Odin - a fabric portrait

Over the weekend I finished the project I was doing to use the painted fabric you saw in the last post.  I signed up to do an on-line workshop with Susan Sorrell  and here is what I ended up creating...

This is supposed to be Odin - and I think I did a not to terrible likeness.  For those of you who have been long-time readers of my mumblings you might remember that Odin was our border collie/springer spaniel mix that we had to put to sleep at the age of nearly five because he lost both his eyes to glaucoma.  Our #2 son took this photo of him before all the troubles began and it's my favourite.

Here is the original...

Studio pal and thrifting

It's been awhile since I posted a picture of my studio pain helper -

My cutting table doubles as his bed - so needless to say not much cutting gets done if Himself decides to take a nap.

His name is Cosmo - named after Kramer on Seinfeld.  Like his namesake our Cosmo delights in making a grand entrance into a room.














Yesterday we spent the afternoon moseying about our favourite thrift stores and I came home with these...

and this....

Now whatever do you suppose I might be planning to do with them??

Christmas Beauty!

I have to show you the beautiful arrangement of flowers that just arrived at our door!  Aren't they lovely?  It's a great mystery as to who sent them though!  The card was simply signed 'the gang'. Ummm.   We don't know a 'gang'....or do we?  Never mind, they are exquisite and we will enjoy every moment of having them.  Thank you to 'the gang', whoever and wherever you may be!!

- - - - -  

Oh yes, and Cosmo wanted to say a Christmas hello

to all his online kitty friends too!

Completed project - and a bed

Here's the latest
jacket I just
completed.

I know, don't they all
look the same?

and, here's Cosmo
reclining as only

a cat can....

R.I.P - Mitzy

We had to have our 16 year old
cat Mitzy put to sleep

on Saturday.

The house is quiet with only Cosmo left.

Studio cat

Honestly, how is one expected to get any work done when studio cat #1 (also known as Cosmo) drapes himself across your cutting board and looks so darn cute??

"pet me, pet me,
puleeezeeeee!!"

Our view

Today I thought I'd show you what I can see when I look out my studio window.  This is the Scugog River which runs through our town.  Further down there is a lock and we do see a lot of boats going up and down.

If you look really close in the last picture you can see some of our resident mallard ducks.  The middle picture shows some of the guest parking lot that runs in front of our building.

We moved the cats over last night and Mitzy has
already chosen her 'spot'.
Cosmo, on the other hand, has barely
been seen.  I think he's hiding under
the bed!

Oh, to be a hot cat!!

Mitzy...
four sheets to the wind,

on the floor in front of the fan.

Would that we could do the same!!

House guests

Here are a few pictures of our grandkittie houseguests.

This is Stewie, who belongs to #2 son and his fiance.  

And this is Ella, who belongs to #1 son and his fiance. Sorry about the poor colour in the picture!

And here are a few pictures of the two of them having a grand time playing together...

Stewie is here for two weeks having his own holiday while his 'people' are away on holidays and Ella was just here for the weekend. 

Cool cat and framed!

It's hot here.

Very hot.  

Cosmo agrees because he's all 

s-t-r-e-t-c-h-ed out on the

basement floor absorbing the cool.

It's a day not to be too strenuous and certainly not a day to be outside unless you have to.  The air here is hard to breathe at the moment so we're rather grateful we can stay inside where the air conditioning is doing it's level best to cope with the outside conditions.  Feel so sorry for the little birds - there was a goldfinch outside the window with it's little beak open panting in the heat.  Have to keep the birdbath filled today!

All I've managed to accomplish today is to finish up my inspiration board and get it hung in my studio.  If you embiggen the picture you can perhaps see the paint chip on the left.  Those are pretty much the colours my studio will be once the re-do is complete.  

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And....

don't forget to enter my giveaway by 

leaving a comment on my previous post!

R.I.P. - Gypsy

This morning we had to have our other dog put to sleep.  She became paralyzed - we assume her arthritis finally got the best of her.  She was 13, so had a good long life.  Now she's playing with Odin.

Our grandkitties!

Here are our grandkitties (and #2 son too).  Shawn looks quite resigned in this photo to the fact that their Stewie (a Bengal) spends a lot of time in just this position.  He rides around on his shoulder   which could become a problem as he gets bigger - Bengals can become quite big..  He's a handful and, I think, is going to be a challenge to raise.  I'm just glad it's them and not me! 

#1 son and his fiance just adopted Ella who is a little over a year old.  We haven't met her yet and are looking forward to it.  She sounds like she's a real laid back sort of cat and settled in happily pretty much the minute they brought her home.

Our grand-kitty

#2 son and his girlfriend were visiting over the weekend and they brought their kitten along. He is a total live-wire and kept us laughing (and our animals hopping) all weekend. He had absolutely no fear of our critters and confused poor Gypsy (llasa-apso/shih szu) no end. She's used to playing a chasing game with Cosmo (who obliges her by running away). Stewie flatly refused to run and Gypsy didn't know how to react.


Hopefully, in these pictures you can see some of the Bengal spots and stripes. It's awfully hard to get a decent picture of something that doesn't sit still for more than two seconds at a time!

Life goes on

#2 son and his GF have a new kitten and Saturday we got to go and meet him. He's a Bengal/Oriental cross and has the wonderful leopard spots of the Bengals and the big ears and long skinny tail of the Orientals. He's going to be a VERY distinctive cat!
If you want to know more about the origins of the bengals and/or orientals...please Google them! They're pretty unique.

R.I.P.

Odin
October 2005 - January 26, 2010

Bliss!

Mitzy and Odin, dozing on the couch after Christmas. Too much turkey do you think?

Studio Cat

First of all, I want to thank all the people who toured my studio over the weekend, and especially those who left such wonderful and supportive comments! I had a total blast visiting the over one hundred studios that were open on the virtual tour and, by the sounds of things, so did everyone else. Special thanks to Cate and all the team at Quilting Arts for spearheading such a great cyber tour!! (btw...if you missed touring on the weekend, check out the post below where you will find a link to the tour and you can see what everybody is raving about!).

Several people on the tour had included pictures of their studio animals and I neglected to. So...here is sleepy Cosmo, my studio buddy. He was named after the Kramer character in the Seinfeld TV series. Remember how Kramer used to make an 'entrance' into the room? Well our Cosmo does the same...usually at full tilt and via the shortest route possible. If you happen to be in the way, look out! We have another cat too (Mitzy), but she rarely graces my studio with her presence.

Anniversary!

30 Years with this man!!

Thirty years ago yesterday I married a wonderful man. 30 years in some ways feels like a very long time, and in other ways it seems like just yesterday. He's a good man and I consider myself a very lucky woman to have him in my life and to have him as the father of our sons. Here's hoping we're lucky enough to have thirty more years together.

These are some pictures from our road trip yesterday. It's hard to believe but the greenery in the front of the picture above is actually onions. A whole huge field of them! This is in the Holland Marsh, which is the area where a large percentage of our vegetables are grown and marketed from.

Below is a picture of one of the massive wind turbines we saw. They are absolutely spectacular to see up close. Hopefully they will continue to be erected to provide for our hydro electric needs in the future.
Finally, this picture is overlooking Georgian Bay and was taken in a little park we stopped at. There were a couple of sailboats out there, but too far away for a picture, so I settled for this pretty-sounding fountain instead.
We had a lovely day! Thank you to everyone who wished us a happy anniversary.
p.s. Jack has Mitzy (the cat) and Gypsy (the dog) on his lap in his photo. He can't form a lap without attracting animals.

The life of riley...or in this case Mitzy

Here's our 13 year old cat reclining on the sofa in the sunroom. The only reason the sofa is the place of choice is because there doesn't happen to be a handy lap to perch upon!

The lump and the lug

I'm actually knitting. This sweater WILL be done...someday. I hope. It's one of those knitting projects that beginners undertake for their first 'large' project. Something safe. Something easy. Something so mind-numbingly BORING that you begin to wonder why you decided knitting might be fun in the first place. Something that, as you're knitting, you feel distressing thoughts that after ALL that m-n BORING knitting, might not even fit. Yeah, it's that sort of project. I WANT IT DONE!!!!!!!!!!!

For those of you who have been wondering, here's a picture of our one-eyed wonderdog Odin and his partner in crime Gypsy. As you can see, Odin is having a grand time barking at the camera and Gypsy is poised to nip at his back leg (either to shut him up or to start a wrestling match...which, btw, he allows her to win).