Smudge

I've been pretty distracted the last week or so. We'd been treating Smudge on and off for a few months now for urinary spasming and he seemed to be doing okay. On Tuesday though, he ended up straining and in pain again, so we brought him in and they monitored overnight. They said he was fine, so Ben picked him up Wednesday evening, and by Thursday he was completely blocked again.

He spent the next couple of days in the hospital, with a catheter and iv, being tested. He had formed crystals in his urine, the first time they found any. They prescribed special food and some anti-anxiety medicine, an anti-inflammatory and some calming spray.

He's home now, and he seems to be doing okay. I set him up with the upstairs all to himself, since they have diagnosed stress and competition with the other cats as a big part of the problem. We've been spending lots of cuddling time with him, and the isolation situation has been working out better than I expected it would.  He's delighted and so happy to have us all to himself for a couple of hours every day.

For now, whether he'll make it is really just a matter of whether the food works to help dissolve the crystals he formed and whether the anti-inflammatory and anxiety meds work to keep his bladder from spasming.

I've put St. Francis in charge of praying for him.

Sew, sew, sew, my shirt

I started a new top on Monday. I've been in meetings for the county extension since then though, so it's still exactly at this stage in it's (non)construction.  I have today all to myself though, so I'm hoping to make lots of progress with it.

The fabric is a red and pink check that I thought would be just perfect for a Valentine's Day blouse.  I'm a little low on clothes lately and would so much rather sew than clothes shop!

My 5 Minute Solution

My house was getting grubby, people!  With the combo of being closed up over the winter, and Christmas travel and some very calculated blind spots on my part, there's cat fut collecting in the corners and dust on the door jambs.  Coming home and putting away the Christmas decorations at the beginning of the month really brought it home.

My first instinct was to pitch right in, and do a deep, deep clean.  Spring cleaning a couple of months early, and have done with it. But I know me, and tempting as it is to just get it all done at once, I also have the terrible habit of then thinking I don't have to clean again, since "I just did all that heavy cleaning last week...month...season".  lol

So, instead of marathoning it and then ignoring it till I break down again in July, I've implemented a different solution. 

I broke the house into different areas; living room, guest bath, sewing room, hallway, laundry room/closet, bedroom, master bath, stairway, upstairs, kitchen, dining room, garage, and front porch.

Everyday, I set a timer for 5 minutes, and clean for five minutes in each area.  Whatever is out of place or needs doing (dusting, etc) that catches my eye first, I just pitch into.  I haven't been doing the porch, stairs, garage or upstairs every day because it's been cold!

I've been doing this for a month or so, just about every day, and I've been shocked at how effective it's been!  It really keeps things nicer around here if I work a little every day, instead of doing certain jobs on certain days of the week or month.

Of course, this new plan is in addition to the regular daily chores of dishes and dinner and cleaning the stove and counters, etc.  I'd never keep the kitchen completely clean in just five minutes!  The five minutes I spend in the kitchen with this cleaning, I do some things that are easy for me to miss, which usually means looking up.  Being on the short side, I just don't notice sometimes when the upper cabinets and tops of things get dusty!

I'm not sure why this is working better for me, considering that I would spend an hour or two cleaning most days before this, but I think the timer and the fact that I'm cleaning in every room every day helps me to keep more focused and get more done in the same time frame.  I don't just wander around "deciding" what to clean I guess.  I suppose I am actually putting more time in with this method too, since the regular things, like laundry or cleaning up after dinner aren't in the "five minutes time".  I use the timed sessions for the things that are easy to forget or overlook, like fan blades, etc.

It's also been easier for me to stay motivated, since the timer makes time seem to go more quickly, so it's not a big deal to do "just" five minutes.

Winter Pursuits

I've been happily stitchinng and cleaning. I love winter because it gives me so much time for the fun indoor things that I love.

I'm working out a design for a tutorial for felt flower pins, pictured up above. I've been sketching and refining some embroidery designs. And knitting! I've been knitting away at my Elizabeth Zimmermann Suspender Sweater every day, but it seems sisyphian, because the rows are so long, from front bottom hem to back bottom hem. I am starting to see a little progress though, and I've been switching back and forth between the two sides, so that the stripe pattern would match. I can never remember that kind of thing, though I think I will. At least I've learned not to trust that feeling!

The felt flower was a fun little break from knitting. I love working with wool felt so much! There's just something so satisfying about the way it feels and looks. For some reason, it reminds me of crayons and I'm sure I've mentioned my love affair with Crayola before.  Anyway, this is a little gift for a friend whose birthday is coming up.  I wasn't sure about how to finish it, because the whole thing began with the idea of making her a "Birthday Girl" corsage, because she's big birthday lover and wants people to celebrate with her. But then I decided it made more sense to make something that can be worn more often.  I might make a detachable ribbon or something with "It's my birthday!" on it.

In the new year

I hope all of you had a beautiful Christmas season!  We had a very nice holiday.  I was very glad to get to go home to MI and visit family.  We picked up some kind of bug while we were travelling though, and have both spent the last couple of weeks all gunked up and sick.

I think I'm starting to shake it though, and get to feeling normal again.  I'll be glad to start my regular workouts again.  I've been walking, because it's more gentle.  The walking has been nice, very relaxing and the weather has been so gorgeous lately!  But I have to get back on track and really burn the calories if I'm going to earn myself anymore weight loss milestone rewards.  And I have my eye on a new mp3 player, so I won't have to tape the earphone cords down in order to hear (out of just one ear, lol) anymore.

We were careful not to overindulge during the travel and holiday feasting, so neither of us gained any weight.  I'm very pleased about that, because gaining weight in the middle of training and getting healthy seems like such a backward thing to do.

I've had my mind full of new year plans and habits lately.  I don't do resolutions in general, because I always figure that waiting to change things only at a certain time of year and putting so much pressure on yourself is a recipe for terrible disaster.  But this is also a natural time of year for me to do some planning, since it's time to plan the garden, and I also have more time on my hands than any other season gives.  I'm working on establishing some routines now that I hope will lend success to a lot of the projects I'm planning for the year.

I've been thinking about household routines, mostly cleaning and organizing.  I also have a lot of plans to step up my Etsy shop.  Since they've gone to a default relavancy search, I've made so many more sales of my patterns, and I really enjoy selling the pdf files.  I would love to put together some more tutorials or patterns to sell as well.  I'm still in charge of the county newsletter for the homemaking club I'm in, and I'd like to establish a more organized and standard routine for getting it put together, now that I've gotten a few issues under my belt.  The garden, of course, is on my mind, and I want to get it planned, but also to make sure that I have systems in place for everything else before the busy garden work starts up again, so I can try to stay on top of the weeds this year!

So, that's what I've been up to lately.  I'm also planning my 2012 blogging year, and I hope I can continue and increase the amount of information and projects and fun I try to share here!

Inaugural Run

I get to use my new dutch oven today!   I got it a couple of weeks ago when Ben and I were on a trip to visit friends in GA. On the way through TN, we saw signs for the Lodge factory outlet and knew we had to stop.

I haven't gotten to use it yet, because, as it turns out, eating fewer calories means less cooking!  Today is cold and rainy, though, so I'm making a big batch of white bean and kale soup.  I'm sure it'll taste better for having been made in my cozy new dutch oven.

Don't mind the state of my stove, I'm such a messy cook!

Recycle an Old Sweater into Leg Warmers

These are less like the 80's old school legwarmers, and more like a very long footless stocking.  Warm and cozy, like a sweater for your legs, thicker than socks and more convenient than tights for wearing all the time, since there's two of them, so bathroom breaks are more comfortable.

I'll preface this project by saying that I don't know whether this will work for everyone.  I may just have odd proportions, but I'm sure it will work for most with a little fiddling to get the desired fit.  This sweater fit me snugly as a sweater, and worked without much adjustment like this, so those proportions work on my body, at least.

I had this old sweater that I really wasn't too comfortable wearing anymore and a pair of cold shins.  I knew they were somehow meant to be together.

Start by cutting the sweater into pieces like this.  Two sleeves, cut so the cut end is more or less perpendicular to the folded side, and the bottom cut off around armpit territory.

Separate the front from the back of the bottom half of the sweater.  On some sweaters, this will mean cutting the side seam right out, and on others, you'll just have to undo the little "crocheted" seam from the manufacturer.

Fold the front (or back) in half, wrong sides together, and lay the sleeve on top of it, along the folded edge.  Cut a triangle of fabric away from the sides, up to the cut edge even with the sleeve width.  I made sure to leave the whole of the original ribbed hem intact, since I have sort of thick thighs, and new I'd need all that width.  If your legs are thin, you might want this cut angle to be less drastic.  Sew these sides together along this edge, keeping the piece folded as is, to create a tube.

Keep this the tube you just made inside out, and the sleeve tube right side out, then slip the sleeve into the other, line up the seams and sew around to make one long tube of them.

And that's it, a legwarmer.  The seam isn't attractive, admittedly, but it smooths out when it's on, and they're mostly just for staying warm under my nightgown, so who will know?

It's surprisingly difficult to take decent pictures of your own legs.

Below I've added a version of the photo above with the colors and exposure all screwy, so you can actually see the legwarmer.  They're very comfy, I'm wearing them right now!