I did after it was washed.

Binding shot - I love this purple color that I chose for the binding.

My sister in law loved the quilt, and I think it will be well used and enjoyed, so that is awesome.  Right now I have two baby quilts in progress, one that's finally ready for quilting (and that baby just had his first birthday), and another that's in the piecing phase and must be done by March 2nd for a baby shower.  I absolutely have to put down my knitting and spinning for a while to get these done!

one year ago today

One year ago today, I took Curzon to SVS in Kirkland and left him there in the competent hands of Dr. Kirkby and her staff, as he underwent rib resection surgery to remove the three ribs affected by his osteosarcoma.  That morning was very hard for me, as we were making the best decision we could, but there were so many variables that we had no idea if it would end up being the right one.  The doctors had good hopes for the surgery's outcome, but nobody could tell us if Curzon would heal and be able to play flyball again for sure, or if this would cure him of the cancer.  So with a hope and a prayer, I hugged and kissed my boy and left his cheerful self there to undergo the surgery.

Today is one year since that day, and this is the photo that I took this morning.  Curzon is still here with us, a year after surgery and after the cancer was found, against all odds.  The internet tells me that the median survival rate for surgery only is a scant 2-3 months, with increases to 7 months with radiation and to 12 months with radiation and chemotherapy combined.  At two months post-op, Curzon was preparing for his first flyball tournament after his surgery, and at three months post-op he was competing.  At eight months post-op, I took him to flyball nationals (NAFA Can-Am) in Indianapolis, IN, and he performed fantastically.

photo credit Irene Cotter, Fur-Fetched Photography

We are not completely safe, unfortunately, as when I had a set of 12-month x-rays done last week, there are three questionable things involving Curzon's lungs visible.  There is a soft-tissue something either in or next to his lung near where the surgery site was located, and the radiologist found two tiny nodules, one in each of his lower lung lobes.  Surgery can't fix these, so we are continuing to keep him on the artemisinin/butyrex combination, I've restarted him on the Hoxseys support tincture, and I've added a Chinese mushroom/herb blend for immune support.  Our vet is also doing some acupuncture based on a technique she recently learned that targets metastases by treating the original tumor location, and he's had his first treatment already with the second scheduled for four weeks later.  Two weeks after the second treatment we'll do x-rays again and see what we're dealing with, and hopefully see a reduction in size or at least very slow growth of the nodules.

For now, Curzon is showing no signs of anything wrong, as even his "old man hairball" cough that he's had since August 2011 hasn't gotten worse and still isn't triggered by any form of exercise.  So he's still competing in flyball (next tournament February 16/17), he's still tormenting his baby sister Ezri, still taking any chance he can get to go swimming, and still being his lovable goofy self.  That's all we can ask and all we can hope for, and to love him and enjoy every day that he has with us as a gift.

Except when he's whining, of course.

I'm going to make a point of posting at least once a week, as going for months at a time without posting is kind of a guilt trip on myself.  Next post will be more cheerful, I hope - a look at some of my quilting, knitting, and spinning projects over the past year!

six months later, Curzon is cancer-free

Apparently I took a summer vacation from the blog.  Oops.

Well, it's more like I got behind on my posting, then ended up sort of paralyzed that I hadn't posted, and then I went on vacation.  But the end result is no posts for two months, so we'll call it a summer vacation.  Rather than start with my mental backlog of posts, here is the most important thing that's happened in the last two months.

Curzon is cancer free at six months post-op.

Let me say that again.  CURZON IS CANCER FREE AT SIX MONTHS POST-OP!!!

I took him in for chest x-rays on July 10th, which are included below, and he looks perfect.  Apart from the obviously trimmed ribs and sternum, as well as a few surgical clips where his muscles were adjusted, there is absolutely nothing out of the ordinary about his chest films.  His heart, lungs, and other organs are clean.  There is no tumor regrowth around the surgical site, and no visible lumps or metastases on the film.  There are no physical lumps anywhere on his body.

We have our boy back, and that is a wonderful thing.

I will be taking him to the NAFA CanAm Classic, October 12-14 2012, which is essentially "flyball nationals" in Indianapolis, where he will race with a friend's team.  Next year, during 2013, he will earn his Flyball Grand Champion 50,000 point title, and in October of 2013 he will earn his Iron Dog Award for earning points in 10 consecutive NAFA racing years.

I can't wait.

spinning with a wheel for the first time

On Tuesday, I took a beginner's spinning wheel class with my friend Christy at the Weaving Works down in the U District in Seattle.  I went into the class with a very basic skillset in drop spindle spinning, which I learned at the Sew Expo back at the beginning of March, and with never having sat at a spinning wheel before.  The slight familiarity I had with fiber and how to draft it was very helpful, but of course none of my other baby spinning skills translated in the slightest.

There were a variety of wheels set up in the class for everyone to use, and the one I ended up using was a Lendrum single-treadle folding wheel, similar to the double-treadle one available at the store now. It was easy enough to use once I had played with it, with a single treadle on the right side and three whorl sizes to choose from to adjust the ratio of the flyer speed to the wheel speed.  For this class (and so far at home) I'm keeping it on the slowest speed possible, as it's already very fast to me!  I had always wondered how you set up a wheel to spin, and it turns out to be quite easy once someone shows you how - the yarn comes out of the orifice (the black tube at the top of the photo above) to join with the fiber you're spinning in your hands, and once it's through the orifice it is attached to the flyer in order to wrap around the bobbin.

By the end of the class I had a bobbin about half-full of beginner yarn - some well turned, some not, some way overtwisted, and some not twisted enough.  My biggest challenge so far appears to be controlling the twist in the fiber - I'm using my right hand close to the wheel to control twist, while my left hand is managing and feeding the fiber to my right.  It's very easy to loose my right hand too much and then get twist in my fiber supply, which means a thicker slub of yarn forming since it's difficult/impossible to break that up once the twist is in it.  I also had trouble at the beginning with too much twist going into my yarn, which actually caused it to kink up and almost bind up the flyer, so that's going to take some time to get used to as well.  I only broke the yarn once, though, so overall I'm pretty pleased with the results for my first attempt.

At the end of class, we were shown how to use a niddy-noddy to pull the yarn off our bobbins, and then the teacher tied off the ends for us.  Apparently I wound onto the niddy-noddy very tightly, and it was difficult to get the skein loose once it had been tied off!  The yarn is only a single strand at this point, and of course when it's allowed to relax then all that twist comes out in curlies and overall twist of the skein.  I think it's kind of pretty, honestly - and it's amazing how much yarn was on the bobbin, and that was only about 2/3 of what I spun that night (my one yarn break was irredeemable and I started over at that point with a new leader).  That's probably the same amount (or possibly more) of yarn that I've spun on my drop spindles over the past few months!

The teacher gave us the option to borrow a wheel for the week between classes for a small deposit, so I took her up on that offer and brought it home along with the bag of fiber she gave to each student.  The fiber we're working with is plain undyed Australian wool mix, which she said is probably primarily Corriedale but is mixed with other things.  I spent a short time last night spinning again, but was having some difficulty and slightly different problems then I did while I was at the class.  First off, I was spinning in my dining room for the light and the wheel was moving on the hardwood floor as I treadled, so I used a silicone potholder to stop it from moving.  My first two sections of roving spun up very easily (and I was a lot more consistent with my yarn size, as you can see in the photo above), but then I started having more trouble controlling the wheel for some reason, with it going too fast for me at times and flipping direction when I didn't want it to.  After about the sixth time that the yarn wisped right out of my hands, I gave up for the night and pulled off the wispy bits and just wound off the edge on the guide hook so that I could just practice treadling a bit.  I'll try again tonight, maybe by moving my little ironing board so I can sit in my sewing room where there are rugs *and* good lighting.

And of course, after the frustration of having issues spinning, two of my dogs decided to be absolute brats one right after the other, which did not help matters.  That was when I cut my losses and headed to bed, as clearly anything additional was not going to be accomplished last night!

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!

London, part two

Oh dear, it's been almost three weeks since I made my first post about our London trip - and it's already been four weeks since we were there.  How time flies!  Anyway, here's part two of our trip to London last month!

On Wednesday, I spent nearly the entire day at the Tower of London, which is very impressive both physically and historically.  The building above is where the Crown Jewels are stored and displayed, which was well worth the time I spent there - it was my first destination that morning, in order to minimize the crowds that would be there later in the day.  The exhibit is beautifully done, with several holding rooms that show videos about the coronation process throughout the ages, including a loop of the video footage of Queen Elizabeth II's coronation in 1952.  The first room shows the jeweled sword, golden cloak, and coronation gown worn by the Queen, all in glass cases that allow you to walk around and look your fill.  The next room is where the actual Crown Jewels are located, including the scepters, crowns, and rings, and they are in glass cases with slow-moving walkways on both sides.  You can walk back around to take the walkways again if you like, and I went down each side twice - not only are the jewels themselves impressive (including the Cullinan and Koh I Noor diamonds), but the artistry and craft that went into making the items is just phenomenal.  I was particularly impressed with some of the beautiful enamel work that went into the shafts of the scepters - lovely blues and whites, simply gorgeous.  The remainder of the space shows the very impressive gold plate and banquet collection, including a punchbowl that's big enough to hold something like 115 bottles of wine (and is big enough to wash a border collie in!), as well as the collection of the custom built cases that are used to transport the Jewels when they are required for official occasions.  Unfortunately the room was besieged by a large group of ill-behaved and poorly monitored children at that point, which marred my enjoyment of the rest of those items, but it is what it is.  Another display which I found later in the day shows the gem-less frames of several additional historical crowns, which was also quite intriguing and worth finding for a look.

The White Tower is the main building in the center of the Tower of London complex, and is the one that most people associate with the Tower itself.  Its previous uses are many, and now it is a large museum space that displays all kinds of things from suits of armor to keys to torture devices to cannon to guns, and even beyond.  My very favorite display was the incredible dragon sculpture (named Keeper) that was built out of all kinds of things that represent what the Tower has stood for in the history of England.  He was very impressive, especially with all the detail and creativity that went into his creation!

Parts of the Tower have been used as royal apartments throughout history, and parts of them have been restored to what is believed to be accurate representations of what they looked like hundreds of years ago.  The room above was a small personal chapel for the king (Edward III, I believe), and showed the most beautiful handmade and hand-glazed tiles that were made in the same manner as they would have originally been created hundreds of years ago.  The overall effect is very beautiful, and it is always amazing to see the beauty and craftsmanship that was present in the past and is sometimes sadly lacking in the present.

On Thursday I went to visit the British Museum, which is full of amazing artifacts and collections from all around the world.  There is so much to see there that I think I could go visit for several days and see different things on each day!  The Enlightenment Room was a particular favorite of mine, especially the parts that were full of scientific instruments such as the model of the universe shown in the photo above - how amazing it must have been to be part of the age of discovery and learning as the scientific method and the sciences themselves were born!

The Egyptian collections in the building were also amazing, including not only the Rosetta Stone but plenty of funerary items as well as things recovered from archaeological digs from around the world.  The shabti in the photo above are just a few examples of those found in various tombs and crypts, and they were included with a burial so that the deceased would have servants to do whatever work was requested of them in the afterlife.  They were amazing, both in the variety and in the detail that were put into them, in addition to the meaning behind their use.

On Wednesday evening we went out for dinner and wound up wandering around the Piccadilly Circus area for a bit, including going into a toy store that had a large Lego department, where we found the above - a copy of the Imperial crown made out of Lego!

Friday was our last full day in the city, and the only day Chris had away from his work, so we went out in the morning to ride the Eye of London and were rewarded with some amazing weather that allowed photos such as the one above of Big Ben and Parliament.  We also headed out to see Harrod's, but the weather was heavy rain at that point and after a long walk we were both overwhelmed by the sheer amount of stuff there - there was an opera singer in the stairwell! - that we didn't enjoy it as much as we had hoped.  I would definitely like to visit it again someday, when I'm in a better mood to appreciate it.  Friday night we went out to a lovely little French place near where we were staying for an early celebration of our tenth anniversary, where I had the best steak frites that I've ever had along with a wonderful chocolatey dessert.  Saturday morning saw us take a walk to a quilt shop near our hotel before we headed to Heathrow to fly home to Seattle.

I loved my week in London, and I hope that I will get to visit again someday!