My week in Instagram

That was a loooong week I just had. Busy at work, busy at home, busy with Christmas lists. But not so busy that I couldn't take photos of daft things.

Jones. In a gift bag. He's a handsome chap though, eh?

My first loot from the Village Stash Society (run by the Village Haberdashery) This actually arrived 2 weeks ago but I hadn't got round to taking a photo. Pretty blues!

A large plus quilt top layout. Spouse's Christmas. It's hard doing things only when he's not around!

Two cats in a box. Not fighting but sharing. Didn't last long! Brothers, tsk.

Ghastlies Christmas fabric!! Available at Plush Addict if you're of a subversive persuasion.

My wedding ring. For #weddingringwednesday. This is my second one - I wore out my first ring after about 9 years. So this one's titanium with a gold inside ring. 

An old photo of Chook and Sniffy the rat I came across. Aaw. She's just turned five, here.

More Stash Society stash! November is reds - these are really lovely. Most a desaturated, soft red and very useable!

Temple in heaven - a cushion ON my knee!

And right up to date - my breakfast this morning. Pancakes by Spouse!

And then my tea - also by Spouse! I hate cooking, he loves it when he gets time. So I was happy to not have to cook today at all!

I've spent most of today scrubbing my kitchen (proper spring cleaning - walls and things) and making a new blind. And hemming curtains. And cutting a tablecloth. Kitchen looks much fresher! I'll show once it's finished. I'm hopeful to soon be getting photos of that giant plus quilt top - I finished it on Wednesday but it's either been raining or Spouse has been about so no photos to be had. Fingers crossed I can snap a couple tomorrow. I hope you had as fulfilling a weekend as I did! 

Fresh Sewing Day - already!

Is it me or was March a very quick month!

I didn't think I'd made anything but look! There's a finished quilt in there and everything!

I've made more of the Granny squares that are shown there on the top right (so I'm two thirds there with that) and finished all 42 of the Paintbox squares on the top left, too. That's a special quilt for a charitable cause, I'll blog properly on that another day. Some silly pants and that was my month! Not too bad, all in all.

Thanks to all of you who took the time to comment, email and text about wee Wilson the rat. Like I've said in many replies, the promise of her much longed-for cat is proving to be a little salve for Chookie although she still has a lip quiver back and forth when she spots his empty cage (anyone have a use for a well looked after Savic Freddie cage?) She'll survive, kids are good like that! The spouse, however, is heartbroken. He's lost his midnight snack partner... 

an up and downy sort of day

It's been a weird old day here. It started out fabulously well. I skipped into work after attending an absolutely stellar parents night last night. I mean, Chook always gets a great report but this might have been her best ever. Clever, hardworking, polite, popular, responsible and a pleasure to teach. You cannae ask much more from a nearly 10 year old, can you? So I was chirpy, the sun was shining, the Easter holidays beckon and I had this awesome tune on my iPod.

And then I got home and things got better! I had a parcel all the way from Nicke at Kiss, kiss....quilt. Wheeee! There was this little bundle inside.

...which held these fantastic Peacock Lane fat quarters.  And co-ordinating zips!!! They don't photograph well, they are way more gorgeous in the flesh. But the real prize and the whole point of the package?

This cushion that I won in the Sew, Mama, Sew! giveaway. Feel free to all be well jealous now! Do you see the handquilting?!? Yeah, baby, and it's mine!!

And as luck would have it (or Nicke's awesome stalking skills) it is perfect in my bedroom. I mean Per.Fect. Lookie.

And check her labels. Wantwantwant. 'Cept with my name, obviously.

Ah. But after tea. Well, things got a bit more shit. I stuck my nose up to the rat cage to check on wee Wilson. He was at the vets a fortnight ago and had antibiotics and special shampoo and all sorts. Thirty quid I was!! Anyways, he has been really chirpy this week for an old man. But the wee soul had died in his wee house - looks like in his sleep. *sniff* That's him on the right the day we brought him home.

I can happily say that he was pretty healthy right to the end. Still eating everything he could (although he'd lost a lot of weight recently) and sleeping most of the day. He also lasted a full 6 months longer than Zepp his litter mate which is good going! He would have been 3 in July which is positively jurassic in rat years.

Chookie, it goes without saying, is most upset. She always had a soft spot for Wilson, I think because she gave him such an odd name! We buried him in the back garden in a quilters cotton shroud and she made a wee marker for his grave. He was a very docile, steady wee chap and we will miss him. Although not that huge cage. We are fur-less!! Weird...

such a busy weekend...

This was the weekend of our first Cubs sleepover in the Scout hut and I can one hundred percent admit I am totally gubbed. Knackered to the extreme. It started well enough. They were very well behaved and fun was had by all. Making pirate hats, playing pirate games and doing a treasure hunt I spent hours preparing. Do you like my clue letters and maps?

 Here's my wee pirate - the only one I can share for obvious child protection issues. Do you like how her skull and crossbones became a pony and crosspole jump? Heh heh.

 Anyways, everything was going well. They had supper, got ready for bed and after about 2 hours most of them were sleeping. By about half one in the morning we adults were about to retire when a wee body appeared in the kitchen.

"I don't feel well..." he whimpered. Oh dear. There's a definite pattern emerging where it's me that launches across the room - it happened at camp with a distressed girl as well - to an upset child. My reflexes seem to propel me past everyone closer while they're still doing god knows what. Anyway, our wee Cub emptied his stomach down the loo (I hate other people being sick but I'm getting quite good at not breathing while it's happening!) and a call to his parents revealed they'd made the most of their kid free night and had been out having a drink. Which is how I found myself at 2am dropping him off home. *sighs*

By 3am another Cub was crying because he couldn't get back to sleep! Three visits to him, a change of bed (the sick boy's roll mat was still lying out) and we were settling down a little. Of course, it was after 4am by this time and I still hadn't had any sleep. Funny how all the other supposed light sleepers in the leadership team are dead to the world when there's stuff going on! I got one whole blessed hours sleep. And then a wee wraithlike figure appeared at the door to our room a bit jittery and snivelly. Not with a sore tummy like I was imagining but looking for his mum. Who was our parent helper and sound asleep! He'd got a fright the wee man and then couldn't find her in the dark and was SO upset. So that was another hour lost while she calmed him down. I did squeeze in one other hours sleep before getting up at half 7. Needless to say I slept the whole afternoon on the couch when I got home!

And then I discovered my mail. Sarah was giving away some "hideous" fabric last week on her blog. I think she's mental coz I loved this check! And just coz she's a total and utter sweetie pie she sent a fabulous tidy that she'd made (skulls!!), perle cottons (drool) and the Single Girl quilt pattern which I'm planning on trying in the spring. What a doll, eh?

There was also some scrapbook papers I'd picked up last week in an online sale. Sassafrass Lass - my favourite!! And 6 metres of Kona Ash for my brother's Christmas quilt. Job for this week - start it!!

Today was Remembrance Sunday so we were all at the wee village over from us for their service (Scout related, that's why not at the one in our town) and Chook and I were in the parade with the pack. I forgot to get a photo of us all smart in our uniforms. Doh!

But before that I'd been doing a treasure hunt in my jammies! Chook spent hours this morning making up a load of clues and hiding them all over the house while I was catching up on my sleep. Here's one of her clues on the loo!

Bless her wee socks, it was so cute! The treasure was gold coin wrappers (as in sans chocolate!) left over from Friday night but the thought was there! And this afternoon we checked out her new riding school! Where she rides currently are having trouble with their arenas. They are both unuseable so for the last 6 weeks she's just been hacking out and is so bored with it! I tell you, the recession is obviously not affecting riding because I had to contact FOUR places before I got a reply. This place looks great, though! It's farm based again but really organised and they have an indoor ring, too, which is a boon when you ride in Scotland! AND - this is an exciting one - a coffee shop!!! So no more waiting in a freezing cold car. I can get a hot chocolate and a cookie and they have free wi-fi too! SO hopefully her assessment lesson on Saturday goes well and she likes the place and instructors and we should be all set! Fingers crossed anyway.

I hope you all had a great weekend - maybe a bit less frantic then mine! Monday already, gah!

R.I.P. wee Zepp

I had to make a sad visit to the vet this morning with my poor wee rat Zepplin. He wasn't very great last night - he was having trouble sitting up to eat a peanut. By this morning he was cold and very frail. The lovely vet said he'd had a stroke, it explained why he was shuffling in circles! So we decided the kindest thing to do for my wee guy was to end his suffering and put him to sleep.

I'll miss his wee nosey face looking for a hopeful peanut every time we enter the kitchen. I'll miss him pretending he WASN'T picking on fat Wilson when Wilson lying flat on his back squeaking while being pinned under Zepp's paw pleads to the contrary! I'll even miss his dead-like sleeping - more than once I was physically poking his side before he grumpily jerked awake and glared (yes, GLARED!) at me.

Rest easy, wee guy. You were always so active I have no decent photos of you! This is the clearest one I have - nice bum!

le weekend

It was a busy weekend round these parts! Saturday was spent playing with our respective hobbies (sewing, ponies and cars - more on Stinky Eric tomorrow!) but Saturday evening is always takeaway night. Only this week we had a stay in and cook - Man Versus Food style!!! We decided burgers were in order and Chookie and I had our plans all made.

 This is miss with her "Not-so-big Big Mac" which is a patty, cheese, bacon and brown sauce. She said it was fab (and she ate the lot - and fries!) but I think the brown sauce sounds gross!

 This is my "Wife Burger" with onion rings and hash browns. It. Was. Amazing.

 And this is the Spouse's first effort. Yeah, he had TWO! This one has sauer craut, I think the other had a fried egg and jalapenos! We may have demolished some Phish food after as well. What little piggies.

Sunday we were up early to go see Kung Fu Panda 2. Our favourite local cinema is in the grounds of a local university and after some lunch (the film was fab!) we took a wee trek round one of the many wee lakes. And in some woods (Spouse's knee was holding up nicely!)

 There was some messing about.

 And some toadstools found.

 And some bad photography by spouse.

 And these wee chaps are in a bad way. That's Zepp on the left, I had him at the vet last week as he seemed to be losing power in his back legs and having had a rat go this way before I wanted him seen early for pain control and/or euthanasia. Apparently it's usually painless, however and lo and behold, the wee blighter did a Lazarus and seemed fantastic after some antibionics for a chest infection.

But I think he's had a wee stroke or something on Saturday night. He's all staggery and is sleeping a lot. He'll make an appearance for a peanut and try to get up to the top of the cage but his wee legs are definitely failing him. It's heartbreaking watching him try!! Just a matter of time, we think and Wilson will be so lonely on is own. Quite literally, rats.

Noses. (red ones, whiskery ones and an out of joint one)

Yesterday was Red Nose Day in the UK. (It is a UK thing, innit?) You can read about Comic Relief and the work they do in Britain and Africa here. What it means for the general populace is once every two years doing something suitably ridiculous to raise some money and a Friday night telethon of comedic insanity. I missed the whole lot on the telly last night (doh!) but had donated already. And Chook did her bit by wearing her jammies to school. Even some of the teachers had their jim-jams on! We'll find out the school's total raised on Monday.

I've spent the day going back and forth quilting the Mental quilt. I can only do about 20 minutes at a time of free-motioning before my shoulders end up round my ears, my eyes start to nip and my stitches get massive! So there's a lot of to-ing and fro-ing. Things were going really well, though. The thread wasn't breaking too much, the back was neat, it was starting to look really great. And then I ran out of thread. At 5.05pm on a Saturday. Meaning the only close shop that sells Gutterman cotton is closed until Monday morning. Poo. No, really, that's what I said!! Or maybe something along those lines....

So here I am debating cutting out the quilt-along pieces (I promise that'll be the next post!) and thinking maybe just slobbing out on the couch is the way to go instead. Wilson and Zepplin are happy doing it!

"whaaaaat? you're disturbing us, man!"



So, I'm kinda at a loose end. Maybe I should get down to that ironing. Naaah...

Frantic.

That's how my weekend has been. Totally nutso busy. We picked up a new car yesterday (new to us, at least) and I spent the afternoon cleaning it. It was in fantastic nick inside, it just needed a bit of spit and polish and it looks brilliant now! It was hard going, though. This was after Chook's riding lesson, too. She was on a different pony this week - Flossie is her lesson parter's usual ride and they had a swap. I'm not sure either of them was overly impressed!

Flossie is tiny compared to Skye - and has a much shorter stride. Chook was bouncing about like mad when they were trotting!

Today was also spent in a cleaning frenzy. We go on holiday tomorrow so rats and fish had to be sorted for the week ahead (my Mum is feeding them) but the boys also needed their tails cleaned. Some rats - our fellas included - just don't clean their tails. Which is weird coz they are fastidious about keeping everything else clean! Up to and including inside their ears! Anyhoo, here's some drowned rats.

In the bath. Not impressed. Wilson in particular (on the left) was trying his hardest to scale the bath sides and resorted to jumping straight up in the air - he almost made it out on more than one occassion! But they are all lovely and clean now. If in the huff with us.

The house has also been cleaned, the Spouse's car (which we are taking) is empty and clean, the jeans and jumpers from yesterday are clean, ironed and packed. Although by 4pm today I still hadn't looked out the suitcase. Not like me at all! The bikes have been MOT-ed, groceries packed, entertainments for the 6 hour drive looked out or bought. My toenails are newly painted, I've checked us in online and am about to collapse. But we are a-go for the October hols! A woo and a hoo!!

summa this and summa that.

I admit it, I've been putting off blogging on account of the whole keyboard drama - I've still not got one sorted for my tower. So this is me on the Spouse's laptop while he's out cleaning his car with a brief roundup of the last few days.

I made this wee chap for my Sony eReader on Friday while watching "17 Again" (aye, Mrs Wookie, I am a multitasker while handsewing!). It is based on a tutorial from the Moda bakeshop which only needed a few wee dimensional alterations since my reader is a different size from the Amazon Kindle it was designed for.


I don't get on with the leather flippy cover the reader comes with so mine is in a groovy bounce-proof condom (safety first!) with a screen protector but I wanted something pretty to cart it about in and knew when I saw that Japanese Little Red Riding Hood fabric through the week that it was destined for here. Love that gormless wolf!

Saturday morning is riding and the Chook was magnificent on the very tall and extremely pretty Miss Molly. Heels down, lassie!!!

We had some free ranging time with our boys this morning. They are much slower than our girls so we're happy letting them run about the floor but it's still almost impossible to get a good photo of them. I got lots of bums!! This is Zep's.

But I got one profile of pretty Wilson. Ignore the dust bunnies under the radiator if you please!!

And I spent the afternoon quilting Freddie's Pinwheels. It is done!! But I've not enough solid black for binding. So I need to shop before it's finished - pants!

I'm about to fling Chookie in the bath and commence stacking 30's reproduction coins. Yay!!

flaming Moe's

I buy our boys hammocks from FuzzButt since I am lazy and haven't the time nor the inclination to spend on making them myself. Fuzzbutt make the best quality cage comforts and always have fun fabrics and designs to choose from. My favourites are the snooze cube and the corner crush and I always try and buy 2 co-ordinated ones - just so Zep and Wilson have a cool cage. They have a set covered in aliens and another that's blue funky circles. But they are chewers (or at least one of them is - I haven't found the culprit yet!) so I have to replace them fairly regularly. This is their new one.

Wilson, posing inside the snooze cube. Actually, this is a bunker cube, hence the letterbox opening and camo fleece (we are Army rats this week!) and you can just make out the emergency exit back left. The grey sheep (bottom left of photo) is the new corner crush.

This is a better shot of the corner crush. It's great for lounging in (and is Zep's favourite) but can you spy Wilson? He's checking for choc drops!

"she's close to the bars - is it, could it be......."

".......snack time?!?!?"
And Flaming Moe's? Is Rachel's (the designer) name for the fabric, after her favourite Simpson's episode!

ungrateful scuts!!

I bought the boys a couple of fantastic alien covered hammocks from FuzzButt (and yes I know I could have made them but I have NO TIME!!) and where are they sleeping? On the shelves. hmph.