Santa Claus and the Crap Fairy

Here is some of the work of Carrie Lyons.These are all 8"x11" pencil on art board, and they are availble on ETSY for $50.
You can also buy hand touched prints and note cards and artist trading cards an very reasonable prices. You shouold check her out by clicking on this banner link.
The best part is, she can make custom portraits of your pet. She has four house rabbits and understands the importance of catching the essence of your pet.

Tomorrow, I leave for a four day retreat in Santa Barbra with Marcie Tilton and Diane Ericson. I hope everything here doesn't fall apart. Not badly anyway.

Silver is now working on her third newspaper log. I make them out of newspaper rolled up and tied with jute twine. It keeps her happy, but Dave doesn't like the mess. I remind him it is better than chewing on the sofa.

This past Christmas, it was surprising how Joseph, at eleven, is still holding on to his belief in Santa Clause. The reason became obvious when we sat down to write thank you notes. See, you have to write notes to all the people who give you gifts, except Santa Claus. Anybody who believes in Santa Clause has fewer notes to write.

The Crap Fairy is another story. Its easy to see why he still believes. The Crap Fairy goes around the house picking up all your crap and leaving prizes. The more prizes you want, the more crap you leave around. There has never been any evidence of Crap Fairy prizes, yet millions of children still believe.

Banners for Brian

My cousin Brian asked about banners. Less than an expert myself, I provided him with some info, and here, he can see some examples. They should all click through to that place.




Gomilpitas banner


btae ebay search


cedaras blog

Hi Ho Silver!

Here she is! She sure is busy!
She likes to make confetti, so if I provide raw materials, she doesn't have to resort to whatever is on hand. We have replaced the cords on our lamps and encased them in plastic tubing.
She is friendly and likes to be petted, but not picked up. She likes to play. She seems to be learning to tell the difference between fun black cat and nasto black cat.
Rabbitese is a new language for us. I have consulted with other rabbit owners only to find the language varies greatly from bun to bun and evolves according to individual rabbit whims faster than a translation can be compiled and published. We are lost at sea. Good thing we packed carrots.

Binding

It has been way too long since my last update. Silver has settled in and is nothing like I thought rabbits were. She is more fun. Dave thinks she is messy. I point out that she is more reliable at litter box use than his favorite cat Whiskers.

I have enrolled in a Design Outside the Lines retreat with Marcie Tilton and Diane Ericson in Santa Barbara. A big scary step. Now I have to prepare. Fast. It is February 3rd thru 7th.

Part of why I have not posted is because I wanted to show you pictures of Silver and I didn't want to scare her with a flash. I took pictures this morning and she took the flash in stride. Possible because it was never a problem, possibly because I waited until she was more at-home here.

Another bigger one was that I promised to post pictures of putting two-fold binding on a quilt. I took the pictures a long time ago, but did not feel like editing the photos or writing directions. I finally did.

Blogger has reduced the file size, so if you want the bigger files, I can email them to you in an attachment. Just leave a comment.

entropy

Silver the rabbit is doing well. She is adjusting to our home and getting into a routine. Beside the occasional lamp cord chewing, her chewing has been random and casual and easily dissuaded.

and then she began to feel more at-home.

She went behind the sofa and chewed on the corner. I stuffed a phone book between wall and sofa. It took a couple days, but she went behind the sofa from the other end and there was more chewing on the sofa. I gently chased her out and gave he a cardboard egg carton. She went back behind the sofa and there was more chewing. So I got a rolled up newspaper and stuffed that between wall and sofa. I was no problem for her to pull it out, though it had been an effort to stuff it in.

But the newspaper, the NEWSPAPER, it was fantastic! So great for chewing! She made confetti. Lots of confetti. She was so busy. Fiendishly busy.

Destructo Bunny was born!

Storm

We are having a storm. Compared to lots of places, it's pretty mild. We just aren't used to it and our lives aren't designed to handle it well. If it rained and blew like this frequently the we would have the stuff that makes it easier to live with. As it is, it's hard to justify the expense of installing it if you are only going to really need it for one storm every few years.

I didn't put a blanket on Janow last night because he has a lot of hair, and if he could stay dry, his hair would keep him warmer that a blanket. A blanket would just squish the hair down and reduce it's ability to insulate. If he could stay dry. He got wet. the wind gusted and swirled around, leaving only a very small dry part in his stall. He probably stayed dry until breakfast when he had to leave the small spot to eat.

When I got there, he was standing right up against the wall. He turned his head around to look at me and his head was all tilted. Right away I feared a neurological condition! No, he was just tilting it away from the wind. He was miserable. So I got a lightweight wool blanket and put it on. I walked him down to the arena barn, a soaking journey in itself. He was already wet. I walked him up and down the aisle a bunch, and scratched his face. He was very itchy. Then I took the blanket off and let him roll in the arena.

Re blanketed for the walk home, where I changed the blanket for a dry one with heavier wool and gave him lost of hay. He seemed just fine when I left.

Do horses live in the wild without this care? All the time. Usually not to the age of 19. A big part of why we have animals we don't need for survival is because we enjoy making them comfy. They can't say "But Mom!!!! Bucky gets too!"

Block of the Month

Lover's Knot blocks, 12 inches square.

Here is the Block of the Month for Piecemakers Guild. The pattern is published in the newsletter. Everyone who wants to can make one, or two, or so. At the general meeting, we pin them up and each person who makes on is entered in a drawing. The winner takes them all.

I like to make them, but the last thing I need is another unfinished project! So I enter mine as "Community Quilts" which is our charity group. Since I am not winning them, I don't feel constrained by the limit on the number of entries by one person. I don't even know what it is!

ouch

Yesterday I cut my finger. Right on the very end. I tried to wash it off, but it was bleeding too much, so I told Dave it needed stitches.
He said
"Let's wait and see if it stops bleeding."
I said
"It needs stitches."
He said
"Lets wait and see if it stops bleeding."
I said
"It needs stitches."
He didn't want to drive to the emergency room. I didn't want to put it off. He was going to put it off as long as possible. I knew we'd have to go.
He said
"It might stop bleeding by itself."
I said,
"Even if it does, it still needs stitches."
I have three stitches in my left nose picking finger.
I call it that because it will bother my Mom. I want everyone to know, especially my Mom, that even at 47 years old, it's still OK to bother your mom on purpose. If you didn't care about her, you wouldn't make the effort.

Happy Day Diane

Guinea Brocade

I just received several yards of this fabric from Nigeria. I'm trying to find out about it. Most of the web sites I have found are not informative. They assume I already know. This is exciting!

If anyone has experience with it, please tell me about it!

This site is the most informative one I have found:
African Fabric Lady

Wood By DeRaud

Every once in a while, you find something really exciting! This week I found THIS!

Look at these bowls. Wow. They are beautiful.

Just looking at the pictures make me want to pick them up. I can imagine how solid and warm they would be.



The man who makes these is Lee DeRaud in southern California, which is almost the same state as me, except southern California is always another state altogether. Not like here in Silicon Valley.

They are for sale, as are others. Lee has a store on ETSY, and a web site that should be up soon. Go and look at these bowls!

Today may not be a good day to buy a bowl, but bookmark his ETSY store in your favorites file.
For the future.

Just in case.


These 4 bowls range in price from $100 to $165. Very good prices for high quality collectable art!


Click here for: Wood By DeRaud

Boxing Day

We did it! The big day we had been working toward for months! Now we can relax.

We got good stuff. My best gift was that Dave cooked everything! And cleaned up. He did and excellent job.

I had a great time at the barn with Janow, knowing I did not have to rush home and cook. The sun was out, the wind was not. I was expecting loads of non-horsey extneded families of boarders there, but there were not many. That was nice. Too many non-horse people are unpredictable. With horses, unpredicatable can be dangerous.

Chenille socks
Fleece slippers
A remote that is hard to lose, or blame it's loss on someone who didn't touch it!
A prediction for the warmest boyscout on the camp out.

Merry Christmas

Today is the day! Christmas spirit wears me out, so I wait until the last minute. Right now, at 4:45 am, I feel it!

I took these pictures of Janow yesterday. Wearing a stupid hat and having his picture taken was not on his wish list, especially with bits of hay laying around.

From the look on his face, spreading Christmas cheer was not a priority. Actually, when I though about it, Christmas cheer was NOT what he was spreading, it was something else.

On third thought, he wasn't even spreading it, he was leaving it in piles.

When it comes right down to it, finding food is most important for horses, (some more than others, but not much more)and the search for food is a majorly satisfying task, so much so that often they simply eat what they find, even if it's icky. You can always jettison that bite if you find something better.

So that's Janow's Christmas wish for everyone, that you have enough to eat(and all the other things you need)so that you have the time to pursue pleasurable activities.


Like reading, for my friend, and eating, for his horse.

ad libidum

We three played Scrabble. Joseph wanted to play Monopoly but neither of us other two wanted to start something that was long and open ended. Scrabble ends when you run out of tiles and board.

We won on the game pick, so when Joseph wanted to not keep score and just go for using all the tiles, we agreed right away. In the end, we had to pool all the remianing tiles and just go for it. The last tile was the V in IV, which probably wouldn't be allowed, but it was the last tile!!!


Teck Deck is the lastest rage in the 6th grade at Pomeroy school. Joseph is teaching Dave how to do it. He thought the beanie might help.

And Mary Shelley, who usually can't remain in anybody's good graces long enough to get the camera out. She can't help it, she just gets so jealous!

Tomorrow is the big day that we have all been anticipating. We will compound our exaustion and high expectations with eating whatever we want, whenever we want, no rules. If there are any problems, we will blame it on each other, not suspecting the combination of fatigue and poor food choices. And we will look forward to next Christmas. Easy when Dec 25th '08 is so far away that it will never get here.

It's mine!

I finished this sweatshirt. Here it is after the final wash and "haircut." Click on the picture to see the details.

All the primitive edges fray and fringe, then I trim off the really long threads. The stitches I use to sew everything on are so small that it won't fray beyond them.

I really liked it, so I decided to take it to my little impromtue sale at Indian Hill Ranch. If I sold it, good! If I didn't sell it, it was MINE to wear.

It's mine! I would have been happy either way. I love it when you can only have a happy ending, even if it's only a sweatshirt.

Further

Here we are, deocrating the tree. We did this the day after we got it out of it's storage box. We only put unbreakables on it, though MaryShelley seems happy just to be near the tree, not actually in the tree. Dog birth control can do that, I guess.

No family occasion is complete without a posed "candid shot."
!
I'm working on this sweatshirt more. Bob told me it was OK to set up a little sale table near the indoor ring on Saturday. I was making this for me to wear, but if it is done by then, I will take it to sell. If I still have it by the end of the day, I will wear it

Finally feels started!

I had already dyed the sweatshirt, three times as I remember, before I felt the color was right! I had made the text, which takes a long time, rather tedious, but handwork can be soothing. You must wait not only to need soothing but to have time to be soothed before you can get it done. Now I have started the collage/applique process on a new primitive sweatshirt and it is finally exciting.

So here is the first part sewn to the shirt. I used some 20 wt sulky cotton in variegated reds. If you click on the photo, it will enlarge and you might be able to see it.

Whiskers had to sit on it, of course.

I opened silver's cage this morning and took her out. She explored but stayed near the cage. She ate a romaine leaf in no time flat, while I cut a piece of plastic tubing to fit over the cord to my computer to make it chew proof. She has returned to her cage by herself. I will let her stay there until she feels more comfortable coming out.

I have done more work on my website, thanks to Ruben who gave me another idea to make it easier to use. He was at Peete's, complaining to Bob about having to use stores' web sites and scrolling forever to find what you want. Each page of my website has a thumbnail photo that is a link if you click it. You can go directly to the description of that thing with more photos. Now I have added links to go 'back to top' for each item. I think this is a big improvement. Thanks Ruben.

Welcome Silver

Well, we miss the rabbit that was with us over Thanksgiving, and we learned so much about rabbits at that time. We decided to get a rabbit of our own. So we did more learning and visited Oakland Animal Shelter, where we met Ladybug.

Ladybug was the right rabbit for us, so I hurred up and got all of what we would need to make her comfortable. Hoping all the time that she would remain available for adoption. It all worked out and we went up and got her today after school.

Ladybug movie

Joseph decided her name should be Silver. I didn't think Ladybug really fit. That was her shelter name anyway.

Now I'll have to make rabbit stuff to put on Doublecatbatik.com, the website.

WIP Again

Here is my WIP, Work In Progress. I have been doing other stuff too, so it is progressing slowly. I plan on putting it on a sweathsirt that I have hand-dyed.


Yesterday we went to Oakland Animal Shelter to visit rabbits. We met one we all like. It was heartbreaking to have to leave without her, but we are not ready for a rabbit in our house. We have more learning and equipment to aquire.

Go take a Pill

I found these on ETSY yesterday. I laughed so hard! The scrooge in me is not hiding very deeply. Often not hiding at all. Here's a link to go and see more pictues and a descripton, and perhaps buy one if they are not all sold already.
link to pills

Key Search

I have added new photos of the quilt Key Search to my website. I realize that the dimensions aren't given, so I have to look it up on the label, or unfold it and measure it! It's huge, so I hope I find the label!

Packages are coming in and going out for both Christmas and many birthdays. It gets hard to keep track of what is ordered and coming, and what has been ordered for someone here, or perhaps shipped in a box they got from ordering something else. I can't really complain, but it IS confusing!

Joseph and Dave got out the tree and set it up last night. Decorations are still to come. Mary Shelley, of course, was overwhelmed. She LOVES Christmas and is a veteran Christmas tree climber. Dave tries to foil her, which, of course, makes it even more attractive. I remember the year he put it on the coffee table thinking it would be harder to climb! She not only tipped it over, but it fell off the table! We don't use breakable ornaments, but I don't even have to say that!



click on this sign to see the new pictures of Key Search in action, and to see the new Blazing Star saddlepad on the Horses page.

No Picture Available

Janow and I saw a bald eagle near Ed Levin Park. That's all I have to say.

Floss Your Drains Out

I told you there was a Dave story to go with my bathroom picture. There is. We had a little water damage that Dave repaired. That means we had to get new flooring. That means Dave had to take the toilet out. So he made a cardboard sled and slid it out into the bedroom.

When it was ready to go back in, he told me he hadn't looked on the underside, he was afraid. Afraid of what? Afraid of the unknown. Yup, the underside of a toilet is definitely pioneer territory.

He looked. Up in the very edge of the drain, at the toilet-floor interface, he found wads and wads of dental floss.

"Who's been putting floss in the toilet?!" he asked.

I said "You."

"I have not!"

"Well, I use a hummingbird flosser(that has little plastic dispo attachments with teeny pieces of floss) and you won't let Joseph do his teeth in your bathroom. That leaves you."

"I don't put my floss in here!"

I didn't even have to think how to respond to that one!
"You've been putting your floss in the toilet ever since Bab(previous cat) ate a piece of floss from the waste basket and only passed one end in the litter box. The passed end had a poop stuck to it and it followed him on the end of the floss that was still stuck up inside. Remember how he raced around the apartment with the poop on the end of the piece of floss chasing him?"

I told you there was a story.

If it works for you.....

Today was almost fun. I was going to use it to re-group after a week that went smoothly only because our run-away sled did not hit a tree...a big one anyway. It tured out to be a re-goop instead.

The washer doesn't make a smell when it washes, which is good, but not. If it totally was NG, I would have to get a new one.


Then, again, United States Postal Service website works well for them. All the cancelled transactions I got when trying to mail the birthday present on Thursday? The post office didn't know they were cancelled and my credit card paid for them all. Even the one that worked. Of course, they report the website is fine, I should delete my cookies. Reminding you, one more time, that they are Government. Some things are constant, like Whisker's hunger.


This is my bathroom. There is another Dave story in here....tomorrow.