Spring Break 2010

This is the second year Sarah has gone on the high school youth group work tour for our church. Last year was her first year and she didn't really want to go. She had never really bonded with any of the kids at our church and because she works at a babysitting job on Wednesday nights she had never gotten really involved in the youth group. But we'd been told by many other parents that going on work tour had changed their teens' attitude about church, themselves and youth group and it was worth the effort to make her go at least once. So we pushed and she went. She did come home with a completely different attitude toward youth group and work tour in particular. She still doesn't get to participate in the weekly meetings as often as she'd like but she's made friends and does participate as much as she can. She also started looking forward to this years spring break trip about 6 hours after returning from last years trip!

With her gone for a week Emma and I are once again on our own. Last year we booked a couple nights at an indoor water park resort north of Chicago. It was great having some time together without Dad and Sarah. Being the youngest she and I don't get a lot of just Mom and Daughter time together. This year we hadn't really planned anything ahead of time.

Sunday night we were just hanging out watching television and talking. Because the weather forecast was so good I thought an outdoor adventure was a good idea. Many people have been telling me for 18 years that Starved Rock was a great place to see but I'd never gotten down there. I got online and when I realized that it was less than a 2 hour drive from here and practically on the way to my niece in Iowa's I had a plan. We would spend a day or so hiking and then drive to Iowa to see our new cousin/niece. Steve looked up rooms available in the area and we had a room booked for Monday night using his many Marriott points.


We headed out Monday morning and were hiking by noon. We hiked for almost 4 hours the first day. The weather was perfect. Just hearing Emma exclaim over and over, "this is awesome!" "I love this place!" "OMG, look at that!" made every sore muscle worth it. After all our hiking we headed back to Peru and our hotel for some rest. After a game of Phase 10 and a change of clothes we headed across the parking lot to Target to buy bathing suits because we didn't think to pack any and then to Red Lobster for dinner. We enjoyed a great meal of "Chum Stuffed Fungi" (stuffed mushrooms) and crab legs and I had one of those ginormous Lobsteritas, the waitress was all, "You know that drink is huge right?" I was like, "You've never met me but trust me, it'll be fine. Plus I only have to get about 100 yards to the hotel."

We ended the evening with an hour in the hotel pool and hot tub. Even though it was spring break we didn't have to share the pool with anyone. I guess Peru, Illinois isn't on the top 100 list of spring break destinations.

The next morning we headed back to the park to hike to a couple of canyons we'd missed the day before. We were sore and tired but we had looked online the night before at photos taken in these canyons and felt the extra hiking was worth the effort. It paid off. The first canyon we hiked to that morning was the LaSalle Canyon and we were the first ones back there that morning.

It was so beautiful and peaceful, like a natural cathedral. I'm glad we hadn't made it that far the day before because we would have been too tired to enjoy it and there would have been a bunch of other people there too.

We then made a quick stop at the Lodge for a potty break and ice cream cones. I learned that hiking around waterfalls when you have to pee is really uncomfortable! Our last hike was to the St. Louis Canyon where the tallest waterfall in the park can be found. Again, definitely worth the hike.

I took almost 100 pictures during the 24 hours we were there. You can see most of them on my Flickr page

I'm now looking into selling my super 100-300mm zoom lens and buying a 14mm wide angle and the fast 50mm that I've always dreamed of and heading back down there as the seasons change. You can bet Emma will be joining me for many more of these trips as well. I'm looking forward to it, I have been since about 6 hours after we got home last night!

March Madness

It seems that March is the time for new beginnings and what better new beginning than a new baby in the family?

This is Kolbie Elizabeth. She was born Friday evening to my niece Mylene and her husband Dean.

Emma and I took a little mini-spring break Monday and Tuesday (I'll post about that in a few.) and we topped our trip off with a brief stop in Iowa to welcome Kolbie and take gifts to her and her big sister Kaija.
Emma made this cute flannel kitty pillow for Kaija.

I made this little busy bag for Kaija and filled it with coloring books, stickers and Easter story books.

Kolbie got a quilt. (And my brother Scott got another girl!)

I made this quilt out of the Tula Pink Hushabye fabrics. It is only about 36" square so it will make a nice stroller blanket or car seat cover. I really like the block pattern for this. It looks complicated but is really easy to assemble. It would be even easier if I used the precuts from Moda that it was designed for originally. But cutting the squares and sashes isn't that hard, just time consuming.


It was nice to get back to my sewing room and to actually make something again. Now I just have to get back up there and clean up the mess I made! I still don't have the actual sewing area set up the way I'd like it but just doing something is a start.

On other sewing news, I'm going to be teaching some sewing classes at the new Bernina dealer in town! I talked with the owner last week and we are still working out the details of what and when but it looks like I will be starting with some kids' sewing classes this summer. I'll update the blog with more information when I have it!

Fabric Cat

This is Punkin.
I finally found a way to get pictures from my camera SD card to a computer to Flickr so I can post here again. Too bad this HPmini is so damn slow. Maybe I'll have more patience tomorrow (and won't be distracted by LOST on DVR) to write an actual post.

It's My Birthday!

To celebrate I cleaned up three piles of cat diarrhea and scooped and stinky litter box at 6:45 a.m. What a life I live! I then took the culprit cat to the vet at noon instead of enjoying an afternoon at Friday Knitting.

Now I am sitting here at my computer and finding inspiration to get some sewing projects started. (Notice I said "started", I make no promises of finished projects!)

First I found this: Off The Grid Quilt. I found it through Sarah at My Spare Time blog but now I'm getting 404 errors when I try the direct link. She made her version smaller to make it more of a stroller blanket. I really like that idea because I remember when my girls were babies and that smaller size really came in handy. My niece is expecting her second baby girl any time now and I have an abundance of the Tula Pink Hushabye line of fabrics left so I'm inspired to get cutting and piecing again.

While investigating that pattern I came across this: Child's Activity Bag I think this will be a quick sew that will make a perfect "Big Sister" gift for Kaija Jane.

Both of these tutorial/patterns came from the Moda Bakeshop. The patterns are designed to use the precut fabric bundles Moda sells but are easily adapted to using any fabric. There are pages that give all the measurements for the precuts so using remnants or regular yardage is pretty simple. I've added a link in my sidebar to the "Bakeshop" so if you're looking for inspiration or patterns it is easy to find.

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Heidi update:
Earlier this week I was afraid I'd have to report that we had come to the decision to finally say goodbye. Monday and Tuesday she was really doing bad. She could barely stand and dragged herself outside to potty and had accidents both mornings in the house. But yesterday she rallied. She got her feet back under her and managed to walk with some difficulty. Last night after we went to bed she somehow got herself across the house and into the bedroom with us! She hasn't left her rug by the front door other than to go outside in weeks so this was a big deal. This morning her eyes are bright and all of her happy personality is back. I attribute some of it to the fact that Steve got home last night. She is really bonded to him and misses him when he travels. Also Sarah and I took Maizey for a walk yesterday and Heidi was beside herself because she couldn't go with us. Maybe she is trying to prove she can still get around if we give her the chance. Her 10th birthday is Sunday and I plan on treating her like the princess she is. If it's possible I'm going to get Steve to join us at the dog park and hope that the snow in the forecast really comes.

While I was at the vet today I had a conversation with my vet about our end-of-life plans for Heidi. As difficult as it is to even think about I think it is important to have a plan in place. Because we're pretty sure she has DM but there is no way to know for sure without doing a necropsy we are planning for that. The University of Missouri is doing a study of many breeds of dogs to try to determine the causes and genetics behind this disease and someday hopefully the information they gather will lead to treatment and maybe a cure. I have decided to participate in this study and have Heidi's spinal cord sent to them for their studies. I also shared my worries that she will fail when Steve is traveling as he is in his busy season again. I want him with me if at all possible when this happens but if he can't be I will need help moving her. I was reassured by my vet that if the need arose they could either send a tech to help me transport her or she would make a house call if worse came to worse. Having these difficult conversations and having a plan in place does help put my mind at ease. This is the hardest part of being a pet lover.

Heidi: an update

Back at the beginning of December I shared about how my Berner, Heidi has been slowly losing the use of the back legs. We believe she is suffering from a disease called Degenerative Myelopathy (DM). At that time I started her on a new diet and started focusing on trying to help her enjoy as much of the time as she has left with us.

At that time my goal was to get her through the holidays with us which I'm happy to say she did with ease. True to her heritage she loves the cold weather and especially the snow. There were a few mornings that after struggling to get to her feet and out the door she managed to hop around in the fresh snow like a young dog and to roll around on her back and make doggy snow angels. Those mornings made my day. Other days it has been all she can do to drag her back legs out the door and maneuver into position to relieve herself without soiling herself. She even had a couple incidents of incontinence that hurt her pride so much it made me cry. But so far the average to good days are still outweighing the bad days.

She will turn 10 in a few weeks (March 21st) and that became my goal at the first of the year. I'm confident that she will make that milestone with no problem. She is loving her new diet and it has done wonders for both her and Maizey. Their coats have improved so much! Heidi was refusing food on occasion before switching her to raw and now she doesn't miss a meal. It is much easier to keep her weight in a healthy range on this diet too. I like to keep her lean any way but since her mobility has been limited it is even more critical to keep her lean and take the pressure off her good legs and back. She was also having teeth problems and those have almost cleared up with the raw bones. She still has a lot of old tartar but her breath has improved and her gums look healthier now.

I never did start her with hydrotherapy like I had wanted to do. I just couldn't afford it at the beginning and had planned to use my Christmas money (in-laws give cash instead of gifts) to start her after the New Year. Then I had a really bad few months with next to no income from my etsy shop and no luck finding a job (Even Joann's Fabric wouldn't hire me, how is that for depressing!) so I had to use my holiday money to pay my bills. Now she has progressed past the point of it being able to help. Plus getting her in and out of the car is very stressful for both of us. I have a ramp and a harness that fits around her hips to hold but she still gets scared she's going to fall off the ramp and panics.

So now her world has gotten very small. She has a rug at the foot of the stairs right by the front door where she spends most of her time. There are other small non-slip rugs placed around the house but for the last few weeks she rarely ventures anywhere beyond the entryway or the living room. Every morning and again in the afternoon and before bed she goes out to the front yard to potty and enjoy the scenery. She still likes her watchdog role and will lay in the snow watching the neighbors come and go for a few hours everyday. Some days she will have the strength to go out to the back yard and can still get up and down from the deck. Those days Maizey will go out there with her and tear around like a mad gazelle while Heidi barks at her like an annoyed school marm.

This disease is so slow and insidious that day to day you don't realize what has been lost. Just the other day while watching Maizey enjoy a good ear scratch I realized that Heidi hasn't been able to scratch herself with her back feet for close to a year. That of course prompted me to go over and offer an epic ear rub that she thoroughly enjoyed! She used to have a number of different spots throughout the house where she would lay to observe the comings and going of the family. One in particular is the corner by the kitchen table. The floor is cool stone tile and it is optimally located for cleaning up any stray crumbs that may fall during a meal. She hasn't been in that spot since before the holidays. Other places like the little hallway outside our bedroom door and the mudroom where the dog food is kept used to be her signal to us that she was hungry. She doesn't come into our room to sleep at night anymore either. The saddest thing is when Steve gets home from a trip. She would always greet him the second he came through the back door with so much enthusiasm that I would just sit back and wait for my turn. Yesterday he got home from a three day trip and we could hear her crying in on her rug because she couldn't get up to come to him. He of course went to her to give her the proper greeting she deserved.

I have no idea how much more time we have and how we will make the decision that it is up. I'm not sure which is worse; the fast unprepared good-bye like I had with Sophie, the sudden decline and painful end like with Shadow or this long, ardous uncertain good-bye we are having with Heidi. I just know that they have all taught me to appreciate the time we do have together and make the most of it.

Catching up

I started to write a post with these pictures over a week ago. But then my camera to computer interface was giving me fits and I ran out of time the day I was doing it and never got back to it. So here I am! Ta Da!

I've been knitting and crocheting in between going to the theater for rehearsals. We opened Dearly Beloved last Friday to a great audience. I have more to say on all that but it will have to wait for another post.

The above blanket is made using this pattern. It's fast and easy and I love the way the colors work together. It came about because Sarah and I decided one afternoon to tear the gas fireplace out of the living room. We put this big square fireplace in shortly after we moved in here but before we remodeled the kitchen/family room. At the time the living room was just a sitting room with some toys in the back corner. It made it look more formal and added a focal point. But after the remodel we moved the tv in there and then the room had two big focal points and not enough room for the proper seating arrangement for optimum tv viewing pleasure. It had been bugging Sarah and I for months but we couldn't convince Steve is was time for it to go. So one week he was out of town for six days and we took the opportunity to get rid of it. Problem is that now we have a hole in our wall behind the couch and an electrical outlet about 5 feet up on the middle of the wall. (I'm looking for a handyman to come in and fix that soon.)

So how does ripping a gas fireplace off a wall lead to a new blanket? Surprisingly it isn't because the room is now cold because we almost never used the actual gas logs in there because it would get TOO hot. You see the thermostat is also in the living room, behind the big tv, so it already is unreliable and leads to the rest of the house being too cold while the living room is about 10 degrees warmer. No it was because once the fireplace was gone and the brown leather couch moved from the den to the living room and the rest of the furniture rearranged, I wanted an afghan that matched the decor on the back of the couch. I love my old fashioned, colorful Granny Square afghan that Emma and I made this winter but the colors are a bit garish. My friend Jodee was finishing up her Ripple Blanket one Friday at knitting and it inspired me to make my own to match my "new" living room. I also broke out the sewing machine and stitched together some quick pillows in the green and brown Olives and Damask fabric in Lila Tueller's Santorini line.


Before I started the crochet afghan I had cast on and started knitting on this shawl. It is the Gail/Nightsong pattern available free on Ravelry. I'm finally using the Briar Rose lace yarn I've been calling my "Invisibility Cloak" yarn since buying it at a fiber festival the day after attending the final Harry Potter midnight book release party. Like most laceweight projects the final beauty of this shawl won't be evident until it is finished and blocked. I'm going to have a lot of yarn left over even if I make it much bigger than the pattern. In hindsight I should have knit it with the yarn doubled. As it is it will be as light as a feather. I'm still debating on if I'm going to added tiny beads around the edges. I think they'd add a nice bit of sparkle and the added weight may help it hang better. We'll see. Right now it is resting in my knitting bag. It is too fiddly and takes too much concentration to knit at knitting group or backstage in the dark.

Emma went with me to knitting last Friday and that resulted in me buying yarn, pattern and casting on yet another project. She saw a finished sample of the Prairie Boots at Wool & Co. and wanted a pair. I have the left boot done and got all of the right foot done last night. If I go knit after finishing this post she'll have a finished pair of boots by the time she gets home from school today. (They'll still need buttons and leather soles but the knitting will be done.)

What new projects are you all doing now? Does the change of seasons inspire you to make big changes in your surroundings?