RIP

Warning......sad post.....

 

 

 

 

 

My precious Oliver took his final walk on July 7th, 2014.  I have spoken of his health issues in previous posts and they finally got to be too much for him.  The quality of his life took a dramatic turn on July 6th and I knew that it was my final duty of love to put him out of his misery and let him cross the Rainbow Bridge with dignity.  At 18 1/2 years old,  he was not going to recover and this was the best thing for him. 

 

My heart is broken and bleeding right now, but I know that it will continue to mend and grow stronger.  Time..... you know how that goes.... things will get better with time.  My entire life is upside down..... Oliver was my best friend and constant companion.  I'm divorced....no children.....no immediate family.... with only a few extended family members that live elsewhere.  When you don't have people family, your pets become your family and the loss is almost unbearable.   

 

 

 

The vet sent this little plaque with Oliver's paw print.

 

 

 

When my little Gracie passed, the vet also sent a plaque with her paw prints in it.  The same vet tech did both of these plaques, but there is quite a difference in the way they are making them now.  Sweet mementos and I treasure them.

 

 

 

 

I won't drag this out.   It's too painful.  I just wanted to pass this sad news along.  If you have been following me for awhile, you know that my cats played a major role in my life.  My blog, obviously, was named after them.   I just wanted to give Oliver a little public farewell.  I will always treasure my time with him and my joyful memories of him will live on in my heart forever.  Sweet dreams, my Angel, you were such a blessing in my life! 

I was happy to find that I had enough fabric left to make a matching cover for my extension table.  I wasn't in the mood to get too complicated, so I made a simple, fold over envelope pouch.  Its purpose is to keep the table from getting scratched and this will do the job well.  I only have small scraps left, but there could be a coupon keeper (or something like that) in the future.

 

Oliver managed to slip in a partial photo bomb. :)

 

 

A couple of weeks ago (maybe not quite that long) Good Morning America had a Steal & Deal that was for a fleece photo quilt.  You go to the site.... Collage.com .... upload your photos, arrange them, resize them, whatever you want.... and they print it out on a dense fleece.  There are many different products to choose from, this just happened to be the "deal" that day.  Oh, this throw is 50" x 60."

 

 

 

Overall, I was pleased with the final product.  The photos seem a bit darker than they were on my monitor and the whole quilt is printed a bit off center.  The photos remained pretty crisp, in spite of being printed on fleece.  You can't see it in this picture, but the lower left border is only about an inch, while the other borders are two inches.  I can tell that the fabric wasn't fed evenly into their printer or it shifted toward the end of the printing.  Still though, I thought it turned out pretty nice and will be a sweet keepsake to honor Oliver and Gracie.

 

My Christmas wrapping is done! 

Even with Oliver's help, the work is under control. 

 

 

 

 

If you can't find a cardboard box to hide in,

a gift bag is almost as good. 

 

 

 Have a cozy evening!

 

This weekend (Thursday - Monday) was my annual roomie reunion (high school friends, then roommates in college) and I was not feeling well enough to make the trip.  We were to gather at Cathy's cottage in Michigan for some girl time and R & R on the lake.  Well.... all was not lost..... they decided to take one of the days and drive down to my house and spend some time with me!  I felt really guilty that they would loose a day of relaxing on the boat and spend many hours on the road, but they came anyway so that I could be a part of this vacation.  True friends, right?!   

 

 

 

 

 

It was just what I needed.... some girl time with lots of laughs.  I love these dear ladies and it really lifted my spirits!

 

 

After they left, Oliver and I started to work on my Twist to the 60's blog hop idea.  He picked out several batiks for me to use in my project.  (Oliver seems to think that pre-heating the fabric will make it easier to work with...) I'm hoping to make a good dent in it this afternoon.  We'll see.....

HAPPY BIRTHDAY OLIVER!

 

Today is Oliver's 17th birthday.....or at least his "approximate" birthday.  I adopted Oliver from the ASPCA 16 years ago and the vet estimated his age at 1 year at that time.  Since his assumed birthday is February 22, also George Washington's birthday, Oliver's middle name is Washington...... Oliver Washington.

 

I had no intention of adopting a cat.  I stopped at the pet shop to pick up dog food for my Labrador, Arielle (she passed away a few years after I adopted Oliver) where the ASPCA had set up an adoption area in the store for the day.  Long story short, I fell in love,  filled out the application and Oliver came home with me the next day.

 

He and Gracie have enriched my life in so many ways.  All of you pet lovers understand that a pet in your life can be one of your greatest comforts.  Gracie passed last July causing great grief for Oliver (and me) but he now seems to be doing well on his own.

 

I don't know how much longer I will have Oliver.  He has two life threatening health issues that are somewhat under control as of this writing.  I hope to have a few more years with him, but this is an unknown, making this birthday very special. The quality of his life is still very good but it could change in a heartbeat and I keep very close tabs on his health and behaviors. 

 

So, today, I celebrate Oliver's loving personality, his unconditional love, and his tender charm.   I thank God for creating animals that would become faithful, loving companions through life's ups and downs, giving everything of themselves, asking nothing in return. 

 

Happy Birthday, my sweet Oliver!

 

 

 

 

 

And, of course, I DO expect a lot from my cat.  Oliver is always a great sport though, letting me do practically anything to him, with him, or for him.  He's a trooper and as long as he's getting attention, he's up for just about anything.

 

 

 

 

Happy Halloween!

 

(Be sure to keep your pets safe tonight! Keep them away from the candy, things they might swallow, and from slipping out the open doors!)

 

 

My sweet Oliver......doing what he does best (outside of napping and snuggling) ...... guarding and watching over his little kingdom,  making sure that everything is safe and protected in our world.

It is with great sadness that I post about the passing of my beloved cat and namesake of this blog, Gracie Lee. 

You know how much my cats mean to me..... they are valued members of my family.  I've never really blogged about Gracie's health issues, but she has been a diabetic for the past four years.  She required insulin shots every 12 hours, 365 days a year.  Her personality was such that she took this in complete stride, even coming out to the kitchen (without prompting) to get her shots at the proper time.  She was quite a trooper with a fairly accurate inner timer.  I admired her wonderful attitude and sweet disposition.

Her death was not caused by the diabetes, but by some sort of throat, esophageal, or vocal chord cancer.  She was only 15, but being a senior diabetic did not make her a good candidate for surgery or extensive treatment.  It was in her best interest to let her go.

My life has changed drastically and Gracie is missed terribly.  Oliver is doing his best to carry on, but it is evident that he is also missing Gracie.  They were the best of friends for 15 years and it is going to take some time for both of us to adjust. 

So here's to Gracie, my dear, loyal friend.  May you rest in peace.  I thank God for bringing you into my home.  I am blessed for having you in my life, albeit way too short, and you will always hold a special place in my heart.  Godspeed to you!

I've got a miscellaneous day today.  Some of these pictures have been in my camera for a few months and I just haven't spent much time blogging.  I'll try to be more on top of things.

First off, I spent my birthday gift certificate today.  Thanks, Kathy!  :)  I've been waiting for their year-end sale to get the most for my money (gift certificate).  I didn't go crazy, just picked up a few things.  I was almost out of white Fairy Frost, which is one of my staples, and I picked out another white on white fabric that doesn't have the shiny sheen.  A Christmas panel, a Christmas print, and a pattern round out my purchases.

This is Oliver, expecting to help me cut fabric today.  I had to disappoint him, as today was just a shopping and design day, not a sewing or cutting day.

Next up is my Christmas cactus.  I bought it last year in the reduced area at Lowe's.  I think it was $1.00, maybe less.  I was thrilled when it actually bloomed this year, although this was its one and only bloom.  I'm not sure if I did something wrong or if this is just because it was a small cactus.  Guess I'll see what happens next year.  The bloom was such a pretty shade of coral and I was looking forward to many more colorful flowers. 

These next two photos show the loot I picked up at a garage sale in October.  (Yes....I should have blogged about it then.)  The patterns were $1 each.  Great deals!

The fabric was sold at $.12 per inch, a great price in this world of expensive quilt fabric.  I got the charm packs for $3 each.  This garage sale is once a year and I always look forward to it, hoping to find some great treasures!

Finally, an applique kit that I bought awhile back, also on sale.  Do you see a pattern in my shopping habits??  I buy way too much fabric and too many sewing goodies, but at least I wait for sale prices.  (This is my way of justifying my bad habit.)  I love McKenna Ryan's patterns and kits.

That's it for today.  I've got a few more pictures hanging out in my camera and will post them soon.  Hope your sewing day is a good one!

I've been nursing a sprained back and sewing moments have been few and far between. I'm seeing a little relief and have been working on the Mennonite Hunger relief donation quilt. The first picture is of the runner that is going to be the item that I donate. I made another table topper and was not happy with the results. There is a picture of that project, following this one. Anyway, this is the runner that I'll be focusing on. It turned out to be 22" x 48". I absolutely love the fabrics! They are bright, happy, spring fabrics and I like the way the different fabric lines worked well together. This is the runner that will have to be hand quilted, so I didn't want it to be too large to get overwhelming. The big border is 4" wide, which will give me a fair amount of space to quilt. And, of course, the busy fabric will hide my stitches! And this is the topper that will not make the cut! I designed this one too and used EQ5 to make my pattern. I think the mistake that I made was in setting the measurements to round to the nearest 1/8", not 1/16". Since most of my rulers don't have 16th measurements, I adjusted the templates for 8ths. The little blocks within the 12" blocks are only 4", and those little 4" blocks just multiplied the distortion. You can see that the setting triangles are puckering a bit. This should quilt out, but it will take some maneuvering to get it flat and keep it from puckering during quilting. I just got frustrated with the whole thing and moved on to make the runner. I'll finish this topper and use it for myself. Oh, the topper is 41" x 41". (As usual, sorry for the picture quality. The fabrics look washed out instead of bold and bright.) Have a blessed, peaceful day!

The dog days of summer have certainly arrived. 90's, served up with humidity, is way too hot for me. From Mutts;




And this is how my cats handle the heat....all piled up on top of each other. Of course, they do live in air conditioning, so they aren't suffering too much. They have both been really tired after several days of noisy fireworks. They aren't afraid of the noise, but they snooze lightly....get startled awake.....snooze lightly......get startled awake. You could just see the expression of annoyance after each rude awakening.





Five minutes after the sleep picture was taken, Gracie took a racing lap through the house, leaving no rug unturned. She slides into each rug as if she's making the game winning home run!

This was left by my blue jay friend that stops to take a cool down in the bird bath everyday. He's been a regular with the excessive heat.

This picture doesn't capture the soft iridescence of the feather. It easily caught my eye when I walked by it outside on the sidewalk. God certainly has a good eye for color!

I had to wake my cat up today.....thanks to daylight savings time. Gracie is on a specific time schedule to receive insulin shots. Normally, she comes to get me at the right time as her internal clock is pretty accurate. I live in Indiana and we are in the Eastern time zone. There's nothing "eastern" about Indiana and in the middle of the summer, we have daylight until 10:30 PM. It's absurd. People actually mow their lawns at 10 PM, when I'd like to be sleeping, or at least be enjoying little peace and quiet.

I live in an area of Indiana that only recently started using DST (maybe 3 or 4 years now). We never changed our clocks, we just relied on God's natural timing. It worked for us! CBS's Sixty Minutes did a segment on our area that said that it costs us 60 million dollars per year in extra utility costs on DST. The only advantage that they found was that golf courses got more tee times. Grrrrrrr.....

Oh well. I have no choice but to adjust and accept....and so I will! Gracie too!

It's too early......let me sleep!

Gracie and Oliver on "robin watch" duty. They've been keeping quite busy with all of the bird activity lately....well, between naps, anyway.

HAPPY NEW YEAR......2010 HAS ARRIVED!

I hope you had a safe New Year's Eve and are now ready to start a fresh, new year. Just as I thought, I was asleep at midnight until the neighborhood celebration began. It was loud and rowdy for about 20 minutes, then back to silence and more sleep. I've already written some checks this morning and have had to remind myself to change the year. I'll get the hang of it by the time the next year rolls around!

I took my Christmas decorations down yesterday. I'm always a little sad to see the tree and lights put away for another year. Apparently, Oliver felt the same way and had to protect the decorations from being exiled into the attic. Or.....maybe.....and most likely.....the tree skirt just made a soft napping spot.




This is a full sized quilt that I made a couple of years ago and have had it folded up and tucked away since completing it. Sorry about the not-so-great picture. It seems like most things that I make are either given away or stored away and I've decided that I need to use these things. What good are they if I never put them to use? It felt good to put this quilt on my bed and another quilt on my guest bed. Although pretty, they are utilitarian and deserve to be enjoyed, wrinkled, and anointed with cat hair!




And from Dr. Charles Stanley's In Touch, here are a few words of wisdom to start the year:

"Every new year--and, in reality, every new day--is an opportunity to start over and do things in a manner pleasing to God".

Merry Christmas! I know Christmas has now officially passed, but I wanted to wish you all a belated, beloved Christmas. I hope that we can always keep the spirit of Christmas with us, even in the middle of July! I've been taking a little blog break and I'm planning on catching up a bit in the next few days. The little "gingerbread" house below is made of foam core and was fun, quick, and easy to make.

My Christmas was extra special this year, as my Sister-in-Law, Patti, was able to spend the holiday with me. I haven't had any family members celebrate Christmas with me in more than a decade, so this visit was the best gift of all. (I should note that I'm not having any family feuds, I just don't have many family members anymore.) Note my HUGE Christmas tree. Size doesn't matter, right!?




And here are Oliver and Gracie hogging the only spot of sun in the house. Lucky for them that it shines right on their cat bed, which is on top of my bed. Even on a bitterly cold day, between the sun and sharing body heat, they stay quite snug.

I forgot to tell you that Oliver and Gracie were very happy with their Christmas present.....a newly remodeled bathroom! (AKA....a new cat box and new vinyl runner underneath their box.) I kid you not.....they waited in line for it to be operational, then took their respective turns. ;)

More later........