Catahoula Rescue

Anyone who knows me knows how much I love animals, especially dogs (and horses but I've never owned one so they're slightly scary). For months I've been browsing petfinder and other similar sites looking at the dogs for when we move, even before everything that happened with Miles. I'm continously drawn back to the Catahoula Rescue, as that was part of Miles genetics. One particular dog caught my attention and I wanted to post here to see if anyone could help him out. His name is Ted, there's a link here: http://www.petfinder.com/petdetail/15444355

And some information cut and pasted about him from the rescue message boards:

"Ted... I call him "Tedward" and he laughs!!! He "talks" to me, especially right before breakfast. He's always in a good mood and has turned out to be quite lively! He's not a high drive dog and has medium energy. Ted gets along with just about everyone, just about all the time, including cats. He does not seem to have much of a reaction to livestock. Ted has become much less shy about meeting people. We started out with his hiding behind a tree... Now lately, he even approaches people he's met a couple times. He's learning to love attention. And if you know him, you get to see all the antics that are just a secret kept from many...and believe me, there's a lot of fun stuff going on with Ted! Ted would be happy to lie on a sofa or some other comfortable place part of the time. He's around 50-60#. He's always good natured. He does well with cats. He has enough energy, but does not have high prey drive. For someone wanting a terrific, always happy, very beautiful dog with spunk and humor, who does not always need to be doing something, Ted is the perfect choice!!! "

I'm dying to adopt him but we won't be able until the beginning of next year, as we have a short move first, for four/five months. My parents have already gratiously agreed to care for our dog Mary if I'm able to stay with my husband so I don't want to burden them by asking to take in another dog. Please! If anyone can help. I plan to contact them to see if we can make arrangements for next year but I still have to hear from the hubby before I do anything. Especially since we've been discussing adopting some entirely different breeds... Surprise! LOL

In addition there is 1 other male and 3 females that need urgent homes.

Been a long time

The hubs and I have been primarily focused on our upcoming move so I haven't had a ton of time to devote to crafts. I do have a pair of footie/hoodie/mitten pajamas with a drop seat next in line that my husband would like me to make. He may have to wait a while though, as I am excited to announce...that I am 10,000 words into my first novel!

(For those of you though who thought I was going to announce we were going to have a baby, you are quite silly. Quite silly indeed. )

I plan to seek agent representation by the beginning of next year. I'm very excited but don't want to share many details in case it all burns to ash. The novel combined with our short term move means I probably won't have many updates for the rest of the year but I will try to pop in a few times with interesting news.

Not much news.

Nothing much new here, just wanted to share some pictures. We're still waiting on orders as the place where they write those has been flooded and is closed this week. I don't plan on making anything crafty before we move so until then, there will probably be random postings. Tim bought this necklace for me a Tiffany's yesterday. I'm modeling the one in my novel after it. :)

Mary is so excited...
Hmm, I don't know how to turn the picture.

It was the last one of this kind they had and it's made of bone china.

I also wanted to thank everyone for their cards and wishes about Miles. We really miss him.

Sad boosh

Well I think everyone knows by now but Miles passed away. We loved him very much, as did all the people who met him.

The costume is finished though.

Back

Close up of hand painting.
Front

Front close up
Belt
I'm satisfied with the cloth parts. Some of the pleather I'm iffy on but it was the first time I've made any armor or pleather stuff so I think it turned out alright. Now I'm going to take a nice long break...

Oh my gosh ...

To keep this relevant I'm posting a quick picture of the costume. The pauldron is backwards in the picture, I just stuck it up there for a photo op.

But oh my goodness, I have spent WAYYYYY too much time at the vets or on the phone with the vets office this week!!! I called up to see if Miles #1 doctor was going to be in tomorrow and the receptionist recognized my voice!!!!!! 0.0 On the good side, everyone knows about Miles and his issues, on the bad side they probably think I'm crazy because we're always in there. HAHA. We were supposed to recheck Wed. but his doctor wont be in Mon or Tues and I think he's still got some issue happening. The receptionist found an appt for us tomorrow and I'm grateful I won't have to pay a walk-in fee for no appt.

We've been in the vets office from last Wed. until Mon., then Fri night, and I was in there today to get more meds, and then tomorrow. And I talked to a number of doctors on the phone between those days. Ahh, maybe this should become the '365 Days of Miles blog'.

More Miles

Miles is currently taking 12 pills a day. It was 13 but he finished off one, to which I say hurrah because he is a difficult patient. He's like an unhappy psychiatric patient... He'll hide his pill in his mouth until you turn around and then spit it out. Or he'll halfway swallow it and then spit it up in a pile of mucus... I bought these lovely pill pockets which worked the first day, haha.

He can smell the pain and amoxicillan pills in the pill pockets and refuses to take them. He won't take them covered in cheese or peanut butter or banana (his favourite) so I have to force him to take them and then bribe his happiness with treats after each pill.

The aftermath, part A.

The aftermath, part B. And Miles with a waggily tail.

Mary, looking entirely bored with the whole thing even though she got treats too.

Night 2 of our campout. And Miles has a new stuff friend! The sheep behind him was acquired at Target today for $2.50! It came from the Easter sale section so it doesn't squeak but it was a steal and I can always sew an older squeaker in later.

Miles, Oh Miles...

Well it has been a month since I've updated. The costume is close to being finished and I will post pictures when it's done. The past couple of weeks have been devoted to the health of a Mr. Miles Causey, beloved pet extraordinaire. There have been many ups and downs but as of now he is home. Swollen and spleen-less, but home. And tonight we are having a pow-wow in the living room.

Stairs, AKA the enemy.
Miles on my bed. With my Instyle mag and awesome Pooh bear pillow!

Miles new bed/apartment.

Shaven belly! Plus his swollen leg. It's not as bad as when we picked him up yesterday.

And now my bed has been taken over by two pupperonis. I was going to sleep up stairs but Miles looked so sad, I just couldn't leave him behind. Their daddy is away at the moment for work. :( Hopefully there won't be any centipedes that carry us away during the night!!

More costuming

I took this picture from our backyard the evening before the tsunami scare.

And here's Mr. Couch Potato, doing what he does best... Breaking out couch with his giant booty. The right section of the couch is so busted it's pretty much been donated to the pupsters.

This is the middle layer, waayyy unfinished.

The lining is red. I guess the lighting was wrong and I used a weird setting on the camera so it turned out orange. It's really like a strawberry-redish cotton.

The front still needs to be tailored but it is getting there.

The back. I took the bottom edge up some.

Lower, middle, and top layers together. They look awkward now but they'll get better. My friend is supposed to try it on soon so there will be more pictures in a week or two.

Whew.

I don't think I've posted a picture of the costume from the video game so here it is. (Note that I did not mark the layers.. I found this on the internet and it has been a good resource to knowing how it is put together.)

Soooo it has been a while since I updated. Here are new pictures:

I added the lace to the edges and made the front part bigger.

Front, it will be smaller and shorter when it is fitted.

The hood, which took me two days to make. I made a 'normal' one from a pattern and then cut it up into the pieces like in the game. It looks pretty accurate, it's just the top need adjusting and the lining needs to be sewn.

Pieces for the shoulders.

Half of them constructed. It isn't the best sewing ever but it got the job done. I had to make my own pattern looking at the costume online.

Besides the tweaks to fitting it and all of the finishing touches I still need to make the middle layer of the costume and the belt and the cape. X_X The finish date is April so I need to do less bloggy more worky.

Update

Just a quick update... I've started up work on the Ezio costume again but the hubs has the weekend off so I probably won't work on it this weekend.

I've been working a lot lately on my secret project and it is going well. I'm probably 1/4 of the way through the first part. When I finish the first part I plan to announce what it is. Until then it's a secret! But mom, you know what it is, haha.

Today Hawaii is the only state without snow so this is my message to everyone else: You're lucky!!!! Enjoy the snow. :)

Happy Valentine's Day!

Puzzle Purse Valentine How-To

After seeing this design on the Martha Stewart website I knew I had to try it. (Link here: http://www.marthastewart.com/how-to/antique-style-valentine#slide_0 )

The past few weeks have been stressful on both of us so I won't be getting around to sending out Valentine's Day cards this year. Instead I'm posting this how-to. :)

For the first time I would suggest using a patterned paper because it gets a little confusing if you don't. Starting with pattern side down, fold the paper diagonally, matching corners, in both directions. (I used a 12x12 page but you could use 9x9 too.)

This is how the paper looks after it has been folded.

For the next step, measure out 4 inches from the edge and fold over with the pattern side still facing down. (If you use a 9x9 measure 3 inches.) Do this on every side.

This is how it looks with the top folded over. The paper should be able to fold into thirds essentially.

( There should be 9 different squares.)

The next step is to flip the paper pattern side up. Fold the corner back and meet the edges with the squares made in the last step. Do this in every corner.

When you've done that flip the paper back over and there should be a ton of confusing lines zagging everywhere.

For me this was the most confusing step but I did do it wrong the first time I tried to make it, haha. Pinch two opposite corners and push them inward. There is a good picture in the Martha Stewart link that shows which folds should go in which direction. After some wrestling it should look like this...

The middle is popped up a little bit but you get the idea.

Pick one of the patterned triangle flaps and fold it completely over the middle. In a counterclockwise direction, fold the flaps over like so.

With the last triangle, fold the corner under the pocket made by the other triangles.

Voila! You've made a puzzle purse.

Now you can decorate it however you want. I didn't have a lot of time to design them but I cut out a heart and glued it over a pink ribbon and wrote a little message.

Close up.

When you fold it back to the second layer you can write a message around the edges or draw pictures.

Traditionally these were love notes, so you can write something around each edge, continuing it on each layer. I chose a poem I found online.

For the second Valentine I made I cute out some patterned paper and glued it in the center square. I made a bow from the same ribbon as earlier and put a picture on top.

Another view. If you wanted to write a love note you could continue writing it along all the folds on the inside. Martha Stewart suggests numbering them so the person knows which line to read first but traditionally they did not do that, so it would be up to you.

I put a flower and wrote 'Happy Valentine's Day' but If i had more time I would have drawn flowers or such.

The outside with a poem on the edges and little stickers. These are just a couple designs, you could use stamps, glitter, embossing, all sorts of good stuff. Happy V-Day!