Dogs, Ikea Furniture, Cool Choreography And A Goat!

I know this has over four million hits on You Tube so you may have already seen it. But so what. Go watch it again. You know it will make you happy.

And, I totally missed the goat the first few times I watched it.

Hedgehog Bonanza

I was just over at the sewing blog on Craft Gossip and found links to three different hedgehog appliques. Woohoo!

Henrietta the Hedgehog from Izzy & Ivy designs

Hedgehog applique from Sevi Designs

And another hedgehog applique from Megity's Handmade

Those three blogs are new to me but I'm explore them more at another time. If I do it now, I'll never get to bed.

Ew, That Smell

Happy Birthday to you
You live in a zoo
You smell like a monkey
Because you've only bathed twice in the past four weeks. Ugh.

I have been getting washed as I best I can while standing at my sink so I'm not totally gross. Just a tad gross. But there really is no substitute for a real shower with hot running water. Although at this point, I would love to sit in a patio chair in the backyard and have someone just hose me off. (I go back to the orthopedic guy on October 1 and hopefully he will pronounce my knee completely healed on that day and I can set fire to the brace in the backyard. After I take a thirty minute shower. )

I just wanted to pop in and link to this porcupine pincushion over at Prudent Baby. It was on a list of thirty DIY pincushion links at Craft Passion. You probably already know some of the tutorials but maybe some will be new to you so go check out the list.

[Thirty minutes later] Well, this always happens. I find something to link to on one blog and end up visiting more blogs and discovering more good stuff.

Look at this chair! I love this chair and want to marry it. (But only if we can hold the ceremony in June so I can have peonies in my wedding bouquet.) If this chair is not a reason to learn to crochet, I don't know what is. Also, at About Mo and me is a tutorial to crochet a flower garland. I love that too.

How cute is this rolled felt peppermint pincushion from Polka Dot Pineapple?

There's a ton of great tutorials on Creative Jewish Mom, and even more on Sundays, but I especially love this pretty embroidery and felt applique picture.

I hope you enjoyed the extra links. Have a great Monday and may you always be able to shower whenever you want.

Why Am I Here Again?

Did you ever go to blog something new but get sidetracked by reading your draft posts and then forget what you were going to write about in the first place?

Maybe I should just come back tomorrow.

Wait. Now I remember. I wanted to link to these cross stitch charts of the planets, including Pluto, that you can use to make coasters from Nerdy Needle [link via Craft].

Also, I made this lemon pasta dish for dinner last night (except I used gemelli instead of fusilli) and I really liked it. By the way, the addition of broccoli and arugula totally cancel out all the fat in the two cups of heavy cream used to make the sauce. Really.

Just Shoot Me

Sunday night, my left foot slipped on something wet on the kitchen floor and I went down on my right knee and fractured my knee cap. The same one I broke three years ago.

If it wasn't for the pain, this would be hilarious.

I can't get into see the orthopedic surgeon until Monday and I seriously don't know if I will last until then. They put an immobilizer on my leg in the ER and that has really helped with the pain but it is still awful. If I keep my right leg straight, I can ease myself into a chair or my bed. (Plus I'm using a walker to get around and avoid putting any weight on my leg.) But to swing my leg up into the bed causes pain like you can't imagine. Last night I did just that and then laid in bed for five minutes waiting for the pain to subside. If someone is around, they can lift up my leg by the ankle and raise it until it's on the bed which is tolerable. But if no one is around to do that, I'm screwed. Of all the times not to have a personal assistant. Or a butler. Or even a husband.

Last time I did this, and no, I still can't believe I did it again, I was admitted to the hospital and they did surgery and after that I was pain free. This is different because it's still hurting three days later.

I'm off to see what other shows are saved on the DVR to watch. Unless someone wants to come over and pick up my leg and put it on the bed for me. I'll give you a dollar.

On the bright side, looks like I will have lots of time to make stuff. Including a sampler that reads "I can't believe I broke my fucking knee again."

FFF: Gingerbread House Ornament

Is anyone else as shocked and appalled and stunned and amazed as I am that I actually have something to post for Finished for Friday?

I saw the tutorial for this cute little gingerbread house ornament while browsing the Sew Mama Sew blog the other night and decided to make one. The window is wonky. . . shucks, all my stitching is wonky and my little felt circles are wonky but I don't care. I like how it turned out and I am now ready to eat candy canes and put up the Xmas tree.

At first I couldn't find the right ribbon in my box of ribbon-scraps-that-I-am-saving-because-you-never-know-when-some-day-you-just-might-need-one. I wanted red ribbon and all the pieces were either red & too wide or just the right width but not red. Fortunately, this little bit of gingham turned up in my other box of ribbon-scraps-that-I-am-saving-because-you-never-know-when-some-day-you-just-might-need-one. Some days it pays to be a hoarder.

You can find the tutorial to make your own gingerbread house ornament here.

To see other finishes for this week, please visit this post at Lit and Laundry.

Needlework Links

Jeez louise. For two hours now, I have been trying to put together a post full of links but my computer is sooooo slow. I have run countless scans and nothing is showing up so I don't know what is going on. I've reached the point of boredom. So here are some needlework links.
More to come later. Much later.

Over at Wooden Sails, there's a nice cross stitch freebie based on an antique fraktur . . . fraktur? Let me Google that. According to Wikipedia, a fraktur is "both a style of lettering and a highly artistic and elaborate illuminated folk art created by the Pennsylvania Dutch (also known as Pennsylvania Deitsch or Pennsylvanian German). Most Fraktur were created between 1740 and 1860." Interesting.

I love this free Fall pattern from Bird In The Hand. And, if you look in the right sidebar, you will see even more stitchery freebies.

Remember the Brutus and the Catalicious Quilt BOM over at Red Brolly? Well, the July block is out. (Can you tell I copy & pasted this bit from an entry that I forgot to post last month?) And, so is the block for August.

If I wasn't in the middle of this post, I'd go make this embroidered In Bloom pillow from Lark Crafts right now [link via One Pretty Thing]

You have to check out Funoldhag. Carol calls herself a quiltaholic and I know she's an embroiderer and gardener as well. Plus she is 81 yrs old. She recently shared some vintage transfer patterns of baskets.

Now I'm debating hitting the hay or embroidering something.

Links To Some Felt Stuff You Can Make

I was going to do a post of links for today but I'm tired and the dog is tired and we need to go to bed. So I'm going to break them up into separate posts and hopefully get them all up this weekend. Here are the felt projects.

Felt strawberries and more free patterns from Lit'l Brown Bird [link via How About Orange]

Free patterns from bread and buttons including felt strawberries and a Go Fish game that includes embroidery patterns (If I ever go back to teaching preschool, I will be making this.)

Felt Travel Sewing Kitty and Bits & Pieces Felt Ornaments from Sew 4 Home There are more projects under the tab at the top.

Happy Whale Pin from Sew Lovely Embroidery

Next time, I'll have some links to embroidery and cross stitch freebies. Happy Friday!

Wanna See My Yo-Yo

Wanna see my yo-yo?

The left half looks ok. The right half gets an OMG. By the way, that's the only one that survived my yo-yo making marathon back in early June. The others, like the "WTF is that?"one below, all had to be put out of their misery.

Some of them were even scarier than this. And, I swear alcohol was not a factor. Well, the yo-yo might have been really sloshed but I was totally sober. Which makes it all even more frightening.

Obviously, I need to work on my pulling-the-thread-really-tight skills.

An Embroidery Contest At Checkout Girl

When was the last time I linked to a contest? 1957?

There's a poetry/embroidery contest going on over at Checkout Girl. The embroidery has to be done by hand and include a poem or part of a poem. The prizes sound great: hoops, linen, floss and more. Melinda from Checkout Girl will be judging the entries along with Corinne from So September. All the details on the Embroidereading Contest are in this post.

After you read about the contest, go see this ring bearer pillow from Checkout Girl and also her Felty Shih Tzus. How freaking cute are they? [Link via Needlework News]

Back to work on a post full of links that I hope to have up by October Thursday.

The Stackable Cats And Me

First off, let me say THANK YOU for all of your comments about my dog, Maggie. They really meant a lot to me and made me feel better. Other than losing some weight, Maggie is still doing well. Please keep thinking good thoughts for her. Thanks!

Once upon a time, like nearly a year ago, I cross stitched a free pattern from Mochimochi Land called Stackable Cats. Then I put it away somewhere for months and months. Last week, I decided to finish it. (If you've just joined us, in my world, that means I attach some backing fabric to it and it either becomes an ornament or a small pillow.) So I did just that and stuffed it so full of stuffing that it looked like a sausage. I did a craptastic job sewing the opening closed, but other than that, I was really happy with my little sausage slash pillow. I planned to blog about it so I went to grab the link to the free chart from Mochimochi Land and noticed that the cats in the pattern had whiskers and mine did not.

Oops.

I know I could have added the whiskers after the fact (or just left them off and modified the title to Stackable Critters or something) but I don't do well adding facial features to anything that has already been stuffed). Instead, I opened up my little sausage pillow, pulled out all of the stuffing and ripped out the stitches on three sides so I could back stitch the whiskers. Then I sewed it all back together and once again had my little Stackable Cats pillow.


But here's the funny part. Before I stuffed it the second time, my sister saw it and said "Oh, is that an eyeglasses case for me?" just as I was contemplating that I could turn it into a small case instead of a small pillow. We both decided it would make a better case if it had a zipper across the top. Since I still don't do zippers (or use a sewing machine yet), once again it became the little sausage it was meant to be.


As you can see if you've clicked over to the original free chart, I changed it somewhat. I have no idea why I left off the birds or ball of yarn. Like I said, I stitched this about a year ago and maybe I was just feeling anti-yarn and anti-bird that day. And, I didn't use the suggested colors either. I think I was missing the orange one and felt brown kitties would be just as nice.

I totally love this design and I can see myself making another one into a case for my sister's glasses. Except there won't be any zippers involved. But that's why they invented Velcro. This is a freebie x-stitch chart and you can find it here, but if you're a knitter, check out the adorable patterns for the Stackable Cats and the Pile-able Pups. So cute!

Sad Maggie News

Thank you for the birthday wishes for Maggie! She was so excited over her birthday hamburger from Carl's Jr, that she walked a foot away from her dish and peed on the kitchen floor. Yeah, Maggie! (Even though she is 17 now, that is not something she does that often.)

Unfortunately, I have some bad news about my little dog. The vet found she has a large mass on her liver, which he is pretty sure is cancerous. There's also a lesion on a bone in her back leg and she has an enlarged heart. After he showed me the x-rays, he recommended having her put down. I was devastated because up until this, she has been pretty healthy for an older dog. I knew she wasn't going to live forever but I didn't expect this.

I know she has lost her hearing but maybe she somehow knew what the vet was suggesting because since that visit last Thursday, she has been acting as if everything is fine. She naps a lot but when she's awake, she is active and her appetite is really good. The other day, she was sitting on my bed and pawing at me to give her something to eat. I offered her a dog biscuit, a piece of Pupperoni and some other soft treat, and she turned all of them down but kept scratching at my arm and making this low growl. Finally, I realized she wanted a Sweetart. There were two of them sitting on my night table -- they're good for bringing up low blood sugar so I have them around -- and I gave her the blue one. Every try breaking up a Sweetart into little tiny pieces for a dog who doesn't have that many teeth left? I was ready to give her the whole thing and let her gum it.

So, for now, we're in a holding pattern. I've read some stories online about dogs and cats who were diagnosed with liver cancer and they seem to go downhill pretty quickly. I hope that doesn't happen with Maggie. I'd rather she passed away in her sleep after eating a Sweetart. But we'll see how it goes. We won't let her suffer but I don't think its time yet to do anything drastic.

Happy Birthday, Maggie

Happy 17th Birthday to my Shih Tzu, Maggie!

You Have To Go See This

If you haven't seen the animated embroidery on spool spectrum yet, go look now. It's really cool. Really really really cool.

Edited to add: And, it goes backwards too!

Testing Testing 1 2 3

None of my posts are showing up on Facebook but I think I fixed it so let's see if this works.

Something To Do With Embroidery

If I ever hit the lottery, I swear I am hiring someone just to think up titles for my posts.

Sometimes when I see links posted on Facebook, I forget to add them here because I figure everyone has seen them already. But maybe you aren't a fan of Wild Olive or DMC Threads on Facebook so you missed the adorable cupcake embroidery patterns that Mollie created for DMC.

Over at Bad Birds, you will find a huge list of free and not-so-free embroidery patterns. This is totally worth checking out. Go do it now. We'll wait.

Oh and Denise has another post with links to a bunch of embroidery freebies on Craft Gossip. I love when she does this.

And, here are the last of my already scanned patterns. Now I need to scan the rest of them and post them here.

A Few More Dog Patterns

I found a few more scans of some vintage embroidery patterns that I posted last year on a now-deleted blog. More dogs, of course. These are all from Artex 2200. Thanks to Barncat at Always Home, I learned how to clean them up a little.

This Makes Cry

I just read the latest post from Teresa on the Lone Star Shih Tzu and Lhasa Apso Rescue blog and it made me really sad. Teresa wrote about the twelve dogs that she has been asked to take into her rescue during the first six days of the month. Twelve of them. This doesn't include any dogs already facing euthanasia in local shelters, and trust me, there are plenty of them out there.

If you have ever considered fostering a rescue dog in Texas, please contact Lone Star.

P.S. According to Facebook, Teresa got an email from someone whose father needs to give up twenty Shih Tzu. It never ends.

Scotties On The Brain

This post could be a drinking game. Take a swig every time I mention the word Scottie/Scotty.

The other night, I went through the pile of papers on my bedroom floor and found over 40 cross stitch, embroidery and sewing patterns that I had printed out over the past couple of months. These are the tutorials and projects that I don't bother to download because I am going to start making them the very second I turn off my computer.

I'll give you a minute to stop laughing.

Anyway, in the pile was a pattern for a patchwork dog pillow on Ohdeedoh, which reminded me that Kellie had linked to a similar pattern from Denyse Schmidt on Facebook not too long ago. (I think it was Kellie. My apologies if it was someone else.) I must make one of those Scotties. Never mind that I don't know how to use a sewing machine or make a patchwork anything.

That patchwork Scottie made me think of the cute Scottie dog pillow over at Bustle & Sew? I must make that too. Never mind that I don't know how to applique.

Next, I somehow ended up on Flickr and found some groups for Scotties: Patchwork Scotties, Vintage Scottie Dogs, and also one for Scotty Stuffies, which I believe I joined after I actually made the AllSorts Scotty dog. And then pigs flew, hell froze over and the world exploded.



By the way, Jenny at AllSorts is having a giveaway for one of her Scotties. You have until "sometime next week" to enter so go do it now.

More Embroidery Transfers

All of the embroidery transfers that I've been posting are from Artex 2200 b. I had scanned these last year and forgot the cats, dogs and Poodles were all from the same pattern.