Kitty Question

Up until a year or so ago I had no qualms about declawing...until I learned what is really involved. Its not just removing the nail! Now that we have Cinnamon we have a decision to make. He is awfully cute, but he is causing us pain. I could care less about our furniture, but he attacks our feet during the night. Some nights I have succeeded by tiring him out with play time and he doesn't bother us until bout 5 am, lol. I trimmed his nails thinking that would lessen the pain. Nope.

I really don't want to declaw him. I'm going to order these little nail covers to see if that helps. That should be fun to get on him, lol! Anyone try them? I can't remember what they are called. Soft Paws maybe? I will have to Google it.

Please let me know how you feel and if you have any ideas. Oh, keeping him out of the bedroom at night isn't an option as his litter box is in the master bath and we don't have another place for it. 

Michelle

Oops

Haven't quite figured out the Blogger app yet. This is the desk that should have shown up in the last post.

Thrift Store Day

First I have to say that you guys are awesome. Within minutes I knew what my little wooden gadget was...though my husband is sticking with a candle holder, lol. Stubborn man. Thanks so much!

I hit the thrift stores today as it was 50% off Wednesday at my favorite Salvation Army. I went with the intention of finding storage for my friend Kimberlee. She is re-doing her craft room and wants old instead of the newer bookshelf that she hs now. I emailed her a few pics and I did well too.

Milk tank thingy for $15 at a local shop called Pieces. Its already painted red. Perfect for my porch! And I couldn't resist this desk for $15 either. We have a roll top desk from the 70s that I hate. It will be given back to my husband's aunt and this will go in its place. Just a spot to drop the mail. Please ignore the dusty floor grate and pile of paint. :-)  I bought a bunch of little things too.

I shouldn't have bought anything as my husband was laid off last Friday, but I think he has everything straightened out and will basically be working for a sister company of the one he was working for. Fingers crossed. 

Interesting thrift store find , but what is it?

I couldn't pass up this little wooden item for 25 cents. I have no idea what it is though. My husband thought maybe a candle holder that can hold any size candle; just turn the handle to adjust tension on the candle. Sounds good, but I'm not sure. Any ideas?

Cardinal Mat Progress

Well here goes nothing. I'm attempting to post from my phone, but this thing
is a pain to type on so this will be short and sweet...and probably full of spelling errors. : )
Here is the progress I've made on my cardinal mat. I bought a skirt at Goodwill which is the perfect color for the background. I didn't follow the rules about cutting, because I couldn't remember them, so I have some fraying going on. First hooked rug, not worried about it.

I'm a hooker and a dyer!

I love rug hooking, but the only hooking I've done was with wool yarn and one small square in a Yahoo Groups rug with wool strips, and those both were about 2004! I've had a Bliss Model B since 2004 as well, bought used on ebay by my hubs for me. He bought me a beautiful frame as well that year for my birthday. And it all just sat there. I know I've blogged about this before, about how I wanted to use my goodies.

So I went to the local rug hooking group last week. It was on the day after I worked the weekend and my hours are crazy. I work until 3 a.m. so I didn't get to the group until 2 p.m., lol. The hooking group is from 10:30 to 3p.m.  Ha ha! I'm just not a morning person and I don't get up until at least noon the day after I work until 3 a.m. I'm sure you understand. : ) 

I'm so glad I went! The ladies were so nice and helped me draw a simple star on my monks cloth to get started. There were a few primitive gals and a few who were doing fine cut floral work. I became fast friends with Kimberlee who loves primitive in a 9 or 10 cut. I've never seen anything that wide and it was beautiful! We got to talking and then this week we have had a blast getting together. Monday we drove to Berlin, Ohio, on a last minute trip to Country Craft Cupboard. It's a rug hooker's dream! I bought a yard of primitive linen, a primitive 8mm Hartman hook, a pattern, and two Cushing's dyes (mulberry and spice brown). Tuesday I took my Bliss to Kimberlee's and she helped me clean it and oil it, and it works sooo nice now! I could barely get the handle turned before. It has been sitting for more than six years and still had some wool fuzz from the last owner. Wednesday, yesterday, we got together again (lol) and dyed some wool and she got me started on a pattern I have been looking at in Create and Decorate Magazine for four years! Yes, I am the Queen of Unfinished Projects and the Queen of Procrastination, lol!

Cardinal rug from Create and Decorate Magazine

We had so much fun dyeing. We tried to follow a formula in a book for a light tan color for me to use as the background on my cardinal rug. Well, we got a very dark brown. It's a beautiful color, just not what we were expecting. So then I tried my spice brown on a new piece of white wool. Love it! I think it's a tad darker than I wanted for the background, but it will work just fine.


Spice Brown on new white wool. It's darker in person.


Next we through some mulberry dye and some bright red wool in the pot just to see what we would get. Beautiful! I am a prim girl and this bright red wool was never going to get used by me. Again, beautiful mottled reds!


Mulberry on bright red wool. Again, darker in person.

 Poor Kimberlee was trying so hard to find the perfect color for her snowman rug and wasn't getting it. Too dark, too yellow....I told her I had beginner's luck.

We had a delicious lunch of chicken salad and pita bread, and got to hooking. I just love her house. It's a new house, about five years, but it's so prim. Hooked rugs, penny rugs, wool applique.....so many things to look at! Here is what I have done so far. I started with the cardinal wing and probably hooked too closely. Then I started outlining the body of the bird. I soon switched to my primitive Hartman hook because I was having trouble pulling the strips with the regular hook I was using. So much better! Even though I'm only using a #8 cut, the Hartman hook was so much easier. I was really struggling with the other hook and my finger was getting sore. I thought rug hooking was supposed to be relaxing, lol! The right side is where I was struggling and the left is when I switched to the Hartman hook. You can definitely see the difference. I might even re-hook the right side.

My progress so far on the cardinal rug

 Okay, off to get some cleaning done before work because I've been ignoring it the last few days. : )

Hi.

Just a quick note to say hello to the world. I have the winter/holiday blahs. I can't really say winter now can I?!?! It's about 50 degrees and raining....in Ohio....on December 15th.

I got to chat with Alice and she reminded me of a local hook-in, so I'm going. I'm actually looking forward to it! I've heard about it before and just dragged my feet and never made it. I'm determined to use some of my craft supplies (which include a wonderful frame, Bliss cutter, and some wool) and do something useful with them. Four years ago I bought some monks cloth (I think that's what it is) intending to make a rug for my sister's wedding. I will give you one guess where the monks cloth is. Yep, in the bag from the store.

My son had hand surgery on Monday and is still in some pain and bored out of his mind, but is hanging in there. He broke a finger badly during basketball practice a few weeks ago. We didn't realize it was broken and didn't get to the doc as soon as we should have. That's the downfall of working in a hospital. Kind of like that story of the shoemaker's children. So one pin and one screw later, he is all wrapped up and on Vicodin. Unfortunately he is missing an entire week of school (bad planning on my part) and next week starts winter break, so I guess in his mind he is lucky....though he is not happy about having to make up a week's worth of work over break.

I better go check on the patient. Have a good weekend all and hopefully I will have a picture of something hooked next time I stop in. : )

~Michelle