Dirty South Yarn

Muffin pan kitsch

These are actually quite tasty. I saw this on one of those benefit the animal websites and I had to have it. Not that I can afford $12 muffin pans these days, but I figured whenever I have to bring something to a meeting or function, I can hit folks about the head and shoulders to Save The Animals! There were actually 6, but I ate one with my ham and cheese quiche and Jeff managed to snag one. I all but tackled him when he went for another one. NO! I have to take a picture first and I need 4 of them! The look on his face was quite classic. A blend of amusement, chagrin and ? wrapped up into one.

You know you want one, admit it, you do!

Since we are talking food I also got a couple of cheap little window clings that say "Cat's are like potato chips, you can't have just one" I plan on giving one to Jeff's Mom. She has 2 cats and a dog.

Falling off the cheesecake walk

Ok, I have not exactly keep up with my walking sked, BUT I did work fairly hard this week and because I was stoopid and wore old dry rot shoes, my back muscles are really sore! At least  I am back to doing my nightly stretches and such and hope to build on that..............

Yeah! Build on that! Yes, it is really as good as it looks. Fall off wagon worthy.

 Meanwhile, I am back to knitting some dolly items. I am starting easy with some hats. I have lots of pattern drafts that I need to proof and publish. Then there is that pair of socks, but more on that later.

I met up with some of my fellow knitters today at Barnes and Noble. Patty sourced out some tig rods for blocking lace. I haven't really done any big lace pieces, but someday I hope. Awfully nice of her, but she has connections. Her husband works in the steel biz! B&N was fairly busy, but it was so friggin cold in there I just sat, barely knit and didn't shop because I was a frozen block of ice(redundant?) by the time we were done. Yes, I know it was 70 degrees out here in the ATL area today, but why does the AC have to be on frigid in December?

Lucky for me I don't really have a lot of shopping to do. I have a box full of stuff to trade with my Mom in addition to her luxe blanket. Jeff has something at Wal-mart earmarked for me to get him, I have NO idea what to get his Mom and I am getting my Dad a wine making kit. That's all folks!

Off to see the wizard.......

Actually, poor old Pokey Ezcat is going to the vet for a dental. We are hoping he emerges with a few teeth intact and will eventually feel like eating more dry food which is higher in calories. He is so bony-a little over 6lbs. He has a thyroid problem and it is difficult to keep weight on him. His labwork is actually pretty good for a 20 year old cat. He is just getting pickier about food, but still very hungry.

Bandit is coming along-did I mention it is actually a Bandita? lol. So she has the nickname of Dita now. She is actually very cute when she is not hissing at me! I did get close enough the other day to let her sniff my hand. Then she almost looked confused  that she had done so. We are looking forward to the day when we will be able to simply reach out and snatch her up because she needs to be fixed!I would rather do that than try to trap her again. I think if we got our hands on her, she would deal with it. Look at the pic below. One would think it easy to walk up and pet her-NOT!

Smokey is a little toy thief. He likes to come upstairs and steal all of Jimmy's toys. He drags them downstairs with his little partner-in-crime following him. They are very cute together.

You Ate What?

Yes, it is that time of year when Maggianos sends out The Cheesecake. For those who do not know, Jeff the police officer works an extra job there and every Xmas they send us one. This year they did not use the same bakery, but instead made them in-house. Viva la difference! It has a layer of chocolate ganache? Not sure if that is the correct thing, but it is a very thin layer and adds just enough flavor and is not overwhelming. The cheesecake itself is luscious and moist. He also managed to snag some strawberries and glaze. It is so fresh and much lighter than the one we usually get. YUM!

Now before you judge, this is the one Xmas indulgence I have allowed myself this year. I have been very judicious at the parties I have attended due to a minor surgical procedure that left me unable to really taste much for several days. I lost about 5lbs and my stomach shrunk so much I haven't been able to manage much at one time. On Monday I decided take a walk because the weather is so fine this week. I am trying to take a walk for every time I eat a piece of cheesecake. Eventually I would like to really get back on track and lose another 10lbs. I will have to work up to it, but I am looking forward to doing aerobics again. I feel so much better after dropping that 5lbs. For once in a very long time, I feel like the old Me!

'Tis the Season

Ok, I won't be too much of a Grinch, but I will certainly be glad when it is over and I can go home! lol I plan on going to KY January 3rd and attending the Grape and Wine Short Course at the Kentucky Horticultural Meeting. Unfortunately, the free funds to plant grape acerage is over and based on some data I saw, it is extremely difficult to make money there growing grapes, but we don't care! My Dad has already been making wine from an old vine already on the property when he bought it. I have yet to tase any............

Anyway, the plan is to put in a half acre of grapes Fall 2009. There is also a wine tasting during the conference. Yay! My Mom is going with me. I will drink all of her tickets and she can drive me home. heehee.

Now for some projects. I finished my Mom's blanket. Of course a certain somebody had to claim it, so I ended up making one for him too.

 

This is the only thing I have ever seen Jimmy make biscuits on. Then he just wraps himself in it! I admit it is very plush. I used 20 skeins of a wool blend fuzzy yarn. It will probably never get dirty at my Mom's house and if it does, she has a pair of Neptunes to take care of it.

Kitty needs a new home!

Ahhh Kitty. She is a funny cat-snaggle teeth and all. She is number 7 in this house and quite frankly, there are too many cat personalities to deal with! Most days I feel like a Cat Wrangler. Bandit is slowly coming around and actually ventures upstairs sometimes which is great. We want to socialize the kittens and get them used to daily household living, but someone has to monitor the door and make sure Kitty doesn't come upstairs because she really upsets Jimmy and Cricket. They have accepted Smokey for the most part and could probably get used to Bandit, but they don't see her enough.

Anyway, if you are reading this, please keep your eyes and ears open to someone who might want to take in another cat. Celeste is going to print out a flyer I made and post it at her work and she says there are lots of cat lovers there. (fingers crossed) Adult cats are really hard to place nowadays.
Kitty has all her shots, is spayed and will come with a week's worth of food, litter, a box and a blanket.

Work has been crazy lately, so not much time or energy to post although I have lots to write about. The Clicks and Sticks knitting guild had potluck tonight and I have to say the ladies outdid themselves with the food. There were great projects for Show and Tell and lots of funny Xmas stories. Then we played a game to do the ornament swap. Margaret was nice enough to bring me a bag of kitten chow and Amy brought a coupon for pet food! The Guild has been really supportive of my efforts to house, feed and vet the 3 strays we took in this fall.

Funny thing- we took Kitty to the low cost vet to get her spayed a few weeks ago and guess what-she is already fixed! I told Jeff I had doubts about that, but he was convinced all the rolling around and meowing she did when we first started feeding her was a sign she was in heat. No, she was just grateful that someone was taking care of her! So we used the money to take Smokey to Project Catsnip, a mobile low cost service and got him neutered a couple of weeks ago. They gave him some serious Joy Juice. He was so happy and loopy it was hysterical.

I will miss Xmas at home again this year. Not that the holiday means that much to me, but it does to my Mom who repeatedly tells me how beautiful her tree is. (rolls eyes) I have to work the day before and the day after Christmas. For those that wonder, I am a merchandiser for Hallmark Cards. Not nearly as cool as it sounds, trust me. I will spend 6-8 hours taking down Xmas merchandise at one of my stores and putting up Valentine's Day. Then I get to repeat it the next day at my other store. The planograms rarely seem to reflect the product shipped and you have to get creative. It does take some skill to get it to fit within the space available, get most of the product out and get it to look right in one day. There is a good bit of pressure involved. You can't leave the space without product and you have deadlines to meet for getting it up as well as for scanning it out and shipping it back. All cards come wrapped in plastic and you do the layout with the plastic on to make sure it works. Then you have to go back, take the plastic off and place it in the display. You can't leave it in the display with the plastic on. For Xmas at one of my stores, I spent 8 hours sorting and organizing the product, doing the layout and then spent almost 2 hours taking the plastic off the cards, doing the signage and tidying up.
Onto happier things! I finished the blanket I was making for my Mom. It is soooooooo luxuriously soft and cushy. It is going to look great on her white couch. As a consequence I went straight on and started one for Jimmy beause I felted the original one I made for him and he is in love with it. It is a quick knit-only 3 balls left until his is finished. I also did an I-Cord scarf. Photos to follow of course. I also have a knit doll outfit I am taking for Show and Tell at my doll club meeting this weekend. I hope I remember to take pics before I go because I hope to sell it!

The Act of Saying Thank You

Since I had an interesting weekend, I will keep this one short in order to gain some perspective before I type. This was my "cat" weekend. I drove up to Suwanee on Saturday to get info about the Humane Society and afterward visited their adoption site.
Today we went to Paws Atlanta for a low cost vaccination day. Surprisingly, it was mostly dogs,
but more on that later. Unfortunately I forgot to take the camera. At any rate, we took Kitty and Smokey.
Thanks to the generosity of the Clicks and Sticks Knitting Guild, I took in around $125 in sales and donations at the meeting Thursday night. This enabled us to take 2 cats. Vaccinations were $40 and if you wanted the Feline Leukemia test, it was an extra $20, so the total was $120 for both.
It was a great relief to learn they were both negative. Therefore, it can  somewhat be assumed that Bandit is negative as well. Now I don't have to be so diligent about food and water bowls and general contact.

At any rate, once we were called in, we explained that we knew nothing about these cats because they were strays and we were just giving them temporary homes. The young man that had called us in made a point of saying " Thanks for doing that" I replied" Thanks for saying that!"

Sometimes I think as a society we forget what simple acts of kindness mean. Not that I feel I deserve a pat on the back and a reward, but it was nice that someone acknowledged what we are doing instead of shoving the Spay and Neuter mantra down our throats. There were times this weekend that I felt defensive and like I had to justify what I am doing.  We are doing the best we can with what we have been handed step by step. It brings to mind the saying of "Let no good deed go unpunished."

On a more positive note, there was a news story about a Pet Food Bank in Lawrenceville! We are going up there on Tuesday. I think they will give you enough food for 2 pets. Thank the Lord for this man- I can't wait to shake his hand and praise him for what he has done. This is truly what it is all about- common sense. This place addresses immediate needs like food and shelter, but also has resources for vet care. There is even information on the website about what you can try to do to avoid foreclosure.

This on top of the fact that if you are military, fire, or police, you automatically qualify for assistance. This is probably the only organization(not just animal related) I have ever seen that offers help to fire and police. Usually it is only military.
I have precious little real free time, but I plan on being a volunteer in some capacity. Please visit the website and get the word out.

Daffy's Pet Soup Kitchen

Location:
2160 Oakland Industrial Court
Suite 100
Lawrenceville, Ga. 30044
678-725-4992

11 Alive news also interviewed the founder Tom Wargo.
There is a written article and a video here.

Now for some knitting

In between rescuing cats and reorganizing my house, I actually have done some knitting. The most important thing is I finished a baby blanket for a client. Her name is Karen and she had a special request. She had made her daughter a blanket when she was a little girl and she kept it until finally leaving it at camp when she was a teen. Karen still had the original pattern and some of the yarn. I was able to match it pretty closely. Her are the results:
 
Basically she is expecting her first grandchild and is very excited. She insisted upon getting a photo of me with the blanket. :)

I hadn't really done anything like this before. It was done in a sport/baby weight on size 3 needles. Yes, it took me about 6 weeks of working on it almost everyday.
I have more to share as always. I am almost halfway done with my Mom's Xmas gift and I have some other stuff on the needles. I need to update my project notebook on Ravelry too.So much to share!

Update! Kittens and More

Ok, I was going to post news on the website, but while in the process of doing so, I found out Google had flagged it AGAIN! ARRGGHH. Thanks Google for the non-notification. The warning page really doesn't give the webmaster much info, but eventually you make your way to some forums to some nice folks that help you out.
At any rate, there was an external link to a website that was distributing malware or badware. There was NOT any malicious software on MY site, but just a link to a site that had it. You do know that there are knitters out there that really do think I intentionally tried to download some crap to them. WHY WHY WHY! How in the world would I really benefit from that? Just goes to show you how willing people are to believe the worst.

Meanwhile! This mean hateful malicious software distribution personage has been rescuing cats. I am sure some folks think I will just tie them up in a bag and throw them in a pond.
OK! Enough of the sarcasm, I just spent the entire afternoon trying to fix the website and I am a little PO'd.

Just to keep it all straight, I am posting photos of everybody.

First up is Kitty- I know, how UNoriginal is that? Well, she has a warm place to sleep and plenty of food to eat! We first sighted her around mid October and after a week we figured she was abandoned. I have searched Craigslist, put flyers up in the neighborhood and an ad is running in the AJC and the Gwinnett Daily Post. No response.

We plan to take Kitty to Paws Atlanta on Sunday for their low cost $40 -all- you- can- get- vaccination day.  Since I still have the low cost spay cert. I will use that for her and there will be an adoption fee of $30. We think she is around 4 or 5 years old and she is very sweet. Not real crazy abut the dog, but I think she could get used to one. 

The Original Free Loaders- Smokey and The Bandit:

          

We guesstimate these guys to be around 4mths old now. They came to us around the first week of October. Smokey is delightful and was very easy to socialize. Bandit is another story, but I am happy to report he is coming around as evidenced by the photo. He was down out of the rafters and I was actually pretty close to him when taking the photo. They are littermates, very close and so cute when they play together. We are on the fence about these guys, but we already have 4 of our own.

I know some folks do not care about animals, but realize there is no planned parenthood for them. They rely upon us to do the right thing. I don't want to get preachy- we have all heard the pitch! At least I am willing to take them in and give them a temporary home. Consider this-there are now 7 cats in my house! The housing crisis is amplified here in the Metro area and this is a prime example of the consequences. If you still have a home to live in, please consider helping out in some way. Bring coupons to the guild meeting-cat food and cat litter go fast. Adopt or volunteer. There are enough non-working troublemakers in this world that could really make a difference. Yes, I said it and was snarky when I did!

For the month of October we spent approx. $125 at Petsmart. This doesn't include the litter and other food we buy at Walmart or the money we have spent at the vet.

Since cats keep coming our way, I have applied to be a foster home with the Gwinnett Humane Society and to volunteer my time with Casper's Fund in exchange for vouchers for vet care.

The next Clicks and Sticks Guild meeting is this Thursday 11-13 at 7pm. Meetings are held here:

3025 Bethany Church Road
Snellville, GA 30039
This month we are in Room E.

Rolling right along: The newest addition to our family was Jimmy. We adopted him last December from the Society of Humane Friends where we paid an adoption fee of $85. The only thing we had to do is get him a rabies shot. He's my angel kitty that sits on my chest some mornings and gives me a wake up bath. Eeewwww! lol
 

 
Jimmy and Cricket in a RARE moment of togetherness. (It only lasted about 2 minutes)
  
Cricket showed up in the backyard 2 years ago- just a little bitty thing. She is still a little on the wild side, but she acts like a real housecat every now and then.

Now we have the Geriatric crew- Samantha and EZcat are the last 2 of the his and hers club. Sam is mine from a previous life and EZ is Jeff's from a previous life.

EZ kitty at 20 years young!


 
Samantha is pretty smart when it comes to comfort. Why not use a ball of LaGran Mohair as a pillow??
Sam is 15.

Last but not least- Billy! The only canine in the house. When another cat shows up, he just sighs and puts his head down.

These two actually try to play sometimes. Billy is 11.

That's the crew!

Toad Time

I know, I am hopeless sometimes, but this has to be the cutest toad photo ever!

He looks like your average toad in this pic , but he is a tiny baby!



How cute is that?? I was digging around in the yard, pulling weeds and such and saw him hop around, so I caught him to show Jeff. I took the one above, but Jeff took the first one! Cant believe he takes better photos than me.

Ok, back to our regularly scheduled program. I finally finished a shawl that needed to be reknit for someone. It is self-fringing. Very easy and very quick on size 15 needles.

So happy I finally finished this! A multi directional scarf form Twilley's Freedom Spirit. This was easy too, but I lost some sts on one of the short rows and had to rip back a bit to correct it.


Now for a gratuitous cat pic:
 


This is a box that has junk in it. I don't remember how the carpet remnant got in it, but the cats like it so much we can't get rid of it! The photo in the background is when Jeff was in the  Mounted Patrol.

I have lots more photos and projects to share, I just need some free time!