Taco

Back in October we had a brief cold snap and it got pretty chilly around here. I knew Taco wasn't happy in her usual spot on top of my floss cabinet. The window next to my stitching desk gets really cold in the winter. I need some heavy drapes to block that! When it got cold she started stealing my chair every time I got up. When she was in her bed on the floss cabinet she curled into a tight little tuft.

Since I need a catless chair to stitch in I was taken to desperate measures. We moved the cat bed! I cleared off the top of the chest of drawers that holds stash and added a big warm cat bed. I think she will be cosier here in the winter.

I think she likes it.

She looks happy anyway.

Taco thinks photo shoots are boring though. And that is only a trick of the camera, she doesn't really have three canine teeth.

My biggest problem now is Taco can see my face from her bed and thinks she has to talk to me. Constantly. Meow. Meow. Meow. Meow. Meow.

>^..^<

Thank you for visiting my blog today!

xox

Please meet Merry

OMG

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When I arrived home after work I found I have an unexpected houseguest. Would you all please say hello to my new friend, Merry, who's come all the way to Oklahoma from England to stay with me! Merry wears the most beautiful red frock with a lovely tartan scarf. Isn't she the sweetest? Merry has already been quite busy since she arrived.

She has been helping with my blogging.

Merry snuggled with Sheba!

Then, Merry met Taco. Taco was so excited she kept rubbing on Merry. This nearly knocked Merry off the floss cabinet! It was also difficult to get a clear picture with all that happy rubbing. Calm down, Taco!

Merry also helped a bit with the October Crabby block.

A big thank you to Julie for sending Merry my way! I adore her. I've wanted (coveted) one of Julie's precious bunnies since I saw the first one she made! Thank you so much Julie!

>^..^<

Thank you for visiting my blog today!

xox

A stitching room to die for

OMG Julie at I'll Cross That Leg When I get To It has finished her wonderful new stitching room. You must go see, it's really awesome!

Miss Taco has been to see the vet. She got a shot and some liquid antibiotics (oh how much fun that will be) and she should be fine in a few days. The vet couldn't say what is ailing her but said she did have a very sore throat, probably drainage from the sniffly nose.

"Mama, I don't like car rides. I gets all dirtys."

Thank you for visiting my blog today!

xox

The Sisterhood, bread recipe and lots of sneezes

Wow, Jill finished her version of the Traveling Pattern in record time! Be sure to stop by her blog The Purple Peacock for your chance to join the Sisterhood and to admire Jill's lovely stitching!

Now, about that bread in my last post...I am not a Martha Stewart wannabe. I rarely feel like getting all homemaker, cooking and baking bread, I'd much rather sit and stitch and play with stash. When I do feel like baking...I seriously cheat! I use frozen bread dough. Put the frozen dough in a greased pan (any shape,) grease your plastic wrap, cover and put it in the fridge overnight. About three hours before you'd like your bread ready to eat remove it from the fridge, cut it into about 8 pieces. Dump about 3/4 of a cup of sharp cheddar cheese and a half cup sliced jalapenos over the dough and kind of mix it up. Make a pan shape out of the dough and put it back into your greased pan. Re-cover with the greased plastic wrap. This sits on your kitchen counter for about three hours for the dough to rise and then bake it according to the bread dough package's instructions. Easy peasy and oh, so yummy.

To answer a question...the fabric I tea dye usually gets about 10 to 15 minutes to soak. It really just depends how impatient I get. I'm pretty sure the longer you leave it in the tea the stronger the color.

Someone has the sneezles. Little miss Taco has been sneezing since Saturday morning. Big, wet, honking sneezes. And her eyes are a bit puffy and watery. I looked it up online and found out sneezing usually means a cat has an upper respiratory infection. Of course, kids and pets only ever get sick on a holiday weekend. When the vet opens tomorrow I'll make her an appointment and see why my kitty is sick. Poor baby Taco!

Thank you for visiting my blog today!

xox

July Heat

Our hot, hot, hot weather has finally ended, I think. We had so many days over 100 degrees but near the end of the week it dropped back into the high nineties and today was in the high eighties. I can live with 85!

Presenting: Crabby All Year's July Heat! Apt block this month, isn't it? Missy Ann, you were right, this was the fastest block! I zoomed right through. For this picture I placed the buttons where they will be stitched on. This months' buttons are kind of the whole point of the block and I thought it would look better with them. These aren't really egg buttons. It's sand dollars and round yellow-orange ones...but they do look like eggs ~ clever!

With the extreme heat, we've had to keep the house shut up. No curtains opened, lights off and fans going. Even still, the air conditioning never stopped running. Today, Taco enjoyed bird watching with the drapes open next to my stitchy chair. She is trying to see the hummingbird on the other side of the feeder!

I've started the Traveling pattern today and should be able to show you a WIP photo tomorrow.

Oh, yeah, before I forget...they have put our new roof on. Now we are waiting for the siding contractors to start (maybe this coming week.) I have taken "before" photos and can't wait to see the improvements!

Thank you for visiting my blog today!

xox

There is a Winner!

I gathered all the names in my bowl and went to look for someone to help me.

Taco was not interested in helping.

Sheba gave it a glance and a snuffle.

Then she decided she wasn't interested in helping after all.
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In the end, I drew the name myself...eyes closed of course!

The winner is... Jan of Stitching Cats!

Congratulations, Jan! I'll contact you for your mailing address.

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Thank you for visiting my blog today!

xox

Follow My Blog

The blogger following widget is pretty cool but you are only allowed to follow 200 blogs. Considering I currently have nearly 300 blogs in my reader, a good majority of them on blogger, I clearly cannot follow everyone. That's really crappy! I made the difficult decision to follow only those that display the widget on their blog.

Last Sunday, I visited every blog I was following, checked for the widget and deleted them if it wasn't there. Yup, I visited 200 blogs on Sunday! I'm sorry if you were deleted! NOTE: I still read your blog if you are in the list in my sidebar. I was able to pare the 200 blogs down to eleventy-one (111). If you add the following widget to your blog, I'll likely start following your blog again. That is until I reach the 200 limit again, at which time I'll probably have to visit them all again and weed out those that haven't been updated in yonks.

I currently have 88 friends following my blog. That is amazingly awesome! Thank you all so much! I decided I will have a giveaway after (if ever) I reach 100 followers! Or would eleventy-one be more fun? Anyway, please follow my blog and watch this space for a giveaway, hopefully soon.

There is not an incredible amount of progress being made on Crabby but I'll show you anyway. I discovered a tiny little frog, one stitch short, on the seat of the 'L' in love and had to re-stitch the word. Poo, it would have to be red and leave fluff behind, the discoloration even defeated lint rollering. Dratted little frog. The fluff will come out with washing but that has to wait.

Little miss Taco had decided her new favorite warm-snuggly, sleepy spot is my laptop. I'll come in and find a zillion windows opened from little cat feets walking over my keyboard. Plus hairs. And it's difficult to type when someone is snoozing on the keyboard. I changed my setting so the computer does nothing when I close the lid. I just have to remember to close the lid. Every time I leave. ***plucking a cat hair from the keyboard***

Thank you for visiting my blog today!

xox

The Bowl of Destiny has spoken

The names have been printed and prepared and are awaiting the selection process...strange, the mighty Bowl of Destiny looks much more feminine than when Edgar used it!

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Speak to us, O wondrous and omniscient Bowl...reveal to us the One To Be Silked...

Lacking Edgar's Chihuahuas, we had to rely on Taco. I said I'd use an impartial member of my family to draw the winner...and I am pretty sure the Border Collie is smart enough to read.
Taco is thinking hard before she chooses...
Is it this one???
Oh...it's Paisley!
Congratulations to Paisley...the mighty Bowl of Destiny is now returned to Edgar!

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This giveaway was to celebrate 3000 visitors. My Mapstats showed nearly 4000 visitors last night! Thank you all for reading my blog. Thanks for joining in on the fun. Most of all, thank you for being such wonderful friends.

Tufting

I bought new bath towels last Friday. Here is a photo of Taco tufting in the bag the towels came in. Cats love bags. Cats are so weird.

Disasters in the Sun...

Hamlet ACT 1. SC.1

This is a picture of Jessie's antenna ball (or what's left of it) a present from Joan & Bob in the UK. It rode happily on her antenna until her car went into the shop for body work and she put it away in her room and lost it. One day last month she found it and set it on the kitchen counter to remember to put it back on her car.

Taco found it first.

It made a good kill.

Jessie was much dismayed to find the remains.

Violent pocket lint.

It was a small piece of pocket lint and it had sat quietly in the middle of the kitchen floor for two days. Denim blue, fluffy; it seemed innocent. Nobody in the family perceived its menace except Taco. She glared at it from the shadows under the dining table. Eventually Taco gathered her courage to make several mad-cat dash and pounce maneuvers in an effort to drive it away. These attacks were ignored; the pocket lint refused to be intimidated. Stronger measures were employed and the ambushes included severe bites with furious kicking of hind claws when the lint threatened to overpower. Tail shaped like a bottle brush of fright Taco felted the lint in her mouth with irate passion until it was a subdued blue lump. Menace cowed. All is safe again in the kitchen.